The entire situation was fascinating to Laurence, so for most of the night he had taken masses of notes in his codex about the civilisation he was in. He drew the area, and the tree in the center, then described his surroundings and what he assumed they meant. By the time the festival had ended he was finished. The codex had been fully updated to where he was and had been fleshed out with a variety of images.
Drawing was Laurence's favorite part of updating his codex. He was obsessed with making the images look as accurate as possible, so he took a great deal of time in making sure he was happy with them. When the image was done only then would he write around it, keeping things neat and clear. In his near fifty days of travel he had worked on around fifteen pages a day, and was quickly approaching his thousandth entry. More than anything, the Absolution codex was Laurence’s favourite creation. It allowed him to record everything he came across, and often worked as a journal, discussing his thoughts and plans in great detail.
He put the book back in his bag, and looked at the surroundings. It was time to find out what that fifth stone was. Laurence knew he would get in trouble if he was caught, so he waited until people would be asleep to find out. Fortunately due to the festival the Tuinians had festivities until they passed out. The coast was clear, so Laurence and Yun quickly ran towards the giant tree in the center of the cavern. They reached the base of the tree and looked up. It was sparse with branches for around one hundred meters, but then the heart of the tree branched out and was covered with beautiful black stones. They were as leaves to the myriad elemental stones that ran as the tree’s trunk, veins, roots and branches.
Laurence looked up at the nearest branch. It was over fifty meters up in the air, but if Laurence wanted to get to the canopy he would have to reach that branch. He pushed the mana from his reservoir into the muscles and bones in his legs, then sprung into the air. The boy soared into the sky and reached just below the branch, unfortunately it was not enough. He began falling and soon hit the ground with a loud crash, nearly colliding into the area filled with skulls. The ground cracked beneath his feet and he lost sensation in his legs as his body was jarred beyond what it would normally take. Laurence pulled his feet out of the ground and rubbed them to get some sensation back, finally began channeling even more mana into his legs, with greater intensity than before. The insides of his legs felt like they were brimming with flaming energy, ready to burst out at any time. He bent his knees and pushed, soaring into the air. He flew towards the the branch and sped straight past it, going even further into the tree. Eventually he landed on the trunk of the tree itself, almost twenty meters over his original target. The view was not the best he had seen in his travels so far, but it was without a doubt the most unique.
“Brother. Safe?” Laurence heard Yun project into his head. The wolf was getting smarter and larger with each passing day. Soon not only would the beast be the size of a bear, he would also be at least as smart as Laurence.
“I'm safe.” Laurence sent back. It had taken him most of the time he was traveling with Yun, but he had begun to understand the core concepts behind the process. It turned out that this process was done by activating the tattoo on Laurence's arm. If he fed it mana then it would allow him to pass on a message to Yun of he was nearby. The more he wanted to say, the more mana it would require, and the more mana he put in as excess, the further it could travel. Laurence had learned early on that if he did not pay attention then he would easily empty his mana reservoir into a stream of consciousness message with no target.
Laurence grabbed holds of the trunk the moment he hit it, and began climbing up with his grip alone. Every-so-often he would accidentally drive his hands into the trunk itself, and would release a few shards of the tree onto the unsuspecting ground below, but eventually he reached the next major branch in the tree. Swinging onto the branch, Laurence edged along the branch until he reached the first black stone. Upon closer inspection, the black stone was a gemstone was made up of three extremely dark gems. One black, one purple and one brown. Laurence moved his hands over two leaves and began changing the shape of the leaf, so it was simply no longer connected to the branch anymore.
Before even assessing them Laurence moved both leaves into his bag, and made his way down the hill. It was a long way down, further that Laurence did not feel comfortable jumping down, so he jumped to the trunk and slid down it. Near the bottom of the tree Laurence pushed away and landed more successfully than his first attempt, rolling and not leaving any impact on the ground. His job was done, and now it was time for him and Yun to leave.
He pulled out the leaf and began looking it over as he moved towards the exit. It was a beautiful stone, within which contained a form of energy that felt incredibly familiar to Laurence. He looked at it closely as he strode out of the cavern with his friend only turning back to look at the village one more time. Unfortunately as he did he saw the chief of the settlement who noticed the gem in Laurence’s hands. The Tuinian let out a roar which sounded similar to a cave collapsing. It rose his tribe and they all began staring at Laurence malevolently.
“You take from tree, we take life.” Yelled Windread.
Without a moment's thought Laurence began sprinting from the wave of rock-men that were behind him.
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