Asfi's cyan-colored eyes turned towards me as she spoke.
"Hello, my name is Arin Kael. You can call me Arin. It is a pleasure to meet you." She remained quiet for a second, observing me. Before she nodded to herself and stood up to introduce herself. I also entered the room, closing the door behind me.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, too. Arin, my name is Asfi Al Andromeda. Also, the Vice-Captain of Hermes Familia. You can simply call me by my name." Vice-Captain? I thought she became a Captain of her familia 7 years before the Canon. After the Former Captain Lidith Caverna died. Does that mean Lidith lived? Or is someone else the captain?
*BAMM!!*
Before I could dwell deeper in my thoughts, the door behind me burst open as two figures jumped into the room. One of them I was able to recognize was Hermes. But the woman who entered was unknown to me.
"Asfi-chan, is that High human here already?" The woman with ash-blonde hair asked Asfi before her eyes turned to me, and they practically started shining.
"Hoo… It's the first time I see a High Human." Hermes said while he and the woman started to circle around me. I saw Asfi taking a huge sigh. Before she eyed both of them sharply.
"Lydia, Hermes, can you both not behave like normal people for just once?"
Both Lydia and Hermes stopped observing me and turned to Asfi. So this woman is Lidith, huh?
"But Asfi-chan, He is a High Human you know!"
"But Asfi, He's a High Human you know!"
They both said at the same time. "Yeah, He is, but he is also my student from now on. So If you played any prank on him, I won't tolerate it." She said sharply.
"Eh Asfi-chan, why are you being so cold? Maybe you fell in love with him. Will you leave us now?!" Lydia said with a fake hurtful voice.
"Really Asfi is that true?!" Hermes also joined in on the play.
Their relationship seemed different than what it was in the canon. Right now Hermes and Asfi don't seem that close. It feels more like how Loki teases Riveria. Maybe losing Lydia made her go soft on Hermes since both Hermes and Lydia seem close enough right now, or is there another reason?
"If you are going to keep talking nonsense then you can leave. We have work to do." I guess they both understood that she was not going to buzz on this. So they both started talking normally.
"Ok fine, we just got a little excited, we won't play any pranks on him today." So they are going to do it someday, huh?
"Yeah, we just got curious, Asfi. After all that, the abilities Loki mentioned seem too versatile and powerful." It looks like Hermes intentionally left out the part about which ability Loki was talking about, to gauge maybe if I have any other abilities.
"Besides, He also saved a party from an irregular Infant Dragon."
"On his second dive in the dungeon, no less," Lydia added.
"Yeah, doesn't it feel like a hero in the making?" Seriously, Hermes and his obsession with heroes, is he a kid or what?
"Sorry to burst your bubble, Hermes, but I do not have the vessel to be a Hero." My words seemed to surprise them.
"And why did you say that? Did you not save those people?" Lydia, who dropped her playful attitude, asked curiously, and even Asfi was paying her whole attention.
"I mean, I only saved them because I have the confidence that if I were not able to defeat the infant dragon, I would at least be able to escape it. After all, I am not going to risk my life to save some stranger."
"That is a very hypocritical way of thinking." Lydia gave her assessment after listening to my answer.
I did not deny her. It was true after all.
"But isn't it fine to be a hypocrite?" Asfi spoke up in my defense. I looked at her and she looked at me. Before turning to Lydia. "If Wanting to live is hypocritical. Then that is much better than just dying for someone, who you might not even know if they deserve to live or not."
Both Hermes and Lydia looked at Asfi. Maybe she also noticed it as well. As she coughed lightly. " Anyway, Arin, this is Lidith Caverna, Captain of our Familia and this is God Hermes. You can just ignore them if they try talking to you."
"That's so mean Asfi-chan. We are not troublemakers." Lydia protested.
"Yes yes. Now both of you can leave. If you are not going to explain anything to him."
"Okay…" they both looked dejected as they took a seat on the sofa as well. Their faces turned serious.
"So Arin, how much did Loki tell you about our condition?" Hermes asked while putting his hat on the table. I also took a seat opposite of Hermes and Lydia near Asfi.
"Just the outline that I would have to share 50% of the profit with your familia and also need to help out with the mission your familia might take."
"Yeah, that's about right. But we have to say it beforehand that you should not discuss what you see here with anyone else other than Loki, or the people who you think are capable of keeping a secret."
"While Hermes is making it sound like we are doing something wrong, which is not the case," Lydia explained. "But because of the times that we are in. We are doing things which require us to be very stealthy."
"Yeah, that's fine with me. I am here to learn about item making. Not to expose some secrets."
"Yup. I am glad that you spoke the truth." Oh crap, I forgot that god's can tell if someone is telling the truth or not. Thankfully I answered in a way that tells a part of the truth.
"Then we will take our leave. Asfi will fill you up on the details." Hermes said and started walking towards the gate Lydia also followed him wrapping her arm around his left.
"Are they in a relationship?" I asked Asfi.
"No, not yet at least. Lydia likes him but he is avoiding the matter for some reason." Asfi said, getting up from the Sofa and Walking towards the table. I also followed behind her.
"We will have 2 to 3 hours of item-making practice everyday in every evening. And 2 days a week we will spend the entire time on training or go on a mission if we have any." Asfi explained as she took the knife lying on the table. "And the time can be extended if we are on a mission that requires a longer time to complete."
She handed me the knife. "Riveria told me you can feel the magic and can move it around. Is that correct?"
"Yeah, but I can't conjure any magic right now."
"That is fine. Before we start our practice. Do you have any questions?"
"Yeah. How does this magic item work, like did they become useless after a certain use time? Or can we use them indefinitely? And do these items use the magic of the user or are they pre-loaded when we make them? And can we upgrade an item? Or is it not possible?"
"C-Calm down Arin." Looks like, in my excitement, I got so close to Asif's face that our noses almost touched. She put her arm on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down.
I quickly backed up. "I-I am sorry Asfi. I got a little too excited."
"I-It's fine, Arin. Just be careful next time." We both got a little red on our faces but quickly regained our composure.
"I will answer your questions one by one." I quickly pulled out a paper to make notes.
"First normal magic items are of limited use only. And by normal I mean items made by people who do not have the development ability 'Mystery', and the items made by people with mystery skill can be used numerous times, even if the magic item breaks down, it can be repaired. Like any normal item." She stopped to take a breath and to see if I had written down everything correctly.
"And it depends on the maker and the magic item we are making, some items have enough space to pre-load some magic in them. While others directly take magic from the user. And yes they can be upgraded but it also depends on the item."
"Is there anything else you want to ask?"
"I do. But I guess this information is enough for now. But what do I do with this knife?" I said looking at the knife in my hand. It looks really simple. But I do feel some kind of magic in it.
"We will start our practice with this. I have intentionally left a flaw in this magic knife. Try passing your magic through it and identify how many flaws are in there." She said while taking a seat.
"Okay." I also sat down and started doing that. It was difficult at first. But after some time, my magic power goes through the knife. But I did not feel any flaw in it. I try doing it again and again. And finally found something. It felt like a bump on a softball.
"You found something?" Asfi said from behind me. I turned to look at her in surprise. Since I was too focused on the knife I didn't even notice her standing up.
"Yeah, I did actually. Though I was only able to find one flow only."
"That's already a big step forward. Looks like that growth ability of yours is a really amazing one. Most beginners will take several weeks to do the same thing you did in just an hour."
"What?! an hour?" I asked, slightly shocked.
"Yeah, you were focusing so much that you didn't even notice, that's a good sign. Since concentration is extremely important when making an item."
"Now let's move on to some theories and you can take this knife with you. And practice the same whenever you can. It will help in training you to use magic delicately when in the future you will item yourself." I pocketed the knife, and after that, we continued our lesson.
"By the way. You came from another world, right? What type of items are there?" I guess as an item creator she wanted to know if she can replicate them.
So we continued to make small talk with me mainly talking about the old world and different things that might be possible to be remade in this world.
.
.
.
Before we knew it was already night. We both decided to wrap up our first day of me learning how to make magic items.
"See you tomorrow, Asfi." I waved my hand.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow, Arin." She waved back as well.