God of What? 28 (Patreon)

God of What?

Chapter 28

-VB-

Hephesteus hummed as she set her hammer down by her side and lifted her newest creation up and parallel to her eye level. The blade was going to go to one of her own dungeon-diving children, so it had to be, in her opinion, better than the ones that she sold.

No one ever said she was fair.

… It was a little off. There was a slight dent along the back of the blade.

She put the blade back in the furnace. It was a pain to work with subpar materials.

Each material had its own characteristics that determined how a blacksmith should go about working with it. A monster bone, for example, might be carved or ground to dust. However, an orc’s tusk was not a material that possessed natural essence density that made it suitable for a sword and thus would be ground down to form a powder. She would it to any iron to form an alloy. The steel alloy would be just good enough for lower Level 2’s.

Now, if she got her hands on dragon bones, whether it was a horn, tusk, teeth, or others, then she could turn that into a sword easily as dragon bones had enough essence for her to reinforce into a weapon shape with her skills. Its essence - or rather how a material “remembers” itself - actually made such materials worse for armor as a dragon bone “demands” aggression.

Most adventurers and even deities remained ignorant of such intricacies. It was why her children sometimes had stupid customers bringing a bunch of dragon bones after asking for armor. Monster materials weren’t universally compatible.

The only other people who understood this and appreciated the crafts were magicians and alchemists. To all others, monster loots were just means to an end, whether that was their upgraded gear or money.

So what was she to do when Hestia came to visit her with her other friend? Marris had taken so much of her friend’s time that Hephaestus rarely got to see her. On top of that, it was way too clear to her that Marris had seduced innocent Hestia and corrupted her. Nothing demonic or magical, no. Just sexual.

Hestia had that glow these days. It made her even more beautiful than before.

“I’m here, Hephy!” Hestia squealed loudly from the front.

This smithy wasn’t in any of the shops; it was within her guild hall.

With a sigh, she gave up on the blade for now. Pulling it out of the forge, she set it down on the anvil and walked out of the stuffy and poorly ventilated room. The moment she was outside the smithing room and at her guild base’s grass-less open grounds, she found herself staring at Hestia and Marris.

Hestia’s eyes shined with brightness as she bounced over to her with the energy and cheerfulness Hephaestus saw in newly wed couples. She’d know; more than a few of her children married each other, and they carried that energy everywhere they went.

“Hmm,” she muttered out loud for Hestia to hear. “Aren’t you getting prettier again?”

“Ara? Am I?” Hestia giggled with a slight blush.

“Yes. It’s as if the virgin goddess is having fun,” she teased. It was an old song and dance at this point. Of course, Hestia told her about her new relationship with Marris. Of course, Hephaestus got the details out of her friend. But the point of this teasing was to tell Hestia that she looked beautiful. If there was one thing Hephaestus still understood about the regular thoughts inside a woman’s head, then it was that hearing about how beautiful they were always lifted a woman’s mood. Unless there was something seriously wrong like Hephaestus’ cursed eye.

No one but Hestia will ever call her beautiful again.

“A-anyway!” Hestia quickly recovered. She was getting better and faster at her recovery as well. She also didn’t cause problems everywhere she went unlike a certain blonde god. “Alan here has a request for you! While you two talk business, I’m gonna go and play around your guild base, Hephy!” And then she bounded off again.

The energies of that goddess…

Shrugging, she turned to look at Marris.

“So what’s your business?” she asked.

When he told him…

She … she did not like what he admitted to planning.