“What now?” Kyrion asked, lying on the nice carpet in the middle of the room.

He really had to take some with him. The amount of stuff he could hold in his pocket space, made him want to take everything he could.

“We leave, letting the dungeon repair itself.” Gamodren said, unconvinced that what he said was going to happen.

“Can’t I heal it?” Kyrion asked while cutting a big chunk out of the decorative rug.

“You can try. I definitely won’t be stopping you. When you feed a stray pup then it will follow you for life.” Gamodren stayed expressionless.

“I’m going to try.” Kyrion left the room.

Gamodren stayed behind and made sure the rest of their group was in walking condition.

The room that they fell through had been repaired and th

“What about your promise to stay with the Father?” It asked.

“It came down with a mysterious terminal case of death.” Kyrion wiped away some conjured perspiration from his eye.

“He died after you were in there for ten minutes.” It said, skeptic.

“It was quite overweight, it probably had a heart attack or another underlying health condition.” Kyrion lied.

“I heard fighting from inside.” It said slowly.

“Just exercise. We were trying to help.” Kyrion made up on the spot.

“By stabbing out its eyes?”

“Yes by…You saw the fight. You weren’t in the room and I’m sure that door was closed.” Kyrion could feel the creature raise an eyebrow.

“I see everything that happens here.” It said uncaringly.

“Ah. Straight to the meat then. I want to help you.”

“Is that a euphemism for killing me?” Mana began to slowly gather under Kyrion’s feet.

Kyrion took a moment to recall what that word meant and came up empty. “I don’t think so? I want to try healing you. My teacher said that you were broken.”

“Broken. Shattered. Lost. Something like that. I doubt you could heal me with your meager abilities. But I will let you try anyway, show me this healing magic.” The colors in the creature’s eyes switched places.

Kyrion watched as the creature’s personality seemed to change, becoming a lot more confident and sure of itself.

“Huh… ok. Take my hand and I’ll start.” The boy held out his hand and waited.

The creature took Kyrion’s hand and griped it relatively hard.

Kyrion started by infusing it with pure life mana and found that the creature’s appearance didn’t change, and the mana didn’t want to stay in. Like putting water into a bucket that had a hole in its bottom.

“Not going to work I’m afraid. I can’t be healed by pure life mana, I need something with a bit more substance. Physical materials or something that can be converted into what I need. Potions have helped a little but their so hard to get down here.”

“So you can eat?” Kyrion pulled out a blue pomegranate and broke it open.

“What’s that?” It asked curiously.

“I can produce fruit that heal wounds and stuff. Try it.” Kyrion gave the creature the pomegranate seeds.

It brought the seeds under the mask, and they disappeared. “Interesting. Would you happen to have anything stronger?”

“The only other one I have is a walnut. I do not know what it does. Gave one to a gremlin and it started foaming at its mouth. “Kyrion produced another and passed it over.

It took it and eyed it carefully. “Shouldn’t be poisonous. Looks like a small brain.”

“It’s a walnut, I think. Eat it at your own risk.” Kyrion observed the creature.

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It popped the nut next to its mask, and it connected with a clicking sound. The nut then fell to the ground. It tilted its head before retrieving the nut and slipping it under his mask. It screamed a baleful scream before turning into a cube-shaped object falling to the ground.

Kyrion put the object into his space.

“Uh oh…” Kyrion’s head was wracked with a powerful headache for all of two minutes. When it passed, he made his way back to his group with a sullen look.

Ceres had been working on fixing her armor, not as injured as he thought she should have been.

Tiffany was meditating. Getting close to another tier of compressions. The quality was almost on par with Kyrion’s before the attacks on his core by Edwin.

Gamodren was gone. At least he seemed to be gone with Kyrion’s senses. The boy tried to sense further out when a hand touched his shoulders.

“How’d your act of goodness go?” Gamodren asked, possibly teasing.

“I killed it. On accident, it ate the walnut and died.” Kyrion said sullenly.

“That shouldn’t…Did you pick anything up?” Gamodren asked.

“Yes, this cube thing.” Kyrion went to remove it from his bag and couldn’t find it. His face went from sullen to scared.

“Kyrion… I do not recommend putting everything you find in your space. While it may be easy to do, you need to make sure that your spirits are prepared for it. How’s that gremlin doing by the way?” Gamodren said sagely.

“Uh-huh… It’s just so convenient.” Kyrion felt like he’d been played but couldn’t figure out how. So he looked into his space for that well-dressed gremlin they captured earlier that day and saw that it was up. Kyrion took the creature out of his space.`

“Hello boss!” It said with a squeaky voice. Saluting Kyrion with a wide smile on his face.

“What the abyss,” Tiffany said.

“It spoke! Kill it!” Ceres started running towards the creature when a snake appeared and tripped the dragon out of nowhere.

“No. No. Its one of Kyrion’s servants… Oh its all coming together now.” Gamodren seemed to produce four more unconscious gremlins.

“When?” Kyrion started to ask when he realized that he didn’t care.

“Give each one of these a walnut and they will work for you.” Gamodren told him.

“Why would they do that?” Kyrion asked.

“That nut you gave them gave them sentience and intelligence to boot, they are thankful for that and wish to repay your gift.”

“So it doesn’t heal?” Kyr

“Just ailments of the mind and core it seems. The sentience is what happens to a creature that consumes the nut without having their own. For all intents and purposes they now consider you their god.” Gamodren

“So its slavery.” Tiffany didn’t seem happy about the new ability.

“My master is not a slaver.” Ceres scolded Tiffany.

“That’s because you’ve only known him for a day. When the honeymoon phase fades, you’ll see him for the slave driver he is.” Jala added as though she were trying to scare Ceres away.

“Why are you so angry now?” Kyrion asked the fox.

“You made me miss Asela’s birthday party. There was cake! You also only ever summon us when you need something.” Jala pouted.

“Hey. That wasn’t all my fault.” Kyrion told her.

“I didn’t say the anger was logical. Ceres if you serve under him chances are you’ll be sitting around for a while bored. He’s prone to commas and passing out. You may have to carry him from time to time.”

“I’ve only had one comma for a few months, and I went there willingly.” Kyrion scowled.

“Are you sure?” Jala looked at the boy.

“Master, are you really that fragile?” Ceres asked, concern filling her.

“I’m not fragile.” Kyrion said something wet was leaking from his nose.

“Kyrion, take the hint. You need help, don’t throw it away.” Jala said plainly.

“Yeah, that’s a nosebleed all right. You sure you don’t feel off?” Gamodren got a bit too close.

“Nosebleed?” Kyrion touched his lip, noticing the pooling blood on the floor.

Jala began to vanish into his core and not the extra space this time.

“Can I get the walnuts before you pass out?” Gamodren asked.

“Are you serious?” Kyrion pulled four out of nowhere, a bit agitated.

Gamodren took them and passed one to each of the gremlins, having them eat the nuts.

Ceres caught the boy as the vision faded from his eyes.

Kyrion saw the older man from last time only now. He seemed to be really close to him in height now, and the facial structure was a bit different now. In front of him were two gravestones, although only one grave seemed to have been dug. There were younger versions of the two boys he saw playing outside.

The man looked at him, and the boys vanished. “You are already so different, so much stronger than I was at your age. Not physically but in here.” The man pointed to his chest.

“What do you mean by that?” Kyrion asked the man.

“When I was young I thought I needed to do everything alone. I became strong on my own, learned to fight alone and became a powerful warrior. I didn’t make many friends on that path, and was a bit too trusting of those who betrayed said trust. I was cocky as well, thinking that I was invincible.”

Kyrion raised an eyebrow.

“After reaching the realm above experts I entered a world much wider, alone, met a woman who I will not name and we got married. During that time of peace I angered someone who took it out on her and next thing I knew I was raising them alone. When I became strong enough to take my revenge and did so the man fled through time and space. My consciousness is sealed inside yours due to the amount of the world’s laws. When someone messes with time those most affected, and have already reached that realm will be given their memories as they gain in power. This is the only way I can speak to you, I just want you to know that the path that you’re going down now is right. Make many friends, grow in power and know you never have to go in it alone.”

“You’re depressing… Just like psycho?”

“Psycho? Oh you mean him. He just wants what’s best for us, his powers won’t suit you very well.”

“Are you the one making my nose bleed?”

“Probably.”

“Were you why I kept getting so cocky in that fight earlier?”

“Highly likely. Memories and thoughts bleed over as you gain in strength.”

“You know… I don’t like them bleeding over, can I just you know, not get those memories?” Kyrion squinted.

“If you don’t like this then you’ll hate the incarnation process.”

“Who what? Wait, aren’t you going to teach me something like last time?”

“Yeah no, you already surpassed me in healing. I only learned the basics.”

“What about a fighting style?”

“Mine definitely won’t suit you.”

“Did you make me lose so much blood for this?”

“Partially, it was also to distract you from the headache. Your space is growing quite a bit after absorbing that dungeon’s mind.”

“That’s why you’re stalling.”

“Figured me out already huh.”

“I’m perceptive in a sense. So that little grave must be Ceres. Who was the mother? Someone I know?”

“Possibly, not sure how well however.” The older man said.

“So what are the chances I’ll pass you in height?” Kyrion crossed his arms.

“Highly likely.” The older man stated.

“I really don’t like you.” Kyrion said plainly.

The older man was caught off guard by the statement. “Why is that ?”

“I don’t know. You just got this depressing arua about, and I don’t like it.”

“If you don’t like it, then don’t become me. Don’t give in to your anger, and don’t lose yourself to vengeance.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Kyrion was scowling.

“You know what they say about a crucible.” The older man said sagely.

“No. I don’t.” Kyrion stated.

The two talked until he was given the go-ahead to return to consciousness. Unfortunately, Kyrion was not told what a crucible was, and most of his questions were left unanswered. His irritation with the man who called himself an older version of himself had grown quite a bit.