Golden Artificer c3 (Patreon)

Marcus looked through the stalls as he bought food. Like before, he was buying ingredients to save money instead of going to a restaurant.

As he was looking through food, someone stood behind him.

For a second stopped looking and turned around.

He saw a red-haired woman with an eye patch, and next to her was a girl of smaller size with black hair and blue eyes.

His mana senses can tell him that they have mana, but it's very small and tame, almost stale. Such mana means that a bulk is sealed off.

‘These two should be Goddesses.’ 

“...Are you Marcus Goldman?” The red-haired Goddess asked him.

“Nope.”

He replied instantaneously.

“You do know that you can’t lie to a God.” The smaller one said with a deadpan tone. The pair knew he was lying.

“...I don’t know, you tell me.” Marcus didn’t sound impressed or anything. More like his reaction has made the pair of Goddesses slightly confused. They can’t remember the last time a mortal had such an attitude against a God.

“I am Goddess Hephaestus. I wish to speak with you.” The Goddess introduced herself.

‘This is definitely a different world. I expected a tall, burly man with whom I could chat about metals and craft, not a woman.’ 

Marcus was somewhat dissapointed.

“I can see that you are dissapointed.” 

“More or less, I wanted someone to talk shop.” The alchemist-turned-kid shrugged without care. 

“I am still a Goddess of forging, you know.” 

“Good for you.” 

The pair of Goddesses' eyebrows twitched when they heard that. This kid is unbearable. 

“Can we talk in private, Marcus Goldman?”

For a second, he looked around, ponderingly. Then he realised that he was in a quite open place with several people even staring at him.

He realised that this was becoming a scene.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

After getting into an alley, the Goddess went straight to the point.

“Let me get straight to the point. I want you to join my Familia.” The Goddess told him what she wanted.

“No.”

“...Why?” She was confused about how swiftly he replied.

“Have you ever drawn a picture before?” Instead of replying, he asked a question.

“...Yes… what does it have to—”

“As a painter would you like for someone to just come in and assist you in drawing it?”

“...”

“See, you are smart. The same is true for me. I am a creator; I don’t need someone to assist me in creating.”

“...”

For a second, she didn’t say anything instead just looked at him, directly in his eye.

She could sense that this kid was something else, a reincarnation of someone extremely powerful, most likely.

“Even then, we don’t need to help you create anything. You can have your own shop and forge.” The Goddesses reasoned with him.

“And that is the help I am talking about.” He pointed at the same thing.

“...Hah… I understand. If this is what you feel, I won’t push it.” Hephaestus sighed in disappointment.

But she didn’t give up that easily.

“However, I do wish to make a contract with you.” 

“Hmm? And that is?” Marcus looked interested enough to ask.

“Sell your creations to my familia. I will pay you properly.”

As she said that she pulled out a sack of coins.

“This is 80 thousand Valis for that sword you sold.” She handed over the money to him.

“The rest, 20 thousand, went to the shop owner who bought it from you.”

She then proceeded to explain the perks.

“If you sell to my stores, I will pay you more and even allow you to use my connections to get the materials you want.” 

Marcus realised that this Goddess was quite the capitalist.

“For a Goddess of Forge, you are quite the merchant.” 

He pointed this out with some amusement.

“...I lived long enough around humans to understand the value of valis. Now, do you agree?”

Marcus snorted as he offered his hand.

“I do not care about these things. But since you offer a solution to save my time I agree to it.”

“Good.”

Hephaestus took his hand, but at that moment, her eyes slightly widened as she was able to sense the amount of mana he had!

It was absurd!

After shaking their hand, the boy turned around and left.

Hephaestus didn’t move for a moment as she was trying to grasp what she sensed.

‘Is he perhaps some fallen God? Maybe someone who got his divinity stripped?’ 

But none of it made sense, as if he were a fallen god, he would have some echoes of his divinity.

‘No, he is some sort of reincarnator.’

“...Hephaestus…”

“...Hmm? What is it?”

“Are you sure? You just let him go?” Hestia asked with a frown.

“Of course. He looks like would be more trouble than anything else. I will let him do his thing. However, you should try getting him. Otherwise, I will have to throw you out of my house.”

“Huh!? Why?”

“Because your bill is close to a hundred thousand.” The Red-haired goddess pointed out.

“...B-But.. “ Hestia didn’t know how to reply to that!

“It's time for you to have a Familia of your own. Otherwise, it will take you over a thousand years to pay me back.” 

The smaller Goddess trembled when she heard that! After all Hestia has been freeloading in Hespaestus house for a while now.

“B-But he doesn’t look like someone who would accept me as his Goddess!” she complained. It's impossible! He didn’t even see her as a Goddess in the first place.

“Well, that’s up to you to think about this through.” The red-haired Goddess said to her with a strained smile. At the same time, she thought how much this child would change the city.

~~~

Marcus swiftly bought all the food and materials needed before returning to his base.

“Damn those Gods. The blacksmith deity already went to look for me.”

He frowned as he stored all of the food in his fridge.

The alchemist never thought that he would be spotted that quickly.

After pondering for a while, he decided that he needed to return to his work.

Regardless of what is happening outside, he needs to improve his assets. Otherwise, these Familias will sweep him aside.

So he quickly started to work. First, he needs to fortify his base to acceptable levels before making weapons and armour.

He walked around and realised that he would run out of space if he kept the barrier circle on the same floor.

That meant he needed to start expanding underground.

Without wasting time, he proceeded to dig into an area where he wanted the stairs to be.

This was when his expertise in building bases came into play. Most of the bases he built on the planets were underground. He knew an array of methods for making the ground turn solid or creating several different versions of concrete.

With the utilisation of his mana, it took only a couple of days to create a basement.

The alchemist-turned-kid quickly realised that he would need more storage space since he couldn’t build his matter converter or assembly lines, so he created several more rooms, which he would convert into storage rooms with cool temperatures in the future.

Apart from that, he realised that he should make storage for drinks as he…once again didn’t have Assembly Lines and Matter Converter.

“...Stupid reality with dumb as brick magic!”

Marcus ranted some more as he was feeling soreness in his hands after carrying out piles of solid dirt.

One good thing about a mountain of dirt is that he can use alchemy to make a bunch of moulds.

After making the first basement floor, he went to draw the circle. To get some lights, he installed high-brightness runes. Torchers would do as well, but the runes he uses are superior and better for the working environment.

A day and a half later, the circle was done; it was twice as big, and it had several new features and was much more resilient.

By his estimation, it could take quite a bit of damage.

For now, he turned it on by pouring a little bit of his mana. Such action kickstarted the gathering process as the new circle started to gather mana from the air.

It will take a while, but it should be online by the next morning.

As Marcus pondered on that, he realised that he smells like crap!

For a second, he smelled his armpits. The Alchemist grimaced in disgust.

“I guess I know what I will do next.”

He mumbled to himself as he walked back upstairs.

The next thing he did was walk over and inspect the area, which he would turn into a bathroom. Since he had a lot of dirt now, he could convert that into marble tiles.

It will take quite a bit of his mana, but it's fine. His new protection circle is not a pushover. 

But that can wait for a day as he went to wash up first.

~~~

After resting for a day, Marcus was back to work, feeling sore from a couple of days of intense work.

First, he collected a small mountain of dirt and drew a circle for alchemy. With preparations done, he started to pour mana into the circle.

Slowly, the black soil started to turn into white stone. The process took a while, but this was not the first time he had done alchemy. Hell, he had been an alchemist all his life. Something as basic as this was not something he could mess up.

“Ugh… This Mana is killing me…” Marcus complained out loud as he was laying on his back while looking at the blue sky.

He never expected that he would have to control the whole process, as Mana needs guidance all the way. 

Regardless, he was done. He had a whole pile of marble now.

After resting a bit he started to carve marble into tiles and then started building his bathroom.

One of the things he spends some time doing is creating a waste recycling place.

Basically, his food waste and his crap will be falling into a specially prepared hole.

Inside this whole, there are two circles. Using gravity runes, which he invented by observing celestial bodies, he is forcing the waste through a circle. 

By the time the food waste lands on the bottom of the hole, it is no longer waste but rubber.

Marcus is quite proud of this recycling method.

Regardless, after finishing the pipes, shower, and bathtub, which he made from marble, Marcus finally started placing the tiles.

Soon enough he had room which looked like it was from Greece.

The finishing touches was the lights which he installed several. But now he needs to be careful as he is draining quite a bit of mana from the air.

‘Well, after filling the tank with water I should start crafting my weapons.’

Marcus grabbed his buckets as he prepared to get the water from the drinking fountain.

~~~

A silver haired girl was looking at confusing sight in front of her.

She noticed it for a while now but something was happening in the slumps. Some time ago a boy of some sort moved into the slumps as he stated doing something here. For a while she wondered that something happened to him but he just kept on doing something.

Carrying scraps of metal, carrying buckets of water, then out of nowhere he started buying food.

It was as if he has claimed the whole area and now treating it as home.

At first she didn’t wanted to do anything with him. It was not her business, but after a while her curiosity got better of her.

So she started to pay more attention.

She tried to approach the site but extreme urge made her turn around and walk away.

Midway she realised that she got effected!

“...Hmm…”

“Alfia…what is it?” A man’s voice snapped her out.

The silver-haired girl dressed in black turned around and shook her head. She was impressed. To think that someone so easily would put her under magic.