As I appear in my world it feels empty, I'm alone this time, for the first time. But there's still a feeling like there's someone there, something. The Tower.
Even when I imagine myself in the plane where I first appeared with the silvery blue-green grass I still feel the presence of the Tower, it's soothing. A warmth I never felt before.
Appearing in front of the tower once more I walk inside. I walk around the gaping hole into the abyss, a gray flame hovering above it, and a single star in the sky.
The single star is the soul of that bear. Even though the others have been hunting for souls, they couldn't send it here yet without the shrine.
I walk around the abyss towards the altar. I feel like I could summon the creatures from outside, even from outside of the Haven, but I think I should put more importance in it than that. All of those the Tower brings to life are important to me.
After splitting the soul twice there were now three stars high above, a rank 2 soul and two rank 1 souls. Then the summoning began.
A bird appears before me. Standing up it reaches halfway up my shin, making it about 20cm tall. Looking at its overly large, yellow feet it looks young. It has a gray naked face with a big greenish beak ending in a rounded hook. Its feathers are mostly brown in different shades.
Even though it looks rather chubby, its black claws and sharp hook under the rounded part shows that it can defend itself.
A moment later two more similar birds appeared besides the first. These two birds have brown beaks instead of a green one.
The other biggest difference is the look in their eyes, it seems... less aware. Maybe that's the difference between a rank 1 ans 2 soul, or body. As I can't really see a difference even though I used a rank 2 template for the first with a rank 2 soul and rank 1 templates with rank 1 souls for the other two.
I turn towards the first dodo. "Walch, you shall be the leader of the dodo's. Show me what you can do as their leader. Grow strong, for them, for me, for the Haven, and for yourself!"
The already sharp look in Walch's eyes turns even sharper for a moment. "Yes! Master, I will become a great leader. I shall become the leader of the dodo's, and I will prove myself to be able to do even more!"
"Good, don't disappoint me." I pick Walch and the other two dodo's up in my arms. The other two dodo's make a bit of a pigeon sound, as they rub their heads at my arms, enjoying me picking them up.
I walk outside of the Tower, and after showing them the Tower we disappear together from this world.
Appearing in the forest again I walk towards the house once more. This time there is no hammering sound anymore and Astonax is outside, examining the black wood I brought.
"Hey Astonax! I came back earlier but you were still busy, and when going back out I found these three." Walch and the other two snap their beaks at Astonax.
"Oh, look at that! Three little dodo's, I always love their ugly little faces!" He comes closer and holds his hand out to Walch. But Walch pecks at his hand. "Ouch! They seemed so tame.."
I chuckle "Well, maybe you shouldn't call them ugly?"
Astonax scratches the back of his head. "I guess..." he turns around and walks back to the two meter long piece of wood. "You did find something decent though. It's Dalbergia... Something, not really sure about the second part. But that doesn't matter. The black wood is really hard, but normally it's encased in lighter wood, but that's gone. Probably eaten or something.
The wood normally wouldn't be used for weapons, as it can't bend really well, but I do have an idea for that... As long as you don't mind it being heavy?"
Well, I am stronger then I was before, and a heavy weapon will make my body stronger again. I think it should be okay? Otherwise I'll train as long as it takes for it to be okay! "Yes, you can make it like that! I think I will manage."
"Gosamu, have you ever sharpened a blade?" He looks at me questioningly.
"No, I haven't. Even the scythe I trained with was pretty dull." I shrug my shoulders, it isn't like I grew up in an environment where I got to do things like that.
"Then you're in luck! I'll teach you the basics, and then you can help me keep my tools sharp as I work on the staff. That wood is so hard that it dulls all my tools quicker than I can explain you how to sharpen the blade again! And like this you'll get a bit of practice in taking care of your weapon."
And like that the crash course started. He got me two different sets, a set with flat whetstones inside a wooden board for the chisels and all other straight edged tools, and a set of narrow leaf shaped stones for everything else.
The course was rather straightforward. The chisels are first grinded on the flat side until mainly the edges are like a mirror, the grindstones are smoother and smoother until the last one feels almost smooth. After the flat side is done the other side needs to be done. The only tricky part in this is to get the angle right.
For a slightly bended blade with two handles at the ends we use the leaf shaped stones. I need to grind from the middle to the edges and move the stones towards the sharp end of the blade. I quickly get the hang of this too.
After the course Astonax starts working on the staff, he uses the almost crescent shaped blade to shave off big pieces from the outer layer, slowly going towards the centre. As he does this he shows me how I can see when the blade isn't sharp enough anymore.
When the blade is sharp the cuts are smooth, when the blade is getting dull the cuts show lines in them. Every time this happens I sharpen the blade again.
Like this two hours pass, and from a crude, two meter long piece of wood a nice looking staff emerges. After sawing off the top and bottom it really looks like a staff, even though it's clearly visible that it isn't finished yet.
"Hold this for me." Astonax throws the staff at me, and I catch it. It's heavy, and slightly too thick for my hands. It feels heavier than Goba's scythe felt already. But it feels like a nice heavy.
"It's good!" I smile at Astonax, he smiles back but shakes his head at me. "You truly are inexperienced. It's too thick for your hands, and it's heavy for you already. We're still going to attach a lot of steel to it! You will barely be able to lift it off the ground."
He's right, I'm just not used to having anything nice myself. Even just this is more amazing than I ever owned. Well, besides the Haven and those fruits. "You're right, so what will you do?"
"I'll take more wood off of course! It has to fit your hands and you have to be able to swing it." I nod my head and throw the staff back at Astonax.
Like this we go back and forth a few more times, until it falls into my hand perfectly, like this it almost feels too light though, but Astonax reassures me that that is a good thing.
He starts carving out two ditches in the staff on the opposite sides. He doesn't want to tell me what this is for though. He even drills some holes in it from one ditch to the other.
After he's done we go inside, he doesn't even bat an eye on Walch and the others following closely behind me.
Vothe is already sitting on the table, looking intensely at the fairy also sitting there. I have no idea what he's thinking.
Vothe prepares some food and we have dinner. It's another vegetarian meal, it'll probably take some time before we'll get eggs from the dodos.
When the sun sets and Astonax, Voth, and the dodos go to sleep. I, on the other hand, go outside. Making sure that my presence is as hidden as possible I move through the forest, on my way to the others. Let's go see the shrine!