EG Book 7 Chapter 12 (Patreon)

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

Sorry this is late! Enjoy

*** AUTHOR’S NOTE ***

“Hey Sia, we’re ready to leave whenever you all get back,” I told Sia mentally, “unless you need to run some errands first? We’ve packed a significant amount of food for the journey, but we’ll probably want to fish a bit too.”

“We are crossing the city now,” Sia said. “Five minutes.”

“Got it,” I responded, then repeated it to the others.

“Lampart’s armor should be very interesting,” Vaya said, “she would not let me be part of designing it.”

“Armor?” I asked.

“Yeah, the Bond’s were testing out armor they had commissioned,” Jon said.

“Fluffy looks so cute in his!” Jamila exclaimed.

“Sia didn’t even tell me about it,” I groaned, then laughed. “Oh well, not sure how much armor he could even use. What about Kami? Didn’t she already have armor from Bruno?”

“No idea,” Bridged answered, “she wants it to be a surprise too.”

The next few minutes passed quickly, waiting outside the privacy shield for the Bonds to arrive. Zimnodlot was the first to arrive, dropping out of the sky and flaring his wings to land on Jon’s arm. Thin layers of an icy blue metal lined his talons, and a helmet covered part of his head, extending over his beak to enhance his bite too. “That looks awesome, Zimnodlot,” Jon said.

“And they are enough to enhance my attacks and protect my head,” Zimnodlot told us all, causing several of us to look at him in surprise.

“Well, of course he can talk to all of us,” Jon said. “He made it to level six during our tribulation.”

“I didn’t know that!” I exclaimed, then gave Zimnodlot a slight bow, “Congratulations!”

“So did I!” Kami said, bounding around a tree. Her voice was definitely higher than expected from a massive pangolin, and her (color?) scale armor was covering her body. Her hands had dark brown leather gauntlets over the scales, with a greenish metal covering her claws.

Just before she reached Bridget, Lampart leapt from the top of the nearest tree to land nearby. A sleek, black leather armor covered her torso, head, and the upper parts of her legs. Unlike the other two, she had no additional claw extensions added, but it would have been difficult for her to run with them on.

Fluffy leapt off the tree following her, the flying squirrel zooming through the air with a puff of Air Aether from the four bracelet like jewelry items he wore on his upper legs to give him better gliding time. Like the others, he had a helmet on, and his upper paws had leather gloves on them, though the bright green of Life Aether let me know that they were probably to help him heal better instead of fight better.

The rippling rainbow of colors that was Sia’s wings exploded into view as he flew over the tree and grew to be four meters wide. The metal helmet he was wearing seemed to stretch, getting a bit thinner but still covering the top and sides of his head. Unlike Zimnodlot’s, his helmet didn’t extend out over his beak. His claws had blades the same dark red color as his helmet, and they extended out with his Aether, reaching nearly thirty centimeters in length. I shuddered at the thought of being hit with those. He screeched in excitement, then dove at me, shrinking again and flared his wings before acrobatically flipping around and landing on my right shoulder.

His new talon blades clinked against my armor, and made me realize I really needed new armor now that I’d advanced. Eh, I’ll deal with that when we get back, I thought, I have a stupid amount of money now.

“Are you ready to leave?” I asked.

“Yes,” he answered, projecting it to the group, “We went hunting to test the new armor and weapons, and used the Beast parts and Cores to help pay for them. The rest came from our proceeds from the Divine Territory, so we do not have any last minute tasks. Which boat are we taking this time?” Sia asked the last part of just me, plaintive whining in his voice at the thought of being on a wooden ship again.

“No boat,” I said. “Come on, let’s get settled and ready to go.”

I could feel Sia’s confusion, and Kami twisted her head sideways and tapped her fingers together so cutely that I nearly laughed. “Can we hurry?” She asked. “These are really neat, but they are not very comfortable.”

“Yup, we just need to get to the courtyard,” I told her consolingly.

Kami and Lampart stopped for a second upon seeing the black eggshell of Aether in the courtyard, then followed us through. Sia and Zimnodlot could not stop, though Sia did turn his head to look at me with narrowing eyes before I stepped through. “This is part of my rewards from the Divine Territory,” I said once we were safe from prying ears. “A flying device and a spatial house. Vaya, can you show Lampart and Kami to an available room, if they don’t want to sleep with you and Bridget respectively? Sia, I got a perch added to my room for you, and to Jon’s room for Zimnodlot.”

I paused, “Uh, weren’t you going to try to get Bonds here?” I asked Aleks and her team.

“It did not work out,” Aleks said with a pout, “But Gunther has promised he will look for a (bear) cub whose mother would be interested in having us Bond and get them to travel to Craesti.”

“Nice of him,” I said, giving her a reassuring smile.

“I had to give him a trade concession for it. He negotiates like an Ashkhas!” She complained, and everyone laughed.

We entered the Portable Home to find Knight Kaminski reading a book on a lounge cushion. “The Bonds are here, we are ready to leave, Knight Kaminski,” Aleks said regally.

“Good,” she answered, hopping to her feet. “Everyone, please set down what you do not need, grab a lounge cushion, and leave the room. Knight Aiden, once we leave, store the Portable Home how it was before you showed it to us. We want to leave without it being visible.”

Bridget helped Kami out of her new claws, and Sia plucked his blades off his talons and carefully put them on a shelf. He was deft with his beak and a bit of Aether. Everyone filed out of the house we’d just entered and circled up. I reached my hand out, and tapped the ring to the wall, mentally pushing my Aether out to envelope it. A much smaller chunk of my overall storage was used to pull it into the ring this time, rather than the large amount it took in the Tower.

When it vanished, so did the privacy screen. Lindsay and the other servants were waiting outside, and they all bowed and echoed out, “It was our pleasure to serve you. May Light and Darkness guide your journey!” Every one of them left except Lindsay, who stepped forward and said with a smile, “We will miss you. Thank you for being excellent guests of (Inn name).”

“Thank you, and all the others, for taking good care of us,” Aleks said.

Librarian Narwan appeared next to us, “You did excellent,” he told Lindsay, “and I have relayed that to Ambassador (name) to ensure that you are all rewarded thusly.”

Lindsay bowed deeper, blushing a bit, and obviously extremely happy. When she straightened up, she turned and left, recognizing the dismissal in his tone.

He turned back to us, “Good, now we should be leaving. I will follow you for the first part of the journey. Now, all of you channel Aether into the Skysurfer. Aiden, fly.”

The others sat on the lounge cushions they brought out, and I could see a steady flow of Aether from each of them into the Skysurfer’s storage. My Aether streamed out of my feet to the control Inscription, and I mentally commanded it to rise. With a lurch, the Skysurfer flew. I was slowly increasing our altitude when Librarian Narwan zoomed in front of us on top of an honest to Light flying sword. “Follow,” he commanded again, and took off at an angle upward.

I pushed the Skysurfer to keep up, and the drain increased on me a bit, but its Aether storage kept filling up from the input of eighteen people. We shot off across the sky, and two Complete Core Ashkhas waved at us as we passed them. Librarian Narwan kept speeding up, and after only a minute had started to seriously outpace us.

I was able to keep track of him, though, so I just gamely pushed on. The Skysurfer is definitely not built for speed, I laughed inside, I’m pretty certain I could run faster than this.

“Why are you going so slow?” Sia asked from his perch on the back of a chair. Knight Kaminski had pulled out all of the table pieces, two chairs, and three boxes of food to create the impression that was our storage. Each box was Inscribed like my spatial backpack, giving about six times the internal space. Only those three boxes were Inscribed, all of the others placed inside the Portable Home weren’t to save on costs. Each Inscribed box was two hundred gold, not including what it stored.

“This is the fastest it accelerates, and we’re getting close to the maximum speed too,” I told him.

“Bah,” he told me, then took off. He quickly grew to his full size and blazed after Librarian Narwan. We were still inside the harbor area, climbing up to maybe forty meters in altitude, so we were still safe from sea monsters. Suddenly, Sia dove down, a sheen of Air Aether surrounding him as he speared into the water. Two seconds later, he exploded back out, Fire pushing him forward, with a massive Sea Bass in his talons. His beak flashed downward and pecked through its skull, putting the Beast out of its misery.

“I am hungry,” he told us.

“Just don’t make a huge mess!” I screamed at him, as he dropped the fish at the tip of the Skysurfer. The splatter got on Lilianna, who glared at him before conjuring a small wave of Water to wash the gore away from her. Sia chittered in amusement, then ripped a piece off his meal. Zimnodlot and Lammy joined him. “Uh, Kami, can you eat fish?”

“I can, though I do not like to,” she answered. “It upsets my stomach and I have to use Aether to calm it down. I prefer ants, and Knight Kaminski said that she has a full crate of them for me.”

“That’s great!” I told her. As I watched, a wall of Air Aether shot up from the edges of the Skysurfer, and the wind noise vanished. I could see through it easily enough, and saw Librarian Narwan turn back towards us.

He blurred, stopping right next to where I stood in the middle of the Skysurfer. “I had hoped it would be faster than this,” he said, somehow projecting his voice over the distance without yelling. “It will take you nearly three weeks to return at this rate, more if you truly wish to explore the ruins.”

“How quickly can you get back?” I asked, forming a quick tunnel of Air and Ice Aether from my mouth to nearby his ear.

“Three days,” he said. “If you were to use my Sword For Cutting Through The Air (make Chinese?) it would take you seven days.”

I laughed, “I’ll definitely take a month of travel in style over a week on a sword unable to move properly.”

He shook his head, a grin forming on his normally stern mouth, “I would too, but there is too much to do and not enough time to do it in.” With that, he sped back up, and took his position in front of the Skysurfer. We flew together for the next hour, gradually getting up to forty kilometers per hour, which seemed to be the fastest that I could push the Skysurfer’s speed.

The other’s had stopped feeding Aether into the Skysurfer, as it had started to reject their attempts. Knight Kaminski and I were the only two, maintaining our speed and height

Finally, another hour later, Knight Kaminski walked over, “Aiden, we are far enough away now, feel free to place the Portable Home and take a break. I will guide us for the next two hours. Use this time to set up a rotation and eat a snack. Once you have done so, return outside with your team for training. The others will get training afterwards.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. I felt her Aether slip into the Inscription, and released my own. I went inside, and immediately noticed that it was a bit warmer. The chilly air outside didn’t bother me, but it was more comfortable in the Portable Home. “Huh.”

“Yeah, this place keeps the temperature perfect,” Milenna said. “I definitely will not tell mom, or she will try to buy it from you incessantly.”

“Yes, please keep this place a secret,” I said. “I don’t particularly want to be plundered.” Jon snorted, and I grinned at him. “So, we’re going to need to set up a watch routine, since someone needs to be steering the Skysurfer at all times.”

“I would rather not be alone outside,” Lilianna said.

“I feel the same,” Jamila said.

“Well, I only need two to three hours of sleep a night,” I said, “Jon, Vaya, Bridget?”

“Yeah, Core rocks!” Jon said, throwing his pinky and pointer finger up.

I rolled my eyes at him, “Yes it does. Maintaining altitude and direction doesn’t take that much mental power, so you should be able to train a bit while doing so. Knight Kaminski is going to be training us hard over the next few weeks. I really want to have all of you reach Seed Core before we get back.”

“Is that what the small boxes with our names on them are for?” Ming asked. “They were dropped off by some Askhas porters along with several large boxes of Dungeon Cores. We packed them in our rooms, but I have not opened mine.”

“Yes,” I said. “One of the things I bargained for was resources to push you all to the next level.” Several of them started to protest, but I held up my hand, “This is not just generosity. If you, my closest friends, are stronger, I am safer, and our country is safer. We are the future of Craesti, and we will be a massive force on the battlefield once we arrive there. Stand by me, stand together, and we will all make it. I refuse to accept anything less.”

“You know that is unrealistic,” Ming stated.

“Yeah,” I sighed, “but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to push for it.”

We sat quietly for a few seconds, before Aleks stood. “I am going to grab a sheet of parchment,” she said. She quickly came back with a long sheet of parchment, then tacked it to the wall.

“Wait, what?” I said, seeing the little pointy object stuck into the indestructible surface.

“Neat huh?” Aleks asked. “I discovered that we can put things up on the wall with nearly no difficulty, even though any deliberate attack on the wall will fail. This place is amazing. Here…” She wrote out time slots for each hour for the next five days. “Now we can just put our names on the list, and rotate through who we are all working with.”

I stepped forward and wrote my name in the line six hours from now. “Knight Kaminski said she was going to steer for the next six hours, but that is it for her. Vaya, Jon, Bridget, we have training with her after we finish this, so we should take the next couple of slots. That way everyone else gets to train afterwards.”

“Got it,” Bridget said, putting her name down.

“I want a snack first,” Jon said, heading to the kitchen. “I will stand watch with you Bridget.”

“We’ll probably just keep training,” I laughed, following him.

We ate a small snack of crackers and cheese, the rich flavors accentuated by the Earth Aether in both. “This is going to suck, isn’t it?” I asked.

“The training? Yeah, probably,” Jon said. “Not as urgent, but the war is more life-threatening, so…”

“Gotta get stronger,” I said. “The stronger we are, the less likely it is that one of us dies.”

“You know …” Jon started.

“Yeah, I know war is dangerous, and there are going to be hundreds or thousands of enemies at our level. Even if I can beat a dozen Seed Core gatherers myself right now, if there’s fifty, I’m still screwed. Together, we could stand in front of an army and defeat it, but we’d probably lose people doing so. I know, I know it’s not realistic, you don’t need to keep hammering it in,” I growled at him, my aura leaking out and smothering Jamila, Ming, and Milenna, who’d joined us for the snack.

I took a deep breath, pulling my aura back, and said, “I’m so sorry.” I pulled Jamila into a side hug, and she hugged me tighter.

“It is fine,” Ming said. “You are still new to your strength. Clan Lo generally has newly risen Seed Cores spend a month learning to keep their aura in at all times. Though that is more for the protection of children and Aether Gathering gatherers.”

“I’ll work on that more,” I said. “Are you okay?” I asked Jamila.

“Yes,” she said. “It just surprised me. After a second I was fine, but,” she pulled me in tighter. “We will be fine. We are all strong and capable, and we still have time before we will be sent to fight. Focus on what you can do now.”

“Good point,” I said, kissing the top of her head, “come on Jon, it’s time to train.”

“Fun,” he groaned, following me out of the kitchen. We’d just been standing at the counter, munching away. Xiao and Lilianna were sitting at the table, looking at a manual on Smithing and discussing quietly when we opened the door. Bridget, Vaya, Aleks, and Lea were arranging the lounge cushions. Bridget and Vaya immediately dropped the two they were holding and joined us when I motioned at them.

Aleks gave me a bright smile and waved, then plopped down on a cushion and closed her eyes. The Aether in the room rushed towards her as she started to gather, the (name of necklace) enhancing her gathering speed immensely. A Dungeon Beast Core, placed on an Inscription built into the main room, released a stream of unaspected Aether into the air.

A quick glance showed me that there were four different Core receptacles around the main room. “Neat,” I said. “Good thing we’ve got so many Cores.”

“Hundreds from Bruno’s Dungeon, and nearly a thousand of various Elemental Affinities in various boxes and bags,” Bridget said. “I know, I counted them as we packed up. Now, come on, I want to see what Knight Kaminski wants to teach us!”

I laughed and pushed open the door to outside.