Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

"Tsk! Of course those girls would send a tricky customer my way." the woman's emotions flipped to mild annoyance in an instant and it was clear she was acting before.

"Almost had me believing that you had lost control of your emotions for a moment there , still my point stands." I said still smiling.

"I can't make an offer loathe as I am to admit it. Whatever THAT is is without precedence. Nothing like it has ever existed as far as I know, as a result I have no idea how much it would be worth." she said with obvious annoyance.

"Well we seem to be at an impasse then. Tell you what , you tell me the actual price range of a grimoire and let me take one of those books on magic over there and I'll let you have that stone, sound good?" I offered calmly.

"Do I look like I was born yesterday brat? Those books are valuable in their own right and what would a low level adventurer even need to know what a grimoire costs anyways, not like you can afford one. Besides theres no telling if you are ripping me off with this stone." she said with a scoff.

"You said it yourself, that stone has no precedent. Surely that alone commands a respectable price, no?" I asked and the woman looked hesitant to disagree.

Seeing this I pressed a little more like a devil whispering in your ear to make a bad decision. "Look at it this way if it pays off I'll be the one at a loss here instead and by no small amount to boot." I said with an urging tone.

"Fine! Fine! You can take one book but I chose the book!" she said annoyed.

"A pleasure doing business with you!" I said with a grin.

I ended up leaving the shop with a rather basic introductory book on magic and the price range of a grimoire. I wasn't surprised to learn that the public price of a hundred million valis was the starting point of the things not the average selling price. The high end of the range was three hundred and fifty million valis with the true average price being roughly between two hundred million and two hundred and seventy five million valis for a grimoire.-

With my objective complete and some time to kill I headed back to the church to experiment with cursed tool crafting some more. The book on magic was frankly useless to me but that wasn't true for Bell who was quite jealous of my magic. Not bitter because he's a ball of innocence and warmth but envious all the same. You may also be wondering why I wasn't throwing myself into the dungeon to grind my brains out since I was still so weak. The answer was because there was no reason to rush, the path to godhood is a marathon not a sprint.-

All rushing forward would accomplish was to make my path either very narrow and rough or cut it off entirely as I'd slip up along the way. My goal wasn't going anywhere and as much as I may reject the standard craftsman path that didn't mean that crafting wasn't an important part of my own. Creation and destruction in equal parts if you would, I kill and slaughter in the dungeon to fuel my growth but I also use my power to craft marvels of power that balance out that scale. My stats were easy to raise but my prowess as a craftsman needed constant experimentation and discovery.-

In terms of pure time investment it should be obvious which of those two sides took the most to raise properly. Anyways once I got back to the church I was surprised to find Hephaestus there with her captain.

"Oh! Did you get what you were after Alex?" Hestia asked curiously as I walked up.

I nodded "I did. I'll be heading down below to experiment for a while now since I've got some time to kill." I said casually.

"Oh? Perhaps you have some more fascinating creations in mind like these coins?" Hephaestus said in a curious manner that made me sigh.

"You weren't supposed to share those you know." I said sternly to Hestia who looked embarrassed.

"No reason to blame her since it's not her fault really. My visit was not something we had scheduled so she tried to hide the thing from me but Tsubaki has sharp hearing as a level five and found it. I must say it's a marvelous creation to say the least, revolutionary even. A method to communicate with a person regardless of distance or location is an extremely valuable thing. I'd like to commission some if that's not too big a problem?" the red headed goddess said with a smile.

I would also like to point out that I was positive she was not here for Hestia to begin with. It was small things that weren't like last time she was here. Her clothes were nicer more "ladylike" if you prefer and also more revealing. She had her hair clearly washed and styled and had on a small amount of makeup that none who is ever near a fire would be caught dead wearing since it was oil based. I wasn't dense enough not to realize that she was here peacocking for my attention.-

"That's between you and her, I'm just the craftsman. Btw I preferred you without all the extra stuff, felt more authentic that way." I said casually before heading down below.

I wasn't just messing with her either as I genuinely thought she looked better as she was before. She was clearly uncomfortable with all this extra stuff on her and in those clothes which took away from her natural charm. I liked tomboys, no point in denying it really. Perhaps I might give romance a chance in the future but for now it would only distract me and I didn't need it. Anyways while Hestia was left to negotiate with the red haired goddess I focused my attention on my current resource cursed tool idea. See there was a rather booming magic sword market but a severe lack of products available that created resources like water, food and healing at the cost of mana.-

This is where I came in with my reusable magic items that I could charge a stupid amount of money for and get away with it too. Some gods or goddesses may try and make moves to possess me if I made it obvious I was the source but I had a plan for that. My cursed technique is a lovely thing that would let me quite literally change my face, skin color, voice and even height if I was careful so good fucking luck trying to figure out who I was after that. If I was also wearing organic clothes I could change those as well so tracking me was a nightmarish task.