Chapter 24

Neil Pov:

Once Zion is good and distracted I form my body at the entrance, and prepare myself for my first step outside the dungeon during the day. As I form, I take in once again how beautiful this world is. The sky is a magnificent blue, clouds ranging from pure white to lilac with light blue in between. The river underneath my feet is marvelingly clear and the grass that seems to glow with vitality. But nature isn't what I'm here for, I'm looking for something that will cheer Zion up. For that, I'm going to see if I can grab maybe a book on magic language or something similar, seeing as how much Zion loves playing around with magic, especially in written form.

Now formed, I step forward and truly exit the dungeon. Though I don't get far as I'm stopped by a pale girl, a few years older than I was.

"Are you the dungeon Host?"

"Yeah, one of them. Why?"

"Good enough, I just wanted to let you know that if you do anything to my LiLi, I will personally bring your beautiful feat of construction down on your head." The girl says looking deadly serious

I raise my hands in surrender, "I wasn't planning to… but let's start over I'm Neil. Nice to meet you."

"Name's Mara Atailan, nice to meet you too. May I ask why you are exiting the dungeon?"

"Yep, I'm just looking for something magic related, preferably a book on written magic. Oh, and thank you for the complement it took me a long time just getting the stupid carvings right, real plants are so much easier to shape."

"Written magic huh… Oh, I think I brought a book like that along, stay right there." With that Mara dashes off.

If she's doing that for me, I should make her a gift. She didn't have to do it after all. I use my mana and create 6 flowers. "First red… then orange… yellow… green… blue… purple… Done!" I smile to myself as I look at the flower crown in my hands. Although it's not really payment it's something, eventually I'll make her something propper to pay her back for this. A few minutes later she comes dashing back.

Zion Pov:

I have finally managed to finish off Sen and Rashid's requests. While I'm resting in my core, a human form Neil comes and gives my core a light knock. Wondering what's going on I enter my host body, forming it just to the left of Neil. He quickly turns to me and with a smile says,

"I've noticed you've been a little down lately, so I got you a gift,"

First he opens his hand that knocked on my core, revealing a slip of paper. Gently blowing on it, hundreds of tiny dots of glowing mana now surround me like a starry sky gently floating down. Then he brings his other hand out from behind his back, his smile widening. In his hand is a book and on the cover are singular little bytes of magic code.

"I hope you like it!" Neil says with the most brilliant smile.

Unable to help myself I break into a large grin. It's been a long time since I received a gift, especially one so thoughtful.