Chapter 22: Chapter 10.1

There were two main craftsman familia in Orario, the Hephaestus and the Goibniu familia.

 

From what I understood Hephaestus familia specialized in mass produced goods. Each one would still be worked on by a master smith but they'd fill a set of requirements and nothing more, if you wanted 20 swords of the same model you went to Hephaestus.

 

Unfortunately that meant that, if you wanted only one item, it was going to be far more expensive since you wouldn’t get any discount.

 

The other side of the equation was the Goibniu familia, instead of competing with Hephaestus Goibniu focused on single, custom made gear which was also incredibly expensive.

 

That's not to say that a blacksmith from Hephaestus couldn't take a personal request for a unique weapon or that one from Goibniu couldn't make 100 sets of the same armor, just that it was not their familia specialty.

 

Unfortunately that meant that I barely had enough money to buy equipment made as training for their apprentice Smiths, those were always second or even third rate and prone to failure.

 

Approaching Babel I started thinking about what kind of weapon I should buy, a sword was cool and provided a balanced way of fighting but it was not necessarily the best thing to use against large or armored monsters.

 

If there was one thing I learned when delving the dungeon and watching other adventurers is that swords were made to fight humanoids.

 

More specifically unarmored humanoids.

 

My own sword had done a wonderful job until now but I was already starting to feel its limits.

 

It just didn't have the weight or the strength necessary to deal with killer ants.

 

The ideal would be to have a weapon for every situation, a polearm for the longer range, a mace or spike for armored foes, a ranged option and a sword to carry around in the city without much trouble.

 

From what I had seen, usually an adventurer would chose a weapon and then spend the time and effort necessary to train with it until he could overcome such difficulties and have allies to fill in When needed.

 

They just didn’t have the time to get good enough with every weapon so they’d become such good swordsman or have such sharp sword that armor was no longer as effective against it.

 

I had a major advantage over them. My eyes made acquiring the skills necessary to use them all a possibility.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't have a convenient inventory system to carry it all. Or the money to buy them now that I thought about it.

 

Wait, was Welf already in Orario? I had no idea when he came to the city but damn if I wasn't gonna try for one of his gears.

 

He may still be low level but his gear should still be of higher quality and trustworthy enough.

 

Walking inside Babel I browsed the shops a little but everything they put on display was far too expensive for me, or looked far too ridiculous.

 

I mean, a sword made from monster bone filled with spikes and bigger than me was cool in a game but it was terrible to use, the handle would hurt my hand and would require a dozen times the usual skill just to keep one of the spikes from piercing the user when waving it around.

 

Damn, I had long since left my mal ninja phase I refuse to wield such ridiculous gear.

 

Hephaestus familia’s shop was on the eight floor of Babel. Entering the shop I noticed there were many higher level adventurers browsing the shop.

Most of the gear on display was far more conservative than in other shops, armor and swords that wouldn’t be out of place in medieval times on my original world instead of chainmail bikinis and overblown edgy weapons.

Seeing as every clerk was currently busy I approached a beautiful but average looking sword, it was a beautiful piece with a Damascus like pattern and I almost couldn’t stop myself from touching it, then I saw the price and sucked in a breath.

12 million valis for a durandal enhanced arming sword. It was the cheapest sword there.

29 million for gauntlets that caused small explosions on impact, 75 millions for a halberd capable of channeling the user’s magic into a wind edge.

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“Can I help you” a cute pallum clerk asked me.

“Ah, I’m starting to think not” I grimaced and sighed.

“Ah I see,  Don’t worry the weapons on display in front of the shop are usually our best work and reserved for first class adventurers” the little pallum lead me further inside the shop “we have Much better prices for level 1 and 2 gear inside”

“Thanks” I nodded and then decided to ask “Say, is Welf Crozzo part of Hephaestus familia”

“Crozzo, Ah the familia does have a Crozzo but he’s still just an apprentice blacksmith sir, his crafting still hasn’t hit the level of quality required to be sold in the shop, just a moment.” the guy quickly checked something behind the counter and returned “Crozzo-san is currently working on the smithy if you wish to speak with him sir”

“I see, I think I’m gonna browse some of the lower level gears before if that’s fine?”

“As you wish”

Walking inside the giant shop I quickly found a far less fancy part of the store filled with average gear of all shapes and sizes, everything still looked great but it no longer had any enhancement and seemed to have lost some kind of shine.

“The weapons here are mostly made from normal metals with just enough dungeon material to withstand the monsters inside, don’t worry they’re all made by a blacksmith of at least level 2, if you like anything just bring it over to the counter” with that the clerk bowed to me and started to return to the front entrance.

“Thanks.”

Most gear here ranged from 10k to 20k valis and still looked absolutely beautiful, I couldn’t help but touch a few of the weapons, while my own sword and armor looked mass produced each piece of equipment here was clearly worked on by hand and most had patterns on the metal made from creating the alloy necessary to survive the dungeon influence.

Finding the smithy was easy I just needed to follow the sound of hammers hitting metal. Welf himself was also pretty easy to find, the youngest smith currently working he was also one of the tallest despite looking much younger than even me.

I caught him as he was using the forge to create metal ingots, I watched him pour the molten metal into a mold and wipe his sweating forehead with an arm without interrupting.

“Hey, are you Welf Crozzo?” I waved and tried to catch his attention

The guy just frowned at me and threw his equipment on top of a table “Tsk, No”

“What?”

“No, I won’t be making any magic swords, get out”

Ah damn, I guess he’d think that since I was a total stranger actually looking for him still, his ranting at me was starting to piss me off.

“Look I just...”

“Godsdamnit I keep telling you guys I don’t make magic swords!” he punched the table rattling everything on top of it and hitting the still hot blacksmith tongs sending them flying towards me “I don’t make them, I don’t sell them I definitely don’t use them leave me alone.”

Jumping aside as the sizzling metal hit the floor I felt a vein starting to throb at my forehead “Shut up! I’m not here for magic swords damn it”

 

“Ah...’

A few seconds later Welf had managed lock up everything away and let the ingot cool down, sitting at a corner of the smithy he scratched at the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Ah, sorry about that, it’s just that some assholes have been bothering me lately and I lost my temper”

I was still kind of annoyed at the guy but what the hell, he was one of the few people from danmachi I was fairly sure was trustworthy, plus he was still fairly Young so I’d give him a break.

“No, its fine”

“So, what do you want? If it’s not about those damn magic swords very few people actually come looking for me.”

“Alright kid, I’m new to the city and kind of need help from a good blacksmith, someone told me you’re trustworthy so I came to take a look, I have no interest in a magic sword right now” I stopped, that wasn’t exactly right, having a magic sword would be awesome so I amended “mostly because I’m pretty sure I don’t have that kind of Money”

“Heh,” kinda old to become a new adventurer aren’t you”

“Shut up brat, I’ll have you know this is a perfectly reasonable age to start risking my life thank you very much”

“Alright then, I finished my quota of ingots anyway what do you need?”

“I’m looking to buy a good spear for larger monsters and a Hammer to fight against armor, I also want a blacksmith to look at my sword and armor since they have started to accumulate damage and I don’t really know how to maintain them”

“Hmmm, and you came to me to work this out? I’m just a level 1 apprentice you know I can’t even put the Hephaestus seal on my products” he asked me suspiciously.

“Who else, you think a master blacksmith is gonna take time to help me chose some good weapons or teach me how to take care of them? I’m willing to pay you”

“Right, hmmmm, you know what, how about we make a deal?” he scratched at his chin and took a peek at my sheathed sword “I’ll look at your armor and sword and also teach you to do their maintenance; in exchange you start buying the weapons from me”

I thought about it, in two years Welf would probably become a good blacksmith but there was no way to know how good he was right now.

“Look I know I’m still an apprentice and Hephaestus doesn’t allow me to sell my gear in her store yet but I’ll charge almost half what you’d have to pay in the store and my gear is good I promise you”

"You need money or something kid?"

 

"Ah, well Hephaestus-sama is getting annoyed with the amount of materials I use for smiting without selling anything" he confessed a little embarrassed "It's not that my gear has low quality but nobody comes to Hephaestus to buy from a level one and other shops keep asking for magic swords you know"

"Look I'm not asking for an exclusivity contract or something it's just a simple exchange of favors and money and, if you like my work, you can come back for more later alright?"

 

It was about what I wanted anyway so I had no reason to deny it, we shook on it.