"I raid Huryole on a regular basis. During my last trip, I met an emerald dragon and I found these." He took the booklet and the sword out of his pocket dimension.
Phloria's wand hit the ground and emitted a ting.
"Did you really fight a dragon? A real one? Big, scaly, and everything else?"
"More like I ran away from him. I'm not stupid. Emperor Beasts refer to me as just a Wyrmling, so a full-grown dragon is definitely out of my league. Yet."
Phloria picked up her wand, using it to examine both the ancient relics. Forgemastering helped her to avoid thinking about the implications Lith's latest revelations held.
"The sword is an interesting link between old and modern Runesmithing, but it sucks. Judging from its runes, it's a teaching prop." Phloria said.
"Nailed in one." Lith gave her thumbs up. "What about the book?"
"I only know the Three Great Countries standard language, so this is gibberish to me. As for the magic circles inscribed in here, they are more teaching props. Some of these are powerful spells, others are meh. Do you want me to mark them?" Phloria asked and Lith nodded for her to proceed.
She gave each spell an academy like score based on her understanding, adding a question point whenever she met a spell beyond her knowledge.
"Why Huryole had teaching props and how did you understand their use despite being completely oblivious about runes?"
"Again, I'm not stupid. If my theory is correct, Huryole is the zeroth great academy." He then proceeded to tell her about his findings about the lost city, turning her surprise into shock.
"I bet that this knowledge is a state secret as well, so keep it for yourself."
Phloria nodded, her mind was still a little fuzzy. She had never expected that Lith would actually reply to her questions.
'Is he being honest with me because he trusts me or because he just wants to get even for my earlier explanation? Gods, the more I learn about him, the less I understand how Lith thinks. Maybe I should just ask him…' Her train of thoughts was derailed by Lith exploiting her moment of weakness.
'In for a penny, in for a pound.' He thought. 'If Runesmithing is as important as I think, Yondra will not teach me about it unless I become her apprentice or something catastrophic happens. I must strike the iron while it's hot.'
"What do you make of this?" Lith asked showing her the ring that he had received from the fungal creature.
'You're a horrible person.' Solus said. 'Phloria just admitted that she is putting her life in your hands and you can only think about squeezing as much knowledge as you can from her?'
'Solus, let's be honest. I put my life in her hands the day I showed her my other form. Besides, anything I learn can help us to get out of here alive, save Phloria from her Awakening, and maybe me from my reincarnation problem.
'I'm morally flexible, yes, but everything I do, I do it for a reason and Phloria knows it as well as you do.'
"Where did you find it? It's even crappier than the sword, but this is a different kind of approach to blending old and modern Runesmithing." Phloria had known Lith for years, yet she still wondered why sometimes a golden light shone behind his eyes.
It was the manifestation of Solus's strong emotions.
"Off the record?" Lith asked, receiving a nod of approval. "It's a gift. The living fungus gave it to me. It also said a lot of gibberish. I really hope it was just a thank you, because if it shared with me the secrets of Kulah, you'll see a grown man cry."
"And you didn't tell me this before because…?"
"Because I knew about runes, I want to learn about runes, and if I told anyone I had found an ancient Odi ring, the army would have taken it from me. Being my friend and my commanding officer, I didn't want to burden you with any more secrets but since we already got to this point…"
Phloria sighed. She had the impression of being taken advantage of, but she could also understand Lith's reasoning. Her father could provide her with everything she wanted, whereas Lith only had his own cunning and a mountain of secrets.
"Did you imprint it already?"
"Despite knowing that the Odi used slave items and suspecting some of them might still be alive and kicking?" His words were full of sarcasm.
"This should just be a dimensional item. It's nothing dangerous." She gave the ring back to Lith.
"A dimensional item with a crystal?" Lith couldn't believe his own words.
"I told you, old runes suck. Now, I need a few moments to collect myself and prepare my spells. We have no idea what lies beyond the Gate, so it's better to be prepared for the worst."
Lith nodded and started to blurt the first American pop song he could think of as he was seriously considering accepting Yondra's offer.
'Wait a minute. I still have to talk with the Hydra lady, maybe she might be able to help me. It's better not to rush into anything.' The promise Lith had made to Protector also reminded him about the one with Selia and her threat to kill him if he didn't visit them again.
'Damn, I don't hear from Kamila for almost two weeks and winter is almost over. I would need to clone myself to do everything on my list.'
"Are you ready?" Phloria asked.
"Yes." Lith replied, stopping in the middle of the chorus.
Phloria touched the rune with her wand and said a single word.
"Kron."
Lith could see with Life Vision that her body was emitting pure mana, as if she was using spirit magic. The mana traveled from her core to her hand and into the wand, filling the rune.
It wasn't blue like the one Lith usually emitted, nor emerald green like the legend said. Maybe it was because of the Orichalcum wand, but her mana was of pristine white.
'If this is like the Gate the Court used, then only one of its sides needs to be powered up since its coordinates are permanently fixed.' Lith thought while having the Skinwalker armor cover his now scaly throat.
Origin Flames were more than an instrument of attack, he could also use them to force the Gate to collapse in case the necessity arose.
A Gate as big as the tunnel they were in appeared in front of them. On the other side, there was a room entirely made of metal.
Every building in Kulah seemed to follow such design choice, making Lith wonder if the Odi did it to avoid them being breached with earth magic or simply because they lacked the mana necessary to protect them all with the earth blocking array.
'Even if they knew about Awakened ones, the mana geyser provides them both a perfect cover from above and all the world energy they needed. Unless they were already using most of its power for some experiment.' Lith thought.
"By the Great Mother!" Phloria said.
The Odi word associated with the Warp rune was "Meat Shields", an accurate definition for the purpose of such a place.
