As Rastel looked through his stats, he realized a very hidden abnormality, one he would have probably not really noticed if he didn't pay much attention to it.
His mana was draining away at a really slow rate.
Because his mentality stat was relatively high granting him a boost in mana regenerative abilities, the drain was barely noticeable, negligible even.
'Why is this though?' he carefully thought through all his abilities and skills to determine where the problem came from. But only one came out really suspicious to him.
He went through his inventory and brought out Amba's core and stared at its smooth round surface. Amba was the only thing he had on him that seemed to be able to draw on his mana with his own will. The golem had previously emerged from his inventory when he was at a near death situation and without Rastel willing him to.
As Rastel stared in though for a moment, the core suddenly glowed with a faint white light as all of a sudden, a head popped out. Soon, it was accompanied by short limbs and a small body with the core at its center, it looked exactly like how Rastel first saw it when he entered the immortal's cave.
"Amba!?" Rastel was surprised at the transformation. He had never thought that Amba could possibly take this form by its own will.
Amba grunted and waved his short arms as he stood on Rastel's palm. He looked around with his miniature face that looked weirdly cute now before jumping onto the seat beside Rastel and sat down.
Rastel just looked at him in shock as he moved around, the 2 meter tall and god knows how heavy golem was now tiny sized and casually sitting atop the cart.
Amba kept his hands on his legs and shook his legs a bit before staring back at Rastel and then tilting his head in a quizzical manner to ask what the problem was.
Rastel's mouth was just about to hang open when he suddenly decided to compose himself and lean back into the seat. He sat like that facing forward for a few seconds with Amba sitting quietly beside him.
"You were taking some of my mana to recover?" he asked after a while of thinking it through.
Amba nodded his head casually like it wasn't a serious matter.
Rastel's eyes fell into silts at this point. "So, are you fully recovered now?"
This time, the golem shook his head solemnly as if he had been greatly wronged by life.
'Then what is this scam?' Rastel was perplexed.
"Then are you at least stronger now?" he was feeling like he was really conned.
Amba looked up at Rastel this time indignantly before he shook his hands around while telling Rastel through the link that he had always been strong.
"The hell do you mean by you have always been strong? You are a scam! That is what you are!" Rastel yelled at the tiny golem.
Amba stood up from his sitting position and stared Rastel up before making some weird gesture that Rastel was sure was very rude and then proceeding to ignore him and jump into the folds of the cart behind.
"Hey come back here! We're not done talking!" Rastel had never seen such shamelessness coming from something so tiny.
Amba had not informed him that he would be needing mana to recover. If he had lacked his high INT and MEN stats, the him at this stage would have been running around a crippled mage.
With no mana to cast spells or even use golems, he would have been really left defenseless! It was good he had noticed on time, if the mana expenses of Amba suddenly increased without his knowledge and he went into battle, he would have died without knowing the cause.
Amba ignored him totally and entered the cart. Not long afterwards, he heard a small shriek come out from inside.
"Hyaaa!!! You are so cute! Amba!? I never knew you could be this cute!!"
"Hey, young miss, I thought you were supposed to be 'sleeping'?"
"I swear on the white moon I have never seen anything so cute!"
"Hey, young lady, I thought you were supposed to be 'very tired'?"
"Come let me hug you Amba! No wait, let's play!"
"Young lady, hey, I thought you were supposed to be 'low on mana and can't move much'?"
Myra came out a few seconds later holding Amba in her arms before sitting down happily beside Rastel. She took her time playing with Amba while Rastel just kept controlling the cart with a deadpan face.
Amba looked at Rastel with a smug face as if saying 'Do you want to beat me up? I dare you to try. Can't you see how loved I am?'
Sensing his intentions through the link, Rastel gritted his teeth and allowed the matter to rest temporarily.
The journey continued on uneventfully from then. Apart from taking a few breaks to eat and rest, they didn't stop till it reached the evening of the day. At this point, Rastel started seeing traces of human activities around the forest.
Not knowing what was up ahead, he decided to stop the cart by the roadside and hide it in some shrubbery while using branches and leaves to give it a rough camouflage.
He then walked along side Myra who held Amba in her hands who had refused to go back into the inventory. Not wanting to upset Myra, Rastel allowed him but on the condition that Amba didn't expose his status as a golem and behaved like a doll instead.
They didn't have to walk for long before they met a woman by the roadside. The woman didn't look older than 30 and looked like a typical citizen of Gorm with brown hair tied into a bun and light brown eyes. She wore a dirty brown long sleeved dress with what looked like hunting boots and held a basket filled with random herbs. Although her skin looked a bit tanned maybe because of constant field work and she had bags under her eyes, she had a refreshing face and an aura of youth around her.
This made her looked rather dashing and attractive and Rastel probably wouldn't have hesitated to send her a warm greeting if it wasn't for the chilling cold look on her face. She stood up from her initial kneeling position and looked at them passing by with a glint of curiosity in her eye.
They looked like an odd pair, a muan with black hair and green eyes in hunting gear and a girl wearing a black dress with shiny black hair tied in a ponytail and bright blue eyes who was also holding a weird doll in her arms.
Rastel awkwardly waved at her with a weird smile while Myra looked on with scared eyes. She stared at him for a while before gently nodding back and continuing with her work.
"Well that was really awkward" Rastel muttered under his breath.
Myra nodded her head vigorously as she agreed.
Not long after, the saw a settlement. It wasn't much, just a few houses banded together with no walls or any visible form of protection. There were a few people walking around the settlement going about their business and not surprisingly, there wasn't a single player in sight.
'Most players won't settle in such a place anyway. There won't be much missions to be had and they would all be low rated with minimal rewards.' Rastel sighed in his mind.
The people seemed rather friendly enough and after asking a man who sported a small goatee, they arrived at the small inn that the settlement had. Most settlements were usually made around inns which had established themselves there to accommodate passing by travelers and adventurers.
The inn was run by a skinny old man who had a nasty attitude. He looked at the company with an accusing glare before rudely asking them what they wanted.
Rastel, unperturbed by his character asked for a single room for two nights. He payed the man the fees and without any hesitation, marched away into the directed room while pulling Myra in tow.
"What a scary old man" Myra heaved a sigh of relief as they reached the room. She was holding her breath when they were in the presence of the old man as she found him to be very intimidating.
"Don't mind the old bastard" Rastel chuckled as he brought out some sheets he found in the room's cupboard and spread it on the floor.
"Here, you take the bed, I need to go to sleep for a while" he pointed at the small bed that stood in the corner of the small room.
"I might be gone for a while so stay in the room and don't wander off. And if you do need to go out, take Amba with you." He added before looking at the golem who was still pretending to be a doll.
"Hey Amba! There is no one here you know!?" Rastel glared at the golem, they still needed to have a discussion.
The golem mechanically turned his head before raising one of his arms and giving Rastel a thumbs up.
'Damn this guy!' Rastel muttered under his breath as he brought out some of the food he had taken from the cart out of his inventory which included some of the dried meats, bread, a few fruits that he couldn't really recognize and two bottles of sweet cider.
"Here's some food and take a few kryts in case you need to get something. I should be bac…. I mean awake by tomorrow and then we will continue our journey, okay?" Rastel patted her head after giving her a few kryts.
Myra looked up at him before nodding her head.
"Okay, I'll be going to sleep now. You go to sleep too, we will continue our journey tomorrow." Rastel added one last time before laying down on the sheets and logging off once he confirmed that Myra had gotten into bed still holding onto Amba.
In his bedroom, Reo's eyes opened as he was logged out. He took off the SVN and sighed a bit before decidedly closing his eyes and getting some real sleep. It was around midnight and the weekend was over. There would be school tomorrow, he wasn't in the mood to go late and face some unnecessary nagging.