Ihe chest at the ter of the dungeon was a hammer. Yes, a hammer. When I saw the hammer with its bck handle and shiny silver head, I felt I had received a great reward.

  This feeling was firmed when I held the hammer, and a system message appeared.

  [ You have received the "Hammer of Creation" after defeating the first boss! ]

  [ Hammer of Creation ]

  [ A hammer with a high level of performance ]

  [ Increases the quality of fed items and, sequently, the probabilities. ]

  I felt a fme ignite in my heart when I saw the system notifications. I want to go bad test this hammer! "It doesn't say how much the probabilities increase, but it's probably a lot."

  Feelied, I looked ihe chest to see if I had missed anything, but the chest vanished before my eyes.

  "So it was just the hammer."

  Then, everything arouarted to fade away slowly.

  The coliseum walls became blurry and were gradually repced by the dungeon walls. Before I realized it, I was already ihe dungeon, as if nothing had happened.

  "Hey, did that guy just appear out of nowhere?"

  "Ah, he was hiding somewhere. Please don't talk to him; he's alone. He might be dangerous."

  "But he's so handsome, I'd love to talk to him."

  "Shut up a's go."

  I saw a group of advealking a few meters away. They disappeared when they noticed I was looking at them, leaving me alone in one of the dungeon's rooms.

  The room that should have been the "coliseum."

  "It's best to head baow... I'm tired. Not physically, but mentally. I wasn't prepared to fight a boss."

  Fortunately, it was very easy.

  I wonder when another boss will appear. I'm sure they'll keep showing up so the system give me new rewards. "In New World, dungeoed, but bosses only appeared every ten floors. But here, the first boss appeared on the fifth floor."

  If a boss appears every five floors, there will be a lot of bosses in this dungeon.

  "That makes things even more fun."

  I o bee stronger. I want to reach the 10th floor a the boss just as easily as I did today.

  ####

  Fortunately, I could store items given by the system in my iory. After st my new hammer, I decided to leave the dungeon. As I expected, as soon as I climbed up, I reached the 4th floor.

  I had been oh floor the whole time, but it was some alternate dimension.

  "The ime I e to the dungeon, that boss probably won't be there anymore."

  How will Hephaestus react to this? That boss should, so she's going to be fused. What will she say?

  I quickly climbed up, and I went straight home once I reached the surface. As soon as I entered, I entered some members of the Familia. A man and a woman—both level two.

  That means they're good bcksmiths but not exceptional ones.

  "Are you okay?" the woman asked, looking at me with . "Is that blood on your arms and legs?"

  The boss's blood was red, very simir to human blood. When its head exploded, I got covered in it.

  "It's fine. I had some ued situations ihe dungeon but wasn't hurt."

  "Ah, that's good." The woman g the man out of the er of her eye.

  The man then asked, "Did you kill someone?"

  Sihe blood was so simir to human blood, they were probably thinking I had killed someone. I smiled bitterly and replied with a short "No."

  They didn't seem to believe me, but I didn't care.

  'This feels like one of those situations where misuandings spiral out of trol and rumors start spreading. I hope that cliché doesn't happen.'

  ####

  I went to my room and took a bath. After that, I headed to the training room to my armor and sword before st them in the room's iory. Then, I took out my new hammer.

  I analyzed it again.

  "The bck handle makes it stand out even more. But what catches the eye is this glow."

  The hammer's shine was s that it resembled my mithril sword.

  I swung the hammer a few times and struck the anvil.

  A pleasant sound reached my ears.

  "Not even a scratch."

  Even after striking the anvil multiple times, the hammer was still in perfect dition.

  "Should I try f something? I have enough time te at least one sword."

  I removed some mithril ore I had gathered in the dungeon and pced it in the fe to heat up. When it was hot enough, glowing brilliantly, I pced it on the anvil and started hammering.

  G!

  G!

  G!

  G!

  Because of the fe's heat and my effort to swing the hammer, sweat began dripping all over my body. I had just taken a bath, but I'd have to take another soon.

  As I hammered the mithril, I noticed my efficy had greatly increased.

  It felt like orike ted as three.

  In other words, my point gain had increased.

  Before, I gained one point every five hammer strikes, but now I gain a point every two.

  The bde quickly took shape, and I smiled in satisfa as I pced it into an oil-filled basin to cool the metal. When it was finally cooled, it shone brightly. Even without polishing, my refle was visible on the bde.

  Before, my bdes always had many imperfes, but now, there are only a few.

  Then, a system message arrived.

  [ Probabilities have temporarily increased ]

  [ Failure 0% / on 20% / Refined 43% / Rare 30% / Legendary 7% / Aral 0% / Mythic 0% ]

  "Oh? The probabilities are much better now! This hammer works well."

  Feeling the fme in my chest burn, I started to do the heat treatment.

  I worked on it carefully, as this might be the best sword I've ever made.

  "If I fe a Legendary-rank sword…"

  Euphoric, I fihe entire process.

  I polished the bde and sharpe as best as I could. The edge erfect. Finally, it was plete.

  The sword's handle was wood, but it was good enough.

  [ You have fed a Level 1 Rare Sword ]

  "Rare rank! It's not Legendary, but it's my sed Rare-rank sword!"

  [ The skill "Heavy Impact LV2" has been added to the sword ]

  [ The skill "Shadow Ssh LV2" has been added to the sword ]

  Seeing the notifications, I became even more excited.

  The sword, already beautiful before, looked eveer. It closely resembled the one I currently used, except for the intricate patterns on its handle.

  Additionally, the bde has grown a little. It now looked more like a katana, just shorter. The curvature of the bde had also ged.

  "This will be great for slig off heads."

  I smiled in satisfa.

  Mikoto would love this sword, I'm sure of it.

  It's ly like the katana she uses, but I bet she'd still want to have it.

  "Should I try to tact her? I think I'll hold on to this sword for now."

  I didn't have a sheath prepared for this sword sis bde differed from anything I had fed. So, I stored it in the iory without a sheath, leaving it exposed.

  Anyone who ehe training room's iory and saw that sword would instantly reize it as a high-level on. It stood out too much.

  "It's already pretty te. Hephaestus still hasn't shown up."

  I stored my new hammer in the system iory ahe training room.

  As soon as I stepped outside, I ran into Mikari, who was just about to ehe training room.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I was just curious. I figured you'd be here, so I came to che your training. Did you fe a new armor?"

  "No, I just made a sword today. But it was just a simple one, nothing too special. Do you know where the Goddess is?"

  "I haven't seen her for a while. She's probably out handling Familia matters."

  "I see. Do you think something serious happened?"

  "Nah, this happens all the time. The Goddess will be back soon. Do you want to go out and chat for a bit? We grab something to eat. My treat."

  I stared at Mikari for a few seds and thought about Hephaestus.

  "If I go out to dinner with you, Hephaestus will kill me."

  "Is she that jealous?"

  "She holds back a lot, so I don't know how far she'd go because of jealousy. But I don't want to risk it. I'd rather keep my retionship intact."

  "That's a shame. If you ge your mind, I'll be at the bar nearby."

  "..."

  I watched Mikari walk away, struggling to resist the urge to follow her.

  "It's been a while since I st drank and had fun. In my previous retionship, I rarely went out drinking. I only ever went out with my ex-girlfriend, which is pretty depressing..."

  Now that I think about it, that retionship was terrible.

  ParodyGirl