Celeste wandered through the village, her thoughts focused on what she could make into a Divine Artefact. She wanted to give these people something they could rally behind, and even if the artefact came with a downside, she was sure that it would still be powerful enough that nobody could take over Marcusburg.
The Goddess spotted King Marcus, after whom the city had obviously been named, and as she saw his full plate, an idea came to mind.
Walking up to the king, she gave a bow, making sure to appear respectful. There was no need for her to try and appear like she was gunning for his throne.
He gave her a wave of his hand, indicating for her to rise, his leg still bound in bandages.
"I was hoping that I could aid you, King Marcus," she said, and the rugged king instantly perked up.
"Is that so? Well, please, I know you have helped the town quite a bit, especially with all your repairs, but I was told that you even fixed up Paul's Inn for him. That was mighty kind of you, so please, anything you can do to aid us further would be much appreciated." He said, and Celeste knew that she could probably do some amazing things.
"I was hoping that I would be able to improve your armour. It seems finely crafted, and yet I know that I would be able to infuse it with powers beyond anything that should be possible." She explained, and she could see that she had the king hooked. He wanted her to, at the very least, look at his equipment to make it perfect.
Marcus nodded, though he seemed a little suspicious. "And in exchange for this, what would you ask of me?" He queried, clearly not expecting something like this from the good of the newcomer's heart.
Celeste knew that she had a choice. She could either simply give him the equipment and claim that she wanted to test her skills. However, the king would probably be suspicious of this, which left her with her second option. She could ask for something from the king she wanted, though it would have to be something that he already wanted to give her. Something that they both could benefit from came to mind.
"I need materials for my crafting, and as such, I want you to establish a mine. I want 1 percentage of any ores and materials that you extract from this mine, and in exchange, I will help construct and upgrade it." She said.
While one percentage wasn't much, she would be able to benefit from this on a scale of aeons rather than day-to-day operations.
King Marcus seemed to think the deal was almost too good, and he gave the newcomer a look. He was sizing her up, wondering what kind of benefits Celeste would get from this. Finally, he nodded, agreeing to her terms.
"Fine, do what you can." He said though Celeste wasn't satisfied with this. She looked at King Marcus and shook her head.
"Swear on your soul that as long as Marcusburg stands, this bargain will be honoured, and I will do the same," Celeste said, and Marcus seemed stunned when he realized that she intended to keep this going for as long as the city was standing the deal made much more sense.
He didn't hesitate much, simply nodding. "Giving you and your descendants a reason to help protect and improve this town seems like a great idea. I will gladly swear this." He said before placing a hand over his heart. "I, Marcus, The King of A'kastin and ruler of Marcusburg, hereby swear on my soul and without being forced that while Marcusburg stands and A'kastin is a sovereign nation, this city will operate and drift a single mine on a location determined by Celeste, the observer. In exchange, she will craft superior armour and a superior weapon for me, and help maintain the town and mine... She will also help craft the mine." King Marcus said in a loud voice.
It was the first time Celeste had heard the name of the kingdom that Marcus apparently was fighting for, and she got the feeling that Marcusburg made up a fairly large percentage of the kingdom's landmass. She didn't miss the fact that Marcus had added her to the city as well. He had probably thought that he was being clever and that he would end up with her and her descendants as labourers for the village. Celeste slowly placed a hand over her heart and simply said.
"I agree to these terms". The world seemed to shift, and Celeste was suddenly prompted with a notification.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The soul oath [https://i.postimg.cc/3xxMbbgn/image.png]
For a moment, Celeste thought about using Worship to create a permanent monument that would compel the people living in the town to live up to their end of the bargain, and not enforcing this oath seemed like it could come back to bite her.
Finally, she decided to simply use Energy, knowing that they would still be bound to the promise but, at the same time, could break it. She didn't want to spend her newly gained Worship forcing the people here to obey her.
Energy flowed from Celeste, and Marcus gave a grunt, and his eyes went wide.
Celeste smiled, knowing that while she had spent one Energy for the entire day just to bind the King, he would understand that breaking the promise would have dire consequences.
"It seems like I have made the right choice in turning you into an ally instead of having you as an enemy." King Marcus said, trying to make light of the situation, and Celeste was happy to humour him.
Without a word, she tried to pull the armour off the King by using it as material for making ingots. For the first time, her powers failed. Obviously, the AI hadn't intended for the power to be used offensively and had blocked the attempt. Celeste groaned as she realized that there were limits to her divine might.
"Can you please take off your armour and give me your sword as well." She said, feeling the joy of getting to work on something more complex tinted only slightly by the fact that she couldn't strip her enemies bare with merely a thought.
King Marcus was more than happy to get out of his armour, revealing the gambeson underneath. Soon the various sheets of metal plating were neatly arranged, though Celeste didn't really care how they were laid out, she did appreciate how well King Marcus took care of his armour.
With the King out of the way, Celeste sat down in front of the armour and focused on it. She could focus on each piece individually if she wanted, but instead, she made sure to see the entire armour as one large object. The Goddess focused and hummed slightly, feeling the slowly building pressure in her head. She had to think of an effect.
Celeste thought about the armour simply protecting its wielder more, but the armour seemed to reject that idea. She wanted to make it into a divine artefact, something that she could wear should she choose to. She thought about the armour making the wielder immortal, which was readily accepted.
Armour of the Everliving Reaper [https://i.postimg.cc/xTXXmgZN/image.png]
Celeste was almost brought out of her crafting trance just looking at the effect and price. It seemed insane to pay that much for an artefact, and especially something with such an extreme downside, though she was guessing that immortality was a tall order.
The Goddess considered her other Domains, knowing that she should probably include some of those. She thought for a couple of seconds and tried to focus on making the Armor easier to travel in, which would improve its overall quality.
Paladin's Oath item description [https://i.postimg.cc/SsbP6ZVS/image.png]
The effect seemed relatively small since Celeste gained it from the passive abilities of her Domain. It really wasn't that big a deal. Though thinking it over, she was essentially granting some inherent Divine effect to a mortal, something they never really should have access to.
Looking it over, this was probably the cheapest armour she could create, and it was still out of her budget. She would have to wait until she had gained more Worship, though Celeste would also have to ensure she kept up her part of the oath.
She quickly used the sword as the material for a new sword. The newest version was flawless, thanks to Celeste's Perpetual Perfection. It was ornate, and what had been a longsword had been turned into a claymore.
While a Claymore was longer than a longsword, Celeste had plenty of material to work with. The longsword had several flaws that required the original smith to add more material than it needed, and as such, it was much heavier than expected.
Celeste's result was perfect in every way. It was not only optimized for balance, but the weight was basically the same. It even glowed faintly to her eyes, as she realized that it was magical.
She tried to lift it and found it was effortless, but she didn't feel she could do more damage. Jasper had said that they wouldn't be able to benefit from such simple mortal enchantments, but it still disappointed her a little.
Celeste looked around, wondering if she could talk with someone about the weapon, only to see that the sun was high in the sky. A quick look at her clock told her that it was midday already. She had been crafting and tinkering for longer than she had expected. Celeste could suddenly see why Jasper always got caught up in his work, though there was something slightly ironic about the Goddess of Time losing track of time. Instead of thinking about it, she headed out to find a good place to set up a mine, which meant leaving the Village.
She could go out alone, but she wanted to hear if Jasper would like to join her, so she tried to look for him. She walked over to the King's house since he was living in what looked like a regular home, left the claymore at his door, and picked up the scraps of the armour, quickly converting the entire thing into ingots that would be easier to carry in her many pockets.