Chapter 190: Chapter 189 – Elven Earings

Finished with the moose, the group as one turns towards Lily. Courtney is the first to broach the subject. “So I don’t really want to bet on luck with this. She clearly was able to pinpoint where the core was even if we want to ignore her ability to shred through stone.”

Lily just sits there and stares up with her head tilted to the side. Jason picks her up and sighs, “she probably has some form of mystic sight ability. We already know she really enjoys eating special herbs. It only makes sense that she would have some method to spot them. The other types of rabbit don’t get this but we already know Lily’s path is different.”

Rosha nods at this as it seems obvious enough but Courtney shakes her head. “If finding a golem core was as easy as just being able to see magic they wouldn’t be so hard to kill. Like I said during the fight. Golems are quite resistant to mystical powers, and part of that includes trying to see their core. While the core is magic, the stone works like a nice coating of lead does against radiation.”

Rosha shrugs at this. “Maybe she can see Energy? Being able to see mystical nonsense isn’t common in the first place and so the much rarer Energy should have even less people who can see it.”

Jason takes a glance at the rubble again, “hmm, that could be the case. Despite being a fantasy world, it tries to follow the whole conservation of energy thing. The golems must get power from somewhere, so maybe they absorb Energy to do that. If Lily can see Energy then all she would need to see is where it is being sucked up the most.”

Courtney shakes her head again, “golems absorb energy from other dimensions. That stone golem would have had a pinhole-sized gate to the elemental plane of earth. With the crystal cracked or if the golem dies, that gate destabilizes and collapses in on itself. I don’t know why Lily might have been able to see where the core was. Might is the keyword there. We can’t be certain yet. She attacked about the right spot, but that could have just been chance.”

“Now I would like to continue talking about this but we need to decide. Do we continue or retreat till tomorrow? It isn’t that late but there might be more golems ahead of us. I personally think we should retreat a bit and make camp.”

Jason shrugs, “we can probably continue on. Even if golems can pop up anywhere, I figure the local plants would keep them in check. That one likely survived by living on the edge between the slugs and whatever comes next.”

Both of them turn to Rosha, who has scrunched up her face. “Well. Both sides have good points, I guess? We aren’t on a timeline though so better safe than sorry is probably the safer bet. Half a day later won’t change much for us. So I guess what I am saying is I side with Courtney.”

Jason nods, “fair enough. I can get behind being safe.”

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The group retreats into slug territory and passes the night. Next morning they head out and pass by the spot they had killed the moose. Most of the rubble is gone except for a couple square stones which Courtney picks up.

She takes a look at them and nods. “This handful of rocks is worth twice the damaged core. We actually got lucky here, likely because of how little we damaged the rest of the body. These cubes are energized stone. While the core is the source of a golems power portions of their body will end up continually absorbing the excess output. When being damaged, the golem will first use them to speed up repair. It is just stone but some people find it useful.”

Lecture over, the group continues. By the time night rolls around again they can’t see anymore roses and the normal plant monsters have returned. The forest is still eerily quiet from the lack of normal animals, but they had almost gotten used to it by this point. Day after day passes for them until finally they can see the end of the forest.

The trees have gotten less dense and off in the distance there are small pillars of smoke rising into the air. Clear signs of someone either setting up camp or maybe even a small village. A few hours pass and finally the group leaves the forest. Grass extends as far as the eye can see and not too far off a small gathering of huts is built up around a fancy way station.

With a goal, the team makes good time and arrives at the buildings a couple hours before night. Though long before they reached the place the people living there had noticed them. Waiting for them is a group of three people.

At the front is a young tauren, one of the cattlefolk. The man is broad shouldered with a chocolatey brown fur and wearing leather armor. His horns extend a hand-span outward and then curve up a half-span. Across his back is an enormous wood axe that shows signs of having been used on more than just trees.

Behind him to the left is an elderly lizardkin in a robe. He holds a gnarled staff studded with shards of quartz. To the left of the tauren is an elf. He wears normal clothes and has that ageless face that most elves do. The only feature that stands out is a pair of vibrant earrings. They are both made with three rings connected by silver chains. At the bottom is a small ruby. 

Jason and Rosha only notice them as nice jewelry, but Courtney has done more research on the area and she knows what it represents. The earrings represent the man is married and has been for a while. Each ring represents a hundred years and then after three each gem is another hundred. That means this elf has been married for at least four centuries.