“How far did you end up walking?” Sam asked, shaking her head.

“Well not much, I was going a kilometre either way on the main road,” Jay replied. Before anyone could chide him on his dramatic entrance, he quickly added, “And I have good news. One Golem-Control Artifact can cover, more or less, eighty kilometres.”

“So we can reach the City with just one Artifact?” Sam analysed.

“I was worried it will get expensive, but it’s quite acceptable. Besides, it’s not too slow as well,” Jay nodded, giving Rick a thumbs up.

“Great, I have another five Mutated Dog Golems. You can have them too. Keep two of them as your backup golems and you can sell the rest.” Rick said, pleased with the outstanding reviews. 

“And the Artifacts?” Sam asked with a discreet wink.

“I can make a few for sure. I think I have resources to make about thirty of them, but that’s my limit,” Rick replied. He decided to give five extra Ghostvine Leaves to Sam.

“And to repay some of the gratitude, these Beast Cores,” Jay said, pulling out three backpacks from mid-air.

“Umm. Thank you,” Rick gladly accepted the beast cores. 

“Let’s continue talking while we eat,” Samira chimed in throwing a can of fruits to the two. 

“If -umh- you need- omh- something- slurp- just let me know, okay,” Jay said in between bites. 

“Oi J, how many times have I told you not to chew and speak?” Samira said irritated.

“Sorry!” Jay replied hands in the air, mouth filled.

Rick looked around the place and a warm smile crossed his face. It was hard to find moments to enjoy and looking around made his heart warm-up.

They ended up sharing their travel stories and sleeping in the couches right there itself. When Pip hopped out of Rick’s pocket and slept with Samira instead, she gave an excited squeak before everyone crawled into their covers for the night.

 

Rick woke up the next morning to the smell of cooked tuna and over the sound of people talking. 

“Hey, look who decided to wake up. Good morning sunshine,” Rick saw Jay with a cup in his hand looking down at him.

“Good morning,” he yawned back. “Why are you up so early?”

“You are up late, sloth,” Samira replied, “Get up, we have tuna for breakfast.”

“Courtesy of yours truly,” Jay added with a mock bow.

Rick crawled up his bed to see a sight that had become an extraordinary sight since a month back, a tuna sandwich.

“How-” he started. But with a glance saw it for himself. There were a dozen bright-red skewers on the floor heating a can of tuna. “But the bread?”

“Don’t know how, but the Salamander City has it, dude,” Jay said.

“Wow!” Rick was surprised about how advanced the Salamander City sounded. Compared to that the Library Settlement was a village.

He grabbed a sandwich and a cup of warm water and took a seat at the kitchen counter. 

“So, what’s the plan for the day?” Rick asked. 

“Umm, Sam told we might be gone for a long time this time around right?” Jay asked walking over.

“Ya, she did,” Rick smiled at Samira. He knew they had to go their own paths. But they would always look out for each other, “When are you planning to leave?”

“Tomorrow morning,” she replied.

“So we were planning to go out and gather anything that you might need,” Jay said with a wide smile. 

“Tch, I did help you out with the Troll remember? Without me, you would probably still be selling beast carcasses,” Rick hit back. He knew Jay meant well. But he needed to make sure Samira and Jay did not have to worry about his survival and get distracted. 

“No. I didn’t mean like you-” Jay started.

“Actually, I do need a few things though,” he cut Jay off with a wide grin. 

“Fine, you got me,” Jay punched Rick on his shoulder with a chuckle. 

“Idiots!” Samira commented observing the two. 

Rick told them of the things that he needs. Now that Jay had scouted the food and water, he had enough of that to last him a lifetime. 

“I need something better than ordinary paper to make talismans with,” he said. 

The ordinary paper could only produce a certain quality of talismans and the quality of the final product depended immensely on the materials used. For instance, Rick knew of the runes for making the [Word Communication Scroll] perfectly, but its quality was limited by the quality of the paper itself.

“How about cardboard?” Jay suggested. 

“No that’s still paper. I need something that can hold more magic,” Rick explained.

“How about stones?” Samira suggested. But then herself answered, “But it will be difficult to carry around so many stones.”

The three went around discussing with no result for the quarter of an hour. 

“So, the best we have right now is leaves?” Samira asked hand-in-head.

But then Jay came up with the suggestion of using leather.

“That could work,” Rick calculated. Beast skin was easy to obtain and it could absorb much more magic than normal paper. Besides he had a trick up his sleeve too. While it would ordinarily take a week to process hide to leather, Pip could do it in one meal’s time. 

Once they settled on leather, Jay volunteered to hunt as many beasts as possible before nightfall.

“Anything else you need little bro?” Samira asked.

“I would not mind if we could find a box or something which is fire-resistant,” Rick said before adding, “And some syringes if there are any around.”

“Why syringes? If you are not healing from injuries you should look into your [Vitality] stat,” Jay suggested.

“It’s not tha-” Rick said shaking his head.

“Okay fine, we don’t have time right now. I will go get the fire-proof box, syringes and anything else I can find around this place. Jay, you will go and grab the beasts. Let’s go!” Samira ordered.

Jay nodded.

“Hey what about me?” Rick said quickly, afraid they would leave before hearing him out.

“What about you?”

“I want to go with Jay on the hunt,” Rick said.

“Come on Rick-”

“Hey Sam, don’t worry I will take care of him,” Jay vouched.

“Fine. Just, just be careful, okay,” Sam acceded. 

“Cool!” Rick replied. He whispered to Jay, “Also I need a weapon.”

“Shh! We will talk later, she will hear you,” he replied.

“Okay let’s go,” Sam said picking up the glowing skewers and putting it into a side pouch before walking out. 

Jay followed behind her.

“Let’s go Pip,” Rick called out to Pip, who was now sitting on Samira’s head instead. 

“Peep! Peep!” she squeaked back, unmoving, waving her tiny wing goodbye.  

“Stop fooling around let’s go,” Jay shoved Rick seeing him standing slack-jawed. 

"Fine I will see you later Pip," he waved.

The three threw their Mutated Dog Golem's and climbed on their backs. 

“What’s yours called?” Jay asked from atop Lock.

“This is Holmes,” he replied grinning, patting the Golem's back.

“See you later boys,” Samira replied riding off on Sher.

“Follow me,” Jay said riding off to the other direction towards the highway.