Chapter 243 - Reality (7)

After a while, Shalia and Sylah appeared, and they joined the group, only to have a quick meal before going to sleep. Weirdly enough, Shalia kept some distance from Luke since he was hugging Danielle while she was sleeping. She used all the opportunities to cling to him, but she could read the mood. When morning came, a flustered Danielle woke up and felt embarrassed for sleeping like that.

"What are you doing? This is sexual harassment!" Danielle said.

"You know some big words… for the time being, just go clean your face that is filled with snot," Luke said. "You cried a lot yesterday."

"I didn't cry… dumbass!" Danielle said and then kicked Luke's left leg.

Danielle left the area to find some water and clean her face… She was a difficult child, but at least she recovered some of the old vigor. Luke didn't know if she would still live with his parents and become something like a little sister to him, probably not since she wasn't that meek or shy, but it was enough. In any case, Danielle returned after a while, showing a face as nothing had happened.

"We have accomplished our goal here, but leaving now would feel like a waste," Luke said. "Creating a mobile fortress would be the best option to find the enemies and deal with them, but it will take a while before I can have that many coins again. What do you guys think we should do?"

"Kick some ass!" Danielle said. 

"That is one hell of a strategy…" Shalia furrowed her eyebrows. "Things are the same as ever here. It will be fine if we return after a few months. Once those idiots decrease in numbers and contemplate annihilation, they will use their heads more."

"But big sis, wouldn't it be better if we stay here and help as many people as possible?" Sylah asked. "They might think the wrong way if we leave now and return later."

"Who is your big sis, dumbass?" Shalia raised her voice. "And why should I care about what others think about us?"

"Putting that aside, I also agree that we should achieve something here," Rina said. "Destroying some crystals that the dark elves are having a hard time dealing with might be enough. Leaving the skeletons to guard the coast and hunt the sahuagins might be good as well."

"Skeletons?" Danielle asked.

"You are too young to see them," Luke said.

"Don't treat me like a child!" Danielle said and then charged toward Luke, but he stopped her by putting his right hand on her forehead.

"Some of the dark elves saw us with the skeletons, so they will realize that we didn't come to face them if they see the skeletons facing the sahuagins," Luke nodded to himself. "Still, for the time bring, you should go home and tell everyone that you are right."

"I don't want to go alone…" Danielle said.

"All right, we will go together once we check the coast," Luke said.

Sylah could do the same thing as Shalia, so returning to the continent using ice platforms was easy. In the end, they found many bodies of sahuagins on the beach, but Luke realized that he also lost an equal number of skellies. As expected, he would be a lot more to guard the coast… thousands more since one could see other points where the enemies were leaving the sea north of their position.

After creating more skeletons from the corpses, Luke decided to help them fight the sahuagins in order to increase their numbers pretty safely. While it was quite the gruesome sight to see their bodies exploding and then becoming skeletons, Danielle didn't even flinch… which was weird since she knew that it was all real now. Still, in the end, she saw thousands of zombies decaying. Maybe Luke underestimated her mental fortitude.

In any case, after a few fights against the sahuagins, Luke realized that leaving them alone was really a bad idea. Sometimes, they left the ocean in groups of then, and they could coordinate their attacks quite well by dividing their groups into front and backline. The back would use as support, and since they were close to the ocean, they were a lot more troublesome than expected. Luke decided to return home to bring the news regarding Danielle. Still, he also decided to come to that area every day to keep increasing the size of his skeleton army. 

"Danielle! Sweetheart!" Julia ran to hug Danielle when they returned, and even Mark patted her head.

"I am sorry for worrying you all…" Danielle said.

"It is okay… you are fine, and that is all that matters," Julia said, still hugging Danielle firmly.

That night, Julia threw a party to celebrate Danielle's return, and while the kid wasn't much interested in it, she ended up staying since everyone came to see her. The old her would leave without caring about anything else, but Danielle was maturing. Moreover, she really wanted to see the mobile fortress moving, so she waited patiently for the end of the party and pestered Luke to make it fly. It was a pain, but at least I learned a few things. Thanks to his mother's hard work, they obtained ten times more mana on a single day than previously. He also learned that it needed one hundred points of mana to fly for a single second with the fortress current parameters. Still, at least it could move at fifty meters per second.

"Not bad, huh," Luke thought.

The only downside was still the fact that Luke couldn't make monsters spawn. He had to sacrifice one that wasn't under his mother's care and then use the crystal while she was away. Only Luke could see the mana inside it, so she won't notice anything.. While he would feel a bit bad about it, it was unavoidable… Regardless, he will have to wait for a while for the chance to come since he made his parents home the main building.