Meeting

"Well lets see if this works."

Currently I'm back on the fifth floor with my latest halberd. What happened to the last one? Well good wood is hard to find. So I improvised. Since I can do alchemy like an Elrich I brother I tried making the wood I had denser. Worked out pretty well even if it did take way too much out of me. Definitely not gonna be able to do that with the metal bits. At least not yet. Funnily enough Naaza said the wood was highly infused with mana. Guess that's something else I can do. Mithril here I come!

"Oh another ant"

I quickly jump forward and swing the hammer side at its head crushing it.

"Well the hammer side works well this time."

Right now I'm testing out different sizes for each of the halberd parts. Since I can just morph the weapon however I like I'm experimenting with different shapes to see what works best. Currently I've gone for a bit of a more rectangular hammer face parallel to the axe head. It was quite annoying when I made it too big and couldn't cut all the way through the kobolds.

"Still If I'm going to really test this I need something more. I should probably wait till I can test it on some orcs before I start increasing the density more. Well since I'm here let's see how far I can go."

I head down to the sixth and start making my way through the monsters. It's a bit of a bore really. With the talismans the only thing I really fear is if they swarm me like those ants. Of course now that I can just smash them even that might not be a problem.

"Looks like if I want to do anymore testing I'll need to go for something more. Probably should hold off making it any denser till I can try it on some orcs. Well let's see how deep I can go for now."

I've made it to the ninth floor and am having a it of trouble. Not cause of the halberd mind you. No this is my fault.

"Damn monsters. SIT STILL!" I'm waving my halberd around like a windmill while trying to hit the dang rabbits. Seems a polearm is just not suited for hitting small targets. The two war shadows aren't helping either. If I stop swinging they lunge inside my reach and I have to either back off or punch them. Then if I stop to take care of them the damn rabbits suicide charge me.

"Fine play times OVER!" I stop swinging and as the shadow charges me I give it an eye blast to the face. I then blast the rest of the monsters faster than they can react. It's nice not having to aim. You look you blast, very refreshing.

"Hah take that losers. Well I that definitely took too much effort, though I don't think I could change anything about the halberd. A spear's nimbler for situations like this but has lower power. Guess I'll just have to get used to this. More stats will help with that. After all once I'm strong enough this will feel like a twig."

I continue on and make it to the staircase to the tenth floor. Heading down however, I see something interesting. Coming up the stairs is a chocolate colored woman with an eye patch, large chest, and no armor. However, what interests me is not her chest (though that was the first thing I noticed) but her weapon. It's a halberd like mine though closer to what I had originally designed: large axe head, wider hammer face, and a slightly shorter spear head. All in all it looks like someone took the sample fixed it a bit and built a prototype. Curious where she got it I try to ask her but she beats me to it.

"Hey you have one of these new polearms. Did you get it from one of those guys from hephaestus? I figured it would be a couple days more before anyone else got around to making a decent one. Guess they were more interested than they said."

"Um, no, I'm the one who gave a sample piece to the hephaestus shop."

"Oh so you're the kid Arwin was talking about."

"You know Arwin?"

"Not really, but I am the familia captain so I get to meet everyone in the familia. Plus he brought in this new weapon design and it looked pretty interesting so I wanted to try it out. Turned out harder than it looks really. Got to get back to the basics some so I remember that."

"Wait your the captain of hephaestus familia?"

"Yup, I'm Tsubaki Collbrande captain of hephaestus familia."

"I'm Jack Lee of Miach Familia. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you Jack. So where did you get that polearm from? The work quality is worse but the overall it looks more like its made by someone who has experience with these kinds of weapons. I would love to meet him and see if he has any other designs he might be willing to trade."

"Well I made it."

"Huh you? HAHA Guess I'm not the only 'crazy' smith around town. Did you come down here to test your weapon like me." She shows off her halberd with a smile on her face.

"Well, yes, I came to test this out but I'm not a smith." I show her my halberd in return but leave her confused when I say I'm not a smith.

"If your not a smith then how did you make that polearm."

"Well it's called a halberd and I made it like this." I take out one of the spare ingots I had in my backpack. For repairs in case it breaks. Then I use the monkey charm to turn it into a miniature staircase. Tsubaki's eyes go wide.

"What the hell!"