Golden Artificer c19 (Patreon)

Marcus inspected the craftsmanship. Seeing the lift, he wondered if people had some of the advanced crafting practices here. But all he saw was classic forging used in Castles.

The difference is that they do use different magic metals.

The alchemist saw that prices varied from 1.5 million Valis to 50 and even 100 million for a piece. 

And then there is cheap stuff, only 3 thousand to 4 thousand.

All of that is because of metal purity and type.

None of them have any sort of magical properties.

Until he saw weapons created from monster drops.

It was where the stuff started to get ridiculous. 

“...500 million for a weapon made from Dragon bone?” Marcus’ eyebrows twitched. Honestly, he thought he had started to understand the money in this place, but it appears he was wrong.

“Not any dragon bone. It's from deep floors. It was brough here by Loki Familia. They sold it to us before we made it into a weapon.” Hephaestus said to him.

“...And will someone buy such a weapon with such a price tag?” Marcus rubbed his forehead, trying to imagine that he was back in his old world with over-the-top inflation. 

“Don’t worry, we already have some potential buyers.” The Goddess smiled at him.

“...Right.” 

After seeing the sword made from monster loot, he was baffled. As the weapon had no speciality apart from boost-to-fire spells?

It was an abysmal trait. He could add fire manipulation, heat increase, and even ignition. Hell, he needs to study that falna he got from swearing cat.

He needs to see the things about skills and how difficult it is supposed to be to access magic.

“Well, do you see now?” Hephaestus looked serious as they walked to the side.

“The moment you add magic into a weapon, the price inflates considerably.” She clarified as they ended up standing at the corner.

“I can assume that runic carving is not a thing here.”

“No. It's not. Only gods can do that. Regular people employ chants to bend magic to their will. Even then, it's limited by a lot.

So, you coming along with a magic language could potentially change everything. That is why that sword you offered me would cost between 400 and 600 million… Even then, it's that little because it's steel, and people don’t have high opinions on steel.” 

Marcus massaged his forehead when he heard that.

“I see. Regardless, I have an idea of values.” He said that as he looked at his notes.

He priced everything according to what Hephaestus explained.

“Good. Don’t forget about our deal.” She reminded him what they discussed before.

“Yes. Well, are you sure you can buy my stuff? It's because my weapon will only get more complex, and according to the price market, it will cost in billions.”

‘Do they even have this much money in this city in the first place?’ 

The alchemist pondered how Astraea would pay the bill.

“Don’t worry, we can think of something. Besides, the more you bring items to this world, the less value they will have, eventually.”

“...Or the city will run out of money.” Marcus joked before pocketing his notes.

“Regardless, I have the idea for prices. I will see you later.”

“Alright. I will send you the money later.” 

The Goddess waived at him as Marcus left the store.

The pair walked back to the elevator as Marcus had a thoughtful look.

It appears money won’t be an issue, and he can drop those absurd prices.

But that will impact Hephaestus sales.

‘Well, her stores are like general clothes stores while my one could be designer clothes.’

“...Do you finally have a general idea how foreign and absurd your runemancy is?” Alfia started a conversation.

“Indeed, I am in a freefalling situation here, and by all means, I can decide my prices.” He said with a shrug.

“Please don’t sell your weapons for coins…” The girl sighed as she could see him selling his stuff for cheap.

“I won’t. But I won’t charge it for billions just because they have magic properties.” Marcus rolled his eyes. It is ridiculous, but he can accept that people here have not figured out a language to interact with magic.

~~~

After returning home, Marcus first turned off the barrier and reconfigured it as a security system, casting a solid barrier that could reflect damage.

Once the changes had been made, the Alchemist dropped a small pile of mana stones and used their mana to kickstart the barrier.

With that in place, he left the house and looked around.

Now that he doesn’t hide behind a barrier, he needs to make sure his place looks presentable.

So, he spends the rest of the day painting the place and using some magic to improve the quality of the structure.

The next day, he returned to his calculations and proceeded to draw the circle in a ritual room in the basement. More than enough magic has gathered there, and he could start testing if his synchronisation would work.

After laying down the ritual, he proceeded to test it out.

“...Is that a corpse?” Alfia asked him as she looked at the faceless body lying on the ground in the middle of the magical circle.

“...Nope, it's a human doll.” He replied to her as he sent a pulse to the ritual, and the circle started to glow.

Sure enough, the doll inflated before it blew up.

None of the bits touched them as it was some distance away.

“Was that normal?” She asked him with some concern.

“It was meant to explode.” He clarified.

“I am using this opportunity to test limits and if the consequences are the same as in my world.

So far, it appears they are.” He pulled out a sweeper and started sweeping the bits and pieces around.

Alfia joined him midway. Still, it was strange to sweep what looked like flesh, but it's not.

Once it was clean, Marcus made some alterations to the circle and prepared another human-like doll.

This time around, it didn’t explode or even do anything. It confused the maid, but it was where Marcus took away the doll and did some scanning on the doll on his workbench.

He didn’t say a thing; after that, he did a couple more tests.

“...What is it? Does it work?” She hates being left out of the loop!

“I tested out several things before I can synchronise my body with my soul.” He clarified to her without looking.

“...And?”

“I am almost ready.” The alchemist replied as he wrote down his latest test.

“...Okay…” Her shoulders sagged as she had no idea what was going on!

“So you can manipulate souls, too?” she asked. As far as she knew, souls were God's domain. 

“To some degree. I studied as I wanted immortality. While I do know what it is, it's a domain which I haven’t properly conquered yet.” Marcus explained to her as he finished his notes and then proceeded to write his final ritual circle.

Around an hour later, he dropped a small pile of mana stones and activated the ritual.

He sat down in the middle of the circle and waited for it to end.

As this was going on, the girl looked at it with crossed arms.

While she does try to catch up with whatever he is doing, it becomes difficult when he picks up speed like this.

Over a span of several hours, he did a bunch of rituals and made a bunch of changes to them. She realised that he had burned through millions of Valis in mana stones. It's simply absurd how effortlessly he can spend money.

Then she heard a knock on the door.

With a sigh. She turned around and went up the stairs to see who it was.

As she opened the doors, she saw Hephaestus in a small caravan full of chests.

“I brought the money for the sword.”

“Oh, follow me.” Alfia motioned for her to follow, and she showed her where they could leave it.

It was in a corner of the floor.

“...Is this how he treats his money…” The Goddess sighed as she saw chests full of Valis.

“Yes. I know.” The maid simply nodded. She complained about it as well.

“...Well, whatever, put the Valis here.” The red-haired goddess instructed her Familia members, who proceeded to place the chests in the corner.

As they were doing that, the Goddess of Forging noticed that Marcus was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is he?” 

“In the Basement doing a ritual,” Alfia replied.

“...Ritual?”

“Yes.”

“...I see. Are you willing to share what it is?” The Goddess was curious about what he was doing for obvious reasons.

“It's a ritual to synchronise his body with his soul. The specific reason I do not know.” 

“Hmm, can I see it?” Now, she was even more curious. She wanted to see more of his magical letters. It's an art she never even considered viable. Only Arcanium used to work with such letters.

“...As long as you don’t interfere and look from a distance.” Alfia seriously said.

The Goddess raised her hands as if telling her to relax.

“There is no way I do anything. I am simply too interested to allow anything to happen to him.” The Goddess explained herself.

“...Fine.”

The maid agreed as she showed the basement.

After taking the stairs, the goddess noticed that there were no support pillars, which was quite huge compared to upstairs.

‘I am pretty sure he took extra space from buildings he doesn’t own…’ Hephaestus hoped that no one from the guild noticed that little detail.

Her eye eventually spotted a magical circle humming with energy. The hum of the power made it look like a beating heart.

“...oh my…”

The Goddess walked over and inspected the circle in the room right below what should be the centre of Marcus' territory. 

Hephaestus didn’t say a thing as she continued to gaze at the circle with an intrigued gaze.

“To think that he went that far with his letters…”

“Goddess Hephaestus, do you even understand what this is?” Alfia asked her as she looked at it but she didn’t grasp a thing. For her, it was a beautiful painting of lines, circles, geometric shapes and letters.

“Well, I don’t know the specifics, but I can tell that it has three some sort of abilities and that it sends energy outside its circle to those symbols you see on the house walls and next to the street. My rough guess is that this is a barrier with several functions.” The goddess guessed as she continued to stare at it.

“Impressive.” Alfia was impressed that this Goddess so easily deciphered the barrier circle.

“Not really. However, the application of the letters… Well, it gave me some ideas.” Hephaestus said to the maid.

But then they went to the other circle, which made Goddess stop in her tracks and gaze at a much more complex circle! In the middle of it were drawings of a human body made of geometric shapes!

“What is this?” She tried to read the use of this circle, but all she understood was that it targets the body!? 

“This circle heals the body. It was what healed me from my inborn disease.”

“...”

Hephaestus mechanically turned her gaze at her and looked at the maid as if she had just seen a ghost.

The thing was, she sensed that she didn’t lie.

It means that it should work!

“It can heal any defect and even restore cut and broken limbs,” Alfia explained with a sad voice. If only she had met her Master 7 years ago…

“...What are the shortcomings of this?”

“...Apart from waiting for the circle to power up… nothing.” The maid explained to her.

“...Is it ready to use?” Hephaestus asked as she looked at the humming circle in front of her.

“It wasn’t used for a while. It should be fully charged.” The moment Alfia said that, she realised what was going on. By that point, the red-haired Goddess took her step and walked into the circle.

“...Well… she has done it now…”