In the cave, Asterios naturally knew nothing about the affairs of his fellow apprentices and Atalanta.
During this time, he had been doing his utmost to learn forging techniques and knowledge from Hephaestus, and now he could even forge a perfect weapon on his own.
He hammered the sword in his hands with complete focus.
When it was nearly finished, he used the power of his Cosmo to remove the impurities within, and then continued forging.
After repeating this cycle, the sword was finally complete.
Hephaestus took the newly forged sword from Asterios, raised it to inspect it, and finally nodded.
“Although it is neither a holy sword nor a demonic sword, it is truly a remarkable weapon.
Asterios, you learn so quickly; now I have nothing to worry about.” Hephaestus then placed the sword on the weapon rack to the side; it could be considered a product of his own forging, without any doubt.
“Hephaestus, holy swords, demonic swords, and those legendary weapons—rather than calling them weapons, wouldn’t it be better to call them manifestations of concepts?
It is just that this concept has been forged into the form of a human weapon, nothing more.” Asterios brought this matter up, and Hephaestus agreed.
“Of course, in your human concepts, there exist what are called divine armaments.
In reality, however, a weapon forged by a god is not equivalent to a divine armament, and a weapon stronger than a divine armament is not necessarily a divine armament either.
It is a very abstract concept, but to summarize it in one sentence: just understand it as something bestowed by a god or an existence crystallized from the planet’s laws.” Holy swords, demonic swords, holy spears, or any other names are merely external definitions given to these crystallized existences of law.
They do not even need to be in the form of a weapon; the bronze giant Talos or the Sumerian divine beast Humbaba can all be considered divine armaments.
At this moment, Hephaestus pointed to a pile of messy weapons on the rack over there; those were ones he had forged just for fun.
These were indeed weapons forged by a god, but they had not been bestowed, nor did they carry any special meaning.
“If I were to give one of them away and attach to it my concept and power as the God of Fire and Forging, then that thing could be called a divine armament.
It is a divine gift, which is to say, an entrustment of divine power.” Hephaestus did not mind explaining these things to Asterios; in fact, he had been bored to death.
Over the past ten days or so, the life of having Asterios by his side to study forging techniques and drink together had been truly enjoyable.
“And the other type is the forging of planetary concepts.
The holy sword that defeated the White Titan back then was forged by six fairies from Paradise in the Inner Sea of the Planet.
That was a holy sword created when the planet (Earth) responded to humanity’s sorrowful wish…” “Hephaestus!
I’m coming in~!” Just as the two were chatting, a vibrant voice came from the cave entrance.
Asterios was quite familiar with this voice; it was Artemis’s voice.
“It’s Artemis.
You’ve come to me again.
Is this for the maintenance of that divine bow again?
Can’t you just do it yourself, you rascal?” Hephaestus looked at Artemis, who was drifting in, and spoke to her with a hint of complaint.
Artemis laughed generously and said that she could do it herself, but she still hoped that the highly skilled Hephaestus would do it, as the effect would be much better than if she maintained it herself.
“Then you’ve come at the right time.
I was just worrying about not having good material to explain and teach my friend here.
Come, come, bring your divine bow over so I can explain to my friend how to handle weapons used by gods.” At this moment, Artemis finally noticed Asterios standing beside Hephaestus.
A look of joy immediately appeared on her face, and she happily said to Asterios: “Asterios?
Why are you here?
Have you already graduated from Chiron’s tutelage?” “Artemis, I graduated when I was 12.
Have you forgotten~?” Asterios tilted his head slightly, his expression relaxed, his tone melodious.
It inexplicably seemed as if he were reproaching Artemis for forgetting such a thing.
And indeed, Artemis immediately pressed her hands together and rubbed them back and forth, her face filled with apology as she said to Asterios: “Sorry~ Sorry~ I’ve been playing so wildly in the mountains that I didn’t notice time passing so quickly.
I’m sorry~ I’m sorry~” “It’s fine, it’s fine.
As the noble Goddess of the Moon, you are very busy; it is normal to forget such trivial matters.
Please don’t forget the main business; now is the time for you to maintain your divine longbow.” Upon hearing this, Artemis immediately flew forward and handed her longbow to Hephaestus.
Hephaestus then pulled Asterios over to his forge and smilingly spoke to him about the nature of fire.
“Don’t let the ordinary appearance of this forge fool you; it is actually the core and power source of my original Machine God true body.
The armaments of the gods, whether it is Dionysus’s Thyrsus or the aegis, are all crystallized from original concepts and were given the shapes recognized by mortal humans right here.
Now open your eyes wide and use your soul to sense how I do real work!” After saying this, he placed Artemis’s divine bow into it.
This time, he did not use iron hammers or tongs; from beginning to end, he used his hands directly to knead, inspect, and clean it.
Asterios pushed his senses to the maximum to experience Hephaestus’s technique, which was absolutely beneficial to him.
When Hephaestus finished this work, he took the divine bow out of the fire and handed it to Artemis, who carefully felt the sensation of her divine power flowing through it.
The feeling had returned to normal in an instant, and it even felt better than it had originally.
“Thank you~ As expected of Hephaestus, the God of Fire and Forging.
If I weren’t sworn to eternal chastity, I might have fallen in love with you~ Thank you so much~” “Could you please not say such thick-headed things?
I’m afraid the old man will rush over and twist my head off, and Apollo will get angry because of it too.
Being targeted by that goat is no good thing.
Although he is usually lackadaisical, when he really goes bad, he is incredibly bad.” A strained expression appeared on Hephaestus’s face.
Artemis’s purity was her strength, yet also her weakness.
Her innocent way of treating others made it very pleasant to interact with her, but her innocence also made her unusually cruel and terrifying when doing certain things.
Artemis laughed it off and didn’t say anything, but then she looked at Asterios and asked him when he planned to go back.
In a while, Athena would be coming to see him again, right?
If she couldn’t find him then, Athena would probably feel anxious.
“I will return in two days, don’t worry, Artemis.
Besides, even if she doesn’t see me at Mount Pindus, she will go and ask Father where I went, and Father will naturally explain then.” Asterios was quite open-minded about this matter; after all, Athena was much more rational than Artemis.
Just solve problems as they arise; as for where Asterios had gone, she would know just by grabbing anyone in the Pelion Cave and asking.
Maybe it’s not a big deal now… maybe it will be later.
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”