Chapter 22: The Super Gauntlets

Chapter 22: The Super Gauntlets Noah knocked on Luke’s door, but after waiting for a few minutes the door still remained closed. Realizing he’s not inside, Noah went downstairs and checked everywhere but Luke was nowhere to be found. With a last hope, he moved towards the training field at the back, and just as he assumed, he was there. The sun was high up in the sky, and Luke was doing one arm handstand push ups. His arm and back muscles flexed and tensed up every time he came down and went up. The ground was soaked with his sweat and the sun shining on his sweaty body glistened his muscles and that bulky body. The odd thing that Noah felt was that a circular runic circle with petal like patterns was spinning on his back, and the tattoo on his body was glowing amber as the surrounding air had turned heavy, sucking all the prana from the surrounding towards him. "Don’t you want your gauntlets? It’s already time!" Noah said as he came towards Luke. "Already? I lost track of time man!" Luke pushed his arm and jumped to stand on his feet. The chakra behind him stopped spinning and vanished inside his back as the heavy air turned normal and the tattoo on his back stopped glowing. "Were you cultivating while exercising?" Noah asked, confused. "Yes! I found that cultivating like this increase the efficiency and the pain I feel lessens!" Luke discovered that the prana he accumulates is stored not only in the chakra but also by the cells of his body and evolve them into something different altogether, and the process hastens while he does any physical work while cultivating. His body has started becoming an iron armor, he could now block heavy attacks with his body alone. He felt power coursing through his entire body and transforming his muscles, having steel like durability. "Sometimes I really get curious what kind of technique is this of yours!" "Even I don’t know! I’m just starting to understand the tip of the iceberg!" Luke said with a smile. "Let me clean up, we can go there together!" "Alright! Hurry! Holdok is quite moody, if you’re late, God knows what tantrum he’ll pull up!" **** "You shitty brats!!! Do you think I have all the time in the world that I’d be waiting the whole day for you to arrive and do nothing!?" Holdok kept shouting as even the other workers outside the room in the smithy closed their ears. Noah eyed Luke as if telling him, ’didn’t I tell you’. "But you said to come today, not when!" Luke protested. "Today means morning! If I call you today then I have already finished it the previous day. Don’t you have this common sense you brat!" "We’re sorry Mr. Holdok! We were late. Please show us the gears now!" "Hmph!! Young brats nowadays have no punctuality. Just apologize and wash your hands off from the mistake. Here, take this and get out of my sight!" Holdok pulled two pairs of gears from below the table and placed it in front of them. Luke and Noah were wide eyed seeing the gears. The gauntlets and the boots were made of steel and a black gem was embedded on each equipment. "Count yourself lucky brats! I divided the stone into four parts without losing its efficiency. You would have to hire a magic engineer with hundreds of golds for this job." Holdok said proudly as he puffed his chest. "Would you like to test your gears gentlemen?" A young lady with long crimson hair and dwarven ears but similar in height to humans and beautiful black eyes standing beside Holdok said. She was the daughter of Holdok, Marilda. Her mother, a human that Holdok fell in love with and the reason he settled in Gemburn, opening a smithy. Luke and Noah nodded excitedly. Marilda chuckled at the excited duo and guided them towards the test room at the back. Holdok didn’t move and refused to talk or look at them anymore, he was still quite angry. Luke put the gauntlets on as they covered his fingers and palm and almost half the arm to the elbow. The inside was made of furs and were comfortable to wear for long time, and the cool and edgy design was making him unable to pull his eyes away. Luke looked towards Noah and saw that he had worn his boots too. Just then Marilda started explaining to them. "Your gears are made of reinforced Echlet steel. So, they have a property of sending shockwaves outwards and raising your attack power." Noah channeled mana towards his boot and tapped on the floor, and immediately a wave spread below as he jumped up, higher than he ever had. "Woah!! Amazing! It will increase my speed a lot!" Noah exclaimed. "You can even jump using the shockwave when you are airborne!" Marilda said. Noah sent mana to his boots again, as the mana stone glowed and another shockwave extended out making him jump again in the air. Noah couldn’t believe how amazing those boots were. He wanted to pat Luke’s back on haggling a boot for him too. "Let me try too!" Luke said. "You can hit that training dummy to test the power." Luke nodded and bumped his fists in front of his chest, releasing a clinking sound. He channeled prana to his fists as the mana stone glowed and the gauntlets were covered in Amber hue. He swinged his arm and the punch hit the training dummy at the chest. A shockwave went out of his fist, blasting the training dummy into pieces and tearing a chunk of the wall below, which flew away, separating from the wall, sliding a few meters away. Holdok came running inside hearing such loud noise. Marilda was petrified, her mouth wide open in shock. "You...You BRATS!!! So...so you were the one who threw that wall on me that day, you bastard." Holdok yelled in fury. "Thank you, Miss Marilda. We’ll come back if we need repairs later!" Noah said as he held Luke’s arm and ran away through the hole Luke had just made. "COME BACK YOU BRATS! I’LL NEVER HAVE MADE THE GEARS IF I KNEW IT WAS YOU!!!" Noah and Luke kept dashing away as Holdok kept on screaming his lungs out.