Liam’s mom was trembling. She was overcome with worry over her badly injured husband. She struggled to explain what happened. Her voice shook as she tried to explain.
“We…we came across…a merchant traveling…from a…neighboring kingdom. They were being attacked… by a Dungeon Heathen in the Gonda Forest. Your father…he was mauled, saving that merchant.”
Kanna pointed to the finely dressed man.
“The Heathen summoned a monstrous Bullbear. Your father protected him and in place was mauled by that evil creature.”
The merchant suddenly spoke, faking remorse.
“He was a courageous man. I was saved, but I lost all my wares.”
He tried to act pitiful, but anyone could see his intentions clear as day.
“I have this potion that can save him, but it is the last of my savings. I still must live and build anew. I can give a discount to my saviors, but you must sign a contract using something as collateral to pay me back 5 low grade energy crystals.”
“That's highway rob…”
Liam’s mom covered his mouth, stopping him from yelling out his complaint.
“We’ll take it.” Kanna did not hesitate.
“I’ll need something as collateral.”
“Our house is not paid off, but if sold will more than enough cover the cost of your potion.”
“Deal! Let’s sign the contract now!”
The merchant dropped all pretenses. He and Kanna went inside and signed off the contract. The merchant left the potion with Kanna, while the men brought in Liam’s father were about to rest him on the ground.
“Wait! Let me grab some blankets first!”
Liam rushed to his room and grabbed around his pile of sheets that was his bed. Running back out, he almost tripped from one of the dangling sheets.
The men laid his father on the sheets, but the merchant was already shouting at them.
“Hurry up you slaves! We have places still to go! And you two! Make sure to pay me back! I’m leaving the contract at Fortuna’s guild’s merchant branch. They will enforce the contract! If you don’t pay me back in two weeks, the interest will accumulate and I’ll have to take your little house!”
Liam glared at the merchant, but he merely scoffed, threatening and complaining of the poor desolate insides of Liam’s parents’ house. The men who were slaves gave whisper as Liam as he followed behind them to close the door of their house.
“I’m sorry. If it had not been for your father, we would have died in place for our unworthy master. I have nothing I can give you but the words of my gratitude. I pray the gods watch over him.”
“What are you dead weights whispering about! I’ll teach you all a lesson later!” The slave man flinched and hurried away with their owner.
Liam was left in a terrible mood and wanted to slam the door shut, but he refrained as it would cost him money.
Lightly closing the door, Liam looked back worrying over his father’s bad state.
But he understood his father well. He would risk his life without hesitation to save those in need. Liam somewhat detested his father’s righteous character, as it brought him harm or put him at a disadvantage. But he could not deny the courageous and noble acts.
“Liam! Quick! Help me administer the potion.”
Liam quickly closed and locked the door. He ran back to his mother and he helped her hold his father’s mouth open as she slowly poured in the luminescent red concoction.
Leon’s pale face returned back in color, and his wounds slightly healed and he stopped bleeding. However, it wasn’t enough to completely heal him. His wounds were still partially open and he was still with fever and sweating profusely.
“That greedy bastard! He swindled us into getting an inferior low grade potion!”
Kanna broke down crying. She made a rash decision in her desperation. She was overwhelmed at all that happened. Liam was heartbroken seeing his mother crying uncontrollably. He hugged his mother.
“Mom, everything 's going to be okay. It might take a couple of days, but I will make that money back and heal dad. Let me and my summon take care of this. You just take care of dad and stay in the house okay?”
Slightly consoled by the words of her son, Kanna relaxed a little and stopped sobbing. “Will it be too much on you Liam? Oh honey. I feel terrible you have to step in while you were just getting started on your journey through the tower. We were supposed to celebrate with you tonight. We were supposed to be the ones supporting you.”
Kanna began to sob again.
“Mom. You and dad are the best parents in the world. The best I could have ever asked for. Please don’t say such things. We’re a family. I will do whatever it takes to see you two happy. I would never want anyone else as my parents.”
Kanna cried more, but she was slightly smiling this time. Her son was the light that gave warmth and comfort to her and her husband. “Truly. Your father and I are blessed to have such a great son. Thank you Liam. I love you honey.”
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“I love you too mom. I love dad too. Now. Let me get to work and help get us out of this. You just stay home and help dad. I need to do some planning.”
Liam got up and went back to his room, calling for his summon through his mind.
“Ordinance! Did you see what happened?”
“Yes master. It is an unfortunate circumstance to be in.”
“Help me brainstorm a plan. I need to start taking some action. Maybe some revenge as well.”
“Of course master. I will do all I can. I would say that origin crystals and a better healing potion are your immediate needs. Revenge will have to come later.”
“Yes, I agree with that too. But I can’t fight well and neither can you. We can’t hunt the creatures in the tower or out in the Wild either. Dungeons is definitely not a possibility. So I say we farm to make some origin crystals. You said that we can speed up the time in the miniature world right? And we can make potions? What do we need, and how fast can we make it happen?”
“I concur with your analysis. However, maybe just gathering and selling high quality and aged herbs will probably be enough for your immediate needs. Though we still need to put your miniature world to use. We would have to see how much the potions are and determine if we should buy or make it ourselves. I analyzed your father, and he requires at least a medium grade potion. The sooner the better. He has stabilized, but at this rate there may be some permanent damage done to the arm that was badly wounded. He may not be able to use it for much later on. There are other things I believe we should discuss, but they are not related to this current matter, and I advise we take care of his health first.”
Liam was interested in Ordinance’s findings, but he let his summon continue.
“Your miniature world can speed up the time inside in a variety of ways. Time can be sped up for the entire world or a specific area only. The larger the application, the more origin energy will be required. I recommend we isolate an area to speed up growth. If we use the focused energy, master will not have to input any additional origin energy, as the energy will be redirected from the entire world to one place. The other areas would grow slowly or none at all due to the slowing of time, but as there is nothing there this should be the most efficient method.”
“Yea. I currently don’t have any origin crystals, and I have no more stored origin energy in my soul palace. Let’s go with that.”
“Yes master. Now, we can either buy seeds or find them outside. If we draw all the energy and focus the ability on an area of 10’x10’, we can age everything grown on that plot about 20 years per day.”
“20 years!” Liam was thinking of the possibilities.
A 20 year old herb was unheard of. The herbs his family gathered were at most a year or two old. Everyone picked within the vicinity of the walls of the kingdom, and therefore the herbs nearby were limited and grew again after being harvested.
Anything over 5 years was deeper in the Wild. Only the summoners or the desperate and foolish would risk their lives to pick some higher quality herbs.
There was still time left during the day. Liam rushed out of his room, startling his mother who was cleaning off the clotted blood on his father’s body.
“Is everything ok Liam? Why are you in a hurry?”
“Sorry mom. I just finalized part of my plan. I need to go grab some things, and I’ll be right back. Stay safe and don’t worry, ok? Everything will be just fine.”
Grabbing his bag of tools, Liam hurried to the door and left. His mother wanted to say more, but seeing the determination in her son’s eyes, she trusted him and didn’t hold him back.
The slums were already close to the walls. Liam didn’t have to walk far to get to the open gates of the high stone walls.
“Liam, your dad doing ok? I saw how bad he was hurt earlier.” The guards were originally part of the slums. They rotated with the other lower climbers of their respective guilds to guard the walls.
“He’s stable. Thank you for your concern. I need to grab some stuff from outside. Don’t tell my mother. I don’t want her to worry.”
The guard gave a complicated look at Liam.
“You better take care of yourself Liam. I won’t say anything to your mom, but I won’t be able to explain if you’re injured too ok? Make sure you come back safely before dusk, or the gates will be locked.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not so nice like my dad. I’ll be back safely before dark.”
Liam dashed off to the Wilds outside of the walls. The sun was still midway in the sky. He had until the sun set off to return back home.
The road slowly rolled through the large hills where the kingdom was located. Liam ran down the hills to the flat plains. Trees started to appear. The further he went the larger and bigger the trees became, until finally the scenery changed into an ancient forest, the Gonda Forest.
“Master, we should use the detection and mapping functions. Using the information from your memory, I can highlight the known herbs in blue, and I will highlight any mutated beasts or people in red. I’ll display the map of the known areas you have seen before now.”
Ding!
Liam was surprised at the window showing his current location and the area of the Wilds he and his family had ventured to.
“You’re able to see my memories too, Ordinance?”
“Yes master. If you want to access memories of others a couple of skills can be bought from the marketplace to do so. However, we would have to immobilize the person you want to review their memories. Depending on the skill, there may be some psychological damage.”
Liam was stunned at Ordinance’s statement. It was matter-of-fact. Liam wondered whether Ordinance could be used for more nefarious intentions. He had to remind himself to be cautious of summoners as their contracted beings’ capabilities were unknown and dangerous.
“Ordinance. Ask me for permission before accessing my memories. I need to know of similar actions in the future.”
“Yes master, your request has been noted.”
Highlighted blue outlines began to appear in the area. There was a decent amount highlighted and was at first overwhelming for Liam to process.
“Can you sort for the more profitable herbs?”
“Of course master.”
The selection became less and more manageable for Liam to deal with. There was a highlighted herb, hidden behind the brush near the folds of a tree’s root nearby.
Liam ran over and moved away the bush covering the slim green stalks that had budding yellow flowers.
“It’s a Late Safil! These are hard to find in this area and fetch a good price! And it was hidden so close by!”
“Master. I recommend digging deep into the bark to take out the established roots that dug into the bark. You can place it into the miniature world by using the spell, Seal of Space, to open a portal to connect to your miniature world.”
Liam followed Ordinance’s instructions. He opened his bag at his side and took out a heavily-used hand shovel. He chipped around the of the tree and scooped up the bark holding the Late Safil.
“Seal of Space!”
A purple crack split the air. The crack expanded to a large circle, big enough for him to enter. A “cut out ”image of a barren flat field that eventually rose to fields and mountains shown on the large circle.
“Master. I recommend leaving the plant inside. We should harvest as much as possible and plant them later.”
“Agreed!” Liam was full of excitement. He had a whole world to himself. A world where he could do whatever he wanted. He came one step closer to solving his family’s financial problems.