[F17] Challenge of Olympus [Quest]

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

 I walked down the street on the ninth floor to my shop keys in hand jingling with every step I took. I was about to unlock the door to my shop but that was when i received a strange message from the Cardinal system about a very rare quest opportunity for level 2 and higher blacksmiths to complete. I put my keys back into my inventory and sighed heavily realizing my day had only gotten longer. I accepted the quest and marched off towards the center of town and warped my way all the way up to floor 17 in order to start the ordeal.

When I got there there was a creature running from the edge of town towards me. A creature that was beginning to concern literally every one in town. Half of his body looked like that of a goat and the other half looked like that of a man.  What concerned me more than anything was he came to a screeching halt right in front of me.

Edited April 2, 2019 by RyujinSeaLord

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

He bowed to me and began to speak with a slightly lighter voice than i was personally expecting. It was almost as if he was coming down off of sucking helium but had yet to recover his actual pitch. 

"Sire, I have an urgent message for you from my higher ups. I am only a messenger but your skills as a black smith have caught the eyes of two different gods in particular. The lord of thunder and lightning and rules or mount Olympus Zeus, and the god of the black smith himself, lord of fire, and son of Hera, Hephaestus." He managed to squeeze out those several sentences in one breath

"Me?" i pointed to myself in absolute amazement. "Theres absolutely no way that i have grabbed the attention of the Greek Gods of Olympus, this has to be some sort of jest." 

"No sire, this is not a goof, joke or jest, the gods have personally sent me from the great mountain to actually escort you to the throne room as the have something to propose to you should you accept the invitation." He gestured to the large mountain in the distance.

"Well if the gods will it, then so it shall be. Lead the way oh great satyr." I said allowing him to take the lead.

"Oh please, I am not as great as ye claim, please just call me Sid." He said taking the lead and walking only slightly ahead of me.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

After what felt like several hours of a walk and a break or two we had finally made it to the base of the great mount Olympus, which in my eyes was a very confusing thing seeing as Castle Aincrad was based solely off of Nordic mythologies and yet here the Greek Mythologies were clashing with it. I shrugged my shoulders and didn't think too much about it as Kayaba could literally have done anything with this game that he felt he wanted to and he can change it at his own will.

"So..." I started to speak. "How are we supposed to get up to the top? Do we climb it like mountain goats or with some sort of mountain climbing gear?" i asked Sid who was now standing next to me.

"No no, sire , much more simple than that." Sid said before taking out his pan flute and he began to blow a tune that was both light and dance worthy. After finishing the last note a stair case that seemed to made out of pure light seemed to shimmer down from the heavens leading to the top of the mountain. 

I looked to him and gestured for him to take the lead once more, but he shook his head. "No sire, only you are allowed to climb the stairs, i will await your return here to escort you back to town, do not fear though, Hermes or Hephaestus himself will be waiting at the top of the stairs in order escort you the rest of the way, until then fairway!" he said waving to me. I waved back at him and began the long incline to the top of the mountain.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

The stair never officially seemed to end no matter how many i climbed but i wasnt suffering from any sort of fatigue nor was i suffering from any sort of shortness of breath from the elevation change. I looked behind me and i could no longer see the ground it was covered up by clouds but looking up it seemed to be the exact same situation. Was this some sort of joke or another trial in my life. I once again shrugged my shoulders and decided to press forwards knowing that there was no point in descending the stairs if the gods really wanted to meet me.

After what seemed like another hour of travel i reached the top and at the very top was a very monstrously large golden gate with an equally large scaled lock attach to it basically insinuating that the gate was locked and only the lucky few were to be allowed to cross the threshold into the heavenly abode known as Olympus. With in seconds of me stepping off of the golden stairs and onto the mountain top the golden stair case suddenly vanished into thin air. I looked down and realized there was now no turning back

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

I approached the gate very slowly and as i reached for the lock a very loud and booming voice rung out to me.

"HALT" It shouted with a thunderous roar. It not being the gate as it did not have a mouth or any signs of life to begin with. It being something, or someone, else nearby. 

From the stairwell ahead of me, a man with completely red skin wearing what looked like a two shouldered tunic and battle ready armor approached the gate.

"So it seems the Satyr found you after all" He spoke once again directing his attention towards me. "I have seen your skills in the art of crafting weapons. You must be Ryu"

I was taken aback for only a moment as i could not think this was a real thing happening to me. This had to be some sort of drug trip from inhaling too much dust in my black smith forge.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

"Well don't you just stand there and gawk, come forth through the gate and let me escort you to the throne room and introduce you to the gods." Hephaestus, or what i could only assume to be the physical embodiment of Hephaestus was. He gestured me toward him.

I began to walk towards him and as i started to walk, the giant gate matched my walking pace and began to open for me almost as if by magic, which would be kinda weird because Sword Art Online doesn't have any kind of magic in it at all, but again Im seeing Greek gods so Im clearly over thinking the crap clean out of this.

I followed the armored man into the throne room and once there i was amazed to see everything there was allowed to be seen. 

"From the dawn of time we the ancients protected the greeks and the romans from major catastrophes" Hephaestus spoke as i slowly caught up to him. "But we needed help, so we reach out to the Nordics, The Egyptians, the Japanese, the Hebrews, the Muslims, the Christians, the Pagans, and many other gods to help protect the earth from the harm coming its way. But then we realized that that was not going to be enough."

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

"At one point we requested the help of the humans, the same people we were so desperate to help, to help us in our eternal battle vs the forces of evil that threaten your race. Today we have called upon you to help us." He spoke to me with a booming voice still. "Behold! The 13 gods and goddesses that will be witnessing what will be happening today."

I looked around the room and it seemed that every single seat was filled except for one of them. 

"On your right, from right to left are; Aphrodite, Apollo, Aries, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, and Dionysus." he gestured to each of them who in turn waved to me and i felt the need to wave back at them, some smiling and some talking amongst themselves.

"And on your left, from left to right are;  Hades, Hermes, Hestia, Poseidon, Tyche, Hera, and Zeus." he gestured to them all and the exact same thing happened. 

"And I as you may have already guessed it, am Hephaestus, god for fire and metal work."

I looked to every single one of them and kneeled down on both knees as a samurai would and i bowed to them. "It is a great honor to meet every single one of you."

"And it is a great honor to meet you" all of them said at the exact same time.

"Rise my boy" Hephaestus said "We have something more planned for you today" 

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

Hephaestus looked to his king Zeus, god of all greek gods. 

"Today i wish to challenge this mortal in his crafting skills, to see just how skilled he truly is." He spoke in a booming voice once more. "Ryu, my boy,  i have watched you forge and i believe you might have what it takes to become one of the very best, maybe even one day, you will forge the mighty Zeus' weapons in my place. But today, you and i shall face each other, not on the field of combat, but head to head in crafting weapons and pitting them against each other in the Gauntlet!" He shouted and in response got a rousing amount of claps and cheers and all around noise. He turned himself in his direction. 

He pulled a hammer from his back that almost constantly looked as if the metal part was still being smelted in the smelting urn.

"In this duel for the ages, i shall wager a hammer, a hammer of godly proportions that will enhance your crafting abilities by ten fold. If i am to lose this bout today, this hammer is you. However..." he stopped mid sentence to look me directly in the eyes. "...If you lose, you will stop forging weapons for the rest of your days...should you chose to accept this wager we shall begin immediately"

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

I looked to Hephaestus then to everyone around me, then right back at the god of fire himself with sheer determination.

"I humbly accept your wager" I said determined to keep my forge and best the god of blacksmithing.

Suddenly the sound of thunder shook the entire building and everything went dark for a few moments. 

"Then. It. Shall. Be. Done." Spoke the mighty voice of Zeus.

When the "lights" came back on Hephaestus and i were opposite each other behind our own personal forges while the other 13 gods surrounded us as a major audience. 

"So boy. I hope you are prepared for a challenge because this will not be an easy one. When you are ready lift your hammer to the sky and bring it down hard on your anvil like so" Hephaestus said and demonstrated with a very loud boom, signifying one ready challenger. I raised my hammer, and brought it down just as I was instructed and the games began.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

Before the fires were lit there was one thing that had to be done. The rules. Zeus himself came between the two forges and began to speak to both of us.

"This is a battle of the forge. Only the strongest weapons and armor will survive this challenge. You have 1 week to forge 3 items, 1 Weapon of your choice, 1 set of armor, and 1 shield. They will then be given to 2 equal fighters and they will go head to head in the Gauntlet. The winner of the bout will be determined by the winner of the battle. Zeus first approached Hephaestus and dropped about two dozen metal materials onto his anvil. He then turned his attention towards me. He used his godly power to spawn about the same amount of materials onto my anvil as well, but he leaned in close to me.

"Do not worry about the 1 week that will be passing, up here time is irrelevant and you will go back to your own plane of existence at almost the exact moment in which you stepped on the golden stairs." he winked as he backed up and magically teleported back to his throne above us.

"Let the Battle of the Forge. Begin!" He shouted and the sound of thunder signified the beginning of the challenge. 

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

As the challenge came underway i knew the first thing i would have to do was lay out my plans for the armor design in which i wanted to go with. I looked up from my forge to see that the greek god of fire was already smelting his ingots, almost as if he did not need any sort of plan for his armor and weapon.

It took me a few hours to decide on exactly what I wanted to do to combat the greek gods work and my brain brought me straight back to history class. I knew exactly what i would do. I was about to base my armor of of the greek legend of Leonidas the king of Sparta and his 300 men who held off the Persians in the narrow canyon pass for 3 complete days before perishing.

I grabbed my gloves and smelting goggles and began to melt my ingots into the smelting fire. This time i would be using the very same traditional bronze armor, spear and shield that king Leonidas once used. Straying from the traditions would be nothing short of dishonoring those men who died that day and i would never dishonor great warriors such as them.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

It felt as if time had slowed down, for me at least. Making sure that the ingots were melting properly while i took the time to carve out the mold i would need for every item made things very difficult for me as a mortal. Hephaestus did not even seem to be breaking a sweat over there on his end, but then again he is a god and im not entirely sure if they actually capable of sweating or getting nervous but he was already pounding way on his weapon and I felt way behind. 

The forge was finally ready and the molds had been prepared but now was about to become the hardest and most focused part of the entire armor forging process. I poured the 950˚C liquid bronze into the four molds needed for the armor, the one mold needed for the shield and the one mold needed for the weapon. I placed the hot metal holding cup straight into the cooling water on the other side of the forge before returning to the molds themselves.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

I took the molds and drowned them in the separate cooling vats given to us in the forge. The water was used to cool down the metal and make it solid. from there the next step would be to take the individual pieces and proceed to heat them up and take them to the anvil and pound them into the proper shape which could essentially take several attempts to get right. The armor would be the hardest part of this process making the spear the easiest part seeing as the shield needs to be curved. 

I started with the shinguards to protect the champions legs from any potential damage the would be directed towards his thighs and his shins. Since a good fighter knows not to show their backs to their opponents the armor i was making would be a simple yet reinforced design in the front, making it both light and combat effective however leaving the back completely exposed if something were to strike from behind. 

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

The armor was coming around just fine but the helmet and the chest piece were becoming increasingly difficult as the days came and went watching the timer count down waiting for the pieces to heat to the proper forging temperature. I took the two halves of the helmet and began to piece them together and after a proper amount of cooling time i spent an equal amount of time smoothing both the inside and the outside to prevent the helmet from cracking but also to prevent the fighter from being damaged by his own armor which would be a very sad way to die in battle. 

The armor itself was almost finished and in four days none the less, this was harder than the way sword art online's system mechanics worked but i did shape properly with every swing, it just required that i do this several times for the fun forging process. I looked up to see Hephaestus taking a break from his forge almost as if he had already finished earlier this week. I was not about to let myself be intimidated by his work ethic or his god like abilities.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

Six days have passed and I was barely making the time to finish and polish my weapons and armor like i would traditionally do, but this was a real forge and a challenge at that so i wasnt expecting everything to be completely perfect like i strived for. The curvature of the shield had to be perfected though. Too much curve and a slashing weapon would would tear through the shields defensive properties and make it harder for the fighter to defend himself, but too little of a curve and a piercing weapon would also rip straight through the shield and allow the attacker to easily over power the soldier wielding it. With a balanced curve, it should able to survive a slash from a normal sword as well as allow a spear or arrow to bounce and deflect off of the curvature. I was beginning to sweat from both the nerves and from the heat of the forge. This was the most work i had ever put forth into something before but i knew if i didnt give it my all, the gods would very disappointed in me for wasting their time.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

The timer was winding down to the last few moments and i was still not quite finished with the spear. I knew that a traditional bronze tipped spear would not be efficient against another set of armor, so i chose to weigh the pros and cons of having an entire spear made out of bronze. I wiped the sweat off of my forehead for the millionth time as i continued to pound out the remaining faults in the spear before dumping it into the cooling vats to finish the  forging process. As i waited for it to finish cooling i wiped the sweat from my brow one last time before the sound of thunder signified the ending timer and the end of stage one.

Zeus rose from his throne and gestured us to bring out items forward and to present them to our evenly looking champions. And when im saying they are even looking i mean in every way, in height, in muscle mass, in body type. Every visible thing about them was evenly matched, which means that on the battle field the most likely have the exact same prowess as Zeus probably made these men out of the life molding clay he made man out of.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

Hephaestus approached his fighter and began to give his explanation for his design and his process in which he took to make it.

"My champion, you will be wearing an elites armor, that of which the romans wore as the dominated a quarter of the known planet in its time of the worlds largest empire. You shall wear the armor of the Legionary, Romes most highly trained and highly skilled warriors. To compliment your armor i have crafted you the finest square shield you have ever seen in your existence and i have given you the gladius, however short it may be you may use it for both slashing as well stabbing giving you the optimal weapon for offensive and defensive fighting." 

He then went into the process of making it and it taking him little to no time seeing as this was an armor he has made hundreds of thousands of time because he favored the elite battle strategies of Caesers legion. No matter how tough the odds looked against them, their combat expertise and weapons always saw them through to the end.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

I looked to my fighter and he looked to me and kneeled knowing that i was now in charge of his life.

"My dear champion. I have spent many a great hours over the forge to create what i believed to be the greatest armor of all time. Behold the armor of the great nation of Sparta. The torso is a front and back piece connected by leather that you can use to tighten or loosen it to your specifications. The thigh and shin armor are only one sided as i felt confident in your abilities in combat that you would not need to show your weakness to your enemy. The spear is made of solid metal, it may be heavy to wield but it should be strong enough to pierce even the mightiest of armors. The tip may be used for slashing but it would be highly unlikely to be successful. I trust that you will make the Spartans proud and earn the title yourself."

I helped attach the armor to my champion as Hephaestus did with his champion. Once we had finished we took a few steps back, admired our work then turned to one another.

"May the best Blacksmith win" He said to me extending his hand. I promptly shook it before we were teleported up to the thrones looking down on the champions on the other side of a gate. our forges were gone and all that was left was to watch.

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

The gate dropped at the sound of the trumpets playing loudly. The two men instinctually charged at each other. The clashing of steel and bronze was hard to watch as each person traded blows with the others shields for a fairly long time bot something was off about the situation going on. 

The legionary charged at the Spartan tanking his spear attack into his shield, causing the spear to break through the legionaries shield and cutting his hand but the legionary tossed away his shield and the spartans spear. The spartan lifted his shield and began to take a very defensive posture taking blow after blow after blow. Suddenly things turned dark for my forge as the legionary knocked the shield out of the way and slashed into the bronze armor of the spartan before kicking him into the dirt. The legionary began to celebrate his victory and Hephaestus looked to me with this hand extended.

"It was a hell of a show but sadly, you must give up your forge Ryu." He spoke with a slight smirk on his face. Before i took his hand i looked to the field and notice the spartan was getting up. Hephaestus must have noticed as well as he dropped his hand and grabbed onto the protective cages.

"LOOK OUT!" he shouted to his champion but it was too late. The spartan had grabbed his shield and hurled it into the spine of the legionary knocking him onto his face. Before the legionary knew what had happened him the spartan had jumped on him and began to mercilessly beat him with his shield. The legionary managed to roll over with his gladius in hand but the spartan was prepared and shield bashed it out of his hand. Using the circular edge of his shield he drove it straight into the throat of the legionary before standing up and beginning to pound his chest. "AWOO AWOO AWOO" he chanted just as the ancient Spartans used to do.

Hephaestus turned back to me and took my hand in his.

"You have done excellent my boy, the armor you forged was double reinforced wasnt it? Thats the only way it would have survived a slash from my gladius. I will uphold my end of the bargain. Please let me escort you back to the gates." Hephaestus said patting my back. 

[RyujinSeaLord 0]

We walked back to the gates together. Hephaestus handed me the hammer as my reward for making armor better than he had today.

"Now remember my boy, you may have outshined me today, but you have to keep crafting or you will fall behind. Next time, i hope that you can show me what else you are capable of." He smiled at me at the golden gates thrusted themselves open and all of the other greek gods came to say their goodbyes. I shook everyones hands individually and thanked them for allowing me to not only enter Olympus but to compete against the best of the best. 

With a bunch of scattered goodbyes the golden staircase reappeared leading me down the mountain side. I started the walk back down and then everything was silent. There was no sound of the gate closing, there were no my voices, just me and the wind. I looked to the hammer in my hand, gave it a quick toss up and catch before dropping it into my inventory and continued to walk down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs the Satyr was waiting for me, so he could escort me back to town. He smiled at me as he noticed my decent. 

"Well congratulations there sire, news travels very fast around here. You've impressed the gods and beaten the best of the best. You deserve the title of blacksmith sire, shall i escort you home?" he asked me

"I would be insulted if you didnt" i chuckled at him before walking side by side with him back towards town and back to my forge on floor 9. He had magically vanished just before i had hit the end of town on the 17th floor which made me feel this was a dream, but the hammer was still there, which was good enough for me.