Chapter 216: Chapter 205: Gram Upgrade

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After greeting Hilda and taking a bath while she had breakfast with my brother, I talked to her about what I wanted her to help me with. I had already told her most of the details, and she nodded while I told her the materials I had secured. I could already tell her genius talent for blacksmithing was working rapidly, quickly assembling new blueprints inside of her mind.

“Gotcha. So you want me to upgrade the sword with compatible materials? No problem. Also, you want a new and stronger shield.” She nodded. “I think I could combine the shields you have into a single one; would that help? If we add some more extra materials to the mix, we could get something pretty wicked.”

“That’s possible?! Yes please! I actually got some sort of mirror item. It can reflect magic, but it only has one use left.” I explained it to her. This was an item I acquired in my first Class Trial. “Could you combine it with the shields?”

“Maybe, you’ll have to show it to me first.” She said. “Something else you want to make, though?”

“Hmm, I don’t really want to ask you for more than that; you’ve done a lot for me already, Hilda.” I felt slightly bad. “I can repay you with money, though; I’ve secured a lot.”

“I’ll take some of the money then, and I’ll give you a... 70% discount because we’re friends, and you’ve done a lot for me. And you’re also going to my hometown’s dungeon soon after.” She said with a gentle smile. "Honestly, I would just do it for free again, but I suppose taking the money will make you feel less bad. Alright, what else do you want? I can at least fit another thing into the list.”

“Hmmm… I’ll have to show you the materials I have first, and then you can tell me what you can make out of them. How about it?” I asked.

“Alright, sure, deal.” She nodded. “I can already feel it; I’m going to be increasing the power of my skills a lot again. You always have the best materials!”

“Ahaha! Actually, that’s not everything; I have something else I want to show you.” I said.

“Oh?” She was curious. “I’m looking forward to whatever little secret you got for me then~”

“Well, if you two are going to be busy making equipment, then I guess I’ll go meet with Annabelle.” Said Baihe. “She invited me to her house with you, but I’ll tell her you’re busy.”

“Ah, damn… Well, if we can finish this early, I’ll visit her!” I said.

"Yeah, right, the last time you got inside Hilda’s smithy, you didn’t come back out in like two days, Anna!” Baihe slightly reprimanded me. “Jack, how can you not get angry for that?”

“Well, Hilda will make her strong equipment, so she can survive better, so I don’t think it’s bad.” He said nonchalantly.

“Don’t worry, once I’m done, we can spend some time together if that’s what you want so much~” I teased her.

“E-Eh? Really? Just the two of us?” She asked while blushing. “M-Maybe we could go to a dat-”

“I’ll teach you and our friends the Gathering Skill you wanted so much! Isn’t that what you wanted? You’ll get your own Inventory and stuff. Maybe I could also teach you Alchemy.” I said.

“A-Ah, right, yeah, that! Thanks, Anna…” Baihe said while looking slightly disappointed.

“Did you want to learn another Skill? Oh, do you want me to commission something for you from Hilda?” I asked her.

“Err, nah, I’m good.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, Anna.”

“Nah, give me your spear; we’ll upgrade it with the Snow Queen materials and the ice dragon scales I bought.” I said with a smile.

“Really?!” She asked with a slightly happier face.

“Yep! Give it to me, girl.” I asked as she handed me her spear. “Alright, we got it. Let’s go, Hilda.”

“Alright~ Sorry for interrupting your day and stealing Anna from you for today, Baihe. I’ll bring her back to you soon.” Hilda said slightly jokingly.

“Yeah… Have fun.” Baihe said quite bitterly.

Hilda guided me inside of her Hephaestus Smithy as usual, where I quickly took out all the materials I wanted her to see. She analyzed them while preparing her forge; the Divine Forging Flame Spirit was slowly beginning to heat up rapidly.

“Hmm, I see.” She nodded. “Alright, this is some pretty premium stuff! Some stuff I’ve never seen before too! Let’s start by upgrading your sword. I can already tell that thing’s eager to grow stronger.”

“You can hear him?” I asked.

“Nah, but I can sense that the sword is eager; maybe call it a sixth sense that blacksmiths have.” She laughed. “And… Wait, he can talk to you?”

“Somewhat… It’s a bit complicated, but Gram is a very special weapon. It was once wielded by a Constellation apparently, and he has a mind of his own.” I told her.

“Wait, really? That’s some crazy shit!” She was shocked. “This is my first time ever finding a talking weapon! Hey! Gram, can you talk to me too?”

[“No, I can only talk to those souls bound to me... Tell her that.”]

“He says he can only talk to those souls bound to him.” I sighed. “Sorry… Maybe I can hold a conversation between you and him if I tell you what he says, but...”

“Yeah, I know, it would be annoying, and we would waste time. Alright, Gram! I’m going to upgrade you even more now.” She said. “Let me sort out all our materials. Dragon-type Materials are his favorites, right?”

“Yep, I got all these for him.” I showed Hilda all the things I saved for Gram’s upgrade. “We always need to both add Demonic and Holy materials so we can keep his ability to switch between both forms without breaking the balance.”

“Got it.” She nodded. “Oooh, all of this is really good!”

The Materials we were going to use were these:

[Astaroth’s Corrupted Draconic Blood Bottles (S+ Rank)]—all the dragon blood we need.

[Astaroth’s Broken Draconic Bones (S+ Rank)]: strong bones to reinforce the blade.

[Astaroth’s Demonic Dragon’s Eyes (S++ Rank)], eyes carrying demonic and draconic energy to enhance the sword’s magic powers.

[Asgard’s Divine Orichalcum Ingot (SS+ Rank)], a gift I got from Asgard’s Constellations, we’re only using a tiny bit out of the large ingot of over forty centimeters.

[Huanglong’s Divine Golden Scale (??? Rank)] is only a small piece of the scale, which is actually ten meters big.

[Golden Kirin’s Martial Beast Corpse (A Rank)], all the scales extracted from it, the bones, and the horns.

“I can’t believe I am working with Asgard’s Divine Orichalcum! Even if it's only a little piece of it!” Hilda was very excited. “Hephaestus has NEVER gifted me with something like this before! It’s insane! Anna, you’re so lucky to get all these things sponsored! Usually people only get a single Constellation sponsor, but you get multiple ones?! Well, I’ve heard of some people that get multiple ones, but they, like, belong to a single Nebula or something.”

“Yeah, I am somewhat really popular with them. I extort them of what I need.” I smiled. I spoke about this while leaving the Cosmic Barrier that blocked them from seeing. “I got the Huanglong Scale after I healed the chairman two days ago.”

“Oh, so you healed him!” Hilda said. “I visited him this morning, and he was looking really fine. He was eating already, and some distant family members came to visit him.”

“Is that so? I’m glad I was able to help him.” I smiled. “Well, I know I can’t be of much help, but shall we begin?”

“Sure!” Hilda nodded, her Aura of Divinity overflowing from her body. Her Radiance was growing stronger the more she forged; I think she might already have developed some sort of small Trait. “I’m pumped up! Gram, prepare yourself!”

And like that, we started the upgrade. Everything went surprisingly smoothly and fast with Hilda. After she upgraded her Skills to almost Divine Level, she had become surprisingly and amazingly good at this, even more than before. It seems the other candidates for Hephaestus weren’t going to stand a single chance to take her position!

That bastard that ended up becoming his incarnation in the future will never see the day of light. Now that Hilda has pretty much become Hephaestus’ favorite, she’ll safely inherit his legacy and become his incarnation.

Clank! Clank! CLANK!

Hilda gave Gram the finishing strikes, straightening the blade and then imbuing it with more dust made from the scales of Huanglong, processed through the fire of her forge, and mixed with the blood of Astaroth.

“Now…”

She slowly burned her flames over the blade, and lastly, she cooled it all down again using the very same flames, which turned blue and incredibly cold.

And it was done.

FLAAASH!

Gram released a ray of light and a ray of darkness from his body, which then slowly condensed into a mass of black and gold surrounding him, like a powerful Aura of his own.

“I-It’s amazing…” I said in surprise. “Absolutely worth the two hours and a half of work!”

“It was certainly quick compared to other things!” Hilda nodded. “Phew… And I got some rewards from Hephaestus already! Ahh, and one Skill Ranked Up to SS Rank! Amazing!” Even she got some rewards out of this already.

[“A-Anna, I think I am blooming! Look at me! I am so amazing! This power…! I can feel it! Astaroth’s demonic dragon powers, mixed with the Golden Dragon and the Martial Beasts Powers! So good!”]

Is this perverted sword having an orgasm or something now?!

Well, let’s see how much he has improved then…

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[Divine Dragon Slaying Heroic Sword: Reforged Gram+]

{Item Type}: [Two-Handed Weapon] [Great Sword] [Divine Relic] [Dragon Slayer] [Demonic Weapon] [Martial Relic]

{Item Quality}: [SSS++ Rank]

{Item Requirement}: [Be Chosen By The Sword]

{Item Durability}: [150.000/150.000]

{Item Effects}

[ATK]: [+40.000] [HP]: [+4.000] [MP]: [+4.000] [STR]: [+4.000] [VIT]: [+4.000] [DEX]: [+4.000] [AGI]: [+4.000] [INT]: [+4.000] [WIS]: [+4.000] [LUC]: [+4.000] [CHM]: [+4.000]

{Item Enchantments}

[Demonic Stigma: Agonizing Power]: A Demonic Stigma imbued with the Curse that saps Power from the wielder by absorbing their pain and agony. The stronger the pain they are going through, the more temporary power this Demonic Stigma will give them. By enhancing all Stats by up to +200%, Damage Dealt by up to 500%, and Defense Ignoration by up to -50% at their maximum pain level, buff cannot stack but will increase. Maximum duration per buff: 30 Seconds.

[Celestial Mark: Endearing Love]: A Celestial Mark that puts into test the love you have for others. As long as there’s people you genuinely love with all your heart, you can conjure a powerful barrier to protect them from most Damage for 5 Minutes each. Inside the barriers, your allies will recover their HP and MP ten times as fast. 25% of the damage the barriers cause will be sent back to you, however. Barrier cooldown per person: 10 Minutes.

{Item Abilities}

[Divine Sword: Gram]: A Divine Relic created by Odin himself, and gifted to Sigurd’s father, who later inherited his sword from his son, the Hero that slayed Fafnir with it, piercing his heart and ending his life. This sword is so powerful that it possesses a will of its own, and it will only choose its master if it deems them worthy of wielding them.

[Divine Dragon Slayer]: This Divine Relic has the ability to slay all dragons. While fighting a Dragon-type foe, Damage Dealt increases by +500% -> +600% and the sword can ignore 80% -> 90% of the Dragon’s Total Defenses. Additionally, this sword can recover durability by feeding on Dragon’s Blood and their Hearts.

[Demonic Dragon Blade/Celestial Dragon Blade Mode Shift]: Through the power of the Nephalem Crystal, it is possible for Gram to change between its {Celestial Mode} and {Demonic Mode}, both having their own strengths and weaknesses.

{Celestial Dragon Blade Mode} will generate a protective aura that heals the user over time and deals Holy Attribute Damage while summoning a protective {Celestial Dragon Aura} that protects the user and allies even further, acting independently.

{Demonic Dragon Blade Mode} drains the user’s health points but increases attack range, explosiveness, and damage dealt tremendously, while also giving Demon Attribute Damage and summoning an aggressive {Demonic Dragon Aura} that fights aggressively against any foe that threatens the user.

Lastly, it is possible to merge both forms when both are used at least once beforehand, creating the {Harmonized Dragon Mode}, which has both the {Celestial Dragon Blade Mode} protection and the {Demonic Dragon Blade Mode} explosive damage with mixed Holy and Demonic Attribute Damage. The Summons can be summoned either at the same time or merged together into the {Celestial Demonic Dragon Aura}.

[Soul Devour]: This Cursed, Holy Sword can devour the souls of foes it defeats, even more if they’re Dragon-type foes. When attacking any foe, it deals 50% damage to their Souls with each strike, and against dragons, damage to their souls’ doubles. Devoured souls are stored inside of Gram and can be either manipulated to whatever the owner desires or eaten by the sword to further gain power, stats, and durability. Maybe with another upgrade, these souls can be used for something else.

[???]: Yet to be awakened.

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“Oooh! You’re not bad at all now, Gram! You got some amazing upgrades to existing Abilities, and now a new Ability to eat and damage souls? That’ll come in handy way too much.” I celebrated.

[“Make sure to polish me every day, ahahaha! I don’t want to lose this lustrous appearance!”]

“It looks like your sword is really happy! Glad to see that.” Hilda smiled. “Now, let’s begin with the shield! Gimme all the materials and the shields. I’ll see what I can do with it.”

“Alright ma’am!”

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