Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Comparison

I made sure to keep the shape of the church the same as it was before though since Hestia wanted it to stay that way. As a result it looked like the church now had a tower at the top of it and had been refurbished but needed a new coat of paint. All in all I was quite satisfied with my work since it meant we didn't look like we lived in a condemned building anymore. 

"Can't say i'm a fan of all this wood but it looks decent enough I suppose." Hroldar said as he looked over the building from the inside.

"Well it was either wood or drop items and I could only afford one of those in that amount." I said with a shrug and he laughed.

"A house made of drop items HA! That's a level of lavishness that even Ishtar wouldn't be willing to do!" he said thinking I was joking.

"If you say so, anyhow here's the dagger. Be careful with it as that edge will go through damn near anything it touches including you." I said as I handed over the simple cloth wrapped blade over.

Hroldar looked doubtful until he went to unwrap it and sliced off the top layer of skin on his finger like it wasn't even there.

"You weren't joking! That's a terrifyingly sharp blade right there, you didn't trade durability for this sharpness I hope?" he questioned and I shook my head which he seemed to accept before putting the blade away carefully and heading out.

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(At the comparison later)

A total of five people were in the office of the goddess Hephaestus at the moment with one of them being herself. The others were her best level one smith, her captain Tsubaki, Ogun and Hroldar.

On her wooden desk sat two blades wrapped in cloth that had been presented to her for comparison. In truth she felt that no work from someone at this level was worthy of her personally looking at but Ogun was a friend and she happened to owe him a favor.

"Well I suppose we should get this over with since I still have a bunch of paperwork to do." the forge goddess said from her seat as she picked up the first blade and unwrapped it.

It was a bollock style dagger seven inches long and with a double edged blade. She turned it this way and that before flicking the flat of the blade and listening to the sound it made.

"Good basics and a solid make but there is a slight weakness in the blade here probably from a heating issue at one point. This is your work then Henry?" she said looking at her level one smith who nodded humbly.

"Bit of warning with that next blade, the blades razor sharp and sliced off part of my finger here when I unwrapped it in a hurry before." Hroldar warned seriously and the goddess raised an eyebrow but was more careful than usual as she unwrapped the other blade.

This new blade was a single color and gleamed in the light but she furrowed her brow when she saw all of it. The design was simple but efficient and at first glance it was perfect. That was the first problem she saw, there were no flaws. When a smith worked a material there were always minute flaws that were left behind, hammer marks, stress cracks, heat marks things like that. But there was none of that here as though this blade had simply never been touched by a hammer or flame of any sort.-

Next was that it was all one piece, there was no gaps or differentiating places from the blade and handle. If the blade had been from something larger like a dragon tooth or something she could understand seeing this yet it was clear that just like her own smith this was from a minotaur horn. She became serious as she began to try and truly figure out how the blade was made and it's properties. Sharpness, durability, balance, she tested each of these things unlike with the first dagger which made the four watching realize that something was wrong.-

"Who made this?" she asked with a serious look at Ogun who frowned.

"Is there some sort of foul play involved?" he asked fearing the worse.

"I have no idea." she said honestly as she looked back at the blade with a conflicted expression.

"What do you mean?" Tsubaki asked confused at her goddesses words.

"I mean that as far as I can tell this blade shouldn't exist. Even when I myself craft something there is always small flaws that can't be removed from a material or a loss of potential somewhere. This blade doesn't have any of that, it's one hundred percent potential from the horn made manifest without a single flaw anywhere, a perfect object, a paradox." the red haired goddess said honestly.

"Are you saying that the person who made this surpassed you?" Ogun asked in disbelief.

"No, despite what I just said this blade is not much different than this other one existentially speaking. The smith developmental skill or in my case forging domain allows a smith to exceed one hundred percent potential by adding effects to our creations. Without seeing an added effect beyond what even I can create there is no comparison between the two of us." she said honestly.

"Sounds like that guy might not have been as arrogant as he sounded then." Hroldar said with an odd look.

"What do you mean?" Hephaestus asked curiously.

"Ah well he said that when it came to crafting drops he was the best in the city if no added effects were added. We set up this test to humble him a bit actually, kinda backfired from the looks of it." Hroldar said honestly.

"Sounds like an interesting fella!" Tsubaki said with a laugh.

"I'll owe you another favor if you could work to facilitate a meeting between me and the person who made this blade, with their god preferably." Hephaestus said to Ogun seriously.

The dark skinned god himself had an odd expression at this request though. "You may actually have better odds of that than myself." he said honestly.

"Why?" she asked confused.

"Because he is the first child of Hestia's familia." he said and the red haired goddess froze in shock.

"How in heaven did Tia manage to land a craftsman like this? I mean she's a good goddess without any doubt but she is about as adept as a brick at craftsmanship." the goddess said in disbelief.

"Yeah about that, the guy himself is kinda an oddball as far as I can tell. He doesn't come across as a craftsman at all and if anything is more a delver like me or most other adventurers and don't even get me started on how he fights, that dudes got a mean streak to him even if he likes to hide it behind a friendly personality." Hroldar said honestly.

"I suppose I should reach out to Tia then so I can meet this child myself." Hephaestus said with a headache.