Speed Is King

“Adamantium sponsor?” Elliot chuckled. “Interesting. Let’s see what sort of boon he has for me. Despite my power, I am hopelessly poor in terms of universal treasures. Maybe he has something good for me.”

A little drone the size of a basketball appeared from the sky and quickly descended towards Elliot.

As soon as it reached Elliot, the drone shut itself down and opened itself up like a blooming flower automatically.

To Elliot’s surprise, within it was actually… an egg!

[Legendary Grade – Black Tyranorus Egg acquired from Anonymous Adamantium Sponsor.]

“Legendary Grade… It’s rare enough to be an Apostle. Good! And judging by its name, it sounds like a T-Rex. It’s perfect.” Elliot thought as he stored the egg safely, feeling pleased with his boon.

“Thanks, Sponsor. I appreciate the gift.” Elliot called out to his anonymous sponsor as the space around him shimmered lightly.

And with a gentle whoosh, Elliot returned back to Earth.

BAM!

A perfectly timed throw of something hard smashed onto Elliot’s face just as he materialized.

“Oof!” Elliot’s head snapped backwards from the strength of the item’s impact.

However, there was no panic nor anger in his heart, only excitement.

He had detected that it was Lady Balastiera, the Ancient level powerhouse assigned to help him by Chairman El’Taras, as soon as he appeared!

Elliot looked at the item that had smashed into his face and realized that it was an exquisitely made helm!

“There! It’s the best suit of armor I can help you forge using what little skills I have after you took your chatty bird away.” Lady Balastiera glowered at him as she pointed at a complete suit of armor that was hovering next to her.

She had been working really hard with the armor with Red for quite sometime, and was making pretty good progress when Red squawked loudly and disappeared after saying that Elliot needed his help.

And so she was forced to finish forging the armor by herself! It wasn’t very difficult for her though, considering that she was an Ancient level powerhouse.

Most Ancient level powerhouses were adept in various other auxiliary skills such as forging, inscribing, etc, and hers happened to be forging, which was why Chairman El’Taras asked her to help Elliot.

But it was made much more difficult than it should be because of the relationship she had with that particular raw material.

The Teardrop of the Gods which was in Chairman El’Taras’ possession, and which Elliot got his hands on through sheer, ridiculously stupid luck.

It was the single product of a thousand-man exploratory team into a dangerous inheritance left by a senior Primal Level warrior which was booby trapped beyond reason.

A thousand men had entered.

Only seven had exited.

And the only thing the seven of them got was that single lump of Teardrop of the Gods.

It was a horrific expedition, and Lady Balastiera, who was still a Hegemon back then, had lost many good friends to that damned inheritance.

It was only due to Chairman El’Taras’ sheer power that they managed to escape with seven lives, instead of just one.

Upon exiting the inheritance, Chairman El’Taras had rewarded the survivors lavishly and spared no cost to raise them up rapidly to Ancient level warriors, which was the only reason why she was one at that moment.

She had asked for the Teardrop of the Gods to be forged, of course, so that the sacrifices of all their friends would not be in vain.

He wanted to save it for “the right occasion” and the “right person”.

It truly put her in a terrible mood to find out that the right occasion was right there and then, and the right person was this human being from a trash planet called Earth!

Elliot took one look at the armor, and he knew that Lady Balastiera, for all her rough words and actions, had given everything that she had in forging the set of armor for him.

It was an ancient style 12-piece armor with a helm, a breastplate, a pair of bracers, a pair of shoulder pads, a pair of gloves, a pair of boots, pants and a belt.

It looked and felt beyond perfect.

It was thin. Paper thin, in fact.

And when he put on the armor pieces one by one, they would automatically adjust their sizes to fit him perfectly.

Additionally, the armor was also a beautiful off-white in colour with black trim.

But what truly made the armor standout in terms of looks and even in terms of the aura it was giving out, was definitely the strange runes that completely filled every single square centimeter of the armor!

Each rune was interconnected perfectly with each other, and they seemed to tell a vivid story about a massive quest which was plunged nearly into complete disaster. But with the noble sacrifices of the expedition team members, one after the other, the quest was eventually completed by a remnant few.

It was a chilling, yet glorious story of a hard earned victory paid in full by blood and by sacrificial deaths for the sake of their team.

An unrestrained aura of absolute nobility and of sacral brotherhood enveloped the set of armor.

Elliot knew that Lady Balastiera had poured every single drop of effort, every single shred of emotion she had into forging the beautiful armor that now encased his body so perfectly!

“Lady…” Elliot started to say after he had finished putting on the armor.

“Bind it with your blood.” Lady Balastiera interrupted him softly. Her eyes were fixated on the armor, and she had a very melancholic look on her face.

Elliot nodded quietly and did as she said.

He could feel the deeply emotional connection that she had with the suit of armor, and in a very unique way, also the weight of the lives which was paid to successfully acquire that Teardrop of the Gods.

Instinctively, he wanted the binding to be special. It would not do to merely bind that particular suit of armor using merely a drop of blood from his hands. It would be a gross mistreatment of such a wondrous armor set!

For some reason, he knew what he had to do. It was the only thing that seemed right.

Elliot took off his breastplate and drew out Gilgamar before plunging it into his heart!