SSS-Rank Engineer: Only I Can Create Legendary Weapons

(Kinda of R-18, Might just edit it out. Thanks for reading, leave a powerstone and comment xd )

The next morning came with a vibrant light. A soft knock on the doors told Percy the servants were to help him get ready. He was already awake, though, having spent all night thinking of the quest Nyx gave him.

━━━━━━━━━ ✦ Optional Quests ✦ ━━━━━━━━━

– Complete the Second Version of the Spellcore (Given by Aether): Your inventions continue to impress the god of possibilities. He humbly requests that your next version of the Spellcore improves on its conductivity to avoid burning the Aetherite conductor. Rewards: One Rank 4 customizable reward, twenty additional stat points.

– Find the Forgotten Temple (Given by Nyx): Find the forgotten Temple of Gaia, and claim her inheritance. Not much to say here, but I'll speak directly. This will determine whether you return to Dema in ruin or not. Rewards: One Rank 5 customizable reward, fifty additional stat points.

✧──────────────────────────────────────────────✧

This reeked of some conspiracy. He didn't know whether to trust that this wasn't just something Nyx wanted and was using the danger to his family as an excuse to make him get.

He rolled off his bed and sluggishly walked towards the door. He pulled it open to let the maids inside. Since he was a kid, he had two maids, Lena and Kari. Both had been around fifteen or sixteen when he met them.

Lena was a cute, energetic girl with strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes. She was the type of girl nobles would forget was a commoner and force to marry their son. Her body was pretty nice too; Percy even started to feel attracted to her when she started bathing with soap.

Kari was more demure and shy. Her mahogany brown hair didn't stand out the way Lena's did. But underneath those baggy maid clothes was something crazy.

He knew because when he turned ten, they had the bright idea to try and bathe with him, no doubt this was an attempt to win his favor and maybe become concubines later, but all it did was turn him off.

They were both so earnestly trying to secure a future for themselves and their families in a world that was unforgiving to the mundane commoners like her.

But it was just so uncomfortable for him to take advantage of their advances. He turned to the other two maids, who were Jason and Aella's caretakers.

"Good morning, Lena, Kari, Donna and… Silvi, right?"

The young girl turned down shyly at his gaze.

"It is Silvia, my lord. But it is an honor to have you give me a pet name. I fully accept this—"

"Yo, chill, it's a nickname, not a pet name." People in this world were too weird about pet names. It was apparently a symbol that you belonged to the person that called you that. "Nicknames, I've said this a thousand times, they are for friends."

Silvia blushed furiously and raised her hands waving them erratically.

"I can never presume to be your friend, Lord Perseus. Your medicine healed my sister and so many others in the city; I'll give my life—"

All he did was introduce some new medicines that he had in his memories to deal with the diarrhea and stomach cramps a poisoned waterline might have caused.

He could barely remember the composition of the medicine and had to recreate it using customizable rewards, then slowly work on recreating it with a local herbalist he trusted.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Let's get ready. My journey to Yarol begins soon."

Lena and Kari got to arranging his clothes and pressing them to look smooth, while Donna and Silvia passed through the adjoining door into Jason and Aella's room.

Kari picked up one of his schematics and folded them carefully to put back into his box, her dark eyes scanning them nonchalantly.

"Percy, we packed all this yesterday, why did you unpack again?"

Kari and Lena were the only ones that would agree to call him by a nickname. He sighed softly.

"I wanted to see if I could get anything done before leaving that would help the city."

Lena squealed, running over and dragging him into a big hug. It didn't escape his notice that her breasts pressed into his face at just the right height.

"Percy, you're such a good boy. Worrying about us before you go on a dangerous journey. I could just kiss you."

I know what you are, Lena. You can make me horny, but you can't trick me.

He pulled away from Lena's slightly alarming breasts, and then got pulled into Kari's apocalyptic breasts. He looked up between them, wide-eyed. Kari's face was red as she looked down at him.

"You're such a good boy, Percy."

Abort! Abort! This is dangerous! He tried his best to pull away but now they were just both hugging him.

"Lena, Kari, I'll be fine. I'm going out with Thalos, nothing can happen. But you guys are here while House Eurides plans something big."

They let go of him, and Lena rubbed his cheek softly.

"I'm more worried about you and Lord Thalos being alone. I never see him smile, and all you do is crack jokes."

Kari nodded.

"I don't think it's even possible for him to stop talking. Lord Thalos rarely speaks and he's rather scary."

Who is this Thalos you speak of? The one that talks my ear off about his day if he catches me in the hallway? The same Thalos that laughs at even my bad jokes (which are rarer than gold)? And even at Hecate's bad jokes (which are more common than dust)?

Thalos was out more often doing monster hunting till a couple years ago when they got enough money to hire fighters, so he wasn't as well adapted to the servants. Or rather they weren't used to him.

His father didn't like people doting on him or doing things for him. It took a while just to let them wash his clothes because he felt they weren't doing it properly. And by properly he meant not the way he liked it, cause Percy knew from experience the servants did it better than him.

"We'll be alright," Percy shrugged. "It's our father-son outing. We'll bond and I'll become a real man or something."

Percy regretted saying those words. Lena thumbed her lip seductively.

"A real man. I don't know if you'll find that in the jungle. But we can show you here."

Percy turned very pale; he turned to Kari, who was bashfully looking at the ground.

"Yes, Master Perseus. We can show you in the bath."

"Hehe, it'll be like old times before you started fearing women."

Percy didn't know quite what to say. It was just an irresistible offer. One he had been holding back on for years, because of how he felt about them. He let out a weak sigh; he was going to be away for a long time anyway.

Far from any women…

○——○

Percy came downstairs late, lugging his trunk over his shoulders. Thalos stared at him in confusion, his gray eyes narrowing; Percy was never late. Behind him was Hecate, who was crying on his shoulder.

The entire fortress staff was there, looking on in admiration. Lena and Kari ran up behind him, carrying his smaller boxes. Terra was also there, teary-eyed, holding Lecetes' hand tightly.

The leader of the Graveseekers gave him a tight nod. Percy walked towards them first and tapped Terra on the cheek softly.

"Dark mistress, it's okay. I'll be back before you can even miss me. That's if you'll miss me—"

His jab was cut off as Terra jumped into his arms; she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, her voice shaking terribly.

"I can never forget you! You're my first friend… my best friend. Who will I talk to about two-layered circles, who will eat coffee cakes with me, who will…"

Her voice trailed off, swallowed by her sobs. Percy hugged her back and felt some tears start to fall from his eyes.

"With me. You'll always have me to talk to. I told you didn't I? I've made you my friend, so now you're cursed with me."

Terra sobbed even harder and then refused to let him go. Lecetes had to pull her off softly and hold onto her as he said goodbye to his parents.

Jason was in Hecate's hand, face buried in her shoulders as he cried.

"Percy, please don't leave me."

He was just a kid, Percy knew that, just a kid that didn't understand that goodbyes weren't forever. But his little sobs broke Percy's heart.

His face crumpled, and the tears he had been holding onto disobeyed his every order. He felt a small tug on his trousers and looked down to find Aella.

Her face was resolute and strong, her purple-gray eyes shifted colors steadily.

"Stay safe out there. Don't let any monsters bully, Daddy."

Thalos' face fell, his posture slumping a bit.

"Come on, Aella. Believe in me a little."

Percy knelt down, cleaning the tears from his eyes to look more serious.

"Hey, you can cry too. You don't have to put up a strong face."

Aella tried to hold it back, but her face shrunk and her eyes watered slowly. She sniffled hard, holding back her tears.

"I want to look strong like you and Mommy, and Daddy, too."

Thalos smiled like the sun had just risen after a thousand years of darkness. He picked up his crying daughter and laid many kisses on her wet, chubby cheeks.

Hecate was the final one. Her makeup was ruined already; she hadn't planned to look so undignified.

"My boy… I never got to raise you. It was like you were born a man. And you hated my breast milk for some reason—"

"Mommm."

She grabbed him in a tight hug. He wrapped his hand around her and Jason, who wouldn't look at him.

"You'll come back safe. I know. You and Thalos are too strong to fall to anything. My husband and my son are the strongest men I know."

Letting go of her was hard, getting into the carriage and watching them shrink into the distance was hard. It was all so much more painful than he could ever imagine, his heart fell like a used tissue.

Thalos laid a steadying hand on his shoulder. Percy looked up at his grinning face.

"Are you ready, son? We'll have to make this journey as quick as possible and get back to them."

Percy cleaned his tears, grinning wildly.

"I was born ready."