After making some breakfast, Dragan took a shower and got dressed.
"We have plans today," he said still using a towel to dry his hair.
"We do?!" I asked, bamboozled.
"We need to meet with the elders, they have something they want to discuss," he said with a commanding tone. I became a little scared, having the elders speak to us about something made me nervous.
But I pushed through it anyway.
We went out the door, Dragan didn't even bother to lock it, and went down the mountain, once we arrived at the ancient ruins in the canyon of the mountain, Elder Kamika greeted us at the door. There were no more refugees. I wondered what happened to them.
"Oh, weren't there a bunch of people here just yesterday?" I asked. Kamika responded vividly.
"We've allocated them all in cheap houses in the village, we're running out of space, we won't be able to accept more any time soon, plus I need to put all those bodies to work," she said.
"It won't be long before the men are drafted into the guild of Midnight Marrbellows,"
"Midnight Marrbellows?" I asked curiously, the word guild picked my interest.
"They're second in command to the king and hold a strong relationship with Edorough and Veldoran, both major cities, so it falls down the command line for sure, but in essence, they're the ones controlling what's little left of Cronus and it's separate nations," said Elder Kamika, as we walked into the temple.
"We're here," she said, we were right in the middle of the entrance, now as daylight passed through the open cracks, I could finally see what it was, or what it had been.
This was the entrance to the temple itself, almost Victorian in its architecture, but there still was some sort of cult vibe going around. Nothing of the sort I felt with Kamika, this place though, was different.
It gave me a negative energy that I didn't know how to put into words, and at risk of offending anyone, I just held my tongue.
"We're here because you two need to know something about your powers," what about our powers?
"Has Dragan mentioned anything about fusion little slime?" asked Elder Kamika.
"He has mentioned things but hasn't explained anything about it."
"Have you fused, even by mistake?" her tone curious, yet her voice raspy.
"Nop - hasn't happened yet," said Dragan.
"All right then, let's speed this up," Elder Kamika went towards a little cabinet in the side, she pulled out some herbs and collected them all in a bowl, the herbs were neatly organized, each in its crystal jar. There were so many of them and so many colors. She mixed some herbs until it was a fine powder.
"This will help you with your fusion," she said.
"It's only temporary, and the effects are only minimal, but it'll let you experience what is it like to activate a Zomearon fusion, Z-Fusion for short," she said explaining things.
"So how does it work," I asked.
"You possess Dragan for however long you can processes being inside his body," she said.
"Yeah, I'm the one who's gonna have to do the fighting," he said flexing his right arm and putting on a big smile.
"He'll inherit your skills and magic, and any skill both of you possess, will double in its effect, now let's see," she said pushing the air, something like a hologram appeared in the air, two in fact, one for Dragan one for me.
"Stats are not bad," she said looking over.
"Dragan's level is overly low, but he has a lot of Strength and Stamina, meanwhile the slime has a good level, but very little magic and skills," said Elder Kamika, she pushed the screens away and they zipped away with a physical sound.
"You make a good pair, now time to try Z-Fusion!" she said and blew on the herbs she had mixed. As they reached us, Dragan sat down with his legs crossed. He started breathing slowly, inhaling the herbs.
I panicked a little but went with the flow.
I made myself comfortable in his lap.
I tried matching his air flow.
The herbs were like flowers against my skin, they would manage to make themselves slipper as they touched my skin, but the fragrance it produced. It was almost like we were standing in a field of flowers, far as the eye can see.
It smelled like cherry blossoms falling in the spring.
Then I could feel my body moving on its own, it started wobbling, speeding up, until finally I just exploded into a million particles. Dragan just sat there with his eyes closed. Then he took a deep breath and my whole being just sort of floated into him, entering through his nose, his mouth, his eyes, his ears, some of me even entered through his pores.
Then it was like my body was within his body. Protecting him from the inside, I could feel his blood turning blue, then the most important part of it all started happening.
My power surged through him.
Flames encapsulated his body, burning brightly.
"Woah!" I felt the heat from the flames, but they didn't burn, I was inside Dragan, not only that I had full control of his movements.
"Good - Good, it's working," said Elder Kamika.
"You can use my body this way, however you want little one, I can feel your power within me, swelling up in every fiver of my skin," he said standing up and assuming a fighting pose.
He could move his body too, but I could control it like a knee-jerk reaction. I let him take the driver's seat for now until our fusion ends. My body had literally stretched and went inside of his, I was sort of shielding him.
Like I was his aura or something.
After a couple of seconds, Sybil spoke to both of us.
>Notice!
>New Shared Skill: Fusion.
Spoke Sybil
"I wonder what they're gonna give us," he said punching both fists together, fire raging out from them, Elder Kamika just seemed unfazed. Happy the Z-Fusion had worked.
>Notice!
>New Skill acquired.
>Grave Incineration
>Transferring to sub user (Dragan)
>Complete!
"Woah, Dragan, looks like you got a new skill!"
"Thanks, little one, it's all because of you, your magic is leveling me up, just surging through my veins is enough to give me more power," he said with confidence.
"This is why the seed ritual is important, once you both share DNA, the Z-Fusion becomes a lot easier, two souls sharing one body, oh!" Elder Kamika looked at her wrist watch.
"Times up!" said Elder Kamika.
And just like that I felt heavy and sort of started weighing Dragan down, he seemed to retort in pain, went on his knees.
I could feel how much my exist was causing him to squirm. Like his whole body had fallen asleep. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.
Like before from every orifice of his body my body started coming out of him. At one point he was covered in my slime form, like a mucus coming out. He coughed and spit part of my body like mucus.
It must have felt like drowning, but he could still breathe, somehow. Elder Kamika was unaffected, but Dragan found it painfully gross.
So did I.
Maybe Fusion is something we don't necessarily want to do a lot of unless we're really in a pinch.
Finally, my whole self was out of Dragan. In an instant my pieces collected and my slime formed one whole again.
Dragan was clearly in distress, and breathing heavy.
"Are you okay?" I asked. "Never thought that would happen,"
"Yeah, I'm good, it's weird, this is the first time experiencing that, but my body seems accustomed to it,"
"You had some practice," I said smugly.
"Good - " said Elder Kamika, we looked at her like she had something else to say. Dragan now had wet and viscous hair.
"Every day for the next week you're to report here at sunrise and practice your Z-Fusion, by the end of the week I expect you to be able to stay in fusion for 24 hours straight, understood?" she said without skipping a beat.
That seemed impossible.
"That's way too soon," I said.
"We can't even properly do it right now," I blurted.
"I could feel how uncomfortable that was for Dragan," I shouted.
"It's okay little one, I'm a big boy, I can take it." he said in that deep treble.
"But -" I tried to protest again.
Elder Kamika just seemed annoyed. She sighed. And cut me off.
"Z-Fusion is important, it gives you double the magic, and double the strength, a magic and strength build can be overpowered if you know how to use it," she explained.
"Besides - I've seen Zomearon spirits fuse and un-fuse with their soul bound in less than a second." she said, there was a beat. But she continued.
"Honesty - that... Was a disgrace. Dragan even struggled to breathe," why was she suddenly grueling on me?
"You'll be joining the Military Cadets in Asasa," she said moving towards the exit.
"What!" I said. Why did she suddenly decide that for us?! She looked back at me.
"What you thought you were going to have a cozy slow life, plant some trees, smoke some grass, and have a grand old time with Dragan, having him share seed with you, over and over?!" she said almost sarcastically, attacking.
Where had this attitude come from?
"Uh - Yes?!" I actually asked. Dragan blushed. Kamika scoffed at me.
"I've trained the best Zomearon spirits in the world - most of the elves who link to a Zomearon spirit come to Tarragon in search of my knowledge. Those mofos are far too clean to use fusion properly, and those who do, end up so traumatized they never come back," she said
She looked me up and down, marking a beat in her words.
"So you're in good hands, but you'll need to start running quests for someone eventually, if you want moola, and the closest city is Asasa. You can think about joining a guild when you're level's high enough," she said just dumping that one in our laps.
"So I'm guessing the money we make on quests is supposed to make its way here?" I said annoyed.
She looked at me smugly, like a cat looking at tuna. Gold coins in her eyes.
"Astute, are your little one," she said.
"Nothing slips past you," she said looking at me with crazy eyes.
"You'll be sending twenty percent of whatever you make per quest, including the money you make from selling treasures and items you find in the wasteland," she said with a smug grin.
"Consider it payment for my one-week intense training camp," she said almost proudly.
Sounds like a scam - but do we have any other choice?!
And so that's how our one-week intense training camp started, just out of the blue.