"I want to hear all about your adventures with Dryads. You've never mentioned them before."
"They were a pain in the ass." Morok jumped out of the grave he had dug for himself, hoping it wasn't too deep. "You have no idea how many losers I had to rescue before they were turned into fertilizer.
"Some men seem to lose their mind as soon as they see a hottie with big breasts, long legs, and…."
"You'd better stop rambling. There's no time to lose." Ajatar nudged him.
"And I'd better stop rambling. You said they went in that direction, correct?" Morok bolted forward without waiting for an answer, hoping that the flight would last long enough to make Quylla's murderous rage subside.
They traveled for over an hour, keeping silent to not waste their focus and mana before a possible fight. Unfortunately for Lith, they met no mana geyser on their path so he couldn't obtain new information from the tower.
Solus confirmed him to be okay every half an hour, but she had yet to find the opportunity to send him more details about her current situation.
The message said water so they stopped over every river, lake, and creek they spotted from above but to no avail.
'Is it normal not to find a geyser for so long?' Lith asked via a mind link due to the high-speed flight making it impossible to speak.
During his tours as a Ranger, he had noticed how random the abundance of sources of world energy seemed to be.
'Normal, yes. Natural, no.' The Hydra replied. 'We are way past 500 kilometers now. If we don't find something soon, I'll have to promise a few favors.'
'Wait, what's the difference?' He said in confusion.
'It's normal because powerful geysers that produce magical resources are often cloaked by their discoverer to not have to share them with the Kingdom or other Awakened.
'Do you remember the mine in my turf that Glemos ransacked?' Faluel asked, receiving a nod in reply. 'Like that. So it's not natural but it's still normal. If Glemos built the refuge himself, he must have taken care of hiding it from Life Vision.'
'Shouldn't the Council know the position of all geysers?' Lith pondered how such a big colony might have escaped their attention for so long.
'Yes, but they pass the list solely to the Regional Rulers and we have no way to ask them about it without being questioned in turn. On top of that, don't forget that this isn't just Glemos' doing.
'If the project started millennia ago, then maybe a Tyrant found an unmarked geyser and took it for himself. If I'm right, we might stumble into a prize the likes you've never seen before.
'The treasure hoarded over thousands of years by an entire bloodline to fund their secret experiment and keep their riches away from the Council's grasp in the case it was discovered.
'We are talking about a Dragon cave kind of hoard.' Her eyes sparkled like those of someone who was talking about her true love and a radiant smile appeared on her face.
Lith shared her feelings and started to estimate the share of the treasure he was entitled to ask Morok since he would have never found his bloodline legacy without Lith's help.
"Dude, you are a married man!" Morok noticed the weird mood and the mind link between them. "You also have a bun in your wife's oven and yet you have the gall to hit on someone old enough to be your great-"
At the fourth great, Faluel hit on Morok's head, sending him plummeting to the ground. One river and another bust later, it was Ajatar's turn to beg for help with a "project" he was conducting in the area.
Even though a mana geyser was unproductive, magical resources like mystical flowers would still grow in its vicinities. To justify his request, the Drake had to look in his books for a plant typical of the area and claim that he was in need of its enchanted version.
"I don't get it." Morok scratched his chin while looking at the map. "We are past the 500 kilometers mark and there are only a few bodies of water in the area. Can't we just check them all?"
"No, you numbnuts!" Ajatar replied. "Even if the flow of world energy comes close enough to the ground for us to perceive it, something that I find unlikely, we still wouldn't know in which direction we should move or how deep we should go."
"We have Nalrond with us." Morok pointed at the Rezar.
"Yeah, and I'm certain that Glemos left plenty of safety protocols." Friya snorted. "One wrong move and he'd alert our enemies and make me single. Again!"
"Point taken." The Tyrant raised his hands in surrender. "What about your tracker?"
"The geyser fuels the device on its end, but to make contact from my side I need an energy source powerful enough to make up for the distance." Lith replied. "If Glemos' lab is cloaked, whatever reaches the surface won't do."
While they talked, he checked Soluspedia again and asked for a status report, obtaining the same answer as before. No matter how much Lith focused, the mind link was still out of reach.
After checking all the water sources and failing to find either a mana geyser or any trace of the presence of monsters, Faluel was forced to ask for help again. The group was now very far from the Distar Marquisate and she needed a plausible reason in no way related to Ajatar's earlier claim to justify her presence in the area.
Faluel's bloodline belonged to the four founding pillars of the Kingdom and during the War of the Griffons, Fyrwal had renewed the bonds with the Royals. Mother and daughter had contributed to the final battle and attended the end-of-war gala.
Many Awakened feared that the Hydras may use their privileged position in both the Council and the Crown to come after a new place where Fyrwal would live since Faluel occupied her old fief.
"I swear upon my core that I'm not after your resources or turf." She had to resort to the Awakened's sacred oath in order to convince Laxa the Unicorn. "Any mana geyser in the vicinity will do, no matter how weak.
"I just need it to fuel a long-range life sensing array."
"And what do you hope to find here that's not in your turf?" He asked.
"I've managed to track down a group of monsters that may belong to the invading force. The problem is that they noticed me while I was following them and managed to slip away."
"How? You are a competent elder and those are dumb monsters!" The Unicorn blurted out in disbelief.
"I don't know and if you keep wasting my time, I'll never find out." Faluel snarled, pretending to be outraged by both her alleged blunder and Laxa rubbing salt in her wounds. "My array has a wide area of effect but it doesn't cover the whole Mogar.
"Are you going to help me or not?"
"If it works and you find the monsters' base, I want credit and 10% of the reward for the discovery." The Unicorn said.
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