The villagers are expressing their thanks and don't seem scared of me at all. That is probably because they are assuming that Lin has full control of me. If Lin wasn't here they would probably still be hiding behind the village wall and praying that I leave.

Lin is able to calm them down and get them off their knees fairly easily. She is very charming and the villagers have no hope of resisting her at all. All it takes is a single question from Lin and the villagers eagerly tell her the whole story.

It all started when a hunter who was out looking for prey had to take shelter from a storm. The cave he found happened to be inhabited by a bear and after a grueling battle he managed to kill it. However, he was heavily wounded and was forced to recuperate in the cave.

During the wait for his fellow hunters to find him, he discovered a skeleton in the back of the cave. That skeleton had a sword and the hunter felt drawn to the sword, so he kept it. When he was found and brought back to the village he brought the sword with him.

The very next day the first beasts attacked the village, but the villagers thought it was a good thing. After all, their food was delivering itself to them and fighting from the wall was safer. However, when the attacks kept occurring day after day things started getting bad.

When it was just daily beast attacks the village could just barely handle it. They easily admit that today's attack would have finished them if Lin hadn't helped. In fact, they are all exhausted and probably can't handle another beast attack.

Lin says "This sword sounds like it is cursed. Would it be possible for me to see it?"

Villager says "Of course! I will fetch it!"

When the villager comes running back carrying the sword I feel a sudden desire to eat it. As he is holding it out to Lin, I crane my head around for a closer look at it. This scares the villagers and they start to freak out, until Lin slaps my nose and pushes my head away.

I will definitely get her back for that later, but it does successfully calm down the villagers. The sword isn't cursed, in fact I can feel a strong divine energy coming from it. That is probably what is attracting all the beasts and monsters, they want to eat it too.

Chief says "Our village cannot survive any more attacks. You have already saved us once, could you save us again and take this sword away from here?"

Lin says "Yes, I will. I know the perfect person to deal with it."

Chief says "That's great! Thank you!"

Lin takes the sword from the villager and then makes an excuse for us to leave. The villagers want to thank her more, but they also want the sword gone. In the end, they let her leave and she climbs onto my back, so I take off and head towards the mountain.

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Lin says "That went well. Kind of a short adventure though."

"That wasn't an adventure. It barely counts as a detour."

Lin says "Did you want to stay and try to find that cave?"

"No time. I promised the kids we would be back for dinner."

Lin says "Alright. Anyway, what is so special about this sword? I can't sense anything from it."

"I didn't get a close look thanks to you, but I could sense divine power from it."

Lin says "Do you want to look at it now?"

"No, let's wait until we are back on the ship. That way the enchantments will hide whatever we do with it."

Lin says "Won't the cloaks hide us?"

"They will hide us, but not the sword if something big happens."

Lin says "And knowing you, something big is bound to happen!"

"Not true. I don't plan to do anything with it. Since it is divine energy I will have the goddesses take a look first. Hopefully, it will be something that they can use to become stronger."

Lin says "Them getting stronger seems very important to you. How come?"

"Because of the pantheons on the main continent. The two goddesses are the only ones who can protect the peninsula from the other deities. I certainly can't fight off dozens of gods."

Lin says "Not as you are, no. If you became a god, who knows how strong you might be. Not to mention, you would get two very beautiful wives."

"Oh, you heard about that huh?"

Lin says "Of course. They told me about it themselves. They wanted me to be fully aware of everything before I made my choice."

"What choice?"

Lin says "Whether or not to get involved with you."

"Oh, well I guess I already know what choice you made."

Lin says "Yes, you do. Do you have any regrets?"

"None whatsoever. You?"

Lin says "Nope. None. I also am not good at saying certain things, but you make me very happy."

"Ahem. There is the mountain we are looking for."

Lin laughs and says "Alright. What's the plan?"

"I am going to extract the stone I need and then you can gate us back to the ship. If I am quick, we will still make it back in time for dinner."

Lin says "Then you should get to work. Keeping your promise to the kids is really important."

"I know. I always do my best to keep my promises."

Finding a clearing about halfway up the side of the mountain I land and send out a pulse of mana. Now that I am closer, I can focus my scan on just the stone I am looking for. There is way more stone here than I need, so I will only take about half of it.

Of course, now that I have found it I have to figure out how to get it out of the mountain. I could just tear the mountain in half, but I would prefer to avoid that. A quick test shows that the stone responds well to my mana, but earth magic isn't my specialty.

"Got any spells to extract some stone from the heart of a mountain?"

Lin says "Hm, let me think. If you can create a small hole leading to the stone you want, I should be able to get it out. I have a spell that will liquify the stone, then I just need to force it out through the hole."

"Sure, I can do that."

Creating a small hole leading down to the stone is pretty easy and only takes me a few minutes. Once I am done Lin casts her spell and soon the stone starts flowing out of the hole. The odd thing is that the stone is a liquid but it hasn't been heated at all.

When I ask Lin how she did it, she explains how the spell changes the state of something temporarily. If I had wanted the stone to be liquid, I would have heated it until it turned molten. Lin's way, actually uses magic to cheat and just turns a solid into a liquid.