A quiet pause and a voice echoed through the dark, “You are alive! Are you- where is the Ant?” 

“It’s taken care of,” Rick answered. He heard the bow’s string loosen at his answer and a sigh echoed through the quiet room. 

“It’s been more almost a day,” Julia said. 

Before he could say anything, he heard her footsteps recede before the handle to the door opened once again and she was gone. 

“Weirdo,” Rick let out a sad smile. With her gone, he called out his status screen.

 

Strength 20

Stamina 19

Concentration 65

Perception 30

Vitality 3

Agility 25

Mana 52

 

His stats increased again. His [Mana] and [Concentration] stats were already above fifty and even his [Vitality] increased. With his three points in [Vitality], he could now heal himself three times as fast a normal human before the Heaven’s Dictate. 

Done checking, he closed the screen and said, “We might as well leave, right Pip?”

“Peep peep peep!” she chirped happily before obediently ducking back into his jacket.

All alone, Rick took walked out. 

The sky was a shade of drying cherries as the sun peeked its way from the east. The morning air stung his face and ruffled his unkempt beard. The morning was just around the corner. 

As his eyes adjusted to the brightness outside, he heard a familiar voice.

“Aah! It’s so good to see you make it back,” it was the irritatingly optimistic Hannigan’s voice, “Miss Evans just told us that you killed the Fiery Ant!”

Rick looked towards the voice and noticed that there were a crowd of ten with weapons drawn at him.

“You are quite strong, but I am sure you won’t be able to take on all of us,” Hannigan continued, fiddling with his square-glasses.  

“Rick!” he heard a panicked voice. He immediately looked to his right to see Julia held back by Mathew. “Run! Why did you lie about the golems?”

“Miss Evans, didn’t you vote yes for this? I should say, we are really thankful to you for clearing the dungeon. But I can’t let you leave after you lied to us, the camp voted,” Hannigan shrugged, before adding, “I didn’t want it to come to this either.”

“Oh, it’s about the golems. I was worried about having to go into the, you know, dungeon and completely forgot to give these to you,” Rick said taking out a bunch of “Golem-Controlling Artifacts from his backpacks”.

Insure, the crowd shared quick glances at each other.

“Is- is that it?” someone asked. 

“He might be lying,” another said.

“Why don’t I just put these down here, you can come up and try it for yourself. It’s the rational thing to do Mr. Hannigan,” Rick replied with a polite smile of his own, trying to outdo the other. He quickly sprawled out the Ghostvine Leaves aka the Golem-Controlling Talismans on the ground before him like tarot cards and stepped back. 

No one took the initiate. 

“Oh what the hell, we might as well give it a go,” he heard Mathew walked over. He picked up the leaf closest to him and looking over towards Rick said. “This better work. For everyone’s sake.”

Rick watched Mathew shove his hand inside his pouch and pulled out a golem core and tossed it, but nothing happened. 

“You lied again?” Mathew said with disappointment and anger evident on his face.

“Only one golem will come out of that. I remember every Artifact I made and you have chosen a very good Golem Controlling Artifact. It’s the Wind-Beetle golem. Try the other golem cores, one of them will work for sure,” Rick said hurriedly. 

Hearing his explanation, Mathew relented and continued tossing golem cores one after the other. It was only on his seventh attempt that the ground shook a little before a light breeze took the golem-core into the air and a barely visible beetle shaped body floated in the air.

Collective gasps escaped from everyone around. It was real. They looked on as the beetle to hover around at Mathew’s command.

“I will take one too,” a teenage girl put down her bow and walked up to take another talisman. Following her, the rest along with Hannigan also walked up.

“Mr. Rick, why did you not give them before, it would have saved us from all the misunderstanding here,” Hannigan said. 

“I know… It must have slipped my mind. Besides with Julia being so angry, I was… how do I put it…disturbed.” he said aloud and cast a glance towards where Julia was. But to his dismay, he could only see her back walk away from the gathering. 

His smile disappeared. 

“Listen, Rick. I don’t know what happened between the two. But you should know, she still cares,” Hannigan said placing his hand on Rick’s back. He put the Talisman into his pocket and continued, “When she heard you were not out of the dungeon, she insisted on going into the dungeon at five in the morning. She was worried about you.”

Rick stayed silent.

“I just thought you should know. Besides, there is no need for you to be so gloomy, you just cleared a dungeon. We will have a good breakfast to celebrate,” Hannigan said.

“No there is no need for that. I do not feel hungry anyway,” Rick politely declined. 

“I know we don’t need to eat every day anymore. But it’s a nice habit to keep. Don’t you think so?” Hannigan said and raised his hand, “Mathew come h-”

“Mr. Hannigan please,” Rick stopped the older gentleman but Mathew was already there. He looked at both of them and said in a tired voice, “Mr. Hannigan let’s discuss of a way to get you into the Celestial Devotee’s Settlement first, what do you say?”

“Yes, but we will need to take a vote first,” Mathew said. 

Rick frowned. It was tiring to have to wait for hours for taking any decision.

“No. Let’s hear what he has to say first. We can discuss with the rest later,” Hannigan quickly said seeing Rick’s expression. Looking at Rick he said, “Do you want to rest first?”

“No, let’s finish business immediately,” Rick said. Besides, he could rest his body while they discussed as well. “You should call everyone with good crafting knowledge as well. But keep the group below five and only people you can trust.”

“We trust everyone here Mr. Rick,” Hannigan smiled. “Why don’t you come with me, Mathew will bring the people over right there.”

With that, Hannigan led Rick down to the train cabin he had slept at for one night while Mathew disappeared to gather the rest of the attendants. 

“I am really happy you could clear the dungeon. We lost three of our people before deciding to stop going in. Since then we just had two people stand guard outside so that if the monster did escape, we could try and take shelter quickly,” Hannigan started the conversation while the two sat on the ground waiting for the rest of the attendees to arrive.

“I was lucky,” Rick replied, not explaining further. 

Hannigan did no say anything after that, probably sensing Rick’s unwillingness to talk. Soon enough Mathew returned with four others. Of them, Rick already knew two, Julia and Alima, but the other two were new faces to him. 

“I will leave then,” Mathew said.

“Mathew, why are you leaving?” Rick stopped him. 

“I don’t have the skill to make anything particular. You guys carry on,” he said.

“We will need someone strong as well. Get in,” Rick said. 

The others looked towards Hannigan waiting for an explanation for the meeting this early in the morning, that too without a vote, but none came. 

“I think we should introduce ourselves first,” Hannigan said looking at Rick.

“Yes, that’s a good idea. I am Rick Hanique. I know almost all of you here and for the others, I am the person who traded the golems in exchange for entering the dungeon. But all that is not important. What is important is that I can help your camp find a spot in the city of the Celestial Devotees.”