Morning 'exercise'
It was early in the morning, when the crystal lights emitted dim lights and a slight mist hung over the ground that Bathsheba woke up from her place atop the high ridge and yawned loudly. She got up and ruffled herself before fully shaking her body to rid herself of the dew drops that had collected on her fur.
Looking down into the camp, she eyes any movement being made in or out of the tents. The patrol guards who had been part of the last night shift sat around the dying embers of the fire, silently chattering over one last cup of mead as the sun outside the dungeon rose higher in the sky and the crystal lights upon the ceiling relayed its light level into the dungeon.
Bathsheba sniffed a bit before sliding down the side of he ridge and walking her way right past the guards. Her sudden appearance made some of them quickly reach for their weapons. But upon seeing that it was her, they lowered said weapons although they maintained a wary eye.
Bathsheba paid no mind to it and made her way over to what looked like a giant grey boulder on one side of the camp under the canopy of trees. She sniffed around it, picking up her Papa's scent before scrabbling on the bedrock, loudly so that he would wake up. Her sensitive ears picked up a rustling nose inside and she stepped back before the bedrock just instantly broke down into little fragments that vanished when they hit the ground.
In the bed that was revealed rose a puffy eyed Steve who looked at her tiredly. To wake him up, she gave a yap before roughly licking his face. The sensation of her slobber and the stench of her morning breath did the magic, and he shoved her away grumbling about a silly wolf.
"Good morning to you too, sweetheart." He said as he stretched his arms. "You woke me just in time for my morning workout."
She garbled a few times.
"I'm still testing out the limits of my raw strength. That's why." He said as he got up. "And one of the ways to do that is to figure out how much I can lift."
He got rid of the bed and equipped his armour.
"Alright, let's go find a suitable location shall we?"
---
Loud sounds and rumbles coming from the forest roused the Loki Familia up some time later. Feeling like a thunderstorm had just somehow rolled into the 18th floor, they rushed out of their tents to see what the commotion was about. Among them of course was Finn who heard the loud noises and ran out of the tent, immediately calling out to one of the patrolmen.
"What's going on out here?"
The adventurer though was staring towards the forest, not answering, with his mouth wide open in confusion as he eyed something in that direction. Finn followed his line of sight as did many other members who had just woken up to see something...really strange.
In the distance, they could see an entire treeline, rising up and down simultaneously over the other treelines. Up and down, up and down, rhythmically. It was like the ground of the 18th floor was breathing somehow, and an entire area of the ground with the trees on top of it began bobbing up and down. And each time it went up, those rumbling noises could be heard.
"What the hell is going on over there?" Gareth asked, sounding equally as perplexed.
Finn opted not to answer but look over to the side of camp where Steve was supposed to have been sleeping. His patrolmen had told him that the boy had built an earthen dome around himself to sleep in, indicating that the boy too didn't fully trust them as well, which he supposed was fine.
But the large boulder was now missing and Finn could see the same heavy footprints along with the prints of that giant wolf going through away from the camp site...towards the place where the trees were bobbing up and down.
"I'd bet a thousand Valis that Steve has something to do with it." He said dryly.
"You think?"
"...Somehow, I just have this intuition."
...
Sure enough when the executives made their way over there, they were greeted by the suspect 'under' the most precarious situation. Steve had his armour fully equipped which was one of the things that contributed towards them being able to see him. But what was strange was how he was causing this strange movement of the terrain.
Somehow he had lifted about 1/4 of a mile long worth of terrain straight off the ground, and with the massive mound of land on his hand, he was doing squats with it with one hand behind his back like he was doing a gym workout.
He had literally torn out a giant piece of land out of the 18th floor and was using it like normal weights for weight training. His back was ram rod straight, helped along by his armour as he squatted up and down with this literal mountain in one hand, which was making the trees on top of the piece of land go up above the rest.
"Hey you guys!" He called out to them. "Up nice and early I see."
"...What the hell are you doing?" Riveria shouted out to him.
"Training." He said as it was the most obvious thing.
"Training?" Finn questioned.
"Yep, training, exercise. Whatever you want to call it." Steve said as he continued doing squats.
"...You literally just ripped a piece of the 18th floor out, lifted it above your head, started doing squats! That's training to you?!" Finn asked.
"Yeah." Steve replied like it was the most obvious thing. "I just said that didn't I? This big chunk here should weigh a few hundred thousand tons. Strength is one of my best points so it takes a lot of effort to improve it you know?"
OBVIOUSLY, Steve was messing with them. Contrary to Ptah's wishes, Steve was enjoying flaunting off his strength to other adventurers but he was indeed experimenting here. He still could not find the limit of his strength and even now with this massive piece of land he'd just uprooted, he was only feeling slightly tired. It looked like the Falna had multiplied the base strength of his avatar, which could pick up hundreds of tons worth of blocks under twice the gravity of Earth.
That was how physically strong Minecraft Steve was, and the Falna had gone and multiplied it all. There was no telling how much weight Steve could now lift.
"So...cooool..." Tiona breathed as she looked upon the weird yet amazing spectacle. She'd seen monsters and monster rexes uproot large pieces of land before but never another adventurer. It made her really excited inside to see how physically strong Steve was.
Her Amazon blood also pumped faster as the sight of a strong man like that naturally made her do. Amazons lived for two things; to become stronger, or to breed new Amazons with exceptionally powerful males. It was a purpose just ingrained into them, and of course seeing a boy lifting such a colossal weight like that so nonchalantly, add into the fact that this boy also expressed an interest in her and had openly declared that he was attracted to her...well it definitely made her feel very pleased.
Tiona was not like other Amazons. She didn't leave Telskyura with sole purpose of finding a strong man to breed with. She had left to escape the cruelty of the Kali Familia as well as become stronger in her own way. Of course she wouldn't mind finding a strong man to fall in love with and bear children for him...but simply because of her asset size, not many men had shown much interest in her. Men in Orario were always so shallow, or they were just outright scumbags and saw women as objects.
To find a man who was stronger than her and expressed an interest in her had been a difficult task for her to accomplish, but now seeing someone like this, who was definitely stronger than her as was obvious by now, and someone who had confirmed his interest in her... well Tiona had finally found a chance.
"Alright, I think I'm done." Steve said as he held the chunk of earth still for a moment before he teleported right next to the Loki Familia, startling them before startling them again as the chunk fell back into its cavity and blew out dust and debris from the edges that had reconnected. It also came with a mini earthquake that shook half of the floor.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Bete asked, completely freaked out.
"Just an adventurer." Steve replied as he dusted his hands. "Shall we get going then?" He said as he began walking back to campus. The Loki Familia just watched him as he happily walked away, eyeing him like they'd just seen a freak of nature...which they had.
"Any bets that he's above level 6?" Gareth asked sarcastically.
"We never did ask abut his background or anything, did we?" Finn asked.
"No point." Tiona said, with a strange look in her eye. "No matter how hard you try, he makes sure not to spill anything about his background. He's sharp like that." She said with a funny smile on her face.
Tione noticed her sister's odd behaviour and became concerned.
"What's the matter with you Tiona?" She asked.
"Nothing big sis...it's just that I think my turn finally came." Tiona sighed. "You were right you know? They do look just as good from behind..."
"Huh?" Tione raised an eyebrow, studying her sister's faraway expression, before looking the way Steve had gone, before looking back to her sister again. Then it finally clicked. "HAH?!!" Tione exclaimed, her brows twitching as both a horrified and angry look appeared on her face as an instinctual protective feeling rose in her chest.
All of a sudden, she didn't find Steve as likeable anymore.
"I'm starting to think this may be bigger than we thought it would be." Riveria said before she cocked her eye at Finn. "Still thinking it was good idea to invite him along?"
"...I'm definitely starting to have second thoughts."
Meanwhile, Ais just stared after him as he walked away. An open mouthed gape still frozen on her face as her mind tried to process what he had seen in the simplistic way it was accustomed to. Once she realised what had happened, she tightened her grip around Desperate's hilt, more determined than ever to get a spar out of him.
...
"Sorry for the trouble." Steve said as they regrouped later. "I thought that since you had to get up early anyway, it wouldn't be too big of a deal if I made a bit of noise."
"It's fine." Finn said. "Many of our members are not morning people either, so you helped in a way."
"Glad I could be of service then." Steve replied as he watched the supply wagons roll by. Suddenly he noticed some very familiar items in one of the wagons. "Hey, are those my iron and steel weapons?"
Finn waved the cart down and the adventurer's pulling it begrudgingly pulled it away from the line of carts and dragged it to where Steve and the executives were standing.
"I'd been meaning to ask you when I learned who you are." Finn explained. "But it looks like I don't have to."
"I'm surprised you actually took the time to gather them up." Steve said as he picked up one sword and checked the durability on it. Needless to say, it was quite low, just about to run out.
"We were going to sell them for extra Valis in Rivira." Riveria said as she eyed the weapons. "But you can have them back if you'd like."
"...Nah, I can always just conjure other ones. It's fine." Steve said as he tossed the sword back into the cart.
"Conjure?" Gareth asked confusedly as he leaned on his axe. "What, you just make them from thin air?"
"Yep." Steve said as he held up a hand. "Like so." A new iron sword just popped into existence right before the executives' eyes.
Riveria was instantly hooked by this. Being a scholar, she was quite invested in magical topics and clearly Steve had not been storing that anywhere around his body, for the sword had just appeared out of thin air. So what other explanation could it be other than magic?
"Is that your special magic?" Riveria asked.
"...You could say that."
"So wait, you can just wish up weapons out of nowhere, using magic?" Bete scoffed. "That has got to be the most high piece of crap I've ever heard. Come on, we've seen how you've been making all your weapons disappear and then reappear. Your actual magic is storage magic isn't it?"
"Now you're talking crap Bete." Tione said. "Storage magic doesn't exist. It's common sense."
"He's not wrong." Steve said.
"Huh? Really?"
"Yep. But he's not completely right either. I do possess storage magic." Steve began flicking his hand around as an array of different enchanted weapons appeared in his hand. "But I also have the ability to create weapons out of nowhere as well."
Different swords, axes, spears and daggers began to appear in his hand. "From iron, to steel, to stone, to even gold." Steve said as a long golden spear appeared in his hand and he held it out before Finn.
Finn exchanged a look of disbelief with his comrades before gingerly taking the spear from Steve's had and inspecting it. He turned it around multiple times, examining it with large eyes as he took in the gleaming sheen of gold. It was so shiny that Finn could see his face in it. And of course, because the spear was made completely of gold, it was quite heavy too.
"...What the hell are you Steve?" Finn asked.
"Just a sim-"
"You are not a simple adventurer!" Finn said aloud as he held the spear aloft. "Simple adventurers aren't just able to make these things out of thin air! This is made of GOLD for gods' sake! You could sell this for a fortune with how little gold can be found in Orario. Or you could decimate the market with it too!"
"It's just a given. It's one of my abilities." Steve said as he rubbed his head before he felt glomped from behind as someone jumped onto his back and begin hugging his head.
"LEAVE YOUR FAMILIA AND JOIN US!" Tiona shouted as she swung around the top of his body.
"Tiona!" Tione snapped, not liking what she was seeing. "Get off of him!"
"NO!" Tiona shouted. "If he can just make weapons out of thin air just like that, we won't have a need for smiths anymore! You saw how strong his weapons were! If he joins us, we'll never need to worry about maintenance of our weapons or about money to buy new ones! And he can enchant too. AND he's super super SUPER strong! He can immediately join the core member team as well. So not only would we have an infinite supply of weapons, we'd also have a new addi-"
"I'm not joining your Familia." Steve said as he reached up and clapped the girl's lips with a couple of fingers. "I can't just abandon my patron like that. It goes against my moral code."
"Sorry about her." Gareth chuckled. "She's way too forward with stuff like that, doesn't give thought to what she says before she says."
"I understand." Steve said as he picked up her up and lightly set her on the ground. "Besides..." he said while taking the spear back from Finn. "...I wouldn't advise using gold weapons anyway."
"Why?" Finn asked.
Steve responded by slapping the spear very hard, with made it crumble into tiny pieces before shattering and then dissipating into nothingness.
"My weapons, when you break them, they disappear. So there is no way of salvaging the pieces. On top of that, gold weapons are easily breakable." Steve dusted his hands. "The money made from selling weapons like those would not be honest money since even though it's real gold, it's really just rubbish that will survive only a few strokes."
"How does it work?" Riveria asked, suddenly standing very close to him.
"What?"
"How does this magic work?"
"I don't know. I just do it."
"But you must have some explanation!"
"I really don't lady...um, you're standing way too close...could you maybe back up a little?"
"Take these things seriously!" Riveria said. "Magic is always purely elemental based. I've never heard of a magic that can just create weapons out of nothingness. Is it a skill? Or is it some hereditary form of magic in your family?"
"I-I don't know. I just have it."
"Forgive her." Finn said as he gestured Riveria to move back. "She's quite a magic enthusiast I'm afraid. Anyway, I've been meaning to say. We're stopping by temporarily in Rivira before moving on to the next floors. So if you want to tag along with us, don't wander around too much okay?"
"Sure."
"By the way lad." Gareth said as he held up a block of iron. "What's the point of these?"
"Oh those I used as projectiles." Steve waved.
"Projectiles?" Tione questioned. "How did you launch them?"
"Like this!" Steve grabbed the block from Gareth before anyone could blink and heaved it over the trees. The swing was so powerful that his arm created a gust of wind which lifted the skirts of some girls nearby while it shook the trees and made their trunks bend.
As for the iron block, people could no longer see it but they could definitely hear it as it sailed over the forest and vanished into the distance with a whistling sound.
"May I ask, do YOU think before you do things?" Finn asked. "You appear to be a person that just likes doing things out of the norm in front of people for fun."
"A fair assumption. I do like doing that." Steve said. "But the same could also be said for you too Captain Finn."
"What do you mean?" Finn questioned.
"A private word if I may." Steve gestured him to follow over to another part of what was remaining of the campsite. There were only a few people left packing up, so the place was relatively empty. Finn looked to his people before ushering them away, telling them to follow procedure while he would catch up with them.
...
"What did you want to talk about?" He asked Steve as he approached.
"Let me begin by saying this. I genuinely like all of you." Steve said seriously. "Really I do, and I'm honoured that you've invited me along on one of your expedition. But I'm no simpleton as to exactly why you did that."
Both stared at each other before Finn sighed.
"I didn't think it would slip by you. But can you blame me? There is no question as to how powerful you are Steve. That much can be deduced from what has been seen of you so far and how casually you flaunt it. I'm convinced now you're stronger even than me. A complete random like that just appears out of nowhere making very strange claims, and yet will not reveal who he is affiliated under." Finn shrugged his shoulders. "We've dealt with people like that in the past. Because we were careless, Orario was nearly torn apart seven years ago. As captain of one of the Familias most engaged in repelling that threat, it is a duty upon me to make sure that no such thing ever comes to pass ever again."
"So you want to keep an eye on me by inviting me to a faux?" Steve said flatly. "But I understand though Finn, I really do. But remember this." Steve held a long finger up. "I am a nice person all around. But I will not tolerate anybody that tries to impede me or encroach upon my comfort zone. I've established a boundary that I will not allow to be stepped over. Okay? So make sure you communicate to your friends to stop trying to get me to spill any details about myself that I've expressly want to keep to myself at the moment. I should not even have to provide justification for it but I did. That should be enough."
"What is the guarantee that you are on the good side?" Finn asked.
"You're forty bloody years old Finn." Steve said which surprised the Pallum as not many actually knew how old he was. "Have you not learnt by now that 'good' or 'bad' is but a matter of perspective? But if you mean on your side, then I can assure you I am." Steve put a fist on his hip. "Because if I wasn't, and I wanted harm upon you all, none of you would have been able to stop me."
"Is that right?" Finn asked with his bit of skeptism.
"Your entire Familia would have died down here Finn. And you know what I base it upon?" Finn cocked his head questioningly before Steve lifted up a hand holding a familiar object in it. "It is that none of you even possess the ability to even see me move."
Finn jumped back a little and his head whipped down to his belt. His dagger was missing from its sheath, and now held in Steve's outstretched hand. What he couldn't understand was that Steve had been standing nearly ten feet away.
"How-"
"In a singular moment, I stepped in front of you, pulled out your dagger and stepped back." Steve explained. "And I did that without any effort whatsoever. So if this is me being casual and you couldn't see it Finn, what will you do if I become serious?"
"...Just how powerful are you Steve?"
"Powerful enough that I should be greatly feared when I am wronged." Steve said with deathly sincerity. A tense moment of silence passed between them before Steve smiled. "But that does not mean I should be made an enemy Finn. I want to be friends, I want to be an adventurer, and I want to bring greatness to Orario just like any other adventurer." Steve closed his other hand over the dagger. "And my true value doesn't necessarily lie within my fighting power...but rather in my craft."
Steve withdrew the hand he'd placed over the dagger, and Finn was greeted with a glowing sheen of purple covering his dagger. Finn looked at Steve's smiling face before carefully taking the dagger from him.
"What did you do?" Finn asked.
"Throw it. As far as you can."
Finn gave him a weird look.
"Go on." Steve urged. "Do it."
Finn levelled a gaze at him before doing as told and hurling it over the trees. Steve whistled as the knife whistled away into the distance.
"Okay?" Finn asked. "What now?"
"Patience." Steve said. "Let it land somewhere first and then it only takes a few seconds."
So they both waited about 10 seconds before Finn started hearing something crashing through the tree tops. Entire branches were being lobbed off and falling into the undergrowth as the Loki Familia members looked up in that direction to see what was coming. Eventually Finn saw the same glowing knife burst out of the leaves and come straight towards him. Instinctively he held his hand out and the knife flew right back into his palm perfectly, still giving off the same glow. He looked at Steve who appeared to be quite pleased with himself.
"What did you do?" Finn asked.
"I did to it what I did to some of my own weapons." Steve said as he took the knife and held it at eye level. "I enchanted it, simply put. It is now a magic weapon."
"What?" Finn said. "Magic weapons are extremely hard to make though. Moreover they can only be made during the forging process, but yet you-"
"Enchanted a complete weapon?" Steve said. "Yes I did. And I enchanted this thing right here to come back to you after it hits it's target. You won't be losing it like that anymore." Steve put it back in Finn's hand and held his palm over it. "This is my investment in you, and my guarantee that I have not come to Orario to harm you. I have brought much with me, which I eventually plan to share with adventurers all around, and we will breach the unknown regions of the dungeon together one day with it. It may seem like a bold declaration, but what better way than to give you proof right into your hands?" Steve withdrew his own and stood to his full height with the same smile. "I am not your enemy Finn Deimne. Nor do I harbour any ill will towards you or your Familia. I only turn my vengeance and my wrath upon those who harm others simply for the pure enjoyment of it. So to face those cruel and sadistic bastards who no doubt still walk upon this earth, let us grow stronger together, with trust and compassion."
Steve held out a hand and Finn stared it. He then looked to Steve's dark blue eyes, which appeared to be genuinely full of sincerity. He then looked down at his common dagger, the value of which had suddenly skyrocketed in a singular moment because of this new friend of theirs. Even when looking it from a purely interest based view...there could be nothing wrong in allying with Steve.
"Yes. Let us do exactly that." Finn shook his hand. "But of course, it is up to you to stick to your word."
"And that you stick to your end of the bargain as well Finn." Steve said. "Most people in this world just want to live and get along...for the most part. It is those who crave control that sow discord and make us turn on one another, to make us deluded and antagonize one another. They are the ones to be feared."
"Indeed. By the way, is this the only kind of 'enchantment' you can do?"
"No. I have so many more." Steve gave a toothy smile. "If you want to know them though, you'll have to be patient. Good things come to those..."
"Who wait. Yes, I know." Finn rolled his eyes in mirth. "We'll make a short stop over at Rivira for a couple of things and then we're going down. I realise now though that of course I cannot be giving you orders as that would just mess up the dynamic of our groups."
"I'll be doing my own thing, although I think I'll stick with the vanguard." Steve said. "Of course, you have to share with me. You've faced these monsters so many times already. When I claim a monster, you'd better make sure you step away from it."
"That is only given that you reach it first before we do." Finn said playfully. "You are still green so I'm not quite sure we'd be comfortable exactly giving the reins all to you you know."
"I think I'll manage."
"Yeah sure." Finn sheathed his dagger. "You can follow us whenever you're ready. Even if we left you behind, it seems it wouldn't take long for you to catch up. Later."
"See ya." Steve waved, watching as the Pallum walked off before taking out a notebook. "So it seems that I can enchant items not from the system as well. The {Loyalty} enchantment doesn't seem to be limited to just tridents and spears alone. But let's just see if that also applies to my weapons as well." Steve looked up at his materials menu however and zeroed in on a specific two new additions he'd gotten upon entering this world. "They can never find out about this though."
Adamantite
Orichalcum
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