Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

New friend

The goddess thanked me for my actions before leaving to grieve more privately and I just watched her go.

"Wipe that look off your face lad! You've done what was good and proper and should be proud of it!" A gruff voice said as I felt a heavy hand pat me on the back.

Looking at the source of the voice I found a dark skinned dwarf man with heavy armor and a wide toothy grin. 

"Hroldar, Ogun familia!" the dwarf introduced himself while holding out a hand.

"Alexander Drake, Hestia familia but I go by Alex." I said shaking the hand. 

It was rough and calloused but Hroldar clearly held back his strength since the shake was firm but not harsh. 

"Well met Alex! It is good to find that this city has upcoming adventurers who've got their heart in the right place. Nothing wrong with a bit of glory or wealth but those should always come after what is right." Hroldar said with a smile.

"How'd you know I was an upcoming adventurer?" I asked curiously.

"Your gear lad, no offense but it's sorely lacking for anything other than the first few floors. Not to mention how you acted with that goddess there, a vet would be calmer. It's a sad thing to come across but anyone's whos been at this long enough has been in the same spot once or twice. Now lets get you to the guild to turn in your loot, good deeds rarely keep the belly filled by themselves aye?" he said with a smile and we headed over to the guild.

When we were done Hroldar was looking at me oddly as I walked out of the guild with a total of three thousand seven hundred valis more than I walked in with.

"Be honest with me lad, you got a skill that increases drop rate for you? It's not unheard of but it's not exact common either." Hroldar asked curiously.

I shook my head "Nah I've got no skill like that." I said honestly.

'I should probably start holding back some of the drops I harvest to prevent suspicions from building.' I thought seriously.

"Musta just been real lucky then to get so many teeth. Most goblins only drop three or four if any at all." Hroldar said not doubting me at all.

"I don't know, maybe it's my just deserts after the shit luck I had yesterday." I joked and he raised an eyebrow.

"I delved for the first time yesterday and I shit you not I came across a variant goblin that looked like it had just evolved. Some asshole was probably killing goblins on their way further down and left the stones behind. Anyways this goblin was as tall as me and had this pale skin with red eyes and long fangs..." I told my tale with great enthusiasm leaving out how I killed it since that would reveal my technique.

"You're right that is some shit luck. From the sounds of it though that variant was a fresh one so you might be onto something with that idea someone killed the goblins on the way down and didn't grab the stones. Guild'll slap a hefty fine on anyone reported doing it more than once but theres always a few who do it anyways. Buncha selfish fools in my opinion." Hroldar said spitting on the ground in disdain.

"Alex! Please come in and have a seat!" Syr said with a smile as we arrived at the hostess.

"Not today I'm afraid, gotta save up you see. I just came to drop off the container for the meal you made me is all. A bit of advice from someone's whos had to learn how to cook before, taste the food you are cooking before and after adding salt or seasonings. It'll help you determine if you need more or it's just fine as is." I said while handing over the lunch container with a smile.

Syr seemed to deflate when I said I wasn't going to stay but paid close attention to the advice I gave her and told me she'd remember it for the future.

"Shame you'll not be staying Alex, would've loved to share a pint as we got to chattin." Hroldar said with a grin before wishing me well and heading into the restaurant himself.

I on the other hand went to the Blue pharmacy to drop off my empty vials and replace the potions for tomorrow and my practice at the church. Once I got back to the church I wasted no time at all grabbing one of my undetailed figurines and began to shape it and form the fine stuff. This one was a Pallum based fairy with long smooth hair and dragonfly wings holding a pair of small curved blades in an attacking pose.-

The wings were the trickiest part as a dragonflies wings have a lot of small details to them. I was getting good at this process and was quickly starting to become more efficient with my energy usage as I worked. Surprisingly I only needed a single potion to complete the figurine this time and even had a little cursed energy to spare. The potions were getting less and less effective however as my reserve grew to match my magic stat at every moment in a slow but continuous process.-

If the growth followed the same speed as my previous updates the growth would reach my current status in another three days or so. Still I had another potion set aside for practice and waited for my reserve to refill before downing the potion and working on refining the sword I got from the variant as the material was surprisingly hard to refine. So far I had gotten the rust off of it and had barely improved the blades hardness and durability. Don't get me wrong though the blade put any steel weapon in this city to shame by quite a lot.-

I was tempted to transform the thing into my own weapon type or at least fuse the metal into my weapon but that felt wasteful to me for some reason. I couldn't even begin to tell you why but it was just a gut feeling I had and I tended to listen to those. So here I was instead making the already good blade even more exceptional by burning through my cursed energy like rocket fuel. The design of the sword wasn't anything special but a single glance at the thing was enough to tell anyone that it was far beyond normal blades.-

'I wonder if I could add a cursed attribute to the thing and turn it into a cursed tool?' I had this sudden thought and it consumed my mind. 

'What makes a cursed tool a cursed tool? Is it just the ability to house cursed energy on it's own or does it need a technique or restriction carved into it?' I pondered seriously as I closed my eyes and let my cursed energy flow along the blade and try to penetrate it.