Vol. 1 Chapter 23

~ I decided to make my own weapon ~★

Translated by Raizu
Edited by Mirp

[I’m beat.]

I finally finished making the blade of the weapon that Sondark requested, and I fell to my side.
I didn’t feel like doing anything anymore. No more spears, no more spears.

[Taichi-san, you can do it! Ah, I’ve got a fatigue recovery potion here! Drink up!]

[Stop! You’re going to force me to drink something again! Like an erotic doujin! Like an erotic doujin!]

Marl mounted me as I fell to my side and tried to shove a small bottle containing a glowing yellow liquid into my mouth.
I desperately resisted. Mabel, who appeared at some point, was helping Marl. Mabel’s eyes were fixed as she tried to hold me down as I resisted! Scary!
Stop it! Get your hands off me! Let! Me! Go!

[Gaboboaba.]

Recently, Marl had been using me as a test subject――no, as a disposal site for new potions.
I did say that, but poison won’t work on me. So whatever stuff Marl made me drink, it wouldn’t affect me adversely.
Even so, could you please stop using me to test potions that were effective but had strong side effects?
I’m not a potion waste disposal machine…

[Look! Do you feel 100 times more energetic? Do you?]

[It certainly feels that exhaustion has unnaturally ebbing away, but… what kind of side effect does this potion have?]

I broke free from the loosened restraints and stood back up. It felt as if my stiff back, shoulders, and even my arms had been carefully massaged.
Mabel, why are you looking sad? Don’t tell me you’ve really awakened to that side?

[Nothing too bad, just a little addictive!]

[Isn’t that just like a drug! Hey, isn’t that a drug!?]

Marl’s unapologetically uttered words made me feel like I was going to regress. I felt like my treatment was getting more and more sloppy, or rather, it’s becoming less merciful.

[Well, but look at this guy. I did my best, didn’t I?]

[Yes, indeed.]

In one corner of the smithy, blades were neatly stacked in wooden boxes.
The saber blade, long sword blade, short sword blade, and spear tips were each packed in a box for easy transport.
The blade of the short swords could also be used for large spears by attaching it to the tip of the spear handle with some processing.
The tip of the spear could be used for short spears, long spears, or even longer pikes.
Spears were probably the most common weapon used by infantry, who made up the majority of the nation’s military strength, so I made the most of them.
I think I made nearly 1000 spear tips. If possible, I don’t want to make more for a while.
I’m gonna make someone’s wallet cry since they’re going to buy all that from me. I’ll be swimming in a sea of gold coins that fill the entire room in no time at this rate.
Well, Sondark, or rather, the Karendil Kingdom was in a good mood after selling the weapons I made to other countries. I could almost hear their loud laughter from here.
Recently, my reputation in the military seemed to be increasing due to my devising of sabers and giving them priority to high-quality weapons. At the very least, it seemed that there was no longer any force that would openly try to eliminate me.
Apparently, the people who tried to get rid of me were some of the most powerful people in the military. Thanks to the gift of high-quality mithril weapons, they seemingly forgot their grudge. Humans were so simple!

[And that’s that. I think it’s time to strengthen myself and Marl.]

It’s been almost 20 days since I received a message from that one-that-must-not-be-named. There was only a little over a month left.
My current level was 20, and Marl’s was 11.
Honestly, if it’s just me fighting, I don’t think there’s much to worry about. That’s how strong I am as an individual.
The problem is Marl. I didn’t intend to have her fight on the front lines like I do, and it probably wouldn’t happen from an outside perspective, but just in case.
After all, leveling up Marl and strengthening her equipment would be essential. Of course, something might happen to me too, so I should strengthen myself too.

[The first thing we can do right away is strengthen our equipment. We will make more powerful weapons for me and Marl]

[Um, but I already have this from Taichi-san.]

Marl said so and gently stroked the mithril dagger hanging from her waist.
Umu, I want you to use the dagger that I gave you.

[I know. That’s why, if Marl is alright with it, I’d like to use that dagger as a material and reforge it into a new one.]

[I see… Yes, I understand. Please do!]

[Leave it to me. Do you have any particular request?]

I took the mithril dagger that Marl gave me and looked at its blade.
Although not as good as I was now, the craftsman who made this was also good.

[Um, yes. I’d like the blade to be a little longer… but then it wouldn’t be a dagger anymore.]

That’s true.
Proposals in this world are only made possible by gifting a mithril dagger, so for some reason I hesitated to reforge it into a long sword.
However, we had a great flood in our hands. I didn’t want to regret things if it became an irreversible situation.

[Alright, then I’ll reforge it into a new dagger. I’ll just forge another sword for Marl. Somewhere longer than this dagger, right?]

[Yes! Please do just that!]

Marl had a big smile on her face. Hahaha, I feel like this smile gave me more energy than those dubious potions.
Now then, I took a close look at Marl’s dagger that I received. Let’s burn this fine decoration into our eyes. The current me should be able to reproduce it perfectly. I can! I can! I can do it! Yosh.
In fact, the metal called mithril could be given special effects by adding attribute magic during refining and forging. It became a so-called magic item.
For example, like Marl’s dagger, if you put wind magic into it, you could reduce the weight and increase the user’s agility.
And mithril’s color could also be changed. For example, the dagger had been enchanted with wind magic, giving it a faint green luster.
The dagger was single-edged with a slight curve. It’s not as curved as a saber, so it’ll be wrong to call it a curved sword. But it’s something close to it.
I disassembled the dagger and removed the blade from the hilt. The name of the swordsmith who forged this short sword was carved there. Let’s engrave that name in my heart.
Then, I put it in a smelting furnace, add mithril ore, and use my magic power to turn it into an ingot.

Then, hit.
Hit it over and over again to put in magic power and soul.
This was for Marl’s protection. So I had to do it with great care.
Thus what came out was a masterpiece that still retained the dagger’s original’s appearance, but contained stronger magic power.
Let’s check it out with the appraisal eye.
Weapon weight reduction, user speed increase, and wind attribute added. The effect was stronger than before. Of course, its quality was『Transcendent』.
Then I carved the name of the original creator and added that I’d reforged it. The decoration of the blade was also the same as the original.
I put it back into the original hilt, adjusted it, and it’s done.
It fit in the scabbard without any problem. As expected of a level 5 in smithing. The level wasn’t just for show.

Then I started forging a longsword for Marl.
Let’s make it with a similar design to match the dagger.
Well of course, the blade would be longer, with more curvature, increased cutting power, while making the tip a little wider and double-edged to increase piercing power… yeah, like a cutlass.
The blade was decorated in the same way as the dagger, making it look a little more gorgeous. I should add a knuckle guard too. OK, I had the image.
I hammered it the same way as I did with the dagger earlier.
Strongly yet delicately.
To maintain sword speed and obtain high cutting power.
Then focusing on making the tip of the blade.

And that’s it. I’m so good at this.
I imagined it’ll be cool to dual wield this sword and the dagger together.
Though, it’s Marl, so she might end up cutting herself up.

[Yosh, it’s done.]

It seemed that Marl was watching over me the whole time.
She received the two newly forged blades with a curious expression, and put them on her waist.
Then, she drew them out one by one, squinting her eyes as she checked the blade and swinging it a little.
The dagger was lighter than before. The cutlass had a long blade and fairly wide width. It should be about the same weight as the short sword she’s been using until now.

[It’s beautiful… Thank you very much! Taichi-san!]

Saying that, Marl smiled with a cutlass in her hand. Yeah, she’s cute, but the entire picture is scary.
She then happily said [I’m going to practice in the backyard!].
I guess she wanted to see how the new sword felt. Being enthusiastic was always good.
Now then, let’s make my own weapon.
What should I do? The sword can simply be reforged, but the problem was the material used for the battle staff.
Naturally, mithril was a choice material considering its toughness and lightness, but its performance was still unsatisfactory.
It still lost to Black Steel in terms of physical strength, and lost to Crystal in terms of magic power amplification.
However, black steel was hopelessly incompatible with magic, and crystals were vulnerable to shocks, so they couldn’t be used as striking weapons even if they’re made into blades.
Orichalcum was completely superior to Mithril. If I dared to say it, the only drawback was that it’s considerably heavier than Mithril.
I don’t know… it’s like knowing already which one is the strongest, which makes it less interesting. How can I say it? There was no elegance nor art in it. But this wasn’t for a hobby.
Rather, my life was at stake, so I can’t turn my back on it.
No, wait? How about making an alloy of orichalcum and mithril?
Using 2 mithril to 1 orichalcum, wouldn’t it be possible to obtain an alloy with the toughness of orichalcum and the lightness of Mithril to some extent?
Let’s stop theorizing and just try it out.

So, I immediately put the mithril and orichalcum ore into the smelting furnace and tried to smelt it.
It was my first attempt, but the blacksmithing skill level 5 did the job. After a complicated procedure and precise temperature control, the mithril-orihalcum alloy was completed.

When I looked at the completed ingot with an appraisal eye, it was displayed as 『Godsilver ingot』.
Oho, quite a good name for an alloy. I believe Orichalcum is also known as Divine metal, while Mithril is also called silver. I guess that’s where the name ‘Godsilver’ came from.
For the time being, I put magic into the ingot, heated it and hammered it to find out its toughness, hardness, weight, lightness, and magical properties.
Judging from the results, it was slightly heavier than Mithril, had improved toughness and hardness, and although it was not as strong as Orichalcum in terms of magical properties, it could store much more magic power than Mithril.
This was like the best material to make a staff. Okay, let’s make more of it and start making something!
Thus I started mass-producing the Godsilver ingots. Anyway, since I decided to reforge the sword with the alloy, I used my mithril sword as ingot material.
In the end, I only used it to dismantle the big hornet’s nest. I’m a little sorry, but please forgive me.

So I hammered away at the Godsilver. Hammer, and hammer away.
It’s harder than Mithril, but it’s much easier to handle than Orichalcum or Crystal.
Orichalcum was very hard and didn’t stretch easily, so it’s quite annoying since I had to hammer it more than anything else.
On the other hand, Crystal would shatter if you make a mistake in adjusting the temperature or hammering strength. It’s a material that required extreme care.
In comparison, Godsilver was a straightforward and easy-to-use material. However, it would be difficult for anyone other than me to make it because the method and temperature control when making it into an alloy would be difficult to replicate.
Both ends of the staff were slightly larger and used as the striking part. If you use a metal stick as is, your hand would go numb when you hit a hard object.
However, even though it’s done in the combat department, it’s a bit plain. Should I carve some decorations? Let’s refer to Marl’s sword.

[Done!]

I took a look at the Godsilver staff with the appraisal eye. Of course, the quality was『Transcendent』, its name was Godsilver staff, and there was no twist. It’s more like a Mithril Constaff. No, just kidding.
When I was thinking about that, the name that appeared as Godsilver staff became Mithril Constaff. Eh, that’s interesting.
Eternal Force Staff sounds awesome. No wait, please don’t. Forget that.
When I thought so, the name returned to Godsilver staff.
When I tried it with other things, I found out that I could change the name of the thing I made.
I see, but honestly it’s kind of weird because it’s something that only someone with the Appraisal eye skill can understand.

Alright, let’s make a sword next. Actually, I had a good idea for the sword.
The『core』of the sword would be made from Crystal, while everything else from Godsilver alloy.
At first, I was thinking of using Orichalcum, but I actually decided against it because the processing was extremely troublesome.
Godsilver alloy, on the other hand, was relatively easy to process. Plus I could expect that the results would be pretty strong. So I decided to go with that.
So, I started by making the Crystal core first.

Crystal was a mysterious substance that combined the properties of glass and metal.
It melted at high temperatures, just like glass, but it was much tougher than glass and could be hammered. I don’t know why, but I can.
So, when it cooled down, it became transparent like glass, but the more it was tempered, the more it turned blue when it cooled down. And the bluer it became, the higher the efficiency of magic power amplification.
That’s why it needed to be hammered often. However, if you applied too much force, it would shatter and become useless. So you needed to pay close attention when processing it.
Once the『sword core』was created, it was time to forge the Godsilver that made up the blade.
This process was more difficult than I thought. After all, it was necessary to cover it completely without any gaps.
If there was any gap, it would fall apart. Even the slightest deviation was not allowed.

After repeated trial and error, it was finally completed.

Even with Smithing lvl 5, it still required repeated trial and error… My ideas can be scary sometimes.
The result was a sword with a transparent blue core and a white silver blade.
The handle was slightly longer so that it could be handled with one hand or both hands, making the length including the blade about 130 cm. It’s a so-called one-and-half-sword.

However, if it performed as I expected, this sword should have considerable power.
When magic power passed from the hilt to the crystal sword core, amplification would begin. The amplified magical power would then be stored in the Godsilver blade, allowing it to fire more powerful magical attacks.
Of course, it also had the ability to act as a magic catalyst, so if I used it to cast magic, its power would be greatly amplified.
The problem was that I didn’t know how powerful it was, so I couldn’t carelessly use it in the city.
What if I accidentally cut the neighbor’s house diagonally in half because I used more power than necessary? Not only my eyes, but my wallet will probably cry!
Alright, let’s name this sword. It’s outrageous that a sword that smelled like a middle schooler’s dream would have a normal name.
Hmm, what would it be then? A cool name like Excalibur or Stormbringer sounded good.
Ah, but wait. I don’t know how powerful it was yet, so let’s refrain from giving it a name just yet. If I gave it an exaggerated name only to find out that it’s shabby, it’d be a black stain in my history.
Come to think of it, Zondark asked me to go out with the Knights to subjugate monsters soon. OK, let’s test it there.

=========

[Wow! What is that sword! It’s beautiful!]

When I went to the backyard with the bonded sword (provisional) in hand, Marl noticed it and rushed over.
It seems that she’d been practicing swordsmanship ever since then. Her cheeks were puffed up and her breathing was a bit labored.
Looking around, Fram was in the corner of the backyard.

[Fram-san said that she wanted to have a look at my swordsmanship!]

I see. Now that I think about it, Fram’s Sword Mastery was at level 3. Perhaps after seeing Marl flail her sword around, she decided to coach her a bit.
Fram bowed her head silently at my gaze. I responded with a nod.

[Well, this sword is something I made based on my ideas. I’m here to give it a little swing.]

Saying that, I make a practice swing with Marl.
It’s comfortable to swing. The quality was also『Transcendent』, so the balance of the blade and whatnot was perfect.
As a test, I tried to pass a little amount of magic power through it, but it was amplified more than I imagined and the magic power was successfully stored in the blade.
I wonder what will happen if I send magic at full power. It’s a little scary to wield in the city after all.
Afterward, Marl and I exchanged some blows with wooden swords in a mock battle.
Marl seemed to be trying to dual wield, as she boldly attacked with wooden swords in both hands.
It wasn’t quite there yet. At her current level, she would be stronger to attack with only one sword.

[Marl-sama has just learned the basics, so it’s better to safe that until after learning a little more about swordsmanship]

[I think so too, frankly, it’s stronger to attack with only one sword.]

[Mugugu, I know.]

Marl nodded in frustration at Fram’s and my advice.
That said, it didn’t seem like she’s giving up. I think it’s good to have a desire to improve.
After that, I washed off my sweat in the bath with Marl, and had dinner.
Today’s meal was white rice, steak, and egg soup with kombu dashi. The food really went well. Rice was still good.

At night, I finally had Marl wear the dancer costume that I had gotten some time ago.
As expected, it was good. Marl’s embarrassed expression was also a plus. Really more erotic than fully naked.
Taking it off would be outrageous. So I played around and enjoyed it while the costume was on.

It was really, really good.
Unfortunately, I lost consciousness at the end.

The next day, when I checked Marl’s status, her Primordial Magic had been raised to level 2. I guess that was the reason?

============

Three days later, I went on a joint monster subjugation with the knights.
I’m not trying to be humble, but I’d never ridden a horse. I didn’t have the lofty hobby of horseback riding.
It seemed that horses were used for transportation during the subjugation. If you couldn’t ride a horse, you had no choice but to sit behind a knight.
Marl had horseback riding experience, but not enough to handle war horses. Therefore, Marl would have no choice but to sit behind a knight.
I wouldn’t have that of course. So I used the few skill points I had left to raise my equestrian level to 2. I now only had 1 skill point left.

[Taichi-san, you said you’ve never ridden one, but you’re really good at it!]

[Hahahaha! Nothing is impossible for me!]

As a matter of fact, horses were useful not only for showing off, but also as a means of transportation, so I was planning on picking up the equestrian skills sooner or later.
Things just took a faster turn. Yeah. It’s not like I didn’t want to see Marl hugging a random knight’s waist.

Now then, let’s leave the nonsense out.
We’re heading towards the orc village now.
Orcs were humanoid pig monsters with pig-like faces and plump bodies.
In this world, there was a race called beastkin, but these orcs were different from beastkin.
They cannot be communicated with at all, and attacked and looted human settlements in groups. It was not uncommon for them to raid wandering traders and caravans like bandits.
Also, they often used female humans to reproduce. The odds of producing female orcs were very low.
Overall, they were much stronger and tougher than goblins, so it was difficult even for seasoned adventurers to crush the village.

[That’s basically what orcs are.]

[Do they have any weaknesses?]

[I can’t say it’s weak to anything in particular. Well, magic in general seems to work well!]

While talking like that, we headed to the basin where the orc village was located.
It seems that there used to be a town in this basin, but it was destroyed in the previous great flooding. Orcs used the destroyed city as a base to cause damage to the surrounding area.
Until now, it had only been active sporadically, and it seems that it was somehow managed by the activities of the knights, soldiers, and adventurers stationed in the surrounding villages and towns, but recently it was reported that their activity had become more active. .
With the great flooding imminent, the knights were dispatched to exterminate them all at once.

[Hero-dono, we will be arriving at the camp soon.]

[Got it.]

A knight came running from the front and told me so.
They planned to spend the night at the camp today and arrive at the orc village around noon the next day to attack.
Once we arrived at the camp, let’s use the barrier magic to cover the entire camp. I should be able to manage even if I expand it a bit. I haven’t used much magic today.

[What do you see?]

[Well, I haven’t seen him swing the sword yet, so I can’t judge.]

[The new sword was said to have been made by that Hero.]

[It’s certainly a work that can’t be compared to the swords I’ve seen so far. However, it’s still unknown how much power he has as a Hero.]

[We’ll see tomorrow.]