Chapter 18: Magic, Curses and Hephaestus

Despite anticipating his training with the Hephaestus Familia and possible middle floor excursions into the dungeon, Nox knew he had some tasks to accomplish beforehand. Since he now had the Arcana Ring, he would only benefit from developing more and more original spells.

Although it did not yet worked for curses, Nox thought he should develop a few as well since he didn't have much to lose in doing so. As such, he first set about creating several simple but useful spells, mostly elemental ones since he hadn't yet made any of those.

Invisibility: Makes the user invisible but slowly drains Mind while the effects are active.

Based on Asfi's Hades Head magic item. Was created during his training with her.

Enflame: Spreads flame colored veins from the user across any surface they with. Fire erupts from them at the user's command. The power, area of effect, range and target location can all be controlled.

A more focused and controlled application of Riveria's Rea Lavatein.

Winter's Breath: Stream of cold air that freezes over anything caught in it. Range, power and radius can all be controlled.

A more focused and controlled application of Riveria's Wynn Fimbulvetr.

Arcane Chains: Binds an opponent with chains of pure magic.

Created by referencing Tione's List Iorum.

Holy Ray: Beam of continuous light. Intensity, radius and trajectory can all be controlled.

Based on Lefiya's Arcs Ray.

Berserk: Massively increases all of the users abilities at the cost of reason and growing bloodlust. It has multiple ranks like basic abilities and both the beneficial and harmful effects as well as the cost increase with each additional rank.

An enhanced version of Finn's Hell Finegas with more power but also control. Although the Exceed skill granted Nox mental immunity, it unfortunately did not apply if the effect was brought about by his own magic, skills or curses.

Fairy's Blessing: Magic that creates a personal barrier that reduces damage taken by the user's from attacks as well as healing them to their full condition for a duration based on the amount of Mind channeled into the spell.

Based on Riveria's defensive and healing spells with a few tweaks.

(A/N: Just to clarify, the spell does not stop attacks, it only reduces the damage taken from them.)

Moving on to curses, Nox only developed three since curse users were unexpectedly hard to find.

Silentium: Prevents all targets in an area determined by the user from using magic or curses but the user can't use magic inside said area either.

Lassitude: Inflicts torpor on all targets in an area determined by the user but also affects the user if he is caught in it's range.

Blood Rouge: Enchant magic that applies a red aura with anti healing effect as well as profuse bleeding effect to the user's weapons. All of the user's attacks consume more stamina as a cost.

Satisfied with his achievements in magic and curse development, Nox noticed the sun peeking over the horizon and figured it was time to go. He headed straight to the Hephaestus Familia Home to talk to the goddess herself.

Loki had also given Nox the option of learning from the Goibniu Familia but as a man of culture, he went where beauties could be found and so he decisively chose the Hephaestus Familia.

When he arrived, Nox was led to Hephaestus' office by a member of the familia after he revealed his identity. Soon he was face to face with the red haired goddess and after she dismissed her subordinate, she greeted the boy.

"You must be Nox Lyros, the child from Loki's place. You probably know it already but I'm Hephaestus. Before your training starts, what is it that you hope to achieve by learning smithing?"

Hearing this, Nox fell into thought for a bit before answering.

"There are a couple of reasons . . . To make the most of my talents, to be able to create gear that perfectly suits me and finally, because I think that, together with my other skills, I could create something truly amazing!"

'Heeeh . . . I got to admit I wasn't expecting that. Then again it was quite surprising to get a request from Loki to train one of her children in blacksmithing. At first I thought she wanted to make her familia more self sufficient but it seems that isn't the case.' Hephaestus thought.

"Alright then! Unless you want something specific from me, I'll be handing you over to the captain of my familia, she is also the best smith so you'll be well cared for." She said.

Nox indeed had a personal request for the goddess but wasn't quite sure if he should ask . . .

'Hm . . . Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Let's at least give it a try. If she doesn't accept, I'll just ask again later.' He thought before making his request.

"Hephaestus-sama! May I see underneath your eyepatch?" Nox asked with a hopeful tone.

Surprised, Hephaestus covered her eyepatch with her hand while asking.

"W-Why is that?" Slightly flustered.

"I'm immensely curious!" Nox tsaid while thinking. 'And I want to see if I can comprehend even just a little from a curse capable of affecting even a goddess' true body in Heaven!'

Hephaestus was resisting but Nox kept pestering her with a cute smile while getting closer and closer, not letting the matter go until the goddess finally snapped.

"Fine! Since you want to see it so much . . ." She started as she suddenly took off the eyepatch. "Here it is!" But she suddenly regretted her impulse as she had her eyes closed not wanting to see Nox's reaction.

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Dreading the silence, Hephaestus opened her eyes to see a dazed Nox but just as she started fearing for the worst she her a word that truly stunned her.

"Beautiful . . ." The word slipped from Nox's mouth. His eyes glazed and his attention focused on the goddess' right eye.

To his magical senses, it was a truly beautiful and incomprehensible sight. A power, a curse far beyond mortal and even divine means. The indescribable sight hypnotized him until Hephaestus started covering it after recovering from her initial reaction.

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Just a little longer!" Nox begged as he held her arms to stop her from covering up making the goddess blush due to his actions.

"Just what's so interesting about my eye!?" She asked exasperated.

"Everything!" He answered in a loud voice shocking her.

"How long do you intend to stare?" She blushingly asked once again starting to feel greatly embarrassed and shy about their current situation.

"Just a couple more hours . . ." Said Nox without thinking.

This resulted in Hephaestus getting free and smacking him on the head before wearing her eyepatch making Nox look at her like a kicked puppy, making her feel sorry before she shouted for Tsubaki, the captain of her familia to come immediately and kicking out Nox from her office.

'Oops! Maybe I crossed one to many lines?' Nox thought to himself outside the room as Hephaestus talked with Tsubaki.

Nox was worried he might have been a little to forceful but he was dead wrong. Inside the goddesses office, Hephaestus was gushing with excitement as she blushingly blabbered about her meeting with Nox and praised him for all kinds of things to Tsubaki as she told her to be extremely thorough in her training of him and spare no effort, even saying she too would help.

Clearly Nox's reactions pleased the goddess to no end. It was a sudden falling in love for Hephaestus, although her long time friend Hestia was the only person who didn't feel hate, disgust or fear at the sight of her eye.

To see and hear someone praise it and call it beautiful to her face and without a shred of falsehood was an entirely different story.

As Tsubaki finished watching her goddess fangirling about someone she met today for the first time. She said to her.

"Well, Hephaestus-sama . . . That's truly great but I think we've made him wait outside for quite a while now." Tsubaki said causing Hephaestus to worry.

"You're right, You're right! You should start his lessons then!" Hephaestus replied.

"Don't you want to come along?" She asked.

"Nononono! My heart is not prepared for that yet! You go first!" The redheaded goddess sent Tsubaki ahead while blushing at the thought of seeing Nox again making her subordinate smile wryly until she rushed her to leave.

Tsubaki then left the office and closed the door behind her. In this long while Nox had also realized what truly happened to Hephaestus so he was no longer worrying and even complimenting his lady killing skill narcissitically inside his head.

"Okay then! Nox right? I'm Tsubaki Collbrande, I'll be teaching you the art of smithing!"

Tsubaki was a Level 5 Half Dwarf with brown skin, long black hair, red eyes, and wearing an eyepatch over her left eye, similar to her Goddess Hephaestus, however, hers covers the opposite eye. She had a well-endowed chest which she kept in a sarashi, and a red hakama and sandals.

"Nice to meet you Tsubaki-san! I look forward to your instruction!" Nox answered.

"Hahaha! No need to be so uptight! Just call me Tsubaki." Said the half dwarf as she led Nox to her workshop.

"So tell me why did you choose to learn from us? Your familia also has a nice relationship with the Goibniu Familia right?" She asked.

"The reason is simple Tsubaki . . ." Started Nox with a sagely look, making her raise an eyebrow.

"Being around drop dead beauties like you and Hephaestus-sama drastically increases my productivity!" He finished causing Tsubaki to bend over laughing.

"Hahahahaha! Thanks for the compliment! I like your honesty Nox. I think we'll get along very nicely." She said.

After that interlude, the serious training began. Despite her friendly demeanour, Tsubaki was a strict teacher and expected nothing but the best from Nox and was pleased to see he expected the very same from himself.

After they were done for the day, Tsubaki hugged Nox telling him he was very cute and that she loved his attitude today so he should keep it up.

Nox, not one to shy away from physical intimacy, hugged her back which she enjoyed. As he was leaving, Hephaestus who had recovered her composure came to say goodbye and that she looked forward to Nox's presence tomorrow, almost blushing at the last part.

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