Touch of Fate

Chapter 86: Calmly Exploring

Quickly wrapping the gemstone in the leather once again, Mike carried it back to his room and placed it on his hammock. He had a sneaking suspicion that letting the 'sailors' see it would end badly for one or all of them. The others followed him, clearly wanting some explanation of what was going on, one he was willing to give.

"And that was how I escaped, any questions?" Mike asked with a smile.

"What do you mean you just learned how to do Light Magic? And why can you survive so far underwater for so long?" Sera broke in.

"Blue light. Suspicious." Tal remarked.

"Right, and why did you just trust some random, singing blue light in the middle of the lake?" Sera continued.

"Well, I just did?" Mike replied sheepishly.

Brenden shrugged, "Sounds like the usual for Mike."

Sera gave a snort of disgust, but didn't disagree.

Tal was in the midst of examining the strange gemstone. Now that it was dry and unwrapped, it seemed to give off its own dim illumination. She was just about to touch it when there was a knock on the door.

Mike quickly covered the gem with the leather before answering the door.

Captain Bont stood there, a golden grin plastered on his face. "I didn't know we be hosting such fine company. You should have let us know, Sir Mage, I would have made a grander welcome."

Grimacing, Mike replied. "There is no need. I didn't reveal my stature for the simple reason that I didn't want to attract attention. I would appreciate it if you and the rest of your crew could keep it silent."

"Of course, of course. Discretion be our stock and trade. All I ask in return is that you keep old Captain Bont in mind when you're needing a boat. We provide all sorts of nautical.....services."

"You have already proven more capable than I ever imagined. Rest assured that if ever find myself in need of ocean transport again, you will be the first I consider."

"That's good, that's good." He said with enthusiasm while glancing curiously around the room, paying special attention to the bundle of black leather in one corner. "Do ye have everything ye need in yer accommodations? We could have ye moved to the more comfortable cabins."

Brenden and Mike were sharing a small cabin, barely larger than a closet. Sera and Tal were in a similar situation. It was uncomfortable, but tolerable.

"We're are quite fine where we are, thank you."

"Very well, I'll get out of yer hair. I look forward to sailing with ye, Sir Mage."

With that he departed.

"Whew." Mike said while closing the door.

"He suspects. Doesn't know." Tal answered.

"We got to be a little more careful in the future. I don't know how trustworthy this crew is, especially now that we might be carrying something valuable."

Sera nodded her agreement, "Right, we don't want anyone to get there hands on this baby before we get a chance to sell it."

Mike just shook his head.

He sat down across from the gem, and tried to use Appraise on it.

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{Unknown}

Unknown (????????)

Skill value too low to Appraise this object.

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[What the hell did I pick up?]

Looking for a clue, he tried his hand on the leather itself, with more luck.

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{Elder Wyrm Leather}

Magic Material (Tier 4, Rank 2)

Leather drawn from the hide of an Elder Wyrm, one of the legendary dragons of antiquity who were once said to darken the skies in ages past. Items made from this material will carry some of their ancient might. Due to deterioration, this particular piece has decreased in potency, lowering its rank.

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[That's a little more helpful. From the sounds of it, these Elder Wyrms were some kind of ancient dragon or something.]

He returned his focus to the strange gem, and curious about how it felt, he reached out and brushed its surface with his fingers.

Almost as soon as he did, he felt a massive drain on his mana. He pulled his hand back quickly. The gem seemed to glow brighter for a moment, before returning to its normal level illumination.

"What happened?" Sera asked after seeing Mike's response.

"It was trying to take my mana." He replied with a puzzled look.

Tal tilted her head, and with a quick movement laid her palm against the side of the stone.

"Wait!" Mike tried to stop her, but wasn't able to respond in time.

"Fine. No drain." She answered succinctly.

Brenden and Sera also tried, and similarly were unaffected by the object. Wondering if it might have been an isolated incident, Mike laid his hand against it again. Almost immediately he felt the drain again. This time it was much stronger. For whatever reason, it seemed that only Mike was subjected to it.

"Interesting." Tal remarked. Although she had the same neutral face as always, Mike could almost imagine her eyes glittering excitedly as she gazed at the gem.

A little tired from his underwater adventures, Mike decided he would put it off till later, and wrapped the object back up.

"For the time being, I'm going to hold on to it and try to keep it hidden. Lets put off figuring this thing out till later. I don't know about you, but I could use some relaxation after all that excitement."

"I can agree with that." Brenden said while hopping up into his hammock and stretching out.

"Can you really just take a nap when you are on the cusp of such an interesting and profitable discovery?" Sera broke in.

Mike looked at her, "By the way, did you get over your seasickness? You look like you're feeling better."

"I..." She started, before turning green and running out of the cabin.

Tal looked upset, probably, still focused on the bundle. Eventually, she reluctantly agreed to hold off on it for a while longer.

"Tomorrow." She said in no uncertain terms.

Mike nodded his agreement.

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The next few days were relatively uneventful. The ship manged to make it to the ocean after traveling along a wide canal made for the purpose. It was commonly, and disappointingly known as the Great Canal.

Mike was impressed by the feat of engineering. It seemed to have been cut nearly a hundred meters across, and it formed a straight line between lake and the sea. With a little careful examination, he realized that the sides of the canal were formed from sold blocks of stone at least ten meters long.

It seemed like this waterway was, at least in part, created through the use of Earth Magic. He wondered what other major works could be accomplished through magic, assuming a sufficient amount of effort.

Once they got to the ocean, the trip continued smoothly. Mike spent the time experimenting with the gemstone. It apparently had an endless hunger for mana, and no matter how much he poured into the object, it never seemed to be enough. He was beginning to wonder if it might not be some kind of training device, since the only effect he'd noticed was an improvement in his mana related skills.

Tal similarly had no luck trying to investigate it, and after exhausting her options, she resigned herself to simply observing as Mike tried his experiments.

One day, when it was particularly calm outside, he was playing around with globe of water he'd magically created. Ever since his underwater experience, he wanted to better understand his Water Magic, and perhaps figure out how to use it in new ways. At the moment, he was trying to form the globe into a number of different shapes as a means of determining his limitations.

He quickly discovered that his artistic ability apparently played a role, as the water horse he was trying to make looked more like a sick aardvark than an equine animal.

While he was trying to iron out some of the details, the door slammed open and Brenden walked in. The interruption broke Mike's concentration, and the remains of the water aardvark fell on the leather bundle containing the gemstone.

A soft hum filled the air, and the bundle started emitting a deep blue glow. Brenden and Mike exchanged a look and, after making sure the door was fully closed, move closer to examine it.

The reaction was similar to the other instances where Mike gave the object his mana, except this time it continued for much longer.

"Did it just want a little water?" Brenden asked laconically, already starting to find these mystical objects more trouble than they were worth.

"I don't know. Its almost like it was responding specifically to my Water Magic." He replied while summoning another ball of water and placing it against the stone.

Almost immediately the hum grew louder, and the glow increased in intensity. He was evidently on the right track. Just to confirm that there wasn't something he was missing, he tried doing the same with the other elements he had access to.

Earth and Light both had no effect. Fire caused the glow to weaken, but Air seemed to work like Water but to a lesser effect. It obviously seemed to respond to magic keyed towards certain elements.

He next tried to dump a large quantity of mana in his Water Magic and pour the results into the gemstone. This caused the hum to reach such a high pitch that it was no longer audible to human ears.

Brenden, who was now wincing at the sound only he could hear, complained, "Do something! This is getting out of hand."

Mike wasn't really listening, thoughts fully focused on the task at hand. He got the feeling that the stone was approaching some kind of critical moment, and he wasn't sure how to approach it. Wracking his memories of stories from his previous world, he could only come up with one possible solution. However, he was hesitant to try it.

[If this turns out to be some kind of demonic pact stone, or the egg of some horrible monster, I'm going to regret this.]

Sensing some kind of approaching deadline, Mike decided to go ahead and try something he had read about a few times in some of the darker fantasy stories of his world.

He drew his knife and made a quick cut across his palm, dribbling the resulting blood onto the stone before his injury healed.

[Augh, why do they always use the hand in movies and TV shows. That was really painful.]

Whatever noise the stone was emitting stopped, and its glow took on a darker, reddish tinge. It started pulsing at a steadily increasing rate, seemingly vibrating intensely at each beat.

"Do you know what you are doing?" Brenden asked warily. Something about the stone was setting his nerves on edge.

"I hope so, but get ready in case I made a mistake." He answered while drawing his sword and getting ready to fight if necessary.

The pulse continued to get faster and faster until it reminded Mike of machine gun fire, then all of a sudden silence descended on the cabin, and the stone grew dark.

"Did you mess up?" Brenden asked while cautiously peering over at the object.

Mike shot him a glare, and was about to admonish him when a resounding crack filled the air.

He looked back at the stone just in time to see a piece of it break off, revealing a dark, hollow interior.

Something was moving inside.