"The knowledge of the teleportation circle," Lucas said casually, while Bill frowned in confusion.
"You've been looking at the outskirts of the territory for a while now, and we haven't found any humans other than Phil. But we need people to get the territory started," Lucas continued. "So, I'll connect territories that can benefit ours and those that could beco strong allies in the future."
"By connect, you an..." Bill finally grasped the scale of what Lucas was planning.
Lucas nodded and stretched his body. "It ans bringing people back together. Our first priority is to connect territories that are close to the hearts of our mbers—people they've been separated from. Do you have anyone like that?" Lucas asked.
Bill stayed silent, and Lucas could feel a mixture of pain, surprise, excitent, and sadness radiating from him.
"I do... but bringing them here or even allowing them to travel back and forth would be a very bad idea," Bill said seriously, looking Lucas directly in the eye.
"I see. In the end, it's your decision. Whatever you choose, I'll be there," Lucas assured him.
Nobody spoke after that. Lucas enjoyed the chirping of insects and the breeze brushing past his face under the starry night sky.
It was hard to glimpse the sky while they passed through dense forest, but when they reached a clearing, Lucas stopped, closed his eyes, and smiled as he took in the beautiful sky.
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All this ti, Bill stayed by Lucas's side, even though he could have easily returned to the shelter. Bill tried to see the sky the way Lucas did—with love and admiration. When he finally did, a calm expression appeared on his face. It was the first ti Bill had let go of the worries on his shoulders, if only for a mont.
Lucas opened his eyes and noticed the peaceful expression on Bill's face. His gaze shifted to Bill's chest, and that's when he activated his perceptive eyes again.
Inside Bill's body, everything appeared fine physically, but when Lucas looked deeper, he saw a darkness plaguing his heart—a darkness different from his own. This darkness was milder.
'I'll have to deal with this soon...' Lucas observed that the darkness was connected to the two daggers strapped to Bill's waist.
"Shall we go?" Lucas asked, snapping Bill out of his trance.
The calmness faded, and after a nod, Bill vanished into the shadows of the night, leaving Lucas alone.
'The difference between the darkness from my mark and the darkness from those daggers is in how much it affects us. The darkness within is Chaos, while the darkness in him is simply an elent—very normal, but if left near the heart for too long, it'll start having adverse effects,' Lucas thought as he walked. The shelter was only a few minutes away now.
'The only way to get rid of his darkness would be to remove the daggers. It seems simple, but I know he's beco addicted to them. A peaceful solution would be to make the darkness elent within the daggers milder... Hmm, but I don't have the equipnt for that right now.'
The more Lucas thought about it, the more he realized that while the issue seed minor, leaving it unaddressed would lead to serious consequences.
Lucas finally reached the shelter, and when he entered its defenses, a smile blood on his face.
The small layout mold he had seen before leaving had grown into proper sets of walls. Almost every outline had either beco a wall or was halfway there.
Everyone was sitting by the camp, eating leisurely, when they noticed Lucas.
"Took you long enough, Lucas! Co on, let's eat!" Sean waved excitedly.
"Why are you so excited to see him? It's not like he'll start making runes just because you ask," Barney said with a snicker.
"I wasn't going to!" Sean shouted back, then turned to Lucas, who had sat down in an empty spot. "Wait, will you?"
"In the morning," Lucas replied, taking a plate of food from Haley and eating with makeshift wooden utensils.
"The food gets more delicious every day, Haley. I can't believe you add so much flavor with such a scarcity of spices."
"We have salt, so it's not that hard. But the taste did improve after I leveled up this afternoon," Haley said as she took a bite of at, shuddering in happiness.
Everyone talked happily around the campfire, and even after the al, they shared stories of good tis.
It was always either Mike or John who told the stories.
"I think Lucas should tell us sothing this ti."
"?" Lucas asked.
"Yes, you. Fifteen years would an plenty of fun mories, right?" Ella asked, curiosity sparkling in her eyes. Everyone was looking at him expectantly.
"Well, let think... Hmm... Oh! How about the ti I developed a variation of the strength potion that led to us winning a war?" Lucas said excitedly.
Those who were curious stared at him with judgntal expressions.
"Not that, you dummy. Tell us sothing else. Sothing other than crafting and whatnot," Haley groaned.
"Hmm..." Lucas pondered for a mont, then his eyes lit up. "Oh! How about the ti I beca the underworld leader of a town while secretly trying to overthrow the church—while also working with it?" he asked, laughing.
Lucas laughed for a few seconds in nostalgia, but when he saw everyone looking at soone else, he followed their gazes.
"What do you an, Lucas? Why did you try to overthrow the church?" Ella asked, her voice nacing.
'Oh, shit.'
For the first ti since returning to the shelter, Lucas didn't know what to say. Before he could respond, everyone burst out laughing at his dumbfounded expression.
"H-Hahaha, I was just kidding. How about the ti I made friends with another intelligent species and worked for more than 10 years with one of them?"
"That works!" Sarah chid in to help Lucas and then Lucas started to narrate the story, Ella still looked unsure about whether he was kidding or not but one thing was sure.
Lucas could not tell everything of those 15 years to everyone, only the most open-minded people would agree with so of his bold choices.
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