Progress

Waking up early in the morning, Cassian quickly got up. Everyone was still asleep and the sun hadn't even started rising, but Cassian had a lot to do today.

Yesterday he told the others that they would be taking two days off from dungeon crawling. Nico will concentrate on his magic training, while Leo had some affairs to take care of in addition to actually joining the familia and registering as such.

Cassian on the other hand was planning to spend the entire day runesmithing and forging. He had to make a new weapon for himself and one for Leo, as well as Nico's armor. He also had to forge a Katana and enchant it, so he had a busy schedule.

Entering the same meditative state to check if he had more runes available to him, and just like he was expecting, several showed up. It seemed that, when he underwent a significant power growth more runes would reveal themselves to him.

It took him around 4 hours to comprehend and learn all five of them. Two of them were upgrades to his former runes. Instead of being lesser, now he could inscribe middle-tier runes of sharpness and reinforcement. The other two were the Rune of Weapon Calling and the Rune of Shock Absorption. The last one was the Rune of Glamour.

It allowed altering the appearance of the object that it was inscribed on. Though, the alteration was not actually real, but just a small-scale illusion.

"That's weirdly convenient. Do the runes that manifest in my mind respond to my desires and needs?" After all, last time he thought about how the runes would be problematic to be seen by other people, and now a rune to solve that issue appeared suddenly? It didn't seem to be a coincidence, but Cassian would keep an eye out anyway.

If the runes, truly responded to his needs and desires, it would make his life much easier, than simply depending on RNG would.

The latter would be perfect for armor, as it apparently absorbed some of the force of physical attacks that hit the armor it's applied to.

The former however excited him more. It allowed him to telekinetically recall his weapon back to his hand. Kinda like Thor with Mjolnir or Kratos' Leviathan Axe. It was awesome to imagine it.

"Should I forge a replica of the Leviathan Axe? It would be super cool and it's not like my 'Armsmaster' perk is restricted to only giving me talent with swords…" Cassian seriously started considering it when he imagined throwing the axe, splitting some poor monster's head in half, and then returning to his hand.

Ceasing his musings he got up and exited the room, hearing groans coming from two rooms and the couch in the living room. As they didn't have an extra room, he laid Leo down on a couch, before going to sleep himself.

Smirking to himself he listened to them, getting a bit of vindictive satisfaction from their hangovers for only him being unable to get drunk.

Still, he checked up on them one by one, ending with Nico, before heading out.

"Uughh, I'm dying…" It seemed his brother was awake.

"Heh, consider it a lesson not to overdrink again." Leaning against the doorframe he smirked at his brother.

"Mghh, shut up… I feel as if my head is about to explode." Nico ground out with pain. This was his first hangover, and considering how much he drank, it hit him like a truck. The fact that he mixed different types of drinks to get drunk, certainly did not help and only worsened it. "Can you get me some water? Please?"

"Fine. I'm heading out by the way." Grabbing the water canister from the kitchen, he brought it to him.

"Okay. Ugh, I had the weirdest dream last night."

"Oh?"

"I dreamt that Leo was a girl, instead of a guy. What was up with that?"

'He thinks it was a dream. Oh, this is gold…' Cassian couldn't help grinning, before schooling his expression and deciding to screw with his little brother.

"Dude, what the hell? Have you been fantasizing about Leo? That's disgusting." Barely managing to keep the amusement out of his voice, he gave his brother a disgusted look.

"Wha?! No No, that's not what I-" A panicked look crossed Nico's face immediately and tried defending himself.

"I didn't know you were into that little brother. Just how sexually frustrated are you, that you're dreaming about another guy to be a girl." Cassian spoke while shaking his head in faux disappointment.

"I'M NOT! Agh!" Nico shouted at him but only managed to worsen his headache from the volume of his voice, falling back on the bed and clutching his head.

"But hey, if that is who you are, I will always be supportive of you as your older brother! Bye!" Quickly walking out of the room and closing the door, he only caught another squawked 'YOU-!' before it was cut off. Barely managing not to crack up then and there, he quickly left the house.

"Pft- Hahahaha" Laughing at his brother's panicked face, trying to explain and justify was hilarious. It almost made him want to stay back and watch his interaction with Leo when she woke up again. Sadly, he had things to do. So, he continued his walk to the industrial district.

-- Orario – Industrial District –

Walking through the streets, the previously clear skies looked as if they were covered in clouds. In reality, it was all the smoke coming out from the chimneys of various buildings.

This area was packed full of various workshops, ranging from carpentry and masonry to alchemy and blacksmithing. The streets resounded with so many different and loud cacophony of sounds that it gave Cassian a mild headache.

The most prominent residents here were the Hephaestus familia members. They easily numbered in the thousands and owned just as many smithies in the industrial zone.

'Now where to go to find a smithy that's up for rent.' Cassian was contemplating finding an available forge when his nose suddenly caught a familiar scent.

'Is that? Yes, it's definitely her, I couldn't forget the smell of her sweat even if I tried.' Cassian started walking towards it when his steps suddenly halted as he realized what he just thought.

'Damn, that sounded creepy as hell.' He reflected on himself, but it was not like he could blame himself. Welf was the same. They sweated like pigs while standing in front of the furnace and with his sense of smell, their scents were basically ingrained in his brain.

Cassian quickly jogged and passed the road she was on to enter the next corner and overtake her. Then he turned down the road and turned another corner to now be walking directly towards her, making it look like they randomly came across each other, face to face. He saw the Cyclops walking in his direction while conversing with a very familiar figure.

Crimson hair as red as blood poured down her shoulder blades. A slender but toned body through countless years of blacksmithing was covered by casual clothes. And her most prominent feature, the eyepatch covering the right eye, was clear on display.

Cassian thought that the eyepatch, instead of detracting from it, accentuated and enhanced her beauty while adding an air of mystery. She was quite stunning, as Cassian was finding out, to be quite a common occurrence here.

Walking forward, he suddenly made eye contact with Tsubaki, whose single eye widened upon recognizing him. Then she immediately grinned and started waving at him.

"Oi! Welf's student!" Calling Cassian over, he responded with a wave of his own and started walking towards them, all the while aware of the red-haired goddess assessing him.

"Tsubaki, right? It's nice to see you again."

"Hah, same to you. Been a while since I saw you with Welf again. Your name was Cassian, if I remember right?" She was grinning quite widely, making Cassian wonder if there was a reason before he realized that, that was just her default state.

"Yeah, it's Cassian. I've been busy dungeon diving, so I didn't have much time to forge or visit Welf in a while."

"Ah, I know it too well. It can be a big pain in the ass having to balance blacksmithing and adventuring with one another." And Cassian was inclined to take her word on it. She was easily the strongest blacksmith in the world. Her reaching level 5 was a sensation for pretty much everyone. "Oh, sorry, this is my goddess, Hephaestus. And this is Cassian, the one Welf talked about."

"It's nice to meet you Cassian." Hephaestus greeted him with a neutral face, but Cassian's attention was elsewhere.

His Witcher Medallion was going crazy again. Just like it did, when it sensed Freya's gaze, it was vibrating like crazy, and Cassian had an idea of what exactly was causing this reaction.

He could feel it vaguely too. Some type of sinister aura emanated from under Hephaestus' eyepatch, making him uneasy. He could guess what it was.

Hephaestus, according to canon, has a deformity on her right eye so hideous that it makes everyone run away in horror upon seeing it. But Cassian never really believed it to be that simple. A deformity being so ugly that it induced terror in everyone who saw it, including seasoned adventurers, never made sense even in canon, much less now, in real life. Not unless, some type of supernatural means was involved.

And Cassian now knew what it was. A Curse. One so powerful it affected even gods. He didn't know the details of the curse, but he knew it had to be that.

"Ahem!" Hephaestus coughed in her hand, snapping Cassian's mind back to the present. He saw her looking at him sternly now, the previous neutrality gone. Even Tsubaki seemed displeased.

'Shit, great time I chose to drift away.' Cassian quickly mulled over. 'They probably think I was judging her eye or something.'

"Ah, I'm sorry, I got distracted by something." Cassian tried coming up with an excuse but couldn't, as he was blatantly staring at her eye.

"Yes, that something being my eyepatch. I'm used to being stared at and judged, but not quite so blatantly, especially from a mortal." Her expression turned for the worse, making Cassian curse inwardly and decide it was best to come clean rather than ruin her impression of him.

"I apologize if I came off rude Lady Hephaestus, but I can swear that I was not judging or deriding you for your eye. In fact, I believe the eyepatch adds to your charm, making you even more alluring." He blurted out whatever came first to his mind.

Hephaestus' visible eye widened noticeably and her jaw dropped open a little bit. She could tell he was not lying thanks to being a goddess. But she was also stunned at his words.

'Ah crap, maybe saying that last part was a mistake.' Cassian kicked himself mentally for his idiocy. 'Good job Cassian, as if her initial impression of you wasn't good enough, now add flirting on top of it.'

Tsubaki was grinning madly to the side, once she realized he wasn't lying judging from her goddess' reaction. She mentally thanked Cassian for providing her ammunition to tease Hephaestus with. After all, it wasn't often she received compliments.

Gods found her undesirable and unattractive because of her eye. Their usual inclination towards 'Perfection' made them view Hephaestus' deformity as sullying the gods' image. As for the mortals… Well, they usually didn't have the audacity to be so brazen to one of the strictest and most powerful goddesses in Orario.

Hephaestus recollected herself and spoke again, though there was a slight pink dusting on her cheeks. She believed herself to be ugly and charmless, so she was quite vulnerable to sincere compliments pointing out otherwise.

"Then, why is it that you were staring at my eyepatch? Surely, it's not your first time seeing one." She said as she glanced at Tsubaki, who was wearing one herself.

"I-I felt something weird from it…"

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Since Cassian has reached a stage where he can forge whatever weapon he wants and will also receive training and be able to master it, I think it's time to consider his arsenal. So far, his main weapon has been a longsword, in keeping tradition with the Wolf School Witchers. However, he's not restricted or bound to swords.

So, what do you all want his main weapon to be? Should it remain the same and have Cassian stick with a longsword? Maybe take up a bit of dual-wielding? A spear? A Polearm? I'm heavily considering making his main weapon an axe, like Kratos' Leviathan Axe. Give me your opinions. I can't promise that I'll follow them, but I'll consider them and if I like them and they fit well, maybe even employ them.