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"I believe myself to be a kind man, a righteous man, a man who does good- so did Hitler… so am I really doing good or am I just making up excuses?" - Author's ramblings
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Staring at the six members before him, Ryuta had already studied their stats. He had already taken the copies of their stats yesterday and read through them on his way to Hephaestus workshop.
Although it was unfortunate that they were all at level 1 with pretty- mediocre stats, Edward especially as he was at I0 for everything- but that was apparently the "norm" so he gave up on that matter.
What he did notice were the skills, the women had none, not a single skill or magic meanwhile, Edward had a single ability-
[Alchemy]
This skill, much like his own, was a reflection of the abilities he already had. So Ryuta could see where the [Alchemy] skill came from.
What he was curious about were the effects of that skill.
In Ryuta's case, he had yet to test out his three skills, he spent most of his time testing the limits of magecraft that he had forgotten about his own skills. But their names were enough to give him an idea-
[Blitz Gott], [Forge] and [Papiyas]
All three abilities were enough for him to have a faint understanding of what he could do but what Ryuta was more focused on now was the method to rapidly increase the strength of his comrades.
Ryuta knew that Falna was a power that allowed individuals, members of a God's familia, to unlock their potential. Using the power of the God's as a bridge or catalyst, they could access this hidden potential and improve upon it.
The weakness was that they simply increased the "enhancement" of falna.
It was a semi-permanent form of reinforcement magecraft- at least, that was what Ryuta saw it as.
Using that as a basis, Ryuta tested the limits of Falna, with his abuse of his own body and the backdoor to the power of Hestia he had created. Ryuta had developed a way to convert the Falna, or more precisely, the excelia earned through Falna into a force that would directly improve one's constitution.
Simply put, Ryuta had created a magic crest that allowed those who bear that crest to improve their strength much like monsters do.
It was a method that some may call- heretical, an upfront to the God's but-
'Given the carefree nature of the God's- the three I met, this should be passable'
Unfortunately, Ryuta was unable to reduce the various problems that came with such groundbreaking spells.
Strength or anything for that matter, does not come without a cost.
Although he had not tested it yet, Ryuta had already seen through the downside of using the magic crest which he had, for now, named [Sin].
'First, is the need for the stats of the bearer to reach the max rank, so S999… after that, the excess excelia would not strengthen their body like a holy blessing, no, the change in their body would be a "modification"... so intense soul stirring pain…'
Much like Alchemy in FMA, magecraft was a system that followed a system of equivalent exchange.
Although, for this, Ryuta did his best to remove as much negative effects as he could but he was ultimately unable to remove the pain of body modification.
That being said-
'The [Hollow Brace], [Impact Belt], [Painmail] and [Drunken Crown] should give them enough suffering to make the body modification feel like a tickle…'
The four other items Ryuta thought of were all parts of the five item training set.
The [Hollow Brace] is a tool that allows the user to increase the gravity that acts upon their body by a factor of 2 up to 10 times. It consumes mind to stay active.
[Impact Belt] allows the user to reduce the force they apply on their surroundings, this was done in order to prevent the user from crushing their legs while using the [Hollow Brace]. It could be left constantly active but it makes the user unable to deal any damage, but also makes them receive near zero damage from impacts. [Impact Belt] consumes stamina to remain active.
[Painmail] is a second skin like armor, a skinsuit, it's function is to convert all damage received into bolts of pain and surface level skin lacerations. This item consumes both mind and stamina to remain active.
Finally, [Drunken Crown] is a circlet, designed like the one worn by wukong, it's a golden headband that makes the wearer be in a constant weary or "drunk" state. It has 10 levels and the "drunk" state makes them lose focus easily, which makes casting spells or even just fighting extremely hard.
[Drunken Crown] this is a special tool as it could only be used by members of the Hestia Familia. Its power source is their falna connected to Hestia's power.
The reason Ryuta made all the tools function on the user's various energy reserves came from the fact that training would be done in the dungeon.
What he did was basically tie weight- an extreme version of weights, to his group while leading them on a journey through the dungeon.
He basically gave them all debuffs before a fight, one that could kill them.
Which is why he did not wear those items himself.
One thing Ryuta discovered about excelia is that the acquisition is based not on the type of foe felled or activity being done, but on the difficulty of the trial faced by while felling foes or accomplishing tasks.
The excelia gained from hunting a minotaur does not come from the power level of the minotaur but on the disparity in power between the minotaur and the fighter.
Ryuta was not sure if it would work but by placing debuff's by weakening Edward and the others and making them face enemies in the dungeon, he would be putting them through constant life or death situations.
Although not all would end with them prevailing, by leading them, Ryuta could ensure that their failure won't lead to death.
Moreover, the mere act of helping them improve their strength and defeating enemies to train and protect his comrades should give a little boost in his acquisition of Falna-
Ryuta explained the five training equipment to Edward and the five women but-
"No! No! NOOO!!! I WON'T FUCKING ENTER THIS DEATHTRAP! LET ME GO! I'LL MAKE COLA, I DON'T MIND BEING WEAK JUST DON'T LET ME GO!!!"
Edward was already crying, the mere thought of getting covered in cuts made him shiver. Ryuta tried to calm him down-
"It's not that bad you know-"
But Edward did not let him say anything more as he started screaming.
"Not bad?! NOT BAD?! WHAT IF THAT PAINMAIL CUTS AN ARTERY OR SOMETHING?!"
He had a point, Ryuta knew of that potential issue but he already worked that out. Moreover-
"Come on~ I'm not that stupid, it won't do that, even if it does, I won't be wearing any of the items so I could immediately heal you all up, set up a barrier and use [Rest]-"
Unfortunately, even all his preparations could still go wrong, after all Ryuta always followed Murphy's Law when dealing with anything new- the law that states, "What can go wrong, will go wrong".
But this small hint of unreliability was quickly picked up by Edward who continued screaming-
"THERE! YOU'RE NOT EVEN SURE IF IT WON'T CUT AN ARTERY! I WON'T GO! I WON'T GO! I DON'T WANT TO FUCKING DIE! I WANT TO BUILD A HAREM! I WANT TO SLEEP WITH BEAUTIFUL WOMEN! I HAVE DREAMS TOO! I CAN'T DIE! NOT YET!"
Normally Edward won't crash out but-
His experience in the last few days had made him understand one thing-
Ryuta was not the type to fall back, he was not the type to hesitate.
While others thirst and cower, Ryuta would proudly walk forward and reach for his goals.
If Ryuta wanted to do something, he would do it, even if it had the potential to fail, he would still rush forward.
The man was not scared of failing, in fact, he already knew the type of personality Ryuta had when he heard of his stunt yesterday.
Making a deal with the Loki Familia? Facing the Freya familia?
Edward knew, if he were in Ryuta's shoes he would have begged Finn and the rest of the Loki familia to escort him back but Ryuta?
The madman pushed them away and fought against the Freya Familia- ALONE!
Edward was NOT taking any chances.
His mind had already made a choice-
No matter what he WON'T train with Ryuta!
To hell with the five crazy women, they literally knew Ryuta for only a few hours and they were already blushing like girls in love. They didn't look like they were worried about their bodies the moment he talked about the endless amount of pain training would bring them.
At this point, Edward didn't even bother with the five women who were clearly going to be part of Ryuta's harem and become some OP bitches.
Hell, he could even tell that Ryuta's "theory" would end up being a success and all five women would be able to reach the strength of Ottar at what- level 4? Maybe level 5?
He didn't fucking care, pain? Suffering? All of those are probably some stupid excuse the author made to make the improvement in strength believable.
Edward didn't care at this point, he just wanted OUT!
"NOPE! NOT GOING! NUH-UH, NOT ME"
He didn't mind the glares being directed his way, he wouldn't jump into a pit of lava just because it would make him a God. That's- just not him…
"Sorry bud-"
"Huh?"
Ryuta stood before Edward, a dark smile on his face-
Edward felt a deep fear at this moment- he tried to scream but he found his voice going silent. He was unable to let out even a whimper-
"This is for your own good~"
His words were lighthearted but to Edward, Ryuta's words were like the call of Hades, his smile was like that of Satan, the wicked grin of Lucifer himself- not the Tom Ellis Lucifer by the way, the more demonic Lucifer-
'I DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO JOIN YOU FOR FUCKS SAKE!'
Edward screams internally, unfortunately, his words did not enter any ears as his body was quickly wrapped in a plethora of artifacts and a magic crest branded on his hand.
"There, wasn't so bad now was it?"
Ryuta said as he left the hollow Edward and proceeded to give the five women their artifacts.
At this time, Hestia came forward and she gave Edward a pat on the back.
"It's for your own good"
She said as she trusted Ryuta to bring all of them back alive, although she could tell that they were about to suffer-
"Heroes are not called heroes because they were blessed by the heavens, they are heroes because they stood up fighting despite being battered and bruised- a true hero could stand up even if they have no energy left, their body aching and blood flowing. Edward… that is the way to become a true hero-"
Hestia tried to comfort her cowardly child but Edward's response, at least in his mind was-
'But I don't wanna be a hero'