-A few hours ago-

"Jesus, Cru, what happened to you?"

When Zeke received the message from Alissa that Cru would die if he doesn't come by soon, he thought she was just exaggerating.

Apparently that was quite close to the truth. Upon entering her store, he was met with an incredibly filthy and rank Cru who looked like she didn't bother taking a bath, let alone eat or sleep.

Even for Journeymen who could go for days without substance, there was still a limit depending on their stats, and Cru didn't strike him as someone who focused on Vitality as much. She looked frazzled, her hair strands all over the place, and the gaunted look on her face made him thought she was taken by undeath.

But when she saw him, a crooked smile was plastered on her lips when she forced him inside.

"This is what happened to me!"

She spoke with such reverence, making Zeke wonder just what the hell she was gonna show him. When she said that they finished their project of making weapons for Zeke, he was worried that she took it literally. What is he supposed to do with weapons that may not even fit him concerning his special build?

Once again, he was proven wrong. When she took him to the back of the store to reveal the gauntlets so carefully placed on top of a wooden counter, he felt his heart stop.

The immaculate detail, the careful etchings that only a dedicated Enchanter with runecrafting knowledge could bring out, and finally the raw power emanating from it spoke volumes into Zeke's mind and body. When he read the notification after Cru gave him permission to touch it, his mouth dropped.

Gauntlets of Corporeal Majesty (Epic) Under the guise of genius, drunken wonder, and a lot of expensive materials wasted, the talented blacksmith created gauntlets completely suited for one crazy Runist who decided that his fists would do the talking.

Enchantments: Extreme Mana Conductivity Unique Malleability (Stat Dependent)

…..

Mikella's attacks were quick and deadly, especially when her sword continued to barrage him with attacks that shouldn't make logical sense. One moment, cuts riddled with burning pain flashed across his body, and another he felt a heavy impact that nearly broke his bones if he didn't fortify himself with enhancement buffs.

All the while, lightning coursed everywhere, truly turning the entire field into an equivalent of being inside of a thunderstorm, Zeke being the only metal rod collecting it all to himself. But he wasn't keen on giving up.

His gauntlets flashed, two sharp blades connecting Mikella's blades each time she struck at him. In a microsecond, Mikella pulled out another training sword from her pack. All this time, she was just only using one weapon, but she wasn't barred from pulling out different weapons for the spar.

She struck at a visible weakspot, but Zeke's twin blades on his raised forearm suddenly shifted, its form changing into an energy shield that blocked against Mikella's other sword, this time carrying a heavy impact like a hammer would.

Mikella's eyes widened in surprise before Zeke brought in his other arm, the twin blades shifting and changing form into a heavily condensed mana mallet. He swung after Mikella's torso, which prompted her to react quickly and brought back her other sword to block.

He pushed her off, forcing her to slide several yards away despite having a heavy foundation in her stance. She breathed heavily, sweat forming on her face which was becoming rarer these days. She grinned at Zeke who in return grinned back.

This was becoming fun. At the moment, all other thoughts were just forgotten as he let his body do the thinking for him for once. Kinetic energy swelled within him as his gauntlets reacted to his mana, giving him what he wanted.

The mallet form and the shield form changed and became sharp singular blades that were several feet straight, becoming dual swords which Zeke swung to the side and charged right after Mikella. He didn't know how to swing a sword as well as his fist, but that didn't matter.

He was having too much fun to stop. He wanted to learn more about the potential of his gauntlets–of his new power granted by Cru's unbelievable genius. He knew she was talented, but even he never imagined weapons that could work so well with him like this.

Mana Conductivity was a given, and since it was Extreme, the enchantment was perfect for his intense mana, only made stronger thanks to his attunement. That alone was incredible, but the Malleability enchantment truly brought forth the value of the gauntlets. He could literally form mana into the physical world, transforming them into anything he could want.

He could do the same with Mana Manipulation, but it would just be a weak form of an attack spell. The malleability of his weapons allowed his mana to become literal weapons of anything he could desire, and what made them more impressive is that they acted similar to how combat Class Skills work.

They were linked to his stats. And with his buffs active, his mana gauntlets became truly terrifying weapons. This sort of thing wouldn't really work for a normal mage, preferring to use their spells to attack from a distance. These mana constructs that he could make wouldn't be able to extend any longer than your average weapon, forcing the mage to use the gauntlets like a melee fighter.

So for Zeke, these weapons were perfect. And that wasn't all. The pens that fused together with the gauntlets weren't a necessary requirement to activate them. No, they were there just to make things easier for him.

When Mikella kept blocking Zeke's weapons, each time changing into different weapons every time he wanted to make a new one, another construct was born out of the two blades from within Zeke's forearms. While he kept her busy with one, he transformed the other construct into something else.

Just a simple extended point, almost like a certain pen. When Mikella noticed that, her eyes widened in alarm. Zeke grinned like a wild man as he drew runes on a suddenly constructed Ethereal Manifest. As the runes glowed bright hot, flames erupted everywhere, surrounding Zeke and bathing Mikella in flames.

The entire battlefield became coated in Zeke's magic, transforming the flames from blazing hot to freezing cold as embers shifted to flakes, freezing Mikella's legs before Zeke's mana blades went after her. All the while, Mikella's lightning combated the newly made ice, breaking them and blasting them apart before Mikella responded with a well-timed parry, striking Zeke away.

"Scared you for a sec, didn't I?!"

"Barely, you prick! I'm gonna get you for that!"

The two battle maniacs kept going after each other, their grins never disappearing from their lips.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

…..

"They totally forgot about us, didn't they?"

Lyle joked, but that wasn't his fault since that would be his default state whenever he was seeing something truly incredible.

Seeing their otherworlder comrades fighting it out like rivals in some fighting show was one thing, but their abilities and constantly shifting powers made his mind boggle. He was just a simple alchemist, and before that, he was just a simple pharmacist. He had no idea how to do these fantasy battles, and only when he transform into his monster forms would he even get a chance to do anything as crazy as this.

Zeke's gauntlets basically became both his weapons and focus for magic, constantly using them to defend against Mikella's own sword acting like multiple weapons at once while casting magic like a mage, creating a symphony of magic that made his eyes burn from the excess mana involved.

Janet was completely taken by the battle, watching with fervent desire in her eyes to do the same. On the other side, Clara watched while cheering for her siblings, neither of which seem to be winning or losing. The little angel, Zoan, watched with a change in her expression. There was an intensity behind her eyes, as though she was surprised by how far they were taking it herself.

If he was honest, he was still a bit disturbed having an angel possessing him, and he still couldn't help but avoid using the hand that once had an angel's mouth talking about stuff that were way beyond his pay grade. He didn't tell this to Janet, pretending that it never bothered him, but as always, she could tell that something was bothering him, and insisted that if the angel did try to hurt him, it would have done so by now.

Considering Clara was the same, he couldn't help but envy the little girl who probably went through way worse while also having an angel possessing her. Seeing her now, he could only surmise that she had great people looking after her. How else can you have a little girl look this excited despite the horrid situation they were facing as aliens to this new world?

Watching Zeke and Mikella fight it out, actually enjoying the fight with those grins on their faces… Lyle grinned.

Maybe he should pick up the pace. It wouldn't do any good for these young ones to get this far ahead of him. What would his Mum say if she found out he was lazing about?

Probably shank me with her kitchen knife, Lyle chuckled to himself, being ignored by the others who kept watching the fight.

…..

The hall was ruined in all ways but permanent. While they held back their power, Zeke especially without his attunement, they did quite a lot of damage to the hall with their magic going all out.

Mikella certainly didn't hold anything back either, especially after Zeke revealed his new gauntlets. They kept fighting for about an hour before their lagging resources stopped them from truly wrecking the place.

Despite their power, it was clear that Mikella's lack of a a filled out skill list made her regeneration lag quite a bit, and Zeke's gauntlets chugged quite a lot of mana out of him thanks to him constantly casting spells and using his mana to create specialized gauntlet weapons.

Thankfully, Zeke had the foresight to use a rune array to instantly fix the field and its damage with a sort of regenerative effect. If left alone for a few hours, the mana in the field would restore the hall like his Restoration, leaving it completely spotless once they were done. Of course, it would take a long, long while before they could fight again to avoid damaging it any further.

His mana and stamina spent, Zeke breathed heavily as the spar really took a lot out of him. He was glad to see that Mikella's skill had no downside, and when she used it as a sword by itself, it was more powerful by leaps and bounds, constantly forcing him to be on the back-end. Looking up, he spotted Mikella walking over and stretching her hand out, picking him up from the ground as sweat caked his entire body.

"Oh god, I think I'm dying," Zeke said, not sure if he was actually serious or not with how much his chest burned from pain. "Why'd you gotta go and keep shocking me so much?"

"Because you kept burning me, freezing me, and had the audacity to mess with me with anti-gravity, you bitch."

"You had wings! I thought you had that covered!"

"I didn't!" Mikella snapped back, but a grin still held on her beaming face.

During the fight, Zeke had the bright idea of distracting Mikella with anti-gravity, keeping her off-balance enough to strike at her before she could get her wings out. Apparently that surprised her so much that she nearly shrieked in terror thinking that she somehow ascended to a higher plane. When she realized what happened, she turned beet red and went after him like hellhound from the infernal abyss.

It was hella funny though, especially when Clara saw the whole thing.

The doors of the hall opened up by themselves, revealing Alissa walking into the hall with raised brows. Seeing the state of it as well as the people inside, she shook her head.

"You really like to make a lot of work for me, don't you?" Alissa said. "I swear, you're just like Valorie and that damned bastard."

"Hey, it's not like we're leaving this entirely by itself," Mikella tried to argue, but after receiving a baleful look from Ali, she shut her mouth and looked away in shame.

"Even so, it gives me a headache to even think about, so I won't," Ali eventually said, looking at everyone in the hall. "I also got some news for the Tempest Winds. We finally got clearance to head to the next tower."

That got everyone to look at her now. The room turned quiet for a moment before Mikella spoke up.

"What finally got them to give in?"

"Nothing too troubling, but…" Ali actually took a moment to answer, making Zeke worried before continuing. "Basically anything you get from the tower is considered theirs by right."

"What?!" Mikella shrieked, getting everyone to wince at that. Clara quickly hid herself, despite knowing full well she wouldn't be any target for her wrath. "What the hell do you mean? Those bastards don't have any rights for our stuff!"

"Besides, they can't even enter the tower without us," Zeke said, adding on to it. "Without us, they wouldn't be able to even touch the stuff, let alone own it."

"It was the only way for Lord Cronus to get them to capitulate to let us into their territory. House Paragle also made it very clear that now that they know what happens when you clear a tower, they want to be well compensated. So don't even think about pretending not to find anything. I'm certain you can and will. That's what Lord Cronus is counting on."

"Fucking bastard thinks he can do whatever he wants…" Mikella grumbled, unfortunately having no choice but to accept.

"He can, that's why he's the Lord. If you got any complaints, then reach Master stage and give it to him. Otherwise, it's better for you to make our lives easier and just go along with it," Ali said with no mercy, her words cutting deep into them.

Zeke hated the idea of giving up their loot for a bunch of greedy nobles that can probably work well enough already even if the damage by the tower was done. Hell, with the tower there, they would probably keep seeing a hit in their profits thanks to the tower's influx of mana that kept messing with their day-to-day life. But they certainly wouldn't bring that up, only seeing the consequences of clearing it.

He let out a heavy breath. "Okay, so when can we go?"

"By next week. Tempest Winds' been contacted already, so just focus on training these newbies up for potential combat. And… should you find any otherworlders over there…"

Zeke prepared himself for the worst. She of course knew about Amber's situation, and worried whether they would also be up for 'loot distribution'. If Cronus was actually serious about putting otherworlders in the same spectrum as loot items…

"Make sure to let me know," Alissa finished. "It might be difficult, but Lord Cronus wants to make sure that no other person is left out, especially if they can gain new, unseen skills like your barrier. They may have secrets that Cronus doesn't want anyone else to know."

Zeke became relieved, not really disguising his expression. "Gotcha. By the way, are you also gonna-"

"Provide an identity for them and give them a place to stay on top of that?" Alissa quickly answered, shaking her head. "Who do you think I am at this point? Despite being such an astound Runist, you should use your head a bit more."

Alissa said with such confidence, she even sent a grin at him before facing everyone to bid them farewell before leaving. That was such a Valorie-thing to do that it actually stumped Zeke.

Thankfully, he wasn't the only one.

"I think that's the first time I ever saw that woman smile," Lyle said, his eyes bulging.

"Really?" Clara said, her head tilting. "She always smiles like that. You guys just don't see it."

"Probably because she only does it to people she likes," Mikella said, then turned to Zeke with a teasing grin. "And to Zeke. She realized how great it feels to mess with him on a daily basis."

"You guys and your teasing…" Zeke shook his head, which prompted a sympathetic shoulder rub from Janet. That somehow hurt worse.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.