Chapter 74: Reckless

Chapter 74: Reckless

Cal exhaled slowly as he recovered from the fifth time he fed the hearthstone in around three hours. The crops were fine, Tavia hadn’t left her room, and the workers were still making the stone path.

Though, they were making surprisingly quick progress for mortals. They would be done soon.

He looked out the window to see them getting ever so close to the house. A well-built stone path extended behind them to the tree line.

I’ll need to give them instructions for the next step but before that...

Cal stood up and covered the hearthstone with the rug before heading to Tavia’s room. He could no longer let her be. He had never been in a habit of volunteering to help anyone, even Oleg.

If Oleg wanted his help, his friend had always asked directly. For some reason, he felt that Tavia would not do the same.

... Oleg would be ranting at me for doing this. He would say to wait and let Tavia approach first. He always had odd advice regarding her... but he was the only one married in their last life, so maybe there is something to that.

Cal knocked on the door a few times before stepping back when he heard some movement. Tavia opened the door slightly and stared at him with red eyes. That shocked him silent.

He wasn’t sure what could have happened to cause Tavia to let out tears. She had never fallen to this level of despair, even when trying desperately to leave the core guild. For someone who had shamelessly decided to move into his house before he had even agreed, this defeated expression wasn’t something he could accept.

“I’m still exhausted, Cal,” Tavia spoke first since Cal chose to remain mute. "I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

She attempted to close the door, but Cal finally acted. He blocked her from doing so. “What happened in Silverpine?”

Tavia looked at him as if asking why he cared, but nonetheless, she replied. “I found out my friends crossed the border into the Frostguard Dominion.” She paused before hissing, “I have no idea why they thought going to that place was a good idea.”

“... What’s the Frostguard Dominion?” Cal could understand it was a place to avoid from her tone, but he had never heard of it before.

“They’re the only neighboring guild that is fanatically aggressive,” Tavia shook her head in resignation. “It’s not likely I’ll see them again.”

Cal, who had been thinking that his Apprentice rank would be helpful, was caught flat-footed. He couldn’t do much outside the Celestial Order’s territory.

“... There’s a chance nothing happened to them. No guild would be foolish enough to bar people from just entering their territory.”

“Unfortunately, the Frostguard Dominion is one such guild. They barely allow trade to pass through their borders. It’s a miracle I even learned about this matter,” Tavia looked more tired than before after saying those words out loud.

Cal could only accept what he was being told since he knew little of it, but there was something that didn’t make much sense to him. “How did you come across this information? The Celestial Order is not subtle about keeping external affairs a secret.”

“They try their best,” Tavia rolled her eyes. “If you stay in the core guild, that’ll work. It’s nearly impossible to not learn when you travel to the border settlements. There’s too much trade happening to keep anything quiet.”

... I really wasn’t trying my best to find this information, was I? In my defense, only a few weeks have passed since I returned to this life.

“What do you want to do about this?” Cal was prepared to hear something ridiculous like saving them.

Tavia’s face fell further. “Nothing. There’s nothing I can do. I’m too weak, and the guild will never let me leave.”

It took everything Cal had not to show his relief. He was concerned he would have to convince her to leave her friends to their fate. Any attempts to leave the territory would draw drastic, possibly lethal, action from the guild.

Overseer Marek made that clear to him.

“I’m sorry, Tavia,” Cal said with a low voice. He thought about the note he received from Overseer Marek and hesitated before offering, “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll see if there’s something I can do to help.”

Cal had lost most of the trust that Overseer Marek had a high, largely autonomous position in the guild with how severely the guildmaster humbled him, but the note implied everything wasn’t as it seemed.

Even if Overseer Marek couldn’t help, he might be able to do something in the future. Of course, he wasn’t going to let Tavia in on his plans to prepare for an exit. Not yet, anyway.

“The Overseer is strangely focused on you, but you’re still just an Initiate,” Tavia didn’t want to be given false promises.

“Oh,” There was no reason to hide it from her. “I’m an Apprentice now.”

However, the further he was, the lower the efficiency was. There was a reason he sat directly beside the hearthstone when feeding it mana.

Cal reached out to the hearthstone with a tendril of mana. It was easy to find since all it contained was his own mana, with a minuscule amount gathered naturally. It wouldn't take much more effort, even if this wasn’t the case.

There was a reason such hearthstones were guarded behind runic arrays. There was little point in having them if anyone could draw from it. Of course, it wasn't needed at his modest station.

Cal felt the mana in the hearthstone respond to him eagerly and turned his attention back to the rock hill in front of him.

[Harvest Guardian] activated.

He quickly opened the floodgates that blocked the hearthstone’s mana from being used. And it was just in time.

Just like before, his mana core was emptied out in one pull, but the hearthstone immediately refilled it. [Harvest Guardian] was ravenous and continued to take all the mana that it could.

The pile of rocks rumbled dangerously as the [Trait] formed the golem's foundations. Compared to the last time he tried it, the disturbance was so large that it was apparent something significant was forming.

Cal sensed that the hearthstone was quickly losing its ability to help. His mana core had been refilled over fifteen times, and he was surprised that the hearthstone could help to this extent.

There was mana lost when feeding the hearthstone, even though he did it at a close distance. And there was a significantly greater amount of mana lost right now as he pulled from it.

The hearthstone finally emptied and cut off the connection. Cal’s shoulder slumped slightly from exhaustion. The amount of mana that was channeled through his body was enough to make him feel like he needed to sleep for a week.

But [Harvest Guardian] wasn’t done yet.

The pile of rocks he was using shimmered before coalescing into a single, large blob that hovered slightly in the air. The whole pile was gone when the interface made itself known again.

This golem is forming without an elemental affinity.

Do you wish to use your essential mana reserves to apply one of your affinities to this golem?

WARNING

Dipping into your essential mana reserves will make you unable to use mana for a variable period of time. The length is determined by how much of the reserve you deplete.

Cal didn’t choose this option with the tiny golem, and he definitely wouldn’t with something this large.

Proceeding without the use of essential mana reserves.

The golem's final formation was familiar, only larger this time. He took a few steps back when it started to grow limbs and gain a vaguely humanoid face.

Cal nodded in satisfaction as he stared up at the seven-foot-tall golem. Though, he did expect it to be a bit larger. He was a little disappointed that nothing else changed other than the size, but this golem would be much more useful than the tiny one he got the first time.

Hmm, I don’t need it to water anything. I’ll set it to do one of the more tedious tasks.

“Clean up the field. Then clean up the surface layer I broke outside the field.”

The golem moved.

Cal stared wide-eyed at the giant hunk of rock that was already close to the pond. It was gathering the debris he had dug up while making the channel for the pond.

Fast. But also stupid. It isn’t using tools this time. It’ll take exponentially longer if it uses its hands—oh.

The golem compacted the dirt and rocks in its hands before lobbing it in his direction. Cal didn’t move as he tracked the ball of dirt and rock sail above his head and crash exactly where a pile of rocks used to be. The same pile that the golem was created from.

Cal laughed at the clever way it chose to speed up the work. The golem might have more to it than simply size.