Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

Threat and advertisement

It wasn't exactly lust that her gaze held so much as a desire to possess me like one would covet jewelry or money. Not greed since she was clearly aware of and thought of me as a person but about as close as you can get to it.

"Ah come on, I am even willing to personally teach you if you'd only join my familia!" the red headed goddess said as she tried to tempt me for the umpteenth time to join her familia.

"And as I've said for the last three hours I am perfectly happy where I am right now!" I said irritated at her persistence.

Hestia had argued with the red head for the first hour or so before understanding that I wasn't going anywhere and just chose to leave me to deal with the forge goddess alone. 

"But your abilities are wasted here! Hestia can't teach you how to hone your craftsmanship and I am the best in the entire world at it!" she said trying very hard to convince me.

"Look lady if you don't stop bothering me about this I will turn your body into a pile of mush!" I threatened finally done being polite.

To add extra pressure to my threat I flared up my flames around my body causing her to recoil in fear.

"It was amusing to watch until now but you've crossed a line." A voice said and I moved out of the way as a woman with dark skin and long brown hair landed where i was just standing.

She held an unsheathed blade out in front of her at the ready while Hephaestus quickly stopped her from attacking.

"Wait Tsubaki, he's obviously bluffing! Theres no way anyone would actually be insane enough to attack a god!" she said seriously.

She was right in that I wasn't that crazy or rather stupid. Attacking the god isn't the issue but rather the reactions of the rest of the gods after that fact. A mortal willing to attack a god might also be willing to kill one and that was something the gods won't abide as it threatens their fun down here as once they are banished back to heaven they can't come back for at minimum centuries. I attack a god and all the other gods will band together to kill me regardless of the circumstances.-

"Oh I know that he was bluffing but I won't just sit back and watch some level one bastard threaten you." Tsubaki said with a stern expression.

Every instinct in my body was screaming at me but I just took an unarmed stance while coating my body in flames to act as armor. I was also continuously increasing their density and heat which had started to cause the air around me to warp and the soil below my feet to melt.

"Fine! You've made your point and I'll leave you alone now so please stop the hostility!" the goddess said practically begging at this point.

She wasn't the one i was worried about though and it was only when Tsubaki began to sheath her sword that I dismissed my flames everywhere except my hands that stayed at the ready.

"Tch! You've got a pair on you alright but try and remember your place next time, I won't let you go so easily otherwise." she said firmly before leaving with her goddess.

It was only after they got very far away that I relaxed and retracted my flames fully while noting that just that small pissing match cost me nearly three quarters of my energy.

'Looks like I need to hurry up and reach the true limit of my stats so I can level up. These flames have monstrous energy consumption rates just like my technique.' I thought with a sigh before going back into the church.

I didn't get the chance to go dungeon delving the next day as Miach and Naaza showed up super early and very excited.

"We finished the potion!" Miach said with a wide smile.

"Oh? How wells it work?" I asked interested in whatever type of deodorant potion they had created.

"Well at first we struggled to figure out how to make bodies stop producing smells from them consuming the potion but that failed to include blood or sweat. Then it came to me, what if instead we made something that you pour OVER the body to eliminate smells? I even had Naaza test it and it worked flawlessly as I couldn't smell anything even though she was covered in goblin blood!" Miach said excitedly.

I chose to ignore the fact that for a level four like her she probably had to really try just to get that much blood on her. "So what you are saying is that it is ready for sale then?" I asked and Naaza nodded.

"Alrighty then just give me a bit and I'll print up some fliers to advertise it." I said as I headed over to a pile of wood scrap at the side of the church.

"Um how exactly are you going to print up fliers?" Naaza asked confused.

I grinned "Well paper is created by turning wood to dust before boiling it into a mash to pull out the tannins and then bleaching and molding it into sheets. Using my cursed technique i can do all of that myself in mere moments so long as I have wood on hand and the best part is i can form the paper with the words already on it, no ink necessary." I said honestly.

"Your technique is ridiculously useful , I'm envious." Naaza said with a smile.

I hummed in acknowledgement as I started turning this scrap wood in high quality posters with fancy designs and everything. The actual advertisement itself was a simple thing in big bold lettering that said [A REVOLUTIONARY NEW POTION CREATED AND FOUND ONLY AT THE BLUE PHARMACY! THE DEODERANT POTION REMOVES ALL THE SMELLS FROM ONES BODY AFTER A HARD AND ROUGH DELVE!] -

"Simple and gets the point across while also catching the eye, good job Alex." Miach praised as he held up one of the posters.

"Now then we just need to get these into the hands of the ladies at the hostess and posted on the walls of the streets and pretty soon you should have your first customers. I'll take the hostess since I already have a business arrangement with them while you three set them up through out the city." I said as I passed stacks of posters to Bell, Naaza and Miach while keeping one for myself.

We split up after that and as I said I headed to the hostess and managed to sweet talk Mia into passing out posters to customers in exchange for a weeks worth of enhanced ingredients for free. I honestly lost out on that deal but not by so much I was willing to make a fuss about it. By the end of the day all of Orario was covered in advertisements.