The moment they stepped out of the Hephaestus branch, a crowd swarmed Roy, trying to make a connection with the young "God-Smith." Roy responded with smiles and accepted business cards from everyone—adventurers, nobles, and merchants alike.
Welf, still possessing the stubborn pride of an unyielding blacksmith, looked on with disdain. He believed that as long as one's craft was pure, that was all that mattered. Seeing Roy entertain these profit-driven people made him curl his lip.
Two hours later, they finally left the city of Solingen. After traveling about three kilometers into a deserted area, Roy suddenly stopped.
"Tiona, stay alert. Tione... give me a hand." Roy's voice was as steady as usual, but it carried a hint of extreme exhaustion.
Tione was stunned for a moment. Then, before their eyes, Roy—who had seemed like an unshakable titan—slowly began to collapse.
"Captain!" Tione cried out, rushing forward to catch him.
Roy's legs gave way, and he slumped to his knees, supported by her. He gasped for air, drenched in sweat, his eyes reflecting a deep, bone-weary fatigue.
"Captain, what's wrong?" Tione asked frantically, nearly in tears.
Roy managed a bitter smile. "You think forging that equipment was easy? It's enough to kill a man."
The three finally realized the truth. That was a top-tier First-Tier armament. Usually, an entire forge would work for days and nights to complete such a feat. Roy had done it alone, finishing at the very last second. The mental and physical strain on an LV.4 body was immense.
Right before their eyes, Roy's muscles began to spasm violently, every single nerve in his body screaming in agonizing rebellion.
"Were you forcing yourself this whole time?" Welf asked, incredulous.
What was more terrifying was that not even Hephaestus or Tsubaki had noticed his weakness during the hours of conversation and dealing with the crowd. If he hadn't reached his limit, they would have thought he was in peak condition.
Roy gave a forced grin. Tsubaki hadn't gone all out and likely had 70% of her stamina left. If she had seen how vulnerable he was, things might have become complicated. He refused to bet their safety on the "kindness" of others.
"Waaah!" Tione's eyes turned completely bloodshot as tears finally spilled over. If she had known, she would have dragged Roy away early instead of letting him be cornered by those merchants for hours.
Tiona's innocent, carefree smile completely vanished, her eyes shifting into a sharp, hyper-vigilant glare as she scanned their surroundings.
Fortunately, they had already cleared the immediate outskirts of the city. This desolate, uninhabited stretch of wilderness effectively served as a safe zone; the surface-level monsters prowling this far out wouldn't even suffice to fill the gaps between their teeth.
The group moved into the forest to camp. After knocking Welf out for safety, the sisters set up camp using the supplies from Roy's spatial ring while Roy rested.
As night blanketed the area, the quiet forest settled into a serene rhythm, filled only with the faint rustle of leaves and the ambient chorus of insects and frogs.
"Which of you wants this weapon?" Roy looked toward Tione and Tiona, gesturing toward the newly forged Great Twin Blade: Urga.
With the elven holy sword already in his possession, this massive double-bladed weapon served little purpose for his personal combat style. Leaving it in his inventory meant it would merely gather dust, so it was far better to pass it to the sisters to significantly bolster their vanguard strength.
"Captain, you're... giving this to us?" The two Amazonian girls stared in absolute, open-mouthed shock. This was a First-Tier armament with a market value soaring well past a hundred million Valis! Yet, Roy was offering it up as if it were nothing more than a casual trinket.
"Our Familia operates a bit differently. Consider this an allocated faction resource. Down the line, the monster materials you harvest and the funds you earn will simply be pooled back into our treasury," Roy explained with a chuckle.
Tione and Tiona naturally had absolutely no objections. What other Familia in existence would hand a newly recruited member a weapon worth over a hundred million Valis the moment they joined? No investor in their right mind could ever guarantee a return on that caliber of investment.
They had heard rumors that when Roy previously hired the entire Loki Familia vanguard to mobilize, it had only cost him a flat fee of one hundred and fifty million Valis...
Roy's sheer magnanimity and implicit trust were beyond anything they had ever experienced, filling their hearts with a profound, unprecedented warmth that left them deeply moved.
Consequently, the duo fell into a long, contemplative silence.
Ultimately, it was Tione who broke the quiet. "Tiona... are you capable of fully unleashing the true potential of this weapon?"
"I am!" Tiona blinked in surprise, her tone instantly hardening with absolute certainty.
"Then it's yours," Tione stated, her voice carrying a trace of melancholy. She hadn't missed the way Tiona's eyes had remained glued to the forge in raw, unspoken longing while Roy was crafting the blade.
Under any other circumstance, Tione would have fought tooth and nail to claim an item Roy had poured his life's blood into creating. However, she lacked the absolute confidence required to wield the Great Twin Blade: Urga to its absolute limits. Squandering the weapon's innate power would be a genuine insult to the immense calculated effort Roy had invested in its creation.
Whish!
Tiona hoisted the Great Twin Blade: Urga. Given her current level, the weapon felt slightly cumbersome and heavy, yet the pure, unadulterated excitement in her eyes was entirely impossible to conceal. With a casual, sweeping slash, the massive twin blades carved through the air, unleashing a localized gale akin to a roaring tornado.
Every single tree within a ten-meter radius was instantly cleared away, chopped flat to the ground.
Gripping the central hilt with both hands, Tiona swung the Great Twin Blade: Urga with fluid, terrifying velocity, the red and yellow edges flashing with a lethal, razor-sharp brilliance under the ambient moonlight.
Tione watched in absolute awe. Tiona's adaptability with the weapon was ridiculously fast; it felt as though the armament had been meticulously designed for her since birth, achieving a near-flawless level of synchronization.
"You've truly grown up," Roy remarked, observing Tione's selfless concession of the weapon as he gently patted her head.
"Captain!" Tione instantly opened her arms and lunged directly into Roy's embrace, inhaling his scent deeply. If Tiona got the legendary weapon, then claiming the Captain for herself felt like an incredibly lucrative trade-off.
With the weapon's ownership settled, Roy retreated into his tent to rest. Plunged into a state of extreme physical and cognitive exhaustion, his recovery cycle lasted far longer than usual, keeping him asleep for a solid ten hours. Tione and Tiona diligently pulled shifts outside, taking turns to keep watch.
When Roy finally awoke and stepped outside the tent, the sky was beginning to haze over with the first light of dawn. He stretched his limbs thoroughly, a wave of profound comfort rippling through his body; it had been an incredibly long time since he had enjoyed a sleep this deeply satisfying.
"Tiona, head inside and get some rest. We need to hit the road the moment the sun breaks," Roy said, approaching the campfire.
"I'm not even tired yet!" Tiona protested, her hands still lovingly caressing the surface of the Great Twin Blade: Urga, her face brimming with residual excitement.
"No, you are exhausted," Roy countered, delivering a firm, playful flick to her forehead. This hyper-energetic state was purely a temporary adrenaline rush; the moment it broke, the accumulated physical fatigue would slam into her all at once.
Over-excitement was an absolute taboo when navigating the Dungeon. One had to systematically maintain their physical and mental status above a baseline of optimal readiness, a habit that had to be rigorously cultivated in daily life.
Under Roy's earnest, patient lecture, Tiona finally calmed down and agreed to head inside the tent to rest.
"Captain!" Hearing Tiona call out, Roy, who was currently using a stray branch to adjust the firewood, casually turned his head.
Tiona instantly sprinted forward, rising high on her tiptoes as her soft lips delivered a fleeting, feather-light kiss directly onto his cheek. Roy was instantly enveloped by the fierce, uninhibited warmth characteristic of an Amazonian girl.
Time seemed to freeze entirely for a split second.
"Captain, thank you so much for the weapon!" Having executed her surprise attack, Tiona's face flushed a deep, crimson red as she spun on her heel and dashed away into the tent.
Roy stood frozen in place for a long beat. Eventually, he raised a hand to wipe the residual moisture from his cheek, an incredibly helpless, amused smile spreading across his face. Was that a kiss, or did she just leave a smear of drool on him?
Good grief... it's a miracle your sister didn't witness that, otherwise you wouldn't survive to see the sun rise.
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