Walking down the hallway to his room, Sydra stopped by Erich's door and knocked on it.
"Who is it?" Erich said, muffled behind the door.
"It's me, Sydra, I stopped by to see if you had considered my offer earlier," Sydra said, as the door opened in front of him.
"Yeah, come on in," Erich said, stepping to the side and inviting Sydra in.
"Thanks, so how is the new mace working out?" Sydra asked, taking a seat on a chair in the room.
"It is amazing, I was practicing with it today and I must admit, I think this new mace will be a game-changer. Also, I was thinking about the expedition you and Robert are going on, and it sounds interesting. How long do you think it will take?" Erich asked, sitting down on his bed.
"I believe it will take around a year, maybe a little longer. I, Robert, and one other person are meeting up for lunch tomorrow. I came by to see if you wanted to join us as well, so we could discuss the expedition in more detail." Sydra said
"Yeah let's do that, where are we meeting up for lunch?" Erich asked, excited about the prospect of the adventure.
"We are meeting at the Wild Cinder Tusk when the flame tower's flame reaches the twelve mark," Sydra said assuming that was when Robert meant when he said lunchtime. "Does that work for you?" He asked Erich, who was thinking of his schedule the next day.
"Yeah, that should work out fine, I will meet you then," Erich said as he walked Sydra out of his room.
"Okay, see you tomorrow," Sydra said as he walked down to his room. Shutting the door behind, Sydra walked over to his bed and fell onto it.
"Damn, it has been such a long day. First I entered the burial chamber and came out a week later, then I insulted a blacksmith before winning her back, then I attended the auction and found a message and bought the jade bottle. Hmm, that reminds me, I should figure out what that jade bottle is." Sydra said with his face smashed into his pillow.
Entering his Arbor Sanctum, Sydra floated down and picked up the jade bottle. Opening it up, a pleasant smell entered Sydra's nose. It reminded him of a rainy night in the summer on a flowery pasture. Walking over to the tree, Sydra places the jade bottle on the ground and had a root dip its tip into it. As the root entered the liquid mixture in the bottle the tree began sprouting new branches and growing at a noticeable rate.
"What is this stuff? The last time this tree grew was seventeen years ago." Sydra said to himself. Over the past few days, Sydra's soul and the nature spirit's memories had fully derived so it now felt natural for Sydra to recall things that had happened in the nature spirits' life. His memories of life on earth and nature spirits memories were separate though, but he could still access either at any time. This allowed him to recall details of both past lives in great detail, without confusing himself.
"Is this Golden Rainbow Dew? Interesting, this stuff is rare and very expensive. If the auctioneer had told people what was inside here this bottle could have gone for a thousand or more gold. This potion has the ability of awakening a person's latent ability." Sydra said, looking up at the tree which had grown a few more feet. As Sydra watched he saw the tree releasing golden mist from the trunk that rose into the branches before collecting together. Soon clouds of golden began condensing and a rumble was heard deep within it.
'Crack' a golden lightning bolt landed on the tree and traveled down the trunk to the roots. As the lightning reached the end of the roots, Sydra felt a tingling in his veins. Glancing at his arms, he was shocked to see small lightning bolts diving in and out of them. The interesting thing was that Sydra felt a sense of familiarity coming from the little golden bolts, and it didn't hurt. Looking back up at the tree Sydra saw three more lightning bolts hitting the tree, but this time they weren't golden. The first one was light green and seemed to increase the speed of his regeneration, the second one was silvery-white and seemed to be tempering his bone manipulation, and the final one was blue and quickened the process of creating spiders. Sydra was able to tell what each lightning bolt did as he felt an increase in the power level. After all these lightning bolts hit the tree, the golden cloud started to disperse back into the tree.
'CRACK!!' As the last bit of cloud disappeared, a crack of black lightning much louder than the previous four struck the tree, this time leaving a deep gash on the tree.
"Ahh!" Sydra screamed as he felt a searing pain run down his back causing him to fall to the ground. The pain only lasted for a few seconds before fading away, and he felt a surge of power flowing deep within his body. Standing back up, Sydra decided to see what the black lightning had affected. Sensing the aura of the powers he already wielded, Sydra didn't find any changes within them except for the three powers that had been upgraded by the three strikes of lightning. Confused, he decided to check the tree directly. Placing his hand on the bark that had been scarred by the black lightning, Sydra sent his will into the tree. This acted as a set of eyes that allowed him to view the inside of the tree and what he saw was shocking.
A sphere of golden lightning and another one of black lightning were revolving around each other at incredible speeds, and as he watched them they began to merge. A few seconds passed before they had fully merged and created a sphere the same color as Ashgold, before the sphere exploded and dispersed throughout the entire tree. Leaving the tree Sydra summoned the golden lightning in his arms again, except this time it was Ashgold lightning and gave off a very dangerous aura.
"I wonder what I can do with this..." Sydra said, walking over to the side the island and looking down at the planet beneath him. Spotting a place that looked devoid of all life, Sydra pointed his hand towards it and willed the lightning to strike there.
'Boom!' A large bolt of Ashgold lightning left his fingers and fired down at the ground beneath him. A large mushroom of magma from the melted ground erupted into the air and washed over a five mile radius. As all the magma calmed down, Sydra was surprised by the mile wide crater that had formed. Out of energy, Sydra landed on his butt and gazed blankly at the crater.
"That was the power of someone who is at S-rank, but I am only at D-rank... Damn, if I gain more experience with this power just what kind of damage can I do with it when I reach S-rank? Sadly, that one bolt took all of my aura, so at the moment it is only a one-time shot. A trump card of sorts, if you think about it. I should be able to do other things with this power though, like increasing my agility, of sending the lightning into my daggers to give them more power." Sydra thought of all the possibilities have the power to control lightning could bring him. Standing back up, Sydra decided to check on one more thing before leaving his Arbor Sanctum.
"I still have no idea what this ring stuck on my finger does, but maybe if I study the crown that was with it I will have a better idea." He said as he opened the safe that held the crown and hesitantly picked it up. Luckily it didn't immediately fasten itself to his head, so Sydra was free to flip it around and inspect it for a bit. Seeing nothing wrong, he decided to try it on. Placing it on his head, the crown seemed to fit perfectly, almost as if it had been crafted directly for him.
Strolling over to a pile of items Sydra didn't sell at the auction, he found a mirror and looked at himself. The Ashgold crown was perched on top of his white hair and gave Sydra the appearance of being royalty. It complimented his already regal features and if others were to look at him they would feel a sense of pressure that only true royalty could give off.
Putting the mirror back down and taking off the crown, Sydra looked back at the gem on the front. Peering into the storm that swirled within, he thought he caught a glimpse of someone peering back out from the storm of red and purple lightning. Looking closer the person seemed to disappear, and Sydra could no longer see them.
"Who was that, I'm sure I saw someone deep within there?" Sydra muttered as he put the crown back in the safe and closed it. After placing the safe next to his dragon staff, Sydra left the Arbor Sanctum and immediately fell into a deep sleep.