Primordial Expanse: I have the Strongest Talent!

Rothwind's amusement faded quickly as he returned to the matter at hand.

He let out a heavy sigh, his gaze drifting away as if lost in thought.

"But what the mayor doesn't know, lad, is that he's barking up the wrong tree."

Alex raised an eyebrow at hearing this, confused by the sudden shift in Rothwind's tone.

"What do you mean? I thought the whole reason he came after you was because you still have the beast corpse?"

"Aye, that's what he thinks."

Rothwind's lips curled into a knowing smile.

"But the thing is, I don't have it anymore. I've already finished working with it."

Alex's eyes widened, and he took a step forward, disbelief washing over his features.

"You… what? But you told us it would take up to 7 more days! You said you needed some time to test the soul orbs because there was no precedent in them being used in crafting before!"

Rothwind rubbed the back of his neck, looking somewhat sheepish.

"I did say that, didn't I?"

He glanced back at Alex, a spark of pride dancing in his eyes.

"Well, turns out, I'm better at what I do than I thought. Once I started working with those soul orbs, I had a breakthrough. They responded better than I could have ever expected, so I pushed myself to finish early. Couldn't leave you lot running around unprotected, now could I?"

Alex blinked, trying to process the information.

"Wait… you mean?"

"Aye."

Rothwind said with a grin, and with a flick of his wrist, a large, dark red scaled chest materialised beside him.

He gestured to it with a flourish.

"Your armour's done. So's Mira's."

Alex's gaze snapped to the chestplate, heart pounding faster and faster as he took a step toward it.

He hadn't expected this — at all.

To think that Rothwind had already completed their armour in such a short amount of time was just amazing!

"I… I don't know what to say…"

Alex murmured, filled with a mixture of awe and gratitude.

Completely and utterly serious, Rothwind answered.

"How about you say, 'I'm a stupid fucker for holding us up for so long when we are in deep shit.' That sound good?"

"..."

Alex had no reply to that.

Rothwind's expression turned stern, the humour vanishing from his face.

He reached out, placing a heavy hand on Alex's shoulder.

"Look, lad, I'm serious. There's no time for us to stand here talking, so go fetch your little lass and let's get the fuck out of here! I'll give you the full breakdown of what these babies can do later, but for now, we need to move."

Alex's face turned ashen.

'Mira…'

And when Rothwind saw Alex's face, he couldn't help but feel something was wrong, and he could probably guess what.

There was probably only one thing that could make Alex pull a face like that.

"Oh no kid, don't tell me you… Oh you stupid shit! Where has she gone to!"

He realised that the two of them had split up.

Alex's throat tightened at Rothwind's sharp words, but he managed to speak through the lump of anxiety that was quickly starting to form there.

"We split up earlier… We thought it'd be better if she were out of the equation while I went searching for you…"

Rothwind's brows drew together, his face twisting with exasperation.

"Dammit lad! You just had to split up in this city, with the mayor and all his goons breathing down our necks! They can't lay a finger on me, but what about you? What about that lass? I knew you were reckless, but this is just plain foolishness!"

Alex's fists clenched, guilt gnawing at his insides.

He knew Rothwind was right, but how was he supposed to know that their decision to split up was actually a bad one!?

It was only now, in hindsight, that they knew it was a stupid decision, but at the time it actually seemed quite logical.

The only brightside to the whole thing was that he told her to go hide some place outside of the city, where the mayor had drastically less control, so she had more leeway than perhaps the two of them did.

"Listen, kid. There's no use beating ourselves up over what's already done and what could have been. You need to get to Mira. Now."

"I know." Alex muttered.

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"But how? If the mayor knows about us, then he would already have forces looking for us—"

"Ahem, are you forgetting who you're standing next to?"

While Alex was busy worrying over how they were supposed to get to Mira, Rothwind just stood to the side and looked at Alex like he had shit for brains.

"Did you forget how I brought you two to those plains a few days ago?"

Alex's face lit up now that his memory was reignited.

"You can teleport us to her!"

He was right, but it wasn't all good news.

"That's correct, but I suspect that's how the mayor even found out about the corpse anyways. I teleported out of the city with you two for more privacy, which had actually probably backfired on us, as the mayor might have sensed my presence moving away and decided to snoop around."

Alex knew what he was getting at with this.

If the mayor could detect Rothwind's teleportation and even the exact area he had teleported to, then there was no doubt he would do the same when Rothwind teleported over to Mira.

If it wasn't already given away by that point, then her location would sure as hell be known after they did that!

But while Alex didn't think that would be such a good idea, Rothwind had other thoughts.

'Those two kids have finished their requirements to leave now, otherwise they would have had no reason to come back early. When the time comes I'll make them leave the Primordial Expanse whether they like it or not. I'll kick 'em out myself if I have to!'

He was confused at first why Alex and Mira were back to Tenebrus when he first sensed Alex in the city earlier, but it didn't take a genius to realise why it was the case.