"Well just at first glance I can see a few things that could be better for a forge. You have no quenching liquid for one and no hammer either. Then again your method of crafting is different than traditional work and these ideas might be more detrimental than helpful." Hephaestus said with a sigh.
"No I think those are fairly good ideas, ones I myself had thought of but actually adding them is not exactly easy. Even now as we speak I am burning through my energy at an extreme rate." I said helplessly.
"Before that though I want to test a theory." Freya said and we all looked at her curiously.
What happened next was uncomfortable for several reasons. A sort of chime rang out from her body as her form glowed in a rainbow hue of raw power. Almost immediately I felt my domains effectiveness tank hard as it was being contested, except there was no contest. Freya flat out overwhelmed my domain to the point it shattered nearly instantly. She was fast enough to reseal herself however so even after my domain fell she wasn't punished.-
"Are you insane!?" Hephaestus yelled in shock at what just happened.
"No, I'm right." Freya said with a proud expression.
"About what? As far as I saw all you did was almost get sent back to the divine realm!" Hephaestus said seriously.
"That's just it though, I didn't get sent back. For the brief moment it lasted my unsealed presence was concealed from the world. His domain can let gods use their full power in the mortal world!" Freya said with an eager expression.
"Hate to burst your bubble there but you are wrong." I said with a pounding headache from most of my cursed techniques being burnt out.
"But it worked so how am I wrong?" freya asked confused.
"The way my domain works is similar to the effect an unsealed gods presence effects the world remember? By just uncorking in my domain your mere presence contested with it over which effect would be exerted and I can tell you for certain the two are not even close to being equal. That's why it shattered like it did, you literally broke it by merely existing in it. As if that's not bad enough by shattering my domain so forcefully you've crippled the majority of my cursed techniques until they have time to recover. Spoilers, its gonna take a while." I said annoyed.
Domains were the physical embodiment of cursed techniques after all so shattering one caused those techniques to be burnt out, almost like breaking an arm on a spiritual level. As a result I couldn't use the effected techniques without suffering for it or possibly making the injury even worse. Don't get me wrong I could still use cursed energy in it's raw form or with a technique that was unaffected but both my hell fire and hell's forge techniques were inoperable unless I wanted to risk the damage getting so much worse.-
I could use a vow to fix the problem but that was one of those desperation type things and not something you do because it's inconvenient. Besides it wasn't even all that bad since even without those techniques I was by no means helpless. I still had my stats that put me right at level seven roughly as well as my newest cursed technique. Honestly the most annoying thing had to be the fact I simply couldn't craft anything until my techniques recovered.-
"So you are vulnerable at the moment?" Hephaestus asked concerned.
"Depends on your definition of vulnerable. I am still more or less as strong as a new level seven as Ottar can attest to. Even then I can still heal myself since that uses something other than my technique. Can't shrug off lethal hits anymore or craft though. I'm going to be bored out of my fucking mind till my techniques recover." I complained.
"Sorry." Freya said embarrassed by the consequences of her recklessness.
"It's not all bad news." Hephaestus said getting both me and Freya to look at her weirdly.
"Do elaborate." I said curious about what the fuck she was talking about since there was nothing good I could see about this situation.
"We can get more dates now since you've got nothing better to do." she said and Freya's whole face lit up at the idea while mine lost color.
As much as I REALLY didn't like it she wasn't wrong. Without my techniques I was abso-fucking-lutely not going into the dungeon as I may as well be asking fate to kick me in the dick at that point. People definitely were going to try to kill me any chance they got after my little spar with Ottar and that divine meeting. Evilus in particular were at the top of that list since a new level seven force would throw a massive obstacle in their way.-
You could plan around Ottar since he was rarely away from Freya's side and even rarer acted without her say so first. Me though I came and went as I pleased and my abilities were a big unknown with the stuff actually known being alarming enough by itself. To top it all off I was already considered one of the best craftsmen in the city BEFORE I leveled up this last time.-
Now though? People definitely thought I might finally take the title from the Hephaestus familia since Hephaestus herself doesn't count being a goddess and all. They weren't wrong since I could now kinda make use of draconite which no one else could. Needless to say I was a fat juicy target at the moment and wasn't stupid enough to serve myself on a silver fucking platter. As for whether I would ACTUALLY go on more dates with these two that was a whole other matter. For Hephaestus I did kinda owe her one since the last one got cut short.-
After that though I was under no obligation to indulge either of them. Ugh, I can already imagine how much they are going to pester me about this.
"Just to be clear here I owe you a date already cuz of last time but if either of you get pushy I might just put myself to sleep till I recover." I said seriously while looking at Hephaestus.
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