The next few weeks were a lot of work for everyone. Sorta except Fuze.
Basically, Fuze just put us in communication with the Free Guilds, then talked to a friend of his, Baron Veryard, to set the ball rolling on everything else.
That included a few basic trade agreements between Tempest and Blummund, as well as tossing another road at Geld, to work on once he was done with the road to Dwargon, which was coming along rather nicely. We'd deal with all of the nitty gritty at a later date. They invited me to Blummund to deal with that stuff on my own time.
Since I was asking a lot of them, all of the merchants affiliated with the Blummund guild would be getting a pretty damn good deal in Tempest for the time being, but I figured that was fine, since our road wasn't up yet.
As for Yohm, that was where all of our work began.
First off were his skills, as well as those of his 30 man party. Frankly, they were lacking.
It took Risa and Kurobe a full day of arguing to agree on a basic idea for Yohm's weapon. Kurobe wanted to use his newfound skills to create a katana, like the one that he'd made for me. Mine was a Legend-class blade that'd been sitting in my stomach, subject to the Wise One's Tests since the Orc Lord fight, nearly unbreakable, but with no other outstanding qualities. It was perfect for me. In fact, it could hold its own against Solslicer without breaking, even in its top form.
But since his skills had evolved since, he expected that he could create something with even more potential than that now. Unfortunately for him, Risa's magitech (the computer-like 'brain' of the sword) needed to be rather large, if it was going to be powerful or complex. So, they ended up agreeing to make a blade just smaller than the giant one that he'd made for Shion.
And once he knew the type of blade, Hakuro could give Yohm specialty training in its use, making full use of our never-ending supply of Full Potions courtesy of Gabil.
Poor Yohm. Humans simply weren't as tough as monsters, even weak-ish ones like hobgoblins.
So, several weeks passed. Apparently, Yohm developed a habit of waking up and screaming "DEMOOONN!!" In the middle of the night, but that wasn't my problem.
Meanwhile, Kurobe and Risa had finished Yohm's sword, while Garm and Kaijin dealt with the equipment for the others. Even Milim helped with this endeavor, mainly because without Risa, she was rather bored.
First off, Milim gathered unicorns, B-ranked monsters, for Yohm's party to ride. Then, Risa named them in her spare time, adding a plus to that B-rank. Then, she killed a Fire-attribute Arch Dragon and brought its materials back for Risa to use. The dwarves also used the dragon's scales to make armor for Yohm and his party, but the main thing that we needed was the dragon's magic stone. We didn't know how to make artificial magic stones, so the power that Risa's magitech could hold, and the complexity of it, directly corresponded to the size of the magic stone it was made of.
…
"Okay… umm… WHAT THE-?!" When Yohm beheld the fully finished sword, he literally shat himself right then and there.
And honestly, I couldn't blame him.
It wasn't anything compared to mine or Solslicer. I suppose it'd be nearly impossible to create something of that level so quickly and easily, but this sword was still way stronger than the one that Risa had gifted to Gobta.
It was a large, two-handed sword with a pommel that seemed to glint red in the right light. And it just exuded power. But only when held by Risa or Kurobe.
Risa had worked on the magitech inside the pommel for a whole week straight, no breaks, no talking to anyone else, just sitting there carving into the dragon's magic core.
When I asked Wise One how it worked, on a whim, it gave me this junk:
'Computers sort data via ports. They recognize each individual port as 'open' or 'closed,' and the pattern in which these ports are used is the code by which computers think. What Risa is attempting to do is replicate that, using a magic crystal as the conduit. Two dimensional magical circles varying in complexity take in very specific data from certain outside stimuli and use them to activate other, nearly microscopic two dimensional magical circles carved into the magical crystal in specific patterns via the magical energy that exists inside the sword. These magical circles warp the crystal itself into different three-dimensional shapes, activating different magical effects depending on the 'program' run.'
Umm, yeah, I didn't really get any of that. Basically, she was making a computer inside the sword, and the bigger and more complex it was, the more varied and powerful effects she could put in it, then?
'Answer. Essentially.'
And Gobta was able to do some pretty crazy stuff with his programmed sword, even though it used a magic circle that, once processed, was barely the size of one's finger. This one, based on a dragon's core, was a quarter the size of one's fist once Risa finished processing it. Far more complex, far more powerful.
Unique indeed. Even Milim guaranteed that there'd never been a sword like that one anywhere before. A work of art.