While I had proclaimed that I would help Emeri with her quest, in truth I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about working with Dalius. We had only met him briefly by chance a few weeks ago and the interaction had been an uncomfortable one, to be sure.

Unfortunately, we weren’t spoiled for choice when it came to allies at the moment, since we were embarking on a quest that had no promised reward at its end. Apart from Helios’ gratitude, I supposed. A nebulous thing, that, because Helios hadn’t been seen for millennia. Only the system and the church seemed to remember him, in fact.

Still, Emeri seemed to trust him, so I decided to suspend my judgment for the moment.

The two of us were led to a large tent that had been erected on the inside of the dome, near the centre of the encampment. Once inside, we encountered the man himself, Dalius, sitting on a small wooden stool and grimacing as band aids were wrapped around his left arm, covering the wounds underneath. His face lit up when he saw us, though.

“Aha! Just the pair that I wanted to see! Emeri and… Arthur, was it?” he greeted with a smile, before waving the other people inside the tent out casually. “Now that we’re all alone, let’s talk business, shall we?”

Emeri nodded, while I lamely stared at him.

“Certainly, Dalius. Let me begin by thanking you for your timely rescue-”

“Hah! That was nothing! I enjoy stretching my limbs every now and then.” Dalius interrupted with a grin. “Besides, wasn’t ‘protection’ a part of our agreement?”

Agreement? It seemed Emeri had been rather thorough, at least.

“Indeed, though I am thankful, all the same.”

“Don’t mention it, lassy. Our kind has to stick together, I always say. Speaking of, I didn’t expect to see you again.” He said, pointing at me.

“I didn’t expect to meet you again, either. Thanks for helping out, I guess.” I responded neutrally.

“Oh, we’re helping each other, pal! Boy, you shoulda’ seen my face when your girlfriend here gave me the details! The god of all sheep himself, the one whose name is brought up whenever their kind justifies their own weakness… For that existence to have been an ordinary man at one point?! One who rose above all those mindless drones by himself?! The story practically writes itself!”

“That’s your motivation? You think Helios was a part of ‘our kind’, as you put it?” I asked pointedly, taking note of the subtle way Dalius’ face changed as I did so. I ignored the way Emeri looked at me, angered by me poking the proverbial beehive.

“Helios IS a part of kind, kid! ‘IS’. By proving that to all the sheep, maybe they’ll… wake up…”

I hummed noncommittedly, not really understanding how Dalius envisioned this grand goal of his. Looking over at Emeri, I could tell that she was just as confused.

She coughed, interrupting Dalius tangent.

“Regardless, is everything still in place to continue the plan? Arthur will accompany me from now on, by the way.”

“To the last three locations, you mean? Sure, everything is ready, just say the word whenever. That is, as long as you haven’t… lost your nerve, if you know what I mean?”

“Rest assured, I haven’t. Just give us a few days to rest, and we’ll be good to go. Speaking of, how are your wounds? That fight with the inquisitor sounded pretty rough?”

Again, Dalius grimaced. “They hurt like a bitch, that’s what! If I had known that that pompous fuck had gotten to the peak of tier 5, I might have thought better of rushing in blindly. You know what I call people like them?”

“What?”

“Shepherds. They rule over the sheep and empower themselves, making them almost as bad as the cowards they claim to ‘guide’. Traitors, the lot-”

“I think we’ll be retiring to our quarters for the night, sir.” Emeri interrupted, just in time to avoid another tangent.

“Oh, right! Look at me, going on and on about something you already know, I’m sure! Call me when you’re ready for the next step, kiddo’s!”

Without further ado, Emeri hurriedly led me out of the tent and dragged me back to our own which, conveniently, had somehow spawned a second bed by itself.

“You were asking dangerous questions back there, Arthur. You don’t understand what Dalius is like… If it were up to him, all ordinary people would be killed!”

“Then why work with him? Seems like a risk, no?”

“I had no choice, Arthur! It was that, or give up on the quest altogether. I chose the lesser of two evils. Besides, the moment we’re done with the fifth statue, we’ll get out of there. I have a plan to avoid Dalius’ people.”

I sighed, but nodded eventually, seeing her point. The question remained, at what point did ‘risky’ become ‘too risky’?

“To change the subject, I got my hands on something nice, recently. Could you guard me while I play around with it for a while? I’m curious to find out what it does?”

“You haven’t had it appraised yet?” Emeri asked curiously. “Show me!” Her eyes widened like a deer’s leaving me with no other option but to show her.

Just to be safe, I closed the tent before summoning the massive black orb from my spatial pouch.

Emeri gasped and recoiled at the powerful pressure it seemed to emit. Surprised by the sudden wave of dark-affinity mana, I hurriedly put it back into the bag, hoping that no one had noticed it.

“What was that? It was huge!”

“No clue. All I know is that the mayor of Agratos really wanted it and nearly killed me to get rid of witnesses.” Noticing Emeri’s disappointment, I quickly defended myself. “If not for the inquisitors untimely arrival, I would have gotten away, though.”

She just shook her head. “Just moments ago you were judging me for taking a big risk and now you’re defending your own decision to take an equally big one?”

“…To be fair, ‘my risk’ wouldn’t have turned me into a fugitive. Not for long, anyway.”

All I got in response was a glower, before Emeri reverted to the original subject.

“Anyway. You don’t know what it is, correct?”

“Apart from the fact that it’s round and holds a lot of mana? No.”

“Just use one of these, then.” Emeri said, pulling a scroll out of her storage ring. “It’s an appraisal scroll. I got this through Dalius’ help after we split up and tried to appraise the key, but it didn’t work. In your hands, it might see some use, at least. Consider it an apology gift.”

I accepted the rolled-up piece of paper gingerly, as if it were some kind of ancient artifact. With the help of this single scroll, all my questions could be answered…

“Hold on… is it safe to use this here? What if the others…”

“Don’t worry about that, the tent is enchanted. Come on, try it!”

With an audible gulp, I summoned the orb back out and listened to its hum. The orb righted itself and started to float off of the ground, hovering in place. The mana continued to flow out of it, filling the tent, but the stream was more gentle than before. Pulling out the scroll and unfurling it, I steeled my nerves.

“Here goes nothing…”

I brought the scroll up to the orb and filled it with mana, activating it. The scroll lit up blue, its engravings filling the tent with its blue glow. Then, the scroll started to smoulder before burning up. Reduced to cinders, I thought the scroll had failed somehow, but realised the opposite had happened when a blue rectangular notification popped up in front of me.

[Perpetual adaptive demantoid]

Tier 6 artifact.

This rare gemstone draws in mana from the environment and store it, similar to a living creature's core.

Stones of similar kinds are used to power various arrays and formations, though demantoids of this size are nearly unheard of.

This particular gem has been engraved to adapt to mana it comes into contact with, making it an multi-affinity power-source.

"Huh..." I murmured, slightly let down. Though I was happy to find out I was now the owner of a tier 6 artifact, this 'demantoid' didn't seem immediately useful. In fact, I had a hard time seeing what I could use it for at all.

"So? What is it?!" Emeri asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Some kind of mana-gathering gem. Useful for arrays and formations, neither of which I know how to make. Here." I replied, mentally sending the system prompt over to her. She read it for a moment, before gasping.

"Arthur, don't you know how valuable this thing is?! The rest of the world is stuck using mana crystals that have to be charged manually or don't recharge at all! Besides, this thing could literally power a flying island by itself!"

"...A flying island? How about... a flying castle?" I wondered aloud, my mind drifting to the possibilities. I had come across an unoccupied one in the between lands, after all...