Arthur finally makes it back to the cave, after walking for hours, where he sees his mom pacing frantically by the entrance.
"Mom," He calls, waving his hands at her.
She rushes towards him, hugging him tightly, before speaking. "Where were you? I was worried sick."
"Well I sorta ran into a little trouble, but I'm ok, I promise." He reassures, wrapping his arms around her.
They stay like that for a while before Jane finally lets go, walking back into the cave as he follows closely behind. They sit and he starts telling her all that happened, from the goblins to the giant spider and all the way to the dire wolves. She listens with an expression of disbelief on her face.
He concludes his story and they sit silent for a moment, before he finally speaks again. "Oh, and these are the cores I got from the wolves," He says, pulling one out of his pocket.
"I see, but what does this core do?" She asks, tilting her head as she awaits a response.
"It's where the monster's aether is stored. The source of its power," He responds,
"Interesting, May I?" She asks, reaching out her.
"Sure," He agrees, handing it over to her.
She holds it, turning it from side to side to examine it. The mark on her hand suddenly starts to light up, a familiar glow, similar to when Arthur absorbs aether.
"Arthur…what's going on?" She asks, in a shaky voice, her eyes going back and forth, looking at Arthur and then at her hand.
"I think you're absorbing it," He replies, confused about the situation too. "Rex?"
[You're absolutely right, she is absorbing it. Well rather, her mark is.]
They both watch as this spectacle unfolds right before their eyes. The core slowly begins to fade as she completely absorbs it, finally it shatters into dust. They stay silent, staring at each other until Jane breaks the silence with a single word. "Explain."
"The thing is I can't really explain what just happened, because even I'm not sure," He says, pointing out the fact that he already told her all that her knows. "Need to consult Rex on this."
[It's just as you said earlier, what you saw was her mark absorbing the aether.]
"At first I thought I was the only one who could do it, but seeing that now raises a lot of questions." Arthur says, staring at his mark.
[The marks share a few similarities in a sense, but they're entirely different. The main difference being I'm the only sentient one.]
"Doesn't that mean those other mark are useless, considering they can't talk to the bearers?"
[Just because they're not sentient doesn't mean they're useless. They function in their own special way, unlike how I directly speak, you could say theirs is a little more indirect and complex.]
"What do you mean 'indirect'?" He asks, as what he's hearing seems be to be confusing him more.
[In their case, it's like the bearer gets the thought put in their head, an example being when I first guided you to this cave.]
"I remember that feeling, it was like I just knew what to do."
[However, it also has a major flaw. That flaw being it stays dormant, until an external aether source reacts to it. Meaning it's completely useless unless you absorb a certain amount of aether.]
"Then that means…," He says, slowly lifting his head and looking at Jane.
[Yes, your mom just awakened.]
He jolts in excitement, rushing towards her, kneeling and grabbing her hands as he explains everything he and Rex just talked about. He uses his third eye to check her stats.
"She's level 2 now," He thinks to himself, scrutinizing her other stats. "But her stats are pretty high for someone who just awakened."
He thinks for a moment, then takes out three more cores and hands them to her, asking her to absorb them all. He watches her as she does it, waiting in anticipation for anything to happen. Although nothing happens as the last core fades away.
"Hmm, nothing happened," He comments, getting back up and sitting. "I guess it doesn't just happen on the spot. Well something might happen eventually, but for now I think preparing to leave this place should be our top priority."
He gets up and walks out, waiting for a while before asking Rex. "How long until my channels can function again?"
[Taking into account the time you were passed out and the time it took you to get here, roughly six more hours.]
"Six hours…but I can't just sit and do nothing while time passes. I need to prepare as much as possible before tomorrow," He says, concern visibly present in his voice. "It'd be risky if I set off in my current state, because I don't know how strong the monsters out there will be."
[I understand that you're worried, but there's really not much you can do right now. I suggest you rest and let your body heal up completely or you could train in the mind palace.]
"I thought it was only possible to go there in my sleep. How do I do that in broad daylight?"
[You can visit the mind palace anytime you want, it's in your head after all. You just need to sit and meditate while visualizing it in your heard.]
He steps back into the cave, sitting and crossing his legs into a meditative position. He closes his eyes and visualizes it as he slowly starts to drift into the mind palace.
"It actually worked, I'm here," He says, looking around at the familiar environment. "I'll start by revisiting my battle against that dire wolf. I need to be able to defeat strong opponents without having to destroy my channels in the process."
[Good idea.]
Just like before, a sword appears in Arthur's hands as the terrain changes and the enemy spawns. He begins his battle, this time carefully studying every single move and trying out different ways of fighting efficiently.
Time passes as he trains and the day of the departure finally comes.
[END]
To be continued…