After about a short while, I had dispatched Cindy and Puppet on a mission to locate the dungeons where I could find the last ingredient of the cure to the dimenthylmercury poisoning. Cindy was ready and immediately volunteered, but Puppet was the naggy one.
"Aefia! You will just get hurt again! So why not we both just stay back and rest?! We both will be saving ourselves a huge load!"
"I said I am fine. And just locate the dungeons! It's not like you will be doing anything alright!"
"You always say that! But I am the most used little pet of yours! I have a—"
"What if I come along?" Cedric joined in while walking towards me and Puppet. "Since Aefia has to go through all this because of my family, I should be at least a hair-width help to her. I can make sure her injuries are treated when she gets hurt. Right?" He smiled while looking at Puppet.
"Uh... She has a medical aid for herself." Puppet squinted its eyes, while looking back at Aefia. "And do you expect me to believe that this guy who is still an amateur in using magic, wants to accompany you? He will end up dead somedays."
"Well it is true... Since I had suffered in my first battle as well. So, are you sure you want to come along? You might as well lose a limb in some cases." I added while folding my arms.
"I may be an amateur, but I have some good medical hand to handle bandages." Cedric responded, still not hesitating for his life.
"Well that medical aid is a human for short." Puppet spoke while flying up to his nose to irritate him and back him away. "I think she might even have him come along this time, but I would actually prefer you replace him, so... Alright. I will go and search for the dungoen." It added while dissapearing with Cindy.
"Since when did Puppet and Lio become enemies?!" I silently spoke in confusion as I looked back to Cedric's face. "Are you really sure you will be able to risk it? Sometimes the beasts are more scary then you think, you might end up partially losing yourself over the course of a few days. Not only that, the type of beast that I am trying to get the cure from is actually, a very dangerous one. They have venomous spikes."
"Well, if a little bit of risk is worth it, then I will tag along with no problems. Like I said, I feel indepted to you due to my family. And even if something happens all of a sudden to you in that dungoen, I can come out to send a message to whoever you need to say something to. There are actually many reasons you need the accompany of a friend." He explained all in one breathe, without a pause. And it surprised me that he could rap just as good as any rappers from Earth.
"Yes yes I understand. But I can only guarantee that you come along if you have confidence that you can fight back any threat that you are faced with. Even if it is a monster who you can't fight back, you will still have to have the courage, that should also be when you are crippled."
"Do you think I survived poverty for nothing? I think I can survive a crippled limb as well."
I stared at him with astonishment. "Poverty is not the same as crippled. We are speaking about your losing a limb here. Are you confident you won't be injured to that state? Otherwise I can just have you taped to a wheelchair if you really want to come along that bad." I smiled at him, continuing his sarcasm.
"You know, forget it. What about I can help you carry your rational items?"
"I have a skill called inventory."
"And what about helping you in the background?"
"I have my pets."
"Then maybe I can help you collect some other ingredients?"
"We need to harvest it from the beast itself. And we can't even kill it to make sure we have enough for the next time that we need to collect it again."
"Then what about your tour guide while we walk towards the dungoen or however we go there?"
"Sounds fun."
"Really?!"
"Yes, as long as you don't talk too much. It would be fun to go on a small trip once in a while." I answered while folding my arms and smiling. Later that night, we let Elanor and Nada know about the dungoen that we had to go to and what we had to do for what reason. They both allowed it since Cedric decided to accompany me there, but since Nada barely trusted me in going to dungeons at all, she protested and wanted to stop me.
"What would happen if you are badly injured after you come out for the dungoen?!" She shouted at my face while turning more and more pale at my words.
"But since I am the only who has enough information about the way to harvest the cure and enough skills to actually be successful at it, I am going to have to go whether I want it or not. Besides, we need to survive in this world for as long as we can finally find out the mystery behind the reason the space-time fabric is being flipped." I answered back while patting her shoulder. We both were alone, so no one could hear us.
"Even if I am injured, I have someone I can totally relay on to put me back in health. And I am actually tolerant to moments worth of pain. If you want to save this world, and still return back to Earth safely, I think we both know what should be done." I spoke while walking towards the edge of my bed and pulling out the book I kept going through every time, to check for anything that I had missed. "And can you do me a favour? Read this book back to forth without missing a single page. You will feel like you are getting a clue what this world truly is. I need you to stay at the same page as me."
That was how our conversation ended that night, and the next day, I received news from Puppet that Cindy had located one of those dungeons. Since it was a very rare type, and those were quiet beasts, they had quiet the hard time trying to track its presence through. But we didn't plan on departing instantly. After an entire night worth of searching and sorting, my pets needed to rest up.
I reviewed a map and marked the places that Cindy and Puppet had told me that the dungeons were. I needed to make sure it was the closest due to Cedric. And so, I settled for the one in the same forest as the one I had come back from. I marked the shortest route between the estate and the dungoen, to make things easier for the both of us.
Finally, I let Cedric know about the route we will take of anything went wrong or what were to be done if we were caught just in case. Now even if those sorry if things were least expected due to the time were planned on going, but it was still good to take precautions before we left.
"For the record, do you have a sword?" I asked as a last question and just to make sure. "Or at least any sort of a weapon?"
He smiled and pulled out a beautiful silver rapier that looked like liquid mirror. "I remember having a sword like this when I was younger, so I immitated it and created one out of a single bar of silver that I bought with my earned money. So I think this will be my weapon."
"Wow, it is very pretty for sword. It kind of gets me jealous." I muttered while leaning back on the sofa. It looked light weight, so I knew there was a bit of alluminium at the main blade. I didn't expect him to be this knowledgeable with this sort of things. And the design on the hilt was slender and had a beautiful, spiralling, suspended lines of curved vines at the surroundings.
As if it were casted with spells that caused the lines to float around the handle in a magical element look. Then at the point where the hilt widens into the main blade, there was a six-pointed sapphire star placed. Below the bigger one, was a more greener hue for a smaller stone.
I don't know when I had manifested it, however, I seemed to have grown into a huge fan of pretty swords with sleek body. If it were light-weight and something I could wield easily, I would definitely not drop it ever again. But maybe if there was another one that caught my eyes even more, then I would move towards that new one.
Like how I had come across Spectrum and liked it for its blade and its properties, I completely forgot about Obsidian. And I kind of felt bad for my first sword ever, which was a shape-shifting weapon too. I think in my entire life, even after I have seen so many guns, used so many for training, I only happened to end up liking my swords even more. I was actually addicted to them, I even thought about starting a collection of good swords.
"Not only that," Cedric spoke, distracting me from my thoughts and completely diverting my attention back to the rapier at his hands. "This is a twin blade."
"Wait... Really?!" I sat up in interest and looked at the second sword that came into his hand, it was almost identical to the first time he had shown me. The next one was more engraved with gold in the details, and it wasn't as eye-catching as the silver one. But the second one had a unique feature to it, the hilt had a slight decorative element made with bismuth. The crystal structure was tipping me off immediately.
"Just how do you have them so beautifully made?! I am jealous!" I shouted while standing up and holding Spectrum up above my head.
[Aaah! Master! Calm down! I am pretty too!]
Spectrum shouted into my ears in a comedic tone, its accent mixing with Indian and British. It caught me off guard and I stared at Cedric for a long awkward moment.
"Uhh... Aefia?"
"Did this sword just speak with accents?!" I shouted while pulling down Spectrum to eye-level.
[Aaaah... Master~... I am afraid of heights...]
With that Indian accent appearing again, I dropped it to the ground as if it were a rat.
[That's much better.]
"Oh my... It just blew my mind." I spoke while slumping down on the sofa in panic. "Forget it... I am just stupified by some sarcastic manner from this sword."
I looked down while breathing out heavily. I then looked up at a terrified Cedric and paused completely.
"I thought you were going to beat me up!" He spoke while clenching his swords tightly at his hands and looking at me with teary eyes like a kid.
"Sorry, I just lost it over a sword who spoke a bit different out of a sudden." I answered while placing a hand at my forehead and rubbing the skin at my temple. Then, I stood up again and took the map from the table. "Anyways. I will have to depart soon right? Then lets go finish the preparations right now." I added while turning towards my room door and walking towards the hallway that connected to Elanor's office. She was growing more sicker over the time, and it had gotten me worried over the time for Nada.
"By the way, I forgot to mention, you look good in yellow and dark green." Cedric mentioned while catching up to me. His own swords were gone and he was smiling like nothing had just happened.
"Oh thanks. It belongs to my deceased bully." I answered while dusting the knee-length yellow dress with green ribbons here and there. A long length of dark green ciffon was sewn onto the shoulder, it was draped and hanging behind me. The chiffon started at the waist line, and flew diagonally through the front. At the seam lines, there were black bows. Although I would usually hate it, I liked it because it was the only thing that matched my preferences.
"Oh... Shit then. It doesn't look good on you." He answered while looking away.
"Don't worry, I am going to buy it from Elanor soon."
"Then it still looks good."
I stared at him with confusion while tilting my head with a mocking intensity. "You are a quick mind changer."
"I don't know if you want me to like it or hate it, so I am just trying to stay in your favour." He answered while shrugging. "Ow!" He laughed in teasing manner as I jabbed him in the elbow.
"Don't worry. I am still a huge fond of my 'millitary uniforms' and my 'parade uniforms'." I teased back while reminding him of the compliments I had received from him while I stayed at the palace.
"Those were honestly better." He spoke while pointing two index fingers at me.
"I will bring them back, don't worry. I actually like your honestly." I spoke while smirking and folding my arms, as I knocked at Elanor's door one last.
***
As we left through the front door, we waved our byes and walked further away from sight.
Finally, I passed him the map and fell one step behind him.
"Well? You said you were going to be the tour guide. Make it fun, or is I will hate it and leave you a bad review." I smiled. Right after lunch, we had departed, with almost nothing except a few snacks.
"Sure sure, ambassador." He bowed while opening the map, and reading the route that I had marked in blue. I could have used red, but it was actually for the easiest escape routes.
"What is this? Some sort of adventure team going on a trip to a dungoen?" Puppet asked while sitting on one of the black ribbons on my shoulder. "Come on! Be more serious! We aren't going shopping!"