Upgrades Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Tsubaki frowned as she held up a plate of killer ant chitin to the light to inspect it. "Hmm, the fusion of multiple of the same monster drops make it not only bigger. but it actually, increases the magical concentration." Tsubaki muttered as I sat down across from her.

But even as I was fusing a massive amount of materials for her and getting paid in more materials to do with whatever I wanted to due to my fusion abilities saving Tsubaki hours of effort in purifying materials. But I was still thinking of the previous day and the bullshit that had all happened.

Eventually I broke the soft sounds of Tsubaki's muttering inspection of the materials as I asked about what had happened. "So Tsubaki, are the Zeus and Hera Familia's really that bad?" I asked and then when she looked up I went into what had happened the previous day in the dungeon and that cafe,

And after my explanation, she sighed and nodded with a weak smile. "Yeah... The Zeus Familia is made up of meathead 'hero's' who threw themselves onto insane quests their entire life as adventures and managed to survive and level up quickly and strongly... They aren't like lesser Familia's who merely have a couple of high-level adventurers but with them having shit or weak skills." Tsubaki said frowning as she continued after putting down the killer ant chitin plate.

"The Falna not only works off of the person's adventures and trials in getting stronger, but the Zeus and Hera Familia have cracked the code in their gods giving out insane deadly quests for their adventurers to fulfill and then with their own divine ichor once they update that survivor's Falna they are almost assured to have gotten a skill that aligns to what they did on the quest and how they handled it... As remember Jake. The Falna is the story of an adventurer's journey if you are sitting on your ass reading a book that's boring in the god's eyes."

Tsubaki explained and then wore a wry smile as brought up another example. "Like that Sword Maiden, you mentioned. She joined the Hera Familia at level four and was given a quest of her own as an initiation." Tsubaki spoke with her eyes far away at the thought.

"And during which, she lost her eyes, as during that quest she was fighting dragons that could breathe acid and seeing as she was fighting in a cave that acid got concentrated enough to ruin her sight even with the abnormal resistance skill... But she is famous now for being able to sense the magic within all living beings and even force all mages into internally detonating with an Ignis Faustus with the skill she got from the quest."

Tsubaki finished her tale and then took a drink before sighing and shaking her head. "Those quests are all fucking insane really. There is a reason Hera and Zeus recruit and welcome new members from other Familia's... They have an insane turnover rate with many members being crippled or killed during there quests but no one and I do mean no other Familia comes close to them in terms of quantity and quality of adventurers." She finished.

Could I do my own quest beyond the quests my items had something if they were magical items. "Do you have a Jack Bird? Golden Egg?" I asked mentioning the golden egg that the Jack Bird would one hundred percent drop should they be killed. They were very valuable materials due to them being bar none the best binder for enchantments for armor and could be used for powerful elixer's so to say the least they were extremely valuable.

At my question Tsubaki raised an eyebrow before nodding as she spoke slowly. "And what would you do with that?" She asked and I took a breath as I ordered my thoughts and explained.

"Alright, so you know how I mentioned how my items had their own quests to upgrade them sometimes?" Her lips pursed but she nodded despite her jealousy of my weapons that could evolve, which was funny as hell to me honestly. But either way, I continued. "I want a Jack Bird egg so I can fuse it into the Almaraj bunny feet and fur to see if I can make something that increases luck or something," I explained and she blinked in incomprehension before she snorted and paused as she realized my other enchanted items could do weird shit as well.

"Jake... I like you a good bit, but I am not going to give you my one Golden Egg I had to pay two million valis for. Sorry dude, even if it worked I would want the item and I know you won't want to give it to me either." She enlightened me and I grimaced as she was all too right.

It was fine for her to give me higher-level materials when I was fusing better stuff for her to work with. But some materials were damn near priceless or exorbitantly expensive to the point that only matching materials would be a fair trade.

And even my fused weapons that could increase Excellia gain wouldn't be a good trade as Tsubaki sure as hell wasn't going to be grinding goblins and other lower-level monsters in the dungeon. And she got most if not all her Excellia gain from smithing.

It hit me! She got her Excellia gain from smithing!

I slapped the table between us with a victorious smile being worn. "And what I offered an enchanted hammer that gave you more Excellia for forging?" I demanded and the metal flask Tsubaki was holding to drink from crumpled as her hand flexed at that realization of what I could offer.

No, what I could offer the entire Hephaestus Familia, as the smithing goddess herself would be the crux of the idea as I was sure a few drops of her blood like updating or giving a Falna would increase the excellia gained in smithing!