Kain didn’t immediately leave the cavern with the others, instead he headed over to the pile of rubble that had once made up their ally.
The others had assumed after seeing the explosion and the absence of any intact core that the “golem” was dead. And that would have been true if it had been a golem in the traditional sense.
However, unlike the others, Kain knew that while its body was destroyed, what truly controlled it was not any kind of core, but rather some kind of microorganism. Otherwise, he would not have sensed any kind of pull from his affinity towards it.
As Kain looked at the pieces of rock, he was even more sure of his guess. In contrast to the typical solid coloured stone of most golems, this “golem” was made of rock with hundreds of thin differently coloured layers of grey, orange, and red stone. It closely resembled the layered stromatolites formed by bacteria on Earth.
Kain recalled collecting a piece of one such rock when he visited the beach on a family vacation in his past life.
Kain’s experience within this cave made him very aware of his current limitations. When Bea is faced with an enemy, such as the hosts of other spiritual microbes or humans with the necessary enchanted items, who are resistant to her, she can’t play much of an effect.
Conversely, the Vespirae have a numerical advantage and high penetration power from their stingers, but no strong attacks with elemental effects or any way of providing defense for Kain.
This “golem,” although it had lost majority of the rock forming its body that it’d built up in the years it was trapped in this relic, would make up for many of Kain’s current weaknesses.
Finally, Kain located a smooth piece of bright red rock that was strangely giving off a pull.
“I know that you can understand me, and I know you can sense my affinity. Since the creature you were guarding is no longer here, I was hoping you’d be willing to continue looking for it with me.” Kain whispered to the rock as he held it preciously in his hands. If any of the members of the group were to come back for him, they’d probably immediately want to send him to a mental asylum.
However, he needed the agreement of the golem in order to form a contract, especially since it was one spiritual level higher than him. If he tried to force it, he’d only end up seriously hurting himself.
The rock emitted a dim glow, as yellow spiritual power left the stone and travelled up Kain’s arm to his chest area.
Closing his eyes, Kain’s consciousness entered his star space and could see the spiritual power moving towards his recently formed third star. The surface of the star began to slowly shift and change to better suit his newest contract, but Kain couldn’t stay to watch the entire process, the others in the group were waiting for him and he had something important to quickly do.
Although it would take a while to reform the body, Kain hoped that collecting the pieces of its former body would help to shorten the process. He collected as much of the massive body as he could into his space ring. Although its massive size made it impossible to fit all of it.
‘Hmm… I was able to put much of Queen’s old nest into her star space, I wonder if these rocks also apply?’
Giving it a shot, he was pleasantly surprised to find that it worked and he was able to fully take away every ounce of the giant body.
Task completed, Kain turned around and chased after the group that’d left him behind. Thankfully, he hadn’t taken too long, so nobody except for Serena noticed his absence and just assumed that he was walking at the back.
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The journey leaving the relic was much more uneventful than the one into the relic.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything in the relic that seemed to be a cure for infections, therefore Kain and the others could only hope that killing the original bodies had stopped the patients’ conditions from worsening.
With the relic now under control by the school, Kain could also continue re-entering the relic in the future. Now, he had many more options for future potential contracts.
After leaving the relic, they were all separated to recount their own versions of what happened in the relic and turn over the core which Jin had taken responsibility for on the way back.
With worry, Kain headed back to his laboratory with Serena to check on Bridge.
Thankfully, although still extremely weak, his brother was sitting up and awake by the time he arrived.
Since Kain had stolen away one of the flowers to put in his incubator, there was a risk that the one out of hundreds that he’d chosen to save was the one that happened to infect Bridge, meaning he’d have to destroy the new member to his collection.
Thankfully that wasn’t necessary.
After confirming that Bridge was okay. Serena coolly left, the previous concern she’d displayed seeming like an illusion.
Kain then spent the remainder of the day recounting what had happened to his brother, before helping to escort him back to his dorm room.
Exhausted, Kain also returned to his own dorm room to eat and take a shower before lying in bed.
However, he didn’t immediately go to sleep. Kain had made his third contract and had no idea about its name or skills. Thankfully, due to the System all of that information would be laid out for him.
The anticipation was slow to creep up on him, otherwise he would have checked the System panel before they’d even left the relic, but he’d strangely not been tempted to do so—maybe his concern for Bridge had preoccupied his mind?
In fact, this was the quickest he’d ever managed to find a contract after forming a star due to the rarity of suitable contracts for him, so it was also likely that it hadn’t even fully sunk in that he had a third contract—and that it was a powerful yellow-grade one no less.freeweɓnovēl.coɱ