Ep. 49 – Curse, Materials, Hecate, Improvements

"Oh, right. I'm Tula, member of the Loki Familia."

"She got another monster, huh?" she said, sighing.

"Rude. I am no monster. I am a great blacksmith, Adventurer, husband, and thrill seeker. From yesterday, you could add 'Dad' to the mix." I said. She raised her eyebrow when I mentioned blacksmithing. "Interested?"

"Greatly. Mind giving me a demonstration?"

I didn't come here for this and got sidetracked, but playing along with her might lead to something interesting, so…

"Sure. That is your smithing hammer, right?" I said, pointing to a hammer by her side.

"Correct. The hammer of the Goddess of Smithing-"

"Yeah, yeah… Here, a perfect copy. Actually, this is even better." I said, throwing a hammer to her. She looked at it and her eyes shone. Not that thing 'eyes shining with cunning'. Her eyes literally shined. It was magic. I was using my semblance to understand what she was doing and boi was I surprised. It's a magic that is basically an enhanced version of my semblance. I will steal it for myself. It basically does everything I can do, plus give information on possible further improvements. I love it already.

Can I somehow modify my semblance? This is a question I've asked myself many times since I wanted to make me and the gang even stronger. I just found the answer. That is important but not right now. I will pay a visit to Hecate after this. Maybe she has some other interesting eye power I can 'take inspiration' from.

"Incredible… This makes my hammer look like a toy in comparison… Interested in joining my Familia?" she said after staring at the thing for a couple of minutes.

"Nope. I am here for a couple of reasons. Healing your eye was just a whim, so you don't have to worry about it." I said. I think I heard her mutter "A whim, huh? Showoff." Surely my imagination. "For starters, show me what you can do with this…" I said, quickly making a random Hand Cannon I remembered from the Destiny universe.

Hephaestus looked at it and her eyes shone again. She took a piece of parchment and started drawing and making notes. To be honest, seeing the weapon take shape like this was a real marvel. It was much more beautiful than I thought writing could ever get. The parchment was pretty much a treasure at this point.

'I want her.' That thought stunned me for a second. I don't want her; I barely even know this woman. But there is something in me that says 'take, take, take…' I think it's the dragon's curse. Yeah, definitely.

At any rate, she finished her schematics and I looked at them with my semblance and the new magic I scanned. It was pretty much perfect. With my material creation, I could make it better, but this was as good as it could get in this universe.

"Where are you from? That weapon isn't something I've ever seen and I am the Goddess of Smithing, I should know of all techniques in this world." She said, the widened her eyes a little.

"You realized it, didn't you? You feel small now… A person that comes from a whole other place… Someplace you haven't seen, with all sorts of new things to discover… Doesn't it make you curious?" I started whispering in her ear.

'Oh, I definitely gained some skill. Yep, 'Devil's Whisper'. I dig it.'

"Do you want to know more? Do you want to create new things? I can help you…"

She audibly gulped. That was pretty arousing, to be honest. Why am I acting like this? It's strange and it honestly scares me.

"Tell me more." She said, more like pleaded me.

"Oh, but you don't want me to tell you… You want to see it. You want to experience it… Come on, you know it…" Ok, I am starting to kinda enjoy this.

While I was saying this, I put a third thought process to think about why I am acting like this. I know there was some sort of curse on the MPH. It affected the whole gang, so I am sure of that. Then came excelia. It strengthened everything in me, which must include the Akashic Engine. I guess that since the Engine and the MPH fused, the excelia strengthened my desire for treasure.

I considered Ais' smile a treasure, so I 'collected' it. I considered Hephaestus' schematics a treasure, so I am trying to collect it… This makes sense but it might cause some problems. I should try to find some way to dampen the curse.

Returning back to my conversation with Hephaestus, she just shivered a little and bit her lip, looking downwards a little.

"Bring me with you." Is all she said. I have 'collected' a Goddess. Just great.

"Sure, I will bring you with me. Now, can you show me to your private materials collection? I will make you something nice if you do… Something new…" I said and whispered the last part. She shivered again and led me to a hidden door. Once we entered inside the storage, I activated the new magic and my semblance. God only knows how much information I gained and how much I can improve everything I made until now. And, at this moment… I feel like God.

'Do I have some sort of power complex? It's likely, huh?'

Anyway, I made her a new smithing hammer with the absolute best material I could make and enchanted it with all sorts of things. If she were to seriously strike the ground, she could possibly split this planet in half. Cool.

Before I left, I copied her knowledge on blacksmithing. A fine addition for my collection. After I left Hephaestus' place, leaving her to probably masturbate to the new hammer, I went to Hecate's place. I was again intercepted by some Familia members.

"Good afternoon! What can the Hecate Familia do for you today?"

"You? Nothing except delivering a message to Hecate. Tell her an old friend has come to visit, she will understand." I said and the member got all humble and ran off. Heh, these idiots are too easy to manipulate. God, today I'm scaring myself.

I was brought into an office with who I guess was Hecate and another woman behind her. I checked their minds and found that the real Hecate was the one standing, so I addressed her.

"Hecate, can't even recognize an old friend? Why the decoy? Aren't you scared that some ill-intentioned maniac would attack your child?" I asked. I want to see her reaction.

Hecate widened her eyes a little, probably thinking about what I said and implied. I did basically threaten her Familia member. She touched the girl's shoulder and whispered something to her ear. The decoy stood up and left the room.

"Who are you and what is your business here?" Hecate asked.

"Oh, so cold. I just finished healing your friend Hephaestus, shouldn't you be kinder to me?" She looked shocked, so I continued. "Oh, don't act so shocked. It isn't your fault that a mere Goddess of Magic couldn't dispel a curse. It's just not your area of expertise. Now, I came here with a little deal to propose. You talk with Hephaestus today, after I'm gone, and you think about it a little, okay? So, here's my deal: you give me all your knowledge on magic, and I give you some of my knowledge in exchange."

"Pfft! That must be the funniest joke I heard in a while! What would I gain from this deal?"

"Didn't I tell you? Talk with your friend today. I will be coming back tomorrow." As I finished saying that, I cloaked myself and applied all sorts of magics on me. As I hoped, Hecate used her eye powers. I analyzed them with my semblance and Hephaestus' eye power.

Hecate could recognize all sorts of magic, understand it, modify it, improve it, etc. This is just what I need. I had everything I came for today, so I trasmated to the ship. I put up a message saying I'm working on something and went to a meditation chamber.

First of all, I currently have two eye powers, my semblance, and the two powers I analyzed and copied from the Goddesses. Now, what I want to do is actually fuse them. Semblances are complicated, so I never actually tried to tamper with them, in particular since I would have to mess with my soul. Now? Now I have Godly powers to improve my rituals, what can stop me?

I got to work to create a new magic circle which would basically attach my eye powers to my soul. If everything goes as I expect, I should be able to evolve my semblance. Why would I want to improve my semblance? Well, for now, I can analyze anything technological. I recognize magic as a technology and materials are a basis for technology, so my semblance can analyze them. I am basically working with semantics here. After I mix my semblance with Hephaestus' and Hecate's powers, I should be able to have a perfect semblance for me: technology, materials and anything related to smithing, and magic. I also want to include my own eye powers since I could possibly create my own 'domain of knowledge and interference': if I can analyze anything within 20 meters of me automatically and stop anything that I analyze, I will basically be unstoppable, even more than I already am.

It took me three tries to perfect a ritual to do so, so I copied it on the floor and performed it. After another half an hour of agonizing pain, it ended. Note to self: modifying souls hurts like a bitch. I checked my semblance and it is exactly as I planned it to be. My eye powers have evolved as well and created my 'domain'. I started receiving an incredible amount of information, so I permanently assigned a secondary thought process to the analysis and comprehension of anything I receive. This thought process will also merge my knowledge on different materials, magic, and weapons.

Now that I am done with that, I started with the creation of a new material for my body and our gear. 'Hephy' had a lot of things in stock, including some materials from the Behemoth and Leviathan. She even had a scale of the One Eyed Black Dragon. Anyway, I started racking my brains for the first time in a while to create the absolute best of the best. It took me 20 minutes to finish up, then I started creating the material, which I should start naming. Otherwise it's always material this, material that. I will call it 'Quadra' since it comes from the combination of knowledge from four universes: Destiny, RWBY, Potterverse, and DanMachi.

Anyway, I made a shit-ton of Quadra and started absorbing it while also applying layered enchantments and runes. I made way more than I needed, but I absorbed it all and compressed it to keep my original appearance. Then, I started the level up spree again. When my body quality increased, so did my 'talent', so I started absorbing all that excess excelia. It took another ten minutes for that to end and my Level was pushed over 100000. I love cheating. In games, not in romance. I'm not that kind of guy.

After my body adapted to the increased power, I modified my gear and enchanted the shit out of it. It was on a whole other level compared to before. A shot from my Sidearm could probably penetrate the planet side to side and I love it. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration.

My Bow and Sword are the only two that remained relatively 'normal'. At least, the arrows should stop halfway to the other side and the sword has its side. Since I wouldn't be using my weapons that often, I assimilated a very modified laser cannon with the palm of my hands. Now I can shoot stuff like Iron-Man!

After this I started working on my little project for the ship. I started with gradually changing the material to Quadra. I use magic, so I wasn't worried about structural integrity. Anyway, I changed every bit of the ship, applying thousands upon thousands of layered enchantments. Then, I started working on the real part: completely isolating this space and making it a dimension on its own. Theoretically, people can still get on the ship if they manage to break the hull. The previous ship couldn't support a dimension since the material was too fragile. Now, I managed to circumvent the need for a stronger material with a more conductive material. Not electrically conductive, magically.

Quadra is an excellent material that makes it easier, almost effortless, for the magic to circulate. An independent dimension requires a lot of magic formations, so this helps greatly. Anyway, I isolated the inside of the ship so that now only those I authorize can board it. I obviously set it so that my wives, the gang, and Ais can enter without any problem. Oh, and me as well, of course.

Well, the gang felt the change in space since we have space magic. I had to explain how I got an upgrade for my semblance and managed to create a new material that finally allowed me to isolate our ship's interior. Well, nothing too particular, though I must have done something strange since Yang, Ruby, and Weiss looked at me strangely. I will have to talk with them later.

I quickly changed the material of all of our gear to Quadra, then applied some more enchantments. With that, the improvement session ended.