Danmachi: the Great Devourer

C31: Magic Craze, Denatus, Apollo

Word count = 2322 on 2/2/2024

"Welcome everyone to the grand showcasing we have created here today. I thank Adelaide for her hard work and I won't beat around the bush in regards to the product. The items themselves vary from one another as there are a few different ones available. By this, I mean that each item has a magic spell engraved upon it. These are spell holding accessories that allow anyone with enough mind to be able to cast." he says and takes off the veil upon the pedestal.

What is revealed is a set of accessories such as rings, bracelets or necklaces which are the collaborative work between himself and Adelaide. It's a stained glass necklace with another ring in the center. The items don't look anything special as they are just simple iron rings or bracelets with some strange tiny carvings on them that look like elven leaves. The crowd doesnt seem impressed as there is just a deathly silence going on.

Axel patiently takes up one of the rings and puts it on his finger, the engravings light up blue and Mash brings over the heavily dirty board that had been sitting outside for a past few days. Many people in the crowd recognize the sign which is covered in various fruit juices, rain and dirt. It slightly smells but they await what explanation Axel provides.

"It would seem there is quite a few unbelievers here. Let me showcase the spells we have available at the moment."

He holds out his hand before the sign and the ring lights up before a glow covers the sign and all the dirt and whatnot just disappears while the sign returns to it's original pristine form, with the exception of a few holes or bends on it as the spell does not repair anything, just cleans it.

The crowd is in shock with an assortment of wow, holy cow, damn, being heard. Most others just have their mouths open.

"This ring holds the cleanse spell, a simple magic that assists in cleaning up something, whether it's a person or item, it can be cleaned. It's the least mind intensive of our new products and to showcase that I myself did not cast the spell. I shall have another use the ring in my place." he says and grabs a can of paint and splashes it on the sign again which dirties it. Then he takes off the ring and hands it over to another hired orphan who puts it on and casts the spell. The sign is cleaned once again and this gets a stronger reaction from the crowd.

"For everyone's information, this boy does not have a falna and has never practiced any form of magic. At most he would have a headache and enter mind down if he overuses it. I specifically made this spell for everyone in Orario to be able to use." He speaks out to the crowd and as he mentions the boy holds his head because his mind capacity at such a young age would be small.

"Your job is done, you can get off the stage now" He quietly addresses the child and helps him down to mash and Adelaide who pay him and let him sit down to rest. Axel then puts that ring back on the blanket and takes up the bracelet, putting it on gives the same gentle blue glow but when he raises his hand. The glow turns red as a wave of fire is shot out at the sign which sets it ablaze. Many adventurers have their eyes glow in interest.

"This is the flame wave spell which as you can see is an area spell though it's range it's not far so there is still a risk of danger. But the minimum mind setting on this should allow an adventurer to at least reach the 5th floor with ease. Afterall, you can't expect a war shadow to be weak and slow. There is still a need to raise one's stats but this at least offers people more options to become mages or if they lack any skills or abilities that use mind then the option is now available." Axel takes off the bracelet and puts on another ring

"Also if anyone has noticed. I have not chanted once for any of these 3 spells" At his words there is another shock sent throughout the crowd as amongst the crowd is Raikou who finally arrived to witness her child's big day. In another corner of the crowd is a white haired boy who is watching in awe of the scene. The boy himself joined Orario to be an adventurer and even a hero but the allure of magic holds him tight as he witnesses the final spell ring being used.

A slowly condensed spear of fire is created that then is shot through the sign and mash has to hold up her shield to block the flame bolt but is still knocked a foot or two back. Axel goes on to explain the third item.

"That was the flame bolt spell which has exceptionally piercing power. It should allow adventurers to reach up to Rivira as I haven't had the pleasure of moving past it myself to see how well the items or my own magic fare. Certain monsters such as orcs or minotaurs could require a second blast to take down unless you can strike at the mana core." The excitement is reaching it's peak and Axel gives the final conclusion.

"There are multiple forms of all 3 items, but we are only selling once a week with 150 items of cleanse spells, 100 flame wave magic items and 50 flame bolt items. It does take time to make afterall. The magic items are also at risk of breaking but after many tests, we have broken a cleanse ring after using it 300 times. Flame wave rings after 130 uses and a flame bolt ring broke after 80 uses. More mind conductive items will be made in the future but those will cost more of course The store will officially open in a few minutes. Please line up orderly otherwise you will be thrown out."

He directs the crowd who suppress their excitement and get in line but the slight that isn't suppressed causes the white haired boy in the crowd to be amongst the first in line. Axel himself enters the store to help each customer get their item but with the flamebolt rings running out quickly and the flame wave quickly following. Those rings were primarily bought by adventurers while the cleanse spell was bought by the civilians. The white haired boy himself got a flame bolt ring which had drawn gazes of desire from others but he quickly thanked Axel and the others before running off to hide. The price of the rings and other artifacts are fairly cheap to start things off but of course that will increase as the quality rises.

There was a rule that people could only buy one ring each so that when Hermes and Asfi bought a ring, Hermes got himself cleanse ring to help maintain his appearance while Asfi got another flame bolt ring to study as she could tell it was the most complex. Each of the rings share the magic symbols around the ring but only the flame bolt covers 70% of the ring itself. She can quickly deduce that a circular pattern is needed for the imprint but she cant recognize the language put onto it.

She originally assumed it was some form of elvan but after heading back and checking through records, she could find no link to standard elvan. Her next assumption is to say that the symbols aren't elvish at all but a magical language unique to immortals magic as she has heard tales of how immortals use a different type of magic but she has never seen it though records do tell her that they project magic circles to use their magic. This is the basis of her assumption but only by potentially getting to know more immortals could she possibly have a chance to understand the magic items. Her mystery development skill is working overtime to help her understand the nature of the rings but it still eludes her.

Axel himself spends the next 2 days back on his typical cycle. The current situation is he goes to the dungeon during the day and magic lessons the next day while evenings for both days are used for magic crafting. He sometimes wishes he could clone himself so that he could spend more time with the people he cares for.

The day after the initial magic item sale, Orario blew up again in gossip. The first is that civilians are thanking him for helping with their daily chores by selling the cleanse rings. The second is that adventurers learned that the offensive spells helped their magic stats increase. Once that second bit of news spread, that is when a giant craze rose up as hundreds of civilians had been looking for falna to passively get the magic stat which would let them use the cleanse rings more and speed up their chores even more instead of being able to use it every 5 minutes. Axel was briefly considered the god of magic by civilians though adventurers were not that far off either if it wasn't for their gods growing annoyed at their reverence. It also didn't help that the gods chose to decline pretty much all civilians if they didn't join the dungeon like Loki or anyone else or at least didn't have a production skill like the Hephastus familia or Goibniu.

This had resulted in many lesser name gods gaining a few familia members but a few hundred who got rejected multiple times grew annoyed with the gods and went to the immortal section which made them quite happy as there are lot of immortals who aren't combat focused, which means that multiple tiny communities had been formed with the immortals at the center.

This also works for Raikou as her plans enter the final stage, the more cohesive relationship between all immortals assisted in her negotiations once she revealed the origin of the new trend was due to her child. She mentally apologies for using her child like this but for the greater benefit of the people, she would let her own morals be put aside.

The time of the Denatus has finally arrived. Axel dresses up sharply and is accompanied by his two darlings, Raikou and Kaoruko. They rent a fancy carriage to travel to the Apollo Familia home which is the venue for the Denatus. Typically mortals aren't accepted but when it comes to the actual Denatus at the end of the party, all the mortals would be ushered out. It would just be the title recognition this time around as no major issues have arisen in recent time.

They arrive at the party with no issue but they immediately attract attention from all parties. On one hand, Axel, a handsome man is accompanied by 2 frustratingly beautiful women though there is recognition that they are immortals. On the other hand, everyone knows who Axel is now due to his feat of essentially creating a miniature era of magic in Orario. As Axel and the two beauties are wandering around. They got to see the god Take with his group of children who are either eating or storing food away along with another short black haired girl with twintails that is dressed very simply. Accompanying the little girl is the white haired boy that Axel has seen around a few times but he never got to know his name.

"Greetings to you Takemikazuchi." Axel addresses the god which attracts the other members attention as they surround Axel after dragging him away from the shelter of two immortals as they begin to discuss with him. Ouka is impressed by his feat of lifting the giant sword. Mikoto is a bit annoyed he hasn't visited them in some time while chigusa simply asks if he is doing well.

Axel answers their questions one at a time while inviting them to adventure together so that they could progress further with more ease.

Speaking of adventuring, he finds Daisy with her immortal Shuten Douji just arriving. Looking around some more he finds Welf is with Hephaestus as well as ... .Senji? Who is aggressively eating from his own plate of food as if a starved man is given water. While he is eating, he is still ranting at Welf about his workmanship while Welf is simply covering his ears as he tries to attend to Hephaestus.

The lack of decorum ensures that people stay away from Senji while others try to flatter Hephaestus like usual to no avail. At some point the goddess Loki had snuck up on the short twin tailed girl which revealed to Axel that she was also a goddess and specifically the goddess of the white haired boy…who is dreamily looking off in the distance at a blond emotionless looking girl. He has no plans to open that bag so he instead continues to entertain his friends from the Take familia.

Though that doesnt stop him from overhearing the fight between 'loli small boobs' and 'loli big boobs' which also caused him to shrivel up and die instantly but he held strong and ignored that situation.

The party continues and the host finally makes his appearance. A man with short blond hair (anime is red) with exceptional style with his executives on his side with the exception of his captain. He welcomes everyone to the party and begins to meet plenty of his guests.

He finally stops before Raikou, Kaoruko and the other minor gods near the back of the party.