Chapter 138: [138] Bonds

At first, looking at the nasty wound on the salamander’s side, Ark was not sure Thalia would have been able to heal it.

But when he asked for her help, she assured him that she would find a way to keep him alive.

The black salamander was also injured, but since her injuries were nothing compared to her brother’s, Thalia focused all her energy on him.

While they were being healed, Ark decided to see just what the ’bond’ was all about. Once he accepted their request, a screen had appeared in front of him...

Ark summoned Jenna to reconstruct the ice house, which made Olivia more than elated, then sat down on a stool she had made for him while reading through the details.

[You have obtained two Bonds]

[Bonds can be called upon by their master at any point in time. Despite their location, summons will instantly appear by their master’s side.]

[Bond type— salamanders are living beings, meaning they must be cared for. When a bond is properly taken care of, their favorability for their master increases. These bonds will have better performance during tasks and everyday activities.]

[But if a bond is treated unfairly, favorability will continue to drop until the monster rebels, leading to a bond fracture]

"Interesting..." Ark thought out loud while he read.

His summons were all undead souls, so he never really had to care for them. Bonds, on the other hand, were like having pets, or a little sister...

"I wonder what my favourability with them currently is..."

Ark glanced at the salamander, only to see it trying to hold back a wail as Thalia healed the deep gash in its side. "Yeah, it’s probably not very high..."

Ark also noticed that just like his summons, they had level bars, but unlike his summons, whose level reset to zero when he obtained them, the salamanders retained their level even after bonding.

Just as Ark closed the system tab, a new one appeared in front of him.

[Do you wish to name your summons?]

’Hmmm... I guess they don’t have names yet...’ Ark stroked his jaw as he contemplated, then he pointed at the red salamander and raised his voice so that he could hear him.

"Your name will be Tai, short for tail!" Ark nodded with pride. "Yes... that seems about right." Then he moved his finger to the black salamander. "And your name will be Kenny!"

The names may not have been the best, but Ark could tell that he was improving!

"Hey, what are you doing?" Olivia asked as she plopped down on the chair next to him.

"Nothing much... just finishing up." He replied, watching as the naming screen slowly vanished.

"I still can’t believe you got those murderous geckos to side with you." She frowned. "Anyways, how long do you think it will take before we get to the giant?"

Ark shrugged. They were making good progress, and since most of the monsters around were not strong enough to really hold them back, "Two days at most. Why do you ask?"

Olivia shifted in her seat, then said in a thoughtful tone. "I was thinking..." She turned to face him. "Why don’t we extend it?"

"Extend it?"

She nodded. "Mmhm. We are making good progress here, will it be smart if we just left? This is the closest thing we have to an exp farm."

Olivia had a point. Exp farms, or rather, exp dungeons were specialized dungeons that had an unlimited amount of monsters.

They were hard to find, and even harder to maintain, which was why most of the known exp dungeons were owned and managed by the top guilds.

Most new players from first-generation families were likely grinding experience points from these exp farms on a daily basis, and although the monsters in the volcanic planes were not unlimited, the region was wide, and there was no scarcity of beasts...

"Alright, let’s do it." They still had some time before the combined dungeon run, there was no need to leave early.

"Hehehe. I knew you were not the type to shy away from battles!" Olivia smiled and patted his back with so much force that he almost fell off his bench.

"Hey! I’m an undead, remember? We don’t have much weight!"

"Yeah, yeah... whatever." Olivia stood up and stretched her limbs. "Anyways, I’m going back to bed, don’t even think of waking me, not even if Eden is going to collapse!"

She slipped into the much sturdier ice house Jenna had built and shut the ice door behind her.

Jenna was standing next to the door, having finished her work, doing nothing.

But since it would be a waste of mana to send her back, he tapped on the chair next to him, prompting her to sit.

And then he turned his gaze back to the burning landscape around them, particularly the volcano that sat at the center of the region.

Although it was large, the obsidian giant was far faster than it seemed, and since it did not take breaks, they had long lost sight of the monster.

It had likely made it to the volcano...

Ark had a bad feeling about it. There was no way to tell if the giant had seen them the day they arrived, but if it did... Why did it not wait to attack them?

What was so special about the volcano that it had been chasing after since they stepped foot in the region?

Ark was sure they would find out soon enough...

<•••>

"I’ve done what I can..." Thalia said while wiping blood off her hands with a rag. From her sweat-soaked face, and the way she moved, he could tell that she had drained herself quite a bit.

"Thank you, how did it go?" Ark asked as he stared at Tai. He looked... different. The wound was still covered with thick blood, but it was sealed. That was a good sign...

The strange part of it was his size. Normally, while on all fours, Tai was taller than a horse. But now, the fearsome salamander was as small as a house cat.

"He was lucky that the weapon only grazed his heart. The damage to the surrounding vessels was still enough to kill him, but I have healed them." She sighed. "I wasn’t able to heal everything though, he will need some time to heal."

"I see..." Ark had been unable to take his eyes away from the tiny salamander. "And what about *that*?"

"That?" Thalia blinked. "Oh, you mean its size?" She giggled. "It seems they can alter their size... in this form its body requires less energy, so it can focus on healing."

"Ah... I see..."

As the days went by, Ark and his party continued to advance, moving deeper into the region, slaying monsters and leveling up.

One of the more troublesome monsters were evolved basilisks that could fly, but even they did not last long against his party.

After two weeks of restless bloodshed, they finally arrived at their target.

The obsidian giant.