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Chapter 34: Rash Actions and Limits
With both Jasmine and Elijah supporting my powerless body, we managed to make our way back to the surface of the dungeon, where we fought the Elderwood Guardian. The once serene field of grass was in chaos as the floor had fissures and the trees were sunken.
“Let’s look for anyone who might’ve made it out. If not, at least a body to bury for their family.” I state, looking around at the mess around us.
Elijah shakes his head at this though. “Reginald and Brald were both frozen together with the mana beast from the last attack you used. I wasn’t close enough to save Samantha either, after she got knocked off of you and landed near the Elderwood Guardian. I conjured a metal shelter to keep her safe from the debris but I’m not sure if she made it.”
Amongst the pain of the recoil from using the second phase and worrying about Jasmine, I’m a bit ashamed to say that I didn’t really think about the rest of the party. I guess when I didn’t see anyone else in the shelter with us; I automatically assumed they didn’t make it.
“Earth’s Pulse. Scan!” Elijah kneels down and places both hands on the ground. After initiating the spell, a pulse ran throughout the whole cave and from Elijah’s facial expression, I knew he found something.
“Samantha is still alive!” Elijah muttered a spell and rectified Samantha, who was buried inside the metal shelter he set up to protect her from the debris.
A sleek metallic tent rose from the ground and opened up in front of us to reveal the sorry state that Samantha was in.
Both her legs were broken in multiple places from where the Elderwood’s tendrils grabbed her and the rest of her body was cut up and bruised. Her legs had bones sticking out and from the color the wounds were turning, it was no doubt infected.
Jasmine rushes towards her and kneels down. “Samantha, can you hear me? Everything is over. We’ll get you home. Hold on.”
Throughout the dungeon journey, Samantha, being the only other girl besides Jasmine, made numerous attempts to hold conversations with her. Her peppy personality was the exact opposite of Jasmine, but Jasmine eventually started talking to her more, even smiling at times.
Samantha’s face was pale and she was sweating profusely. I was going through my head how everyone was going to get home. Both Samantha and I were a liability that would slow down everyone.
Just as I was about to suggest that Elijah and Jasmine go back up first with Samantha, a noise makes me jump.
“ROOAAAAARR!”
“What’s going on now?” Elijah jumps too and he’s aiming his wand at wherever the noise was coming from.
‘Papa! I’m here!’
“Wait! Hold on Elijah, it’s okay!” I calm down Elijah before he can shoot off his spells.
I know that I said it’s okay, but when Sylvie lands in front of us, I have a hard time keeping calm myself.
“S-Sylv…you sure grew…a lot.” I manage to stammer out.
Sylvie, the small cat-like dragon that always sat on top of my head was now almost the spitting image of the dragon I named her after.
Her body wasn’t as big as Sylvia’s, but it was still around 8 meters long. I could now say with full confidence that Sylvie was indeed a dragon. Her scales were obsidian black, reflecting the light from the dungeon in an almost divine way. The two horns that she has are sharper and even more menacing than the titan’s horns I saw years ago. She had wings very similar to Sylvia’s, with pitch-black bladed feathers. The red spikes that she had on her back and tail weren’t there for some reason, but the scales along the ridges of her spine protruded making her appear even fiercer. Sylvie’s limbs were strong, armored with spikes at the elbow and knees and with sharp claws jutting out of her paws. Sylvie’s once adorable face was now filled with elegance and poise, from her black sclera and yellow irises; her eyes remind me of yellow jewels amidst the night sky. She lands in front of us and she brings her snout close to my face.
*Lick*
The power of her tongue licking up my face lifts me from the ground and leaves me wet with her saliva.
“OW! Sylvie careful… I’m hurt!” I weakly say on the ground.
‘Hehe sorry Papa.’ “GROOOAAAAWR”
“D-d-d-dragon…It’s a dragon!” Elijah’s in a daze now and keeps rubbing his eyes to see if he’s hallucinating, while even Jasmine, who knew that Sylv was a dragon, was slack-jawed.
“Elijah, this is my bond, Sylvie.” I reach my hand out to rub my dragon’s snout when her hind leg starts thumping the ground she coos in pleasure.
Pfft… she’s still the same Sylvie.
I face him now, putting on a serious face. “Jasmine already knows about this, but I want you to promise me to keep this a secret. The fact that you know Sylvie is a dragon means you know yourself how rare she is and what it would mean if her existence came into light.”
Elijah just nods frantically, his glasses crooked and hanging loose on his nose.
“We need to hurry though. It worked out well that Sylvie came when she did. Let’s move Samantha on Sylvie’s back.” I can now barely stand up on my own now, but walking more than a few steps was out of the question.
I watched as Elijah and Jasmine carefully loaded the still unconscious Samantha onto Sylv’s back before they helped me do the same.
It was decided that only Samantha and I would ride Sylv to the beginning cave of the dungeon while Jasmine would carry Elijah and follow close behind.
The journey back up only took a couple of hours compared to the full day we needed when we travelled down.
‘Sylv… can you still transform?’ I couldn’t help but ask on the way back up. It would be a lot harder to have her be with me if she could only stay in this form. Thankfully, it seemed that she still had the ability to change into her miniature shape.
‘What did you do during this time anyway? How did you grow up so quickly?’ I sent Sylv while lying down against her long neck.
‘I hunted a lot of monsters and ate their mana cores! I missed you a lot Papa but I felt like I had to do this when we got here.’ Her wings created another gust of wind when she flapped down, speeding up towards our destination.
It seemed like her body wasn’t able to grow without the help of consuming mana cores, which reminded me of the mana core the Elderwood Guardian dropped.
I cursed at myself. Even if I didn’t use it for myself, that would’ve been an invaluable asset to hold onto just in case.
When we arrived to the cave where the batrunners were, I was preparing myself to fight a couple of them in this crippled state, but to my surprise, when the batrunners saw Sylvie, they were so scared, they just buried their heads in the ground off in the opposite corner of the cave.
When Jasmine arrived an hour later, Sylvie’s body glowed and she shrank into the size of a kitten. Her appearance changed from before; her red spikes were gone and she was pitch black aside from the yellow slits of her irises. Her wings weren’t visible in this form and after her transformation was over, she just reminded me of a demonic black kitten.
“Cough!” Samantha stirred awake as she winced from the pain her legs gave her.
“Y-you guys all made it.” She gave us a weak smile, her lips cracking in the process.
“Stop talking, you need to save your energy. We’ll get you to a hospital soon.”
“L-look what I found~” Ignoring my nagging, she slowly reaches inside her robe and pulls out my mask and a dull green stone.
“The beast core!” Elijah looks excitedly at the item that would be worth fortunes as Samantha drops the items in my hands.
“Thank you.” I give her a smile and Samantha sinks back into sleep.
Putting on the mask, I turn to my guardian. “Jasmine, I want you and Elijah to go first to Guild Hall and get help back down here. I’ll stay here with Samantha.”
The both of them nod and head out. It’ll take them a couple more hours for them to go back there and come back. During this time, I’ll absorb the Elderwood’s beast core. With that, and the fact that I assimilated my body with Sylvia’s Will, I should be able to make more than a full recovery.
Before I start meditating, I take out the parchment I got from the Twin Horns and record a message, telling my parents that I was fine and that I’ll be coming home soon.
I sat cross-legged and took a deep breath before absorbing the mana from the Elderwood’s beast core, all the while thinking of what I should do with Lucas.
I didn’t want to just settle for petty revenge. I wanted to do something more. He was from a very powerful family of notorious mages and his blood made him have a certain amount of protection from the elves. Of course with my connections with the royal family, I don’t think it would matter much but the Wykes family that he was a part of could make things complicated.
They arrived sooner than I anticipated because after only a couple of hours of meditation, I hear the footsteps of people coming this way.
By the uniforms the people that came in were wearing, I could tell that they were the medics Jasmine and Elijah were able to bring. Among the group of medics was Kaspian, who was sending out orders to medics and a couple Guild workers.
Hiding the mana core I didn’t finish absorbing, I watched as the medics worked on Samantha. They used a mixture of herbs to anesthetize her and were pushing back the bones into the right place. The field of medicine wasn’t that advanced in this world so I wasn’t sure that they would be able to fully heal Samantha’s legs, but I was relieved when I saw an Emitter amongst them.
Kaspian walked towards me and I stood up. “Good Evening Mr. Note. I didn’t expect for us to be meeting like this. Ms. Flamesworth has told me the situation and I know how you must feel.”
“Oh do you now? Then would you kindly inform me the current location of Lucas so that I may properly respond to his actions against our party?” I say through gritted teeth. My fists were clenched by the tone Kaspian was talking in because I knew he came here for the purpose of warning me to stay away from him.
“I must advise you Mr. Note that you should not take action against Mr. Wykes…right now.” He shakes his head, confirming my assumption.
“And why not ‘right now’? My identity is a secret and I have the capability to easily erase that bug’s existence. Do you think you have the power to protect him from me?” My eyes coldly stare straight into the thin man.
“Of course I know I don’t possess the power to fight against you when you’re at your full strength Mr. Note but I assure you that I can pose a threat to you now.” He straightens his glasses. “But even if I could, I wouldn’t need to. Mr. Note, I am warning you because believe it or not, I do carry the obligation to care for you since you are affiliated with Mrs. Flamesworth, even if she is the estranged daughter of the house. The Wykes are the type of people that will carry out revenge in the most extreme manner. Assuming that you do kill their precious Lucas Wykes, I know right now, you do not possess the power to kill the whole Wykes house. Even if they don’t know your identity, that won’t stop them from killing anyone that had anything to do with you. This includes Mrs. Flamesworth and the people who she’s affiliated with, the Twin Horns. Going further than that, I believe the Wykes will further their revenge against you by going against all of the people close to the Twin Horns party, which includes Reynolds Leywin and his family.”
At that, I knew Kaspian at least had a suspicion of who I was. I don’t know how he managed to figure it out, but from his gaze, I knew that he was on to something.
“Like I said Mr. Note. I wish to be on your side. What I said about the Wykes family is all from previous events in the past so I can assure you that they will stop at nothing from wiping out anyone that had to do with you, even if it they aren’t directly related. Until the day you hold the power and authority to protect the people you care for from them, I must advise you from acting against them for now. With that, I will now take my leave. The Adventurer, Samantha, must be taken back to a facility to be properly cared for.” Giving me a curt bow, we walks away towards Samantha, leaving me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
I could only laugh at the pitiful state I was in. He was right. Until I could wipe away the whole Wykes house, it would be dangerous for my family and friends if I act against them. No matter how much of an asshole he was, it wasn’t worth risking my loved ones.
Through clenched fists, I swore to myself that Lucas would regret this day.
Elijah and Jasmine both put a sympathetic hand on my shoulder and I just nodded back at them.
We arrived in the Guild Hall located on the outskirts of the Beast Glades a couple hours later. Samantha was now resting in the recovery facility and Jasmine, Elijah and I were resting on couches in a back room. Kaspian was moved from his office in Xyrus to this place and was seated behind his desk when the door opens.
“You guys managed to make it out alive!” Behind a group of what looked like guards was Lucas.
Kaspian literally face-palms at Lucas’ audacity and eyes me to remember what we talked about.
Elijah and Jasmine both get up from their seat and stare daggers at him, unsheathing their weapons while I remain seated. It took all that I had in me to rush in and kill the brat who betrayed us and was stupid enough to come here and mock us further.
I don’t know if it was because he was stupid or confident that he dared show himself in front of us, but I knew he was somewhat weary since he had a group of pretty powerful mages as guards who also had their weapons unsheathed in defense against my two companions.
“I wonder how you managed to escape from the beast. Did you have to sacrifice someone else to save yourselves? Samantha is a cripple now and I don’t see Brald… don’t tell me you sacrificed hi…”
A high-pitched screech was emitted from the tip of my index and middle fingers as a thin beam of condensed lightning shot out at Lucas.
I got the idea for this technique from my previous world. Using electromagnetism to create a condensed laser, it was a deadly attack but it did leave my hand numb for a couple of minutes because my own body wasn’t able to handle to force needed to create it.
Before anyone could even react, the thin beam pierced through Lucas’ left ear, erasing his left earlobe completely.
Holding in the urge to groan from the shock my own body felt from even the tiny beam, I face Lucas whose smug face was nowhere to be seen. “Before I make a hole in somewhere more important, you should leave and realize that your family can’t protect you for long.”
The guards realized after seeing Lucas’ ear that I somehow attacked him and instantly had their weapons against me when I got up and stared at them.
The elite guards that were protecting Lucas instinctively took a step back as their hands started shaking from fear. They were trained veterans that have killed and knew that, right now, their lives were in danger.
“Now now! Mr. Lucas, it wasn’t wise for you to show yourself like this. Let us leave it at this.” Kaspian ushered the group out the door, heaving a big sigh before facing me.
“You’ve controlled yourself the best you could today but I’m afraid you’ve made enemies with one of the strongest houses in the Kingdom of Sapin.” He shakes his head.
“That’s fine. He won’t take action from what happened today. Despite his conceited attitude, Lucas is cautious. He knows that, right now, if he doesn’t go against me, I won’t do anything.”
I get up, Sylvie, who was next to me, stirs awake and Samantha and Elijah follow behind me. It was time to go home.
Today’s silence isn’t my weakness. It was just the beginning for my revenge.
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