New Crafts

/Tang!/

The sound of a hammer hitting metal rang out throughout the room.

/Tang!/

After leaving Hephaestus, Tsubaki brought Cassian to a well furbished and equipped smithy. Showing him around it, Cassian found almost all the tools he needed for blacksmithing were already present, so he wouldn't need to go purchase them. This Arleon guy must have passed away instead of selling or giving away the smithy.

Tsubaki left shortly after, leaving Cassian to his devices. Leaving to gather all the materials he needed, he came back half an hour later and got to work.

/Tang!/

He started with Leo's Greatsword, since she needed a weapon more urgently.

The Greatsword was made with the Runes of Sharpness, Reinforcement, and Glamour to conceal the runic symbols, making the final product look like an ordinary high-quality sword. No one but experienced blacksmiths or maybe mages would notice anything out of the ordinary.

Cassian also wanted to add the Rune of Shock Absorption to lessen the tremors that would run through the blade and into the wielder's hands, but he found out something unpleasant.

It turns out that, just like in the game, items are only capable of supporting a certain number of Runes before applying more becomes impossible.

Cassian's dreams of creating broken OP weapons with dozens of Runes, sadly, went down the drain.

More experimentation showed that the number of Runes that could be applied to an item was determined by the quality of the materials that make it up. His steel hammer could only support one Rune, while the Greatsword he made from the Under Coral, an organic mineral found in the Dungeon's Water City, could hold three.

Considering that in the game the maximum number of Runes on an item was 3, regardless of anything, Cassian regarded it as an improvement. Once he starts working with higher-tier materials, his capabilities will jump up accordingly.

Cassian got the idea for the design of Leo's Greatsword from the anime, Overlord. The inspiration came from Momonga's twin Greatswords.

(Image)

Who knows, maybe in the future Leo would dual-wield Greatswords like that as well.

Overall, he was quite proud of this sword. It was powerful enough to rival mid to high-tier weapons wielded by level 3 adventurers. It could easily sell for millions of Valis. Well, as long as people knew of its qualities of course. It was doubtful a no-name blacksmith like him could get people to buy his weapons, much less for such a price, unless he revealed runesmithing, and it was too soon for that.

He contemplated naming the weapon and, in the end, came to a decision to do so. It felt a bit weird to come up with a unique name for a sword, but naming one's crafts seemed the norm here so he decided to follow suit.

The sword was named "Momon" in honor of where its inspiration came from.

After finishing Momon, Cassian proceeded with forging a katana. The forging process was quite a bit different than the western swords', but he managed to complete it just fine. The quality may not have been on par with Momon, but it was still good enough to rival weapons used by low-level 3 adventurers. More than enough to fulfill its purpose.

 He decided to name it "Kurogane", meaning Black Steel in English, since the color of the blade was dark as it was made from the Under Coral like Momon.

Kurogane had the same runic enchantments as Momon.

Forging these two swords took him all day and Cassian could now see the Sun beginning to set. It was time to head back home.

He still had several pieces of equipment to forge, but it was getting late and he didn't have time to make more anymore. He would have to carry on tomorrow. 

'Hmm, now that I think about it, we should probably start saving up to buy a nice mansion to move in. We can't stay in an inn forever, after all.'

--- Elfin Lounge ---

Entering their suite, Cassian found the trio in the living room. Nico and Hecate were surrounded by notes once more, while Leo was reading a book. Cassian noted that all three of them seemed pretty chipper.

Nico had quickly dived back into research after recovering from his hangover. He was close to finishing the development of a new spell and Hecate was there with him throughout the entire process, assisting him with working out the details and mechanics of the spell, as well as offering recommendations as to what form the spell should take and how to direct mana into shaping it.

It was quite an extensive process that took a lot of effort. Far more effort than simply streamlining the spells already in his repertoire. And they were still on rather simple spells. Nico dreaded how much difficulty the more potent spells would be to make. To his dismay, Hecate only seemed even more excited at that prospect, working him to the bone to actually start getting to the truly interesting parts.

"Oh, anything good happen while I was out?" He greeted them. In return, he got three glares pointed at him.

"Where did the potions go? We couldn't find a single one this morning." Nico threw an accusatory look at him.

"What potions? I have no idea what you're talking about." All he got as an answer was an innocent smile from his older brother.

"Oh, you will so pay for this, Cassian." Hecate made an ominous promise, that worried Cassian a little but shrugged. He should be capable of handling whatever she threw at him, right?

"Hey, it's not my fault you don't know when to stop drinking." He threw up his hands placatingly, but it only worsened their glowering. Quick to move the subject away, he turned to Leo. "So, did you get your Falna?"

That seemed to do the trick, as the tension bled out with Leo even smiling happily.

"Yeah, Hecate blessed me in the afternoon. Here's my status page." She fished out a sheet of paper and handed it over to Cassian.

"Are you sure you want me to see this?" He asked her carefully. These were supposed to be private after all.

Instead, it was Hecate who cut in. "You are the captain. Everyone's status within the familia is open to you. They can keep it private from other familia members if they wish to, but showing you is mandatory."

Leo was nodding along, showing that she was fine with the arrangement, so Cassian started looking through the sheet.

—-----------------------

Leo Diaz

Strength ~ I - 0

Endurance ~ I - 0

Dexterity ~ I - 0

Agility ~ I - 0

Magic ~ I - 0

Skills:

Slayer Momentum ~ In battle the user receives a temporary boost to their stats with every kill, growing more powerful the more the user kills. The stat boost resets once the momentum of the battle is disturbed.

—-----------------------

"Impressive" Cassian exclaimed, surprised. And it genuinely was.

Skills usually appeared after an adventurer had already started their journey and grew. Starting with a skill from the beginning was very rare and extraordinary. Hecate was right about Leo being a diamond in the rough.

The skill itself was also quite good. There were plenty of skills that offered subpar benefits. Bell's Ox Slayer skill being one of them, considering it only worked against bull-type opponents. But this skill seemed quite good.

It would make her an excellent vanguard and large-scale battles with onslaughts of countless monsters would be her bread and butter, continuously growing stronger throughout the fight.

"Hmm, already having a skill is a massive boon, Leo, but we need to experiment with your skill to determine its limits. The momentum of battle being disturbed probably means to stop fighting, but what does that entail? Pausing in a fight to rest? Being knocked down? Being out of combat for some time? And how potent are the stat boosts? We'll need to figure all of that out to make the most of your skill."

Leo nodded with determination. It was quite a shock to discover she already had a skill, but it filled her with pride. She wished to grow stronger and this would be her first tool in her arsenal.

And now she was about to receive the second one…

"Speaking of making the most of you, I have a welcoming gift for you." Cassian grinned as he took the wrapped object off of his back and started unpacking it.

Leo's eyes widened with excitement as she slowly realized what it was, and soon she was holding the Greatsword that was as tall as her in her hands.

"Its name is Momon, made from Under Coral and with the same runic enchantments that you saw on my last sword." Cassian touched the blade, deactivating the Rune of Glamour, making the three runes on the blade shine brightly. "I applied a new rune to it to conceal just how special it is from people outside our familia. And its sharpness and durability are enough to rival high-quality level 3 weapons, so you'll be using this for a while."

"Th-This is amazing! I-I don't know what to say, I love it! Thank you so much, captain!" She exclaimed, giving Cassian a quick hug before going back to marveling at her new sword.

But suddenly she broke out of her reverie and started looking nervous. Cassian raised an eyebrow at that and she slowly mumbled out. "Umm, ho- how much would this cost?"

"Pftt, hahaha. I'm not charging you anything, knucklehead. You're part of the familia now and since I'm basically its designated blacksmith now, making gear for you all is part of my duties." Cassian said with an amused smile, laughing about her nervousness about going into debt. "Also, you can just call me Cassian or Cass. No need for formality."

"Really?! Oh, thank goddess, I don't think I could pay for this even if I sold my organs." Leo sighed with relief. "Ah, also I kind of like the sound 'Captain', makes all of this feel more real, so I prefer calling you that."

"Oh, well if you want, sure I don't mind." He didn't really care what she called him. Plus, he had to admit that it did kinda feel good to be called 'Captain'. He also noted her saying 'Oh goddess'. It felt weird hearing that considering how used he was to the normal version of 'Oh god'. 'But then again, I am part of the Hecate familia now, so maybe I should start using that too?'

As he was deliberating, he made eye contact with Nico, who immediately started shaking his head.

"Oh nuh-uh, I'm not calling you captain, especially after what you pulled this morning." He said, before glaring at his older brother.

"What I pulled? 'Gasp', don't tell me! Did Leo find out about your special interests?!" Cassian exclaimed in faux shock.

Nico's face immediately went bright red in embarrassment and he started sputtering denials of such things existing.

"Special interests?" Leo asked with confusion.

"He's lying! Don't listen to him, Leo! You're a perfectly fine man, and I have never doubted otherwise!" Nico yelled in an attempt to salvage this situation while glaring daggers at Cassian to make him keep his mouth shut.

"Wait, man? I thought all of you already found out and knew." Said Leo, clearly gobsmacked.

"Wh-what? What do you mean?"

"I'm a girl."

Now it was Nico's turn to be gobsmacked, as he stood there with his mouth and eyes wide open in shock. Cassian and Hecate finally couldn't hold it anymore and burst out in manic laughter.

"HAHAHUEHA!" / "HEHEHAHAHA!"

Understanding finally dawned on Nico's face as the blush of embarrassment was soon joined with anger and became even redder, as his head snapped in his older brother's direction.

"YOU ASSHOLE!" He lunged at his brother, but sadly his grievances would not be extracted today, as Cassian easily avoided him by stepping to the side and quickly retreating to his room, while still wheezing from laughter.