Danmachi-Hell's forge

Clearing my head of these thoughts I moved to my workshop that I had connected to the church via a small hallway with yet another finger eating door at the end. Unlocking the door I entered the place and shut the door behind me. Walking over to my chests of stored materials I opened the one that was empty and deposited the goliaths hide in it but kept the large skeleton with me since I had a plan for that. I sat down in the chair in the center of my workshop and took out the first of the goliaths bones.-

In a funny way I could be considered the first person to ever use a goliaths bones as a drop item. It wasn't something that dropped normally as that was instead the hide and teeth of the tough bugger. The bones themselves were more or less very similar to the teeth though much more substantial since obviously there was more bone than teeth in it's body. Much like the teeth though the bones were a sort of yellowish white and slightly reflective. I felt like I was holding a dinosaur bone as I hefted one of the things into my lap.-

Placing my hands at either end of the large bone I closed my eyes and activated my technique. It helped when I closed my eyes as I was feeling the essence of the item my technique flowed through. This bone was a level four material and heavily resisted any change I sought to inflict upon it so closing my eyes helped me focus exclusively on that material. I coaxed out the impurities and wild properties that I didn't want while refining it and the property I did want, regeneration.-

In my previous level up my vessel rapidly collapsed under the pressure of hitting the absolute limit. This time I plan to counter this collapse if possible and if not at least stall it long enough for me to know what my options for developmental skills are before Hestia finishes leveling me up. That was why I needed a stable version of the goliath's regeneration as the only property left in it's bones. I was going to fuse them into a box that will continuously heal whoever was in it so long as it was fed energy.-

While it wouldn't totally remove the risk of death from this second time smashing my head against the limit to have the most perfect leveling path ever and thus the highest chance at godhood, it WOULD lower that risk greatly. My second set of preparations after completing this box would be to create a small barrier around the box so that when I level up the cursed energy above the city doesn't go haywire. Actually leaving the city a good distance would be best but that would probably be suspicious as hell. After the war game people were paying attention to us now even if only to see if we'll become a problem.-

Bell's recent level up had caused a bit of a commotion but no one found it hard to believe since he HAD fought and defeated an adventurer both more experienced and higher level than him. The funny part though was that there were rumors that I was less talented than him since he had leveled up to three before me even though I had been an adventurer longer. But only our familia and Hermes knew how wrong that was, it wasn't that he was more talented so much as he settled for fantastic and safe but not dangerously high for his stats at level ups.-

I on the otherhand gambled with death for my last level up and I was going to do it again because the trade off was well worth it in my opinion. This also meant it would take me longer and longer than him to level up but that was by no means to say I was less talented. Anyways leaving the city to level up was out of the question with so much attention on us. With that being the case I wanted to at least make sure the cursed energy didn't cause a mess when I leveled up.-

Otherwise people are going to be able to start making the connection and I'd rather not have to explain what that energy was or what it had to do with me. The longer people go on thinking I was using mana and magic the better. Having something unique is all well and good when no one knows what makes it different but jealousy is a bitch to deal with once those differences are known. The barrier I had planned to make would be one with only a single function, worldly separation.-

In simple terms all it would accomplish would basically be to temporarily isolate my existence from the outside world, a sort of deprivation chamber if you will. From within the barrier I will not be able to see, hear, smell or sense any of the outside world and the same will go for outside the barrier looking in. Obviously air would be able to come in since breathing is still a thing I have to do but otherwise I may as well not exist when in the barrier. Probably rather overboard but I'd prefer not risking it.-

First though I had to make the life coffin(patent pending) and I worked tirelessly to refine and condense the goliaths bones and their innate regeneration properties before fusing them into a literal rectangular box three feet wide, two tall and seven long. The whole thing was pearly white after i refined the bones and glowed slightly but I wasn't done quite yet. I also added four energy slots that accepted stones, cursed energy or mana straight from a person to fuel it. The finishing touch however with the technique required Cassandra's help, or rather the help of her healing magic.-

By itself right now the box had minor regenerative properties just because of the sheer quality of that aspect in the bones that I enhanced to make it. But I needed a sort of spark of power to finish the box and make it work as intended. Reverse curse technique would work if I knew how to use it but pure healing magic would also work. She was in the dungeon with Daphne, Bell, Lili and Welf at the moment though so I went to work on the barrier pylons instead. Since the caster of the barrier i.e. me would be indisposed while the barrier was up I need to anchor it to something else that would serve as the fuel source and foundation of the barrier.-

In this case i was going to create six pylons that will serve to give the barrier structure and fuel thanks to the cursed stones attached to them. I went into my nearby material chests to grab crystal mantis drops and mithril to form the pylons main bodies before slitting my wrists with my weapons razor edge and bathing the pylons in my blood. I healed the wound and cleaned up the mess but this was to give the barrier just that little extra oomph.