Although Jognak threat seemed very serious to Ibro but he didn’t fall for it. He kept looking daringly towards Jognak eyes showing great courage.
He noticed Jognak’s eyes were becoming fainter with time. The metallic sound reverberated into his mind saying:
“Dronil absorbed 60% of the energy. Dronil absorbed 65% of the energy. Dr…”
Ibro noticed that Dronil speed of absorption increases.
He thought it was related to his state of mind. Apparently this monster wasn’t just trying to affect Ibro alone, but also Dronil.
With every increase in Dronil success in absorption, that monster shadow became weaker and weaker till it disappeared completely.
Ibro focused trying to see those strange eyes again but he couldn’t find them. He was about to ask Dronil when he heard its familiar voice saying :
“Dronil finished absorbing Jognak’s energy. Jognak is now dead. Dronil is converting this energy to a form he can use. Energy conversion begins.
Dronil energy conversion success is 5%. Dronil energy conversion success is 10%. Dronil energy con…”
Dronil voice kept echoing in his mind. When it reached 100%, Ibro felt a big tremble in the tombstone he was sitting on.
“Have you finished absorbing Jognak’s energy?”
“Don’t be happy so soon. I won’t let you leave this easily with my power.
Did you think I would let you leave without punishment? I’m Jognak, no one ever killed me and lived. I won’t let you live on happily again. I curse you! I curse you an eternal curse.
I curse you to lose big part of your power every week. You won’t find a cure to my curse as there is none. My only regret is I won’t be alive to witness your suffering.”
This sound was so weak that Ibro felt it was like a whisper. It was Jognak. Before he even felt panic, he fell to the ground. Strange energy invaded his body which turned weak at once.
It was this bastard curse. He felt just breathing was so tiring for him.
“Dronil sensed a great danger approaches the intelligent life.
Dronil is accelerating the process of binding. Binding process ended successfully. Dronil senses his binder. Dronil discovered moleecian curse. Dronil assesses it as eternal curse.
Curing the binder is impossible. Dronil put a plan to weaken this curse. Dronil assesses the plan success rate. Plan success rate is 90%. Dronil starts the plan immediately.
Dronil succeeds in applying the plan. Dronil assess the effect of the plan of the curse. Dronil discovers the plan weakened the curse by 70%. Dronil assesses the effect of curse on his binder.
The curse causes the binder to lose one level each week. Dronil ends his assessment. Dronil is ready for work again.”
Ibro felt himself getting better rapidly. This previous feeling he wouldn’t forget for the rest of his life. he felt dying. He stood on his feet to find that his body was wet of his cold sweat.
He wondered about this curse. He never heard of it back in his days. Was it a special class then? Or special skill? Or it was something that was unique to moleecian people? He didn’t know.
He discovered that his knowledge about this Moleece Empire was none. What if he faced this monster and it was in his prime? How terrifying would this monster be?
His body shivered from deep fear. In the future if he faced any Jognak monster, he would run for his life. he didn’t want to die on the hands of this monster.
Something deep inside him warned him’ If you died on this monster hands, you would die completely and not just lose one level and restart again.’
He tried to calm himself. He needed to hold his own and look at his current gains. He really killed that monster once and for all. He also managed to save Dronil.
He recalled Dronil words when he was cursed. That stone helped to weaken that curse effect. He recalled another matter, Pnro had sealed that huge teleportation gate.
Did she manage to do so by using this stone?
“Are you safe now Dronil?”
“Yes, Dronil life is no current danger.”
“That’s good. Now can you tell me what really are you?”
“I’m the end product of the late Bionil Empire. I was built very early in the beginning of Bionil Empire. I witnessed their rise and their fall.
I was there when they ruled countless universes and was there when they lost everything. I was like a helper to each direct descendant of the first emperor.
Those I tried to guide them to unleash their hidden potential. The problem wasn’t in me but in these descendants. The peaceful life and glory days left a very big impression in their souls.
They forgot how cruel our world is. Every generation of emperors and empresses was getting weaker and weaker. So the end of Bionil Empire was no surprise to me at all.
You can consider me as a very intelligent advanced tech. as a machine, I can’t survive alone. I must be bound to any intelligent life like yours. My life depended on this bond between us.
As I help you, you also affect me. the stronger you are, the more stronger I become. The stronger I am, the more options that become available to you to use.”
“That means that the main cause of Bionil destruction was the weakness of their rulers. But I met Pnro before she died and heard her story. She or Rioneed seemed to be weak at all.”
“There is a very big difference between your desire and your ability to achieve it. Rioneed and Pnro were good seeds. They didn’t have time to grow. In Empires, you inherit the will of previous emperors.
Those that came before Rioneed were very bad rulers. They left the empire in a very difficult situation. I know that if Rioneed and Pnro weren’t part of this old empire and were trying to build new one, they would have succeeded.
Building something from scratch is easier than trying to fix an existing thing. They also faced many issues. You can’t judge on empire by just one or two emperors.”
“Then why didn’t you try to help them?”
“I can’t change what was inevitable. They didn’t need my advice, they needed war.
War is the true forger of heroes. The lack of wars made them weak. Nothing could solve a weak nation except war. It both flourishes and regains its glory or it dies and disappears completely.
This is a fact. What is your name kid?”
“My name is Ibro.”
“I expect great things from you Ibro.
You helped me despite the risks you faced. In the end, you got this eternal curse. I weakened that curse a lot but I can’t erase it completely. This curse belonged to the eternal category.
These are the nastiest curses in the universe. Every weak you will lose one level. You need to work hard as this curse will continue to affect you forever.
The early levels you are in are very easy to compensate. But when you reach higher levels you will face a problem. You will take two weeks to get just one level. I’m not exaggerating here.
So you need to be prepared for this terrible effect of this curse.”
Ibro felt worried about Dronil words. He came from the future so he knew best about how hard it was in the higher levels.
“What about you then? Won’t you help me?”
“I will help you as long as I can. There are two obstacles in front of you.
If you managed to solve both then you will get great help from me. the first one is your level. You need to get as many levels as you can.
The stronger you are the stronger my help to you. Every 50 level you get I can unlock new service for you.”
“Service? What do you mean by service? And now my level is above 50, so I got one service, right?”
“Service is equal to your skills. in theory, you should have got 2 services, but you only got one.
The reason is due to the second obstacle. This obstacle is about my energy.”
“didn’t you absorb Jognak energy?”
“Yes, but this energy is just barely enough to make me survive and give you one service only.”
Ibro felt weird. That monster was huge. Its energy was vast. So why Dronil said these words to him?
He didn’t understand Dronil reason at all. But he was curious about these services. If these services were really good, then he must find a way for this stone to absorb more energy and unlock more services.
“What service did I unlock?”
“You have already seen it. It’s called: The Seal. Anything that uses any form of energy I can seal.
My seal effect has many variables. It depends on your level, my energy reserve, the target level or power, the amount of energy needed to be sealed, the nature of this energy,…etc.
I can’t seal any energy by depletion, but I must absorb it. I can’t absorb any form of energy that has a living owner. If I do so, I will be subjected to that life retaliation.
That’s what happened to me with Jognak. My lowest seal rate is 70% and my highest is 99%.”
Ibro felt excited. He really got a very useful weapon.
This stone can help him seal moleecian teleportation gate. It also can help him in any fight with these monsters and can defend him against any attack.
He felt lucky as he managed to reach here before the death of Dronil.
“What about other services? Can you tell me some info about them?”
“You don’t need what you can’t get kid. Don’t be greedy. When you become more powerful and provide me with more energy, then you will know everything.”
Ibro thought about this and decided:
“I will help you to get more energy. Just tell me what sources of energy you need?”
“I don’t know your universe is totally alien to me. I will always keep checking for any possible source of energy near you. If I found one, I will immediately tell you about it.”
Ibro felt this process would take a longer time than he expected. He wanted to help Dronil recover his energy as fast as possible. He was worried about another issue.
His level now was 82 after he lost one level from that curse. But back in his home, his level was only 14. He wouldn’t complain about his low level, right?
“How can I take you with me Dronil?”
“it’s simple. I can control my size. I will shrink it to a suitable size for you to carry.”
Ibro felt repeated shocks from this stone and he noticed that it kept getting smaller and smaller. When he felt the first movement of this stone, Ibro moved rapidly away from it.
He climbed rapidly to reach a few meters above the level of Dronil. He felt this soft brain had turned into a hard stiff matter.
He lost most of its brightness except few deep pulsations that reminded him of the stones he saw back at Shonty city. He watched that huge tombstone turned into a small fist-size stone.
Then he heard Dronil voice:
“Put me now in your Inventory. If you ever needed me just say my name and I will respond to you at once.
I will monitor you all the time. If I have any suggestion, I will tell you. My first advice is to seize this brain. By Jognak death, all his body turned into useless materials except for its brain.
This brain turned into a very rare and valuable material. It is useful for any magician like yourself. You can also use it to make pieces of equipment for magicians. You have to keep this lace top secret and use it only for yourself.”
Ibro felt relieved that he kept this place hidden from Ruliv and his men. He thought deeply about Dronil advice. He needed to turn this place to his own secret base.
When he was about to be depressed he remembered that all Heptian players were about to join the game soon. That would make him set many plans into motion.
He looked at Dronil that was hanging in the air near him. He extended his hand and put it in his Inventory. There was a long and difficult journey ahead of him.
It took him hours till he reached the surface of this deep pit. He moved from the top of the cliff rapidly to reach the surface finally. He didn’t relax. He looked around towards all this huge space.
He wondered about the true size of this brain mine. If there was a way for him to shrink this mine size too and carry it in his Inventory then it would be awesome.
But now he needed to plan things for this mine. The first issue he had to solve was the issue of this mine secrecy. He must hide it from the eyes of Shontians.
Ibro knew he would leave this world soon, so he must hide the entrance so well that it would be impossible to notice. He didn’t waste any more time and moved rapidly heading back to the place he left Oya at.
When he reached her he found a lot of stones stacked together to form a small hill. He didn’t think her skill to manage to get all these stones.
“Don’t look at me like that, this brain was really fragile. Every time I used my skill I got a ton of these stones. A few hours ago I didn’t manage to get any more stones. This brain turned suddenly into a hard material that was immune to my skill. “
Ibro knew that she was talking about the moment of Jognak death. This brain turned into a unique material that Dronil advised him to keep for himself.
It seemed that it was a higher version from the stones Oya collected. Oya looked at the tired face of Ibro and asked:
“What about your quest?”
“I finished it. Now it’s time for us to leave this place and return to our domain.”
