Merlin: "Thanks for those… By the way, you still haven’t told me how your story is related to my family name, nor which god became my family’s guardian spirit…"
Grani: "You are right. Do you remember when I said the gods decided to incarnate into the strongest individual of their chosen race? That you are human should give you a really big clue about which god became your guardian spirit…"
Merlin: "Oh! It was Lokiseth, right?"
Grani: "That’s correct. As for the origin of your family name… It just so happened that at the time Lokiseth was looking for the strongest human, that man single-handedly decapitated a dragon, and was holding its head with one hand when Lokiseth appeared before him, thus he adopted that family name: Pendragon."
Merlin: "Ok, thank you for everything, but I have to go now, there are people waiting for me."
Grani: "Don’t worry about that, remember that in this cave the time goes faster than in the outside, at a ratio of 10:1, which means that the 12 hours you’ve passed inside, only amount to 1 hour and 12 minutes outside."
Merlin: "That sure comes in handy… I’m asking just in case… but you wouldn’t happen to know how to cast a spell with that effect on a room, would you? If you do, could you, please, teach it to me… it would help me a lot in my training!"
Grani: "…I don’t know if it is such a good idea, time passing faster means you are growing old faster… in a dragon it doesn’t matter much, but in a human it would be disastrous if any accident were to happen… time magic is no joke, kid!"
Merlin: "Is there really no way for me to get you to teach me that spell?"
Grani: "Ok, I’ll teach it to you on two conditions: first, the amount of time you will pass inside the area of effect from the spell won’t exceed 1 year per natural year, with a maximum of two before we meet again. And second, we must establish a soul link, that way I’ll be able to monitor you through your training and make sure that you hold your end of the deal."
Merlin: "That’s fine by me, but what’s a soul link?"
Grani: "It’s basically a link between our souls. It will allow us to communicate with each other without the distance being a problem, and it will also allow me to monitor your body condition, and know whether you are using my spell too much or not."
Merlin: "Well’ that’s useful for you, but I don’t see any merits in doing so other than getting the spell… and I’m not comfortable with having someone else in my head…"
Grani: "Ok, I’ll also teach you the technology and magic theory behind the creation of magic gates. It’s also based in Space-time magic, so it won’t be difficult for you to learn it… What do you say?"
Merlin was elated by the idea. *Currently, the gate network established millennia ago doesn’t exist. If I could recreate it within my territory, the time needed to implement the development plans that I’ve got for it would be reduced tenfold! I can’t miss this opportunity!*
Merlin: "Ok, you’ve got yourself a deal!"
Merlin soon regretted having said those words, because the formation of the link gave his soul so much pain that he felt himself dying a hundred times over. When the pain was gone, he realized the soul link had more functions aside from just communicating with each other, Grani used the link to give him the promised knowledge, and thought it might come in handy in the future.
Merlin: "Ok, now that we’re done with that matter… do you mind telling me how do I get back to the external cave?"
*****************************************************************************
*Ouch! My butt! If he was going to teleport me outside, he could have been a little gentler!* Merlin was a little mad at Grani, because when he teleported him to the outer cave, instead of teleporting him standing on the ground, the dragon thought it would be funnier teleporting him in the air, 3ft over the ground… which resulted in Merlin’s butt being sore from the impact! *[You do realize that you still don’t know how to control the communications through the soul link and right now I can hear your every thought, don’t you?]* Merlin didn’t bother to answer, instead, he tried to block him out, without success.
While ignoring the dragon, Merlin walked to the entrance of the cave and looked outside. He saw that the horned rabbits were still waiting for him, so he cast a single spell of water attribute, Water Prison, and drowned all the horned rabbits on the spot. *What on earth did I do before to waste all my mana pool on these weaklings?! Looks like Grani was right, I was too hot headed and I ended panicking when things went south… I’ll have to work on it!* After collecting all the corpses he wondered what to do about them, and considered that leaving them there would be a waste, besides if anyone else came across the corpses they could benefit from his work, therefore, Merlin thought of an alternative plan…
He took a leather bag and engraved it to look like a bag of holding, but he didn’t enchant it with Space magic. He created a ring and tried to enchant it with one of the spells Grani had passed him, in an attempt to create a storage ring, but he failed and the ring got destroyed. Finally, on his fifth attempt, he succeeded and changed the shape of the ring into one with his crest. *Fufufu… I finally succeeded in making a storage ring… but I better not let anyone else know that I possess it… nor that I was the one who made it!*.
That was actually his reason for engraving the leather bag to look like a bag of holding, to hide the existence of the ring! Bags of holding, albeit unusual, aren’t that hard to come by. Storage rings, on the other hand, were scarce, only when they were found in ruins or similar sites would their acquisition be possible, and some people would literally go to war to obtain one.
The knowledge and ability to craft them had been lost since the end of the Great Magic Era, besides to create a storage ring it was necessary that the craftsman used magic of Space-time attribute, which was impossible in the current era. After the Great Magic Era, the magic of Space-time attribute passed down the generations belonged only to the branch of Space magic, while the branch of Time magic disappeared and was long lost, the only exception being a single spell which aged objects until they broke. That was one of the advantages of the storage rings over the bags of holding, inside the bag of holding time passed at the same pace than outside of it, while inside the storage rings it was halved in the worst of the cases, and stopped in the best of them.
Merlin went over to where his mother and the girls were, and told them that he had finished exploring, so they could go back at any time. While the girls were gathering their belongings and prepared for departure, Merlin dragged his mother to one side and started discussing with her the different means of transportation they had to return to Laklostia, because Merlin was worried about the time needed and Emelyn’s state.
Emelyn: "Merlin, you really are a precocious child… worrying about those things that only adults would take into account… Don’t worry about it, we’ll take the safest and most direct route… "
Merlin: "Mother, that’s why I’m telling you to think it over! In my honest opinion, the safest way to go to Laklostia is going directly there without travelling at all!"
Emelyn: "I’m well aware that you’re a gifted child, but even if you were capable of using teleportation spells, which I remind you are of the highest tier, you wouldn’t be able to teleporting us to Laklostia, for the teleportation spell has a range of a couple of miles at most! Only a teleportation stone would allow you to do it, but it’s impossible for someone like us to possess one!"
Merlin didn’t say another word, he just silently showed a bright smile to his mother and reached inside his shirt with his right hand. When he took the hand out, there was a blue stone on it. He handed it to his mother for examination.
Emelyn: "No way! That’s… Is it really what I think it is?"
Merlin: "It is, indeed."
Emelyn: "Where did you get it?! Do you have any idea of the value on of these things has?"
Merlin: "Hahaha, mother, please, don’t get so excited! Do you remember that I told you I had found the Awakening Stone in the secret room of the well? Well, among the other things I found was this teleportation stone…"
Emelyn: "Ok, we’ll go ahead with your plan. Be careful with that stone, and don’t let anyone know that you have it! It’d only bring you trouble…"
Merlin: "Yes, mother, I know. I’m fully aware that the scariest thing in the world isn’t death, or punishment from the gods, but the greed of others!"
Emelyn: "It’s good that you understand" *To see it that clearly at such a young age… I know my son is brilliant and a precocious child, but to see and understand that fact to that extent… Did I make a mistake somewhere while raising him up to this point?*
If Merlin could have known what her mother was thinking in that instant, he would have probably come clean and told her about his reincarnation and the experiences of his past life, because he loved his mother deeply and didn’t want her to blame herself for anything… Luckily for the both of them, he couldn’t read minds and just considered his mother’s worried face as her doubts about the viability of the plan.
Merlin: "Mother, you don’t have to worry at all, I’ve already used the stone several times to go back to the well while being in Shephiria, so it will work just fine!"
Emelyn: "Oh, well in that case is fine… Wait, what did you just say?! So that’s why whenever you locked your door neither you nor the girls answered! You weren’t meditating, you just were elsewhere! Merlin…"
Merlin realized he had a slip of the tongue and now his mother knew about his activities… and knew he’d have to pay for it, but Emelyn surprised him and instead of getting mad at him, she just hugged him in relief, which puzzled Merlin. *This rascal!* Thought Emelyn *Well, I guess that no matter how precocious a child is, a six year old will remain a child, won’t he?*. And just like that, her concerns about the way she had raised him were all washed away.
Emelyn separated from Merlin and started to discuss the plan with him, the use of the teleportation stone was good and all, but that in itself was a problem when it came to the carriage and the luggage. Teleportation stones were good items when it came to urgent long distance travels, but they were inefficient when it came to transportation, because they only transported living beings and what they wore at the moment, which meant that carriages and anything else than a backpack would be left behind. That was one of the principal reasons for the creation of the gate network in the first place.
It was again Merlin’s turn to surprise Emelyn, he told her about his storage ring, but he changed the story a little, and instead of telling her that he had created it, he said he had found it next to the teleporting stone, which was more plausible than a 6-year-old creating it. After they were done talking, Merlin stored away in his ring the carriage and the luggage first, then, he activated the teleportation stone, and teleported the group of five and the horses to Laklostia.
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