Abel had no idea how much danger he was in. If his soul wasn’t strengthened with the soul potion for several times, he would be mortally injured for trying to transform himself with the ambergris bed and the dragon crystal. If that did happen, it wouldn’t matter if he was an elf or a human. He would be a goner.
After walking out of the “Akara’s tent,” Abel placed the tent back into his private storage box. Black Wind was already awake by this point. It was playing with Rib Bone no. 1, actually. Black Wind would push Rib Bone no. 1 somewhere, and Rib Bone no. 1 would go back to spot that it was at.
This went on for a while. They, or better put, Black Wind would keep playing the game, and Rib Bone no. 1 would have to go back to the position that it was in.
“We’re going back, Black Wind!” Abel called out as he canceled the summoning of the three skeletons. Once a black hole came out and swallowed the skeletons away, Black Wind ran back its master whilst shaking its head.
Abel opened a Scroll of Town Portal. After returning to his room inside Moon Guardian City, he realized that the day was already bright. Loraine was standing outside very anxiously.
“You’re finally out, Abel!” Loraine sighed in relief after seeing Abel.
“What’s wrong? I’m just a little late, aren’t I?” Abel asked.
Loraine had no idea about Abel’s journey down in the dark world and said, “You lost your count of time, Abel! You’ve been inside your room for about one day and one night! Bernie came to see you, but he left because he didn’t want to interrupt your training.”
“One day and one night?”
One day and one night was the equivalent of twenty days inside the dark world. He didn’t think that a soul transformation would take this long.
Loraine might not have known about what Abel did “inside his room,” but she was right about one thing. Abel did lose track of time because of his training. And it wasn’t one day and one night that he lost track of. It’s actually twenty days and twenty nights that he had missed.
Thank the spirits. If Abel didn’t feed three ration potions to Black Wind at once, it would’ve been starved to death by now. Even if it didn’t die because of hunger, it would’ve become as thin as one of his skeletons. Maybe it was time to drop some herbivore animals inside Bloor Moor. That way, Black Wind could hunt on its own while Abel was doing his training.
Abel asked Loraine, “What did Bernie say when he came here?”
“He didn’t say much, but it looked like he was in a rush for something,” Loraine replied.
“You’re awake, Master Abel!” Bernie’s voice suddenly came as his short stature appeared at the door.
“You’ve come, Bernie. Please, let’s talk inside,” Abel gestured as Bernie bowed to him.
While Bernie was going inside room, he gave a somewhat troublesome look at Loraine.
Loraine said to Abel softly as she understood why Bernie did this, “I’ll let you two talk amongst yourself. See you then, Abel!”
“It’s fine,” Abel smiled as he stopped Loraine from leaving, then turned towards Bernie, “Loraine is very dear to me. I have nothing to hide from her.”
Bernie said straightforwardly without looking at Loriane, “Master Abel, I’ve learned the whereabouts of the deurgars from a special source. I don’t know how many of my little brother’s spies are still there, though. Please, Master Abel. I need your assistance to send them to hell!”
Abel shook his head, “We’ve fought many times together before, Bernie. I can deal with a few lower ranked duergars, but the ones you speak of are not the ones you want to anger. Besides, you are telling me to charge straight into their hideouts. There will be an official wizard there. I can’t fight a wizard, you know.”
“Master Abel,” Bernie looked at Abel straight in the eyes, “Maybe I didn’t know much about you before. After I returned home several days ago, I used my family’s connections to learn all there is about your achievements. The others might see you as innocent, but no! After I saw you injuring the ice fire ape with your explosion, I knew that it was you who’s behind the Duchy of Keyen!”
Abel smiled as he wasn’t too shocked by what Bernie was saying, “You know I won’t admit to that, Bernie.”
“Of course, Master Abel! No one would admit to being the culprit behind the Duchy of Keyen! Here, I’m just “requesting” you to blow up something else for me. What I have here is a book on how to make a magic staff. It’s called (An Introduction to Making Magic Staff), and it will be my reward to you after the deed is done!”
Abel’s look became grim as he heard the book’s title, “Bernie, from what I’ve heard, staff making is a secret that your kind has guarded for generations. There’s going to be a lot of dwarves who would oppose what you’re doing now. In fact, I’m sure there are plenty right now, aren’t there?”
“It’s fine, Master Abel,” Bernie smiled as though he didn’t care, “If you are going to save my family, save my comrades and me, and use all the remaining explosives that you have to destroy the deurgars, who are the eternal rivals to my kind, I think it’s fair that we reward you with something meaningful in return.”
Abel understood what Bernie was saying now. Basically, Bernie was just giving him an excuse to get his hands on the [An Introduction to Making Magic Staff). If the powerful, powerful Goff family wanted to eliminate the deurgars, they would’ve done it themselves a long time ago.
When Abel was traveling with Bernie, Bernie did ask him about the kind of techniques he wanted to learn from the dwarves. That being said, Abel didn’t expect Bernie to remember his answer so well. He did say “staff making” at the time, but he didn’t think that his dear friend would actually teach it to him.
Bernie persisted as Abel was becoming kind of uncertain, “Anything, Master Abel. As long as they are needed for your mission, I will get them for you. I’m a dwarf, yes, but I do know that the explosions you did were not from something normal!”
“Thank you, Bernie. I know what you’re trying to say now,” Abel gave a slight bow towards Bernie.
“You know I won’t admit to that, Master Abel,” Bernie smiled as he copied Abel’s line.
“I will need one pound of meteorite iron, one pound of hematite ore and a large amount of beginner’s fire magic gemstone,” Abel requested.
Abel wasn’t trying to be nice here. Obviously, the hematite ore was for the stuff he wanted to forge in the future. The dwarves were filthy rich, anyways. It wasn’t like they were short on all sorts of minerals. He had no reason to lose out on a chance to swindle from them.
Come to think of it; there was a giant ballista at the Moon Guardian City fort. If White Cloud was carrying one of these on its back, Abel was sure that he could one-shot any golden flying mount creatures that he could find.
He wasn’t going to tell Bernie about it, of course, which was why he said something else: “If it’s possible, Bernie, could you get a big ballista for me? I want it to strengthen White Cloud’s, uh, defense capability.”
“Wait, that’s all you’re asking from me?” Bernie threw a look at Abel. While Abel thought that he was asking a lot already, Bernie thought that he was trying to be nice. After seeing that Abel wasn’t talking anymore, Bernie finally chose not to make any more offers.
“Okay, then,” Bernie said, “Wait here. I’ll prepare them for you, Master Abel!”
Loraine said worryingly after Bernie left, “Will it be dangerous, Abel?”
If Abel couldn’t delay the exploding time of his super exploding ball, he might’ve turned down Bernie’s request this time. He wasn’t going to trade his life for a book, after all. But now, after he’s managed to delay the exploding effect of the ball for eight seconds, he could’ve flown away on White Cloud for far farther than he needed to.
Abel smiled, “It’s fine, Loraine. I wouldn’t have said yes if I wasn’t confident.”
“Mind if I come with you, Abel?” Loraine asked softly.
“You wait here, Loraine. There are some things that I don’t want to drag you into.”
Loraine wasn’t an ordinary girl. Abel knew that already, but he’s got a lot of troubles behind his back already. He did not want to bring any more trouble to her.
“I’m going to take a nap then!” Loraine suddenly said loudly. With an angry expression that she rarely had, she went back to her room and slammed the door shut.
“Loraine!” Abel called for Loraine. He couldn’t help but smile when he saw Loraine like that. After all, it was kind of hard to see someone like her to be in such a mood.