Sell you a Bridge chapter 152

January 5th 2011 New Genesis 5:00 PM EDT

It  took several days and every point I had at my disposal to manage, but  I'd finally gotten the new smithy up and running. With Wally doing setup  and my power taking care of the heavy lifting as far as real estate  went, we'd managed to get something put together pretty quickly, and  with enough rationing and a bit of tantric reinforcement I even got Zee  her library to play with for the enchanting.

I'd  been reading through it myself for days now, and I had to admit it was  an impressive collection. With my speed reading and perfect recall I was  basically downloading the information right off the tablet at this  point, though I had to pretty much wrestle it away from my research  obsessed girlfriend. She hadn't been willing to give up her time with  it, so we'd come up with a system where I would fuck her into a drooling  mess and then use the thing while her brain was rebooting. I had to  admit it was the best checkout policy I'd ever come across, and my girl  was a hell of a librarian.

Still  I'd been learning a ton even with infrequent access to the tablet, and I  was pretty excited to try some of it out. Artemis had tried teaching me  a bit of Diablo style smithing, but without access to the anvil it was  weird and hard to get a handle on. I was sure I could do it if I spent  enough time, my points could be anything, but it was similar to trying  to clench a muscle you've spent your whole life ignoring. I knew what I  wanted to do, but the actual act of trying to do it just  wouldn't...click.

The  actual smithing portion was easy enough though, so I learned to make  weapons, even if I couldn't give them the same kind of stats Artemis  could at the moment. I could see why she enjoyed the action, it was  calming and repetitive while also being energetic and forceful. Luckily  we had all the time in the world to work on it, and all the materials we  needed. I'd been able to get a huge shipment of high carbon steel from  one of my Gotham emails, and we'd been mixing it with small amounts of a  metal native to New Genesis called Elysium.

The  fantastic metal was apparently insanely rare even here and I'd only  been able to get an ingot or two, but even a bit of powder mixed into  normal steel created an amazing alloy that could hold absurd amounts of  mystical energy and strengthened the hell out of the metal. Artemis was  having a field day with the new metal, trying every new enchantment she  could think of. Spears, swords, armor, bows, she was just going nuts  with production. She'd started stocking up the walls with examples of  her work to entice potential customers and I had to admit the place  looked damn good.

The  building I'd gotten was a small single story with good lighting and  lots of windows out front. The back was more closed off, but Zee was  able to set up some cooling and air filtration spells for Artemis's  forge to keep it from getting too smoky or hot back there. Artemis still  had her ring for that but the rest of us were in and out of the place  and honestly it was uncomfortable walking around in sweltering heat all  the time. Now though, we were all crowded into the back of the shop  working on our new project before we officially opened.

Wally  was looking down at the sword skeptically. "I still think this is  overkill. You guys are all crazy powerful magic users. Plus Artemis has  her weird smithing ability, not to mention the magic metal you're using.  This seems like overkill. Do you really need all three of you to work  on every single item for the display case?" We had begun work on a new  sword to show off our best work, but we were determined to go all out,  and the redhead was convinced it was a huge waste of time to put in all  this effort.

I  shook my head. "No. Our basic enchanted stuff is fine for the low level  minor gods who might stumble in, but any real money will be made from  the really powerful New Gods. They're literal deities man. We need to  bring our A game if we want to compete with the stuff other shops in the  city will be selling. Granted they seem a bit tech focused rather than  magically inclined which is going to be a big bump to our sales but  still. We need to put stuff out that's on a higher level." I gestured to  the currently glowing blade Artemis was still working on.

Zee  nodded, grinning in excitement. "We do. Luckily I've come up with some  very unique methods to enchant this next sword, and hopefully this will  work well and we can standardize it." She gestured to the still rough  looking sword. "So while Artemis is working on the physical aspect of  the enchantment by creating the magical weapon as the base Morgan will  use his devil magic to pour in a corresponding enchantment for the  spiritual aspect of the blade, and I'll layer on an external enchantment  as the final touch for the mental component."

I  raised an eyebrow at her. "My demonic power is insanely expensive. I  can try it to see how it works but I only have six hundred points from  my most recent top up, I spent everything else." She just waved me off,  clearly uninterested in details, and I had to smile at her enthusiasm.  Refocusing on the project though I had to admit it was a solid plan. "I  like the structure of the collaboration though. That sounds like it's  going to come out really well. It should be pretty simple to do for me  at least too because demonic power is so flexible, even if its going to  cost an arm and a leg."

Artemis  cleared her throat. "Well if you're going to do it you're going to want  to get ready, I'm about to cast the sword, and once I've set the  enchantment you'll want to add any extras pretty quickly before it cools  and solidifies." Her voice was focused as she brought her hammer down  on the metal in precise, measured strokes. An amateur might have sped  up, trying to finish faster, but Artemis had trained under Teague, and  the big man knew his shit. As she struck the metal her electricity  started to crackle, causing the blade to take on a purple tinge,  altering the cherry red heat glow into something much more exotic.

Artemis  had found, over the last few days of testing while we got set up, that  her bloodline's affinity with war could be expressed through weapon  creation. Blacksmithing was making tools of war, and so her power could  be used to affect them in an even more direct way than before, giving  her a brand new level of control. Much like Zee's new trick with her own  lightning, integrating the bloodline into herself properly and becoming  part god had given Artemis a new and more unique aspect to her powers,  the first steps to becoming her own goddess instead of a knock off of  her ancestor.

I  felt the shift in the metal with my senses even as I saw it with aura  sight, and knew that it was officially my turn. I poured points into my  demonic power, funneling the magic I was creating into the burning  purple metal as I directed the flow of the spell. Artemis had added a  spark there, and between that, my power, and Zee's enchantments we'd  decided to try to upgrade to a higher level of gear in the same vein.  Instead of freehanding the whole process, we were going to jump to more  powerful objects using the same system. Specifically, we were making  weapons from Diablo 2.

With  Zee's map of how to go about it and my understanding of what we were  actually doing it was easy to shape the power of the demonic spell to  something that would work well with Artemis's power. Granted her  creation ability wasn't limited to just lightning based gear, but for  our first attempt we decided to focus on that, so the Stormspike seemed  like a good choice for our first Unique item from the second version of  the game. I shifted my demonic power into the form of the charged bolt  spell needed and added the trigger conditions, watching with  satisfaction as the glow of the metal changed.

Then  I stepped back and let Zee take over, her muttering having already  begun as she readied her spells, setting up the final structure of the  dagger and solidifying it's nature with her spells, essentially putting  the finishing touches on weapon with her magic as she Artemis released  another burst of power to finish the cast and set the magic completely.  The light went out, completely vanishing, and I reached out to pick up  the dagger.

Because  of my aura sight I was the natural choice for the appraiser of our  group, and as I looked over out handwork I let out a long, low whistle.  This thing was a menace. Aside from a chance to trigger the charged bolt  spell it also layered on lightning resistance based on the power of the  wielder and caused lightning damage on contact. Aside from that it cut  deeper than a normal blade and enhanced attack speed by a hundred fifty  percent, a frightening number for even a normal person, much less a god.

Honestly  I kind of wanted to keep it, it would work wonders with my enhanced  reaction speed and high dexterity, but if I kept every useful weapon we  made we would end up very poor, albeit incredibly well armed. I passed  the dagger to Zee with a flourish, and she used a homebrew identify  spell to get the details, shooting me a wide grin. "Oh this is nice. No  way we have trouble selling gear this quality. Plus now that we know it  works we have other options too." She was almost vibrating with glee at  the victory.

I  grinned and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "Yeah, item sets are going  to be a big thing here. The whole concept really fits the New God  aesthetic, and it lets us create much more powerful gear. This place is  going to explode with new buyers when we open." I grinned at Artemis,  who looked tired but satisfied, and Wally who seemed impressed. I was  about to suggest we get some food when a loud ring from the front caught  my attention. We had customers. I hadn't expected anyone to notice us  yet but I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

We  headed out to greet the newcomers and I was pleasantly surprised to see  a pretty dark haired girl in pink browsing our wares. I stepped up with  a smile, holding out my hand to shake. "Well hello there, and welcome.  I'm Random, one of the proprietors of the shop. Do you see anything you  might be interested in?" I had to admit I did, as much as I would never  admit it out loud the new girl was gorgeous. Olive skin, purple lips and  eyes and absolutely humongous tits that filled out her low cut pink  costume exquisitely.

I  was a taken man though, so I kept my eyes on hers, which from her aura  was a feat not many men managed when confronted with what I was pretty  sure were H cup breasts. She gave me a dazzling smile. "I know, I came  here looking for you. Well, for you and a friend of a friend. My  companions are out and about but I returned to town early so I thought I  would come and greet you." She held out a hand. "My name is Dreamer. I  heard you were looking for me. What can I do for you?"