40 Chapter 40

Aerywn spent the rest of the day lazing about and looking through the books on the second floor of his broken spire. He couldn't actually read the language but some pages were illustrated with drawings of beasts and such, so he enjoyed skimming through them. Once night came he took out Glik's mana core and began using it to prod his staff in hopes that it could somehow absorb it.

Rin and Ren watched as he sat there for half an hour poking and prodding the staff with the mana core to no avail. When Aerwyn looked up and saw them staring at him he went red from embarrassment. Rin looked confused but playfully curious, while Ren took a step back as if he was a crazy man that might try to eat her.

"...I-i was trying to get the staff to absorb the mana core... Don't look at me like i'm crazy." Aerwyn attempted to explain himself but Ren didn't buy it.

"Kwee..." Ren took another step back and squeaked out a response as if saying 'Sure, totally makes sense...'.

"You... You chase around a string for fun! I don't need to explain myself to you!" Aerwyn stuck out his tongue but Ren was already keeping a safe three meter distance from him as if trying to avoid catching his crazy.

"KWEE!" Rin squealed at Ren in agreement. Aerwyn looked at the precious creature who always had his back and pounced on her, nuzzling his face against hers.

"Rin always sticks up for me, here you can have Glik's mana core. In fact you can have all the mana cores and none for that stinky Ren, right?" Aerwyn held Rin like a baby before pointing accusingly at Ren who simply ignored the two.

"KWEE!" Rin squealed in agreement once more.

He laid there on the floor deep in thought while cuddling with Rin. If the staff couldn't absorb mana cores then the only way to evolve it would be to use his soul like he did Rorik. The only problem was that he rarely had enough souls to do everything he wanted and this was no different. While it did seem like he could evolve things with his soul, that was just an assumption and he wasn't a hundred percent sure if it would work.

Aerwyn called Teek through the darkness and once she arrived he gave her three zin beetle cores. She happily accepted and as soon as the little crystals entered her hand they vanished into her mouth. Next he handed two zin beetle cores to Rin who promptly ate them. Ren walked over under the assumption she was next and Aerwyn looked at her with a massive grin.

"Oh? Do you need something from me?" Ren froze as Aerwyn tossed the mana cores up and down with a hideous smile as if he was some sort of sleazy extortionist. She stared at him for a moment before charging in like a bull, slamming her head into his shin and storming off. Aerwyn hollered, pretending he was hurt and Ren paused to look back.

"Come back ya baby i was just joking, here." Aerwyn knelt down and held his hand out. Ren ran over, grabbed the mana cores with her mouth and ran off without so much as a 'thank-kwee'. He sighed and decided to call it a night, going back downstairs to cuddle with Rin until sleep took him.

The following day the wound on his chest was now but a scar and he felt good enough to check in on things around the city. Aerwyn found Bon on the southern avenue, he was tilting his head and staring at the building before him appearing to be lost in thought.

"..What are you doing?" Aerwyn asked curiously.

"Ah, master! I-i'm helping Kabba with clearing the city. T-there are many buildings which could still be used so I've been inspecting them one by one."

"I didn't know you were a stone mason too." Aerwyn chuckled.

"I-i'm n-not master. I'm just looking for cracks in the stone... I-it seemed like a waste to tear down perfectly good buildings." Bon grew even more nervous than usual and Aerwyn felt bad for making fun of him.

"I'm joking, good work. I wanted to ask you how goblins make fur pelts like the ones in the spire." Aerwyn patted his shoulder and assured him as he spoke.

"I have never done it myself but i believe they simply skin the animal and leave the hide out for a few months."

"Really? Hmm... Do they know how to make leather?"

"No master, leather like what Kabba wears is rare for goblins. I believe he found it off an orc's corpse a few years ago."

"Alright, i'll have to ask Tylin about it then. For now i want you to set aside a few goblins to handle the pelts that the hunting group brings back. Keep up the good work."

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"Yes master." Bon gave a short bow before returning his gaze to the building.

After leaving Bon, Aerwyn decided to roam the city for a bit. The new troll Tylin had given him along with the extra hundred or so undead goblins he brought back from the battle were really helping with the city clearing project. Unfortunately though, most of the city would be destroyed as the buildings were too unsafe to use.

He wouldn't be surprised if only a dozen structure's made the cut as nature and time were truly harsh on the city of Ardin. Soon he found himself outside the underground entrance which would eventually become his mine. He was curious how much progress they had made and was dumbfounded at how quickly they worked.

The vosk had already carved out about half a kilometer of stone and earth. They still had nearly twenty kilometers until they reached the cavern but Aerwyn didn't need them to, at least not right away. Once the vosk reached the cave that connected the underground passage to the cavern it would allow Erit to travel back and forth from Ardin.

It would be a pretty tight squeeze for Erit but he wanted to go back to the cavern and get some more spiders soon anyway. Aerwyn left the vosk alone to do their work and headed over to Frakki.

Once he arrived at the building that was being used to house the goblins chosen for breading, he witnessed Frakki making throaty grunting noises through the window.

"...How's the breeding going?"

"KRAK GANAKU!" "KRAK! KRAK!" The screechy voices of clamoring goblins poured out from the window.

"Ah! Great one, t-the goblins refuse to listen to me. They're aware of their situation as slaves but

they refuse to mate. I-i don't know what to do." Aerwyn seemed to have startled him as Frakki jumped the moment he heard Aerwyn's voice and immediately tilted his head to stare at the floor.

"Are they aware that if they refuse to mate then they serve no purpose to me?"

"G-great one, goblin language isn't complex enough to thoroughly explain... There are only a handful of words and noises they can understand and since they know i'm an undead they won't listen."

"Would they not mate if we just left them in there long enough?"

"It's possible..."

"Keep trying for now, if there's still no progress in a few weeks then i can ask Tylin... Ah, that's right you don't know him... He's an evil elf necromancer who creates poison that makes white furry goblins appear, you'll meet him eventually." Aerwyn patted him on the back and noticed Frakki shivering.

"...Are you cold?" Aerwyn asked, displaying a concerning smile to the hobgoblin.

"N-no great one..."

"Hmm... I wonder if undead can even feel the cold..." Aerwyn nodded and walked off mumbling to himself.

He noticed Kabba in the distance working hard with the rest of his undead and Aerwyn realized he was the only one in the entire city with nothing to do.

"Master i'm bored!" Erit appeared behind at the perfect moment as if she were an echo of his thoughts.

"...Me too. Go round up some of the spiders, lets start covering the forest surrounding Ardin in webs."

"Ok!" Erit skittered off leaving Aerwyn to his thoughts.

She returned a short time later with a dozen spiders and they took off for the forest. Aerwyn sat nearby and played with his flames while Erit and the spiders plastered the forest with webs. He tried to make his flames appear in a ball like he did during the last battle but no matter what he tried it wouldn't take form.

It was a strange sensation, he felt as though he should be able to completely control his flames as if they were just another one of his limbs but it felt limp and weak. It was as if he was trying to grab a ball off the ground but his arm was completely numb, he could get his fingers to touch the ball but he couldn't complete the action of actually grabbing it.

As night fell he gave up his futile attempts and had Erit bring him back to Ardin.