Chapter 180: What Is Home?
’What?... I can even access the information about their mutation with the help of their monster core.’ Dhruv thought that this must be a bug in the system or something like that. After all, how can the cosmos show their mutation to everyone like this? This was a total violation of their privacy rights.
After calming down for a second, he found that this was a very obvious thing, as all the information about them is stored in their core, like how humans’ information is stored in their DNA.
Dhruv even remembered that he had seen something that resembled DNA when he had pried into one of the monster’s cores before.
He quickly put all of these thoughts aside and once again focused on the status screen that had been opened in front of him.
[Ritualistic Finger: You have evolved your finger to contain the traces of a ritual in it. Your finger can store an entire ritual inside it. After mutating it to tier 3, you can write runes with just your finger.]
’What type of shit is this..?’ A frown appeared on his face as he read the description of the Ritualistic Finger.
’This finger of the Shaman could store a ritual inside it... Does that mean it works like a portable space for spells or something like that?.... Man, this magic is even more bizarre than I had thought,’ Dhruv thought as he read the description of the other mutation.
Besides this one, all the other mutations of the goblin were pretty normal—and were almost self-explanatory just from the name— which came as a massive surprise to Dhruv. He didn’t linger on the status of the Shaman longer and quickly closed it.
While he was busy with the status, Alaric had already come to the village and was now storing the corpses in his shadow. After a few minutes of storing all of them, they began to move toward the center of the forest, where the portal was.
It took them ten minutes of travel to reach the area where the portal. Looking at the mystical portal in front of him, Dhruv didn’t waste any time and quickly entered it.
As usual, the moment he entered the portal, his mind went blank. The blankess didn’t last for long and within a second, he regained control of his senses once again.
’So, we are in the first portal,’ Dhruv thought as he looked at the surrounding area. He had spawned in from the portal which was at the end of the cave. There was nothing but rock and darkness around him which made him even more sure that he was in the right place.
Nothing was exciting in the cave, so the trio began to move toward the portal once again. Due to the entire forest being almost cut down they were able to reach the portal pretty quickly as well. After entering the portal, the same thing repeated itself.
When he regained his senses, Dhruv tried to observe his surroundings with a careful gaze. He wasn’t able to notice anything immediately, but after traveling for a few minutes, he came to the realization that two more warehouses had been built.
Even the slime farm was fully built, and everyone was waiting for him to start it.
Though Dhruv felt that not beginning the slime farm as soon as possible was a waste of resources, he knew that nobody here was going to start anything without his presence. Dhruv had already accepted this fact and was trying to live with it.
While he was walking around the island, a child around the age of twelve or thirteen appeared in front of him and said, "The food is about to get ready in an hour, My lord. Please freshen up."
Looking at the lovely child in front of him, Dhruv responded, "Okay, I will remember to do that." After pausing for a bit, he asked her a question,
"Forgive me but I’m terrible with names, and I think I have done it again. Could you be kind enough to tell me your name, please?"
"Lily, My lord," Lily answered with all honesty. She wasn’t hurt that Dhruv was unable to remember her name... or at least that was how it looked from her facial expression.
"So, Lily, tell me how do you like the environment here compared to that of the place you were living previously?" He asked with a smile on his face.
Dhruv had asked this question to Lily because he knew that she was one of the members of the tribe.
If she were the one who had come from the city, then he wouldn’t have dared to ask this question, afraid that he would awaken some horror they must have felt during the attack of the monsters.
Listening to the question, Lily didn’t immediately reply and instead began to think for a few moments. Dhruv didn’t disturb her either and let her have as much time as she liked.
After thinking for twenty seconds, Lily faced Dhruv and answered,
"I don’t exactly know how to answer this question, my lord." She paused for a bit before continuing,
"The reason for this confusion is because everyone I know, and more people who are nice to us, is here... And because of that, I can’t tell any difference between this place and the place I was living before."
Lily looked at Dhruv with a smile on her face...
"In short, we aren’t practically attached to any place, but people living there... Ahhhh! This was something Lady Lyra often said." At the end of her sentence, she seemed lost in thought, as if remembering what Lyra had said.
"Well said, Lily. We aren’t attached to a place but to the.... people living there," Dhruv replied.
This was also one of the reasons why Dhruv hadn’t thought of visiting his home, not even for a single second.
’They are quite mature for their age,’ a thought appeared in his head as he looked at Lily’s disappearing back.
[Alaric come to my house.] Dhruv sends this message to Alaric through his Mark.
After pausing for a bit, he sent the same message to Vexar and Azarex as well. After sending the message, he began to move towards his house while thinking about the horror he was about to commit.
