"Pft." Welf bit back a laugh and then shook his head. "You say you're taking the girls out for a field trip and then blow up the first floor... And you wonder why Hestia is mad?"
I crossed my arms. "Okay, it wasn't the WHOLE first floor. Only like... an eighth of it. And I didn't do it, Primo did."
Welf couldn't hold it back any longer and laughed. "Sure, sure... that cute little elf girl happened to cast a spell strong enough to blow up an eighth of the first floor. By herself. Sure..."
I coughed and averted my gaze.
Welf's forge at the back of the church.
After that last incident, I decided it was best to stay out of the dungeon and also to work on other ways to keep my new family members safe.
Granting them new spells and abilities was CLEARLY the wrong path to take.
Well, the 'right' path long term... but it might be too much too soon right now. After all, Primo was still unconscious from mana overuse... She'd be fine, and probably even stronger afterwards. But she was definitely out like a light for the next eight or so hours...
Tia hadn't been too happy about that.
Which was why I'd gone over to check on my best buddy Welf and his progress with making everyone overgeared.
Welf set aside a pair of matching swords, one white, one black. After that, he said, "This is why Hestia is afraid to let you take Fina and Bella down there, you know? With your luck and the antics those girls get up too... won't the dungeon spawn a new Monster Rex on floor one just out of spite?"
I let out a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of my neck. I also pointedly ignored how Dungeon-chan had been screaming her head off like a disgruntled woman who had already put ten restraining orders against her ex only for him to show up in her living room.
Welf set a magic stone and a piece of iron on the anvil in front of him before glancing over. "Anyway... you said you wanted to talk about new equipment?"
"Yeah." I glanced around Welf's forge and said, "Though... seems like you've been experimenting already, huh?"
A few pieces of gold that were somehow transparent. Metal that shimmered like cloth when I picked it up. A piece of glass that was woven through with mana to prevent it from shattering...
I glanced back at Welf and said, "Are you trying to swap out properties between materials?"
"Mm, something like that." Welf leaned against his anvil and crossed his arms to look at me. "It's more like I'm trying to add things to something already complete. But as you can see..." He nodded his head towards a corner of the room.
I glanced over and saw a pile of what could only be described as 'gray gooey mess.'
"...Messing up makes everything collapse in on itself."
I hesitantly poked the mass and then winced at how 'wrong' it felt. "...Why does this thing seem soft, cold, hot, and hard all at the same time?"
Welf shrugged and said, "Not sure. I didn't feel like scrapping anything, so I just hammered it all together... That's pretty useless in terms of making equipment, but it's a good garbage dump." He smiled and said, "I call it Greed."
I blinked. "...Come again?"
"You know? Greed. Like the cardinal sin? Since it takes everything?"
"...I think Gluttony would be better... but sure." I cautiously eyed the mass and said, "...It isn't going to come alive or anything, right?"
Welf stared back at me and said, "Of course not. It's just raw materials."
"Right... says the man who accidentally created a baby girl by leaving half-finished works around..."
Welf turned a bright red and said, "P-Pyrrha was a unique case, alright!"
"Yeah... I'm just going to take this though." I stored 'Greed' into my inventory. "Not going to leave a red flag like this laying around."
Welf sighed. "Fair. I guess we have been tempting fate a bit..."