Chapter 781 T.D.O.N.B: You Can’t Always Have Everything

I started with the design. I wanted the shield for most to be functional so I went with a rectangle shape, rounded up on the bottom part. It was nothing fancy. I actually thought that making it as thin as possible would be the best choice since I was going to enchant it anyway and make it incredibly tough, so making sure it was also light was a priority, because the amount of material wasn't actually directly benefiting the defensive capabilities.

Then I spent a while considering how to decorate it. I wanted something on the surface of the shield, which would represent my wife. Something that would describe her character without words.

She was gorgeous and smart, but for most she was proud. I was able to only think of two being which could represent those characteristics. One was obviously a dragon, but the mythic beasts were not always considered good. As a matter of fact, they more often represented evil, and Celestine wasn't evil. This led me to pick the second option, and that was a griffin.

Majestic, proud beast associated with nobility and good. Well... at least in my mind.

Despite my craftsman skills, my art actually was quite terrible as I soon found out, making a simple design in the sand with my finger. So there was no way I could create something really nice with metal if I couldn't do it with much more flexible material.

This made the design quite simple and rough. Just a side of the beast.

With all that prepared, I began working with metal. I easily heated the steel bar, then flattened it with the hammer. The next part was more difficult because I had to put the design on. I made the shield cool down, and then began working with the cold material.

'.',

I utilized the hole in the anvil with a very small hammer to basically punch out a griffin-like shape. When I was finished and checked the effect of my work, I actually was disappointed with how it looked, so I ended up fixing it with 'Telekinesis' which was not easy at all, but the outcome was much better.

Then I added leather straps to utilize to fix to a forearm when used.

By that time it was already way past noon, and I only had a few hours of time to work. I knew that the process of enchanting an item was rather slow, so I was worried I wouldn't make it on time. It made me think of different ways to approach the whole enchanting process.

For the shield, I came up with something quite simple, and quite easy to do. I first created a barrier on the item, then slowly infused it with my mana then shaped the magic in a way that it would actually only be triggering the barrier which was already there.

It made the whole process very fast since I was incredibly good at barriers, and terrible at imaging magic items. I would consider the barrier weak overall, but for somebody like Celestine, it was incredibly powerful.

Resolving this issue in such a way gave me more time to work with the sword. I had few ideas of what to do with it but ended up crossing all of them out, since there was not enough damn time for that anyway, not to mention the fact that with my current skills at the moment I would make a shitty job anyway, so I just used the mana to make the blade as sharp and as sturdy as possible.

It sounds like very little, I know, but just that was a full few hours of work at full concentration. It made me understand why Rishi always looked so damn tired.

When the process was done, I was actually exhausted. Mentally obviously.

'The latest_epi_sodes are on_the Nov elB i n website.',

I had only probably a few minutes before everybody returned to the city, so I left the workshop and went home t make some food. I didn't manage to get it ready on time when my family busted into the house. They were all grunting out of exhaustion and fought over who was the first one to get into the shower, which got me slightly more time, but still not enough.

- Sorry for the delay - I said when I finally began putting the food on the table, with all of them already sitting.

Leonel and Carmelita were straight up laying face down on the tabletop. Celestine did a good job preventing herself from doing the same, but one glance told me that she could hardly think of anything else but going to bed. Only Tihana looked decent. Probably because she didn't go with me the previous day.

- Eat up, and go to rest - I told them, putting a smile on my face.

They actually didn't need any encouragement to devour the meal and vanished into their separate rooms as they cleared the plates.

It made me realize that my grand plan of having a good time tonight could never succeed.

- You can't always have everything - I told myself, as I was cleaning up the table.

Then I joined Celestine in our bedroom. She was already completely passed out. Despite the exhaustion, she looked peaceful and obviously incredibly pretty. Her leg was sticking out of the bedsheet all the way to her waist, exposing a little bit of dark panties. This view made me consider waking her up, but that would be a dick move, so I suppressed my desires, just admiring from a distance.

The lingerie, her pale skin, and the white color of the bedsheets worked beautifully together. Then I bought a glimpse of her peaceful expression and stepped out of the room. I was simply afraid I would wake her up if I were to lay next to her.

She worked hard throughout the day, and she deserved a good night of uninterrupted rest. For me, it didn't really matter if I went to bed, or just closed my eyes for an hour or two while sitting down in a chair. It was actually an unnecessary luxury since my body was regenerating anyway at an incredibly fast pace.