Chapter 15 - Let's create some weapons. (Patreon)

POV: Third Person

An extremely vast rocky and arid area, about the size of a soccer field—so dark that it was impossible to see even one meter ahead. A place that looked as though it had been manually created by someone. Perhaps a god?

And this terrifying place was home to a creature.

The 60th floor of the Dungeon, a location unknown to adventurers. A massive, rocky, and humid floor, filled with gigantic creatures.

Yet despite the number of powerful monsters inhabiting that floor, none inspired more fear than the monster within that dark chamber—the monster that ruled that floor.

In the darkness, a monster was curled up, forming the pattern of a snail.

Its appearance was somewhat grotesque. A strange liquid seeped from between its scales.

A snake? A dragon?

How many meters long was this creature?

The creature remained there, lying in silence. It had been like that for months—something that could be called a period of hibernation. Suddenly, however, its eyes opened.

Its tail began to move, revealing its true form.

A black serpent, over twenty meters long.

A thick, intimidating body.

Enormous golden eyes, a mouth filled with sharp teeth. They were not like a serpent’s fangs, but rather like the teeth of a rabid dog. Venom dripped from both fangs—a deadly poison.

Just a single drop was enough to kill even a high-level adventurer.

Within the darkness, the serpent began to slither forward, shattering rocks along its path, using its tongue to sense the “presence” around it. Monsters that noticed it immediately began to flee, even though they themselves were strong.

They were afraid.

But despite their attempts to escape, none of them succeeded.

The serpent, despite its massive size, moved at incredible speed—agile and terrifying movements. And then, just one bite… a single bite was enough to paralyze and cause the flesh of any living being to “rot.”

This was one of the monsters never seen by adventurers of this world.

On the 61st floor, the 62nd floor, monsters—countless unknown monsters—began to grow restless for some unknown reason.

Was this the omen of a disaster?

And while monsters grew increasingly agitated and massacre after massacre occurred among them on the lower floors of the Dungeon, adventurers on the upper floors continued to hunt monsters that were well known and considered “weak.”

The strength of those adventurers was depressing.

That serpent alone would be enough to wipe out the majority of them.

####

POV: Eryk

When I woke up the next morning, Hephaestus was lying on my arm, sleeping peacefully. We had ended up having sex again before going to sleep last night, and then we both passed out.

We didn’t even take a bath before sleeping.

Because of that, the smell of sweat was quite strong—and not just sweat…

I slowly poked Hephaestus’s cheek. “Hey, it’s time to wake up. Come on, wake up~~”

I kept lightly poking her cheek, and after a while, she finally woke up.

The moment she did, she suddenly bit my finger. She took a few playful bites and then said, “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I slept really well. My lower back still hurts a bit from last night.”

“Liar.” Hephaestus tossed the blanket over my face and laughed. “Let’s get up. We need to take care of those orders. Let’s go to my forge room to get those two swords. Edit them to speed things up a bit.”

“I can create all the items. There’s no need to edit those swords.”

“But you said you were going to use them.”

“I’m going to keep those swords stored away as mementos. It’s been a long time since we worked together, so I want to keep them.”

“You can be pretty cute sometimes, you know?” Hephaestus’s face flushed slightly. “But what’s your limit again? Do you think you can create all the items?”

“Yes, no problem. But afterward I’ll need to rest for an entire day… I think. Sometimes I recover faster. I guess sex helps with that.”

“So your ‘fuel’ is sex? I guess I’ll have to have sex with you more often, then.”

“That would be great,” I said, then kissed her.

I caressed her face as we kissed. Our tongues intertwined in a deeply passionate kiss.

When our lips finally parted, Hephaestus said, “Let’s take a bath and get to work.”

“Alright.”

####

After breakfast, we went to the tower hand in hand. When we arrived at the shop, the staff were already busy attending to many customers. It was more crowded than before.

We went to Hephaestus’s room, and she picked up the documents containing the orders.

“Can you create everything now? Or do you want to take some breaks?”

After thinking for a moment, I replied, “I’ll create half now and the rest later. Give me the most difficult orders.”

“Alright. The most difficult ones are from the Freya Familia. A longsword, an axe, and a spear. All of them need to have fire-related abilities. Oh, and the axe needs to have a long-range attack ability.”

“A long-range attack ability on an axe?” My eyebrows rose. “That doesn’t make much sense, but since it’s a request from the Freya Familia, I won’t question it. The pay is always very good.”

“There are three orders from the Freya Familia, two from the Loki Familia, and three from the Takemikazuchi Familia.”

“Right, I remember now—eight weapons in total. I thought there were more. I think I can create everything now, but I’ll need to focus a bit.”

“Do you want me to leave and give you some space?”

“No need. I want you to stay here and give me your opinion on the weapons I create. First, let’s make that axe. Since it’s an axe, I should make its durability quite high, right?”

“Yes, but don’t overdo it.”

“Got it.”

I activated my skill, ‘Forge EX,’ and began the work.

It wasn’t as fun as forging things with my own hands—but it was still enjoyable.