Meeting 'Loki'

Alvar finished helping the waitresses with cleanup while chatting and answering some of their questions.

In his room, Alvar lay down on his bed and quickly grew bored. He didn't need sleep and didn't feel like it at all.

"...To the dungeon I go," Alvar thought as he snuck out of the Hostess and entered the dungeon in disguise.

The moment Alvar reached the first floor, Stardust instantly woke up and started hunting monsters with its tail wagging.

Almost no one was in the dungeon at this time, so Alvar didn't bother restraining Stardust, although he still forbade him from eating anything sentient, mainly because he couldn't really say 'don't eat humans' since other races also existed there.

Alvar spent some time with Stardust, hunting with him, playing fetch with magic stones, even though Stardust ate them all, and killing some monsters as they went further down the floors.

'I wonder if we will run into the Loki familia as we go further down?' he thought while petting the floating dragon.

"You really like head pats, don't you?" he chuckled as Stardust pushed its head more into Alvar's hand. He went to one of the dungeon walls and sat next to it with Stardust wrapped around his arms. A few soft whimpers escaped Stardust as they sat there, while Alvar tried to comfort the poor dragon.

"You miss her too, don't you?" he asked softly, and Stardust lightly nodded.

"Me too, buddy. Me too."

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Alvar walked toward Hephaestus' home and saw her walking outside in her usual outfit.

"You didn't sleep in this time," Alvar said with a chuckle as he saw her annoyed look.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said with a light red tint on her cheeks as she walked past him towards his workshop.

"Sure you don't," he chuckled again and walked next to her.

"I tidied up the place and made a few items for you to inspect and price. Nothing special though... except for the accessories... We don't talk about them," Alvar said as Hephaestus gave him a side glance.

"I'm joking; they are completely normal for the most part."

"What does, and I quote, 'for the most part' mean?"

"I got bored making normal items, so I added a couple of effects on the accessories. Nothing too out of the ordinary nor anything that the buyers would realize. Just some measures that would activate when the wearers are about to die," Alvar answered while Hephaestus sighed.

"That's fine then. As long as it isn't very noticeable, then there is no harm in selling them... But I hope you will teach me how to make them too," she grinned.

"I will when you show me how falna works; I can't be the only one oversharing," Alvar smirked.

"...I'm surprised that I completely forgot about that. I'll show you how it works at the workshop, while also showing my smithing techniques," she said seriously.

"Sorry for forgetting about that."

"No need to apologize; you were excited that your eye got fixed and that you have new materials to smith with. Besides, it has only been two days more or less since we made that deal," Hephaestus nodded with a soft smile as she looked in front of her, when her facial expression turned to shock.

"...That is a big transformation in just half a day," she mumbled at the sight of Pandora's Box.

"You can't be that surprised when you haven't even gone inside yet."

"...Pandora's Box? Do you know the meaning of that name?" she asked, looking concerned.

"Of course, I do. I picked that name as a warning to the deities that might cause trouble later on."

"Those who snoop around or try to break into my shop would be opening Pandora's Box... Don't you agree?" A sudden shiver went down Hephaestus' spine as she followed Alvar inside the shop.

"...Have I opened it?"

"All you did was bring it into your house."

"...Now to keep it closed would depend on how well you can keep me in check," Alvar chuckled as Hephaestus had a thought.

"And what if I want to open it?" she asked with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Then we would have a lot of fun messing with this world's fate and standards," he said with the same glint in his eyes.

"Although we should first keep a moderate hidden profile with the things I will be selling. Can't have the deity boss try to boot me back up to heaven just yet, at least not before I go to the Denatus," he said as Hephaestus nodded her head.

"I have to say, when I met you for the first time, I thought you were a very serious person, but now you are starting to act more like Loki," Alvar said as Hephaestus suddenly froze.

"...That...isn't...true?" A sudden hit of realization hit her like a brick.

"Please don't give me an existential crisis, and when did you meet Loki? I know for a fact that she wouldn't leave you alone at first sight."

"Never did. I just sent a few summons to a couple of deities and saw how Loki acted more or less," he shrugged.

"Just a word of warning though, try to keep your children away from the Soma Familia. I have a few bones to pick with them at a later date," he said while clapping his hands suddenly.

"With that out of the way... Welcome to my humble abode," he smiled as he showed the sales area first; the place looked spotless with all the furniture looking brand new. The weapons of high quality were already racked, and the accessories were secured in glass boxes.

"..." Hephaestus took off her eye patch and was shocked by what she saw. She thought that Alvar at least held back with the quality of them too, even by a little bit.

But he didn't; the only thing he did was use common materials with their crafting. The accessories on the other hand? At least they 'look' normal. But what she saw? That is the furthest from the truth.

"..." She was utterly speechless.

"...High quality is a must for a God though?" Alvar chuckled at her speechlessness.

"Besides, I don't pull any punches when smithing or crafting. It feels disrespectful to purposefully craft garbage compared to what my skills and experience can get me. So I only used normal materials to weaken the overall quality without being disrespectful," Alvar shrugged.

"That is true; I am just surprised at the quality you can craft on your own without using any special items or enchantments. As for the pricing of these items... They can easily get for 100k valis if not more. But if you want them to be bought by normal adventurers as well, then you can make it 10k and break the economy," she shrugged.

"With that out of the way, I really love what you did with the place. The banners and ornate racks really make this place feel like a shop for adventurers that's owned by a deity," she nodded at her own words, impressed with the decorations.

"Thanks for the compliments, and I will probably sell them more on the low end. Now let's move on to

 my office room then take a look at my smithy," he nodded, and she followed Alvar to his office.

She was greeted by multiple paintings of adventurers fighting creatures that she had never seen before. One in golden armor fighting a giant purple snake. One in platinum armor fighting a giant eye-like creature surrounded by smaller ones. Another against a giant plant and so on. Some of the paintings had multiple adventurers fighting a creature while in others one specific adventurer was alone.

"...Did those paintings really happen?" she asked, concerned.

"More or less. The paintings were made by the people in my kingdom, so it gets blown out of proportion. But I did fight those creatures, some with my friends and others on my own," Alvar said as he sat on the table.

"...I see, they really are well-painted. Whoever made it is quite skilled. I didn't expect you to be able to fix this place up that well."

"This isn't the first time I had to do something like this. Now off to the place you are most excited about," Alvar stood up as he walked to the next room with a grin as Hephaestus couldn't hold in her excitement.

They walked into the room, and Hephaestus could not help but be impressed with the well-built forge and the anvils... but she couldn't hide her disappointment, causing Alvar to grin under his mask.

"I couldn't make my actual forge and items here since that would send off warning signals to the deities that can spy on these places. Nor could I remove their watchful eyes since that would be worse," he said as his tone suddenly shifted to a serious one.

"Now before I take you to that, I need you to vow on your divinity that no matter what you see and no matter what I do that seems unnatural, you will never tell anyone any of my secrets until I give you permission," Hephaestus stayed silent for a little while before she nodded and placed her hand on her heart.

As she started the vow, a divine glow started leaking out of her mortal vessel, "I, Hephaestus, hereby vow on my divinity as the goddess of smithing that I will not speak or leak any of Alvar's secrets without his permission." As she finishes, a few small ethereal cloth-like materials bound her mouth shut, before dissipating.

"The vow is made; can I see the real forge now?" she asked with the same enthusiasm as a child in a candy store.

"Of course, it's this way," he said, walking towards the invisible teleporter and stepping on it while holding onto Hephaestus. They both disappeared in yellow particles and reappeared at the real forge destination.

And this time, Hephaestus was not disappointed. More bewildered than anything when she looked at the giant, high-tech forge at the center of the room.

The feeling of divinity was filled to the brim in this room, most of it radiating from the forge, but the sides as well. And as she turned around, she saw multiple weapons on racks, giving her a sense of dread, while some chests and shelves held multiple sets of materials. Some looked like flesh that gave off a bit of that feeling.

"...What type of life did you live with so many items that radiate divinity?" she asked softly.

"A world that went through shit, and gave birth to me as its guardian. I had to kill creatures to use them for equipment to kill some more. It was my life, and every sentient creature that hadn't gotten consumed in that calamity had to do the same. There's a reason I dislike gods and goddesses; I am sure you sensed that when we first met too. It was because they didn't do anything to help us; in fact, they tried their damned best to do nothing or cause a bigger calamity," Alvar said as he walked towards a cat-like sword, Meowmere, and picked it up.

"To keep myself sane, I made these types of funny and out-of-place weapons," he swung the blade to the side as a neon cat shot out of it, with a rainbow trailing behind it.

"I got a bit sidetracked, sorry; that's why everything has a divinity. It is because I slaughtered most of the divine in my world to save it," he shrugged as he placed the sword back on the rack and looked back at Hephaestus, who still had a frightened expression on her face, but pity and sadness were there too, causing Alvar to smile as he took off his mask.

"No need to look at me like that. The calamity already passed a long time ago; that's why I left after everything was stabilized. And just because I dislike deities doesn't mean I'll start indiscriminately slaughtering them here too. Otherwise, I would be talking to you otherwise," his words lifted a large weight off of Hephaestus' shoulders that she didn't know were there.

"That's good, and for what it's worth, sorry for your loss. I might not be a god of war, but even I can tell that a world like that should have had a large number of casualties," she walked up to him and patted his shoulder for comfort as she walked toward the forge.

"Can you teach me how to use this thing? I want to try crafting something," she grinned at Alvar who chuckled.

"I would love to," he said as he walked towards her, but there was a hidden glint in his eyes that Hephaestus didn't notice.