Chapter 48: Scars
"What are these?" Morden muttered while staring at the red stones in front of him.
Experience had taught him not to randomly touch things since anything could be dangerous, so he did what any other logical person would have done.
He picked something up to nudge the stones gently, and unlike the dramatic response Morden was expecting, he didn’t receive any change.
After a bit more nudging, there was still no change at all; they were just like normal stones.
’It seems like it’s fine to touch them,’ Morden thought before stretching his hand to touch them and the instant he made contact, he felt something.
He felt his vital energy get dragged into one of the stones for an extremely brief moment before suddenly going quiet again. After that the stones became ordinary red-colored gems that didn’t do anything else.
’It seems I would need to consult someone about this.’
’Lisa, probably, she seems quite knowledgeable.’
’This might very well be a lead,’
Having made the decision to keep the stones for further investigation, Morden was just about to keep them when something strange appeared in his line of sight.
[Would you like to store Red Stones (×3) in inventory?]
’Uhh? So these things are called Red stones.’
’Really obvious name. Storing it in my inventory allows for safety and easy access, so why not?’
"Yes," he said to himself.
The moment he made that decision, the three stones vanished from his hand to be shelved in his inventory.
"Now what do I do?" he asked while looking all around the house.
He had seen a clue about a shadowy figure in his living room corner; he had investigated to find three Red stones that didn’t seem to have any value that he knew of, and they weren’t supposed to report to the Watchmen today.
"I guess I will just have a normal day," he said while standing up and approaching the kitchen to pick up the watering can.
His mother’s special Roses were still left untended today since he had slept in, and now that he was awake and bored, he would go take care of them.
The task proved much harder than he had expected though, while he watered the roses, he would always picture his mother’s smiling face, and everything he pictured, the sight he saw the last night, resurfaced again.
"That bastard," he cursed while remembering the ugly Bellowing Hugeman.
Morden wasn’t the only one in such a situation, though, back in the Watchmen base, Darlus and Lisa, were also having their own fair share of troubles.
At least Darlus was; Lisa’s main problem was Darlus’ condition.
Just like Morden had done, Darlus and even Lisa had slept in, and it was only now that Darlus actually had the chance to check the box he had received as a reward for last night’s mission.
He sat there staring at the metal box, unmoving for a while until he released a painful sigh.
He opened the box to expose a necklace lying elegantly inside it, not disturbed by any external events.
The necklace was made of a slightly thin, ordinary-looking black rope, the type that could be found on any random necklace, the special thing wasn’t the rope but the pendant on the necklace.
It was made of blue, kite-shaped crystal that’s mostly translucent. The crystal glistened under the light originating from the ceiling.
Darlus didn’t pick up the necklace; he only remained frozen with his eyes locked on it until he eventually opened his mouth to speak, but it was in an extremely low voice.
"Mom...... I am sorry," accompanied by a single teardrop that slid down his face.
"I get that you are in a really tragic and sad moment, but I think you need to take reins of your emotions, or you will cause quite a lot of trouble," Lisa said from behind him.
She had been watching him since quite a while ago, and as time went by, she slowly grew more worried, all while her eyes were locked on the faint chill that was emanating from Darlus’s surroundings.
Even the pieces of furniture were also slowly getting frozen over time.
As if her words were like some sort of trigger, Darlus grabbed the necklace and turned around to look at her with a smile.
"I am fine, and you, I promise to not cause you any trouble," Darlus responded.
Seeing his weirdly broad smile, Lisa didn’t say anything more and just gave him a gentle nod.
Back in Morden’s house, despite his difficulties, he had managed to finish the gardening, and that was when he decided to cook and have a hearty meal, and that was exactly what he did.
After his meal, Morden spent the rest of his free day just chilling, relaxing, and reminiscing.
Today was a strange relief that was actually needed, and in no time it was the next morning already.
He rushed into the bathroom, prepared himself to head over to that place, and he made sure not to leave without having a filling meal, though.
When he arrived at the base, he met up with Lisa and Darlus, who greeted him with nice enthusiasm. Darlus especially was much more outspoken, which resulted in a smile from Morden.
"You seem happy today?" he asked.
"Yes, I am. I was about to retrieve something really important to me, so of course I woke up slightly more excited, and I think we will be getting to visit the Omnisphere once again," Darlus responded.
"Visit Omnisphere? how?" he wondered.
He was just about to begin his rounds of asking questions; they suddenly heard the door open, and then Mona walked in, her face straight and her stance displaying confidence.
She made sure to work a fair distance into the room where she stared at the three so-called ’Slaves’ one by one.
"Are you lots ready for your life-long mission assigned by yours truly?"
"It’s something you must do in order to even think of surviving the bearer."
At this point, she stopped and looked at all three of them before eventually going back to what she was saying before.
"Who is ready to head back to the Omnisphere and get stronger?"