ALL NOVEL Chapter 28: Send Off
He gathered everyone around him and started explaining most of what happened to him since he'd woken up early. Told them about the mechanical voice, the lucky rewards, and the Dungeon. There was some information he kept to himself of course.
As he was about to explain to them how to get to the Dungeon, Albus interrupted him.
:Tell them to pull their Grimoires out and accept your link:
He relayed the message and they did as they were told. His "Friend List" quickly grew.
Til, Crystal, Mick, Misa, and Gemma.
:Now tell them to flip to the map:
Albus, flipped to his own map as Geth relayed the message. Once everyone was done, Albus started glowing brightly. Shortly after, Geth could see five Mana tendrils extending from his binding and connecting at points in front of his family.
After approximately three minutes, the tendrils withdrew back into his Grimoire. He looked back at Albus and noticed that there were no changes. 'What did you do?'
But before Albus could respond, Til had already spoken up. "So we just need to head to this dot here right? It looks like it should only be about 15 miles directly East."
"Ahh, yeah that's the Dungeon location, make sure not to wander too far southeast. I have a feeling different creatures are lurking in the swampy areas." He then turned back to Albus. 'How did you do that?'
:Well, I just used Mana to share a coordinate point with their Grimoires. The surrounding area will still be a blank space, but I can drop them markers:
'Good to know. Can you save this log as a marker? it would be a good place to camp in the future, I feel there may be a Goblin Dungeon near here as well as back towards the northeast a bit.'
A new dot appeared on the map, it was simply labeled 'log'. He turned back towards his family, Crystal was looking at him. "You're not going to take us back?" She asked worriedly.
"No, I have other matters to tend to. I need to keep going south and find my son, we also have family in that direction. I plan to find him, and if I happen to bump into any of our other family I'll send them your way. Though, it will be a while before they can actually enter the cave."
She was going to argue that it wasn't safe and that he should head back with them, but Til stopped her. "I'll go with him. You guys head-on and meet with Zolis and the little ones. You'll arrive well before dark, Gemma and Misa are comfortable killing the things out there."
Crystal calmed down hearing this, she'd feel much more comfortable if her son wasn't alone. The girls all gave them hugs and headed out, all of them carrying at least one dagger, Misa carrying multiple. Gemma was armed with a short sword.
It was strange watching his teenage sisters walking around with weapons while wearing burlap sacks for clothes. After they were out of sight, he turned to Til and nodded. They both left towards the south. Til didn't say it in front of the women but, he was worried about his grandson.
They didn't stop jogging until they'd hit the edge of the treeline.
The duo stopped at the woodline to take a look at the situation beyond. They still had to walk another 5 miles to the west and then head south for about 30 miles.
Til spoke up "It's getting dark quick, we should set up a place to rest on one of the branches. The Goblins become more abundant at night."
Geth nodded in agreement and they started climbing to one of the larger low hanging branches. Once he found a thick enough section of the branch to lay in, he grabbed two leaves to use as both cover and to keep warm.
'I should really grab a few of these.' The leaves were both soft and tough at the same time, almost like leather. He thought they could be cut and tied together for makeshift clothing, it would be better than a burlap sack anyway.
He fell asleep on the trunk, asking Albus to keep a lookout for any dangers below.
***
As he entered a deep slumber, the world around him changed. Geth was laying by Zolis' side in their king-size bed. He quickly sat up and looked around... Melody had crawled onto the foot of the mattress and fallen asleep, Kael was cuddled up to his mother.
Something was off, 'was the other world a dream?' He thought. Geth quickly shook Zolis awake, rousing her from her slumber. She sat up, a bit annoyed, wiping the drool from the corner of her lips.
Even in that situation, Geth had to chuckle. "Baby, what did we do yesterday?"
Zolis looked at him a bit oddly, "We didn't do much. I didn't have to work, and you mostly played outside with the kids." After a moment she dropped her annoyed expression and looked more closely at him. "Are you okay? You seem a bit flustered."
He just nodded his head, unsure of what to think. 'Was that really just a dream? Everything seemed so real. Maybe I just spend too much time reading fantasy novels.'