"Slime Magic: Ember!" Tiny flames were shot against the Tunnel Spider which dug a hole below it and went inside.

"Now what?" A younger Eon looked at Leonhart. "It went inside!"

"The battle is far from over. Tunnel Spiders are harmless but they're good at leaving the attackers immobilized." Leonhart stood slightly away from the location, looking over his student.

The spider came from behind Eon and hit him with a Sticky Web, leaving him immobile on the ground. It prepared to launch a few more strings on Eon when he countered with Ember. The strings caught on fire and spread to the spider, burning it a little.

"Eon, use your new skill." Leonhart commanded.

"Ah right." Eon shot his own Sticky Web at the spider, which the latter got captured in and was rendered immobile instead.

"I won!" Eon was overjoyed, just when the ground below him cracked and he fell in a pitfall.

"Tunnel spiders are good at making traps. You did pretty well for your first time against a monster." Leonhart came to Eon's rescue. "But you always need someone to cover your back. In a real battle you won't always have a reliable companion. You have to learn how to fight your battles alone."

"I guess I did mess up." Eon laughed.

Leonhart couldn't help but smile a little.

***

Razor threw a smaller knife at the large chameleon drake, which the latter dodged and shot another piercing beam at him.

"Don't underestimate me." Razor wiped off the blood on his cheek. He made a hand gesture, changing the direction of the blade and making it target the drake from behind like a boomerang.

The reptile let out a scream as the knife dug deep in its flesh. It disappeared again in a blink. The paint already wore off by then and it was impossible for Razor to figure out where the chameleon would attack from next.

Two-face let out a roar, hopped on top of Razor, and shot a sphere of dragon energy. The energy ball hit the invisible chameleon drake. The angered drake slammed the two with its tail.

A powerful hit on the head knocked Razor out. The baby hydra laid besides him, confused about what to do. Myera could be seen already knocked out nearby.

Eon observed the situation quietly. He ignored the sheer pain and stumbled a little when getting up. He was the only one left now, with no one to back him up. Till now he was always fighting alongside someone, risking his life in the belief that the other person would watch his back. The belief was shattered when the chameleon drake shot him from behind and no one in the vicinity was there to save him. His teammates were not the perfect fighters who could get him through his battles completely unharmed. If he got knocked out here, everyone would effectively die. He had to get everyone out from here to safety.

"Two-face, come here." Eon gestured at two-face to catch its attention. It knew Eon for long enough to be comfortable around him, so it followed Eon's command without much of a thought. Eon tried his best to explain what it had to do, and the hydra seemed to follow him for the most part.

Now, with that out of the way, Eon got up to face the chameleon himself, which was staring at him, monitoring his every movement. Seeing Eon get up, the chameleon disappeared again. Only to appear behind him again and shoot its glittering beam.

"You really think I'm falling for that twice?" Eon swiftly dodged the beam with ease. "Hydra's passive skill, Hive Mind lets me have two sets of consciousness simultaneously. One looking around for you, and another is focusing on this!" Eon revealed his glowing hand and unleashed a Scorpion Bash on the reptile. The latter crashed against a large tree trunk and disappeared again.

"No you aren't going that way" Eon launched his Grappling Hook towards the direction of where Razor and Myera were lying unconscious. Two-face was making hissing noises at some invisible entity. Eon grabbed the invisible reptilian monster.

"I know you probably can't understand me, but I knew you'd be going that way. I left the two under Two-face's care because only that little dude can detect you and notify me when you're nearby."

The drake flailed around to make Eon lose his grip, which he didn't. The drake looked behind it to find out a flying Eon closing the gap between them real fast. It launched another beam but Eon dodged it effectively thanks to his new Hive Mind, and landed a Scorpion Bash on its head.

"I finally landed it!" Eon was overjoyed. "I'm gonna call this finishing move Meteor Punch!" He sat on the back of the collapsed chameleon. The glowing runes on its body slowly dimmed out.

A magic circle appeared below the giant chameleon drake, and it disappeared again. Eon landed on the ground and noticed the magic circle was gone as well.

"Good job. You've defeated the guardian of the Jewel." A voice came from behind the bushes.

Eon looked at the direction the voice came from and saw the cloaked figure from the museum attack in Grandor.

"Why are you here?" Razor's voice sounded a little wobbly. The two were slowly regaining their consciousness as well.

"Ah, isn't that the little Shiftblade! I'll have you know that we borrowed your father for a bit. Don't worry much about it though." The cloaked figure or 'Cloak', as Eon preferred to call him, sounded distorted with help of a magical item of some sort.

"What did you do to my father!" Razor sounded like a wounded tiger, activating some spell on his shortsword as well.

"Do we really want to do this right now?" Eon imagined Cloak giving a smug smile under that hood. A moderate sized dragon poked out of the bush as well.

Eon could swear that the dragon wasn't present there a few moments ago.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Ah a civilized conversation. Just the way I like it." Cloak faced Eon. "I've noticed you started to gather the jewel signatures as well. And I'd kindly ask you to stop."

"Why would we do that?" And what do you plan to do with the jewel signatures yourself?"

"I can not possibly disclose my master's plans. But I can assure you the jewels are very hard to come by. You'll meet your doom if you continue this journey."

"And you won't?"

"I'm simply not afraid of death."

"Then.. May I know who your master is?"

"No. That's also something I'm not allowed to disclose. In fact, I think I've already given you too much information. I shall take my leave now. I won't stop you from collecting the jewel signatures, but next time our paths meet, I won't hesitate to destroy you, or that defective excuse of a mage."

Cloak jumped on the dragon he summoned earlier and flew away, before too long he vanished from plain sight.

"Did he just call me defective mage..?" Razor sounded quite furious.

Now that they had some window to relax, Eon realized he could detect the position of the Mana Jewel now. Defeating the guardian removed some sort of barrier surrounding the jewel, making it locatable. But asking Myera and Razor about it made Eon realize it was an ability exclusive to him.

They soon reached the mana jewel. The sight around the giant boulder was rather bewitching. The walls and earth around it were glowing in a dim aura as well, and the whole area seemed to be covered in a faint mist.

There was no wildlife around the near vicinity of the jewel. The silver sphere was reacting to the gigantic chunk of extremely dense magistone, the two halves of the sphere twisting and turning in a weird way. A tiny dot on the sphere lit up.

"I'd like to believe that's the sphere registering one mana jewel." Myera said.

"Same here." Razor replied.

"So we are done here then?" Eon asked. "I'll note down the actual position of the mana jewel later."

The three spent a while resting and observing the jewel, and decided to head back.

"I think I'll be taking my leave here." Razor suddenly noted as they reached the railway station.

"Where do you plan to go?" Eon asked.

"Rubiona, my hometown. I don't trust anything Cloak said but I have to check things just to be sure." Razor replied.

"Oh.. We'll see each other in a few weeks then, I hope?" Eon asked.

"Yep!" Razor replied.

"Your train is about to leave in fifteen minutes then." Myera notified. "The travel card will come in handy and you can travel free of cost."

"Ah yes, thank you. I'll be seeing you guys later then!" Razor hurried towards the train to his hometown.

"What do we do now?" Eon asked, as he saw his friend exploring the insides of his cabinet.

"We wait. The next train to Grimoria is scheduled five hours from now." Myera chuckled.

"You gotta be kidding me..."