Heavenly Dungeon - Fourth Floor (2)
"Your holiness! Craft God Aiolos accepted the challenge! Primus Roderick is now waiting outside to speak with you," Calvaros' crest holder knocked and entered the Audience Hall with the message.
"Hahaha! Summon Primus Roderick! I'm curious about what Parthenos tells him," the Wargod impatiently agrees to the request of an audience. The door is opened wide as his crest holder is getting ready to steps outside.
"Primus Roderick, his holiness is now ready to listen to your request. Kindly step forward into the Wargod's Hall of Respect." a proper ceremonial speech is used to invite Primus Roderick into the room.
Primus Roderick takes a few sturdy steps forward as he knelt on a knee before the God of War. Handling the Wargod's Parchment onto the crest holder, he speaks.
"Greeting to your holiness, Wargod Calvaros. I am Roderick, representing my young master, Craft God Aiolos, to deliver a few words."
"At ease, Primus Roderick." Calvaros took the parchment from his crest holder and scanned the content. He chuckles as he finished reading the parchment and tossed the unrolled scroll onto his subordinate.
With a hand supporting his head, Calvaros patiently wait for Roderick to open his mouth.
"My young master says... That Aiolos, a Lower-Tiered Craft God, is accepting his invitation for a duel 3 days later. We'll compete at the same level of status, without any of us having an unequal advantage against another."
"I hope that the Wargod Calvaros will take me seriously in this match, which we will compete to see who's potential is better. The bet will be 100 Low-Heaven Ore and a blueprint for Armor-Breaker!" Roderick repeated what Aiolos said.
"Hahaha! Great! Take this back to him, and tell your young master that I'll be there three days later to trample his dignity. Also, I'll have the five ancient gods to witness the duel, so there will be no dispute on the result." Calvaros tossed a pouch with 10 Low-Heaven Ores within to where Roderick stands.
"I'll be thanking your holiness on behalf of my young master. Let's meet at the sanctuary square three days later." Primus Roderick gave Calvaros a proper bow before he left the Wargod's Hall of Respect. He's also being somewhat sour at Calvaros' scornful facial expression, which he made without a speck of respect towards him, Aiolos, nor his liege, Parthenos.
"We will not lose - We will not lose - We will not..." Roderick left Calvaros' sanctuary, humming the same sentence again and again.
The news quickly reaches the ears of the Ancient Gods, including the Southern Ancient God. But because he's on his way discreetly to look for Marcos, he pays no attention to the dueling participants.
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With Tetros presence in the two Cohors, even the worst type of ingredients can be turned into a table of an exquisite feast. The Food God moved from one point to another, providing the legionnaires with support as the time getting close to evening.
While at the same time, Aiolos joined a team of recently formed elite contubernium team. Taking the position of a vanguard seriously, Aiolos charged with eight legionnaires and attacked the monster crowd with noticeable strength.
"Young - No... - Legionnaire Aiolos, march left with Terrence. The others will follow right until we're above the group of High Orcs!" the leader, a Tribunus, gives his instruction as they prepare to split into two forces.
"Holy Sanc - Eh?" Aiolos was going to deliver his grace to them, but the Tribunus stops him from completing it.
"What we need is not grace, but luck. A piece of luck that helps you grow. Anything else, they're worthless, in our opinion." the Tribunus said.
"But my Grace will make everyone's gear unbreakable. It will be a lifesaver at a crucial moment." Aiolos added.
"The crucial moment is when a legionnaire knows when to fight and when to retreat. Not holding a blessing and participate in exploration without practicing moderation." the Tribunus patted the shoulder of the one nearest to him.
Seven people moved to the right. Leaving only Aiolos, the legionnaire called Terrence and the Tribunus.
"Young master. Her holiness relies on us to teach you everything we know. You should think about my words while going over there to grab us the opportunity to slay the High-Orcs." the Tribunus left. His strides are quick and powerful, allowing him to catches up with his team of seven members in less than ten steps.
"Terrence, let's go," Aiolos made sure the golden spear within his right palm is sharp and steadfast. With the legionnaire called Terrence by his side, both of them charged into the ranks of sixteen High-Orc Warriors, two High-Orc Archers, and a High-Orc Mage.
(Buhihi! - Outsider is attacking us, Deploy!)
(Buga! - Shoot!)
[Please take note that words beside the orc's dialog are the meaning behind their Boar-Language. Added and made detail as per advised by my top reader, Nikhil_Chand]
Two arrows made its way to Aiolos, which he deflects at ease. Terrence followed behind Aiolos with the initiative and successfully cut a High-Orc Warrior from a charge.
With a fireball in hand, Terrence fired his magic randomly into the crowd.
His fireball missed the target by a laughable distance. The two High-Orc Mages gathered their magic force like how Terrence did and fired the ball at where Terrence stops.
"SHIELD!" Aiolos expands his shield to the size of his towering body. Both fireballs landed accurately at the Tower Shield, destroying sixteen out of the one hundred layers of defensive force.
"Come on!" Aiolos moved the towering shield aside with a silver spear in his hand. It was a weapon made to compensate for Aiolos' weaknesses in speed and reach. With a swing, Aiolos sent the flying spear at a random target he has chosen.
"DANG!" the spear trembles on the shield of the High-Orc Warrior.
(BUBUHI!!! - Deploy and surround them!)
The High-Orc Warriors copied Aiolos' spear-throwing action. Multiple axes, swords, and hammers made their way to Aiolos and Terrence, who's hiding behind the towering shield.
His shield shatters at speed faster than the two fireballs.
"Terrence, get ready to move," Aiolos said.
"OK!" Terrence waited for Aiolos' sign. At the same moment as the shattering barrier, Aiolos and Terrence charged left and right, attacking the High-Orc Crowds without bothering about defending their attack.
(Hihihihi... - Stupid outsider...)
"Boom!" their laugh came out a little too early. Balls of dense Iron with heavy stones inside them descends onto the High-Orcs like falling meteorites. Explosion follows wherever the iron balls landed.
"Yay! - Yay!" Terrence shouted. The scene before them is comparable to how Primus Stolla fired his Pillar of Fire. It was an attack that strikes all targets without discrimination of their size and strength.
"Let us return!" the Tribunus laughed as they pull everything worthy for collection back to the main camp.
...
...
The battle continued even in the late evening. Aiolos recently came back, but their contubernium team wasn't the last one to return. More of them are coming back and reported to their respective centurion before they proceed to the canteen or field-hospital.
Horn is blown once the army has returned to their main camp.
Primus Stolla's Cohors splits further into five Centuria, with a Centurion leading them. Only after they're done with the arrangement and casualties count could they decided to either rest, repair, or enjoy.
Primus Corner followed, but his method is slightly different. Five Centurions already had their Centuria sets before they separated and formed into the four human walls. The elites of his Cohors gathered together in a Centuria, ready for deployment at any time.
"Young master," Terrence came to Aiolos' side with a bowl of flavored gruel, bread, meat, and vegetables. The lifted curtain into the tent also allowed Aiolos to catch sight of Tetros, who's still busy with preparing the food.
Aiolos steals another glance at his wife before he turned his sight back to Terrence. He accepted the bowl of food with a smile and enjoyed them with the others inside this tent.
There were no distinct differences in the food between officers and soldiers. Both of them eat the same food, without anyone is more privileged to have something else in their diet.
Not long after that, Primus Stolla and Primus Corner came inside the tent with their bowl of food. While inside the food tent, everyone is the same, regardless of ranking and status.
"Primus Stolla, do you know where my mother went? It looks like nobody has an idea about my mother's whereabouts." Aiolos asked. Perhaps the two primuses will have an idea about their holiness' location.
"Her holiness is at the Sanctuary Square, of course. Why would you ask?" Primus Stolla shows Aiolos a puzzled expression for his weird question.
"I thought my mother followed everyone into the Heavenly Dungeon..." Aiolos added. No wonder he couldn't see her from the second their sight returned to normal.
"Young master has to remember that even as an Upper-Tiered God herself, his and her holiness can only come inside the Heavenly Dungeon six times in a month." Primus Stolla explained.
"Those chances are kept aside for emergency uses. Unless it is the end of the month, our holiness hardly participates with the menial issue," Primus Corner added.
They're feeling partly happy, grateful, and opportunistic at Aiolos and Tetros' arrival to the Fortress Sanctuary. Except for a few, like Roderick, 99% of the available Primus can hardly see Parthenos close to them.
Also, their reply made Aiolos knows how many times a god can enter the Heavenly Dungeon. While the mortals maintain their status of going in and out without limit, a Middle-Tiered God could visit the dungeon 4 times, while an Upper-Tiered God has 6 turns.
The Primus continues to speak out what's in their mind as the three shared a table together. But they did not linger for long before returning to their own position.
"Young master, please take the word of this servant as a pinch of salt. Her holiness intention by bringing you here is to allow you to have a broader perspective on how the fourth, fifth, and sixth floor works." Primus Stolla said.
"Please, cultivate without worry. Participating in the exploration is not a must, and you should focus on your cultivation instead. We'll be going back to the Core Tianyuan Sanctuary after two days. The exit door is secured, so we will have no problem returning." Primus Stolla left after he finished what he wanted to say.
Aiolos stays there for a few more minutes before he decided to return to his personal tent. Tetros also came back not long after him.
"Come here, my wife..." Aiolos opened his broad shoulder and had Tetros leaning on his chest.
...
...
Later that night, Aiolos went to a place where a few holes have been dug and filled with scraps. There's a centurion taking care of this spot while handling the paperwork on a table.
If Aiolos had to say something, perhaps it would be his handwriting. Each stroke of his brush brings out the intent behind the word he wrote while looking delicate and precise.
"Young master," the centurion greets Aiolos the moment he noticed his arrival to a place hardly any legionnaires wanted to be. To them, fighting against monsters and bringing back corpse and resources are more reputable compared to working as a scrap collector.
But to Aiolos, his mentality is different from them. He stares at the mountain of treasures the soldier despises so much. While it was mere scrap and food leftover for the soldiers, they were different for Aiolos, who is a Craft God.
"For these two days, stop placing them into the hole. I'll come and refine them into usable products." Aiolos speaks to the centurion that's feeling puzzled by his young master's action.
"Why would our young master come and play with the trash instead of going out to hunt?" the centurion talked to himself while unable to guess Aiolos' reason behind. But as a subordinate, it would be best for him to follow and do what he's instructed.
He blows the whistle strapped on his wrist, but the moment he turned around, Aiolos was gone. And since there's no other instruction from the young master, the centurion waited for his men to gathered around as he repeats Aiolos' order.
What he has no idea is instead of leaving, Aiolos had gone inside the hole they're using to hold the unwanted scraps. Inside the one he selected, fragments, bits, wreckages of all part of the armament and armor can be seen.
"Come on, Furnace of Tianyuan. It's time to work." Aiolos summoned the flying forge out from the Spatial Void and tried to stuff it with the bits and fragments around him.
Unlucky for him, the picky forge is unwilling to cooperate. No matter how Aiolos tried, the fragments all went through the ethereal forge.
"Fine. Since you don't want to do it, I'll bear it," Aiolos seated on the collection of scraps as he started to feed the Furnace of Tianyian with his Godhood Power. With his left hand now occupied with the troublemaker, Aiolos managed a ball of flames on his right and began to smelt the fragment, one piece at a time.
His effort slowly yields him small results, where the uneven piece of marble inside the Flame of "Tian" started to mature.