Patron of the village! [https://i.postimg.cc/BQVfLfLH/image.png]
Celeste woke up to another message about getting worship. She didn't know how she felt about this one. Well, that was a lie, she had orchestrated an invasion, which wasn't really something she had expected to do.
"Uhm, Jasper are you seeing this?" She asked. Jasper was sprawled out beside her.
"Yup, though you shouldn't worry too much about it. I am pretty sure that the game will use any excuse to try and cram all races into the starting zone, our actions are just a convenient excuse to resolve this, which is why we are here. I wouldn't be surprised if drows and dwarves are in the tunnels underneath the mine, and as soon as we start digging they will spring up" He explained, she looked over at him and sighed.
"I guess... I am assuming that you got the same message?" She asked, and he nodded.
"Yup, 4 worship... Though I got it for introducing a new spell school." He said, slowly getting up and getting a quick washdown.
To her surprise, Celeste could see various bruises on his body, though she didn't feel any worse for wear.
"You are still hurt?" She asked, and Jasper tried to stretch but winced.
"Yeah, we only heal our rank in health every day, so it is a slow progress... not to mention that most mortal healing doesn't work on us. I tried to make a salve, but it did absolutely nothing" Jasper explained.
Celeste looked at the clocks in her Heads up display and winced. "We have 5, maybe 3 days left in here before we need to disconnect. We have already been gaming for almost 4 hours, and it seems like we might want to speed things up a little." She said.
It was the weekend out in the real world, but that didn't mean that they could simply waste away while gaming. She was pretty sure that they would be dehydrated and sore when they got out, so they would need some time to recover. Jasper agreed as they got dressed and made their way down the stairs.
There was so much that needed to be done. The fact that their worst enemy was time was almost poetic. Even the goddess of time was a slave to it.
They could, of course, stay longer in the game. Both of them knew that it was a slippery slope. 14 hours was already... a lot, and each day would add two more hours to that total. Celeste had allocated them 14 hours, a full week in the game, and Jasper knew that he should listen to her. Celeste preferred when there was some semblance of a plan, and having a deadline really worked for her.
After breakfast, the pair split up. Jasper wouldn't be teaching today. Instead, he would focus on crafting the ground cooling installation. He would make a prototype and have Celeste help him out later.
Celeste was making her rounds in town and she came to a halt. She could see a new building slowly being constructed. Around ten were people helping out by lifting and shaping dried oak logs into a small box-like structure.
Celeste examined it closer, she could see the makings of a firing pit, as well as plenty of space for movement. Combined with the fact that there was made room for air to flow through the building, the goddess of tinkering was fairly sure they were constructing a smithy. They would still need a refinery, as the ore from the mine would be rough to use directly, but it seemed to be good work.
A broad-shouldered woman was clearly in charge of the operation. Her jet-black hair was neatly tugged into a braid, and she was directing people as much as she was helping.
As soon as Celeste heard her talk, she thought about what Jasper had said about the innkeeper's accent. The woman had a fairly hefty German accent, seemingly unrelated to the environment around them.
"I need some stones shaped for ze firing pit. Kenneth, I vill be zere to help you vith ze crossbeam in a second, please calm down, it is not zat heavy." She turned her attention to Celeste.
The massive woman smiled and waved. "Ey, you must be ze newcommer zat has been helping out around town! Please to meet you. I am Helga. If you have ze time, I could use some help."
Celeste didn't break her stride, dedicating Energy for the entire day to gain access to Ten Thousand Tools.
Celeste talked with Helga as they worked. The more she talked with the woman the more it became clear that she was trying to change the world for the better, as Helga's dream was to be remembered.
The goddess really wanted to spend her worship helping the smith, but she also needed it for the King's armour. She had promised him superior armour and weapons.
However, the standard sword she had created had been considered superior thanks to her gift of making things magical. She could see a loophole that was worth exploiting. After all, the King had almost gotten them killed. It probably wasn't his intention, but gods could be fickle, right?
Thanks to Celeste's work the smithy was done in record time. She had pretty much increased the number of labourers assigned to the construction a hundredfold.
It wasn't long before Helga and Celeste were standing in the smithy, while the others were making their way back to various other tasks.
The goddess pulled out the ingots that had been the king's armour and started to work. She poured herself into the craft, truly creating something amazing, instead of simply manifesting the object that would be perfection, she actually applied the skills that the game had given her.
She was working hard, sweat pouring from her brow as she created interlocking plates that would be almost impossible to find a weak spot in. It was closer to scalemail than to plate armour, and thanks to various pieces of chainmail anything that needed to stretch would have space for doing it.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
It was a time-consuming project, something that would have taken most mortals ten years to produce, with perfect knowledge of how to construct the armour she managed to do it in eight hours.
Her clothes were soaked through from standing at the forge, and she could barely stand on her feet, but Celeste was done.
She looked at the armour. A masterpiece. A magnum opus. It was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. At that moment, more than any other moment, even with all the time-bending she had ever done, Celeste understood what level she was working on. She was creating perfect works with a single thought, and with less than a single day's work she had managed to create something that would not be rivalled for decades.
She had spent a lot of her basic resources though, but it was done, she had not even spent worship on it.
She pulled it up and looked at it, then felt disappointment. It was clear that it would not work for her in the slightest, the armour was just too simple, not reaching divine quality, but rather it was closer to peak mortal quality.
She sighed. "Can I interrupt you now?" Jasper's voice could be heard from the entrance to the smithy, and for the first time, Celeste managed to look around and realize that Helga had left, but Jasper was waiting for her.
"Uhm, yeah, sorry. You needed me for the project... Are you ready for me to start constructing it?" She asked, leaning against an anvil made from polished stone.
Jasper shook his head. "It is fine, looks like you might need a mental break though. That amount of concentration can't be healthy. We can work on it another day." Jasper said with a smile. "You should be able to bring up the mortal stats for it if you want." He added pointing at the intricate armour.
Celeste shook her head. It would just be even more depressing to see what she was missing out on.
The couple went to hand over the armour, only to find that the king was out supervising some scouting project. Orks had been spotted at the southwestern border, and they were trying to set up a trap.
Both Celeste and Jasper knew that probably wouldn't work, seeing as the game wanted the orks in these lands. They could, of course, try and warn the populace, but doing that probably wouldn't change anything either.
After all, two mysterious newcomers talking about the fate of the lands would make a great tale, though the tale would be about how the people of the land should have listened to them since they were the gods in disguise.
It was late evening, almost edging on night, when Celeste decided to return to the forge just to check everything out before getting some sleep.
She looked around it and sighed. She wanted to help out Helga the Smith. Celeste sat down and focused on the environment around her, pouring her intention into it. She wanted to make this place better. She wanted to help. She was rewarded with a notification.
Place resonates [https://i.postimg.cc/KYXKm03L/image.png]
Celeste blinked. She hadn't known that she could do that, but it made sense.
She desperately wanted to agree, reaching out to the notification and pouring every ounce of willpower and worship she had into confirming this.
Celeste felt her worship pour out of her, as all 6 of them were consumed by the shrine, around her the world started to make impossible changes, as it was forced to bend to divine will.
Celeste opened her eyes and she felt her breath get caught.
What had been a log cabin with two half-open opposing walls was now made from solid stone and completely enclosed. It even had a proper vent system for the fire, ensuring that it was fed enough air, while the exhaust was pulled out through the wall.
The ceiling had changed too, becoming a massive ticking clock. She could see the hands slowly rotate above her, but as she tried to reach up she found she couldn't touch it, it seemed to be just out of reach no matter how much she stretched. Behind the massive ticking clock was a view of the stars, though Celeste knew the view wouldn't be possible from the smithy's location.
A compass had been engraved into the stone underneath her and she had lost the ability to speak. This place was impossible. It was the only way to describe it.
The anvil, which had been made from stone, was now made from metal, though it was accompanied by various other anvils, all of different metals allowing for different hardness.
All around her tools could be seen, as if she simply had to think of one she needed and it would materialize. She was stunned.
Finally, she looked at the notification that was trying to get her attention.
Divine shrine description [https://i.postimg.cc/cHysKyzX/image.png]
Celeste grinned, proud of her hard work. This would indeed be an impressive smithy and one that would definitely be worth every bit of worship she had put into it.
"AS THE CREATOR OF THIS SHRINE, I ANNOUNCE THAT HELGA SMITH WILL BE THE CURRENT SMITH OF THIS SHRINE!" She spoke loudly and with force. "SHOULD HELGA BE BANISHED WITHOUT COURSE, MY DIVINE WRATH WILL BRING DOWN THESE WALLS!" She said, having seen that even while dealing with allies, this town would always do what it believed to be best.
Celeste was sure if given the opportunity, King Marcus would take this power for himself, no matter how noble his intentions were, this wasn't something that Celeste found compelling. "THIS WILL BE TRUE UNTIL HELGA WILLINGLY AND WITHOUT COERSION WITHDRAWS FROM THIS POST!" And with this decree, the words were inscribed onto the stone wall.
It wasn't long before Celeste found herself back in the tavern room with Jasper.
Jasper was working on another tome, writing out some information about a school of magic called Mentalism.
"I made my first shrine," She said as if she was mentioning having been bought a new dress.
Jasper looked up and clicked his ballpoint pen. "You did? I thought I sensed something." He said, paying attention to what she was saying. "Made something impressive?" He asked, and she nodded.
"Yeah, it is interesting, though..." She said using the fact that she had knowledge he didn't to intrigue him even further. "The cost was much smaller than I had expected. Compared to the artefacts that I have tried to create... the things the new smithy can do is just... wow." She explained and Jasper frowned.
"It was cheaper, but it is a much bigger item?" He asked with disbelief, though as he thought about it, he could see the decision from a game system perspective. "Are there any restrictions on the smithy?" He followed up, trying to figure one more aspect out before presenting his theory.
"Yeah, only one person can use it." She explained which seemed to make things click for her as well. "Sooo. You are thinking that the number of people that can use the end product impacts the cost?" Celeste asked, which made Jasper nod.
"Yup! When I tried to implement a new rune... it cost 64 worship before my discount." Jasper revealed, and the idea of so much worship spent made Celeste wince. Jasper continued "Sounds like there is some standard score based on how many people it will affect, which is then probably multiplied by another score that is determined by how hard the change is to perform." Jasper said with that smugness that was kinda cute when you got to know him.
It made sense to Celeste. Jasper seemed to be in his explanation mode, so he continued. "And that is why artefacts are so expensive. We benefit from artefacts, meaning that to prevent us from simply amassing more power, the artefacts are gated behind a high cost. Lightning bolts for the gods might be fun, but the feats of creating you are already performing are already impressive." Jasper said, and Celeste smiled.
She felt happy in that moment as she stood up and dragged Jasper towards the bed, to ensure that he didn't suffer from burnout and got some sleep as well.