Mark sunk into the ground and broke things as he walked, so he used caltrops and flat bits of soft adamantium to support himself and his massive pile of adamantium, to get back to the settlement and to his home, with his people.

Aurora was there for a bit, just to say 'good job', and Mark probably should have paid attention to that more, but he was exhausted.

And then Mark was inside of his house with his friends, and he broke the ground moving through the foyer.

Everyone noticed.

"I don't think I have Tactile Telekinesis," Mark said.

"But… but how?" Isoko asked, as she looked at the ground, as she TT'd with the floor of the foyer, as she walked around. "There's absolutely no way that Adamantium Body doesn't have a Strength modifier. You literally couldn't move that much weight without a modifier."

Sally looked down with concern, saying, "Maybe he's doing all he can to hold himself up? Maybe it's a low modifier?"

Eliot was already rebuilding the house, his vector crawling through the floors and walls and settling stuff in the background as he said, "I needed to do some more reinforcing, anyway. You're about 2,700 kilos? Okay. I can do… Okay. So. Uh. The stuff you're carrying, and you, I cannot do. Base material reinforcement cannot really do that, what with your feet only being so big and the force transferring pretty strongly, so the whole house has to be fully enchanted. I already got some enchants running here and there but a full enchantment needed to happen anyway— I'll figure it out!"

Mark's face fell. "Can you please just… the bed, first? Is that possible?"

"Are you tired?" Isoko asked, concerned.

"No. But I'm gonna try and sleep."

"I can do the bed!" Eliot said, vector going distant as he walked forward, into the house and up the stairs, painting black lines on the wooden floor as he walked. "I'm reinforcing the area between the black, first. Let's get up there!"

Sally said, "I made food, too, Mark. Are you… hungry?"

Mark felt a little better. His friends cared a lot. He said, "Yeah. Let's have some food. See how that works."

Mark broke the table and his chair as he tried to sit, normally, but Eliot fixed that, too.

The food fixed a lot more.

Sally had outdone herself, with giant cakes frosted in many colors, big cinnamon rolls with thick white frosting, and tarts of all kinds, from tiny ones to big ones that were sliced up like pizza pies. It all looked so good, and it tasted even better, so Mark said as much as he chowed down on the soft cake and soft steak and soft fork. The last one was an accident, but it still happened. He was pretty sure he didn't even bite it. Maybe his lips had crushed it? The pieces were lost into his mouth like some sort of slightly-stiff toffee, and Mark stopped chewing.

"… What was that, uh, metallic noise?" Sally asked, her vector going from trying-to-be-calm to not-calm.

Isoko said, "Shit." She knew what had happened.

Sally suddenly knew, too. She scoffed. "But I got mithril silverware! It's still a high PL?!"

Mark kinda spit out the remains of the food into a napkin, and then did a tiny bit of Purity to clean away the mess. Four wildly-mangled bits of mithril, like wires and pressed metal, remained in the napkin. Mark said, "I think my lips cut it off."

"… Shit," Sally said.

Isoko tried to joke, "No oral sex for you!"

Sally despaired.

Eliot made a sudden jerking motion, like a full body flinch, his vector full of imagining certain things.

Sausages in a trash compactor. Hands sticking into heavy machinery with those warning signs with gears and fingers getting crushed. That sort of thing. The full depth of Eliot's sudden cringing feeling was enough to knock Mark out of his own.

Isoko's joke helped.

Mark laughed. "No oral sex for me!"

Mark was more careful with the food after that, and soon Isoko was asking questions about what had happened, and then Mark began talking about everything. From the first day where all the big stuff happened (and he still didn't understand it, but at least he knew how to talk about it now) to the later days, when it was a slog finding the goblin hideouts and then evicting them from the mountains.

Sally sat back, feeling a lot of emotions but mostly awe, as she said, "Shit. Wish I could have helped. You were really out there all alone, Mark. Why… Well. I know why you did it. But. I'm sorry I couldn't keep up."

Isoko softly said, "Sorry."

Mark's heart, or whatever might remain of it, thumped hard. He smiled softly, and said, "You can come on the next adventure."

Sally snorted.

Isoko grinned.

Eliot tried a 'joke', exclaiming, "I'm still working on designs for a flying castle, but I thought I had years, man! Years!"

Mark felt a bunch of ways, mostly full of love, and feeling like he was loved in turn, but also joy that he got to say, "Well about that! I talked to Walaria days ago and specifically asked about size changing magic for you, Sally, and real magic training for you, Isoko, and I'm sorry, Eliot, but I kinda failed to know what you wanted, exactly, so I worked out 10% of that big pile of metal for you. I hope that's enough."

Mark was sure he had mentioned that, before, but maybe he hadn't.

Because Sally's eyes went wide, her vector weirdly fulfilled. Isoko chuckled nervously, like she suddenly saw a mountain she wanted to climb when she already had a bunch of mountains lined up.

Eliot chose to be a sarcastic ass, saying, "I'll live with the disappointment."

Mark smiled and said, "Thank you for your benevolence."

The conversation meandered, with Isoko touching upon Hero/Villain Program stuff, Sally openly wondering about the assassination things, and Eliot talking about architecture for their flying castle. It was good. Mark felt as though he was decompressing as he sat there on the chair, relaxing and talking about whatever.

Eventually, though, Mark said, "Okay so! I need a scanner. I'm headed to Mage Society and probably other places, too. Lola, for one. And then maybe Kandon and probably Aurora for the state of affairs here at the settlement."

"No sleep?" Sally asked.

"I can't. Not tired at all."

"I'll get the bed ready when you do," Eliot said, sounding serious.

Isoko easily said, "Lola said she has a lot she wants to say. She's been researching your condition for the last few days. She might even meet you at Mage Society's scanner if you go there, if you send a text."

Mark nodded as he stood, saying, "I'll do that, then. Quark, can you send a text to Lola, please?"

Quark spoke up with a strong, vibrant voice, saying, "Done!"

Sally, Isoko, and Eliot all had small reactions to that strange voice, their concerns suddenly veering sideways, onto another topic. Onto Quark.

Sally asked, "He's… okay? After the… goblinization?"

"I think so!" Mark said, and then he added, "But, Quark, can you send a message to United Sapients, too? We need to talk with them."

Quark tried to answer with the same vibrant, strong voice, but he cracked in the middle of saying, "Do— Done!"

Everyone ignored that weirdness, for now. Mark had a whole list of weirdness to go over with the proper people. Mostly, he was going to write down those questions and stick them in his personal vault, for Walaria to answer. According to Walaria, 'The Green' was off-limits for casual conversations, or even secret conversations. Lola probably knew about the 'Corrupted Forest', though.

Maybe Rekaro knew about the Corrupted Forest, too.

"I'll be ba—," Mark began, before remembering another big chore. "Ah. Shit. I have… a lot of metal. I need to give it to the bank."

Isoko was up on her feet, saying, "Let's go get you to the bank, then I can go with you to Mage Society, too."

Mark grinned. "You don't have to go."

"I want to, though," Isoko said, solidly.

Eliot said, "I want to go claim my metal before it gets stripped from me." He stood, saying, "There are already mining crews out there staking the mountain out."

Sally said, "I'll go with Eliot."

"Sounds good," Mark said, as he checked the time. It was about 10 AM. "See y'all for dinner."

Sally said, "I'll see about getting some high-enchanted cutlery, too."

Mark smiled and made a fork with some floating metal, saying, "I can use this!"

Sally instantly, vehemently stated, "We've already had this discussion about using your dirty, monster-cutting adamantium for silverware, Mark."

Mark smiled wider, feeling good. He just nodded.

Sally asked, "You feeling better? Was the food… good?"

The food was great.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It felt like stiff liquid, even the parts that were crispy.

Mark went and lifted himself into the air a bit to hug Sally better, wrapping his arms around her, saying, "It was wonderful. Thank you. I survived on Sustenance for a week and tried a leaf once to see if I could still taste, and I could, so I'm so glad I could eat this. I feel a lot more human right now."

Sally sniffled as she hugged Mark back, tight as she could. She chuckled at that again, softly saying, "I'm glad I can't break you with a hug anymore. You'll get TT and learn how to eat food all over again, just like me. It'll be fine." She looked him right in the eyes, and said, "I know it felt like mush, Mark. You can just tell me it felt like mush. I tried to make it solid but… I have some other tricks I can try, and I'm sure you can get TT."

Mark softly said, "I'm not sure I will get TT. I didn't… It's not…"

He didn't gain his 'Adamantine Body' through the Tutorial. He got it through fucking around with his Binding, putting a 'waterwheel' of conversion inside of his Incorruptible Body. Mark was pretty sure that the Strength modifier that made TT possible for normal brawnies was simply not a part of his Binding at all. How could it be? He didn't know what that looked like.

Sally said, "You're moving around a lot of heavy metal, Mark." She let him go and her eyes were red with worry. "You have to have a Strength modifier."

Mark grinned, kinda sadly. "Maybe."

Isoko asked, "Did you try a Strength Union?"

"You couldn't test it out there, even if you did," Sally added. "Not in the middle of combat."

"I tried it, but yeah, I couldn't really test anything out there, but I know what TT looks like through a vector, and I am… I'm absolutely sure that I have no TT. But hey! I can Alacrity/Slowness for a very long time. I spent several hours out there just living in the moment a few times."

There were more small words.

But soon, Mark was downstairs picking up his 5,400 kilos of adamantium and carefully hovering it overhead and behind like a giant floating orb, caltrops letting him walk it down the streets without damaging too much. Isoko walked beside him, chatting about what had been happening the last few days. It felt normal. Mark was very glad for normalcy. He had some normal clothes on and other than the color of his body, he felt normal… ish. The noble district had a normal amount of people in it right now, so that was normal-feeling, but every single one of them that was a real noble, and not a guest, instantly bowed toward Mark when they saw him walking past. They did that sometimes anyway, but this time felt… abnormal.

Only a few of them had any envy at all, which was also abnormal. Mark was literally floating billions upon billions of goldleaf of adamantium behind him. All of them knew what the floating metal behind Mark represented.

It was possibly the purest expression of power in the Two Worlds; money, and actual power, too.

Isoko commented quietly, "Look at you, mister important."

Mark smiled. "Don't let me get a big head now, Isoko."

Isoko chuckled.

And so, they walked. They didn't take the tram, they didn't take any real shortcuts. Mark tried not to break the walkways where he walked. It was tough!

Half an hour later they arrived at Bank Metallic, located across the lake in the middle of the settlement, near the business district. It was a big building with lots of guards and spellwork everywhere, and the place hummed with power. The outside and inside were all gold-veined white marble floors, with bright white walls and pillars, with goldleaf motifs on the walls here and there and on the ceiling.

It was wide open, and the floor felt like it would easily support Mark's weight, but he still spread his 8,000 kilos out across more than a few 'soft' balls of adamantium, like pads on paws. People stared. They had been staring for a while. Someone from the bank approached Mark before he even got into line. Mark rapidly got a personal appointment with Marigold Metallic, in a wing of the bank that was mostly empty.

Marigold looked the same as ever; short, severe, professional, and this time in a nice yellow business dress. There were a few bank associates to the side that were more of the violent sort of 'associates', than the 'accountant' sort. Her security was on a whole new level this week, or maybe just for today. Mark was pretty sure one of the accountants was actually a Sentinel of Aluatha, based on the badge on his chest and the power in his vector, but he was also a main member of the main Metallic Bank, down in Aluatha. He wore the same professional white/gold suit of a normal bankteller of Bank Metallic.

Quark noticed Mark looking at the guy, and so Quark brought up info on him. 'Pelokio Chambers Metallic, Fourth Son of House Metallic.'

A cousin to Marigold, then. Mark had never met him, but that was fine.

"I see we're doing this special today!" Mark said, trying to be lighthearted.

"It's not often that someone deposits an entire empire's worth of adamantium in one day, nor that they themselves are composed of adamantium. We should have a bigger conversation than this some day soon, Mark, but I have been expecting this deposit for days now. I am ready, and couriers from several buyers are already here so that I do not have to accept this disastrous amount of money for longer than strictly necessary." She breathed deep. "Is that acceptable to you?"

Mark got serious. "Yes. I'd like to deposit 5,200 kilos out of the 5,400 kilos I have here. What's the current price?"

Isoko just watched, but she was deeply curious about 'couriers from several buyers'. Mark was, too, but he didn't care enough about that to ask about it; he had enough on his plate.

Marigold easily did math in her head, even as she said, "The current price of adamantium is 81 million per kilo, and 5,200 kilos means 421.2 billion goldleaf. If you could, I would like you to break it up into single-kilo weights, please. We have measuring cups for speed of action."

The banking associates brought over silicone measuring 'cups' that were pretty small, and more like 'rods' than 'cups', but Mark had no problem pouring out adamantium into those measuring spaces and getting the whole thing done quickly.

While that happened, and greed flared in the minds of everyone present, Marigold introduced Mark to her cousin, Pelokio, talking about how he would be one of the couriers moving metal between nations.

Pelokio stood straight and tall, and then bowed, saying, "A pleasure to meet you, Mister Careed."

"Nice to meet more of the Metallic family," Mark said, putting on a grin. "What brings more of the family out to the settlement?"

"Pelokio here is a Natural Teleporter," Marigold said, "We expect him to be able to move the majority of the metal, 50 kilos at a time, to all of the various buyers across Daihoon."

Mark's eyes went wide as he looked at Pelokio. "Oh wow. That's cool!"

Pelokio bowed. "Thank you, sir. Your deposits are in good hands with Bank Metallic!"

Mark had a sudden question, so he asked, "You're not worried about being ambushed?"

"I am absolutely worried about being ambushed, sir—"

Mark felt weird to be called 'sir' by a guy who was in his 50's.

"—but I have been doing this for a long time, and I have many tricks."

Mark smiled. "Good to know— Ah." Mark continued to pour out rods of adamantium into 'ice cube trays', as he looked to Marigold, saying, "I've been getting my Rings of No-Wealth from the Sacredcuts and they can do it well, but I know I've hit the limits with them. Pelokio probably moves around with a good one, right? Can you get me the best Ring of No-Wealth that money or actions can buy?"

Marigold easily said, "There are no Rings of No-Wealth that will work for you anymore. What you want is a Scanner Void, and they're controlled magical items. I can start the paperwork for one now, but we've had to do them before for other people, and Aluatha always has the people who want them come to Aluatha themselves. You should be able to do that as well."

"Yeah okay. Sounds about right. What's a Scanner Void?"

"It's an item that causes a complete blank spot to scanning magic. It's technically a cursed item. It means that nothing can scan you, not even magics trying to rescue you, or determine health, or things like that. They're rather easy to abuse, but they don't make you invisible, and you can still find Voided people if you are looking for holes in the background, so they're not perfect. But they're pretty much what you need, if you want to be immune to scanners."

"… Ah," Mark said, "That seems… less than optimal."

Marigold said, "Your body is worth over 200 billion goldleaf. There are no good, portable ways that I know of to hide that much adamantium."

Mark felt some kinda way about that, but he shrugged, poured adamantium into molds, and said, "I'll figure it out. If you could keep your eyes out, I would appreciate that."

Marigold did a small curtsy, saying, "Of course."

Mark got out of there carrying only 200 kilos of adamantium.

It was enough to support his own weight rather well, and not much more than that.

As they walked down the street, people bowed to them and some people stopped and took pictures. Before he knew what was happening, some people approached Mark and thanked him profusely, asking to buy him drinks and talking about how goblins had fucked up their lives in so many, many ways. Dead family, dead friends.

It was a lot.

Mark breathed in the Good and breathed out the Bad, subtly, easily, and did the PR thing with Isoko at his side. Mark talked about the depth of defenses of Goblinhome, and how it had been a dangerous thing, but he had to do it to avoid Total War. He announced that Grax, the Light Titan, the main mind behind Total War, was gone. Goofy Goblin had helped a lot in the initial fight, and Mark understood that he helped here during Gate Day, and Mark left it at that, though when the cameras came out he was sure to thank Goofy. Maybe Goofy would see it.

Mark also thanked First Prince Doomo for his assistance with the whole thing, keeping it nebulous because he didn't want to lie in a specific way. He thanked Third Princess Kalimara for her help with ending Grax.

"And most of all, thank you to Second Princess Walaria and General Aurora Valen, for having my back."

There.

That was some good PR, right?

Someone got really insistent, though, asking, "What's wrong with your body! Did you turn into adamantium?!"

Mark smiled his PR smile, winked, and said, "It's all a scam to sell more figurines. Be sure to buy them!"

People laughed.

Mark excused himself, walking away, toward Isoko, who had already secured Mark's exit. She was just waiting for him to get fed up with the questions, and that had happened rather on-schedule. Noel would probably call later, though, to talk about everything that happened back there.

Mark and Isoko took the tram, this time, to Mage Society.

The big trams could carry a lot of weight, but Mark still had to support himself so he didn't fall through the floor. He still left boot prints on the ground, though. Mark had made some adamantium boots since he didn't want to leave footprints everywhere. Boot prints weren't ideal, but they were better than foot prints.

People got weird about feet on the internet.

Isoko said, "You handled that well back there."

Mark easily said, "Maybe we should all get new figurines since my scales are gone."

Isoko grinned. "You can wear real clothes now, so the production cost will be a lot lower and you can get a lot more normal. The solid black coloring is pretty neat, too."

Mark smiled a little, but on the inside he was worried. "It looks weird, though, right?"

"Yes, honestly. But it's also cool." Isoko turned Full Platinum, and her TT and vector suddenly got bigger as she supported herself on the air around her and on the steel floor of the tram, saying, "I like that I'm not the only metal person in the group."

"Black is cooler than silver."

Isoko scoffed. "I can appreciate it, but you're dead fucking wrong."

Mark laughed.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

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