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Early the next morning, Lucian woke up and imdiately recalibrated his Sli Armant into an elegant, formal suit.
Clothes make the man. Yesterday, Lucian looked like a highly efficient, pragmatic operative. Today, he exuded an aura of refined nobility.
He walked over and knocked on Hephaestus's door. A slightly flustered voice imdiately called out from inside.
"Just a minute!"
It didn't take long before the door opened.
Like Lucian, she had ditched her usual white dress shirt and heavy artisan overalls. Instead, she stepped out wearing a stunning, elegant black dress. A wide-brimd black hat tilted gracefully over her head, perfectly concealing the right side of her face while radiating an aura of mysterious, high-society elegance.
"You look stunning," Lucian complinted with a warm smile.
"You're still wearing black, just like usual." Hephaestus felt a sudden flutter of joy, though she masked it with a slight pout. "I knew you would, which is exactly why I picked this out."
"Did you dress up just for ?" Lucian teased, raising an eyebrow.
"Ahem. Well, it is just the two of us today," Hephaestus coughed, her eyes darting away to avoid giving a direct answer.
"Shall we go, Goddess?" Lucian chuckled softly, gently taking her hand.
"You only ever call 'Goddess' when you're teasing ," Hephaestus blinked, playfully rolling her eyes.
She hadn't noticed it before, but thinking back, Lucian had addressed her strictly by her first na from the very beginning. He entirely omitted the honorific titles expected of mortals. For the pantheon, such casualness bordered on extre disrespect.
But for Hephaestus personally, it was incredibly endearing. It proved that Lucian didn't care about the inherent, unbridgeable gap between mortals and gods.
Even Bell Cranel, the absolute paragon of a protagonist, initially treated Hestia strictly as a revered deity rather than a girl. It was only after Hestia threw a massive tantrum that he finally realized his absolute reverence was actively hurting her.
For gods like them, when it ca to the mortals they held dearest, they desperately wanted to be viewed simply as a man or a woman, not as an untouchable idol.
"Humans possess a natural, overwhelming desire to conquer those who are noble and untouchable—especially when it cos to romance," Lucian smiled. "Normal people might be too terrified by the sheer majesty of a god to act on it. But I'm not."
Because his cheat system gave him absolute, unshakable confidence! Granted, even without the system, Lucian wouldn't be groveling in the dirt, but the sense of distance would undeniably exist. If he hadn't awakened such reality-breaking magic, even with the chaotic advantage of their first eting, he would never have captured Hephaestus's heart so quickly.
That was a cold, objective fact. He couldn't just deny reality. The psychological barriers separating humans are already tragically thick; the wall between a mortal and a god was practically a fortress.
"Are you trying to conquer ?" Hephaestus asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Who wouldn't?" Lucian shot back. "Are you seriously misunderstanding your own charm?"
Hephaestus fell silent, staring at him in mild shock.
While society always preached that true love was about inner beauty, Hephaestus's situation was entirely unique. Her pristine character and boundless kindness didn't need to be highlighted; the entire mortal realm universally worshipped her for them.
She wasn't misunderstanding her charm. Objectively speaking, while her 'children' viewed her as a profoundly noble, maternal figure of flawless character, absolutely none of them viewed her through a romantic lens.
Lucian was the first person in history to say sothing like this to her face. He genuinely, unabashedly admired her physical beauty. For soone plagued by millennia of deep-seated insecurities regarding her appearance, his words pierced straight through her defenses, hitting the softest part of her heart.
"You're a million years too early," Hephaestus finally retorted, quickly picking up her pace, though her footsteps were delightfully erratic.
What a cute reaction, Lucian chuckled internally. He tightened his grip on her hand.
Only then did Hephaestus realize he was still holding her hand. Despite her burning embarrassnt, she didn't pull away, desperately trying to rein in her racing heart instead.
The two headed out to a local café for breakfast. Since it was an actual date, eating out was mandatory; settling for the Familia cafeteria simply wouldn't cut it.
Afterward, they took a leisurely stroll through the city. Orario was the undisputed global capital of magic stone manufacturing, boasting unparalleled craftsmanship. Many of the magic items on display were highly advanced, even by the standards of a modern Earthling, highlighting the fascinating divergence in technological evolution.
"If you want to see the absolute pinnacle of Orario's engineering, you have to look at the Marine Fortress," Hephaestus remarked.
"Marine Fortress Hringhorni. I heard the construction is already finished," Lucian nodded, his eyes lighting up with interest. "You can't mass-produce specialized aquatic combatants like you can a standing army. Even apex powerhouses like the Champion and the Empress would suffer a massive drop in combat efficiency if forced to fight underwater."
Hringhorni was currently docked at the harbor—the area that would eventually beco the Education District. It was a colossal warship engineered specifically to serve as the vanguard staging ground for the Leviathan subjugation campaign.
Not only was it massive enough to comfortably house tens of thousands of troops, but it was an actual flying dreadnought. Powered by 500 industrial-grade magic stone reactors, it possessed the only functional propulsion force-field generator in the entire world—an engineering marvel that defied modern science.
"Rather than wasting years trying to train people to fight underwater, it's far more efficient to just build a massive platform for them to stand on... It's a brilliant tactical solution," Lucian praised.
Underwater combat wasn't a skill you could just grind out in a few months. No matter how strong you were, entering a completely alien environnt guaranteed a severe debuff to your combat output.
"But it took them an entire millennium to prepare," Hephaestus sighed softly. "It truly showcases the terrifying resilience of humanity."
The Three Great Quests: The King of the Land, Behemoth; The King of the Sea, Leviathan; and The King of the Sky, the One-Eyed Black Dragon.
Behemoth's miasma was lethal, Leviathan held absolute dominion over the oceans, and the One-Eyed Black Dragon had mutated to a level of power capable of effortlessly annihilating the two strongest Familias in history.
These three apocalyptic beasts had road the surface since the Age of Heroes, long before Babel was even constructed. They had existed for over a thousand years, wielding power that completely eclipsed the limits of the mortal realm. Even a slight stirring from any of them spelled absolute extinction for the lower world. They were living, breathing natural disasters.
Countless generations of adventurers had thrown their lives away trying to slay them, all ending in failure.
It wasn't until the Zeus and Hera Familias—operating out of the center of the world, Orario—spent a millennium stockpiling power that they finally managed to successfully subjugate Behemoth.
That monuntal victory injected a massive surge of hope into the world, fueling the absolute confidence of the two titan Familias as they mobilized for the Leviathan campaign.
"Do you think they'll succeed?" Hephaestus asked quietly.
"Leviathan is a guaranteed kill," Lucian answered without hesitation. "But the One-Eyed Black Dragon... the mortal realm currently lacks the firepower to put it down."
"Because it has total aerial superiority?" Hephaestus asked, highly intrigued by his absolute certainty.
Compared to the Black Dragon's terrifying agility in the sky, Hringhorni was nothing more than a slow, floating target. It was completely useless for an aerial dogfight. Furthermore, the number of adventurers capable of sustained flight was practically zero. Even those equipped with specialized flight magic items lacked the maneuverability of a ground fighter. Trying to fight the dragon in its own domain would be an absolute bloodbath.
"No. It's a matter of raw, unadulterated power. The Black Dragon exists on an entirely different dinsional plane," Lucian stated casually. "Against Behemoth and Leviathan, the elites can actually trade blows. But against the Black Dragon, they'll evaporate the second they engage."
To be fair, once Lucian reached his full potential, slaughtering the Black Dragon would be a trivial chore. In the grand sche of his roadmap, the Black Dragon was nothing more than a mid-ga boss. His ultimate horizon extended far beyond the confines of this single world.
But for the two Familias who had spent a thousand years preparing, the Black Dragon was an insurmountable wall of despair.
. . .
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