- [Goblin-Tooth] -

- Quality -

Normal

- Quality Effects -

None

Goblin Affinity: NATURE/DARK

A jagged, snarled tooth that once belonged to a goblin. It now belongs to you. Weight: 0.1 kg Value: 04 Obols

Hineni looks at the little goblin-tooth that he is holding between his fingers. It’s a sharp, canine tooth from one of the little, green monsters. Goblins are common things that roam the forests of the deep-south. So, hundreds, if not thousands of them, have been caught in the crossfire of the war thus far.

While they are akin to something human, they’re not classified as anything close to being regarded as such. They’re just monsters, like any other.

“So, uh…” Rhine looks at him. “How are we going to make a weapon out of that?” he asks, looking at the tiny tooth.

“We’re not,” replies Hineni, setting the tooth down on to an anvil.

The forge is currently still under construction, as is everything else related to this new project of theirs, so at the moment, the two of them are working outside. He had set up a makeshift pavilion of sorts, using his carpentry abilities and they had unloaded all of their simple equipment here beneath it, so they could start their work.

Hineni grabs a large, flat hammer and smashes it down over the tooth, crumbling it into tiny pieces that he then swipes off into a bowl. The man bends down, picking up a small, rattling sack and sets it down, opening it up to show Rhine the contents.

Hundreds of teeth fill the bag, stained with various shades of yellow, presumably harvested from just as many hundreds of goblins.

“We’re going to be using these,” he explains. “All of them.”

“Oh,” says Rhine, staring for a moment. “…Do you think this is kind of dark, though?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” replies Hineni, setting some other teeth down onto the anvil. “It’s like we said the other day, Rhine,” says the man. “We’re all just excited about the move. It’s a big change to our lifestyles.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” concedes Rhine. “Uh, so.” He bends down, picking up the bowl with what can only be described as ‘tooth-powder’ in it. “We’re making a paste out of this and then using that to make weapons?”

“Exactly,” replies Hineni.

Rhine tilts his head. “Do you think this can work?” he asks, looking at the powder. He grabs a pinch of it, crumbling it. “I don’t know if bones and teeth aren’t super brittle if you make goo out of them?”

Hineni nods. “We’ll use some sort of base material,” he explains. “Some neutral blend of steel and then we’ll mix the powder in with that,” he says. “That should get us something and if it doesn’t, then we’ll try something else.” He smashes a few more teeth, cracking them like walnuts. “This is all just about trying new stuff out,” explains Hineni. “We’ll see what’s good and what’s not so good and adjust from there.” He rolls his shoulders. "That's what a man's life's all about, Rhine."

“Okay,” replies Rhine. “I’ll get to work on the steel then.”

Hineni nods. The two of them set to work, making the first monster-based items of their craft.

- [Goblin-Steel Ingot] -

- Quality -

High

- Composition -

Steel{Grade 333}: 59.99%

Goblin Tooth: 39.99%

Impurities: 0.02%

- Quality Effects -

None

Goblin Steel: All summoning items made will attribute summoned entities with NATURE/DARK affinities

Goblin Steel: All defensive items made will bestow NATURE/DARK resistances

Goblin-steel is a blend of powdered goblin-teeth, mixed into a base of molten steel. It has an off, chalky color and is much more brittle than standard steel. However, it has several magical properties connected to DARK/NATURE.

Weight: 5.0kg Value: 120 Obols

“Well I’ll be,” says Rhine, looking at the very odd bar of metal down between them. “You know, I didn’t think it was gonna work,” he says. “I figured the powder and the steel would just sort of separate and it would make a big, chunky mess when it hardened.”

“Life is an adventure,” replies Hineni, looking at the ingot. He can’t help but wonder about how many goblins are ‘inside’ of this piece of metal. The man tilts his head. “Great work,” he praises. “Let’s go grab lunch and then we’ll figure out what exactly we’re supposed to do with this thing,” he says, tapping it.

“- Harpy feet,” says Sockel.

Hineni sits there, holding his lunch in his hands as Sockel slaps a long, taloned toe down onto the table.

“Who~!” protests Obscura.

It’s not hard to see why. She shares a strong similarity with the physiology of a harpy. Hineni continues to chew his food, looking at the half-bird-person’s toe.

“We can get these for a steal,” explains Sockel. “The forest is thick with the damn things and they’re super territorial,” she says. “So they’ve been getting involved in the fighting everywhere against all sides.”

Hineni nods. He’s sure he can make something with these.

“So, what the hell are harpies anyway?” he asks. “Are they… smart? Or are they just kind of angry birds that look sort of like people?”

Obscura clicks with her mouth, pushing the severed talon back and away from herself with a finger. “The brood of harps are snippy, bitey creatures,” she says, hissing. “But they avoid trees that belong to owls. Old promises remain kept.”

“…Huh…” says Hineni, shrugging. So they’re at least smart enough to hold promises, generational ones at that.

Interesting.

“What about goblins?” he asks.

Sockel shrugs. “They’re nasty little things. But they’ll get the job done if you push them the right way.”

“What?” asks Hineni. “Job?”

Sockel nods. “Oh, yeah,” she says. “Old assassin’s trick,” she says, sitting down at the table. “When your target is going somewhere, you get to the route in advance,” she says. “Goblins are everywhere, so you just hint some information to them about a free lunch and they’ll be all over the place. They’re free employees.”

“Wait…” says Rhine. “How do you give hints to goblins?” he asks. “I thought they don’t talk to people?”

“They don’t,” replies Sockel. “But if you throw a map their way, or a schedule, and pretend you lost it while they’re watching you, they buy it every time.” She shakes her head. “They’re not that smart. But that’s why they’re useful.” Sockel shakes her head. "Every good complot needs useful idiots."

“Neat,” replies Rhine, returning to his lunch.

“Right?” asks Sockel.

Hineni lifts an eyebrow. “I still don’t think you should be teaching Rhine about this stuff.”

Sockel folds her hands, resting her elbows on the table as she looks at him.

“— There’s a severed bird foot sitting between us,” she replies.

Hineni looks at her and then down at the freshly cut, still dripping harpy talon. “I mean… you put it there.”

“It’s okay!” says Rhine. “I think this sort of stuff is super interesting!”

“See?” asks Sockel. “It’s fine. I know what I’m doing,” explains the elf. Hineni isn’t so sure about that. But then again, does he know what he's doing?

Not really.

The man shrugs, returning to his lunch. It’s probably fine.

They’ve returned to the forge.

“So, I was thinking,” says Rhine. “Because the material is so brittle, we probably should stick to caster’s weapons with it,” he explains. “Although, because of these weird ‘goblin’ properties, maybe copper would have been a better material than steel to blend it with?”

Hineni nods.

Steel is a good base metal for a lot of things like weapons and armor. But the properties certainly veer towards being more beneficial for a front-line type, rather than for any casters. So for this particular ingredient, the goblin-teeth, which seem to have caster-beneficial properties, copper would have indeed been a stronger choice than steel.

“This is why it’s important we test this stuff out,” says Hineni. “Let’s make a new one with copper then. It’ll be better for a staff than this steel.”

Rhine lifts a hand. “I would suggest that we make wands,” he explains. “Because it’s so brittle, swords and stuff are definitely out.” He taps the bar. “But a staff is also usually pretty heavy and gets hit against things a lot. A wand though, people are going to be more careful with it simply because it’s already more… dainty.”

Hineni thinks about it for a moment. It’s not a bad point. This sort of maximizing of efficiency is very important for their work. He nods. “Okay. We’ll make a new blend with copper and use that to make wands.”

The two of them set to work.

- [Goblin-Copper Ingot] -

- Quality -

High

- Composition -

Copper: 59.99%

Goblin Tooth: 39.99%

Impurities: 0.02%

- Quality Effects -

None

Goblin Copper: All summoning items made will attribute summoned entities with strong NATURE/DARK affinities

Goblin Copper: All defensive items made will bestow strong NATURE/DARK resistances

Goblin-copper is a blend of powdered goblin-teeth, mixed into a base of molten copper. It has an off, chalky color and is much more brittle than standard copper. However, it has several magical properties connected to DARK/NATURE that are enhanced by the copper’s attributes.

Weight: 5.0kg Value: 150 Obols - [Goblin-Copper Wand]{Treasure of the owl-god} -

- Quality -

High

- Composition -

[Goblin-Copper Wand](Normal)

[Leather Wrap](Normal)

[Black Cloth Wrap](Normal)

[Black Cord](Normal)

- Quality Effects -

High: +5% WIS

“Treasure of the Owl-God”

Adds additional attributes to the attached weapon - Title Effect - “Treasure of the owl-god” +9 OBSCURANTISM +9 WIND DMG +9 LUK Augments all offensive spells with +9 NATURE DMG

*Augments all offensive spells with +9 WIND DMG (“Treasure of the owl-god”) A long, sturdy wand made out of a blend of copper and goblin-teeth. It is not very durable, but it has strong magical properties.

‘Made by Weaponsmith Hineni - Chosen of the Owl-God’

‘Made by Rhine, the river-wizard - Follower of the Owl-God’

All summoned monsters of the affinities NATURE or DARK are summoned as variants that are one rank higher than the spell. ‘Rank D’ summons will become ‘Rank C’. ‘Rank C’ will become ‘Rank B’ and so on. Weight: 1.23kg Durability: 19/19 Value: 1220 Obols

Hineni nods, fairly satisfied with the item. He picks up the wand, looking at it. It turned out better than he had expected, honestly.

“The military is gonna love these,” says Rhine. “Summoners play a huge role in war zones.”

“Do they?” asks Hineni. “I wouldn’t know, honestly.”

Rhine nods. “They’re casters that, well, they summon monsters. It’s in the name,” he says, shrugging. “So it works out as free man-power. If the summoned monsters die, they can just summon new ones again for some soul-points.”

“Hmm… Interesting,” says Hineni. He’s never gotten too deep into how, well, how anything works in regards to the magic-system or military logistics or any of that stuff.

But it’s fine.

He has people to do that for him now.

The man lifts his gaze, looking out over the forest that, despite being on fire day and night, somehow never quite manages to burn down. It isn’t just the monsters that have interesting magical properties to work with here. The forest itself, the wood, the trees, the water, everything here has some form of magical property.

— Everything here can be used to make some kind of a weapon.

"Hey, do you think we should stop signing our names on the weapons?" asks Rhine, looking his way. "So we don't provoke them even more, now that we live right inside of the warzone?"

Hineni looks at him and then back towards the wand. "But I want them to know that I made it," he explains. "It's about my pride as a craftsman."

"Huh… well, okay," says Rhine.

The two of them watch from the pavilion as a massive, hulking golem rises out of the distant forest, towering above the trees. It roars, its booming voice rumbling the equipment of the forge, even at this distance. "Hey, look!" says Rhine as several massive arrows launch out of the forest. "They're using our ballista ammunition!"

Hineni nods, watching the massive arrows, the size of tree-trunks, flying out of the forest and towards the golem, breaking off large chunks of its body. "Feels good, right?" he asks, pointing at the golem. The terrifying monstrosity bends down, picking up one siege weapon of hundreds from the forest, its crew falling to the ground, before it hurtles the construction towards the horizon. "- Our names are on those arrows, Rhine."

Rhine looks at him and then back towards the chaos, unfolding in the distance. "It's like we're a part of all of this."

"We are, Rhine," says Hineni, proudly placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "We are."