Chapter 12: preparation.
Alabaster woke up flying...
FLYING?
Yes, flying.
The sunny boy was able to levitate the man of alabaster a being more than 300 percent his mass, sending him fluttering, flying, like a turd rolling in the wind.
The boy was a genius among geniuses, he had made this fact well known by now.
Alabaster was no featherweight he wouldn't even be in mid-weight he was around 120 kgs of Pure Muscle! compared to this 4kg blob of baby he was Goliath.
Alabaster and all his other ornate decorations collectively weighed a ton!
Yet, they flurried around the room like bubbles encased in a sunny yellow, the man did not wish to have a repeat of Lego laughter if the bubble were to pop.
Alabaster quickly released his macabre crimson aura, releasing him and his ornate decorations from the bright-colored clutches. Shattering the light sunny mana that encapsulated his body.
Alabaster used his newfound ability in magic to return his abnormal decor to their respective places, a skill he sought to learn after to previous explosion debacle.
Before giving the boy a good morning lecture on why he shouldn't randomly send him or the decorations flying first thing in the morning.
But it seemed rather pointless considering it came in one ear and out the other as evidenced by the boy's innocent blank stare.
Oddly enough, the surprise good morning didn't trouble the man all too much,
Considering it had been three weeks since the eventful play date around the fiord.
During each of these three weeks, the boy would levitate more and more objects until today when he made an aircraft out of Alabaster.
Thanks to many regretful situations, where our dear baby Houdini got himself in danger and some deep shower thoughts later, major changes occurred in the sunny boy's daily routine.
The most prominent change is the boy's education in preparation for the journey.
Since he was already so adept in his understanding and could form words and broken sentences showing the basics of communication.
Alabaster had thought to instill some basic rules.
including the fundamentals of common sense.
like falling from cliffs can kill you, wolves can kill you, swords can kill you, and people can kill you, and so on can kill you!
A lot can kill you!
However, unlike usual, the boy seemed to heed this desperate plea for common sense as he now refused to approach the cliff edge.
Alabaster had also invested his time deep cleaning the elaborate labyrinth that he calls a library.
To start with the man mounted many of his sharp, murderous, mysterious, and frankly dangerous weaponry high up on the walls of the labyrinth out of the sunny boy's sight and far from his small baby clutches.
Ensuring they were tightly mounted. He painstakingly had each mount covered in a rather clumsy-looking array of anti-magic runes, to prevent this world's first sun-glowing missile.
Many times, whilst cleaning the man would freeze in a state of reminiscence.
These weapons were all different unique, tailored, and crafted.
Each had their sense of individually letting off their auras with a similar density to the monster wolf the man had slain.
some were even more overbearing.
Such weaponry was rare. To have so many was a luxury.
The man then held his breath, looking upon a crate that was wrapped in layers of monster hide and chains, covered in runes so complex and detailed one could mistake it for art.
He opened the crate to reveal one exceptionally lengthy black sword, that dwarfed Alabaster who tightly grasped it in his hand as though it weighed nothing.
Its design was not intricate, nor was it detailed, but it felt sinister and dark.
The sword was alive as if it was breathing letting out a scorching heat, clouded in darkness it practically wailed screeched, and howled as though it was haunted by phantoms.
It was a weapon that feasted on the blood of many. The stench of death was so potent, the metallic odor of blood screamed hollowing cries, from its razor edge.
The cries were desperate ear-bleeding shrieks, yet these weren't cries of help.
they screamed for forgiveness.
This horrible gut-wrenching stomach-turning sight left the man softly smiling.
His face appeared angelic as he gazed warmly at the blade.
The man placed this one the highest of all.
The man went back to work.
He dusted the infinite shelves, cleaned the indefinite amounts of amours, polished many monsters' remains, moped and waxed the red-tinted beechwood floors, and organized the countless books, chests, vials, and jars, taking hours of his day.
It took him two and a half days to finally finish, baby-proofing his library.
The man was exhausted, puckered, finished, and famished.
At least he didn't have to witness to any more surprise shows of baby Hoodini's disappearing acts, from this most marvelous magic baby.
For the time being, his focus was preparing the sunny boy for an adventure.
But first having the boy learn stranger danger, stealing bad all that minor stuff was pretty important.
It is best to be well-informed about these mannerisms before a stealthy journey, especially when they leave the empire.
To prevent any further issues along their journey, Alabaster continued to practice magic despite how much it troubled him haunting his once-sweet dreams.
He had now become rather adept in runes.
Alabaster had been practicing barrier runes quite rigorously.
He was now confident in his ability and began to work on the Fenrir's core, carefully carving the defensive runes.
The man also practiced regular elemental magic, he was now the self-proclaimed master of flames.
In actuality, he started to use other elements besides fire, though he wasn't too enthusiastic about it.
The man found he had a good affinity with Darkness.
Despite the affinity with Darkness, he was still more in tune with fire (or so he believes.)
However, through his exploration, he discovered his horrendous lack of affinity with water, especially condensing it to ice, ironic considering he lives in an ice-covered wasteland.
Undoubtedly, the biggest struggle came in the form of reading the condescending comments made by that weird pervert of a wizard.
To make it worse, the pervy wizard had already caught on to this possible lack of affinity. Unfortunately for Alabaster Arum was not planning on letting an opportunity for insult to injury slide.
The man could swear his insomnia was caused by that pesky perv.
However, one could not tell of the man's deceased slumber, given his energetic days with the sunny boy, or the observation that he hadn't changed in his appearance in the slightest.
It had been 2 months since the boy arrived.
which means the boy was now officially 7 months old!
For most children, this would include getting the milestones of sitting up and growing teeth, maybe even standing but our little sunny boy fast passed that.
The man had predicted he would grow more in magic quantity, not necessarily quality.
Not because the boy's mana was bad quality. He believed this because it was already of the highest quality.
However, in terms of physical and mental development, of the sunny boy.
Alabaster was left with an answerless riddle.
he had no idea what to expect.
He was like a headless chicken, he didn't even know what he was looking for.
There was no way to truly know what was to happen, or how to set his milestones of development without knowing his species.
The man had been with the boy for over a month and still hadn't deciphered the biggest dilemma.
What in the world is this boy?
The man had been searching his library for that very answer.
But no recorded infant from the species he read about matched the boy's rapid growth at all!
This did, however, highlight the potential that this boy is from an undocumented species.
leaving five possible options.
1. He is a new unheard-of half-breed.
2. He's a mutated version of a regular species.
3. He is a dragon.
4. He is a monster.
5. None of the above. (something we don't know about yet)
The man spared no time, removing the potential possibility of the boy being a monster from the list.
None of these bizarre options helped.
They all had their major cons.
Such as being extremely isolated rare dangerous and so on. which means they often don't belong to nations or are outcasted. But this boy had a nation.
It was now clear, during his extended stay at the tundra of the north the books he had been reading were all outdated.
"Well, this is going to take a while" sighed the man.
....
A while it did not take for him, to give up.
He just used the fastest species mile stone he could find and halved the time, which was...
Surprisingly effective?
These three weeks felt like years but he seemed to have sorted all the preparation he needed. The boy was now ready.
Alabaster looked at the boy, who was now standing holding onto the table.
He gave a proud look at the boy, who returned it with an innocent sharp smile.
Alabaster sat down stretching his shoulder relived yet he was not done.
What was he to bring given the convenience of the item rings he did not have to worry about the boy or expenses rather what weapon shall he bring?
Alabaster pondered eventually deciding to keep his daily use sword with his as it didn't protrude an aura and to keep a spear in an item ring then he paused.
"I guess I should bring that sword just in case." referring to the sword he had placed earlier today.
Pleased with the preparation alabaster smiled.
"Alright preparations are complete. It is time to make a plan and get the hell out of here!"
Chapter 13 fin.