Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Tiona’s visit

Once I removed the idea of traveling to Hell from my mind I focused on integrating my new reverse cursed techniques in my crafting for the remaining two weeks of my sentence. For my [Hell's forge] reversion I simply removed any thought of using it for this purpose as it simply erased whatever I used it on which left me with less to work with at all. My [Hell fire] reversion though was ridiculously useful while crafting due to it's innate ability to halt all activity. If the energy showed signs of erupting I could freeze it in place before slowly chipping away at it thus not only saving the material but also keeping the damage to a minimum.-

This proved especially useful when I sought to work on spatially expanded bags again and a catastrophic failure meant dismemberment or possible death. My ice froze the chaotic spatial energy and by carefully "thawing" it with my flames I was able to safely resolve the issue without it causing any damage at all. My reverse cursed techniques ability to heal had also proven a massive boon not just for me but surprisingly enough Miach and Naaza.-

See I had wondered what would happen if I imbued the positive energy from the reverse cursed technique to a potion and as a result discovered that it increased the effectiveness by a factor of almost two hundred percent. I failed to understand why exactly this was beyond that it increased the ingredients reactivity with each other. Obviously it was a whole hell of a fucking lot more complicated than that but that was all I understood. Miach and Naaza were informed of this experiment of mine after the potion I tried it on almost killed me by overloading my energy reserves.-

If I didn't have the Draconite that took all of my energy and then so much more without even a slight twitch in deformation I may have had a serious problem. The material definitely exceeded my previous guess of it being a level six material and I had my suspicions that it may even be a level seven or eight material with how much nothing that much energy did to it. I suppose I should also mention that I purposefully removed my right leg and left arm to grow them back.-

Honestly I wouldn't have done something like that intentionally had it not been for something I noticed, the previously regrown limbs were superior at utilizing cursed energy. See I hadn't utilized just pure energy without a technique behind it since my time in the dungeon and thus failed to notice this detail until I did. My limbs that I had regrown using reverse curse technique in the dungeon were about ten percent more efficient than my other limbs at controlling and moving pure cursed energy. Once I discovered this I purposefully removed my limbs and regrew them so that my body was balanced again.-

They of course had that red coloration to them as well as black claw like nails that the other limbs did before I altered the color of them. I only took such drastic action because I was quite well aware of what the consequences of being unbalanced could be. In small matters the effect would be miniscule and not worth mentioning but in things requiring precision it would cause serious issues. Regardless the small boost to my ability to utilize cursed energy in my four limbs was nice if nothing else. -

"Hey whatcha up to?" Tiona asked when she came to visit and found me practicing with switching between my regular technique and the reversion.

"Working on adding a new spell I got to my combat abilities. You just passing through or did you want something specific?" I explained before trying to learn why she was here.

She grinned "Captain sent me to talk about that water ring you showed off. Wants to know how much they'd run us. He sent me since we're friends." she said happily.

I chuckled "He does realize I can see through such a blatant attempt at manipulation right?" I asked amused and she shrugged.

"Dunno, nobody tells me any of this stuff since it just goes over my head. Too complicated." she said casually.

"I can see the appeal of thinking like that, sounds less stressful than worrying about everything." I said honestly.

"Umu, anyways about those rings?" she said happily.

"Ah, I'd say they'd run you half a million valis each though I can knock it down to four hundred thousand apiece if you buy ten or more, bulk discount if you'd like." I said casually.

Tiona's face took on a comical shocked expression at the price though it wasn't like I could blame her.

The price I just listed was nearly a quarter of the price of a top tier first grade weapon if you went to nearly any smith in the city. I set the price like this for a reason beyond greed too as while both easy and inexpensive for me to make water rings were easily classified as a strategic resource. There was nothing like it available in the market right now despite there being a VERY big need for it. Scarcity means value and I understood this well and thus gave a high price right off the rip to show my understanding of this idea.-

Honestly I'd be more than happy to haggle down the price by as much as half this asking amount as I'd still be making a monstrous amount of profit from the sale but it's always best to ask high first.

"I'll tell the Captain but I don't think he'll like it." she said once she recovered from her shock.

I shook my head with a grin "Nah, if my read on the guy isn't off he'll get why I said that and send someone to negotiate further. Business aside how's things been?" I asked changing the subject.

"Bout the same as usual. I dive a bit while waiting for the next expedition and we get some newbies that have to get trained. Lefiya's been learning concurrent chanting though so that's been fun to watch." she said honestly.

"A good trick for her to learn given what I understand about her skill. It gives her monstrous potential but actually grasping that potential will no doubt prove an equally large challenge. Still can't help but be a little jealous. The entirety of the Elf races magic at her fingertips so long as she can remember it all." I said honestly.