Golden Artificer c15 (Patreon)

Ais dashed through the streets of Orario with a huge grin on her lips. She rapidly arrived at the Tower of Babel before jumping from a ledge instead of descending the stairs.

She swiftly entered the dungeon.

Inside the first floor, the girl pulled out her new sword. The blade hummed with power as it sensed her mana.

The girl spotted her first victim: a kobold. The dog-like creature noticed her and proceeded to attack her.

“Ariel!”

Letters on the blade hummed with power as waves of wind gathered around her blade. Instead of cutting, she simply made a stab motion, and a horizontal tornado slammed into the monster. There was a hole in the creature.

The girl stopped in her tracks as she looked at her weapon with wide eyes.

‘The response, the power… wow…’

A weapon alone increased her power by several times!

‘Right! Those mental arts made my mana flow so much easier to control!’

Ais gushed from sheer happiness that she was growing in strength! But she quickly calmed down as she realised that this was just the beginning. 

She remembered that he was living with a level 7! That means she needs to surpass that woman! Otherwise, she can’t even think of asking anything personal!

It's too embarrassing for her!

After collecting the mana stone, she decided to dive deeper.

~~~

“Ais! What did I say about sole diving?” Riveria saw the state of Ais as the girl returned from her dungeon trip. She had a large bag of Valis.

“I didn’t go beyond the 12th floor.” The girl puffed her cheeks.

“Besides, I wanted to test my new sword.” Ais sounded almost arrogant as she patted her sword.

Riveria looked confused as she looked at the weapon. She could see that the hilt looked different.

“Did Goibniu Familia make this for you?” She sounded confused as she recalled that Ais went somewhere else after her previous sword broke. They were about to order one made just for Ais.

“No. it was Marcus Goldman.” The girl almost puffed her chest as she was proud that she was able to persuade him to help her.

But Riveria's reaction was strange. She wanted to bang her head from frustration. That man was dangerous, and seeing this girl act like this made her wonder if Ais had any sense of danger.

‘What I am kidding… of course she is clueless…’

The elf girl recalled how self-destructive Ais was two years ago. They were able to help her slowly heal up, but Marcus' appearance and his show of power fundamentally affected the girl.

“Ais… he is dangerous. How much did this weapon cost you?”

“Nothing.”

“...Y-You… what did you promise!?”

“Nothing. I promised to grow stronger and tell him about my progress.” Ais said with a straight face.

“Why?”

“As he said. His weapons have to be used, and only the best should use them.” She once again puffed her chest. The girl sounded proud that he had chosen her to allow her to wield one of his creations.

Sure, he could have just fixed it and let it be how it was before, but instead, he made a proper weapon and let her use it.

“You do realise that he now has the favour of our Familia…” Riveria massaged her forehead. 

Ais furrowed her eyebrows.

“You assume that he needs it.” She got really defensive all of a sudden.

“Not now. Maybe in the future, you should not forget that he is a very powerful person.” The green-haired elf tried to explain to her that she should not casually interact with that man.

“I understand, Riveria. That is why I went to him. Because he is the best Weaponsmith I know.”

Ais casually brushed aside every other Smith God who works in the city…

“Ais…”

Riveria wanted to tell her just because he blew up things…

As if knowing, Ais pulled out her sword and showed it to her. Her magic surged as winds slowly gathered around her blade.

“...This…” Riveria stopped in her tracks and saw glowing letters span through the blade.

“This is Ariel. A Weapon created to empower my magic.”

“You named the weapon after your magic?” Riveria asked as she tried to understand what she was seeing. This was nothing like a magic sword that breaks after use. No, what she was looking at was an artefact of some sort.

“Yes. It helps me control the wind.” As she said that, she showed her how she could create a ball of wind in her palm.

“...This is…Ais…This is Artefact… do you know how expensive these are?” Riveria realised that as she had a sweaty forehead.

“I know. But it's bound to my blood. Only I can use this weapon.”

“I see…”

Riveria motioned for her to go as she needed to speak with her Goddess. If this continues, they will be in financial ruin…

From what she had heard, he might not have asked anything now, but that man lived longer than most elves. Even she is just a baby in front of him. For him to manipulate, Ais is nothing but a child’s play.

She had already seen him influence Ais in the dungeon with just a few words and even help her overcome her revenge to some extent, but now, with this sword… He might have fully won her over.

~~~

“Damn that brat!!!” Loki was biting a piece of cloth as she was throwing a furious fit.

To think that someone would sneak in so deep into her Ais’ heart like this! That is not good! Not good at all!

“I want you two to bring him over so that we can talk!”

“Goddess…” Finn looked nervous. He had already heard how Freya’s most elite members simply disappeared. Only a dumb brick would not put a connection there.

“I know, I know. I won’t provoke him. I know what he did.” Loki eventually sighed as he threw the piece of cloth away.

“But I won’t stand and won’t be doing anything either. I want to see him with my own eyes and figure out if he is a good influence on my Ais.”

‘As long as he doesn’t join any Familia, it should be fine.’

What Loki cares about is that Ais is with her Familia. If he is not with a Familia, then it's fine with her. As long as there is no other God involved, she can… barely accept the idea that a foreign person is interacting with her precious Ais.

But at the same time, as someone who used to scheme, she can accept the idea that if he is talented, his creations could assist her in conquering the Dungeon.

“That sword. Is it that impressive?” Loki asked after being silent for a while.

“... It's nothing we have seen before. It reminds me of Falna, only on a blade. At the same time, it's simple steel.” Riveria explained to her Goddess.

“Hmm…call Ais. I want to see it.”

A few moments later, the girl with her weapon walked over. She looked quite defensive with her weapon.

“Show it to me.”

The blonde stiffly nodded as she pulled out her blade.

Loki watched the whole thing with wide eyes as she wanted to see everything.

The moment she got the weapon, all of the magic simply vanished from the weapon.

“... I see… So it is true.” Loki sighed as she just confirmed for herself what Marcus was saying to everyone.

“What is it.”

“What you see is another language which interacts with magic. It is foreign to me, but I understand the basics of what it does just by sensing magic in the weapon.” She sighed again. She doesn’t like it, but it appears that her Familia will need to interact with him.

If she does not, other Familias will take this opportunity. She already has an advantage as he knows her Familia, and Ais has gotten her weapon from him.

But… the thing is, she doesn’t want her Ais to interact too much with him!

He will corrupt her!

Hell, he already did corrupt her!

Damn him!

“In a sense, it is similar to Falna in terms of quality.” Loki dropped a bombshell on her children.

“If it's true…” Riveria dropped her act as her mouth slowly opened. She knew what this meant in the long term. It was revolution…

“Yes. At the same time, it has the same quality. It's not Falna. It does not collect extella or any of that. But what it does is support the wielder. I assume this weapon gives you superior control over your Ariel?” Loki discerned what the letters do just by looking at them.

“Yes. I feel like Level 3 may be even stronger.” Ais said to her as she eyed her weapon. She wanted it back. 

“I see.” 

Loki handed the weapon back, and at that moment, the weapon was back in Ais' hands… the letter had ignited.

‘Damn, why he has to be this good?’

“As I said before. Bring him to me. Invite him to our house for dinner or something. Use your brain’s Riveria. You are used to such a thing.” Loki waved her hand in a lazy manner. She wants to talk with him. 

Now that she has seen the quality, she can’t deny she wants it for her familia. What she saw was borderline godly weaponsmithing. No doubt a God could do it, but no god is allowed to use Arcanium. In other words, if she gets this, it is like cheating with arcanium without using arcanium.

‘For some reason, this makes me all tingle. My Authority over Michief… ugh…’

Loki felt like she was back to her old self.

~~~

“You don’t need to come with us, Ais,” Finn said with a sigh. He could sense Ais’ gaze; the girl was watching everything very closely.

“I do. It’s because of me. So I don’t want some sort of misunderstanding.”

The pair looked at each other. Since when did she start to use such big words? Now that they realised something was strange about her.

“Did Marcus teach you anything while you were with him?” Riveria asked curiously.

“Yes. he taught me how to defend against charms. As well as sorting memories and improving my overall mana control.”

Honestly, in that single afternoon, she learned more about magic than in years… Maybe it's because his magic is different from the one she knows.

“Curious…”

“Yes. Though I can’t teach you, Riveria.” 

“I didn’t even ask.”

‘Damn, this girl… she is already defensive about him.’ 

“I know. I just promised him not to share his arts without his permission.”

“You said ‘arts’?”

“Yes. It's not just one spell; it's more like an entire branch. It was originally invented by the Alchemists of his world. Over the years, he has significantly expanded on them.”

The more the elf heard, the more she wanted to study these magic arts.

After walking for a bit, the trio ended up standing in front of a barrier.

Ais placed her hand on it before walking inside. Finn sighed before stepping in as well. After them, Riveria was very curious, and she inspected everything as she walked inside.

The elf could sense magical fluctuations everywhere around the area. She could sense mana flow.

‘He is a magic engineer… I never thought I would meet someone like that.’ 

She realised that Marcus was not just some powerful smith, but he could engineer with magic. As an elf from a magical forest, she never thought she would see such quality in a human of all people.

“Well, well. I thought I would see you guys soon.” Marcus walked out as he was ready for a walk.

“Oh, you thought we would come to see you?” Riveria enquired.

“Indeed. I did my first investment and want to see what kind of ripple I have caused.” He said that while looking at Ais, who was hugging her new weapon. She had already become obsessed with it.