The Kingdom Of Ivory

Feeling the power of the daggers call out to him from within the chest, Sydra leans the staff against the wall and reaches out for the chest, "Yes, these two daggers are definitely enough to trade for the Staff of Wisdom,"

Smiling, Solomon allows Sydra to take the chest from his hands before suddenly disappearing. Feeling a gust of wind blow against him, Sydra glances in the direction of where he placed the staff, only to find the wall now empty, 'I guess he really wanted to test out his experiment,'

As he places the chest into his spatial pouch, Sydra scans the room for materials that were at least at the Emperor rank, planning on leaving the rest for Lola. Other than the Monarch rank snake scales, there were seven other items in the room that was at least the Emperor rank, but none that passed the Monarch rank.

'He probably keeps those on the higher floors,' Sydra thinks as he turns to Lola, "Hey, I'm leaving the rest of this stuff to you. I really have no use for any of it, and I was thinking you could make some items for your travels,"

"Really? I can take all this stuff?" Lola asks, her eyes shining as she scans the room, "First you save my life, and then you let me take all this stuff... You wouldn't happen to have a thing for me, would you?"

"Not on your life," Sydra says, looking at Lola's childlike form, "I prefer my woman to be mature,"

Before she can respond, Sydra turns around and heads up the stairs in search of Solomon. The fifth floor is a dimly lit room full of bookshelves containing books written by Solomon himself. In the center of the room is a circular metal platform, covered in gems surrounded by countless runes. Standing on top of the platform with the staff in his hands, Solomon glances over at Sydra as he enters the room.

"Already finished with collecting my precious resources?" Solomon asks as he turns his focus back to the platform.

"Yeah, but I'm planning on leaving the rest for Lola. By the way, were you able to finish the pendant? I have to head out soon, so I was hoping it was done,"

Nodding, Solomon sets the staff into an opening in the platform and walks over to one of the bookshelves. Reaching up, Solomon pulls a small box off the shelf and hands it to Sydra, "I finished it yesterday, and added a few runes to the silver chain to keep it from breaking,"

Flipping back the top of the case, Sydra pulls out a silver chain with a purple gem dangling from its end. Putting on the pendant, Sydra watches as the shadows in the room disappear, almost as if the sun was shining in every single part of it.

Satisfied with the results, Sydra removes the pendant and looks at Solomon, "You did a good job, I could see everything in this room clearly,"

Scoffing, Solomon turns around and steps back onto the platform, "Of course I did a good job, something as trivial as making that pendant is easy to a master such as myself,"

Laughing, Sydra turns to leave but pauses as he remembers the invitation he received, "Before I go, I was curious if you have ever heard of a man named Master Arthur, or the Ashlock Ball?"

Turning around, Solomon walks over to Sydra and places his hands on both his shoulders, "Where did you hear of the Ashlock Ball?"

"Huh? I was invited to it by the guy I mentioned earlier, why?" Sydra asks, feeling Solomon tremble as he pulls his hands off of Sydra's shoulders.

"As you know, there are two continents in this world, and each one has three main kingdoms. However, there are actually many more, smaller kingdoms, that are ruled by other species. In those smaller kingdoms, there are five that have the potential to become just as strong as the ones ruled by elves or dwarves," Solomon says, summoning a book off the shelf with his wind aura.

The book's title is Kingdom's Of Phisloke, and as Solomon grasps its spine it flips to the seventh page. Handing the book to Sydra, Solomon goes back to his explanation, "Those five kingdoms are as follows, The Beast's Valley, The Thunder Nest, The Titan Drop, The Solar Palace, and lastly The Kingdom of Ivory,"

As Solomon spoke, Sydra flipped through the pages of the book, his eyes scanning over the information about the kingdoms. Reaching the page about the Kingdom of Ivory, he paused as he read through the information on the page.

"So, this is where they hold the Ashlock Ball? But why did you react the way you did?" Sydra asks, reading through the information in the book. The Ashlock Ball was a ball hosted by the ruler of the kingdom, and they used it as a way to meet with important people of other kingdoms.

"I was simply surprised that you knew about it, as the Ashlock Ball is incredibly secretive, and the only reason I know about it is because I was invited to one," Solomon says proudly as Sydra closes the book. Before handing it back to Solomon, Sydra glances at the cover, where he finds that the author of the book was Solomon.

"If you were invited to one, could you tell me about it? I'd rather not show up to a place without knowing anything," Sydra asks.

Placing the book on the shelf, Solomon goes back to his experiment, "I'm not sure how much will be the same as the time I was there, but what I can say for certain is that everyone who is invited is either incredibly strong or has a lot of influence in the world. Even high-class nobles from the Elven and Dwarven Kingdoms show up from time to time,"

"I see," Sydra says, pulling out the invitation from his pocket and rereading it, 'But if that is the case, then why was I invited?'

"Alright, I've answered your questions, so please leave, and let me get back to my experiment," Solomon says, shooing Sydra away.

Heading back down to the fourth floor, Sydra finds Lola standing in front of a pile of material, a large spatial bag in her hands. As she opens the bag, a force sucks the pile in front of her into the pouch, emptying the entire room in an instant.

"Where did you find that?" Sydra asks, starting Lola as he walks into the room. Glancing over, she sees that he is pointing to the bag in her hands.

"I found this in the corner of the room, and since you said everything in here was mine, I assumed it meant that as well," Lola says, looking guiltily down at the bag, "Was I not supposed to take it?"

"No, it's fine," Sydra says, motioning for Lola to follow him back outside the tower, "I'm going to leave now, as I have some business to attend to elsewhere,"

"Oh? Where are we going?" Lola asks, tossing her bag over her shoulder.

Turning around, Sydra pats Lola on the shoulder, "Sorry, but I'm going on my own, as it is dangerous for other people to travel with me,"

Looking at Sydra with suspicion, Lola points past his shoulder, "Oh really, then why is the Red Wisp following you?"

Glancing over his shoulder, Sydra sees the Red Wisp floating behind him, trying to act nonchalantly, "Really? Look, I'm sorry but it really is dangerous to travel with me, and the only reason I allowed you to before was out of necessity,"

Hearing this, Lola puffs out her cheeks, giving her the appearance of a child not getting her way. Before Sydra can say anything else, she walks past him, the Wisp trailing after her. Watching them go back into the tower, Sydra sighs and looks back at the archway leading out, 'Oh well. It's better this way, as I don't know when I might lose control again,'

Activating his magnetic aura, Sydra creates the silver board and leaves Solomon's Garden, using the map he took from Corbel's ship to head in the direction of the Kingdom of Ivory. Over the next fifteen days, Sydra increases his water and magnetic auras as he travels, bringing them up to C-Rank each.

Around midday of the fifteenth day, Sydra finds himself approaching a pair of ivory gate doors, several guards in detailed armor watching him closely. As he gets closer, one of the guards steps forward, his hand raised in front of Sydra's face, "Halt! This is the Kingdom of Ivory, and if you wish to enter you must show your insignia and explain your reason for visiting,"

"Ah, just one second then," Sydra says, pulling out his insignia and handing it to the guard. Pulling out a runic tablet, the guard inserts the insignia into it, and all of Sydra's detail pop up on a blue screen.

Pulling the insignia back out, the guard hands it back to Sydra, "And what is your reason for visiting?"

"Oh, I was invited to the Ashlock Ball," Sydra says, the guard's mouth dropping open as Sydra shows him the invitation.