It took five days before Yuriko returned to Herrera City, her backpack filled with Elemental Beast cores. Five days in the Sandsea Conflux had not been the adventure she expected. Yuriko landed on the outskirts of the city, sheltered from direct sight from behind sand dunes.
The Conflux had not been that different from those she'd been to before, but the distinction was mostly in what shape the Elementals took. There, they were giant golems made of sand, burrowing worms that grew to the size of a building, or mimicked the sandsharks that harried the caravan in the desert. All of them had Elemental cores that had to be removed from their main body and damaged in one form or another otherwise, the Elementals would recover. There was a way to preserve the core—essentially capturing the Elemental for use—but that required specialised containers that were just a bother to keep. A captured Elemental core was probably a hundred times more expensive than a damaged one, but she would be limited in the number she could take. Besides, it would just waste time. If the Elementals weren't as numerous as they were, then she might have considered it.
Besides, she didn't take any containers to begin with, and she was too lazy to go back to the city for them. Also, it was only because Gwendith talked about it during their daily communications that she found out about that option.
For most of those five days, she simply hunted. She acted as bait, too, especially when she detected droves of sand sharks underneath the desert sea. All she had to do was stand on the ground, in the shadow of the dunes, and they attacked.
The sand shark Elemental cores, which were actually an odd mix of Elemental and beast, the difference being mostly of shape, at least to her eye, might not be worth as much as a pure Elemental core. She didn't disdain collecting them as every sand shark attack consisted of at least two individual beasts, whereas the hunt for Sand Elementals took a bit longer.
She'd hunted using her Radiant Flying Swords more often than not, but a message from Heron asking her to spar—on the training field, not in the bedroom—when she had the chance, reminded her that she hadn't been honing her melee skills. Her Ennoia didn't help her as much close quarters combat, she realised after she spent some time meditating won it. The basics were the same, but it wasn't as if she could rotate her wrists completely around when she wielded her sunblades.
There was a disconnect between her melee skill and her Ennoia that she had not realised was there and she pondered on what to do about it. She could as easily control her sunblades close to her body as she could far away from them. She wasn't, by any means, immune to the edge of her blades, but her condensed aura mitigated most of the danger, plus, reabsorbing the infused Radiant energy was quick and easy. So fighting without holding her sunblades satisfied the Ennoia's requirements, while also serving as her close quarters attack and defence. She could also compact the sunblades to the size of her old sunshards, and it would make any manoeuvre simpler. It was ostentatious as the Abyss, however, and would ruin the point of being inconspicuous.
But then again, did it really matter if she stood out? As it was, it wouldn't take more than a few hours to get the golds they needed to open the Gate, even if they didn't have all the reagents. The tears distilled from joy and sorrow were actually sold in the plaza, along with every other reagent. They were expensive, too, since only the rich natives or wealthy travellers could afford the Gate. But it would save her group from looking for the reagents. Time saved.
And…she couldn't help but admit that trying to be inconspicuous, even controlling her Mien so she didn't create connections, was painful. Not immediately, but the prolonged suppression was similar to holding her breath. She could do it, but not for long. Well, comparatively. The time they spent travelling, nearly a dozen days, had been her limit. Part of the reason why she stayed in the Conflux for so long was to take a nice, long breather. Well, now she had an itch only her lovers could scratch and it was maddening.
Why? she groaned in lament.
Before she and Gwen made love, she'd not been aware of such needs. And before the three of them had done it, the need had been easily manageable. Now, it wasn't. Five days without either of her lovers had made her irritable and antsy, as if her body, her mind, and her Anima, craved the heights of pleasure, of the intimate contact, and the long hours of cuddling afterwards. She would have succumbed faster, would have been back three days ago if not one thing she quickly noticed.
Her Will was being honed.
Better and faster than assimilating with Damien's memories, odd as that seemed. She had no real way of measuring her Will as opposed to her Intent, which she did by counting how many sunblades she could control without depleting her Intent. But she could compare, and right now, her Will was stronger than her Intent, but only by a small margin.
A memory unfolded and revealed that Will and Intent should be kept in balance, though minor variations were fine. The way she balanced her body, mind, and Anima encouraged her to keep that same balance with the two mental aspects though.
But she was coming close to the breaking point and she knew instinctively that if she pushed too hard, the results would be detrimental, and all progress she made would be reversed. She might come close to her third incarnation if she didn't relieve the pressure.
She received a Sending spell a few days ago on their new place of residence, so she hurriedly made her way there. As she made her way back into the city, heading directly to the Green Light District and the Adventurers' Guild hall, she sent a message spell to Gwen and Heron. 'I'm heading back. Spend time with me tonight?'
She received an enthusiastic yes from both of them five minutes later, just as she entered the outskirts. She hurried to the guildhall, and once she was inside, went to the receptionist's counter.
"Hello. I've got some Elemental cores to exchange," Yuriko said pleasantly at the young man, who looked more than a bit attractive with his carefully styled hair and cute smile.
"Oh! Ah, yes, please bring them over here." The receptionist's flush was visible even through his tanned skin, and his fluster was somewhat amusing. Ah, her hood was just framing her face now, instead of covering it. She had let loose in the countryside and was no longer repressing her Mien from forming connections. Well, there was little need for it as long as the boy didn't turn into a thrall.
He moved over to another counter which had a lower surface. He bumped the other guy on it with his hip and said, "Please put the cores here," enthusiastically.
Yuriko quickly went through the somatic components for a telekinetic hand to mask her Animakinesis, then scooped out the cores she gathered in her backpack. She placed them neatly in piles, identical cores in each stack, while the disparate and misshapen ones were put around the edge. There were roughly a thousand cores all told, and the boy's eyes widened in awe.
"That's…that's a lot!"
"I've been hunting for a while," Yuriko admitted.
"You don't look like you did," he said casually as he placed each core on a scale, then recorded the results. "Ah, I don't mean I don't believe you!"
"No matter," Yuriko said casually as she leaned back. "How much do I get for each one anyway?"
"These," he held out one of the Elemental cores from a Sand Elemental, "look great! Fifteen gold coins for it. These ones," he pointed at the misshapen cores from a sand shark, "a silver coin. Uh, maybe." He put it on the scale, and though it was bigger than the Elemental core, the number on the scale was lower. "Half a silver."
"Well, please tally them all up," Yuriko said politely.
"With pleasure."
It took half an hour, but the total tally came up to nine thousand six hundred gold coins and twenty-seven silvers. The receptionist deducted a ten percent fee for guild processing and taxes, and gave her eighty-six gold ingots—each worth a hundred gold coins—forty actual gold coins, and twenty four silvers and a bunch of copper pence Yuriko didn't bother counting.
"Thank you for your service!" the boy said while winking at her.
"Yes, thanks," Yuriko smirked before she waved goodbye. She heard the boy huff and sigh, clearly wanting more than a bit of flirting. Well, he was cute, but she didn't even bother asking for his name. They were leaving tomorrow, hopefully.
When she arrived at her group's residence, she dropped off the gold in Ryoko's capable hands, took a change of clothes, and headed to the public bathhouse. It was the only place to bathe with real water instead of the steam and scrape system they used while travelling. She wasn't all that sweaty, but she'd like to relax.
Entry was only five copper pence, soap and bath oils were an extra fifteen. She didn't buy them since all she wanted was to soak. That the baths were for mixed bathing didn't bother her as much, not after everything she'd been through, though thankfully, the changing rooms were segregated.
She kept an eye on her locker while she sluiced off what dust she allowed to settle on her feet, then went into the lukewarm pool to relax. It was close to an hour later that she returned home.
"We've got everything but the Gold Essence," Gwendith said. "You planned to make that yourself, right."
"Yup." Yuriko grinned, her eyes and Anima roamed across Gwendith's body. Her lover noticed and her cheeks heated up in anticipation. Heron was in the kitchen, helping Ryoko with dinner.
Creating Gold Essence was simple enough, she simply melted the ten gold coins she put aside a few days ago and used her Radiant energy instead of a fire. Gwendith controlled the ambient temperature to prevent the living room from getting too hot and a few minutes later, it was done.
"We're leaving tomorrow," Yuriko said.
"Agreed."
After dinner, she dragged Heron and Gwendith upstairs to her room. Well, a room since she didn't know which one was hers. It took half the night before she was satisfied, and spent the rest of that night being cuddled on both sides.
The next morning, they headed directly to the Portal Gate Plaza. She let Gwendith handle the transactions, but the majority of the funds she earned went to the transfer fee. She overheard Gwendith haggling over Fluffington since the attendant wanted to charge full price for the pupper, but Gwendith convinced her otherwise. They were soon allowed to the portal and the reagents were deposited into the intake funnel. Then, her beloved took out the Tower Entry Token which activated almost as soon as Gwendith's hand held it out.
Yuriko felt something touching her Anima, less an intrusion and more a marker. She reasoned it was from the token, and accepted the marking. She felt it create and deposit a convoluted looking runescript sigil within her Anima. It pressed up against her skin, on her tummy, just underneath her navel. It flared for a moment, before disappearing from normal sight.
A moment later, the Gate became active. Rings made of greyish metal floated off the baseplate and rotated around the central ring, spinning around faster and faster until the very air hummed and sparked in response.
The space between the main ring rippled and warped, then there was only darkness in between. A moment later, the black faded into grey, and it was time to cross. The six of them held each other's hands, and Yuriko grabbed a handful of Fluffington's fur. Then they took the step into the portal, and emerged fifty thousand leagues away.