167 Don’t forget your reward, please! part The sound of heavy rain woke up Ryu early in the morning. The first thing he noticed after being able to open his eyes was the warmth of two girls sleeping besides him and the fact that he was completely healed. Since it was still dark Ryu checked his soulbound card to confirm his skills and found something that filled him with joy.
A small ray of sun just broke through the mountain revealing the makeshift camp that was set next to the incipient lake that was reforming with the help of both the waterfall and the rain.
Ryu got up doing his best not to wake Sera and Anne who were still sleeping on each side of his cramped tent. There was no hope of setting up a campfire with the amount of rain that was pouring down, but the fresh air he was able to breathe now felt like nature’s way of apologizing for his terrible experience the day before.
He nibbled on some waybread as he stared at the small earth dome that lied in the middle of the lake. He was still able to sense the mana that manated from it, but the mist had completely dissipated.
“Good morning Ryu, how are you feeling today?”
“What do you mean today? how long was I asleep?”
Luke greeted Ryu and he replied with a question.
“It’s been five weeks already”
Luke said with a grim expression.
.....
“No way!”
Ryu was disheartened by Luke’s statement, but was quickly relieved when Bob placed a hand on Luke’s shoulder and scolded him for messing with him.
“It’s only the day after you got hurt, you recovered pretty quickly from your wounds, but I don’t think you should be walking. Why don’t you rest for a while?”
“I feel great actually, not only my health recovered but my max health was increased too!”
Ryu replied with a contagious smile.
“Still, you already fixed the problem and there’s nothing to do so...”
“No, there’s actually something that needs to be done. I merely placed a dome covering the source of the heat, but I don’t think it’ll hold for long and as soon as it breaks the water will start boiling again and everything will be covered with mist, we should try to get rid of it now that the water is still shallow”
“What do you mean shallow, it’s still deep enough to drown if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re just being reckless again and I won’t allow it”
Bob scolded Ryu showing nothing but honest worry for his friend.
“Listen Bob, I know you’re worried but we need to do this... besides, I think that what’s causing this mess could actually be something really helpful”
“I’m listening”
Luke said with greed on his eyes.
“Remember the fire elemental stones?”
“Of course! they’re pretty expensive outside Ironwoods, even the smallest ones, those that are used to activate lamps and stuff are somewhat expensive”
“Yeah, well... I think everything was caused by a fire stone”
“That is amazing! Imagine the amount of money we could earn by selling something that powerful!”
Luke almost jumped in ecstasy.
“I don’t think so... first we would need to find someone willing to pay forsomething as dangerous as that. Someone like that is bound to be a dangerous person, don’t you think?”
“That may be so, but still”
Luke pouted.
“No, there’s a better use for something like that, I don’t want to say anything too soon, but I think Bob will be excited about it”
“Ryu, don’t tell me... did you find a way to allow me to cast magic!?”
“I’m not sure yet Bob, but as I was getting close to that thing I gained heat resistance so I checked my soulbound card when i woke up”
He showed Bob his card and the words that appeared in it filled Bob with hope.
>Fire attribute 4
>Earth attribute 3
“What does it mean?”
“I’m not sure, I sometimes get a message that says I got a point in the fire attribute, but the numbers don’t add up so I think it’s something like a level”
“So, if I get near that thing I may gain the fire attribute too!?”
“Again, I don’t want to get your hopes up and it’s also very risky to do so, but studying it might be a good start. Perhaps if we take the stone to Ayumi she might be able to find out something about it”
“Oh Ryu, please don’t try to find excuses to head back to Ironwoods, it’s not good to go back to your ex you know”
“It’s not like that! We really need to head back to Ironwoods! Or do you guys want to abandon Hiraku and Ayumi?”
“Well... that’s true, we also sent the girls back there”
“Girls? what girls?”
“Claire, Taffy and Veronika of course”
“Oh, right...”
“So, what’syour plan? don’t tell me you didn’t think of a way of getting that thing out”
“That was precisely what I was doing when you guys interrupted me”
Ryu shrugged.
“So you’re saying we are nothing but annoyances to you? All I heard is you asking for a kick in the butt, did you hear that too Bob?”
“Of course not, he’s hurt!”
Bob replied and Ryu sighed in relief only to be defenseless against Bob’s huge hand that held him tightly.
“Now Luke, tickle him until he pisses himself!”
“Ahhh! bullying! stop bullying me guys!”
The merry trio laughed in the rain as they goofed around, Ryu fell many times trying to run away from Bob, who also tripped and fell a few times. Luke was the only one that managed to keep his foothold in the muddy terrain.
Truth is, Ryu’s skills were a lot better than Luke’s at walking in difficult terrain, even slippery mud, but Luke’s stats were a lot higher than Ryu’s.
“What do you think you’re doing to mister Ryu?”
Sera’s glare froze everyone in the spot
“We’re just”
“Shut up and let him rest!”
“Yes ma’am”
Both Bob and Luke were scolded by Sera, they lowered their gazes and repented in silence, but Ryu wasn’t safe from her anger. She took Ryu’s arm and dragged him back to bed, where she let him right next to Anne with a heavy heart.
Ryu spent most of the morning trying to get some rest next to Anne who was obviously faking to be asleep to avoid the awkwardness of being by Ryu’s side after sleeping with him.
Meanwhile Risa and Sera explored near the campsite to make sure there weren’t any beasts nearby. Hana, as the spoiled wealthy rich girl she was, remained in bed expecting to be served breakfast in bed like usual. It would have been one thing if the adventurers on her party were her usual underlings or even regular adventurers, but most of the party was comprised of otherwordly adventurers with unusually high stats and two girls who simply didn’t care about her money.
After being ignored for most of the morning she eventually got up with a bitter mood that threatened to worsen her already bad character.
“Is there no one with a brain inside their head? why did no one bring me my breakfast?”
“What do you mean?”
Ryu asked her as he stepped outside of his tent. The rain clouds disappeared leaving a beautiful clear sky on top of their heads.
“Were you not hired by me to fix the hot springs? I was kind enough to spend the night out here in the wild to wait until you recovered, the least you can do is attend to my needs! now hurry up and make me something to eat”
She sounded just as arrogant as she was beautiful, but Ryu wasn’t moved at all by her looks. However, it was true that, for whatever reason, she did spend the night outside so in the end Ryu gave in and looked around for twigs and branches to light up a fire.
Every piece of wood he found was soaked in water and setting up the campfire proved to be more difficult that he initially expected. If it wasn’t for the generous amount of oil he added and his ability to manipulate fire with magic it would have been even harder.
After the fire was going everyone gathered up nearby by instinct and they dried some of their clothes. Risa’s leather cape that she was wearing as a dress of sorts and Ryu’s attire that was also made of leather didn’t need much to get dry. But everything was different for the rest of the party and they had to take their someof their clothes off and hang them near the fire to dry them properly.
Ryu stepped near the edge of the small, but deep, lake that was still just a crater with some water in the bottom with the hopes of finding the answer he was looking for. But no matter how much he stared at the earthly dome that rested in the middle he couldn’t figure out how to pull it out.
That was, at least, until he saw Anne hanging her robe in a tree branch and he remembered the way she used to hung whatever she hunted in branches to keep predators off and bleed them properly before butchering.
“I think I got it!”
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