The remaining two days went smoothly without trouble, beyond an occasional flying monster attacking. They finally arrived at their destination, a port town called Venta, which was a single day’s trip to the city of Alta. Micah and Eric spoke with the Prince and his party, letting them know that they were going to be going a separate way, but helped him to get a seat in Mr. Barlett’s caravan, though many people begged him to continue traveling with them. They made sure to report the bandit attack to the local guard garrison. When the Lord heard about what happened, he ordered patrols on the path to Alta to be increased, and scouts to search for the bandit base of operation.

Eric and Micah enjoyed a day to tour around the city of Venta. Eric stocked up on various items using his reward money from the Maritime’s guild for his assistance in freeing the boat’s rudder. He also received a monetary reward from the local Lord as well for his heroic actions that saved everyone on the boat.

I’m still not sure if I deserve this, I mean, all I did was break some ice…

“You deserved it.” Micah read his mind.

“Ngh, is it really that easy to read me? I mean seriously?” Eric was feeling down that everyone seems to be able to read him.

“Well, you just have one of those honest faces. Though when you, put that on, you cut quite a gallant and powerful picture.”

That? Oh, Phaestus.

“Actually, that is something I was thinking about earlier. Do you think I should change over and arrive in Alta like that?” He asked her opinion.

“You mean change and travel from here?”

“I mean, I know we made plans already to split up with the caravan tomorrow, but I could get there way faster using my tru-, vehicle.”

Micah thought for a bit and decided it would be better for them to arrive as his alter persona and make a big play of the arrival of Hephaestus to the city. Eric would then maintain the persona of Hephaestus during their time in Alta as it would draw an enormous amount of ire from the church and its’ supporters.

“Oh right, do you think Luna could do one of those masks for me too?” Micah asked.

“I would have to make one first, then check to see if she could do it.” He answered.

They went to an inn and rented a single room with two beds. The inn keeper said he had a room with a nice single bed, but Micah declined vehemently out of embarrassment. After getting to their room, Eric shifted them to the Haven.

Eric went to his workshop while Micah grabbed some rocket boar jerky he had made the other day and followed after him. He pulled out his most recent purchase from the town of Venta, a single ingot of mithril. It had cost most of the reward he received from both the Maritime’s guild and local lord, but he finally had the fantasy metal he had been wanting for so long.

Using a power tool with a cutting blade, which was turned into a divine tool by Luna, he split third of the ingot off. He then took the two-third section and used the [Molding] spell to make it malleable.

Holy hell that was a lot of magic to do that. Hmm? Oh, uh, Micah, your eyes are out of your head and your jaw punched through the floor.

Micah completely shocked at what Eric was doing as he continued to mold and shape the metal into a mask for her. She made a comment that his magic reserves must be huge as mithril was an incredibly powerful magic metal. He modeled it similar to his original, where it covered the upper half of his face and bridge of his nose, then he formed the two small horns coming out of the forehead area.

Taking out a simple needle tool he used to clean threading of nuts and bolts, he began carving an elaborate design into front of the mask.

“Don’t forget to make it masculine.” Micah commented.

He looked at her questioningly. “What?”

“That is to be your new mask, not mine. You were planning on just adding some mithril plating and embellishments to your original, uh, Nordic gold one, right?” She was spot on.

“You are Master Hephaestus, you need to have the more dominant mask.”

He couldn’t argue with her logic. “You’re right. Oh! Wait! I have that rune crafting book!”

He summoned a book from his house to him. It was a book on advanced runes. The remaining bit of reward money he got, he spent on a beginner and advanced books on rune crafting. He looked up a few specific runes he felt would be useful and purchased the reagents to make them as well.

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Let’s see, first is mental protection.

Using the needle, he marked the symbols into the mask, then he summoned the reagents to his work table. Putting them into a small alchemy pot, he added some water from his well and channeled his magic to create the magic binding agent. Once the mixture was evenly mixed, he used a pipette to add the mixture to the symbols. Once he finished filling the symbols, they changed their purplish glow to blue and solidified.

Next, speed.

He repeated the process multiple times, adding in strength, defense, magic boost, magic defense, and perception. While he worked on his new mask, Micah recovered from her shock and moved to complete her assigned project of making a similar robe to his. Her robe looked the same as his dark gray one, but hers was a dark red like wine, and the trim was solely silver. Eric finished his mask, which now looked like an ancient and powerful artifact.

“All done, [Molding] off.”

An explosion of light and power blinded them as a beam of light shone into the air.

“Eric! What did you do!?” Micah cried.

The light receded and the mask looked to be humming with power.

“Holy shit, what the hell did I just make?” Eric asked to no one, but ended up getting an answer.

“A divine artifact.” A slender woman in a red kimono stood before them, her dark hair up in an elaborate design.

“It’s you! Oh, uh Micah, this is the senior goddess that helped me along with Luna when I first got here.”

Micah panicked and dropped down, bowing to the goddess.

“It is fine, no need to bow. Please stand.” She turned and held her hand out toward Eric, which he handed her the mask.

Looking it over, she smiled, impressed. “Very good work I must say. Luna is a bit busy at this time getting a lec-, ahem, getting some advice, so I was watching over you. You want this mask to function like the other correct? Very well.”

A bit of divine light flowed from her hand into the mask. “And done. I will also assist with the other mask as well.”

She picked up the other mask, and in a much more tamed pillar of light, the runes were copied over to the new mask, the remaining amount of his reagent mix imbuing itself into the mask.

“And done. Here you go. I will let you complete the remaining part.” The goddess handed both masks back to Eric.

“T-thank you very much. That was a great help.” Eric gave her a heartfelt thanks.

“It is no issue, I was bored anyway. Farewell.” And in a quick flash of light, she was gone.

“Um, did that just happen?” Micah asked, completely flabbergasted.

Eric could only awkwardly laugh until he saw Micah’s nearly completed robe.

Crap! I forgot to ask if she could-. All of a sudden a small potion bottle with a rainbow colored liquid appeared on the table next to him with a note.

My apologies, in my haste I forgot about your companion’s robe. Just pour this on it and it will have a similar effect your own. We look forward to your next endeavor.

Eric laughed and showed the letter to Micah.

“That is really nice of her. She definitely seems more reliable than Luna. What is her name? I feel I should offer a prayer of thanks.”

Eric realized then that he missed his chance to ask the goddess’ name. They had hoped another card would appear, but were saddened not to see one. Micah ended up offering a prayer of thanks anyway and finished up her robe while Eric used [Molding] one more, changing the mask Micah would wear to fit her face and added mithril trimming to the mask and plated the horns with mithril as well. He made sure to smooth out the surface more to give it a more feminine look.

“Hey, I am ready to add the potion to the robe now.” Micah said holding the bottle.

Uncorking the bottle, she poured the contents onto the robe. It came out almost like a mist, covering the entirety of the robe and soaked into it.

Micah put on the robe and mask, pulling the hood up. The mask maintained its’ original function of making it impossible to make out her features.

“So, how do I look?” She asked.

That was when Eric realized the mask also altered one’s voice to make it harder to recognize it.

“You look great Micah. I noticed that it not only masks your appearance, but also your voice. One sec.” Eric put on his mask and robe.

He felt a surge of power and strength flow through his body, HOLY SHIT!

“You okay? Did the rune power hit you?”

Eric quickly got used to the empowered feeling.

“You sound like normal now.” He said.

“Ah! You finally sound like yourself! When you were dressed as Hephaestus, you had a deep, commanding, and powerful voice. Like the voice of a ruler.” She blushed a little bit.

Hmm?

They both realized that with them both wearing the masks, they could make out their normal physical features. They smiled and enjoyed the divine rocket boar jerky and turned in for the night.

In the Divine Realm, the senior goddess sat elegantly on a Japanese style floor with a table. Floating in the air was a large oval mirror that was showing Eric and Micah enjoying their meal. The location was surrounded by fluffy clouds and floating bits of golden light like fireflies.

“********, I’m back.” An exhausted Luna walked in from the clouds.

“Welcome back ******.” The senior goddess said with a friendly smile.

Slumping to the floor, Luna laid her upper body across the table letting out a heavy sigh. The senior goddess offered a cup of tea for Luna, who took a sip.

“So, did anything interesting happen?” Luna asked.

“Not much. Eric created a divine artifact. I also gave some assistance in copying your blessings to the mask and robe for Micah.”

“Oh, thank you ******, I really… He made a what?” Luna tensed up, her tired smile frozen on her face.

“He made a divine artifact.” A cold sweat ran down Luna’s brow.

“Heh, heh, I’m sorry, I thought I heard you say he made a divine artifact.”

The senior goddess quietly sipped her tea giving no response.

Luna realizing she wasn’t hearing things cried out in frustration, “Nooooo! I am going to get lectured again!”

Luna pounded the table a couple of times as she cried into it. The senior goddess petted Luna’s head to comfort her.

“Don’t worry Luna, I will go with you this time. Elder ******* will take it easy on you if I am with you. The goddess of love has a habit of causing mischief. I will make sure your lecture is only a sentence or two.”

Luna hugged onto the senior goddess, thanking and declaring her love for her. Like a big sister, the senior goddess continued to comfort her poor junior. The senior goddess noticed Eric doing some additional rune crafting after making some more of the reagent mixture.

How interesting, I look forward to you entertaining me more. The senior goddess thought with a smile.