Danmachi- Hell’s Forge

It was honestly more or less a party trick but the Xenos seemed to appreciate it according to Fels who was acting as the go between for our familia. Most of what the Xenos wanted was weapons and armor along with quality of life type items which was easy enough to supply once I got the measurements from the Xenos who were having the stuff made for them. Like normal monsters all Xenos had very durable bodies naturally and so didn't need much armor but they all agreed that something to protect their magic stones was of vital importance.-

While it was true the stronger monsters got harder to kill it was also true that they still maintained that easiest method of dispatching. The Xenos even as variants in their entirety were no exception to this and thus only a few of them didn't want something to protect their magic stones. In particular there was a Gargoyle named Gros who almost outright rejected anything made by the hands of anyone not a monster. According to Fels this was not a surprise as he had an unquenchable hatred for people after seeing how the Xenos kept getting kidnapped and sold off by adventurers.-

Obviously the dude knew that was only a part of the population of adventures but he simply didn't care. As far as he was concerned all adventurers were the same and couldn't be trusted so easily. I thought he sounded like an asshole but Fels defended him by saying he was also one of the most fiercely loyal of all the Xenos once you had his trust. Whatever the case I was getting paid handsomely for this under the table work and had no reason to complain.-

My mirror of Erised knockoff was probably the most interesting thing I had made for quite some time. See first I had to collect crystal mantis parts to create the actual mirror itself which was a slight pain in the ass but nothing too bothersome. Next I created the frame for this mirror though I had admittedly changed the look of the thing so it was more hellish in appearance. I used Mammoth fool bones for this and shaped the stuff in a full body mirror shape but engraved the surface with faces in various states of emotional flux.-

There were screaming faces, smiling faces, faces crying, faces of despair, faces of longing, greed, lust, you name it and there was a face for it. Of course like the original from the source I was ripping it off from I had a line of words arched across the top of the frame. It read "Tra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on woshi" or when reversed "I show not your face but your heart". I changed it slightly from the original since my mirror didn't just show ones desire but all of their emotions. I grinned mischievously at the thought of how all those gods and people would react when their hearts were laid bare to everyone.-

The cursed technique was a bit unusual however as it almost wanted to be brought into existence and came together with barely any effort at all from me. The ease at which the technique came together concerned me a bit but the mirror worked as it was supposed to so I didn't mind too much. I of course made sure it couldn't come to life as a cursed spirit that could fuck with emotions was a nightmarish thing and best not allowed to exist.-

Not to say almost all cursed spirits weren't nightmarish things to begin with but in this case it would be so much worse than normal. I was not surprised that the mirror showed me sitting on a throne of bones with a sky full of stars behind me and a bored expression on my face. At my side sat a veritable armory of weapons and armor that radiated perfection. This image covered my desire for godhood, the innate craving for death and carnage of my cursed nature and the absentminded pursuit of perfection in all my works. The bored look was simply because I was more or less bored at the moment.-

Creating stuff was enough to keep my attention but not really what stimulates me unless I was experimenting, that came from battle in the dungeon. Ptah was entranced by the mirror and thought it was the perfect center piece for his ball after it showed him a vast collection of pieces of art. The purity of the image was not surprising to me as the guy was simply that single minded. Art was his everything and it showed with how he was perceived in the truest sense by the mirror.-

I refused to allow him to see what my own reflected image was however as I REALLY didn't want to fucking explain it. I of course warned Freya and Hephaestus about the mirror in case they went to this ball of his as well as that is not a conversation I wanted to have. This all kept me busy for an entire week before I was finally free to start thinking about my next expedition into the dungeon. My stats had stagnated since I hadn't been delving and thus not getting updated regularly and I wanted to get my fill of smoke to correct this.-

I considered also heading into the water palace levels finally to collect the resources there as well as perhaps taking a rumble with Amphisbaena in hopes of fulfilling the conditions to level up to four. Obviously I wanted to hit the max for my stats first before I actually leveled up but getting the qualification first though would certainly help. Bell was already starting to approach that point himself as he and the rest of his team delved further and further into the dungeon. Right now they were at the same floors as myself since it was the only place they could consistently get a challenge.-

A piece of interesting news was that Lili got the qualification to level up thanks to her clever usage of her transformation spell. She had killed a level three herself by turning into Adamantite and cannonballing the poor thing in a sneak attack. Considering she was only level one that was a jump of two whole levels which was more than enough. She was copying me and Bell though and waiting to level up so she had a more solid foundation though obviously nothing as extreme as what Bell or I had.