I stayed up the rest of that night. After the original scare from the fight, everyone else went back to sleep. The lizard chief stayed awake for a long time as well. Then he went to sleep. Another reason for staying away, I wasn't sure they wouldn't attack me while I slept.
We still had two more challenges to pass. Waiting for everyone to wake up, I take a trip around the island. It is bigger than I remember from Greed's memories. It had a crescent shaped beach. We could dock our boats there. Close to one of the edges of the crescent was a stone tower. It could be used as a defensive position, I'll add a mana cannon once we finish the challenges.
I move to the section of the island slightly off the beach. This is where Lindsay was buried. Her grave is overgrown with weeds. The tombstone is the only indicator that someone was buried here… I sit there for a few moments. I still had feelings for her…
I should say that Greed still regrets how things played out. Greed is a part of me now though, so I do miss her. She isn't very similar to Leaf… She reminds me of her though, the feelings for Lindsay have started to transfer to her… It hurts thinking that she could die from my mistakes.
The spot where the money is buried is right next to her grave. I clear her grave site with my heirloom sword. It keeps expanding every time I gain a few levels. It can now transform into a sword long enough to be called a sword. Cutting the vines and making a new grave marker. I etched her name into the new wood. Strengthening it, so it will remain here longer. I start to dig after fixing her grave.
It takes a few hours for my treasure finding passive to start going off. Greed had buried it to an almost impossible depth. I continue to dig with my control nature magic. I move small portions of the dirt as to not lose any gold in the process. It was all inside a chest and a few bags. It had taken me five trips to move all the gold from my boat to the location. Some of the bags might have broken open. So until I find the bags, I'm being careful.
I continue to dig until I pull the dirt off the big chest. I start to get excited, the feeling is something I could easily get addicted too. THIS AMOUNT IS THE MOTHER LOAD!
You feel a spark in your soul
After a few more moments of digging. Everything is revealed. I head towards the living area of the island. It is the deepest part of the island. The side the village is on, is blocked off from the ocean. A huge cliff is the cause of the blockage.
I ask one of my generals for help. Waking up Zergnar who hadn't woken up from the my attacks on the lizard man the previous night. He got a full nights sleep. Carefully stepping over the nude lizard women inside the hut he was sleeping in. We head towards the spot and pick up the treasure. Moving it all to my boat and transferring it to my treasure room. We should be done before everyone wakes up. Zergnar is the only person who knows about the gold now. Having that much money might tempt people so the less that know the better.
Even with myself and Zergnar carrying it, we barely manage to carry it all. It is over 1000 gold! I set-up a few more traps in my treasure room. Hiding the most of the money in hidden panels with just enough money shown for it to be believable that was the amount we actually had. This is all just a precaution. We both head back to Greed's island.
When we return, almost everyone is awake. Lance has gotten in on the sparring. He is fighting against three of the lizard men. Trice and Gargarz are watching him fight. Even three against one he's still winning.
Epieoth has set up on the beach since we first arrived. I think he is just enjoying his time off the ship… He was very sea sick the first week on the ships. Any rough tides we hit also made his sea sickness flair up. It might be smart to leave him at the fortress for the rest of the trip. I'll have to replace him as a captain of one of the black swords. The next voyage once we're finished here will have different troops and generals leading the ships. Allowing them to get more experience sailing and leading.
Once the lizard chief see's me, he rallies everyone around him. With my return, we can continue to the challenges. He yells out.
“Let's move to the challenge of courage.”
We follow him. He leads us behind the village and up the cliff side. I already suspect what the next challenge will be. It was slightly different though, everyone circles around a hole in the cliff. It leads down to a source of water. The drop into the water would be too high to get back up from. The leader speaks again.
“This is the test of courage. The person who takes this test will jump into the fierce waters below and try to make there way out of the cave through underwater passages. The cave will be pitch dark, it will be very hard to map the area... This challenge will most likely end in whoever takes it's death. Just attempting the challenge counts as completing it. Who of you will take the challenge?”
I step forwards, he looks at me then says.
“You can't participate in more than one challenge.”
...Shit, and I chose the easiest one for myself. I would have had the most advantages in our army for this cave. Extended breath, better movement in the water. Night vision to help see. Air scrolls for breathing. I could have done this without any difficulty at all… Which one of my generals will do it.
I explain the challenge to them. Epieoth, Lance, Leon and Nargzar all step forwards. I guess they are all getting impatient since yesterday. Which one is the best swimmer. I'm not sure, they were all fairly good. Especially Lance and Leon, humans take to the water better than most races. Epieoth and Nargzar were good swimmers as well though. Epieoth just can't ride on ships without getting sick. I ask the question.
“Which one of you can guarantee me that you will return from this challenge alive?”
It goes quite for a few moments. Lance steps forward out of the four generals.
“I can.”
I hand him a wind scroll just in case. An extra mouthful of air might save his life if he hits a dead end. This one is complete as soon as he jumps in the hole. He's proven his courage at that point. Living or dying is just a consequence of being courageous. The crowd starts chanting again, like they have for all the other challenges.
“Brave human! Brave human! Brave human! Brave human!”
Lance's wastes no time. The lizard chief leads us down a spare path. It exits on the opposite side of the village, towards the ocean. We wait for him. One minute passes… Then two minutes pass. Three minutes pass… I ask a question I don't want to know the answer for.
“H-How long does this test normally take?”
“It depends, if he picked the right passage, it could be over in under a minute. If he picks the wrong passages. It could take anywhere for up to seven minutes for him to resurface.”
Another minute passes. I can only hope he completes it. Trice had started to look worried. She can't hide her fear well. Although she hasn't told Lance her feelings yet. That doesn't just make her feelings for him go away. This test is as hard for her to deal with as it is for Lance… Another minute passes. Trice turns to me and starts yelling.
“WHY!? WHY DID YOU PICK HIM! YOU HAD FOUR VOLUNTEERS AND YOU PICK LANCE!”
“He volunteered Trice… Let's just hope he can finish. Lance has never turned down a difficulty before. He'll overcome this in some way and grow stronger from it.”
She continues to stare daggers into me with her eyes. I look at the surface of the water… Hoping for something to surf-. I SEE AIR BUBBLES! He must have used my scroll! Trice must have realized what had happened too. We both jump into the water at the same time.
Lance is unconscious at the bottom of the cave. The exit is holding him at the bottom. It looks like his equipment might have gotten stuck. I pull on it but can't get it lose. I pull out my heirloom sword and cut the loop on his belt that was caught on a rock. We rush him to the surface than to shore. Trice desperately tries to revive him. She keeps trying to revive him but it isn't working. Lance might be dead. I WONT LET HIM!
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
I shove a wind scroll into his mouth and activate it. All the water in his lungs has been forced out. At the same time, it might have burst some of his lung air pockets in the process. I cast regenerate on him and heal. Finally I slam my fist into his stomach forcing the air out. His eyes shoot wide open. He struggles to catch his breath. But at least he is alive. Trice is furious with him. She screams at him while punching him as hard as she can.
“YOU FUCKING IDIOT! YOU ALMOST DROWNED! EVEN AFTER YOU PROMISED KITE! YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T DIE!”
Lance just lays there and takes it. He must be in incredible pain but that is the last thing he's thinking about. Trice is heavily crying. Sobbing on top of him. She hugs him tightly. Then speaks again. Almost as quite as a whisper now.
“You're not allowed to die Lance… I love you… I've loved you my entire life. You're not allowed to go where I can't follow you... I'm done chasing you. I want to stand beside you...”
We move onto the next challenge. Leaving those two to be by themselves for awhile. They need some time to talk. I still have shivers running down my spine over what just happened… I almost lost one of my childhood friends to a stupid challenge. If this next one is another challenge putting someones life on the line. I might have to voice my protests against it.
We move to the lizard chief hut. It is him, me and all my generals in his hut. Well, the generals who are with me right now. We form a circle around a table. He begins to speak.
“This last challenge is the challenge of peace. We will smoke from the pipe of peace and after that we will all be brothers.”
I've never heard of something like that before. Smoking some type of grass out of a pipe sounds off to me. I know from my memories as Greed, that one of the best ways to consume mana crystal dust, was to ignite it and inhale the fumes. You could eat it as well. This must be something similar to that. I tell my generals that it might be a drug. We will still take it for the sake of peace though.
We pass the pipe around, inhaling than exhaling. While the taste isn't bad. I expected to get a feeling off of smoking it. It burned my lungs slightly, it didn't have an unpleasant taste though. It tasted of medicine. Maybe that is what it is. A sort of cleansing medicine. I ask him what the name of the herb is called. He said it was called mint. We continue to pass it around until it is gone. I ask a few more questions. One being, this seemed like a very easy challenge. Why was it the last one.
“If you couldn't complete one of any of the three challenges, you would have been put through the challenge of sacrifice. You completed it all the challenges, so there is nothing to worry about.”
It is scary to think about what the challenge of sacrifice could have been. We leave the hut. The village elder starts another chant with the lizard men. Shouting.
“We are brothers now! We are brothers now! We are brothers now!”
We spend the rest of the day celebrating. The lizard men don't have much in the way of anything besides food. They are experts at catching fish. So we have plenty to eat. No booze or anything else special. Until I head through the portals to get some and grab my other generals to meet the new troops. Gobber is the only general who couldn't come with us. I start cutting myself open and using my blood as wine for everyone once the beer runs out.
I see Trice and Lance have paired off finally. I've been waiting for over a year for them to get together. They are sitting beside each other, staring into the bonfire that was set-up even during the daytime. I brought Leaf here… Maybe I should make a move… It just doesn't feel like the right time. Maybe after the war with the pirates. Or after the war with the other continent… No! I can't keep putting it off like this or something will always come up.
I walk over to Leaf. She is sitting over by herself with some type of drink in her hands. It isn't my blood, I don't think she has ever consumed any type of alcohol. I sit right beside her. She is nervous at first but starts to calm down. I have to ask a serious question now.
“So Leaf, I know this isn't the clearing you expressed your feelings to me. Do you want to hear my response right now?”
Leaf tries to get up but I manage to grab her hand. I make my best effort to not hurt her. I don't want to force her to stay here if she really doesn't want to know.
“When we first met. I didn't think much of you. I only remembered your name because you were a summoner and you could teach me something I didn't know yet.”
She looked at me depressed, it was like she already knew I was going to say that. I continued anyways.
“Even when we were making our way to Shienta, I still didn't have any feelings for you. Or any until you declared your feelings for me at least. When you did though, I started paying more attention to you. The clumsy girl who almost got herself killed by falling off a cliff. Changed into one that could shoot a roc out of the air with a single attack. It seemed like the leaf had become a beautiful flower. Like a rose that could hurt you if you didn't handle it carefully.”
…She continued to look at me. No words were spoken by her. I continued what I was saying.
“Frankly, I don't understand what you seen in me. I was weak, I was always weak. People still came to me, through sheer luck I managed to build an army. These people were only my armor at first. I would have sacrificed any of them to save myself… It's funny how you can justify things in your mind even though you are supposed to be a kind person... I can't think like that anymore. I'm going to put my life on the line to save my men any chance I can get… Are you really willing to stick with someone as pathetic as me...”
Leaf could only look at me as she collected her thoughts. She finally spoke.
“I… I know it will hurt if you die. It will hurt worse than death. I… I don't think I really care about that. I just feel useless to you right now. I don't want to be sidelined like you've been doing to me. If… If I could have done something to prevent your death and I wasn't there! I would constantly think if I was there, would I have been able to stop it!? That would make me feel even worse than you dying in front of me. Just, rely on me more. I won't ever be a burden. About the confession.”
She sunk her head. I could see her face blushing red now from embarrassment.
“We should wait. At least until we're closer in size.”
...I guess our sizes don't match up. I'm still only twelve, while she's fifteen. I won't catch up to her until I'm around fifteen though. I don't think I can sit by with someone who has feelings for me. There isn't anything I can do about it though.
“We can at least hold hands... I don't mind the size difference either… In my last life as Greed, my wife was always taller than me growing up. Even once we were fully grown.”
Leaf looked at me slightly confused. I guess she didn't think about the memories of my previous lives. Leaf might think I still have feelings for people that have been dead for over fifty years. She asks a question.
“W-what was she like?”
“She was strong, brave, never backed down from a fight. She could drink me under the table and was very good with finances. When our boat was stolen, she was the first to start the fight that ended with her death… She's actually buried on this island if you want to see her gravestone.”
Leaf looked surprised by this. I stood up and started walking towards it. She followed. We get there and I introduce the two.
“Hello Lindsay, I'm back again… I'd like you to meet someone.”
“...Hello, my name is Leaf. I hope you don't mind. But I'm in love with your husband. Please forgive me.”
Leaf bowed to the grave.