Chapter 6: The Shop

"Good morning Heph! Just came by to let you know I'll be heading into the dungeon now." I say and quickly move to leave. However, before I can do so I hear her speak from behind her desk.

"Stop." she says. I slowly turn and look back at her to see her very unamused face. "Sit down, now." I let out a sigh as I move to one of the couches, knowing she's still mad about yesterday.

"Heph, I'm sorry okay? I know I shouldn't try to do more than what I can handle. I learned that lesson the hard way yesterday." I say, hoping it'll appease her anger.

"We'll see about that in time. . . but this isn't about that." she says, confusing me greatly.

"If it's not about what happened yesterday, then what is this about?" I ask, hoping for her to clear up my confusion.

"Your Sword Art Series, I need you to replicate all of the swords. Not too many, only 100 each. They're quality swords so we don't want to make too many of them otherwise it will drop the price by a lot." she says and I nod in understanding. I see, this is about that then. I guess I kind of forgot about it after getting distracted by the dungeon.

"Alright then, I can do it but I don't know if the replicated swords will be as good as the originals." I say and she gives me a smile.

"I've been thinking about that actually. According to the description of the skill, It's based on your knowledge of the weapon and it's crafting process. Since you're the one who made them, you should be able to replicate them perfectly. If it was someone else's creation on the other hand, that would be a very different story altogether." She says and it makes sense to me.

"Okay then, where are the weapons then? I left them with you right?" I ask and she nods before getting up.

"I have them stored in a warehouse in our Familia's workplaces on the east side of the city." she says as she walks towards the door.

I get up and fall in line behind her. We walk down to the ground floor and exit Babel before heading down the northeast road. About halfway down the road, we take a right onto a side street and soon we reach a point where nearly every building has smoke rising from it.

"This is the Hephaestus Familia's workplaces. Every building in this area is either a smithy or a warehouse." She says as she keeps leading me down some more streets. Eventually we come to the biggest warehouse I've seen in the area. After taking me to a small side door and leading me in, she starts to take me towards the back of the warehouse.

"This is my personal warehouse. I don't keep everything here though. It's not good to have all your important wares in one place just in case anyone has their eyes on them." She says and I roll my eyes. I doubt anyone is stupid enough to rob Hephaestus's personal warehouse. I see her glance at me as the corner of her lips rise at that thought.

Soon enough, we arrive to a table in the back corner of the warehouse with the five swords I made lying on top of it. She stops by the table and turns to look at me. I stare at her and she raises an eyebrow before tilting her head towards the table. Oh, she wants me to get started. I chuckle as I walk up to Elucidator, the first sword in the series and focus on using the replicate function of {Forge Library}.

A copy of Elucidator appears in my mind and I imagine it splitting into two. As I do so, the Elucidator in my hands starts glowing white for a moment before a second one appears. Hephaestus grabs the copy and starts to examine it closely, comparing it to the original.

"It seems I was correct, this duplicate is identical to the original. How about you? Do you feel a big drain on your mind?" she asks me.

"I felt it go down a little bit yes, but not too much. If they all use that amount to duplicate then I should be able to make the five-hundred swords but I'll be extremely tired afterwards." I say and I see her grin.

"Good." she says, making me smile wryly. I guess she really doesn't want me to go into the dungeon today.

I figure I should replicate the other four weapons once for each one to check if there is any difference in mind cost before going for the full five-hundred. It wouldn't be good to run out of mind halfway through after all. After doing so, I realize that there are certain factors in the cost of replication.

Size is one of them as Invaria cost a bit more than Lambent Light despite them being of comparable quality and material cost. Material cost is actually the second one. Both of the aforementioned weapons took less mind to replicate than Elucidator, Dark Repulser, and Fragrant Olive with Fragrant Olive and Elucidator costing the most.

This means that I won't be as tired as I thought I would be before. I still won't be good enough to go into the dungeon, but at least I won't have to get carried home. I shake my head and tell Hephaestus and for a moment I swear I can see disappointment on her face before it vanishes. I choose to believe I was seeing things and proceed to make the rest of the swords.

It took me a bit longer than I thought it would but I do finish everything eventually. Now there are one-hundred duplicates of each weapon lying in front of us. Not counting the originals of course. Hephaestus wants to keep them in case we need to make more in the future.

"before you leave, take off your shirt." Hephaestus says. I look at her in confusion but do as she says. She has me kneel down in front of her and starts updating my status. I don't know why but I'm sure she has a reason. After a bit she speaks up.

"Just like I thought. I noticed your magic stat upgraded even more than your endurance stat so I was suspicious but it makes sense now." she says as she hands me the sheet and I look at it.

[Name] - Heine

[Age] - 15

[Race] - Demi-God

[Level] - 1

[Strength] - F309

[Endurance] - F374

[Dexterity] - G213

[Agility] - G244

[Magic] - F398 -> E459

[Skills] - {Hammer of Hephaestus} - {Forge Library} - {Dimensional Storage} - {Armament Master} - {Demi-God}

[Magic] - {Divine Flame}

[Development Abilities] - {Divine Blacksmith}

"My magic stat went up by a lot!?" I ask in surprise.

"Indeed, you spent a lot of mind today replicating weapons so It's actually understandable. We didn't notice before since we didn't update your status after you made the weapons but that's why it went up so much. We can expect that stat to be the one that grows the fastest from now on." she says before continuing.

"At least, it better be that stat and not another one like endurance." she finished darkly. I chuckle in slight fear and understanding of her words before nodding. Her meaning can be summed up into four words.

'Get hit less often'

"Good, now I can get these set up in the new shop in the tower today with the sheathes I made to go with them. I can tell they'll start selling fast once someone discovers it." she says and I look at her choosing to ignore the fact that I forgot to make sheathes for the weapons. Good thing Hephaestus is here to take care of such things.

"New shop?" I ask and she pats me on the head making my cheeks turn red.

"Of course, my Little Hammer is more than good enough to have a shop dedicated to his own creations." she says and I go even redder in embarrassment. Having my own shop sounds nice though, so I'm happy about that.

"Thanks I guess. I do want to know though, what's my shop called?" I ask as a feeling of dread washes over me upon seeing the sinister grin that appears on her face at my question.

"Don't worry, you'll know soon enough. I'll get it set up today, though it might be a while before anyone buys anything from it." she says with a chuckle.

I have a bad feeling about this. . .

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"Hmmmm. . ." This shop hasn't restocked on goods yet. It's unusual since they're usually in by now. As I'm thinking about it, the owner comes out and see's me looking at the store window before coming up to me.

"Ms. Wallenstein, I know you like to buy supplies at my store often and I truly appreciate your patronage. I was sick recently and as such, I was unable to make enough to restock. Don't worry though, Everything will be in order tomorrow so I truly do hope you can return then." he says and I nod. If he was ill then there's nothing that can be done. I'll just come again tomorrow.

This was the last shop I had to go to today. With it being out of goods, I now have more time than I originally planned. I guess I can look around to see if I can find anything interesting around here.

I walk around the shops in Babel, looking through all kinds of armor and weapons. I also take a look at some other stores with rations and potions just in case something like what happened today occurs again in the future. I don't manage to find any that meet my requirements and have everything I need but I did see some interesting new armors.

I won't buy any now though since It's not something I really need at the moment but I will make a note of them so I can return in the future. After browsing for a bit more, I prepare to leave the tower and head back to the Twilight Manor when a new shop catches my attention.

I've never seen this shop before and it certainly wasn't here last week. I notice the sign and see it says that the shop just opened today. I really should head home but. . . one look wouldn't hurt. The shop might have some good items for sale, you truly can never know. I enter the shop and take a look around and have to pause in surprise at what I see. This shop is selling. . . five weapons. . .

That's different. I didn't think it was possible to open a shop with such little variety but perhaps the owner is only starting out. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt. I go to the first weapon I see and unsheathe it to examine it. This blade is actually quite good, It's appearance I don't like that much but I can admit the dark shine of the blade is enchanting.

Most importantly though, the blade is extremely well made. I can tell that in the hands of a competent adventurer, this weapon will make a big difference between success and defeat. The blade is a bit too much on the heavy side for me but it might be good for some of the lower level members of the Familia. I look at the name and see 'Elucidator'.

I move on the the second blade, once again unsheathing it, and am stunned by it's beauty. The aquamarine crystal like appearance of the sword draws me in but what surprises me is that the weapon is just as good as the last one, another masterwork. They can't all be like this. . . right? I quickly glance at the name and commit it to memory, 'Dark Repulser'.

I run over to the next one and unsheathe it before I instantly fall in love. A beautiful rapier is what lies in front of me right now. It's light, flexible, and durable. Perhaps this normally wouldn't be great for higher level adventurers, but I prefer going for the weak spots of monsters to kill them quickly while avoiding getting hit so It would be fine for me even at my current level of five. This weapon would be perfect for me to use if I didn't have Desperate. 'Lambent Light'. . . It's a beautiful name.

I firmly make the decision to buy it. Perhaps I can find the smith and ask them to make another rapier like it out of higher quality materials. If they do so, I know it will turn out better than even Desperate. It will be a huge step for me to become stronger. First though, I want to check the other two weapons as they might be as good as the first three.

The fourth weapon is a large violet two-handed sword that seems to be made with females in mind. That's good, not all heavy weapon users are male. I know Tiona would appreciate seeing something like this even if she doesn't need it. Now that I think about it, maybe the smith can make weapons for all of us. That would be wonderful and it would increase the Familia's overall strength by a lot.

I quickly run over to the last weapon and almost drop Lambent Light out of shock even before I unsheathe it. I pick it up and and pull it out only to have my shock deepen. The dazzling golden blade is mesmerizing and the flowers decorating the blade add a hint of elegance to it. This weapon seems like it was intended to be wielded by gods. The name of the blade, 'Fragrant Olive', is a good one as well.

I change my mind about buying just Lambent Light. I'll buy one of each and take them back to Loki. I'm sure she'll see the benefit in finding the smith who created the blades. I grab one of each of the other four weapons and make my way over to the counter. Behind it, sits a small Pallum with short black hair and green eyes.

"Hello, my name is Mina Crestfield of the Hephaestus Familia. Are you going to be purchasing those five weapons today?" she asks me. I nod my head and she quickly sums up the total.

"That'll be 28,000,000 Valis." She says and I do the mental math to check. 4,000,000 each for Lambent Light and Invaria, 5,000,000 for Dark Repulser, 6,000,000 for Elucidator, and 9,000,000 Fragrant Olive. I'm curious why Fragrant Olive is so much more expensive than Elucidator despite it being roughly the same in terms of quality and performance. Even though I will admit it's beautiful, It can't be the appearance, right?

Either way, normally these weapons would be quite a bit more expensive but they're intended to be sold in large quantities and aren't unique. They're also intended for lower level adventurers and while Level 1 adventurers typically cant afford this, they are still weapons made by Hephaestus Familia. It's more than just about the weapon.

I hand over the money and quickly run out of the store with the weapons in hand. Once outside I stop for a moment and turn around to check the name of the store so I can tell Loki later.

"Little Hammer Shop" a cute name. . . I'll remember this. . .