Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Mira already anticipated Rothwind's frantic excitement the moment he asked about the corpse straight after recovering from his shock of finding out they were the ones responsible for killing it.

She nodded casually and reached for her spatial storage, ready to pull out the massive, hulking corpse of the King of Evermoor.

Just as she was about to extract it though, Alex's eyes widened in sudden realisation.

"Wait, wait, wait!"

He leaped forward, holding his hands out to stop her.

"Maybe hold off for a second Mira—!"

Mira paused mid motion and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why?"

Alex gestured around the small, cramped smithy with his arms.

"Uh, have you noticed how tiny this place is? You're about to summon the body of a beast that's, like, three stories tall. I don't think it would be a good idea to do this inside, let alone in the city itself!"

Rothwind's excitement momentarily dimmed as he too looked around his forge.

Though the smithy was sturdy and was more than enough for him to perform his work with ease and comfort, it was hardly built with size in mind.

The reality dawned on him just as quickly, and his wide grin shifted into a thoughtful frown.

"Ah, damn it, lad's got a point."

Rothwind muttered under his breath, still scratching the back of his head as Alex's point sank in.

But then, his thoughtful frown morphed into a mischievous grin, and a glint of excitement flickered back into his eyes.

"Ah, to hell with it!"

Rothwind suddenly declared, waving his hand dismissively.

"Been a while since I've used me abilities for somethin' other than hammerin' steel."

Mira and Alex exchanged curious glances, clearly not expecting whatever was about to happen next.

Rothwind was usually a straightforward guy, so this new side of him being ambiguous and secretive was quite new to them.

Since he was more into the practicalities of crafting, not… whatever this was.

"What are you—"

Alex started speaking, but Rothwind interrupted him with a bark of laughter.

"Hold onto me shoulders, you two!"

"Uh… what?"

Alex blinked in confusion, with Mira mimicking the same reaction.

But Mira shrugged and just decided to listen to him without asking too many questions.

He was quite an eccentric dwarf anyway, so while this was a bit different than his usual way of doing things, it was still acceptable.

Seeing no harm in complying — and honestly, intrigued — Alex reached out and gripped Rothwind's other shoulder.

Without any warning or explanation, the air around them shimmered.

Alex barely had time to register before the world around them vanished.

The the blink of an eye, the cramped confines of the forge disappeared, and the three of them reappeared under the open sky.

Alex's legs wobbled slightly as he staggered, not expecting the sudden transition to an uneven surface beneath his feet.

He blinked, his brain struggling to catch up with what had just happened.

The cool breeze of the plains hit his face as he surveyed their surroundings.

Endless fields stretching out in every direction, and to their west, the huge walls of Tenebrus city still in full view.

Just from a few dozen kilometres away…

Mira stood beside him, hand still on Rothwind's shoulder, but she, too, looked momentarily taken aback.

Her usual calm composure faltered as she glanced at Rothwind, eyes wide in surprise.

Rothwind stood in the middle of the pair, grinning as he enjoyed the look on the two brat's faces.

They had caused him enough surprises, so he had to return the favour somehow.

And it looked like he had achieved that!

However, Alex's mind was elsewhere at the moment.

Rothwind's teleportation gave him a feeling of deja vu.

That teleportation he had just undergone felt eerily similar to the ones he had taken with Principal Farnes…

It wasn't just the fact that Rothwind had transported them across dozens of kilometres in an instant that stunned Alex.

What really shook him was how similar the teleportation felt to Principal Farnes's method.

It was almost… seamless.

He hadn't even felt the usual jarring sensation that came with spatial abilities.

One second they were in the smithy, and the next, they were standing in the middle of the plains.

And then, unable to contain his burning curiosity any longer, Alex popped the big question both he and Mira were eager to have answered.

"Just how strong are you, Rothwind?"

As far as they knew, they only saw Rothwind as a very capable blacksmith, since that was all he talked about and focused on in their brief encounters with him.

But this sudden revelation that there was more to him was eye opening.

Rothwind, still grinning, rested his hands on his hips as he gave Alex a sidelong glance, his eyes twinkling with a mixture of amusement and something deeper.

"Strong enough, lad."

He said, with his tone suddenly carrying the weight of the years — no, centuries.

"Last I checked my details, I was an A rank."

Alex and Mira looked at Rothwind like he had just transformed into a new, much more terrifying image of himself.

"What's with the looks? Shouldn't ya have figured out I was strong when I said I was centuries old?"

It clicked in their minds that he had said something like this upon first meeting them, but they had just pushed it to the side as maybe dwarves having longer lifespans than humans?

"But strength isn't always what ya think it is. What you see here," he gestured to himself, "is just what's left after years of swingin' a hammer and workin' all kinds of materials. But once upon a time… I was more than just a forger of armour. I was the one who crafted the armour that ended wars."

He let that sink in for a moment, before giving Alex a knowing look.

"Teleportation? That's just a little speck of dust compared to what I've seen… and what I've done."

Both Alex and Mira stood speechless, just hearing a little bit of Rothwind's backstory seemed to present the small, stubby man in a completely new light.

Especially now that they knew how strong he was…