Isekai Adventure in the Dimensional Cube

In the mortal realm, gods are just like ordinary people, devoid of power.

However, the sealing of divine power doesn't mean that gods lose everything.

For instance, their experience, their knowledge, their insight, these all belong not to divine power but to their inherent abilities.

Why can gods discern if children in the mortal realm are lying?

It's simple, because they possess a transcendent perspective and insight, coupled with eons of life (divine life) experience, if someone lies before them, it's easy for these worldly gods to see through it.

Moreover, beauties like Frey and Ishtar, their "beauty" itself is both a power and a condition, not within the domain of divine power, even if they bewitch the children into being utterly captivated, with only them in their eyes, losing rationality for this, it is not considered a breach.

Especially Frey, her pair of insightful eyes can see through a person's soul, just as people naturally see the external scenery, this goddess naturally sees the internal soul. This is an innate trait of hers, a form of vision, also not within the domain of divine power.

Therefore, if it's said that gods lack any abilities after descending to the mortal realm and become ordinary people, that would be a grave mistake.

A god who presides over the harvest would know how to produce good crops even without divine power.

A god who presides over war would know how to marshal troops and achieve victory on the battlefield even without divine power.

The Wine God can brew wine so exquisite that even a god would get intoxicated with a sip.

The God of Weaving can make fine fabrics and create beautiful clothes.

This is not divine power, but knowledge, a skill.

Therefore, even if divine power is sealed, some gods can create miracles in the realms they preside over.

With purely ultimate skill, using abilities akin to normies, they touch upon the divine realm longed for by those in the mortal realm.

This is what is known as divine skill, divine craftsmanship, the truly Supreme Domain spoken of by people.

For mortals to reach the Divine Realm is something almost impossible, but for gods, they are naturally in this domain.

Hephaestos, as the god of forging, can achieve divine craftsmanship in a mortal body, using the purest, simplest technology to create miraculous Divine Weapons that mortals couldn't forge in a lifetime.

Reiger took notice of this.

He wanted Hephaestos to forge a weapon for him.

"...It seems you know quite a bit about me." Hephaestos's tone paused slightly, but she still shook her head, saying: "I still think you should look for my children, weapons crafted by gods are still too early for you (mortals)."

With that, Hephaestos intended to turn and leave.

In response, Reiger did only one thing.

"Please take a look at this."

Reiger opened his hand before Hephaestos.

The next moment, a stone emitting scorching heat, looking as if there was fire burning inside, appeared in Reiger's hand.

"This is...!"

Hephaestos, who just glanced over casually, had her expression change upon seeing the fiery stone in Reiger's hand.

She almost reflexively took the stone and examined it carefully for a moment, then looked at Reiger with tremendous surprise.

"Where did you get such an incredible thing?"

Reiger did not answer that question.

He just continued to smile faintly and said a sentence.

"It is called a Heat Stone, a material I plan to use for forging a weapon."

Yes.

The fiery stone that Reiger brought out was a world-class item he obtained from the world of the Overlord — the Heat Stone.

"It's truly unbelievable that such a material exists in the mortal realm?" Hephaestos stroked the Heat Stone lovingly, marveling: "Judging by the quality of this material, even in Heaven, it would hold a certain standard."

"As long as you like it." Reiger nodded and said: "Then, regarding my order, would you be willing to accept it?"

Upon hearing Reiger's words, Hephaestos finally hesitated.

It had been so long since she'd gotten hold of such high-quality material.

More precisely, ever since arriving in the mortal realm, it had been that long since Hephaestos touched material of this quality.

In Heaven, it was one thing, but in the mortal realm, such quality material simply doesn't appear, even if Hephaestos wanted it, she wouldn't know where to look.

Thanks to this, Hephaestos was indeed hesitating.

Reiger did not rush, just staring directly at Hephaestos, waiting for her to make a decision.

The Heat Stone in "YGGDRASIL" was a world-class item that allowed one to request the game authorities to craft desired items.

After coming to reality, this function became the capability of changing the Heat Stone into the desired object merely through imagination.

Besides doing that, those possessing the Heat Stone could use it as material, embedding it in weapons, armor, and even use it as a golem's core.

Using the Heat Stone in this manner is more efficient than letting it naturally transform, and the resulting items would be stronger than those formed purely by transformation.

But even so, the Heat Stone is only a common world-class item, and items made with it are at most comparable to world-class items, not quite matching the "Twenty".

For this reason, Reiger had always hesitated to use this precious world-class item.

Now, he planned to hand this world-class item over to the forging god, making her use it as material to forge a supremely powerful weapon, not inferior to the "Twenty".

He believed that with divine craftsmanship processing, the Heat Stone would be more useful than the above two utilization methods when crafted by the forging god herself.

However, if Hephaestos truly didn't want to do it, he wouldn't force her.

After all, Hephaestos wasn't the only god of forging, she was just the most renowned, the mightiest, and indisputably the most capable.

Even if Hephaestos refused, Reiger would spend some time seeking other forging gods elsewhere, having them use divine craftsmanship, using the Heat Stone as material, to craft the strongest weapon for him.

He preferred to do without rather than make do, even if it meant keeping the Heat Stone hidden, unwilling to waste this one-of-a-kind world-class item.

Fortunately, Hephaestos finally relented.

"I have one condition."

Hephaestos lifted her eyes and said to Reiger.

"Tell me."

Reiger calmly asked her to continue.

"I can use it to forge the best weapon for you," said Hephaestos: "But I hope you can leave some scraps from this material for me."

Clearly, Hephaestos couldn't completely let go of such excellent material, finding herself reaching for it.

For this, Hephaestos didn't mind making an exception to do it personally.

Though, recently, she already broke a rule for an old friend...…

Thinking about that friend, Hephaestos couldn't help but chuckle bitterly.

The one who used to live parasitically in her house, finally got back on track, taking in a child as a dependant, establishing a familia.

Though currently still a weak and insignificant familia, considering the old friend's kneeling plea for the only child, she still crafted a suitable weapon for that child.

This happened less than a month ago.

So, Hephaestos didn't expect she'd soon personally forge a weapon using divine craftsmanship for another child of the mortal realm.

"Of course, I'll still charge you for it," Hephaestos squeezed the Heat Stone, saying to Reiger: "Don't think the craftsmanship of a forging god comes cheap? I'll be asking you to pay a hefty price for it."

Reiger not only wasn't scared by these words but instead smiled and nodded.

"I will look forward to it."

Thus, Reiger handed the Heat Stone over to Hephaestos.