Golden Artificer c8 (Patreon)

“Oh, what can I do for you —?”

Since the blonde kid was quite humble enough, Marcus also played nice.

“I am Finn Deimne, Captain of Loki Familia.” The kid introduced himself as captain. Then it means he was, as Alfia said, a Pallum.

“Well then, Captain Finn, what do you want at such a late time?” The Alchemist asked.

“I would like your assistance against a monster that was summoned on deep floors of the dungeon and is right now rushing towards the surface. Evilus have summoned this Monster by sacrificing a God.” The blonde explained to Marcus in a serious tone.

“I assume it's strong that you are coming to me to request help.”

“Precisely…” He said that as he looked at the girl behind Marcus. To make a level 7 his follower and toy around another Level 7, Finn believes Marcus is at least level 9…

“Very well. Since he is a threat to the city, I will help.” The alchemist agreed to assist as he was about to leave.

“Come to Central Park. We are gathering there before setting off to the dungeon.” Finn swiftly told him where to go.

“I will. How much time I got left?”

“Several hours at most. We are planning to deal with it on floor 18.” The blonde replied.

“Good. A few hours is enough. I will prepare a weapon. I assume it's a big monster?” Marcus asked as he started to draw a weapon he had in mind mentally. A big ass cannon should be enough…

“Yes, we classified it as a Monster Rex.”

Marcus looked at Alfia for a second. Who motioned to him that she would explain what it meant.

“Good. In that case, I will join you in a few hours. In the meantime, I have to get back to my forge. I have a weapon to prepare.” 

“W-Wait! Does that mean you are the one who crafted that sword?” The blonde girl next to Finn asked him with a slightly excited tone.

“Hmm? You like my Yamato?” Marcus turned back and looked at her. He smiled a bit. One thing he likes is when people like the stuff he makes. Even after layers of his cynicism, he is still a creator.

He pulled out the katana and showed the blade.

“I reforged the steel to perfection and then carved runes on the blade. This allows me to use Yamato as a conduit for magic.” After showing it for a bit, he sheathed it.

“...Amazing… I never heard anything like this before. It's just simple steel, isn’t it?” She asked with an even more curious tone. To think that simple steel can be pushed to such a level!

“Precisely. Material isn’t everything. Considering that we live in a world where magic exists and Gods walks among us, we can make even steel do amazing stuff.” Marcus happily replied as he smiled at the girl.

“I will see you later.” The Alchemist waved at them before re-entering the barrier.

~~~

“So you targeting even small girls?” Alfia slightly huffed at him as she was feeling territorial, as ridiculous as it sounds.

“Targeting? Not at all. She is a girl who is hungry for power. She might not tell us or show us, but I can see that in her eyes. The girl wants power. Most likely, seeing me trash around your friend Zald only made her interested in me.”

“So what are you going to do with the child of the dungeon?”

“Hmm? ‘Child of the Dungeon’? What does that mean?”

“What it means is that she is a spirit or half-spirit spawned by the dungeon,” Alfia said with a small shrug.

“I can tell that by how similar her aura is to Spirit one can find in the dungeon.” The silver-haired girl explained to him.

“I see. Regardless, what is best right now for her is to balance her lust for power with something worthwhile, as otherwise, flames of desire will consume her.” He explained to her as he recalled something similar happening to him.

“Fufufu, so the big bad Grand Sorcerer is softy inside when it need be~” Alfia teased him back for the first time. 

Marcus simply smirked upon hearing that.

“Of course. But you could not see it through that obnoxious act of yours.”

She immediately stopped teasing. Instead, she got annoyed.

“Whatever…”

“Yep. Now let’s get back to work.”

Marcus rolled up his sleeves as he went to get some hardened dirt he would use as a mould for another he was planning to make.

The first thing which comes to his mind is a mana blaster.

So it will be in shape similar to a big gun.

Making something like this is not hard. Unlike armour, making weapons is much easier and more straightforward.

He swiftly created a mould for a weapon the size of a metre and a half. 

Then he walked around to see if he had enough steel for it. He quickly realised that he was low on that.

“Hmm. Do you know anywhere where we could get some steel?”

“I could get it for you.” Alfia swiftly replied to his request.

“Do you need money, or are you going to raid Evilus' base?” He asked her with some amusement.

“Depends on what you want.” She said with a small smile.

“I see. Then, if you can, raid one of their bases. For all the bothering they are causing to me.”

“Very well.”

Without wasting any more time, she left the house. In the meantime, Marcus proceeded to design his weapon.

While creating something like his Gravitus Fluctus takes a lot of time and actual AI assistance in gravity manipulation, he can, however, make a raw explosion.

Before one can create something, one should learn how to destroy it. However, it was always the opposite for Marcus as he first learned how to build and then knew how to destroy.

It was far too easy for him, as he knew how to put it together piece by piece, block by block. To blow something up, all he needed was power and the ability to shred those blocks.

Honestly, by the time Alfia returned with a huge bag of steel and iron, Marcus already had several ideas on how to blow up things from implosion to disintegration. By this point, he was designing how good it would look from the artistic side of things.

“Should be enough?” 

She asked him after dusting herself off.

Marcus looked at the bag from a distance.

“Hmm. yes, my thanks.”

He walked over and inspected a selection of swords, lancers, gauntlets, axes, and other weapons with a lot of metal.

From the looks of it, the girl has beat the shit out of people and took their stuff.

After taking a few weapons, he placed them into the forge and proceeded to melt them. As this happened, he continued to draw and expand on the runes he would put on the weapon.

“What is it going to do?” She asked Marcus after seeing him draw quite a big chunk of runes.

“Well, first, it will gather mana from the air and the person who is holding it. It will compress it into a ball before launching at the target. Upon impact, it will explode before imploding into a small ball. Its explosion in two stages. The stronger the enemy, the more powerful the implosion.”

He explained to her while chewing on roasted bacon.

“It's something I came up with on the go. If I had more time, I could add some elements from fundamental forces of the universe, but we are running out of time, and I have no idea if steel can handle such crushing force.”

Alfia’s eyes trembled when she heard what these runes could do once placed on a weapon.

“Don’t look that surprised, Alfia.” He sighed, seeing that she looked spooked,

“It should have been obvious that I know how to destroy. After all, creating things is far harder than making things blow up.” He reminded her that he knows how to build.

After saying that, he went over to check how his steel was melting.

Marcus observed it for a while, seeing all the impurities burning away.

Once it was ready, he started to pour the liquid content into the mould.

This time around, he had a couple of buckets of metal ready.

After pouring all of them, he used his mana to ensure that the liquid metal spread out properly before he started the process of cooling down.

As it was cooling down, he inspected his plans for carving runes.

Since he does not have that much time, the design will be rough, and there won’t be enough time to make it… nice.

In other words, the damage it will cause will be unchecked.

After a while, he broke the mould. It was a weapon based on the positron cannon used in Gundam and the guns used by Tau Empire’s Fire Warriors. For now, the weapon is split in two as he needs to carve the runes.

“Do you even have enough time to put runes on it?” Alfia asked him as she watched him over his shoulder.

The girl wonders if he will make more weapons in the future, especially those gauntlets she saw him wield and the material he used to make his clothes. She wonders if he could make some clothes for her, too.

The guy was all-around-crafter and could make everything in a single place.

“You assume that to blow things up, I need an extensive network of runes,” he said with a sigh.

“It is simple programming of magic in forms of collect, compress, set, and launch.” As he said that, he took the first piece of the weapon and started to carve with a thick metal pencil.

The work was quick as he carved several lines, half circles and letters. In less than ten minutes, one-half was done. Then, he started to do the same with the other half of the weapon.

Once it was done, he used that black substance to mould it together. 

The complete product was a dark grey rectangular weapon with a handle. It had a button. What was strange to Alfia was that it had a hole. The weapon was hollow with runes inside of it. 

She quickly noticed that those runes started to glow inside the weapon the moment it came together.

He was ready to go after putting a strap on the weapon and getting a couple more slices of bacon.

“You won’t be testing it?” Alfia asked him as she saw him ready to leave.

“Testing it? I guess… though we can’t charge it a lot as it would blow up sections of the city.” He replied to her question after swallowing his food.

The more mana he uses, the more food he wants to eat. So, it's given that he is still hungry after fighting Zald.

“Is it possible for a small scale? You don’t want it to blow up your face or not work when it's necessary?” Alfia pushed him to test as she didn’t want a failure.

“Fine-Fine… While I don’t want to waste time on something as basic as this, but since you insist.” Marcus rolled his eyes as he decided to try it out first.

“By the way, if it works properly, we will be cuddling afterwards~~~”

Alfia nearly tripped when she heard that. Her cheeks exploded in crimson.

“P-Pervert! As if you won’t be doing it either way!”

The alchemist laughed when he heard how the beauty stuttered her reply.

As the pair left the house, Marcus pointed his weapon at the testing wall on which he had used his Yamato.

He pressed the trigger and held it for a bit. Light started to gather inside the barrel. Alfia now understood how this worked. She understood that energy is collected and compressed inside the weapon.

Once the charge was enough, Marcus released the trigger.

A small ball rushed at the wall, exploding into white mist upon impact. The white mist rushed to the explosion centre, crushing into a single spot before exploding. At the end of it, the wall exploded into bits.

“As you can see~~~ we will be cuddling today~~~” The Alchemist teased his maid after lowering the gun.