[Location: The Royal Workshop – Ironforge City]

[Time: 3 Hours After the Contract]

"Give me one day! I'll give you something amazing!"

Recalling the words he made back at the table of fog, Hephaestus smiled with excitement in his eyes

Although he knew that by taking the contract gem, he should have awakened some sort of new ability, right now, that was the least that was on his mind

Right now, he wanted nothing else but to craft a weapon that would shock Damien completely

Even though heat in the Royal Workshop was enough to melt skin, he didn't even sweat.

His eyes were wide, manic, and unknowingly glowing with the blue light of his new vassal ability.

"Amazing," Hephaestus whispered, holding the Rat King Core with a pair of mythril tongs.

The Tier 6 core pulsed with a sickly, toxic green rhythm. It was clearly unstable.

The mana inside was chaotic, screaming with the dying rage of the Rat King.

If a normal smith tried to socket this into a sword handle, the user's hand would rot off in seconds.

It was truly worthy of a creature that lived in the abyss.

"Amazing, although it's a good thing that the abyss has been sealed away for centuries, however that just means that with the help of the young matser"

"I can reach a new peak of forging, a peak unseen for centuries!"

Slobbering at his future, he could hardly calm down

By his side, standing in the corner, Alfred adjusted his tie, unbothered by the sparks flying around the room.

"Can it be done?" Alfred asked politely.

"Done? It must be done!" Hephaestus laughed, tossing the tongs onto a table.

"Not only can it be done, but when it's done, it's going to blow your mind!"

"Just thinking about it makes my dwarf blood boil in excitement! I'm sure my father would be jealous if he knew I got to handle such high-quality material"

Saying this, he looked at the pile of Abyss Iron Chains on the floor, heavy, rusted, and dense enough to anchor a battleship.

"Just you wait!" Hephaestus muttered, grabbing a hammer.

"I have a feeling that the era of forging is about to take a whole new turn!."

As he spoke, perhaps because of his love for forging, his new ability began to avtivate without him even trying

[The Soul Blueprint]

Hephaestus closed his eyes.

Yes, even without him actively trying, his innate ability soul blueprint had begun to activate as a result of his excitement.

VWMMM.

A holographic schematic appeared in his mind,a change so weird that if Damien would wonder if Heaphestus suddenly got a system.

Through it, he could see how the mana would flow through the metal before he even struck it.

"Furnace to 3000 degrees!" Hephaestus roared at his assistants

"Open the magma valves!"

Liquid fire poured into the central crucible.

Hephaestus threw the Abyss Iron Chains into the fire. The metal groaned, stubborn and ancient, refusing to melt.

"Stubborn trash," Hephaestus grunted. He channeled his own mana into the hammer. "Bend!"

CLANG.

He struck the metal. The sound was deafening.

For the next two hours, the workshop was a cacophony of violence.

Hephaestus constantly forged and beat the metal into submission.

He folded the Abyss Iron hundreds of times, aligning the molecular structure to accept mana.

Then came the dangerous part.

He took the Rat King Core and dropped it directly into the crucible of molten Abyss Iron.

HISS-CRACK.

Green smoke exploded from the pot. The iron turned a dark, oily viridian. The toxic mana of the core fused with the density of the chains, creating a new alloy.

Hephaestus poured the metal into moulds.

This time, he had decided not to make a sword, after all Damien already had a weapon like the pantheon sword

Rather, he divided the material into segments. Hundreds of interlocking, serrated links.

And at the end of two long chains, he cast two wicked, curved blades, jagged and cruel, looking more like fangs than knives.

He then picked up a carving tool.

"Runes of Fluidity," he muttered, carving intricate glowing lines into every link.

"So they move like water."

"Runes of Conductivity," he carved into the handles.

"So the Young Master can pour his mana through them."

The metal cooled. The chains writhed slightly on the table, as if they were alive.

In A flash, a few more hours had passed and Hephaestus wiped soot from his face. He still wasn't done.

He looked at the leftover scraps of Abyss Iron and a small bar of Black-Gold he had in his personal stash.

He remembered seeing the broadcast of the war.

He remembered seeing Damien's porcelain mask cracking under the pressure of the Void Prince.

"I might as well throw in an extra," Hephaestus muttered.

He went back to the anvil.

Hammering the Black-Gold into a thin, ultra-durable sheet. He reinforced the impact points with Abyss Iron.

He installed a microscopic filtration system in the vents, designed to scrub toxins from the air.

He shaped it to hide both his face and armour it.

It was sleek, angular, and terrifying. It had no mouth opening, only a smooth, metallic jawline and darkened lenses for the eyes, with a signature 0 carved on the forehead.

He polished it until it shone with a cold, dark luster.

….......…

Another six hours passed again, and the end of the day was already drawing near

Fortunately, at this point in time, he was already done

Sighing in relief, Hephaestus stepped back, dropping his hammer.

On the workbench lay his creations.

Two coils of dark, greenish-black chains attached to serrated blades.

They hummed with a low, hungry vibration, radiating a faint toxic mist.

If Damien were here with his sytem they would probably read something like

[Item: The Scourge of the Rat King]

[Grade: Epic (Growth Type)]

[Effects: Toxic Touch, Fluid Motion, Mana Conductivity (A+)]

And the mask.

[Item: The Visage of the Greedy King]

[Grade: Epic]

[Effects: Toxin Filtration, Disguise, Intimidation (+50%)]

Looking at his creation he could not help but fell proud as under the time limit of one day, this was one of the best things he had ever crafted

Even Alfred who had been silent all this while gave them a second glance

"These are quite good, at least for month six and seventh orders, this are already under high tier weapons for them," Alfred noted.

Hephaestus grinned, his teeth white against his soot-covered beard.

"Of course, who do you think made them after all"

Hephaestus picked up the items.

"I just hope the young master likes them too"

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