210 Listen to me, please!


    Mia and Ryu traversed the woods with ease, the goblin forest was mostly safe for anyone, but especially for them. Goblins were the protectors of the forest, they kept dangerous beasts at bay but didn’t bother the ones that meant no harm to them and Ryu not only had permission to move freely through the forest, but he was also considered the vige leader during Bardun’s absence.


    They walked the whole night and set up camp in the middle of the day. Once the firece was ready, Ryu went through their provisions to prepare something for breakfast, after parting with his sword his metabolism had slowed a bit, but he was still hungry most of the time because of his link with Famine, the amarok.


    “Uh, Mia, I can’t find the food.”


    Ryu’s words sent cold shivers through Mia’s back and she started sweating buckets. As a subus she had little to no interest in human food, sometimes the smell was pleasing, but most of the time it did nothing for her. That’s the reason why had the tendency to forget that humans needed to eat to sustain themselves.


    “Mia?”


    “Master, please don’t be mad, but I forgot to pack up any food.”


    “What!? what did you pack then?”


    Ryu took all the contents of the saddlebags without even waiting for a response. Most of the content were clothes and tools for sewing and knitting. The only weapon Mia packed was Risa’s sword, which Ryu had taken back with him to the goblin’s vige, leaving him with only that huge knife like sword and his obsidian dagger. This dagger had changed his shape after his fight against Lorenzo, Ryu molded it and even rebuilt it from scratch after it was shattered to pieces using magic, but he did notice it looked a bit smaller than before. It didn’t matter though, because he wasn’t nning on using it to fight, it was incredibly sharp but also too frail to be helpful.


    The sword, instead, was somewhat brutish and inelegant, it was also too heavy for Ryu to wield itfortably, but it was sturdy and of great quality. Curious as always, Ryu decided to identify it.


    .....


    >Risa’s innocence (artifact)


    Taken aback by what he just learned, Ryupletely forgot theck of food. So far he had never encountered anything that could be considered an artifact, it wasn’t because he had nevere across one though, but merely because of hisck of power. The more powerful a being is, the more effective their skills be.


    Without much else to do, since they had nothing to eat, Ryu fell into a peaceful slumber under the shadow of a leafy oak tree.


    The soft breeze caressed his cheeks, his hair waved in his forehead and the pleasant feeling of easiness and calm invaded him.


    Ryu found himself inside a nk space, it felt incredibly huge and at the same time, extremely ustrophobic.


    “Am I dreaming again?”


    “No, you’re not, I summoned you here”


    The feminine voice appeared again inside his mind.


    “Why?”


    “Because you never read my messages! I warned you not to date that crazy woman and you didn’t listen to me!”


    “Why do you sound so mad? I can’t possibly check my card for messages all the time”


    “But you do check your card everyday, why is it so hard for you to just turn to thest page?”


    “Why should I? I don’t know who you are, why should I trust you?”


    “I warned you about Anne being in trouble didn’t I?”


    “You did, but it was sort of useless, I would have found her anyway. The only time you were helpful was when you told me my friends were still alive. How are they now by the way?”


    “They’re struggling. Risa has no hands, Bob and Luke are tired and Lea is luring them to the sacred empire. You must stop them from going there or things will get out of control.”


    “So, Lorenzo really did those things to her...”


    “Don’t worry, he didn’t touch her.”


    “What do you want from me, why do you keep sending messages? If you don’t answer my questions I’ll never read your messages again, see if you like that”


    “I’m goddess Aruru, nice meeting you Ryu”


    “Goddess? did you bring me here? did you summon me into this world?”


    “I’ll try to exin things to you, but everything in due time. If I told you everything I know about you right now it would only raise more questions and I don’t know the answers yet. All I can tell you about this now is that I didn’t summon you. About your other questions, I’m currently imprisoned in the obelisk in Babylon city, you can see it from the distance. Most people even forget it’s there.”


    “So, why do you keep contacting me?”


    “It’s obvious, I’m your patron. I’m supposed to take care of you and also, I would like you to set me free...”


    “Why would I do that?”


    “I honestly hoped that you would do it out of the kindness of your heart, but after watching over you all this time I don’t think that’s even possible. What I’ll do instead is help you be stronger, and in return you’ll promise me you’ll set me free once youe to the obelisk”


    “I’m sorry, but it’s not in my ns to go over there”


    “But you have to, unless of course you want this world to be destroyed”


    “What do you mean? is this world really in danger?”


    “Well, not the world, but the people. You experienced the cold snap in the south, remember those pretty lights in the sky? that was actually the mana flow of this world.”


    “It did look a bit like when I use mana sense but...”


    “I canmunicate with you for longer periods of time now, but you’re still not strong enough. Time is precious so let me exin. The obelisk was made by the first humans that arrived in here, it channels the mana and powers many devices, one of this devices is the soul link that allows sentient beings in this world to receive messages. They think it’s something mystical when in reality it’s just a machine powered by mana. There are many devices, some of them are used to link the craftman stations, others are used to enchant weapons, there’s even a device that allows people who speak differentnguage tomunicate and thest one is my prison.”


    “And what does it have to do with the lights in the sky?”


    “I don’t have much time, I’ll contact you before it happens again. For now, head north and prevent your friends from going over to the sacred empire, because if they do they’ll probably join them and it will make your task much more difficult. Please check your messages daily!”


    Ryu was once again alone with his thoughts in the nk space.