We made it back to sy and his oasis in what I thought was good time, when we arrived at the camp, he was stood waiting for us patiently, he had a look about him like he had been working out. His face was readened, sweat beading on his head and he was still choosing to wear an overside hoody, this one was an off cream, or white. It had when patches in his arm pits and in a deep v shape around his neck.

I couldn’t imagine why he would wear such a thick jumper to work out in but that was his choice. Thick, tree trunk like legs were on show underneath his pastel blue shorts, that came down to his knees. I took a moment to admire the tattoos that decorated his lower legs. They were of no order and seemed to be random things patched together rather than one large picture. There was a cartoon mouse, a cat of the same style, a portrait of a dog and a spider web, that’s all I made out before I raised my head, not wanting to look like Iw as staring.

Sy had a huge grin on his face, one that escaped his thick brown beard, his blue eyes beaming as he readjusted his green beanie hat on his head. Magenta padded around his feet pecking sporadically at the thick grass where they stood. There was no sign of Mal, I figured he was in the lagoon taking a swim, but up until now I had never seen the two ducks separated.

Sy had offered us a wave, one that I returned, glad to see him, I was tired and desperately needed some rest. Raven didn’t wave she just continued her walk, heading straight past Sy and down the rope ladder. I assumed to go to her favoured position in the oasis, the hammock. I didn’t blame her, I wanted to do the same but before I did anything I knew I would need to update Sy on the mission.

“Where’s Mal?” I asked, stretching my back as I stopped in front of Sy’s house where he stood. It clicked with a satisfying crunch and I wondered for a moment what I would give to have a good back massage a spa. I had pushed my body to its limits this last week and the fatigue was catching up with me, no amount of potions would help me with that.

“He is off running some errands for me, figured I would do my own bit of research on the Chaos Blade fragments that you mentioned, see if there is anything I can do to help. I could really do with a conversation with Fidget at some point.” Sy folded his arms. “I’m not going to lie, I am a little bit disappointed that you have not been able to bring my raft back, took me months to get that thing working like it did. You have no idea how much trial and error went into perfecting it."

“Maybe next time warn me about the shogs.”

“We have already had this conversation, they are not usually this far south, I can’t imagine them enjoying the rapids and they usually prefer a warmer climate.” his eyes fixed on the self made papouse fashioned from Raven’s scarf, “All can be forgiven if that Is what I think it is,” His smile returned, part awe part pride. “Did you manage to get it?”

“I did,” I said, pulling the weighted orb from my shoulder, keeping it wrapped in the scarf. Suddenly I felt as though I was ten feet tall, a literal weight lifted from me, it was surprisingly heavy even how dense it was, but keeping it close to my chest as we hiked back had been the sensible thing to do.

Sy took the orb with both hands and removed some of the ripped, black fabric to take a peek at the metal orb. There was no glow coming from it and I did worry that its power had been used. I had thought about it on our walk back and it was clear to me that the chaos mode that had activated had something to do with this orb. It had to. “You know, the orb of Zephyr only shows its self to those worthy of holding the title of -”

“Guardian?” I said, cutting him off, “Fidget made contact with me on our way back, so I have already had that conversation. She told me all about how she got past the guardian.”

Sy laughed, “Well there is no doubt about it now, you have retrieved the orb and in doing so proven that you have what it takes to become a guardian.”

“So I am a Guardian now?” I said.

“Not quite, there is still a long way to go, this was the first step of many you will need to take in order to reach that level.”

“I can’t wait,” I said with an intentional sarcastic tone.

“How did you get out?” Sy asked, he went and took a seat on a little bench that sat in front of his house, with the width of his shoulders there was only room for him but Magenta managed to find a little spat beside hime where she got herself comfortable and curled into a little oval shape ball. Sy rested his huge hand on her and started stoking the back over neck and head.

“I want every detail,”

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I must have spent at least half an hour running through everything that had happened from the second we left him, it was one hell of a monologue. The rapids, the shots, how Raven had nearly fallen into the water, navigating the labyrinth as wee search for the oOrb Of Zephyr.

Sy remained wide eyed, intently listening like he was listening to the best story he had ever hear in his life. I was animated as I explained everything, jumping around, kicking out as I acted out every part of our quest.

“And I could smell the Extendabull’s breath, it was disgusting,” I said as I was getting to the most exciting part. “I thought that was it, I was going to die and all this had been for nothing, I had failed.”

“How did you get out?” He said reaching into his hoody and placing something in his hand, I figured they were nuts as he started popping them like he was eating popcorn at the cinema. “Tell me man, I am on the edge of my seat here.”

“Something happened to me, something strange, that I wasn’t expecting. I was desperate to escape and I activated my berserk mode, it was all I had left in me. I was determined not to go down without a fight. A got a system notification that something called Chaos Mode had activated and it did something to me.”

“No, fucking way!” Sy interupted me, his jaw dropped before he clapped his hands together in excitement. “That is incredible, do you understand how rare that is?”

“What do you mean?”

“So the Orb Of Zephyr has mystical properties as you would expect from a mystical artefact, but you need help or technology, as best as you can get in this world anyway, to tap into it. The Chaos Dust that it produces has so many properties that you can use. One of them is channeling the power of your class.” Sy rubbed his hands together and Magenta gave him a look of disapproval as he disturbed her rest.

“Chaos dust?” I repeated, there certainly wasn’t anything that had seen Ince having the orb in my possession that was dust like.

“Well the orb itself is an artefact that can be turned into chaos dust, with the right equipment and magic, it is not an easy process and it certainly not something I can help you with here. That Chaos Dust can be used however you so wish to craft weapons, armour, or enhance your class abilities.”

“It made me stronger,” I said, “Like so much stronger than I should have been, I was able to grab hold of the Extendabull’s arm and stop its attack.”

“This is what is incredible,” Sy said, he was becoming more and more animated himself. “You would normally need to compete the next stage of your training, the next rung on a big ladder to becoming a guardian, that would be harvesting the Chaos Dust from the orb. But somehow, somehow you were able to tap into its power in it rawest form. I have never heard of this before.”

“So Chaos Mode activated and you took that axe and cracked open the Extendabull’s skull, there’s no other way you could be here.” He stopped for a moment his eyes scanning over me like he could see right through me, before turning his head to the side. “No, no that can’t be right, your level hasn’t gone up, killing the Extendabull would have gave you a serious power creep, especially if it was such a higher level compared to you.” He looked at me again, “What was it you did?”

“I didn’t do anything, the Extendabull went to hit me with its axe and I thought that it was going to cleave me in half when a skill activated that I have never heard of. I think it was called ricochet.”

“A-MAZ-ING” Sy laughed, slapping his hands against his knee, “Do you have any idea how lucky you are to be alive right now? That is the beauty of Chaos Mode, especially when you are a lower level like yourself. When activated Chaos Mode will randomly pick an ability located in your skill tree and give it a boost, like a super charged boost. It is overpowered and what sets Guardian’s apart from everyone else. Now if I remember rightly, ricochet is one of the top end skills of your swordzerker skill tree, designed to deflect incoming attacks while you are in berserk mode.” Sy’s eyes widened again, “Holy shit, you deflected the Extendabull’s attack didn’t you.” He jumped to his feet and started bouncing around like a child. “This is incredible,”

“That’s what happened I guess, the stack said I had a fifty-fifty chance of deflecting incoming attacks. When it hit me, it kind of severed its own arm of. That’s when I took the opportunity to turn and run, I didn’t see it again after that and was able to escape the Labyrinth with the orb.” I thought on what Sy had said about experience, it felt disappointing not to have levelled up more, given everything we had done. “What you said about experience, does that mean?”

“The Extendabull is still alive? Absolutely, you will only get experience for killing enemies here my friend. He halted himself to some more of whatever it was that he was eating.”

“What are those?”

“Remember those mushrooms I asked you to keep an eye out for? Did you find any?”

“No sorry,”

“Shame this is the last of what I have, makes everything you ar telling me seem like I am watching it on a big screen.”

His pupils were completely black and filled his eyes like he had licked a poisonous toad.

“Wait a minute, are you high right now?”

“I wouldn’t use the term high, but you will not believe the detail I am seeing everything you are telling me. I am going to need to lie down in my snug for a while to process everything that you have told me, these shrooms are going to send me on the craziest ride, it’s almost spiritual. I am telling you, you have got to try these one day, it is one of the best things about this world.”

“I’m ok thanks, I think I will pass.”

“Your loss, but I respect that, now I am going you to keep your self busy for a little while, while I ride this out. Do what you need to, get some rest, don’t stray beyond the boudaries. Come on Magenta,” He said, nodding his head towards his house, I had wondered why he was so happy and animated and now it all made sense. Magenta hopped down form the bench and followed Sy inside. I took the opportunity to sit on the bench and take in the view over the lagoon.

There was so much information to process.