The journey home took less time than either Mel or Domison had expected. Though they ran into light resistance in the form of various mana beasts, they were able to reach the looming car wall of their encampment before the sun reached its peak in the sky. Although the journey back had been filled with mostly silence, the icy air of trepidation between them had melted away with their morning conversation. Domison had even caught Mel with a fierce smile playing across her face and joy twinkling in her eyes while they fought side by side against a group of oversized carnivorous squirrels.
As the two skirted the barricade of stacked cars and came to the back door of the building containing their hidden entrance. A cool sense of anxiety started to build up within Domison as he placed his hand on the sliding door, ready to walk back into their home. While he was incredibly happy that he was able to clear the air with Mel without destroying their relationship, he knew the time was coming for him to open up. Even though he knew it was necessary and he wanted to be transparent with his new team, Domison was still worried about how they would react.
Domison slid the sliding glass door open with a sigh, his few seconds of hesitation causing Mel to cast him a slightly confused glance. They trudged together through the abandoned building, approaching a standalone cabinet, which Domison shouldered out of the way. It scraped across linoleum tiles and revealed a rectangular entrance, leading to a building that had signs of being occupied. As soon as the entrance was fully opened up, Mel dashed past Domison, leaving him to re-secure the entrance by himself. He chuckled slightly at her excitement, but the nervous energy coursing through his veins smothered the jovial energy like a bucket of water to an open flame. He sighed again and turned towards the interior of their encampment. The view caught him by surprise to the degree that he completely froze in place.
It had only been a few days since his departure, but the inner street of their compound was entirely different. Rows upon rows of manabloom decorated the ground where there was once a sidewalk, and carefully cultivated bushels of fist-sized berries could be seen interspersed between the blooming flowers. The interior of the building he was in was even different. While it had been fairly bare when Domison went on the hunt for Grimfur several days ago, it was now adorned with piles of cured monster pelts and tables full of various bones and tools. The workshop and the garden weren’t the only changes though, even the mana felt denser within the walls of their encampment. Domison closed his eyes as he took in the warm feeling of the saturated mana, appearing almost as though he was soaking in the rays of the sun.
Though the automatic door leading outside closed behind Mel, Domison could still hear the low clamor of voices just outside. He deigned to ignore it, up until he heard his own name shouted so loudly that it brought him out of his short reverie. When he cracked his eyes open, the first thing that greeted him was the view of a huge green, muscle-clad giant, barrelling his way across the street. The joy on Craig’s face was obvious when he caught sight of Domison, and he redoubled his speed, practically bursting through the automatic door before it could slide open itself. Before Domison even had time to shout a warm greeting, the Urketh thundered across the room and wrapped him up in a smothering bear hug.
“Mister Wolfe… No, Dom!” Craig shouted before setting Domison down and looking him over with a discerning eye. “I am so glad to see you back in one piece. I had just returned to gather supplies.” He looked sheepishly toward the ground and scratched a black taloned finger between his large dreads, “I was planning on getting young Mike and coming together to search for you and Mel… I apologize that I could not get to you sooner.”
For a moment Craig looked quite somber, then his eyes widened and he looked Domison over again. He reached a large taloned hand out and first pinched at Domison’s right arm, then his left before letting out a grumble in contemplation. Domison only smiled at his friendly giant companion, waiting for him to come to his own conclusion. It only took a second before Craig snapped his fingers and shouted, “You got bigger, didn’t you? Looks like you have filled out quite a bit! I didn’t know humans could grow that quickly, even with the system it's… a tad odd. No offense Mister Wolfe!”
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“Not offended at all, Craig.” Domison beamed a smile at his large friend. “I did bulk up a bit, something to do with my power. But that’s not important right now,” he said waving a hand to the changed surroundings, “Seems like you have been busy. And is it just me or does the air feel more saturated with mana?”
Craig’s eyes twinkled with joy and he was practically vibrating with excitement, “It is not just you, Mister Wolfe! Come, I must show you something.”
Domison spent the next twenty minutes going through the workshop with Craig, following the joyous Urketh as he bounded about the building. It seemed as though he had started gathering the pelts of higher-level mana beasts and curing them, as well as preparing their bones & other byproducts for manufacturing. The whole time they were bouncing around, Domison had a nagging feeling like he was forgetting something and it wasn’t until they were about to leave the building and start the tour of the garden that a lightbulb went off in Domison’s head.
“Craig!” He shouted, unable to maintain his volume with his sudden epiphany.
“Yes, Mister Wolfe?” Craig looked slightly sheepish, as though he had done something wrong, “Is everything okay?”
“More than okay actually!” Domison said with a grin, a small black portal appearing over his left shoulder, “I’m very happy that you were able to get the workshop up and running as we had discussed.” The black portal kept getting bigger, until it was almost the size of a doorway, “I actually have a present for you since it seems like you may know your way around dressing a kill and preparing its bits and pieces for manufacturing.” As Domison finished his sentence, the massive corpse of Grimfur toppled through the black portal in all its demonic glory.
The huge carcass took up an inordinate amount of space in the relatively small workshop, so Craig and Domison spent the next 30 minutes preparing it together. Fortunately, Domison’s inner world had done a superb job of preserving Grimfur’s original body, and no decomposition had taken place. After a short amount of time, most of it spent finding a surface large enough, Craig had pinned and scraped the huge pelt while Domison finished cleaning and arranging the bones.
“Thank you! I will make sure to create a wonderful arsenal for our compound!” Craig gripped Domison by both of his shoulders, practically shaking him with his excitement, “We shall have the strongest tribe on this plain! I assure you mister Wolfe!”
Domison laughed awkwardly, shrugging away from Craig and shuffling toward the door, “I know you will, big guy. But I really am curious about the increase in mana.” At his words clarity returned to Craig’s eyes and he straightened, “You said it was something you did with the garden? Care to show me?”
As soon as the two stepped out of the building that had been transformed into a workshop, Domison could feel the level of mana spike. Though he could tell it was already more saturated from within the building, the reality of how dense the mana was within their compound compared to the outside was like a slap in the face. He felt like a filthy man who was able to shower for the first time in months. Immediately he felt an electric surge pulse through his body, shivering throughout him. His core shuddered slightly as his passive cultivation kicked into high gear to process the mana of his current surroundings.
“Whoa…” Domison said under his breath, unable to hold in his own surprise. He turned to his companion, almost flustered with this new turn of events, “How did you do this, Craig? I mean… this is nuts!”
Craig only turned and smiled broadly, “I was able to set up an array of runes, and create a mana-gathering array!” He planted both hands on his hips and struck a heroic pose as though that one sentence would explain everything.
“Uhh… What exactly are runes, Craig?”
The huge Urketh visibly deflated when Domison said this and muttered something under his breath. Domison didn’t catch everything, but he got the gist, ‘How by all the gods in the sky, could you be this strong and not even know what runes are?'
After only a second of hesitation, the Urketh brightened again, regaining his jovial mood. "Would you like me to teach you the basics of runecraft, Mister Wolfe?"