True Heart

Bruno, now Brune slowly but surely grew each day. 

Finally reaching the one-year mark, Brune could now walk independently and speak. 

Thinking about how weird it would be for a baby to start speaking complete sentences immediately, he limited his sentences to only a few words. 

( Creak! ) 

In the middle of the night, the door of Clover's house opens. 

A miniature shadow was cast on the ground as the moonlight shined down on Brune. 

Sneakily closing the door, he slowly makes his way to the port. 

Stopping before the biggest tree, "Welp, here we go." said Brune. 

Using his newly found power, he slowly floated up until he got to the top of the tree. 

( Cushhhh! ) 

Landing on one of the branches, Brune quickly finds one of the pouches he tied up on one of the branches. 

"Another one to the saving," said Brune as he placed a copper coin into the pouch. 

The pouch contained two gold coins, three silver coins, and forty-one copper coins. After "borrowing" nine copper coins from the Cards, it didn't feel right as they were now his family. That's what Brune thought but that thought was just an excuse he thought of in his head. The real reason why he stopped stealing from the Cards is because if he kept stashing coins under the drawer it would become noticeable later on. 

So on the rare days he got to go out with Alina or the whole family to the market square, he would float the coins the vendor left out in the open. Floating the coins above him until they finally made it home, Brune would leave the coins on top of the house. 

Brune had to stop stealing silver coins as one day he was almost caught by Clover. 

Quickly running back inside, Clover happily looks at Alina and tells her, "Honey guess what I just found on top of our house?". 

"What did you find?" asked Alina. 

Showing Alina two silver coins in his hands, "It must be our lucky day!" said Clover joyously. 

"Oh shit.... Thank god he didn't find the other three," Brune thought.

Just the day before Brune stole five silver coins from a group of wandering merchants. The group of merchants too busy trying to advertise their products, left their coin pouches wide open. 

On top of the biggest tree in the port, Brune unties a book he had also tied with the pouch. Sitting down Brune reads the picture book made by Heart. 

Watching No study with writing and language, Brune eventually came to understand the letters and numbers from the world he was now in. 

"To my son, welcome to Blood Drop Of The Golden Turtle." read Brune. 

The picture book Brune found in Heart's storage was an old picture made to tell the story of the world to his son. Using context clues Brune knew it wasn't made for him as the book was full of dust and worn out from the passage of time. 

Reading the book a few pages at a time and hearing the Cards family talk about history, Brune finds out that the continent he was on was shaped like a droplet with a big sea in the center. The sea was full of fresh water and was named the "Sea of Life".

The continent was split into four different countries. Towards the south was Suncrest, the east was Egan, the north was Novia, and the west was Windell. Suncrest was where humans ruled and was split into eight territories each ruled by a family. Even though Suncrest was split into eights they were still all part of one Kingdom. The royal family was in the southernmost territory and that was Kingbound, like their name Kingbounds were the royal family of Suncrest and had the most land in their territory. 

Egan unlike Suncrest was a Queendom. The species that ruled Egan was Tigrets. Unlike humans, they were far bigger and possessed a stronger body. Looking just like humans it is just that they had hair starting from their neck to their chest and lastly to their arm. Their teeth were unique too as they had fangs for canine teeth. Egan was a Queendom because the male tigrets didn't care to rule, all they cared about was fighting and making love. The female tigrets ruled as they weren't controlled by their beastly desires. Also unlike Suncrest, the land was not split and was all considered Egan. 

The elves ruled Novia. Novia was split into six parts and ruled individually by a clan. The elves shared a similar stature with the humans. The difference was in the eyes, ears, skin, and hair. The eyes of an elf were a light purple, the ears were pointy, the skin was darker, and their hair was curlier than humans. 

Lastly was Windell, unlike the other countries Windell was mixed with humans, elves, and tigrets. Windell was split into four cities all under the government of the Golden Turtle disciples. The holy land of the Golden Turtle disciples spans through all four cities. The Golden Turtle disciple follows the teachings of the Golden Turtle and is the only religion practiced on the continent.

From the picture book, Brune found out the name of the power he was using and where monster crystals and artifacts were found. 

The whole time Brune was using what was known as "Aura". In Blood Drop Of The Golden Turtle, only a few could use aura as it was one in a dozen. Those who can use aura could enter the gate of dungeons. There were four dungeons on the continent. One controlled by each country. The dungeons were so valuable that the main capitals of the countries were located around the dungeons. 

The dungeons in Suncrest, Egan, and Novia had one entrance leading to twenty-six floors. The dungeon in Windell was unique as it had four different entrances that were connected but started from different floors. 

Each city of Windell was located around a dungeon entrance. Going down and up the map each city was numerical and was based on the difficulties of the dungeon floor. The first city's dungeon gate leads to floors one through five, the second city's dungeon gate leads to floors six through ten, the third city's dungeon gate leads to floors eleven through fifteen, and the fourth city's dungeon gate leads to sixteen through twenty-one. While Windell's dungeon has fewer floors it was still the most popular as you could determine what floor you wanted to start in. 

Even with more floors, only a few would dare challenge floors twenty and beyond. Inside the dungeon floors were different monsters and instead of having a heart, the monsters had a crystal inside them acting as one. 

Only those chosen by the dungeon could get an artifact as whenever the dungeon closes a door would appear in front of everyone inside. Either walking through the door on their own accord or being sucked in by some mysterious force they would either come into a room filled with artifacts or be back in the real world. 

In the room with artifacts even if you try to take more than one when you are back in the real world you would only come back with one artifact. The only way to come out with two artifacts is if you make it past floor twenty. 

Unlike artifacts whatever is in your possession when you make it through the door comes back with you like weapons, monster corpses, and monster crystals. 

The picture book containing so much information was thick and had many pages. 

( Plap! ) 

Brune closes the book as it is getting close to when Clover wakes up to go fishing. 

( Creak! )

( Thumph! ) 

Quietly Brune made his way back onto the bed to sleep.