Master Of None

The king started to stumble back slightly causing Remey and Gil to grab his arms and stabilize him. They had a slight bit of trouble since it felt like they had just tried to pull a bolder. The king had a significant amount of muscle from many years of mining and he was hard to budge intentionally. 

Walker watched as the kings' mouth moved but no words came out. Just rushed air and slight wheezing. "Walker, you broke a king. You aren't supposed to break the rulers that are helpful to us. I don't even know any mind clearing or mind mending potion recipes since they were always so rare to need and the old man never taught me." 

Remey had become extremely worried. She was confident when Walker and the king came to an agreement. However, now she worried that the king who had favored her and even become friendly with her was completely mind broken. Walker, on the other hand, could tell the king was processing his words and was too focused to care for reality at the moment. 

Midnight came rushing over due to the commotion and pushed the king forward in to a proper balance standing. "Don't worry the king is just thinking a lot. I shocked him a little with a surprise. You looked like you were having fun with the dwarves who picked out their potential pets." 

Midnight relaxed and nodded her head, However, Walker saw her longingly eyeing the last few eggs yet to be chosen. "I know you want to have another sibling like Onyx, but these need a very unique care and time to raise. They are more at home here in the dwarven kingdom. Plus, you already have Onyx and everyone at home, and the party." Walker knew she wanted another sibling. 

"Should we be worried that Midnight always wants another little brother or sister?" Gil had started to catch on to a trend. 

"Wouldn't you? Su and you are both only children. I'm sure you wished for a sibling at one point. Onyx is a great little brother but he grew up really fast and often guides us all in a way. Midnight probably just wanted to have a bigger happier family with a younger sibling she can protect. But she can do that with Lisa to a degree since Lisa might need an escort to look for some materials one day."

Walker knew this was a very probable possibility since Lisa had a lot of energy and would one day need certain materials to complete quests. This was what had happened to some of the blacksmiths they had met before who needed to craft with dragon scales to move forward in their system quests. 

Midnight shook her head a little with a huff as she had more to it. Unfortunately, Walker couldn't try and guess because the king came back to reality. 

"The first dwarf ever was thought to have raised a worm so large that they created endless cave systems that brought treasures from the core of the world when it dug. The blood you just named is from that very species of worm. Do you know what this could mean for my people? This is something that hasn't been seen in too many years to count." The king seemed to be out of breath as he spoke. His heart was racing wildly. 

"That explains the reaction then. I guess the all around appraisal skill really showed me something good." Walker was very happy to find that it was such a valuable piece of information to the king. 

"Those slimes may not be pests after all. I need earth elemental mana crystals now. I need as many as I can get. The stores were eaten by slimes though. How long do you think it has?" The king was in a rush to make sure the worm was not dying as he spoke. 

Walker moved his hand and a small crate of earth elemental crystals appeared. From his inventory. He had kept them for Gil to make some arrows out of if the need arose, but this seemed to be a more valuable situation. "Perfect, then I will also factor this in to our deal. I will pay you back in full and then some." 

The king placed the silver skinned worm egg inside and there was a slight fluctuation in the earth elemental crystals. The mana was seeping out and heading in to the silver skinned worm egg. The process was slow but it was clear that this was the correct judgment. "I will be taking this with me everywhere I go until it hatches. Now, we should head to the high forge and take care of business." 

The king had decided that it had been enough time to stop and rest for them all. There was a great deal of thinking that needed to be done and he wanted to leave the miners to their own ends for a while. They were all too distracted by the silver skinned worm eggs and seeing their families again. 

"Perfect, we can go up and see what Su has been up to. I bet she had a lot to share with us." Remey was glad that she and Midnight would be able to get Su back with the group. They both had missed having her around as the third female group member. 

On the other hand, Walker and Gil were glad to head back toward Onyx as their third male group member. At the end of the day, they were all glad that the full party would be in one place again. It was a strange feeling being apart and going to battle. They had been together constantly for months now and already considered each other family. It was as if they were missing a part of their own bodies when the others were not around. 

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