Desire For Strength

Leon paused. He took a second to take a bite of food. "So to put it simply…you just ask?"

"You just ask."

Kazi's explanation was quick and to the point, his confirmation twice as firm.. Leon grumbled to himself thinking he got robbed, which he did. The information he supplied was not particularly complex.

His sensitive ears twitched. 'Drums…? Oh, a tambourine.' The tempo, despite its muffle, seemed oddly familiar. His head bobbed lightly. 'Brazil, Rio. Ha, those guys party hard.'

A player must have returned and gotten the next door neighbours riled up because even Sun-young stopped to listen to the music. For the most part, Nulgupjisin Grill House was a quiet place so it was inevitable that the music would blast through the walls. Samba music combined with modern insturments.

Kazi whistled. "They sure are partying hard. Wanna go outside and join?"

"No thanks," Sun-young said.

"I'm the partying type so hell yeah! See you guys later!"

Either he didn't want to stay or he was a party boy because Leon bolted outside. The German boy dignified a farewell in the form of a wink and a salute.

"He didn't pay for the food he stole from us," William muttered.

An easy going chuckle from Kazi. "We'll get him next time."

"What do you plan to do with your points?" David asked. "We got quite a lot from the special objective."

"Oh yeah? How much?"

Kazi waited for the young computer engineer to run the numbers. "Fifty thousand for me."

"I got a hundred thousand more," Kazi said. "I suppose the Game System takes into account a player's contribution."

"Makes sense," Sun-young said. "Otherwise, players could just leech from stronger players."

An uncomfortable silence fell after her words. Kazi side-eyed Sun-young. He noticed she did not like them. She harboured a kind of grudge against weakness—against people who went with the flow of life. Understandably so in the context of the competitive Heavenly Games, but still, he thought it was too much to imply it and silently insult them to their faces.

***

Between the Recreation Sector and the Merchant Sector lay the area of home improvement. The window display was currently being adjusted by an old man with cropped hair whiter than snow. Upon eye contact, Kazi gave a small wave and entered the store, with Elena, David, Aisha, and Marta following close behind.

Sun-young and William wanted to rest, so it was up to Kazi to help them. He didn't mind. He wasn't that tired anyway.

"Hello, Oliver! Need help with that?"

The older man laughed and shook his head. "I'm much stronger than I look." To emphasize his point, he proceeded to lift the couch and mount it a small distance forward. He did it with such ease and equilibrium despite its length. One side should have been hanging down, but no. Oliver possessed superhuman strength that seemingly defied gravity.

"Wo-ho!" Kazi gave a round of applause and the rest joined in. Oliver went slightly red and came down while clearing his throat shyly. "Where did you learn that?"

"My grandfather. I was a lad back then and he forced me to help him in his moving business." A wonderful, nostalgic smile graced Olvier. "His technique was sublime. It wasn't until my teen years that I understood what he was doing."

"He must have been superhuman," David said.

"I thought so too. He lived till he was over ninety." Oliver placed his arms behind him, green eyes sparkling. "Now, what can I do for you, young man? I hope Kazi over here hasn't invited another set of customers for me. At this rate, he'll be running my business for me."

"Watch out, Oliver. I might just do it," Kazi joked. "But yes, these wonderful people need your ancient wisdom."

His smile nearly turned into a chuckle. "I'm not that old."

"Suuure." Kazi grinned.

Soft-spoken and kind, Oliver managed to break the awkward shells of the players behind Kazi and delved into conversations that extracted their likes and dislikes. Oliver was a different kind of gentleman than, say, John, who was rather active and intelligent. Oliver spoke with patience. He didn't mind the awkward youth that was Marta or the stumbling words of David.

He was good at what he did. He could see in his crafts, in the way build of the furniture and their set-up. It was why Kazi chose his store.

"—Majlis-style seating, huh? I can definitely help with that. We have some beautiful floor cushions and low wooden tables that would work perfectly. Would you prefer traditional patterns or a more contemporary twist?"

"Traditional," Aisha answered.

"Understood. We have some gorgeous textiles that could work for the cushions. And as for the tables, we offer a variety of wooden finishes, including some with intricate carvings. How about the rest of the furniture? Sofas, chairs, anything else you have in mind?"

Aisha turned thoughtful and replied, "No chairs. I want to focus on a bedroom first."

"No problem—"

Crash! Everybody whipped towards the sound and found David at the scene of the crime, a lamp having fallen and shattered.

"Oops!" David winced. "M-my bad. I'll pay for it."

The old owner's eyes couldn't have been emptier. He sighed, told Aisha to give him a moment, and approached the shattered lamp. He picked up the main component of the lamp and with both hands gripped it tightly. The lamp that had been broken suddenly glowed and the pieces came together.

David was gobsmacked. "How did you do that!?"

Oliver looked at him, confused, and came to understand. "Oh, yes. A rookie wouldn't know about this. Don't worry, someday you will also be capable of doing this."

Kazi's eyes didn't miss it. Within the light was the slight hue of energy enveloping the pieces and Oliver's tracking, flickering eyes. He purposely did it. He extended his magical energy to each shard and stuck them together through some sort of adhesive. Creating an adhesive through magical energy…

'It's the same principle on how we turn magical energy into fire and water. Fascinating, absolutely fascinating.'

In a thinking position, he would be remiss not to notice Marta's gaze on him. It didn't matter though. He was thinking. Thinking of a way he could get stronger through this idea.

'Oliver doesn't have the Game System. Meaning, he didn't use a skill to do this, he just did it. The Game System serves as a rigorous system that uses your energy and churns out results. But that doesn't mean you can't ignore the Game System entirely. Me creating skills ahead of my normal class is evidence of that, and judging by what Oliver did it also means I could potentially learn other elements without needing to unlock their skills. I could save on points by purely focusing on the essence and core of magic.'

Sheepishly, David asked, "Can I buy that lamp?"

Oliver pursed his lips. "Of course, sir."

Picking and choosing what to grab took a grand total of forty-seven minutes. Aisha and Elena were picky but they were visibly impressed by what Oliver had to offer. From the outside, his shop seemed a bit too classic for their modern tastes. But no, Oliver's furniture was universal.

Aisha was rather grandiose in her items. She spended like a girl born with a silver spoon. Elena was the opposite. She was picky because she wanted homey items. Lots of carpets, tablecloths, special holdings for tea, and plenty of religious iconography. Oliver didn't have everything she wanted so he informed her of particular places where she could find them. Aisha wanted to tag along too.

Marta and David, not so much. The two wanted technology. They wanted computers and phones. Alas, in this realm, there was none of that.

"Is there even internet here…?" Marta muttered.

Oliver quirked a brow. "Internet? Is that a game of some kind?"

Marta slowly looked at him. "The internet. The world wide web. You know…wifi?"

Blank stare.

"No internet!? No friggin' internet!?" David exclaimed. He and Marta exchanged looks and dramatically put hands over her mouths. David swallowed nervously. "No internet…god…"

"Hey, we can live without internet," Kazi suggested. "Right guys?"

"No internet…" Marta murmured.

"Uh, guys?"

"Is there any way to kill myself?"

"Seconded."

David and Marta hung their heads and sighed simultaneously. Kazi put a hand on his hip. "Talk about dramatic."

"Not dramatic. The internet is my life. How am I gonna watch the next episode of One Piece then!?"

Kazi froze. "Oh god…you're right."

"No anime…no fanfiction…no youtube…" Marta listed off, causing Kazi to step back with each.

"Oh my god…" Kazi muttered. He wiped the sweat off his temple. "This might just be hell."

"And now you're being dramatic." Elena rolled her eyes. "What do we do next?"

Grumbles from David and Matra. Kazi's eyes were stuck on the floor, downcast, before he brightened right up back and said, "Everything is in your inventory so you just gotta activate the command to go home. If you want, you can invite me and I can help you."

"That's a thing?" David asked.

"Yep. You can get a bathroom installed that way. There's two or three guilds out there that focus on that sort of thing. Luckily for you guys, if you want a bathroom, you can just ask me."

"You were a plumber?" Elena asked.

Kazi winked. "Like Mario, yes. So think you need my help?"

"I still have stuff to buy. So does Aisha, I think. You should help David and young Marta," Elena said.

"No problemo!"

He turned and David immediately said, "I can handle it myself. Go help Matra. She's—she looks like she might need help."

Marta, on top of being nerdy, acne-ridden, and farsighted, was quite short. Nothing ridiculous, just half a foot shorter than Kazi, who was tall for a man. David was a little shorter than him, close to six foot, so from his biased perspective Marta was much shorter and weaker than she actually was.

Kazi didn't want to insult her so he tried to be gentle. "Are you sure you need help?"

Marta bit her lip. "...yes. Sure. How do I…? Is it just…invite Kazi to home?"

[ You have been invited to Marta Kowalska's dimension. Will you accept? ]

[ Yes or no? ]

"See you on the other side."

With Marta's nod, he clicked yes and reality shifted.

***

The white canvass of an empty dimension materialized. His own home had been edited with colour and flair, so it had been a while since he saw this. A chair remained in the centre. A leftover from Azrael's conversation, he deduced.

Marta herself arrived a second afterwards. Her body language indicated she was a little nervous. Kazi wore a small yet open smile and politely said, "How do we turn in this place into the best room ever?"

"O-oh, um, hm…" Marta craned her head left and right. "Er…let's start with the bed."

"No problemo!"

A hand to his bicep, he began operating to Marta's whims. She was shy at first but eventually she became louder and firmer. She was growing comfortable with him.

"Want me to drop it here?"

"N-no, not there. Just, hm, stay there for a moment…?"

Kazi waited, the long couch over his shoulder, whistling. Marta tilted her head and squinting, her eyes then flickering over to another place.

"Actually, just put it there, yeah."

Kazi nodded and slowly began to shrug it off—

"Okay, maybe not?"

"No problem!"

Marta looked guilty and adjusted her glasses. "S-sorry, I'm bad at this…"

"Again, no problem. I'm strong!" He flexed his bicep and grinned. No muscle was shown because of the thick black robes but it was there.

Marta didn't speak for a half a minute. "You know, I saw you fight those bandits. Back then, I was so scared but you went and fought them and you…you won. You really are strong, aren't you?"

"I am." There was no denying it. Kazi said it with total honesty.

"It's like you had eyes in the back of your head!" She smiled at him, appreciative, then fell silent from a sudden feeling of dejection. Marta sucked in a breath. "And I'm weak." Another breath. "I'm so weak. I can barely run or chop down a tree. I can't do what you can."

"There's nothing wrong with being physically weak. Some people are good at other things," he comforted.

"But you saw the faces when we came out. They were…" Her left eye winced. "People died. And I when I was watching you fight those bandits, that's when it really hit me: this is the end of my existence. This is it. After this, there's heaven or hell. After this, I might not exist. I-I mean, on Earth, I didn't really care but here…here, it's different. Here, we learned that gods are real and that hell exists. Hell ACTUALLY exists."

A nervous laugh came out of her. "Isn't that crazy? If I fail this, then there's a chance I'll go straight to hell. I don't want that! I want to get stronger! Much, much stronger! I want to seize this second life I've been given!"

She became slightly breathless. She swallowed her nerves and mustered her courage. "I wanted to ask John but he passed on me. So I want to ask you, Kazi: can you help me get stronger?"

He set the couch down gently and he approached her with an almost proud smile. "If you want to get stronger, then your wish is my command."

Marta nodded feverishly, her brows drawn in determination. "Thank you!"

His smile grew into a grin. "First thing is first: building stamina! And I know just how to do that!"