Golden Artificer c14

Marcus' eyelashes trembled as he opened his eyes. He could see the ceiling of his bedroom. 

Then he sensed that his left hand and a portion of his body had been submerged in a valley between two mountains.

‘Probably the best way to recover~’ The Alchemist sagely thought to himself. He should had a girl the whole time in his old world.

Worst case, he could create a hot maid. It's not a hard thing to do.

But then he returned to the present, closed his eyes, and submerged himself into his consciousness. White surroundings replaced him. 

When he opened his eyes again, bookshelves emerged around him.

He was standing in a large library.

For someone like him who has been around for a while, recalling everything is difficult, which is why he has spent a while improving his mental abilities.

It was mind magic. Marcus developed some new tricks for using this magic, and he could also influence people.

Though he never had a chance, maybe he could utilise this to some extent if he trains someone.

After walking through the library, he exited it and looked at the whiteness on all sides.

Eventually, he looked down.

Below him was his psyche. What he needs to protect is right there.

So he continued to layer ‘concrete’ and other ‘imaginary’ things to ensure no one influenced his personality.

He hasn’t seen Freya yet, but he has heard from Alfia that the Goddess of Beauties is very dangerous just from their looks.

‘Honestly, all of them are just sluts.’

After tinkering with his protection, he does that daily. He returned to his body.

A sigh escaped him as he could feel the imbalance between his soul and body.

It causes friction in his body. This friction caused much higher mana consumption.

The day he fought Evilus and Zald, he used nearly half of his resources, which is stupid. 

It should have been around 20% at most of all of his mana consumed.

But because the body and soul don’t match, it causes friction.

‘In that case, a synchronisation ritual is a must.’

He could accelerate his growth as well.

“Hmm… isn’t it too early for you?~” The maid next to him snuggled into him. Since he is treating her like a toy, she is doing similar things from time to time.

Like now, she pulled him into a bigger hug.

“Yeah… you are right.”

~~~

As Marcus was doing some equations to fix his mana reserves and his body, he sensed someone had passed his barrier.

It was a familiar golden blonde girl who he had not seen for several weeks.

Second later, she knocked on the door.

The alchemist walked over and opened it. 

“What can I do for you, Ais?”

Him knowing that it was her has surprised the girl.

“...I-I… I mean… my sword broke, and you are the best weaponsmith I know. I could pay for repairs…” She poked her fingers while saying that.

Marcus chuckled at hearing that; the girl already knew how to sweet talk.

“Sure~ come in.”

As he allowed him to walk in, the girl swiftly looked around. For the first time, she saw how his place looked.

What she saw was much different from her place or any other place she was.

It was not built from stone or bricks, but instead, the walls were smooth blue, and light came from somewhere. She can’t see torchers or mana stones.

Regardless, he led her to his workshop, where she saw more magical stuff. 

A workbench with glowing letters. It was a forge like no other, with letters on fire and tools she had never seen before.

Though her eyes ended up on mannequins next to a wall.

One of them was dressed in armour she saw him wear in the conflict against Evilus, but another was full of simple-looking material.

‘Is he making clothes?’ 

For a second, she wondered what he could make. Some special clothes with special properties?

‘Could clothes improve my magic further?’

She wondered midway, but then his voice brough her back.

“Show me your weapon.” 

“R-Right!”

The girl pulled out a cloth and placed it on the workbench.

Then she opened it and showed him her sword broken into 6 pieces.

Marcus swiftly inspected them.

“I see… so it's metal quality.”

“...Metal quality? I bought it from a Familia who makes weapons. They are run by a Smith God.” Ais explained to him. She slightly pouted as she spent quite a bit of money on this weapon, which only lasted a single dive!

“Don’t get me wrong. The quality is not bad, but you are channelling your magic through it, right?” He quickly found out the cause.

Her eyes sparkled when she heard that. He already knew just by looking at it once!

“Yes. My Ariel is strongest when used through a weapon.” She replied with a nod.

“I see. Then let’s make a weapon and magic conduit.” Marcus said to her as he placed his fingers on his chin.

When she heard that, she imagined Riveria’s staff, then her sword, and then put them together. What did she get?

Some sweat appeared on her forehead.

“...Is that going to work?” She asked with confusion.

“Well, you saw my sword, don’t you?”

Her eyes slightly widened as she never imagined that sword to be a magic conduit! But then she recalled him just killing a bunch of people in an instant when he stabbed his sword into the ground.

‘So he channelled a spell back then…’

“...Okay. If you think it’s for the best.” Ais nodded. Internally, she was gushing at the idea of having a weapon like that!

Marcus nodded as he rearranged the weapon pieces before drawing on paper and preparing to make a mould.

Once that was done, he swiftly removed the handle and dropped the metal pieces into a pot for melting. He then dropped some more steel bits as he saw that the steel parts were missing since the weapon had broken.

As the metal was melting and the impurities were getting burned away, Marcus proceeded to design the runes on the sword.

“Hmm… your magic is wind, yes?” He double-checked with her.

“Yes.”

“I will include wind manipulation assistance. It should assist you in control.”

‘He could do that!?’ 

The girl didn’t know what to say as he continued to design the runes which would go on the sword.

“Done. Come over here and try channelling your magic.” 

Ais stiffly nodded at him as she got up, walked over, and placed her hand where he asked her to.

The girl channelled a little bit of her magic. The letter on the rune lit up. But she nearly shredded the whole thing.

“S-Sorry.”

“Hmm. So you lack general control. I could teach you how to control it better.” 

At that moment, she nearly passed out from happiness! 

“T-Thank you. I don’t know if I can repay you.” She swiftly became self-conscious, as Riveria had always taught her to be humble.

“Yes. Well, there is a way. I do want to see if you will get another magic in your Falna. You could say it would be an experiment.

Marcus was thinking if he is to teach her some mind arts for control and resistance against charms as he doesn’t trust Freya at all, and since she lost a bunch of members, she could start indiscriminately brainwashing everyone to regain lost members.

He doesn’t want this girl who has great talent to be turned into a drone.

“O-Okay. I can do that. At the moment, I only have my Ariel in the Magic category.” She replied. Besides, she will have more reasons to come and see him!

“Good. In that case, let me teach you the routines.” 

“... ’Routines’?”

“You will understand once you start practising.”

As Marcus said that, he poked her forehead, and at that moment, Ais was transported somewhere.

“Let’s begin.”

…

…

…

~~~

When Alfia returned from shopping, she nearly dropped her shopping bag as she saw that blonde girl sitting on the couch, swinging her legs.

The girl closed her eyes as she was doing something.

While Marcus was working at the forge, it appears he was working on a weapon for that girl, no doubt!

‘Damn that fox!’ 

Alfia's eyebrows trembled as she was ready to kill.

“You are back. Did you see anyone suspicious?” He asked her maid.

“...No. not yet.” She slightly huffed at him.

“Heh. Don’t worry I will be returning to make your maid uniform soon.” Marcus thought she was jealous that he was working on Ais’ weapon and not her uniform. 

It's quite cute how she is envious.

“Good. So what happened.” She placed the bag and walked over.

“Her weapon can’t handle her magic” He said to her as he took the liquid metal and then poured it into the mould.

Soon enough, the liquid spread through the mould and took the form of the rapier.

“...That is given…” Alfia snorted. The girl is a half-spirit, and her magic should be impressive.

It's one of the reasons why the silver-haired girl feels threatened. Not anyone can surpass her or threaten to be more useful to Marcus. Only someone special, like half a spirit or actual Goddess.

“Yeah…” As Marcus nodded, he took the mould away and placed it in a specially prepared magical circle.

Once there, the metal rapidly cooled down.

Minutes later, he pressed his finger on the mould and sent a pulse of magic.

The mould shattered and turned into dust.

What was left was the blade. 

Marcus swiftly took it and started to work on it.

He quickly inspected the form, took it to the forge, pulled out a hammer, and started to smack it.

For this process, he is using mana to reinforce himself, which is quite difficult given his frame and size.

After getting what he wanted, he started to sharpen it.

For that, he used an array of stones.

By this point, Ais stopped practising the mind arts as she found it very interesting, considering this was the first time that she used magic, which was not instinctual. 

It was refreshing and new.

However, for now she forgot about it. Instead, she walked over and watched how Marcus was carving runes on the blade.

He used glass to magnify and used a small pen with a glowing tip to carve small letters on the blade.

It was something she had never seen before. She had seen Smiths before, but… Marcus's work looked more meticulous, precise… and magical. He had more tools to make those weapons.

After a while, he turned the blade on the other side and carved identical texts! This was where her eyes slightly widened as she realised that all that text had to be put in an exact location only on the other side! It's simply absurd how precise all of this is!

On top of all that, he channels his magic the whole time.

‘...I only wanted my sword fixed, but this…’ She gulped down as she realised that the weapon would most likely cost hundreds of millions of Valis.

Is he trying to bankrupt her Familia!?

Once both sides were finished, Marcus proceeded to put on the guard, which looked like the wind and had some gold on it.

All of this only made Ais pale as she realised that gold is quite expensive.

Lastly, he made a blue handle for it.

“Done.” Marcus took the blade and took a couple of swings. The balance was exquisite, and the blade was light but could pack a punch.

“Now, you need to drop blood on the blade.” He pointed a magical circle close to the handle.

But Ais shook her head.

“I-I can’t accept such a masterpiece!” She shook her head again.

“So I should trash it then?” He grabbed the blade and was about to bin it.

“Nooo!” The girl, like a whirlwind, grabbed his hand.

“Then?” 

“...B-But it's too expensive and… I don’t have that much Valis.” She explained with blushing cheeks.

“Haah… so that is what you are afraid of. The thing is, I don’t care for Valis. Money for an alchemist is not important.” He pointed at the gold on the blade’s handle.

“But since you insist. How about this? I will lend the blade to you. You shall wield it to become strong. Think of it as I am helping you become strong.” He said with a thoughtful look.

But his reply only made her more infatuated with her ‘Hero’.