Chapter 17: Nexus and a Abomination

"Sure, I don't have the technical skills, but I have a vision. This weapon of mine is the vision I need materialized!" I handed her a stack of papers filled with numerous revisions and detailed drawings of an orb.

An orb I named Nexus, which, in very simple terms, could absorb the weapons I feed it, take on their properties, or combine them to create new weapons with overlapping attributes! For example, if I were to feed Nexus the Playful Cloud and a high-quality spear, I could create a Playful Cloud Spear form that retains all the properties of both the Playful Cloud and the spear. Another example would be taking a sword with fire attributes and dual swords with lightning attributes; I could combine both magical properties and infuse them into the Playful Cloud form.

The red-haired goddess initially scoffed at what I handed her, but within seconds, as she skimmed through and read my vision, her mouth opened wide in shock. Truthfully, some of the concepts weren't that crazy, but it was how I designed the forging process! The orb, while spherical in shape, wasn't built on spherical concepts but on triangular ones. The triangle is the strongest structural shape in the known universe, so using it to structure Nexus was only common sense.

This way, I wouldn't have to worry about it breaking or failing to perform due to its unique properties. Also, if Hephaestus could inscribe the "fluidity" and "absorption" traits—the two most important ones—the triangular structure would help in reforming and maintaining its strength whenever Nexus had to break down or expand.

"D-Did you really come up with this?" she asked, clearly stunned by what she was reading.

I thought it was a stupid question, but nonetheless, I responded with a nod. 'How many times do we have to say it?' I wondered to myself.

She looked up at me, then back down at the bundle of blueprints and notes. Clearly, she couldn't believe that I came up with such a weapon. Did I really come off that stupid?

"Ahem! Look. The concept itself is amazing, but because of that, you should know you'll need even greater materials! From my understanding, you'll need a high—and I mean high—grade monster core, and then a similar grade Chimera core."

"Let me be clear—you'll need both! You can't just have a high-grade Chimera core. You'll also need a divine-grade material, but since you'll be doing me a huge favor, I'll get that and lower the discount to 70%. Then, there's the large amount of Light Metal and Vallarta we'll need. Add to that Mithril, but again, I could probably cover that, though I'd have to lower the discount to 50%."

Listening to her words, I nodded, thinking she wasn't a goddess of forging for no reason. I didn't mind the list of materials and the reduction in the discount, as I figured she'd be pulling from her Familia's resources, so she couldn't just take without paying it back. Otherwise, it would be disastrous for her children!

I looked over at Artemis, and she just gave me a nod. 'I don't think you should be so quick to agree… the cost is going to be way crazier than I thought possible from what I understand!' I tried to convey this thought to her, but she just nodded again, this time with an even more serious gaze.

"Hah~, alright, what's the cost looking like?" I sighed. What else could I do?

Hephaestus closed her only visible eye and thought for a few seconds before she held up four fingers.

"Four billion?" I asked.

"No, forty. Twenty with the discount."

"You know what? That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," I said, and Artemis agreed with me, sighing in relief.

"Haha~, well, you guys will be getting most of the materials, so you really only have to deal with the labor cost and the cost for the divine-grade item, which isn't going to be as expensive since I'm counting it towards the favor, which has led to a lower discount."

It made some sense, but you'd think a divine-grade material would cost way more than a meager 20%.

DuDu

"Hephaestus-sama, it's time for the next appointment," one of the red-haired goddess's children said as they entered, interrupting us. Not that I could get mad—I did have more questions, but perhaps this was enough for now.

Hephaestus looked at us apologetically, but Artemis just waved it off, understanding the situation. We signed a contract with Hephaestus that bound all of us and, because we were technically a special case, the restrictions were both strict and loose.

1. Neither side could back out. If one did, they would have to pay the other party 100x the cost as an inconvenience fee. (This wasn't going to happen on either side.)

2.Party A (Me and Artemis) would gather the required materials already discussed.

3.Party B (Hephaestus) would get the divine-grade material, Mithril, and provide a 50% discount.

4.Party A would take care of the curse before the forging process begins.

5/After Party B has received the materials and healing, they will forge with 100% effort without any leniency.

6.Monetary payment would be discussed after everything else is done.

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[Artemis Familia]

"Enkidu, do you think you could catch up with Rethy in the dungeon? You know, just in case anything happens." Artemis and I were relaxing in the manor. We had nothing to do after talking to Hephaestus, and we didn't have a certain captain giving us strange looks whenever we talked to each other! For the first time in what felt like ages, I didn't have someone staring me down.

Anyway...

"I probably could, but I think she'll be fine if you ask me."

"Yeah, but you never know." Artemis's voice shook a little, though I couldn't understand why she was so scared. Probably not the best word, to be honest.

"I'll just go. I don't have anything else to do anyway, though I was enjoying Rethy being away. Hah~." Quickly, I raced towards the dungeon! I didn't question Artemis any further, as there was no point—she clearly felt something was off.

Honestly, I only believed her because she clearly has some sort of affinity with fate or something, as she can sense whatever connection is between us. 'It wouldn't surprise me if those two shared a connection after being together for a while.'

In a mere 5 minutes, I was at the entrance of the dungeon, and I zoomed past the first four floors, which obviously meant nothing as these floors are pathetically easy. In 3 minutes, I reached the end of the fifth floor and descended to the sixth.

'I really doub—?!' Entering the sixth floor stopped all possible doubts. My eyes immediately picked up on something heinous; An abomination! If it were just an evil aura, I could have scoffed, as the King of Curses was miles above any initial villain in this world. No... this thing was like the fusion of tens of people reaching for help! What made it worse was that with the Six Eyes, I could see that these "people" were aware of each other, which made this abomination even more absurd!

"EVERYONE RETREAT! HURRY!"

'Rethusa! This is why Artemis was freaking out!' I dashed quickly towards her and the rest of the group. The only notable one was Aura, but that was a no-brainer as this whole dungeon run was meant to test her.

"ARTEMIS FAMILIA, HURRY AND RETREAT!" I used Cursed Speech, as most of the other members were too scared to move on their own. In no time, the others started retreating without any hesitation! Rethy just looked at me strangely, but along with Aura, she left as quickly as I appeared.

I watched the abomination, and it stared back at me. To be honest, I also wanted to retreat because I had no reason to fight this thing, but this would be a perfect opportunity to get some training, not only for stats but also for Idle Transfiguration!