A Threat Approaches

A week had passed since Ampharn had left the cave. He and his men had charged straight through the forest, towards Ohm.

Arriving in Ohm village, Ampharn waved his hand. Soon the goblin hunter arrived in front of him, kneeling.

"Search the area for clues and follow the tracks to our target." Ampharn gave his order emotionlessly as he stared at the derelict village.

"Yes, sir!" The goblin hunter pounded his chest, before running into the village to begin his analysis.

...

Around an hour later, the hunter returned, giving his report.

"The tracks have run cold, they seemed to have expected pursuers. I do know the general direction they went in though." After the report, the goblin backed up and pointed up river.

"They? So there were multiple?" Ampharn crossed his arms, as he looked at the hunter deeply.

"Yes sir, three to be exact." The goblin hunter replied with a confident smile.

"Alright, we'll follow you, so lead the way. If you find any tracks, let me know."

"Yes, sir!"

The squad gathered their things, before forming up and heading out of the village. Their target was somewhere up the river, so they made sure to keep their eyes peeled for any possible clues.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back at the tree base, Roy was currently swinging away with his hatchet hand, carving out a second floor.

With five beings living together, the base of the tree quickly got cramped, so Roy decided to convert another section into living space.

The past week had gone by in a flash, and Nocturna had quickly become accustomed to life with them.

After a few days, she had decided to stay with the group at least for a while. She was currently training her Mana Heart with the others, as Roy worked on his agility and making the second floor.

In the past week, Roy had managed to raise his agility by six more points. It was fast by other's standards, but for Roy, it was incredibly slow. He estimated originally only two months to get his agility up to snuff, before the others evolved.

'I'll need to come up with a better way of pushing myself later, maybe I can make weights or something..." Deciding to figure out the details later, Roy got back to business.

As he was carving away, Roy was humming sea shanties he remembered from Earth.

"Hmm hmm billy of tea..." Every word was a rhythmic swing of his hatchet.

"What's Roy doing up there?" Nocturna asked Solus, who was sitting on one of Roy's wooden chairs while she trained.

"Just singing, while he carves." Solus spoke, much more clear than a week prior. As a kobold, Koboldese was a much more natural way of speaking for her. This allowed her to pick it up much faster than other species. After she decided to focus more on it, rather than English, which would take far longer, Solus rapidly improved.

"What song is that?" Nocturna asked, as she found it rather catchy.

"I don't know the name, Roy just said that it falls under the 'Sea Shanty' genre. You could ask him to teach you if you want to sing along, he told me before that the more people singing it together the better it gets!"

"I'll do that! It sounds like fun!" Nocturna raced off to ask Roy, as Solus watched her back recede.

Pulling her gaze away from the cute, tiny fairy, Solus checked her status plate.

Tier:

Tier 1 (Mana Heart fully formed)

Mana Vapor: 36%

Affinities: Holy Lightning, Demonic Lightning

'After absorbing a couple more cores, I'm stuck to a slow increase now. I know I can absorb at least one more, but Roy is way too overprotective!' Solus, half seriously complaining, stood up, and decided to take a break from gathering mana.

Sitting down on the floor, she pulled out her alphabet board and began practicing the letters.

So far, she had put it to the side, but she felt that she could speak to the others well enough now. She really enjoyed practicing writing, so Solus was giddy with excitement.

"Hehehe... Just you wait, I'll shock you by showing off my incredible hand writing!" Solus proudly proclaimed, as she sat down, and began using a piece of charcoal to write on a flat wooden board.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Terren, who was at the verge of completing her Mana Heart, looked out with an exasperated expression.

'This is taking ages... It's almost done though, just a bit more. Watch me get an incredible affinity!' Terren, pumping herself up, continued the process of hollowing her Mana Core.

She was almost complete with it, as her core was now noticeably thinner. Nearly ready to accept the universal laws.

...

As the day neared its end, and the sea shanty duet had ceased, Terren finally completed her hollowing! Soon after, as she looked up, two beautiful lights began descending upon her. They danced together in harmony, almost as if they were two long lost lovers, finally meeting.

As they entered her chest, they embraced Terren's hollowed core tightly. A pain radiated throughout her body, causing her to collapse on the ground in agony. The two colors danced playfully within her core; intertwining and holding one another.

As the laws settled down, fully being absorbed into the newly formed Mana Heart, Terren fell unconscious.

Roy, Solus, and Nocturna came running in after hearing the commotion, only to see the peacefully sleeping Terren before them.

A quick check to her status, caused Roy to have a huge smile on his face. "She succeeded! Solus, hold this, I'll move her to the bed."

Taking the hand drill from Roy, Solus backed out of the way, as he carried Terren to her bed.

"What's wrong with Terren?" Nocturna asked, a worried look evident.

"Nothing, in fact it's great news! She finally completed her Mana Heart! When she wakes up, we have a lot to talk about, so let's be quiet and let her rest." Roy said quietly, as he put a finger over his mouth.

"Okay." Nocturna whispered back, giving a thumbs up, just like Roy taught her earlier in the week.

"Would you like me to make you some toys? I can make whatever you want, as long as I know what it is."

"Ohhhh! Can you make me?!" Nocturna whisper-screamed her request, making Roy chuckle lightly.

"Sure, I'll give it a try."