Upon learning of Prometheus stealing fire and being punished by Zeus, chained to the Caucasus Mountains, and of the gods creating Pandora to punish humanity for receiving the fire, Alaric finally realized where in time he had arrived.
He was right at the dividing line between the Bronze Age and the Heroic Age in Greek mythology.
According to the myths, this generation of humanity would be destroyed by the disasters released from Pandora's box, culminating in a great flood.
Only two humans would survive and rebuild a new age.
Famed heroes of Greek mythology, such as Heracles, Chiron, Achilles, Jason, and Medea, all belonged to the Heroic Age. As of now, none of them had been born yet.
With this realization, everything clicked for Alaric.
No matter which mythology you looked at, cataclysmic events like great floods, where humanity is destroyed and reborn, were common.
If the stories of the Nasuverse were indeed true, it would confirm that the severance and rebirth of ancient civilizations happened not just once or twice.
At least within the rule of the Olympian gods, this generation of humans had been created by Prometheus and Athena after the Olympians defeated the previous generation, Cronus and the Titans, and before they defeated Typhon, progenitor of all monsters.
With that in mind, this generation of humans hadn't existed for long.
It made sense that they hadn't inherited the knowledge of the previous civilization and lacked the power of magecraft.
Realizing this gave Alaric a headache.
He had planned to study magecraft in the Nasuverse and learn about the structure of Heroic Spirits.
But now, with the Heroic Age not even begun, the era of powerful Divine Age magi running rampant hadn't yet arrived.
Even the founders of the earliest magical organizations like the Wandering Sea hadn't made a sound. Who was he supposed to learn from?
It seemed he'd have to research it all himself.
Well, not entirely by himself, there were still subjects to study: the gods themselves.
Even though the gods' powers were innate and perhaps not fully understood even by themselves, by observing the manifestations of divine power, one could always glean something.
That was far better than working in isolation.
Especially Pandora, who had just been created.
Alaric had long wanted to study how to create Heroic Spirits and Servants, or at least energy-based incarnations, all in order to provide Attila with a new body.
And wasn't Pandora a divine-created body?
Not that Alaric planned to capture Pandora and convert her into a vessel for Attila, he wouldn't go that far.
But if he could study the principles behind divine creation, might he not be able to understand how Heroic Spirits and Servants were formed?
After all, although gods were superior beings to Heroic Spirits, their fundamental structure was similar.
Both were bodies constructed from energy, or mana, with a crucial core at their center.
Heroic Spirits had Spirit Cores, and gods had Divine Cores.
Though their bodies appeared flesh and blood, all their vital functions and weaknesses were concentrated in their cores.
Such a body wasn't as fragile as a purely physical one, riddled with vulnerabilities. It could also be enhanced with mana, pushing its strength beyond mortal limits.
Because no matter how much a person trained their muscles, honed their physique, or perfected their skills, they would eventually hit a limit.
A limit of the flesh, of the species, and of physical law.
No matter how much further they wanted to go, it was impossible.
This was true whether on Earth, in the World of Warcraft universe, or here in the Nasuverse. Unless the laws of physics changed drastically, there would be no exceptions.
In the World of Warcraft, physical combatants vastly outnumbered spellcasters, but even so, no matter how hard they trained, before reaching the legendary tier, their strength had a clear cap.
It was like a cup, no matter how much water you poured in, the size of the cup remained the same. Add more, and it would simply overflow.
There were even cases where being too physically strong reduced flexibility, or where being agile required sacrificing resilience.
But there were other things that could be considered limitless.
Like energy. Like the soul.
That was why spellcasters were powerful. That was why Heroic Spirits and even gods were powerful.
As a spellcaster, Alaric's method of becoming stronger was to constantly enhance his soul and his control over energy.
Heroic Spirits and gods, on the other hand, broke through the boundaries between body and soul.
They used energy to expand the limits of the physical vessel. In this way, the potential of an individual could become nearly infinite.
Alaric believed that when the gods created Pandora, they would instinctively model her based on their own structures.
Perhaps through her, he could catch a glimpse of the secrets behind divine anatomy.
Of course, he had thought about directly exploring Artemis's divine body, maybe even unlocking some interesting "positions" in the process.
But after getting physically close to Artemis on the Moon Chariot, he realized something:
With his current strength, he still wasn't capable of probing the mysteries contained within a divine body. So he had to settle for the next best option.
The key point was that Pandora wasn't one of those mass-produced inferior models created by Prometheus and Athena.
She was a limited-edition masterpiece, handcrafted by Hephaestus, the god of fire and craftsmanship, and blessed by the other gods.
Through Pandora, Alaric might not only uncover the secrets of divine anatomy, but also discover how to imbue energy-based bodies with unique skills and Noble Phantasms, just like the blessings of the gods.
With these thoughts in mind, Alaric lingered at the Moon Temple for a few days, then returned to the mortal world.
That very day happened to be when the Olympian gods were preparing to present Pandora to Epimetheus.
Alaric disguised himself as an ordinary human of the Bronze Age. Under Artemis's guidance, he found Epimetheus and the rest of humanity.
As Prometheus's younger brother, Epimetheus, "the one who thinks afterward", cared deeply for humanity.
He stayed among them every day, caring for them in his brother's stead and teaching them how to live.
These humans, despite being aggressive and frequently embroiled in disputes with one another, held Epimetheus in high esteem. They treated him as an elder or a wise sage.
To Alaric's eyes, even if the gods hadn't planned to destroy them, these Bronze Age humans were flawed from the start.
Compared to future humans, these Bronze Age people were indeed taller and stronger, but they were also far more belligerent.
They would often start fights for any number of reasons, even go to war between tribes.
Before fire, they fought over food, raiding one another.
Now, with fire making life more comfortable, they still found reasons to go to war.
Alaric was certain that even if the king of the gods didn't intervene, they would eventually wipe themselves out in endless conflict.
Even Alaric himself, upon arriving, was challenged by a stranger simply for bumping into him by accident.
But Alaric, empowered by the might of a dragon, wasn't about to tolerate such a brute. Naturally, he beat him down without hesitation.
What he didn't know was that Artemis, watching him secretly all along, liked him even more because of it.
Alaric, though capable of surprising her with his magic, had always seemed a bit too lean in her eyes, especially when compared to the brawny males among the Titans.
As the goddess of the hunt, Artemis had always admired those with the power to hunt beasts and tigers.
But now, she felt her one regret had been resolved.
Alaric, with the strength he displayed as a human, satisfied her deeply.
Indeed, he was the perfect man.
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