Mythran's Master Of All

It took another hour and 20 minutes to get back to House Neram, and Ren put Princess in the stable.

“Thank you so much for taking me all that way.” Ren said to her as she plunked down onto her mattress in her crate.

...You're welcome... Princess thought to him. ...Surprised you didn't go to portal...

“I probably should have, but I need to work first.” Ren said. “When I'm in Aurora, I don't have the help of someone so awesome, though.” He smiled and scratched her chin. “It takes so long to go anywhere without you, that I've been kind of avoiding going back right away.” He sighed. “Even though I need to deal with some things there.”

...Take day off and go...

Ren stopped scratching her chin and looked at her. “That's a great idea.” He said. “I'll take tomorrow off, as I didn't say in the contract which day I would get off each week.” Ren pat her neck. “Thank you.”

...You're welcome...

Ren gave her a bit more food and went into the house. “Hello? Anyone here?”

“In the kitchen.” Nathalia said, and Ren ran into the kitchen and hugged her from behind.

“What's my beautiful soon-to-be-ex-fiance making today?”

Nathalia chuckled as he nuzzled the back of her neck. “It's just meat and vegetables.”

Ren looked over her shoulder at the food. “Do you want me to leave some of the food from the large icebox?”

Nathalia shook her head. “You're going to need that during the day yourself.” She said. “I'm just trying to keep busy.”

Ren grinned. “Well, I know a way you can keep busy.”

She laughed as he slipped his hands under her apron and cupped her breasts.

“You have to get to work.” Nathalia said, and pulled his hands away from her.

“I do have a lunch break coming up.” Ren suggested, and she turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“We both know half an hour is nowhere near enough time to get started, let alone finish.” Nathalia said, and kissed him. She broke the kiss a minute later. “Now get out of here.”

Ren grinned. “I'll tell you about my visit to the Convent after I get to work.” He said and held his Sending Ring up.

“I look forward to it.” She said.

“You say that now...” He laughed and gave her a quick kiss goodbye. Ren left the house and ran down the road, while Teepo flew by his side. They passed through the city a couple of minutes later, then arrived at the mines a few minutes after that.

These boots are great! Ren thought as he went through the gate at the mines, and nodded slightly to the guard.

“They sure are.” Teepo said. “I'm having a hard time keeping up with you.”

You're increasing your stats, though... aren't you?

“Yeah, but it's tiring.”

Ren chuckled as he ran to the medical tent. If it was easy, everyone would do it. He went inside, and saw the healer working on a dwarf, who was passed out on one of the cots. He saw the dwarf's foot was quite mangled, and the healer was sweating a little as her hands glowed.

“Are you okay?” Ren asked her, and she looked up at him. He could see she was struggling, and he went over to her. “How's your Mana level?”

“A-a-almost gone.” Deresdra said, and Ren took out a Mana potion and tipped it into her mouth. She swallowed it eagerly, and her hands glowed brighter.

“Did you use your Major Healing ability already?”

She nodded. “Both of his feet had been crushed. I took off one of his boots, and the foot almost came with it.” She shuddered. “I didn't even try to spread the healing out, just fixed that one.” She sighed. “Now I'm stuck using Minor Healing on this one.”

Ren looked at the foot. “It's not working well.”

Deresdra shook her head. “The Major Healing took nearly three-quarters of my Mana.” She sighed. “There wasn't a lot left for other healing.”

Ren took out his Major Healing wand and Deresdra stared at it. He used the wand several times, and the foot reformed itself into it's proper shape.

“By the gods!” She exclaimed. “Where did you get that?”

“I can't tell you.” Ren said and stored it. “Unless you joined my House.”

Deresdra looked like she was considering the proposition, then the dwarf woke up.

“Ugh... what... what happened?”

“You were in an accident.” Deresdra said. “The large boulder your crew dug out shifted and rolled onto your feet.”

The dwarf's eyes widened and he stared at his two bare, but perfectly fine, feet. “Thank you so much!” The dwarf said as he hopped off of the cot and hugged her. “You're a miracle worker!”

Deresdra tried to protest; but the dwarf wouldn't hear any of it. He put on his boots and strode out of the medical tent, as happy as can be. Now that they were alone, she turned to Ren.

“Behind the curtain.” Deresdra said. Ren walked across to the curtained-off area and went inside. She followed him and closed it. “Take them off.” She said, and tugged slightly on his clothing. Ren stored them and stood there in his underwear. She started the examination, and poked and prodded him a little harder than she did the last 2 times.

“Is something wrong?” Ren asked, after a particularly hard poke in the lower back.

“You've got a Major Healing wand, and didn't tell me.” Deresdra said. “The healer.” She massaged his back muscles much harder than necessary.

“Was I required to?” Ren asked, as she came around to his front. She grabbed his pectoral muscles tightly, then sighed.

“No, I don't suppose you had to.” Deresdra said as she eased her grip, then moved her hands down to his abdomen and massaged the muscles there. “It would have been nice to know, though.”

“I wasn't even here.” Ren said. “Knowing I had one would only have made you angry at me.” He said. “Like you are now, actually.”

Deresdra sighed again as she moved on to check his arms. “Where can I get one?”

“I can't tell you that, either.”

She knelt and checked his legs. “Why don't you want to help me?”

Ren looked at her with both of his eyebrows raised. “Excuse me?”

“You have a fantastic wand that any healer would die to have, and you won't tell me where you got it or even how to get one myself.”

“So...” Ren started to say, as Deresdra stood up in front of him. “...building you a house, and giving you 45 platinum coins didn't count as helping you. That's good to know.” He snorted a laugh at her surprised expression. “Can I get dressed now?”

Deresdra looked at him. “Why did you do that?”

“I wanted you to pay off your contract, so you wouldn't be bound to it for another 4 years.” Ren said.

“If I did that, then I'd have to sign one with you.” She responded.

“What?”

“It's bad enough that I'm indebted to a wonderful woman for such a long time; but, I won't be bound to a man I barely know for even longer.”

Ren laughed. “What in the world makes you think I want you bound to me?”

“You gave me all that money!”

“Yes.” Ren said. “I gave it to you. Not loaned. Gave.” He sighed. “Did you see an indentured servant contract anywhere on the note I left? Have I even mentioned that I want you to sign one? Have I?”

“No, but you just got here.” Deresdra said. “You could have-”

“Stop!” Ren said. “If you are this upset about it, give me the money back.”

“Wh-what?!?”

“I will not have any woman think she owes me anything, just because I gave her money.” Ren said. “Hand it over.”

Deresdra took in a deep breath, and handed over the coin pouch. Ren checked the contents, and dumped it into his coin vault. He took out a single platinum coin and showed it to her.

“Do you see this?” Ren asked, and she nodded slightly. “This is a nice shiny toy. Spin it to play with it.” He said and dropped the coin into her coin pouch, then gave the coin pouch back to her. “Does that make you feel better?” He asked. “It's not money that I gave you, just a toy.”

She looked at the coin pouch, then stared at Ren as he equipped his clothing.

“Am I cleared for the mine?” He asked, and she nodded slightly again. “I hope you enjoy playing with your new toy, just as much as I enjoyed having to give it to you.”

Ren stepped around her, left the curtained off area, then the medical tent. He went into the mine to take out his frustrations on the dirt and rock within. His first target was the large boulder the miners had unearthed. He went over to it, after asking where it was, and found that it was nearly 8 feet high and 12 feet across. He smiled as he took out his hammerpick.

“Hey, what are you doing?” One of the dwarfs asked.

“I'm about to smash this thing into pieces.” Ren asked, and glared at him. “Why?”

“I was just... just curious.” The dwarf said, as he saw Ren's maniacal glare.

“Give me some space, please.” Ren grumbled, and the dwarf backed away, then had the other dwarves back away as well. Ren smiled as he absorbed the Earth enchantment from his hammerpick.

Earth against Earth doesn't work well. He thought, then had another. He took out a crate of diamonds, and picked out a large oval. He stored the hammerpick for a moment, and took out his Book of Runes. He enchanted the diamond with a single Earth rune, and turned it over. The new rune appeared in his book, and he did the same mental trick to make double, triple, and quadruple glyphs of it. Now that he was doing it, he enchanted the diamond with each of the other runes to find out the reverse of them, and added them to his Book of Runes. He did the mental trick to create all of the other glyphs for each of them. When he checked the pages, he saw the reverse of each rune had shifted all of the other runes to the next pages. The normal runes were on one side, and the reverse was on the other side of the page.

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That's pretty cool. Ren thought, then flipped to the page with Earth, and looked on the back of it.