5 It's Been Awhile

It was a strange experience for Guts, but the biggest surprise was the fact that the inside was around 2 to 3 times larger than it should be.

Guts sat down as he placed the Tuning Sword across his lap and held the Water Materia in his hand. He cast a Water Spell and continued to do so until he passed out.

While Guts was conked out, Glenn used Aeroga to create a bubble of rotating air. By using such a high level spell, he wasted his Mana down to nothing before saying, "If my theory is right, I'll try and cast Full Cure with the Materia. Judging from this feeling, I should have less than 5 remaining Mana Points. It cost 99 MP to cast full cure, so my total gain should be between 94 and 98."

After casting Full Cure, Glenn felt his Mana go into the negative and a sharp painful cracking sensation in his head as he fell over unconscious.

Unfortunately, there was a rather large repercussion to tanking his Mana to such levels. Blood seeped out of Glenn's ears, nose, eyes, and mouth as he felt intense pain all throughout his sleep cycle.

When he got up the next morning, he noticed that his Mana did increase by 95 or so points, but the pain just wasn't worth it. Not to mention, it was better to slowly and safely raise his MP without risking his own life everytime.

"I'll try 50 next time," Glenn shook his head before noticing that the Special Tent's healing effects worked in this world.

The Crimson Warlock stepped outside and saw Guts washing his face after a strenuous workout.

Glenn stored the Tents back into his bag and was surprised that as items, they didn't lose their effects or disappear.

"Great, I have ninety-nine magical tents, and I don't know what to do with them," Glenn thought before he told Guts to be careful of how much he overdrafts his Mana while showing off the blood on his face.

Guts nodded his head and said, "Thanks for the warning. I'm curious, though. How long will it take to rank up this Materia?"

"I don't know. I haven't had a use for the Materia since I've always had a decent amount of Mana and learned spells differently. I just collected them because I was a fan of the creators," Glenn answered honestly.

Although he had a big collection of Materia, he never bothered to use them. He only bought them because he was a fanboy of the FF7 Series…and just in case he ever wanted to make a second account with the FF7 avatar template.

Glenn decided to rank up the Materia when he had a chance. However, for now, he would focus on combat and mana training with Guts.

After Glenn made breakfast with some items from his bag, he and Guts cleared up the campsite and set off on foot, marching towards the Eastern Plains.

They walked for days, training every second that they could and increasing their Mana during nightfall before they saw signs of human civilization. Eventually, Gut's Mana had grown to reach 31 MP. He could cast the Water Spell at least seven times and learned how to cast the spell without needing the Materia.

For Guts, all he had to do was memorize the feeling and the information fed to him whenever he used Materia to cast the spell. With the Tuning Sword constantly manipulating the Mana inside his body, he was able to recognize and control his own Mana Source after a week of practice.

To Glenn's surprise, Guts was even quicker at mastering Mana than he was.

After staying at an inn and leaving the next morning, the two gathered information on where to find a village Guts once passed through. Fifteen more days had passed when they found the village where Guts first bought his trusty greatsword.

They entered a weapon's shop and asked if they could make him another when the shopkeeper told them that Godo, the man who made Gut's sword, had moved near the river at the mountains east of the village.

They spent the rest of the month looking for him in the wilderness when they were attacked by a group of Bears that had just come out of hibernation for a light snack.

Unfortunately, Guts had just gotten his ass whooped by Glenn hours earlier and had to fight most of them by himself. The hundred man slayer managed to kill four of them with ease before he ended up getting tackled by one he lost track of.

While the Bear stomped on Gut's chest, Glenn watched from a tree branch as the future berserker stabbed the Tuning Sword through the animal's heart before he staggered up back to his feet.

Regrettably, Guts wasn't able to keep his balance and lost his footing, rolling down a nearby hill until he crashing to a couple of cut logs.

All the Bears turned to Glenn, who, in response, sighed before pulling out his sword from the cane-sheath and instantly killed all of them.

When he looked over the hill to check on Gut's condition, he saw a young girl rushing over to his side along with an elderly man.

Glenn recognized them as Godo and Erica. Who else would be out here with a little girl.

"So, this is how they met," Glenn thought as he slid down the hill and ran over next to Guts.

"You alive?" Glenn said as he poked Guts in the side with a random stick.

"Your friend needs medical attention," Godo stated as he looked over Gut's condition.

"Nah, I got this," Glenn declared as he held his hand over Guts and cast the Cura Spell.

Godo and Erica were surprised by the white and gold glow that enveloped Gut's body.

Within seconds, Guts was completely healed of any wounds.

Guts pulled himself up from the ground with a surprised expression as he checked himself over and said, "What?"

"Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention I know healing magic as well?" Glenn said in a bragging tone.

"Magic?" Godo and Erica shouted at the same time.

"Relax…I'm not like the fakes that the inquisitors capture. They don't have the power to hunt an actual Witch or Mage." Glenn said as he walked over to Godo and inspected him.

"Hey, Guts? Is this the guy who made your sword?" Glenn asked over his shoulder while pointing at the Forge Master.

"Is his name Godo?" Guts questioned.

"A sword? You came all the way out here to get a new sword?" Godo responded with a question of his own.

Guts nodded his head, confirming Godo's suspicions.

Godo then started to laugh before he said, "Sure, come back to my place, and we'll talk price."

The two spent an hour or so trekking back to the Forge set up near an old mine.

During their walk, Guts explained what sword he used to have while Godo seemed surprised that someone could wield that greatsword he made as a mock creation.

Glenn chuckled at this because, Guts would wield the Dragon Slayer; a much bigger great-sword than the sword he was used to.

When they arrived at the Forge, Godo got to work on making Gut's new sword.

However, Glenn stopped him before he got started and said, "I'll pay you two large Gold Coins to refurbish the Dragon Slayer you have in that shed over there."

Glenn watched as Godo's expression turned to surprise and then suspicious before asking, "How do you know about that?"

"I don't care to reveal that. Just know that I want you to give it to Guts, but not before adding 6 impressions big enough to hold one of these inside them." Glenn announced as he pulled out a handful of thumb-sized Materias.

Godo wanted to refuse, but two large Gold Coins were hard to come by, but it was essentially 400,000 U.S dollars Glenn was handing over.

Godo scratched the back of his head and said, "Why that sword? It's not like anyone can use it."

"Guts can," Glenn responded as he handed him the money.

Godo sighed and said, "Fine. Customers are hard to come by out here in the middle of nowhere. I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth."

 Godo sighed again as he cracked his back, "Gonna be tough lifting it into the Forge. Not as spry as I used to be,"

"Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I continuously cast Regen on the old man. If the real-world translation means for the body to regenerate..." Glenn pondered as he decided that there wasn't any reason not to help Godo, so he cast his spell and watched as the old man suddenly feel healthier.

"Did you do something to me?" Godo asked as years of abuse to his muscles started to heal.

"I'm healing you with a spell. I'll also carry the Dragon Slayer inside the Forge for you," Glenn answered.

He wasn't in any condition to be out hiking in the mountains, gathering firewood, and forging every day.

Glenn had around 2,800 Mana Points to spend. Regen wore off in 20 seconds and cost Glenn 28MP every cast. He could cast a total of 100 times and 3 times every minute.

However, with his Mana Regen, he could cast the spell indefinitely. So, for the next half hour, Glenn continued to heal Godo with the Regen Spell.

Godo seemed to be a few years younger in appearance, he had fewer wrinkles and his muscles seemed more firm than ever before.

"Interesting. Regen regenerates his body down to the smallest cells. I think as long as I keep casting Regen, I can turn Godo into an infant," Glenn thought as he downed a few more Ethers to restore his Mana to full and start over.

For the next hour and a half, Glenn continued to regenerate Godo's body until he looked like he did when he was forty.

Most of the wrinkles had faded, his potbelly had disappeared, and the Forge Master's body was spry and youthful once again. Even his hair had regained its black color.

Godo couldn't believe what had happened. He checked himself over and stood up as he flexed his body.

"Incredible! So this is Magic?" Godo wanted to see his reflection, so he picked up a well-polished sword and took a good long look.

"I'm young again?" Godo questioned as he looked at the exhausted Glenn, who was chugging another potion.

"I think I'll stop here for today. I trust this is enough for you to relinquish the Dragon Slayer?" Glenn said as he walked outside to the shed and waited for Godo.

After coming out, Erica was surprised to see her Father even younger than she's ever seen.

Guts also questioned how that was possible when Glenn threw him a Green Materia and said, "Use this to heal your wounds. If you rank the Restore Materia up once, you can use the Regen Spell. If you use it long enough, you can reverse aging. Regenerate dead or dying cells...err blood…it allows you to renew your blood."

"Really, Magic can do that?" Guts said as he caught the thumb-sized marble.

He cast heal on himself and could feel the fatigue from his workout lessen.

"Incredible, with this, I could fight and train for days," Guts said with a look of surprise.

Guts went off to train while Erica chased after to watch. She wanted to learn magic and would continue to pester Guts until he caved in and taught her.

The more people that could use the Materia, the quicker it would level up.

Glenn helped Godo carry in the Dragon Slayer with a single hand, making Godo's jaw drop in surprise as he said, "You can wield that thing?"

"Yep, and so can Guts!" Glenn replied as he carried the sword into the Forge.

After working on the sword for several hours, Glenn continued to cast Regen throughout the process.

When Godo's body hit the peak of fitness and health at the age of thirty, the de-aging process stopped, and casting Regen became pointless.

"I guess this means, there's nothing left to heal…no baby Godo," Glenn mumbled as he watched the elderly-youth hammering away.

Glenn also thought about teaching Magic to Godo. If he could learn to control Mana, the old man might be able to craft magic items, or magic fetishes, as they are called in this world.

He also gave Godo Cid's Special Hammer, a Key Item he got from the Final Fantasy I World. He was supposed to hand it over to Cid and get an airship in return. But he never completed the quest because of how good the item was.

Any Item Crafted with Cid's Hammer doubled the stats of any item produced. It could also restore the durability of objects just by pointlessly smacking the hammer against them. A lot of players used this trick to get ahold of a good smiting hammer, and it was eventually patched so that you couldn't leave the Final Fantasy 1 World until you completed the quest.

However, the ones that already had the Key Item were allowed to keep it as long as they never returned to the first world.

In return, for passing over the gold and hammer, Godo reforged the Dragon Slayer from the ground up and promised to make a sword for Glenn.

Since they were taking the sword apart and rebuilding it, Glenn decided to throw Godo some Mithril Shields.

"Here, use this and meld it with the Dragon Slayer," Glenn said as he pulled out 4 Mithril Shields from his days as an Onion Knight.

He gave Pippin the tower shield, but Glenn still had a Great Shield, Small Shield, and Kite Shield made from Mithril.

"I never thought my item hoarding ways would be so useful one day," Glenn chuckled.

When Godo got ahold of the items, he couldn't help but gush over the uniqueness of Mithril Ore.

Glenn smiled and watched as Godo worked and rebuilt the Dragon Slayer with the Mithril.

Mithril had a higher melting point than steel, so Glenn had to raise the temperature with a Fira Spell.

Godo cut off large portions of the Dragon Slayer but left the core intact. He then melted down the Mithril and started to fold the new metal into the old core of the Dragon Slayer.

Since the Dragon Slayer was made from Gnomish Steel, it blended well with the Mithril and quickly began to take shape.

So, after the four hours passed, the Dragon Slayer was finally finished.

The metal still looked thick and black on the surface, but around the blade's edge, it gleamed with a vibrant blue hue.

It looked just like the Dragon Slayer. The only difference was that around both sides of the guard there were six sockets big enough to hold the Materia Guts would use in the future.

For now, he wanted to experiment with combinations. He thought of a few that he could give Guts that would actually be useful.

For one, he could combine HP Absorb with the Double-Cut Materia. This way, Guts could recover wounds mid-combat while getting multiple cuts in one blow.

After a while of thinking and experimenting, Glenn decided on a set to give him.

To start things off, he put in the HP Absorb + Double Cut combo for obvious health concerning reasons.

MP Absorb + Slash-All combination was the second set up, again, for obvious reasons. When he tested using Slash-All, Glenn discovered it attacked and hit anything with double the range of the weapon.

Elemental + Contain. Apparently, in the real world, the Materia Elemental acted a bit differently than it did in the game. When applying an elemental Materia to those that contained more than one element, he could use the element discharge at will and could choose when to apply it. So if he channeled Mana into the Materia Combination, he could choose not to activate the element if he so desired.

After a few experiments, Glenn discovered that he could use the Contain Materia to select four powerful elemental effects.

Freeze, Flare, Break, and Tornado, became Ice Sword, Fire Sword, Stone Sword, and Wind Sword.

The higher level the Elemental Magic Materia paired with the Elemental Materia, the greater the damage output would be.

On the other side of the rain guard, Glenn put the Materia combination as HP Plus + MP Plus. He wanted Guts to have greater stats if possible. He wasn't sure how the effects for health enhancement worked, but Glenn was sure that when he held the MP-Plus Materia, the Mana in his body increased by at least ten percent.

Speed Plus + Magic Plus.

Heal + Restore. In case Guts was wounded or poisoned.

Godo also added one more Materia impression on the top of the pommel.

Thinking of what Summon Materia to put in there was hard for Glenn. He found out that he could only have one summon active at any time. So, he wanted to make sure he could give something useful for Guts.

After mulling it over, Glenn decided to give him the only Holy Element Materia obtainable in the Final Fantasy 7 World. Alexander.

Guts lacked the Mana to summon him, but they had a year until they would meet up with the Band of the Hawk, and Guts would have the chance to improve his MP levels every day.

When Guts received the Dragon Slayer, he was surprised but also excited for some reason. When he lifted the weapon, it felt like a part of him.

It was a bit complicated to explain how all the Materia worked, but after a few attempts of using it, Guts got the hand of it.

Glenn wasn't sure of how EXP Gain worked, but he wanted to try it on Guts. So he had Godo make a few pairs of bracelets with 4 Materia Slots in them.

He gave Guts a pair and had the Materia...

Added Cut + Counter allowed him to double the attack with a perfect counter attack.

Barrier + Destruct would allow him to defend himself and destroy magical protections.

Water + Lightning because he already had some water mastery and lightning spells have good synergy with the element.

Time + Gravity to increase his speed and gravity for helping his training and hindering enemies.

Since he wasn't training at the moment, Glenn swapped out the Gravity Materia for Exp Plus and had Guts hunt a bear.

When Guts told him that he felt some kind of energy enter his body, Glenn smiled happily and told him, "Whenever you hunt, equip that Materia. You won't get much from hunting animals, but it should make you stronger should you ever gain the ability to level up."

He gave both Erica and Godo one of the slotted bracelets with a suitable set up.

For Erica's bracelet contained the Materia Combinations of Heal + Restore and Seal + Shield.

For Godo, it was Water + Fire and Earth + Sense.

Now Godo could mine without worrying about cave-ins and forge with magic.

Of course, it would take time for them to build up Mana like Guts, but they were more than willing to learn, especially after learning that the Holy See was a pile of garbage that knew nothing of witch craft and magic.

For most of the year, Guts and Glenn trained together, fighting with swords and learning magic while Erica and Godo also gained a decent amount of experiences.

With extra tents to pass out, they didn't have to worry about hurting themselves to increase their Mana levels, although the Blacksmith felt funny sleeping in a tent right next to his bed.

During the year of breaking their Mana Cores through over using magic, Guts managed to raise his Mana to 700, Erica managed to gain around 500 MP, and Goto had somewhere around 450 MP.

Guts and Godo also mastered Mana Reinforcement rather well. They could rip apart a tree with their bare hands now.

Though, even without Mana Reinforcement, Guts was a lot stronger because he leveled up. When Hunting for food, the two discovered that all of his stats were raised by a bit when he killed his 15th Bear.

"I feel stronger, but not by much. The most noticeable change is the clarity of sight and distance in which I can see."

When he told Glenn how much he improved, the Crimson Warlock was disappointed with the outcome. Technically, Gut's already had good physical stats. But after testing him with weights and timing his running, he learned that only increased his base abilities by 1/5th of their original value.

So, overall, Guts would have to level up four more times to double his stats. He would also getting bigger boosts the higher his level was too. But that would take a rather long time if all he had to hunt were bears.

However, Guts paid no mind to that issue. He didn't let leveling determine his strength. Whenever he wasn't in combat, Guts used Gravity to weigh himself down and bring out the limits of his natural body through repetitive training.

During their time training, the group managed to level up some Materia and learned how to cast without it. The fact that Materia could teach them how to cast was the greatest boon he had, and Glenn hoped it would be the key to helping change the future.

The training for both magic and strength went well. Guts had unlocked almost all of his Materia to level 2 while Erica pulled ahead of him because she didn't have to train with a sword.

She managed to get all of her Materia to Level 3. Even Godo managed to raise his Fire and Water Materia to Level 3, and since he barely left the forge, he got both a good work out for magic and muscle.

They also learned that when they cast spells without Materia, their bodies gained experience or evolved overtime, as Glenn so elegantly put it so they'd stop asking what he meant by leveling up.

So even without fighting, Erica and Godo had reached what Glenn believed to be Level 2. Of course, he could confirm it with the Libra spell, but that would also reveal personal information, and Glenn didn't care too much for invading their private history.

When Guts hit a wall with his sword training, Godo suggested that he go out and test his strength against the other swordsmen of their world.

Glenn knew the time of the great eclipse was approaching. Taking the Skull Knight's prophecy seriously, he had prepared both Guts and himself to the best of his abilities. In total, he had 4,200 Mana Points, ranked up a few Materia, learned the spells from them, and did everything in his power to help Guts prepare for the worst situation.

Glenn followed Guts around Midland until they ended up at a Tournament.

Like before, Guts entered and easily won his match before being offered to deal with the Band of the Hawk.

Hearing the condition of his old comrades, Guts rushed off at full speed, forcing Glenn to follow behind.

Thanks to their improved speed, they ended up finding the base camp faster than the bounty hunters did.

They arrived to spot the paid bounty hunters and alerted the part with the death of one of their scouts.

The battle was intense, but with Guts and Glenn killing their way through dozens of soldiers, it only took the Kushan Assassin Silat a moment to realize he was out matched. The two magical warriors cleaved through foes like they were made of wet paper. In just mere minutes of their attack, they had already lost 70% of their forces.

Seeing that even if he launched the attack on the Band of the Hawks it would just lead to them being slaughtered, Silat ordered the retreat. He didn't even bother with the fight and accepted his loss with a desire to grow even stronger.

When the two showed up in the main camp, most of the crowd cheered for joy at Gut's return, while Glenn went mostly unnoticed.

It wasn't until they spoke with Casca that they remembered him.

"Hey, been a while," Guts said as he looked at Casca's tired expression.