Pip walked out of the shack leaving Rick behind at the shack where he was busy reading. Outside the shack, there was a large overgrowing garden the size of a football field. She walked up to the first plant and sniffed it.

“Peeeep!” she squeaked, a drool of saliva forming at the corner of her beak.

Although she did not need to eat and could sustain on taking in Mana, the smell of the plant was too good to pass. Without a second thought, she tore away at the leaf and munched on it and was immediately hooked to the taste.

After finishing with that she moved to the next plant and then the next. Every plant was like a different tasting dessert to her.

“Peep! Peep! Peep!” she trotted away from one plant to the next.

---------------------------------------

“Common ranked golem,” Rick muttered looking at the Earth core in his hand.

There were three important things in crafting a good golem.

The core, the runes and the material body of the golem. The finished golem is like a race car. The Core is the motor and the Runes on it form the engine. But without a good body, the engine alone would not be able to bring out the full potential of the car. Similarly, the quality of the material was also very important for golem crafting.

Till now he had crafted low ranked talismans only, but he possessed two common ranked products, the Concealment Artifact and now the Earth Golem.

There were even various realms of Summoner, Mage and Beast Master, but he had no knowledge of them at all as the Lemegeton had deemed them to be too advanced for him.

There were ranks for artifacts as well. Starting from Low-ranked, Common-ranked and going up to Paragon-ranked there were nine ranks of artifacts.

‘The golem quite advanced’, Rick thought as he inspected the Earth core.

At first glance, he did not see any runes on it, but now that he looked at it closer, he could see the rune lines snaking on its surface.

He put the core in his pocket and picked out the other core from the shelf.

“What type of core is this?” Rick wondered aloud.

He inspected the other core. It was yellow-white in colour and was not as hard as the Earth core.

He circulated his mana into the core to activate it, but nothing happened. He tried again, but the core did not show any movement at all.

‘Maybe it’s a higher ranked core,’ he thought.

He put the core into his jacket as well before inspecting the rest of the room. The only other thing that stood out was the knife on the table. It was not bigger than the size of his palm with a wooden grip and a tapering blade. He picked it up and as expected, received a notification.

‘Did Sol not use anything ordinary?’ Rick complained, with a pleased smile.

Ding

[Congratulations!]

[You have acquired a Unique Ranked Carving Knife]

He looked through at what it was,

[Carving Knife]

A tool for marking runes. The higher the rank of the carving knife the host can use it to greater accuracy.

“Oh! So I can use this to carve on other surfaces,” Rick exclaimed. He had tried making runes on stones before with an ordinary knife but had not succeeded even once. But now he could make higher ranked talismans on surfaces other than just paper.

He turned and inspected the knife from all the angles.

“Should I keep it here or take it with me?” Rick murmured. He could keep it here and come by to work in the Private study, this way it would be more secure from other people. But on the other hand, he was not too comfortable being so close to the very things that he was trying to escape from, the Kings.

He thought for a while before pocketing the knife.

‘If no one knows I have this, why will anyone come after me,’ he vowed to keep it a secret.

With everything done, he walked out of the shack. It was time to inspect the rest of the place. Sol's private study included the herb garden as well along with the shack. Rick was certain that the plants in the garden were not ordinary ones. They definitely would have some magical properties.

The sky was clear as ever before but as he looked across the garden, he was shocked to see the transformation on the ground.

The unkempt and overgrown herb garden was no longer the same. It was as if a herd of thousands of cows had grazed through the field, there was nothing left in its wake. All the plants in the garden had disappeared!

At a distance, he could see a figure bobbling around and it immediately dawned on him what must have happened. He could see the bloated figure of his pet trotting away halfway across the garden!

“You brat, stop eating them!” he screamed, Pip had a history of eating things he had a need for even when she was in her egg after all.

He ran towards her to stop her before she finished eating everything. After all these herbs were probably invaluable as well, especially considering it was Sol’s herb garden.

“Hey stop! Stop!” he screamed as he ran forward.

Mid-munching, Pip heard a sound and looked back and saw her Mommy running towards her. She immediately realized that she would be stopped from eating when Rick caught up. So without any hesitation, she turned back around doubled down on eating to her fill.

Seeing Pip ignore him and keep eating, Rick’s angered flared and he shouted out at her “Children should hear what their parents say.”

But he was again ignored.

------------------------------------------------

By the time he reached up to Pip, she had munched up a dozen more plants and with a satisfied look sat down on the ground. After eating several times her size, Pip had swollen to twice her size and looked more like a big yellow stress ball.

Seeing the content look on the little bird’s face, even Rick could not bring himself to scold her.

“Peeeep! Peeeep!” she said and closed her eyes.

“Yes yes, you have worked hard. You can sleep now.” He replied and picked up the sleeping bird.

He looked back at the quarter of the original herb garden that was left and shook his head with a sigh.

‘I did not even know what was in there, what’s there to be sad about?’ he consoled himself. Originally he had planned to check out the garden first, but now he could no longer bring himself to do that.

He walked back out of the private study into the throne hall.

In the throne hall, there were only one of the kings there, Gaap, the goat limbed King of the West. When he saw Rick emerge out of the private study, he knelt down to one knee.

“Get up!” Rick gestured, putting on his expert persona back, “Where are the rest?”

“Young Master, they have gone back to hell to get the delicacies for the Divine Firebird. I have only remained back to stay guard over the place,” Gaap replied.

Only now did he recall that he had asked the Kings to find food for the Firebird. He had expected them to just find some beast meat or something. He did not expect that it would be so difficult that the Kings would have to go themselves.

“We did not expect you to return from the study so soon, Young Master. Finding and killing a fire fiend takes some time, please do not punish them,” Gaap continued.

“Don’t worry about it. Tell them that I want them to return back safely. I do not want my generals injured,” Rick replied with a slight smile, deciding to extend a carrot this time.

“I will let them know of your gracious words Young Master,” Gaap replied with a smile on his face.

“Umm, I am leaving now. I have some work outside” Rick said, “Also, find every book you can find on runes. I want them ready for the next time I come.”

Saying so he walked out the double doors behind the central throne.

Just like last time, he found himself suddenly appear at the gate of the Library. He looked around flustered trying to see if his sudden appearance had caught anyone’s attention. Everyone went about their work as if his sudden appearance had not even registered in their minds.

With Pip in his hand, he walked out from the Library and into the bustling bazaar outside under the clear sky. There were stalls set about on both sides of the streets, while the buildings next to them served as their nightly abode. The traders had even set up colourful tents to provide shade from the elements outdoors and keep their stalls cool.

“Food and water! Every essential,” a shopkeeper called out

“Blades and bullets. Best deal here,” the second shouted.

“Shoes, shirts and hats! The world has ended, not civility,” another spoke up.

This was not the first bazaar Rick had come across, but the Arihant Troll market could not even hold a candle to the grand scale of this bazaar. As he walked down the market, the entire place reminded him of the renaissance fairs he had seen on the TV as a child.

Rick was there with a purpose, to sell his talismans and buy a spirit core and start building his first golem.