Golden Artificer c1 (Patreon)

When the sun finally rose, I pondered on my next move.

I still have a few loaves of bread. It will be enough until I get some money.

‘With how primitive the engineering and construction methods are, the steel industry should not be any better.

I can walk around the smithies and collect their waste. The forges are ancient, and their flames don't remove all of the impurities.

That works in the opposite way, too.’

In medieval times, there should be no interest in recycling materials. I doubt anyone even comprehends stuff like pollution.

However, these Gods do pose a variable.

But seeing the state of the slums, I doubt that's the case.

These gods are more on the pagan side, meaning they have ego, and if they have ego, they can swing as hard as humans in their desires.

Them wanting to recycle is on a lower probability.

Well, anyway, I decided to inspect the barrier before proceeding to explore.

As I got up and walked outside the influence of the barrier, I checked the opposite side of the walkway.

The barrier was working, but now I need to build a way to enter this place and ensure people don't find my workshop.

In other words, I need to add more security and more barriers.

‘But for now, I need more valis and food.’ I grimaced at the idea of working to get food.

‘Who does that?’

Part of me was grimacing; it was like I was back at the roots.

After thinking about the things I needed, I walked towards the blacksmithing district.

The sounds of metal hitting metal and the smell of burning wood assaulted me the moment I was in the district.

I quickly walked to the first blacksmith store. Behind it, I saw a pile of metal. The metal was the scraps I was thinking about.

“Hey kid, what do you want!?”

The voice of a rough man greeted me.

I turned towards him. The man was a ripped human with darkened skin from all his work in the forge.

“Do you need those scraps?”

“...Huh? You want that garbage?” He asked with disbelief.

“Yes. I can take all of it for free.” I said with a ‘smile’. Since I was a kid that age, I might as well use that smile.

“Hmm. sure, I guess. Take it as much as you want.” After saying that, the blacksmith turned around and returned to the forge.

“My thanks!”

‘As I thought. They don't care about garbage.’

I walked over and placed my hand on the metal scraps.

The majority of them are failed projects or low-quality iron.

By low quality, it means they have a lot of impurities. None of these things are bad. I can quickly turn these into good-quality armour or swords.

For now, I collected a few better-looking things before walking away.

Since I have a source of resources, I can now focus on my work.

~~~

Around three trips later, and eating another loaf of bread, I was ready to work. But then I realised that I needed water.

‘For fuck sake. Humans and their lack of shit.’

With an eye roll, I walked to the fountain and got myself some drinking water. Finding a container for water wasn't hard. So I got myself a big water bowl before returning to my place.

Once back in my place, I started to work.

First, I used runes to shatter broken house materials, like walls and ceilings. Then, I brought them together and started mending with runes.

Eventually, it took the shape of a forge. Instead of using firewood, I went inside and built a runic array.

It took me a couple of hours to adjust to what I wanted, and after a couple of trials, I was finally done. With the press of a finger and a wave of mana, the runes inside the forge shimmered into existence, starting to glow and release heat.

Since it was a gathering type of runic array, it took time to charge and make the fire burn. The stronger the fire I want, the more mana I need, so I will need to add more mana-gathering points.

For now, I have a source of light.

With forge created, I started to make additional items needed to make it workable. Thankfully this place is full of crap lying around.

After collecting all the stuff lying around, I started to inspect them.

‘Not that these things will last long.’ I grimaced when I saw that these things would burn midway if I brought them closer to the flames.

‘I guess I can turn them into one-time moulds.’

I thought to myself as I started to create another runic array.

Before I even realised I was hungry again.

‘Fuck… if I continue like this, I will run out of bread before I can do something.’ I pondered that while eating half of the loaf before returning to work.

A while later, I finished the moulds. It was a set of hammers and tongs.

Lastly, it was time for buckets.

Since with the materials I had, the bucket creation was improvised. I had to make several basic runes to keep the frame in place.

It was a pain in the ass. Regardless, by the time I was done, the forge’s heat was considerable.

And I started to throw in the scraps I brought from the blacksmith’s place.

A while later, the scraps melted, the impurities had burned away,

‘Whelp, it's hot; I need more runic arrays here.’

With a heavy breath, to move the bucket, I used temporary tongs made from the scraps.

As I moved the hot bucket with molten iron, the runes on the tongs started to crack.

I swiftly poured the content into the mould before returning the bucket to the forge.

The moment I left it there, the temporary tongs shattered into a thousand pieces.

‘So much for cheap material.’

I grimaced as I looked at the materials all over the place.

Well, it will take a while, so I went over to get more material and improve my abode.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

Around two days later, I was running on scraps—bits and pieces of bread and water. But my first simple longsword was completed.

It was a simple blade, but it was sharp, and the balance was good.

I even added an MG symbol on it. It was a stamp of quality—the signatures of my name. Any craftsman has this. Even if people don't do this here, I will do it.

After inspecting the blade one more time, I wrapped it in a cloth and proceeded to take it to the closest weapons shop.

Around ten minutes later, I arrived at a shop with a hammer and anvil symbol.

The letter said ‘Hephaestus’—the name of the Greek God of forges.

One thing I can trust is the character of the God of Anvils of Greek myths.

That is, if this is the same god.

Once inside, my gaze scanned the weapons on racks and armour on the mannequins.

“What can I do for you kid?” A big, burly man dressed in the thick clothes of a smith greeted me.

“Umm, I just started forging. I want to ask if this shop buys weapons.”

“Oh? You forge, you say? Show me, kid.” The grizzly of a man looked interested. It's a common thing. Breach the subject of the same hobby to a buyer. That is why I went to a store which has an active forge.

I walked over and undid the cloth to reveal the sword.

“Oh-ho~” The smith picked it up and inspected the weapon.

“Very good. And it's sharp. Very sharp. You used specially prepared stones to sharpen the blade. I can see cuts on your fingers. Very good.” After inspecting the sword, he did a couple of swings. There was a sound of metal cutting wind.

“Are your parents smiths too?”

“Very long line of smiths. I am—” For a second, I counted how many members of my family were alchemists.

“The 53rd smith my family produced. I am new to this city, so I decided to do what I do best.”

“Hmm, I will buy this one, kid. But it will be a smaller price because I need to sell this too.”

“It's okay. I don't care about the loss in Valis.” I shrugged at him. It's not that I am losing something. I made this stuff from free materials I got in scraps.

“Good. Then we have a deal.”

A few moments later, the smith brought over a sack full of Valis.

“Here is your 4.500 Valis. If you make more of this quality, you can bring it to me.”

“I will.” I was about to leave, but he got my attention.

“By the way. What is your name, kid?”

“I am Marcus Goldman.”

“Well, then, Marcus, it was nice doing business with you.”

I nodded at his words and left the store. It was time to get proper food and restore some of my lost infrastructure.

~~~

As the young man left, the blacksmith looked at the sword and inspected it.

“No impurities; the kid prepared the blade in oriental style. What a curious mix. It appears I need to notify Goddess. This craftsmanship will get her attention.” He said after inspecting the sword.

The sword was a very high-quality steel weapon. The blacksmith can also see that the kid forged this weapon a couple of days ago, tops.

After inspecting the blade again, he decided to close the shop for the day and visit his goddess.

They need to strike first and get this kid to join their Familia; a talent like this is vital for their familia future profits.

And just like that, Marcus Goldman started to make waves in Orario in less than a week.

~~~

“Hmm, I guess some fruits, veggies, damn meat here is cheap, or it's my non-existing value for money.” Marcus was commenting to himself as he was going through the place.

He swiftly bought a backpack and started to buy and store stuff there.

One of the first things he bought was fabric to make clothes from and extra tools to work with, like scissors.

Of course, most of the stuff he bought was just food.

With food in spades, Marcus returned to his place and started working.

It was time to install security, rebuild the missing walls, and create proper rooms and a kitchen!

But the first was to create a fridge.

‘Hmm, for water supplies, I could gather moisture…’ As he was carving runes in the specially prepared box which he made from scrap stones, he found around the area.

The process to make the form was quite simple. Marcus used runes to melt them together and then carved the specific fridge’s form.

It was a proper three-shelf fridge with three drawers for a freezer later.

For now, he created a food place. Like any other stuff he furniture here, it gathers mana from outside.

‘I suppose I can't just do that. I would need to dive into the dungeon and gather those stones. They look like proper power sources.’

In future, he is planning to create a reactor of some sort which uses those mana stones as fuel.

His loop technomancy is a pipe dream.

‘Well, a loop caster is possible, but first, I need to test before placing my hopes on it.’

After finishing with the fridge, he started to store them on those shelves.

It has a very basic runic reader of temperature. Basically, it cools until a specific temperature before turning off. When it's off, it gathers mana; once it heats up, the reader reacts and turns on and accesses the stored mana.

Nothing groundbreaking, just simple mana readers.

With the fridge done, Marcus proceeded to store food. Once that was done, he moved to make a kitchen. Like a cooker and shelves, the rest he will need a forge to make, like frying pans, spoons, and forks.

‘Ugh… this is so time-consuming…’

While he complained about working on these mundane things, he prefers this to work with someone else or, gods forbid, joining a familia!