Night.
Lefiya was thoroughly lectured by Goddess Astrea.
It couldn't be helped; the commotion the Elf maiden caused during the day was simply too massive. Even across such a great distance, the shockwaves were felt throughout the city.
Although... Orario experiences daily "earthquakes" due to various reasons from the Dungeon, causing it to tremble from time to time.
However, tremors originating from underground naturally weaken significantly by the time they conduct to the surface. Coupled with the fact that the city's residents are accustomed to it, they usually pay it no mind.
But during the day, that single shot of "Explosion Magic" Lefiya unleashed outside the city almost made all of Orario believe that some incredibly powerful monster was attacking from the outside.
Many even thought the "Black Dragon" had arrived!
While saying that might be a bit of an exaggeration, as a witness, Heith saw with her own eyes how Lefiya's magic directly sheared off a portion of a distant mountain peak.
It was too shocking.
This was the first time Heith had seen a magical explosion of that magnitude.
That incomparably surging azure sphere blotted out the sky and the sun, seemingly sucking everything in the world into its interior. Subsequently, due to the distortion of light, it produced countless sparkling, brilliant specks of starlight that felt almost like hallucinations.
And as it slowly moved into the distance, it finally detonated.
A soundless, piercing brilliance seemed to submerge everything, turning the entire world into a pure white color.
Immediately after.
Amidst the countless exploding specks of light, time itself seemed to stagnate for that instant. Everything in the world vanished without a trace in a split second—whether it was sound, line of sight, or anything else.
As that incomparably gorgeous, colorful magic faded into stardust, a part of the mountain simply disappeared forever.
It was terrifying.
This couldn't help but remind Heith of something. Even as a "brave warrior" of the Freya Familia, she involuntarily felt a certain terror rising from the depths of her heart.
At this moment, the Elf maiden, completely drained of [Magic], lay motionless on the ground. The excessive consumption of mental force had sent her directly into a comatose state.
It really is a "Decisive Battle Magic" that can only be used once, isn't it?!
Heith clutched her forehead.
So, in the end, it was actually she who carried Lefiya back.
However, what Heith hadn't expected was that, across such a vast distance, the Elf maiden's magic would actually shake the city.
It was said that the piercing light at the time completely completely shrouded all of Orario. Following that, an incomparably violent roaring sound came from outside the city, "crashing" directly against the city walls like a violent storm.
The members of the Demeter Familia working in the fields outside the city even briefly thought it was some natural disaster like a landslide or tsunami.
Fortunately, the anomaly was fleeting, disappearing without a trace in an instant.
However, many people still saw it—a massive void had appeared in the uninhabited mountains in the distance.
Like Heith, the veteran adventurers in the city all seemed to recall some terrifying past.
That was the terror once "dominated" by the Zeus and Hera Familias.
The Familias of the God and Goddess who believed that the strong reigned supreme used to rampage through the city, causing quite a few problems—it was even one of those rare moments when the Loki Familia and Freya Familia would challenge them together, forming a united front.
This was also the reason why, after the Zeus and Hera Familias failed to subjugate the Black Dragon, they were driven out of the city by the other Gods.
The popularity of those two Familias was simply too poor.
When you treat power as everything, the moment you lose that power, you naturally lose everything else as well.
And now, Lefiya had achieved what the adventurers of the Zeus and Hera Familias once could—with just a single strike, it was enough to destroy cities and sever mountain ranges.
It was too fearsome.
One must realize that the current maiden had only just upgraded to Lv.5!
Whereas the adventurers of those two great Familias back then would have needed to be at least Lv.7 to achieve this level of destruction!!
In short.
Lefiya, having been lectured by the Goddess of Justice, was now prohibited from using such "dangerous" magic on the surface.
Even in the Dungeon, she had to be cautious!
No one forgot that if massive damage were caused to the Dungeon, "that thing" would appear.
[The Incarnation of the Dungeon].
Even if Isagi weren't around, the "Juggernaut" born from it would still be an extremely dangerous existence.
"Isagi is really too much!"
Lady Goddess didn't forget in the end that the youth was the instigator.
If not for his suggestion, Lefiya wouldn't have gone so far as to perform such an absurd "Explosion Magic" by draining all her mental force.
She couldn't shake the feeling that the boy had long known Mages could do such things. That was why, the moment he learned of Lefiya's new Skill, he thought of this immediately!
It was too ridiculous!!
By the way, speaking of which, where did that guy Isagi run off to?
Ever since leveling up a while ago, the youth had appeared somewhat mysterious, never seen all day long.
And that child Ryuu, too; she was with Cecil, and they still hadn't returned yet. It was truly strange—
*
The spring night was cold and deserted.
A light rain fell throughout the day, plunging the troubled city into a certain gloomy hue.
However, despite this, within the Industrial District located in the Second Quarter, inside the "Valka Red Room"—the encampment of the Hephaestus Familia—the sounds of clang, clang from rows of forging workshops rang out day and night. Accompanied by the smog rising from the chimneys, even the rainwater here seemed to boil.
Isagi and Cecil, and even Ryuu included, all had the illusion of having returned to the City of Smiths.
The roar of the Magic Stone factories in the distance was incessant. Under the dim night sky, it operated ceaselessly day and night like some colossal behemoth.
"How is this? Give it a try."
"Mm..."
The woman before them was the Captain of the Hephaestus Familia, the [Cyclops] Tsubaki Collbrande.
She was also currently the only Lv.5 Blacksmith in the entire city.
She was a considerably tall, black-haired woman with crimson eyes that felt very familiar to Ryuu, and—perhaps due to forging—dark yet healthy skin.
Just looking at her appearance, one knew her personality was quite straightforward; she was always laughing loudly, revealing incomparably white teeth.
In the sweltering forging workshop, she was also quite direct, using cloth strips to wrap that very magnificent rise of her chest—sometimes, Ryuu felt that Cecil wearing a soaked tank top while hammering in the workshop was already a bit too shameful, but looking at Tsubaki's appearance, Cecil was practically conservative to the extreme!
It even made one suspect she had Amazon blood, as her attire was simply too similar to Tiona and the others.
A breast wrap, a long skirt as complex and gorgeous as a tapestry, and sandals.
But unexpectedly, Tsubaki was actually from the Far East and possessed half-Dwarf blood.
[Seriously?!]
Thinking of her former friend, Ryuu found it hard to compare the hearty big sister before her with Kaguya, even though they indeed both possessed those rose-red eyes, beautiful as roses under the night sky.
"So interesting. How on earth did you come up with this kind of weapon? The blueprints are simply too ingenious. To think it could have such a structure, and be so reliable—"
Tsubaki was still muttering to herself.
Although she had already handed the newly forged weapon to Isagi, she continued to stare non-stop at the youth's hands, as if looking at a beloved, incomparably precious "child."
As the city's best Blacksmith (excluding the God of Smithing), her goal had always been to forge weapons and equipment that surpassed the Gods, items that even the Gods could not understand or reach.
The reason her Level was so high was also because every time she forged a new weapon, she would run into the Dungeon to test it out. As a result, she gained a considerable amount of Ability Scores and [Excelia], inadvertently becoming a First-Class Adventurer.
"Although I haven't tested it yet, I can feel that this thing isn't simple..."
It was almost as if it were born specifically for slaughtering monsters.
This was her intuition as a Blacksmith, and also the part Tsubaki found difficult to understand. Because the weapon Isagi had asked her to forge clearly looked very "strange."
A curved, streamlined wooden handle. Surrounding the outside like a handguard was a broad, serrated blade.
Through a simple "mechanism," the blade could be "ejected" with a flick, transforming it into a normal, machete-like weapon with a slightly longer grip, composed of a curved wooden shaft and a blade.
He could eject or retract the blade at will while swinging it.
With this, he could create a considerable degree of "illusion," completely changing his attack range.
This was a transforming weapon.
And it was very simple, to the extent that it seemed like one could assemble it just by grabbing a wooden stick and a blade casually. Its name was also simple and crude.
[Saw Cleaver].
It's simply a butcher's weapon. It's something specifically used to slaughter beasts, Tsubaki couldn't help but think.
This was also the reason for her emotion.
As a Blacksmith, the woman could see at a glance that what was condensed within this weapon was the experience of countless "slaughters" and "battles," which finally shaped it into this form.
Simple, durable, and sufficiently efficient.
It wasn't something gorgeous meant for display, but a weapon purely for hunting monsters.
Just during the process of forging it, Tsubaki could feel that pure sense of "coldness." It was incredible—was the youth before her a guy who fought using this kind of weapon?
Why did just looking at the way he held it make him seem practiced to no end?
What the hell?!
It felt like he had finally obtained an "old partner" that had accompanied him through countless long, dangerous, dark nights.
Tsubaki was somewhat puzzled.
She obviously wasn't familiar with Isagi. Not long ago, when she heard the youth from the Astrea Familia had come to find her to commission a weapon, she was a bit confused.
Although she didn't know him, over this recent period, a Blacksmith possessing the [Mystery] Development Ability had appeared in the Goddess of Justice's Familia. It seemed she had forged considerably powerful First-Class Armaments for both [Gale] and [Amazon].
There were even rumors that Ais of the Loki Familia had "ghosted" her order with the God Goibniu, turning instead to seek that person to forge her new First-Class Armament.
One had to know that among the two Gods of Smithing in the city, Goddess Hephaestus rarely took action personally. In contrast, although the Goibniu Familia was smaller in scale, its Deity was very happy to customize weapons and equipment for adventurers.
It belonged to the category of "expensive but top-tier" high-end service. Only a Familia like Loki's, one of the strongest in the city, could maintain a long-term cooperative relationship with him. So it was very strange—what magic did that [Mystery] Blacksmith of Astrea possess to actually make Ais give up on the God of Smithing and choose her instead?
But what Tsubaki didn't know was that this matter actually didn't have much to do with Cecil; it was mainly because of Isagi.
It couldn't be helped.
The woman had also obtained this news through Gareth.
Being on good terms with one of the Big Three of the Loki Familia, and even being his "exclusive Blacksmith," Tsubaki naturally heard everything about the Astrea Familia from the Dwarf uncle.
And now, after seeing the blueprints sent by Isagi with her own eyes and forging such an "interesting" thing, Tsubaki seemed to understand something...
Mm.
She just felt the other party was a bit too "fanatical."
Isagi felt somewhat spooked. Actually, when he came to the Hephaestus Familia's side, he hadn't originally intended to find her.
The new Character Card "Night of the Hunt" after upgrading to Lv.5 brought him many brand-new "Hunter Weapons" that could be crafted—of course, this Hunter was somewhat different from the Hunter he had mentioned to Ais before.
One hunted Great Dragons, the other hunted "Beasts."
And while both were weapons for hunting non-humans, the structure of the latter was much simpler and cruder. When Isagi first saw the design blueprints, he was even curious: How on earth can this thing kill those unspeakable Outer Gods?
So he thought he would forge it and see.
And coming to find a Blacksmith of the Hephaestus Familia was also to share Cecil's burden. The maiden had indeed been very busy recently; not only did she have to watch over previous tasks, but she was also researching new things.
For example—
Armor or puppets capable of housing an adventurer's soul.
____
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