Chapter 122
Ch 122 -- Divine Protection of the God of War and the God of Blacksmiths
Next morning after we ate breakfast I told Fer, Sui and Dora-chan what had happened the night before.
"So to sum it up, Fer and Dora-chan received the protection of the God of War Vulcan-sama and Sui got the protection of the God of Blacksmiths Hephaestus-sama."
Well, they hadn't exactly 'received' the blessings, I had dumped them on my contracted monsters instead. My excuse was that such blessings would have been too much for me to cope with and I already had Wind Goddess Ninril-sama's blessing (small) to deal with and that was quite enough for me, thank you.
The God of War's blessing, well I'm no battle maniac despite Fer's best attempts to teach me how to fight by dragging me into Goblin villages and dungeons full of Kobolds. I'll quite happily leave any fighting like that up to Fer, thank you. He seems to enjoy it anyway so that's why I passed on that live hand-grenade of a blessing to Fer and Dora-chan.
"Really?! I've been given the God of War's divine blessing? That's totally cool, woohoo!" Dora-chan appeared to be pleased with the outcome of last night's negotiations, flying around in circles and performing aerobatics like a miniature stunt plane.
"The War God's protection?" Fer mused. "That sounds pretty good to me. Well done, you." He seemed more than satisfied with the blessing he had received too.
As for the blessing of the God of Blacksmiths, I've never been very handy making things (other than food, of course). At the time I named Sui to receive that blessing in a bit of a panic but now I was worried if I had done the right thing. Would it hurt Sui somehow maybe?
"Blacksmith God's protection-?" Sai said tentatively. "I got a blessing from the Water Goddess and Water magic. What can I do now, aruji-?" Sui seemed intrigued as to what she could do with that particular blessing but I couldn't really help her.
"To start with I'll Appraise everyone and confirm the blessings." I announced.
I started with Fer since he was my first contracted monster and the largest and greediest and- anyway, lessee.
[ Name ] Fer
[ Age ] 1014
[ Type ] Fenrir
[ Level ] 910
[ Stamina ] 9877
[ Magic Power ] 9523
[ Attack Power ] 9106
[ Defence Power ] 9807
[ Agility ] 9726
[ Skill ] Wind Magic, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Ice Magic, Lightning Magic, Sacred Magic, Barrier Magic, Claw Slash, Physical Strengthening, Physical Attack Resistance, Magic Attack Resistance, Magic Power Consumption Reduction, Appraisal, Battle Enhancement
[ Protections ] Wind Goddess Ninril’s Blessings, War God Vulcan's Blessings
There's Vulcan-sama's blessing added to his Status, with a new Skill called Battle Enhancement. That sounded... well, kinda sketchy. I wondered what it actually involved and I wasn't sure I really wanted to find out. I had a feeling I'd find out anyway. I noticed all his other stats had risen since the last time I had looked at them.
"Hey Fer, did you notice you've levelled up?"
"You saw that? Hmmm." Fer thought for a moment. "The higher the level you reach the harder it is to increase it further. Although I've not levelled up over the past few years, after we met and I made my submission contract with you my level has risen by four. Eating the delicious food you cook has done it, I think. Smartest decision I've made in five hundred years." Fer grinned, a scary sight to anyone who didn't know what he was thinking like I did. The level up and the blessing he had just received had put him in a really good mood. I looked over his Status once again, it never failed to amaze me. I was no match for him but he was totally on my side, thankfully.
Next up I Appraised Dora-chan.
[ Name] Dora-chan
[ Age ] 116
[ Type ] Pixie Dragon
[ Level ] 126
[ Stamina ] 895
[ Magic Power ] 2879
[ Attack Power ] 2652
[ Defence Power ] 865
[ Agility ] 3269
[ Skill ] Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Wind Magic, Ice Magic, Lightning Magic, Recovery Magic, Bombardment, Battle Enhancement
[ Protection ] War God Vulcan's Blessings
Yup, Dora-chan also had Vulcan-sama's protection as well as that dangerous-looking 'Battle Enhancement' skill, just like Fer. Looking at it again, Dora-chan was clearly very strong even though he was deceptively small.
Finally I Appraised Sui, expecting she'd be stronger too.
[ Name ] Sui
[ Age ] 2 months
[ Type ] Big Slime
[ Level ] 16
[ Stamina ] 989
[ Magic Power ] 980
[ Attack Power] 964
[ Defence Power ] 973
[ Agility ] 985
[ Skill ] Acid Bullet, Restorative Medicine Creation, Growth, Multiplication, Water Magic, Smithing
[ Protections ] Water Goddess Rusalka's Blessings, Blacksmith God Hephaestus' Blessings
Sui had levelled up and now had Hephaestus-sama's blessing along with the Smithing skill. That would be Blacksmithing, right? since the blessing was from the God of Blacksmiths but how could Sui use that Skill? It wasn't a Magic skill like her Water Magic or my Fire magic and Earth magic. How would it work? She didn't have hands to make things with after all.
"Sui, Hephaestus-sama's blessing has given you a new Skill. Do you know what it does?"
"Ummm, wait a moment." Sui wobbled thoughtfully. "I think- uh, mmmm, maybe I can make different things with metal." With metal? So she was a blacksmith now? That sounded right considering the source of her blessing.
"Really. So, exactly how do you make things?" I couldn't picture a big muscular Sui-chan sweating in a forge, hammering red-hot iron on an anvil. It had to be magic in some way but what sort?
"Let me see-" she wobbled some more, "iron and other things, Sui can put them in her stomach and tickle them and stir them up and, well, make them into things." So it would all happen inside Sui if she swallowed iron ingots or even ores as a start? I was still unsure how this would work. I wanted to try it out but I didn't have any ingots or iron ore with me. That is, I didn't have iron ore but I did have... hmmm. I removed some Mithril ore from my Item Box. I had collected the ore as an afterthought from the cave where Fer had subjugated the Mithril Lizard back when we were staying in Carerina, with vague plans of getting armour or a sword made from it later.
I held out the lump of ore to Sui. "Sui, can you make something with this?"
Sui studied the glowing lump. "Yeah, I think I can make something-"
"Well, then, uh, how about...?" I pulled out my knife from its belt sheath. "Can you make a knife like this using this ore?"
"Yeah, that's fine-" Sui agreed. "However it might take a bit of time." Sui swallowed the Mithril ore, saying "I can make it, aruji-"
10 minutes passed. Sui-chan told me whatever she was doing would 'take a bit of time' but this long? Is she OK? Was the Mithril ore having a bad effect on her? It had magical properties after all, swallowing something like that-
"Nuuu, are we going to the dungeon any time soon?" Fer grumbled as I watched Sui-chan worriedly.
"That's right, let's get going soon." Dora-chan chimed in. "I wanna find out what the War God's blessing is gonna do for me."
"Hang on hang on." I said. "Sui is experimenting with her new Smithing skill she got from her Blacksmith God's blessing."
"Nuuu, it can't be helped." Fer settled back down unhappily like a kid being told the family trip to the beach was delayed for a little while.
"I wanna get there..." Dora-chan grumbled too. Was he picking up bad habits from Fer? However he settled down to wait too without further mutterings.
"Sui, are you OK? You don't have to force yourself to do this." I asked anxiously.
"No, it's okay. Sui will be finished in a bit so please wait, aruji-" Sui reassured me.
"Oh, I'll wait. You don't have to rush."
"Yup, okay."
What Dora-chan had said earlier prompted a memory from the discussions around last night's offerings and the blessings my contracted monsters had received, specifically the War God's blessing. To distract myself from Sui's efforts I explained what I knew to Dora-chan.
"You said you wanted to know about the War God's blessing, Dora-chan? He told me it boosts your Status values by 50% if you're in a fight."
"Oh really?" Dora-chan started flying around excitedly. "Amazing-! I'm gonna be sooo much stronger, yay! The War God's blessing is perfect for me!" Dora-chan was quite pleased hearing about his 50% status boost.
"Hou, that's sounds useful." Fer said, grinning. "I'm looking forward to trying it out in the dungeon."
I didn't think it was something to be happy about myself and I didn't feel like smiling like Fer. Rather I was getting a bad feeling about our forthcoming trip to the city's dungeon. Had I made a mistake dumping the War God's blessing on Fer? He was already mega-strong, what would adding another 50% more on top do to his powers? I felt kinda sorry for any monster he might face from now on. Just be careful Fer, don't go on a rampage...
I turned my attention back to Sui. It had been ten minutes surely, how much longer...
"I made it-!" Sui suddenly announced, bouncing happily.
"Huh, Sui, are you finished? Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I did it. See, this-" Sui extruded a tentacle and presented me with a knife glowing a pale colour. I took it from her and used Appraisal.
[ Mithril knife + ]
A high-quality Mithril knife.
The way the metal glowed there was no doubt it was a Mithril knife. And 'high-quality', I assumed that meant it was well-made. Was that what the plus sign beside its Appraisal meant? Anyhow it was unbelievable. Making a such a good knife, my Sui-chan is really amazing. I was speechless.
"Aruji, how is it-? Sui made a knife-" Sui asked anxiously.
"It's made really well, thank you... Sui is really amazing, making something like this." I praised her.
"Really? Sui, amazing-?"
"Sui is really amazing." I agreed.
"Uhufufu, Sui, Sui is amazing. Sui is happy-." Sui-chan bounced up and down, pon pon pon. Ah, Sui-chan is soooo sweet, she heals me so much.
"Nuuu, if we're finished here then we can go to the dungeon, can we?" Fer interjected.
"That's right." Dora-chan buzzed around my head distractingly. "Dungeon, let's go to the dungeon yay!"
Yeah yeah.