Ep. 323 Heading for the Summit Part 3 (Patreon)

Especially whatever is controlling them, from everything I have seen I don't think it is a normal creature. Also if it does have stronger minions than the driders I would like to know about them before I run into them. I am still toying with the idea of trying to clear them out to free Kechara, but I want to know what I am dealing with first.

The books I have are my only hope of finding out without going into the city again. I rather doubt that the empire's mages who put the library here had any idea what was locked away below them. They had an empire behind them, if they had found the city they probably would have taken it over.

Since they didn't it is safe to assume that I am the first one to find the city since the elves fled and put the barriers in place. Even the goddesses didn't seem to know much about the elves, or the temples for that matter. By this point I have dragged the last of the drider bodies out of the tunnel so I decide to take a look at the two beasts.

Unfortunately, the hides are not worth saving, they have been seriously cut up. This tells me the driders had a hard time killing the beasts, which since I have seen the melee types fight isn't too surprising. However, the meat of the beasts is fine so I take them inside and start butchering them.

As I prepare the meat I give the bones of the beasts to Bones and he starts munching away happily. When Kechara and Asuna make begging noises at him to my surprise, Bones gives each of them a bone to chew on. I have never seen him share with others before, I know he has been leveling up slowly but maybe he is growing in other ways.

As the three of them happily munch on the bones I place the meat over the fire to cook. Since there might be more driders still roaming around outside I decide to keep Bones around even after he finishes his food. As soon as the food is ready the three of us dig in, Bones having finished his food is looking at Asuna.

Bones says "Master?"

"That is Asuna, Bones. She is a friend."

Bones says "Cute!"

"Yes, she is. You can say more now?"

Bones nods and then shrugs, I guess he only has a few new words, but it must be because he leveled up. So if he levels up more he may be able to talk normally, which would be nice. Lately I've been feeling a little weird being the only one speaking, Kechara can answer but not verbally.

Asuna is already asleep when I check on her, but she ate everything I gave her, Kechara is also finished eating but she is still awake. So I pull out the history book and continue reading as she follows along. After a couple of hours Kechara moves to curl up around Asuna and goes to sleep.

After putting the book away I go over and feed my power into Kechara's core. As I do I notice that her core looks like it is getting close to completing the next upgrade which will make her rank two. As I am settling down to go to sleep I remember that I never checked how my core was doing.

'Core Status!'

Core Upgrade Progress: 4%

'So for the amount of energy that would have given me one percent I instead got three percent. It is a slower process but for the amount of energy it is at least decent.'

With that settled I drop off to sleep, only to wake up a few hours later when I sense something weird. The first thing I do is look for Bones who I left on guard, but he is standing keeping watch as he should be. Looking towards him I notice the tunnel is brighter than it should be and when I turn around I can see the source.

Kechara's entire body is glowing, it is the same bright gold light that I saw when she became a sacred beast. She must be going up to rank two, I was expecting it after seeing her core but I didn't think it would happen in her sleep. Then again the energy in the core works nonstop, that is probably why it is more efficient than the way I have been doing it.

After a few minutes the glow fades away meaning the upgrade is complete, and Kechara sleeps through the whole thing. Since she doesn't have a system like I do she will have to figure out the changes on her own. It also makes me wonder, do I glow like that when I rank up?

Since I am always meditating when I rank up I have never noticed if I glow or not. Since no one was ever around when I ranked up I can't even ask someone. Not that it really matters, but I am fairly curious. If I remember next time I rank up I will summon Bones to watch me.

Going back to sleep I get a few more hours of rest before dawn and I wake up feeling fairly refreshed. Bones is still on guard, looks like nothing else happened during the night. Kechara and Asuna are still asleep which is no real surprise, but Kechara looks a little different.

She doesn't look to have grown any longer, it is more like her figure grew a bit. Her scales look thicker and more defined and her body isn't quite as lean as it was. Overall she looks more mature somehow, or at least more muscular, even her wings seem thicker.

Checking her core the energy inside is still working, as it stands it is probably enough to get her to rank three. While I am at it I check Asuna as well, her body looks to have grown a little and her core also seems a bit bigger. While I don't want to overwhelm her I figure just a little bit shouldn't hurt so I put a small ball of energy into her core.

With that done I start a fire and start cooking breakfast while I think about how I want to do things today. Scouting needs to be done, Kechara needs to find any other barriers she missed the first time. Which means she needs to check the entire mountain, we can't let the driders run around loose.

Based on the numbers we fought yesterday I am worried that even if she finds another barrier she won't be able to handle all the driders on her own. Yet if it isn't close by it would take a long time for me to get there on foot, and I also don't want to delay going to the temple. Splitting up would be the best bet but I can't seem to convince myself that Kechara will be fine on her own.

Before I can make up my mind, the food is ready, Kechara and Asuna are already awake and waiting. I continue to try and think of a plan as the three of us eat. Once we are done eating and I have cleaned up we head outside and I decide to try something I thought of before.

"Kechara, come here I want to try something."