Chapter 219 - Rest

The next day the group of four rose early though I woke up earlier and meditated till sunrise. They had a meal and then went to work, setting more traps, observation arrays, trackers, and whatnot.I just watched, silently observing it all. They left the camp and with me behind, but if one thought their things were unguarded, they would be wrong.All sorts of arrays activated as soon as they left, but then immediately became undetectable. I didn't know whether they were made to kill or just warn, but I certainly wasn't going to try to test them. That would be rude. Resources to make them were expensive.Instead, I decided to improve my silent guardian again. I deactivated Tiny and disassembled his body to expose the inner cores. I then took my collection of Spirit Metal daggers and created a forge.A telekinetically held sphere of heat with temperatures that rivaled the surface of the sun. Of course, I wrapped it all in a barrier so as to not burn down the jungle. Into that hellish flame, I tossed the daggers and melted them down. The silvery blue metal glowed white and ran smooth as water. I used my powers to shape it before cooling it down into long, thin threads and then braided them into a cable a few millimeters thick.I used the excess metal to make a sort of cage, or a box, inside which the main core sat. It was a protective shell around it, giving it the toughness to resist outside attacks. The cables were attached to it and spread like veins through Tiny's body.He lacked proper Meridians, so I made him some. Even his face and eyes got a few threads so that the next time he used the Arcane Blaze, he wouldn't nearly melt from a single shot alone. Not that he had enough energy to fire repeatedly, but just in case.The group soon returned and Gale approached."Tinkering with your golem? Wait… You made this?" He pointed at the veins spreading through the stone.[Sure did.]"The golem too?"I nodded."I thought you couldn't make a construct stronger than yourself?" Gale lifted an eyebrow.[You can't? I didn't know that.]"Well… I could be mistaken, this is not exactly my area of expertise." He said, waving his hand dismissively. "Did you have a teacher?"[Of course. My Master was great at creating golems, he had a whole army of them. What I made was just something I threw together with the materials I had. I plan to upgrade Tiny when I get better stuff.]"Tiny…" Gale looked at the golem as it activated and rose from the ground. His eyes followed its head as it rose to the height of four meters. He laughed. "It's a good name, for sure."I nodded with pride. Of course, it was. After all, I came up with it. And considering how large I wanted to make his final form, the current four-meter Tiny was, well, tiny.Gale left and went to sit beside Astarion who was meditating. Rings of light formed around him with glowing runes. I felt thin threads of Qi stretching into the jungle around him.Detection technique? Monitoring the traps? It was probably something along those lines.I ignored the outside world and focused inward, monitoring my own energy, cycling it through my body while making sure nothing would leak. I had so much to learn still. Even with millennia of second-hand experience, doing something yourself was king.My focus ran deep as my attention I tested various Qi control techniques, one after the other, and then tried combining the best parts. I barely just started when I felt someone nudge me.I slowly opened my eyes and saw it was Astarion telling me they were about to move. As it turned out, I had been in deep meditation for the entire day. Still waiting for my mind to fully return, I nodded absentmindedly and stood up, getting ready for travel.I felt like I had just awoken from a long slumber and it took me a few moments to get back to normal. Luckily waking someone from meditation was nowhere near as disruptive as interrupting a cycle of Cultivation.In no time I was back in business and after the guys packed up their camp, we were on our way. We didn't travel fast, but the ground still just disappeared beneath our feet. Half a day later, we stopped and set down another campsite.Gale notified me they were going to leave in two days and I decided to take that time to meditate again. I chose an empty spot near the edge of the camp and closed my eyes.***"Gerald… Gerald!" I felt someone calling me and shaking my body. I groaned and slowly opened my eyes.[What? Is it already time to go?] I yawned and looked at the person beside me. It was Bai shaking me."What? No. I wanted to tell you that your guardian seems to be defective."[Huh?] I jumped up fully awake, expecting to see something terrible had happened to Tiny, but he was just fine, standing beside me."Look there." Bai pointed with her finger and I saw a large beast lying dead on the floor. It was some kind of a jungle tiger about five meters long."This thing was just about to eat you when I stopped it. Your golem just stood there and did nothing."[Ah?] I slowly blinked. That was a Golden Core creature. Seventh Layer, I think. That was the reason she woke me up? [Oh, no, it's fine. I have really hard skin.]"No, you don't understand. This beast is venomous. One small wound and you'd be dead before the day is over." She said.[Yes, yes… No, I mean… It's really fine. But thank you for your concern.] I said. I couldn't blame her for overreacting. She didn't know me. [Please don't wake me up again unless its an emergency.] I yawned again and crawled into Tiny's embrace. I took a dagger and threw it on the ground. [Tiny, stay close to that dagger. Don't let it out of your sight.]I then turned to Bai. [Next time you move camp, just take that dagger with you and Tiny should follow. No need to wake me up. Oh, unless you find the monster, that I'd like to see.]I then turned around and curled into a ball in Tiny's lap, pulled my wizard hat down, and closed my eyes.***Bai stared at Gerald for a few moments and then looked at the dagger on the ground and back up at the golem."Unbelievable." She said and shook her head.She then looked at the dead Class III Storm TIger and back at the dagger. The creature might not have been all that strong for its rank, but to just ignore it…She looked at the short bluish blade again. The curiosity got the better of her and she picked up the dagger. Tiny's head moved, and as she tossed the blade from one hand to another she watched as his head followed.Then the dagger suddenly disappeared into her storage ring.Almost immediately something shifted, and a sudden surge of power descended on her. Tiny's eyes instantly powered up, glowing blazing white, ready to fire, and aimed solely at her. Those were the eyes of the ultimate predator that just found their target. It was trying to kill her.Wasting no time she jumped back, summoned the dagger, and threw it on the ground, Tiny's gaze following its movement. As the stone giant noticed the blade sticking into the soil, it stopped its assault and took a step closer, watching the dagger."Huff… What was that?" Bai touched her chest, feeling her heart beating incredibly fast, and noticed sweat was forming on her forehead.She swallowed hard and then distanced herself further from the stone guardian as Gerald slept, completely unperturbed."No wonder he's so carefree in such a dangerous place…" She murmured to herself. She might not have been as strong as her husband, having only reached the Fifth Level of Spirit Realm, but by all means, she was not weak either.Yet as the golem powered up, she still felt as if a single glance could pierce a hole straight through her. It might seem like a silly construct with its lumpy shape and funny appearance, nothing like the awe-inspiring stone sentinels that guarded the inner city, yet it felt just as dangerous, if not even more so.She shuddered at the thought of having to fight it. She would win, she was sure she would, but the price for such victory was just too high. Bai just shook her head and went to reorganize the camp to get her mind off of things.***Not long after, Astarion and Gale returned debating loudly about things, with Fen walking absentmindedly behind them.They went to the table and made some room, before placing down a detailed map of the valley."Okay, so… We're here, and we already examined this part…" Gale began, drawing with red ink across the map."This part as well." Astarion pointed. He was the one setting up all the arrays so he was more familiar with the landscape.Gale nodded. "I see. What did the report say again? We should be close, right?"Fen opened a chest that was tucked into a corner of a tent and brought out a scroll. "It says here the beast went… this way. Like that." She pointed at the map. "But the information is not current.""If it's going at a constant speed, we should see some evidence this week. If we continue moving on the outskirts like this we are bound to find something." Astarion said."What if it already left the valley? Last reports of a disturbance are months old." Fen suggested."That would be great if it was true, less headache for us." Gale smiled thinly. "But we still have to make sure it didn't turn back and head deeper into the jungle."He released a hollow laugh. "It's never easy. They wouldn't give out such generous rewards if it was. The first few groups found nothing except trouble, that's why the difficulty escalated enough to require experts like us."Astarion laughed. "Well, I don't know about that…""Oh, shut it. If we fail to find anything, the city's going to just open the valley again, assuming everything is fine. And then many people will die. And guess who's going to be blamed for it?"Astarion tsked quietly and his expression soured. "Fine, fine… It's just that this thorough search is going to take forever. I don't know how many more arrays I can set up if we keep going at such a pace. My wrist is already feeling tired."Gale rolled his eyes and ignored his melodramatic friend, going instead to find his wife."Hey, are you alright? You look pale. Well, paler than usual." He said.Bai shook her head. "I'm fine, really. It's just that…" She quickly explained what happened with the golem and the rest listened to her story with open eyes."That guy? Really?" Astarion asked incredulously.Gale pulled her into his embrace and rubbed her back. "Don't worry, you are safe with me.""Hey, Gale! Look at this!" Astarion shouted, and as the guy in question turned, he saw him dancing around with the dagger in hand, with the golem following a few steps behind. Astarion laughed and waved the blade, and Tiny moved constantly to keep it in his sight."This is fun!"A small smile formed on Fen's face as she watched her man fool around, while Gale facepalmed. Bai, on the other hand, began to laugh, all the worry on her face melting away like snow under the hot summer's sun.