Beetus's Return

Minos had even created a few school houses, decking them out with his Teaching Bots, giving the entire tribe a chance to learn, unlike before, where he only focused on the children.

Normally, even if one wanted to learn, they wouldn't have a chance given all the work they had to do, but with the Helpful Bot as well, people's day's were much more free.

By now, pretty much everyone had registered in different classes, learning from the Teaching Bots, creating the next generation of scholars.

Tinka, as smart as she was, also joined these classes, being the first to graduate from grade one to two, in only a month's time.

Minos had split the Teaching Bot's into 5 grades, with the fifth grade meaning one had reached enough mastery to actually put their knowledge to work.

Of course there were higher grades than that, but for now, the fifth grade was more than enough for the tribe to chew on.

Within a few years time, Minos was confident that the tribe would be filled with skillful workers, capable of further expanding the society Minos had created the bones for.

With another day drawing to a close, Minos put his puppets away before activating the cave's security and heading home.

As per usual, he found the family gathered around the table, but instead of chatting to each other, they were looking towards the Crystal Screen Minos had installed.

On the screen, a video of a few tribe members putting on a performance was playing, the family laughing as they watched.

"Hey hey, Minos, this Crystal Screen of your's is something else! I never knew something like it was possible." Ronkus said, as he noticed Minos enter the house.

"I'm glad you guys like it." Minos smiled.

"Dada!" Rinka shouted, jumping out of Tinka's arms and into Minos's.

Catching Rinka, Minos gave her a big kiss before sitting next to Tinka, who was giving him a gentle smile as she took his hand into hers.

"How was work today? Did you create anything new?" Tinka asked.

"Not today, but soon I should have everything in place to get started on solving the curse."

"Really! Great!" Tinka said ecstatically, Ronkus and Meninka also smiling joyously.

"So how was class today?" Minos asked.

"Good, those Teaching Bot's are really good at what they do, but I'd still prefer if you taught me." Tinka said playfully.

"Soon." Minos smiled.

"Speaking of classes, it seems our tribe has a few geniuses, two people having graduate grade one today alone!" Ronkus said happily.

"Oh? What skills are they learning?" Minos asked.

"Waterworks." Ronkus replied.

"Waterworks? That's quite good, but compared to Tinka's engineering course, it's much easier. It seems Tinka is a genius among geniuses." Minos laughed.

"Of course, she's my daughter after all!" Ronkus said, not losing the chance to brag.

"It's only because of Minos's teaching's that I could reach this far, so he's the greatest genius of all." Tinka smiled, as she gave Minos a kiss.

"It seems we're both geniuses." Minos said, returning the kiss.

Seeing the two so lovey dovey, Meninka couldn't help but slightly pinch Ronkus, wondering why her husband couldn't be as sweet as Minos.

"Ouch, what was that for?" Ronkus yelped, as he rubbed his sore waist.

"Hmph, blockhead!" Meninka grumbled, as she headed back to her room alone, confusing Ronkus completely.

With his wife leaving, Ronkus also said goodnight before running after her, leaving Minos, Tinka, and Rinka alone.

"Let's head to bed." Tinka said with a wink, Minos knowing her meaning clearly, giving her rear a quick slap, causing her to let out a giggle.

…

The next morning, Minos and Tinka joined the family for breakfast, before everyone went off to work, Minos using the first hour of his day teaching Rinka and the other children as he usually did.

While he could have a Teaching Bot do the job for him, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with his baby girl, so kept doing it himself.

With the lesson over, Minos was just about to head to his cave and begin a new day of work, but the signal talisman he had wrapped around his waist suddenly went off.

This was the signal talisman he had given to Beetus before he sent him off to get the materials needed for the Sun Absorber, and it was the same signal he had been waiting anxiously for.

Excited, Minos quickly found his horse which he had a tribe member take care of and jumped on, heading directly to Underwood City.

The journey back was a quick one, and without wasting any time, Minos headed directly to his home in Underwood City.

Entering inside, he found Beetus waiting patiently on the couch, a deep wound on his chest from shoulder to hip, shocking Minos.

"What happened?" Minos said, as he took a closer look at the cut, his Omniscient Eyes parsing all sorts of information from the wound alone.

"Someone found out about my purchase and tracked me down, fortunately I managed to just barely kill them." Beetus said, as he attempted to hand the spatial ring to Minos.

"Here's everything you asked for boss, arghhh! Sorry, my wound still aches." Beetus groaned, accidently dropping the spatial ring to the floor.

"You shouldn't have taken such a big risk. The spatial ring is valuable, but as my friend Beetus, you're priceless." Minos said, ignoring the spatial ring on the floor and focusing on spreading some healing paste on Beetus's wound.

"Boss…" Beetus said, his eyes welling up slightly, having never been treated so kindly by anyone other than his own mother.

"Don't cry on me big man, it's not like you." Minos laughed before continuing.

"Now bite down on this hard and try hard not to move." Minos said, proceeding to shove a piece of cloth into Beetus's mouth.

Before Beetus could even react, Minos pulled out a thread and needle and got to work sewing the gaping wound back shut.

It was fortunate he had a lot of puppet strings left over that he no longer needed now that he could create Nux strings.

Puppet strings were both incredibly strong and flexible, so after kneading them through Beetus's flesh and pulling tight, the wound slowly closed back up.

Beetus was biting incredibly hard at this point, his eyes going slightly red, fortunately the healing paste from before slightly alleviated some pain, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

After ten minutes or so of delicate work, Beetus's large wound was finally closed, a red line being the only proof that he was ever injured.

Just as Beetus let out a sigh of relief and was about to take the cloth out of his mouth, Minos stopped him.

"Not so fast, we aren't done yet. I'd recommend you close your eyes for this part." Minos said, Beetus gulping audibly, afraid of what was about to happen.

But still, he followed Minos's command and shut his eyes tightly. Seeing Beetus's eyes closed, Minos pointed his index finger towards the wound, controlling his Nux to form a small plasma ball at the tip of his finger.

While he hadn't been especially focused on enhancing his Nux control these past few months, his skill had still advanced tremendously.

Controlling the plasma ball delicately, Minos had it travel above the closed wound, cauterizing the wound and sealing it together completely.

By this point, Beetus was screaming out in anguish, spitting out the cloth, but still keeping his eyes shut firmly, not wanting to see the reality first hand.

Fortunately, Minos was incredibly swift with his work, and after only thirty seconds or so, the job was done.

"You can open your eyes now." Minos said, rubbing the wound one more time with a medical paste before stepping back.

Beetus didn't even seem to hear Minos's words, just collapsing back on the couch, letting out loud pants as his sweat soaked through the cushions.

Seeing Beetus completely knocked out of it, Minos gave him his room to rest, picking the spatial ring off of the floor and heading towards his room.

Entering his study, Minos took a seat in front of his desk before focusing his mind on the spatial ring, seeing the contents inside.

After a quick inspection, Minos confirmed that he had everything he needed, relieved that he didn't need to waste any more time.

He had been studying the Sun Absorber ever since he had sent Beetus off to get the materials, so by now, he was fully confident he could create it on his first try, not to mention his Omniscient Eyes, which pretty much made failure impossible.

Sliding the spatial ring back over his right middle finger, Minos exited the study, finding Beetus still recovering from the traumatic experience.

Seeing Beetus's condition, Minos realized he should probably invest some more time in the medical field in the future, at the very least come up with a way to suppress pain so that this didn't have to happen again.

After tossing a blanket over Beetus and putting a pillow below his head, Minos headed out to find Rubella and Zatiana, not worried about Beetus's condition since he already knew he was recovering.