The ashes before Strife

Episode 11 : clue of family ; 3

Thanks to leaving traces of mana around on the way over to subjugate Ronik finding the exit was a simple matter that only took thirty minutes of walking and jumping. "Ah! Sunlight! At long last, I'll be free of these caves!"

As we walked up the slope leading to the entrance we initially came in from, I put on my white mask and Ronik's excitement kept growing in his deep voice dancing around inside the soul veil.

As I entered the sunlight I was briefly blinded waiting for my eyes to adjust and when I could see properly again I saw the chief along with the guide and several other people from the rural village looking at me waiting for me to say what they wanted to hear "the golem that was stopping you from mining fell in through the ceiling since it was an accident I chose to adopt the little guy." Ronik then jumped out of my chest and bowed down apologizing to them.

The crowd looked down at the purple wooden golem not knowing how to respond until the chief walked forward "this is perfectly fine youngster, everyone! We have our mine back!" Ronik jumped back into me as the crowd celebrated embracing each other "tonight we shall prepare a feast for our savior!" The chief then turned to me and asked "what would you like as a reward for your efforts? We don't have much here but I'll give you all I can."

Admiring the old man's sincerity and cunning to try and make stay I said "about fifty trees worth of cut-up Redghast wood will do just fine." The chief looked surprised at my response but smiled greatly "just fifty? No! Only by giving five hundred trees worth of wood will I be satisfied to say that we thanked you!" I tried to stop the old man but he had already run off to get the reward from someone "more is better than less I guess."

Later I was sitting on a long wooden picnic table under the night with our surroundings lit up by several fires on an open green field. The table was covered in assortments of foods and drinks which the entire village gorged themselves on, celebrating the end of their dilemma "to the demon Incursik! Thanks to him our village will now be able to recover!" The man that had guided me gave a toast as he quickly drank his beer.

"Oi! You still haven't paid off your tab!" The bartender then appeared and the guide quickly ran away being chased by several buff men.

I chuckled as I watched him run away in fear whilst my three tames sat in front of me on the wooden table, Lupra and Thorn gorging themselves on meet while Ronik simply gazed up at the sky sucking in the surrounding mana. "Looks like your the life of the party Cayde, shame I don't get treated so triumphantly when I'm the reason you've been able to grow so much."

What Thorn says holds truth. We found out a lot later that my mana circuits had sped up due to the link stone the three of us used together as well as integrating more attrium into my mana heart allowing for less painful use "That may be true Thorn but you have to keep in mind that Ronik kicked your scaly ass without my help."

"Why you-"

"haha. No need to get so defensive Thorn. I was simply able to win because of age and experience, you are young, so you are yet to know how to utilize strength." Thorn seemed to of gotten defused quickly by the wooden golem who was patting his back "well. At least you understand where you stand woody."

Enjoying the show I didn't notice the chief sneaking up behind me until he grabbed my shoulder "here's the reward you asked for." He presented the void ring and I looked in to see it filled to the brim with purple bark and light brown wood cut into various shapes "might I ask just what you want with all that? It serves no use other than building material for houses to withstand mana storms and earthquakes."

I then placed it onto Ronik's violet crystal core at the center of him getting magnetized unmoving from where I placed it "I'll find out myself in the future once I leave in a bit."