Chapter 712: Meeting The Old Companion

Outside the base, Moon summoned one of his oldest friends, one he hadn’t seen in far too long given everything that had been happening.

The white steed appeared out of thin air, standing on all fours, and turned to Moon with a longing expression in its eyes.

"Mirage. How’ve you been?" Moon reached out and rested a hand on the steed’s neck. "I’m sorry I haven’t brought you out like I used to. Things have been hectic. Gates, tournaments, the recovery. It wasn’t fair to you."

<Missed you.> Mirage’s voice came through their internal connection, pleased to see him.

"Don’t worry about it. We’ll spend more time together from now on."

Moon smiled and gently rubbed the steed’s mane, then, swung himself up onto Mirage’s back the way he had countless times before.

"Let’s head to the spirit pavilion. I’ve got something I want to try. If it works out, you might even meet another friend of ours."

<Another friend?> Mirage’s ears moved with curiosity.

"Yes, another friend. The egg that has been spending time with you inside my beast taming space."

Moon enjoyed the ride, reminiscing on the old days when he and Mirage had spent nearly all their time together, back before his life had exploded into something far larger and more complicated.

The steed’s strength had grown steadily to Four-Star Evolver in that time. Moon hadn’t been neglecting him, not truly, feeding him the bodies of powerful beasts from his hunts to keep him progressing even when they couldn’t be together, from time to time.

They arrived at the spirit pavilion, and the change in the place was admirable.

It looked nothing like it had before. The pavilion was adorned with lights and threaded through with defensive, and offensive runes, the materials bought with the base’s profits and inscribed by the base’s own runesmiths, all according to Moon’s instructions.

He would have enjoyed carving some himself, but he simply didn’t have the time for that kind of meticulous work anymore. Better to let the skilled hands at the base handle it.

The approach paths had been reworked too, carved less steep and easier to walk, marked so they stayed visible even on the wasteland’s darkest days. Patrols moved in regular rotations around the perimeter. What had been a captured ruin was now a second fortress.

At the base of the pavilion, Moon spotted Talan and the brute, and the two of them were arguing.

"I should go greet the boss first, I’ve been coordinating the fortification logs," Talan was saying.

"You always go first. I destroyed the largest obstacles with my own hands to make paths safer, I’m going," the brute shot back.

The third coordinator with them just watched the two go back and forth, offering their reasons for who had earned the honor of greeting the Base Lord first.

Moon chuckled quietly, hopped off Mirage’s back, and, with a thought, activated his Camouflage skill along with the new assassin armor, testing the two together. The armor’s material shifted to blend with his surroundings as his presence dropped below detection, and he approached the two arguing men from directly behind.

Then he stepped into the space between them and spoke.

"Why are you two still arguing? I’m right here."

Both men jumped, their hearts lurching, spinning around to find their boss appearing between them out of nowhere. Then a flush crept up both their faces as they realized he’d heard the entire exchange.

Moon exchanged a few warm words with them, thanking them sincerely for the work they’d poured into the pavilion, waving off their embarrassment, before heading inside.

Talan and the brute recovered quickly and led him through the interior toward what they proudly called the King’s Chamber, the former chamber of the pavilion spirit, now completely redesigned. Where it had once held the female pavilion spirit’s quarters, it was now a masculine, imposing space, complete with a raised throne and rich furnishings.

Moon looked it over and shook his head with a small smile.

"There was no need for all of this. You troubled yourselves. A simple room would have been more than enough."

They shook their heads in unison.

"You deserve even better than this, boss," Talan said. "We did our homework before coming out with the design. Do you like it?"

They looked at him with such expectant eyes that Moon couldn’t have rejected them if he’d wanted to.

"It’s impressive," Moon said, and meant it. "Do you two have a hobby for design, by any chance?"

"Kind of..." The brute rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, and Talan mirrored the gesture, both of them grinning like boys who’d been praised for a school project. "Haha."

Moon’s lips twitched with amusement at their reactions.

"Ahem." The brute cleared his throat, recovering his composure. "We’ll excuse ourselves. Plenty of work still to do. Enjoy your stay, boss."

"I will, thank you."

They bowed and withdrew, closing the heavy doors behind them, and the moment the doors sealed, the silencing runes activated, along with the concealment runes they’d layered around the chamber for complete privacy.

No sound in, no sound out, no way to sense what happened within.

Moon appreciated it more than they knew.

He was alone with Mirage now, sealed inside his chamber.

Alright, let’s see what you can become.

Moon summoned the turtle egg from his storage ring.

It had grown considerably since he’d last handled it, now double the size of a basketball. Its shell was a myriad of colors, jade and gold and deep purple bleeding into one another beneath an iridescent glow.

It was, simply beautiful to look at.

He set the supreme-ranked turtle egg down carefully, in a large rune enforced container he summoned from his storage ring.

Moon had asked for the old fox’s help in regards to consuming the heart and gaining the most benefits.

Moon recalled Tom’s instructions, running through them step by step under his breath. Then, he began to take out all the things he needed before starting the concoction.