Danmachi-Hell's forge

Chapter 21: True purpose



I stopped by the Blue pharmacy on the way back to the church and dropped off the empty vials while grabbing some more potions for the next day including a few extras for when I was practicing my technique making bone figurines. Once I got back to the church i got started doing precisely that since my energy was full and I didn't want the bones to start rotting. To prevent that I actually fused and refined all the bones together at once into an orb the size of a basketball that lacked anything capable of rotting.-

From there I downed a potion and got to work turning the bigger orb into about thirty smaller orbs that had flaws still since I was trying to be as efficient as possible. A thing I learned about my technique was that if I gave it a vague order like "regrow the arm" it would use my own understanding of what exactly that meant as a base to accomplish it and thus I could regrow an arm with a seemly low amount of energy. In the same way however if I tried to make the order complex like "grow out the bones, then the muscles, veins and skin." the cost would grow to massive proportions.-

This was why it took me such a large amount of energy to add all the artistic details to my figurines, I was making incredibly precise orders that as a result cost me in efficiency. It was not about the amount of energy I was using when I crafted the figurines but rather the level of fine detail I was adding in exchange. For this reason I was able to turn all of these orbs into vaguely fairy like images for about a quarter of my energy each but that lacked any individualistic features or fine details.-

I needed to drink another potion before Hestia came home in order to complete a figurine that this time had butterfly wings and amazoness features and clothes. It was honestly the easiest design to make considering that most amazoness are damn near exhibitionists that wear next to nothing. Thanks to that I doubt there is a male in Orario who can't vividly imagine their features. When my goddess finally did show up she was pleased to report she had sold the other figurine for eleven thousand valis this time though to a different person.-

"Oh right the butcher wanted me to let you know that he doesn't mind trading the bones for a figurine since his wife wants one." Hestia said with a smile.

"I see. I already ate dinner and brought you some food from the place I ate." I said pointing at the takeout bag sitting on the table.

Unsurprisingly Hestia was absolutely thrilled with the food but I couldn't really blame her since we have been living on what she brought home from work all month. 

"I think I should get an update today to see if my trip to the dungeon improved my stats by a lot or very little." I said after she was done eating and she agreed.

Like usual she straddled my back and dripped a drop of her blood on my back which sent up a bright lightshow as my falna updated. Unlike usual however I felt the drop of "liquid" in my mind vanish in the process but Hestia didn't seem to notice anything off. She finished up the process and copied my status on a sheet of paper before letting me up so I can take a look at it.

Name: Alexander Drake

Race: Human

Level:1

Strength:256(G)-> 320(F)

Endurance:312(F)->402(E)

Agility:221(G)->295(G)

Dexterity:201(G)-> 276(G)

Magic:627(C)-> 814(A)

Spells: Hell's forge(Innate technique): Can use anything from a living being and reshape or refine it per ones will.(Incantation: Hell's forge)

Skills: Heavenly restriction: In exchange for the ability to wield mana and magic one gains access to cursed energy and cursed techniques.

All of my stats took a large jump forward based on how much I used them today and I realized exactly what I absorbed through my tattoos, excelia. Or at the very least updating my falna used the stuff in place of excelia to improve my stats based on my efforts but much more than I actually put in the work for. It wasn't an unreasonable amount of increase though so I will at most grow abnormally fast but not enough to draw concern. Still the fact my magic stat had hit A rank meant I was soon going to find out for sure whether S really was the limit or not.-

"Goodness! Your stats exploded after only a single trip to the dungeon! At this rate you might level up before the end of the month!" Hestia said excitedly and full of pride.

I just nodded but didn't tell her that I wasn't planning on leveling up before I felt like there was no more progress to be made at this level. The higher my stats were at this level the better my foundation for godhood would be so I didn't want to improve my vessel by leveling up until I couldn't refine that foundation any more. Nothing short of the absolute limit of what my vessel was capable of was acceptable.-

After that I refined the sword I got earlier a bit before calling it a night and heading to bed. The next day Hestia took my newest figurine and went to work while I headed to the hostess of fertility before going to the dungeon. In the bar and restaurant Mama Mia thankfully kept me away from the girls who worked there as I improved the ingredients before handing me three thousand valis and sending me on my way. Syr had shyly given me a boxed lunch she made as well which I thanked her for politely before leaving.-

Her cooking was terrible I found out. Too much salt and some stuff was burnt to the degree I had to use my technique just to fix the whole meal. Still it was better than nothing at all so I didn't mind it all that much. The first floor of the dungeon was the same as yesterday in that it was a strangely cave like place that had supernatural lighting. The green skinned goblins like always were stupid and murder happy leaping at any adventurer they come across. I myself had the vicious little bastards figured out and was able to calmly face one without any issue after finding one.-

That was the trick though, finding one. Unlike some sort of fucking video game the low level creatures were not in fact everywhere but actually took some luck or time looking to come across. I was sort of tempted to try and piss off the dungeon to make things easy on me by getting a group to show up but something told me that at some point the dungeon would either stop reacting or send something that could actually kill me. Neither option felt like one worth looking forward to so I chose to leave it be and hustle like every other adventurer.


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