There was an indescribable tension around the campfire. The sound of crackling embers and the gentle lapping of water did nothing to lessen the strangeness in this minute corner of the small realm.

An awkwardness born from the difference in cultures and customs between more than half a dozen sapient lifeforms gathered around one campfire. Despite what one might have thought about the interactions between so many different Races, the sound of chatter and the occasional chuckle emanated from the freshwater beach.

An enormous bodhi tree sat between the campfire and the riverbank, its dull golden-green glow attracting the attention of numerous gazes. Although the camp had been illuminated through the fire all of them had gathered around, the faint glow of the Earthen Treasury Womb seemed to set the minds of all present around the campfire at ease.

Avahni seemed amazed at the presence of Ashvattha Rana, regaining a portion of her smile as she sat underneath the beautiful radiance of the grand-looking lifeform.

Wilheim blinked, realizing that summons were not just limited to sentient creatures like the ones that Avahni had summoned. The presence of Ashvattha Rana matched some of the most gorgeous trees that the floresiensis had ever seen.

Both Sariel and Shamael seemed in awe of the twelve-metre tall bodhi tree. The two satanas did not know what manner of ability could manifest such a radiant looking tree, although glanced towards Jon with an unreadable expression on both of their faces.

A round little ginseng sat motionlessly beside its main trunk, leaning on it while occasionally staring at his summoner sitting next to the open fire. The beautiful green-haired lutin still had traces of redness around her eyes and nose, an indication that she had been crying until quite recently.

Ru Luan Di did not show any outward change in expression, but glanced towards the powerful looking creature beside her, nodding somewhat at its presence. An enormous moose-sized fire swarm beetle laid beside her, clad in a thick, powerful layer of blood-coloured chitinous exoskeleton.

Six thick and heavily armoured legs had been tucked into the sides of the monstrous-looking beetle. Jon had seen them after watching Avahni return with her two newest summons, sitting atop the back of the impressive fire swarm beetle.

[Fragment Of Beetle] [Titus Claudius; Custodian Of The Fire Swarm] (Summon, Fire, Beetle, Aura, Debuff)

Effect (Mortal): Perform a ritual to summon Titus Claudius; Custodian Of The Fire Swarm. Titus Claudius is a chevalier fire swarm beetle born in service of a once tremendous hive in the Realm Of Silent Green. Titus Claudius dwells within the ribcage after being summoned.

Titus Claudius possesses an overwhelming physical strength and defensive prowess, able to enhance specific physical qualities using fire natured spiritual energy. Titus Claudius possesses the unique [Fire Chevalier] Aura, which causes enemies within its radius to become afflicted with a refreshing instance of [Mark Of The Fire Swarm].

[Fire Chevalier]: Increases the ambient temperature around oneself. Increases the effectiveness of all abilities with the Fire Trait that are activated within the Aura.

[Mark Of The Fire Swarm]: Reduces resistances to fire-related damages, afflictions and debuffs. Additional stacks have an additive effect.

The one who bore the Title of Custodian Of The Fire Swarm sat unresponsively beside his summoner, his six eyes closed and his shell rising and falling with each breath it took. The presence of such an extraordinary creature attracted the eye of the human known as Jon and the female satanas known as Sariel.

The other two bipedal sapients, the floresiensis known as Wilheim, and the male satanas known as Shamael stared at Titus Claudius, sharing an expression somewhere in between uneasy and fearful.

The presence that the Custodian Of The Fire Swarm possessed was not for the faint of heart. Jon had seen through his numerous glimpses into Avahni's status page that her enormous beetle summon possessed the unique Aura Trait. Titus Claudius emanated a dull heat that seemed to enshroud himself and Avahni. Although there was no Shield Trait or Defensive Trait, Jon was sure that the beetle possessed a level of mastery over his abilities that exceeded even his own.

'I wonder if I should integrate a Fragment Of Aura?' Jon thought to himself, munching at the skewer of meat in his hands. The human sent a swift glance towards the green-skinned alien, who had offered to share the spoils of her hunt with the rest of them, in exchange for allowing herself and her brother to spend the night within their camp.

The two satanas, whose names Jon now knew as Sariel and Shamael, munched on their own skewers with an equal amount of vigour behind them. As a measure of politeness, Jon had offered one of his jumpers to Sariel, gesturing for her to wash her own clothes in the river before placing them beside his own on his makeshift clothesline.

He was looked at the two aliens who seemed quite interested in the design and fabrics that his clothes were made from, watching as the pair both explored the uniqueness of the hood behind the neck, in addition to the pocket along the base of the front of the jumper.

Jon had to show them that the pocket at the front was used to keep their hands warm. His interest in their culture increased after seeing the blue-skinned satanas clap at the sight of the green-skinned satanas mimicking Jon's actions with the pocket.

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'Perhaps their civilization is not as advanced as the rest of ours?' Jon hummed, wondering what technological period the satanas race had reached.

It did not matter that much to Jon, although he noticed that Wilheim seemed quite interested in both their language and their clothes, trying his best to learn and teach specific words to the two satanas.

So far Wilheim had managed to understand a few pieces of introductory Vaayli, common phrases such as "Hi, my name is" and "how are you", in addition to the more everyday responses to such questions or statements. Even Avahni, attempted to join into the conversation, regaining a portion of her trademark smile as Wilheim tried to include her into the dialogue.

It took the combined effects of Jon, Metzli and Ru Luan Di to convince Avahni to use the Fragment Of Mouth and the Fragment Of Beetle as catalysts to summon Xochitl; Voracious Wood-Swallowing Mangrove and Titus Claudius; Custodian Of The Fire Swarm.

It took quite a bit of convincing, but after Wilheim had joined into the conversation, the lutin agreed, causing all four of them to let out a breath of relief. Jon felt a small tugging at the hem of his pant leg, noticing that the little ginseng king had been pulling at his clothes. Looking down, Jon watched as Ru Luan Di gave him a small head nod.

"Thank you, Jon," the little ginseng said in Nain, causing Jon to give him a small pat on the head. His hand would have been swatted away, if not for the fact that his arms had yet to completely regenerate.

Ru Luan Di had waddled off towards his own summon, sitting beside Ashvattha Rana and communicating with her through some unknown means. The human had been quite surprised to see them talk with each other, although suspected that there must have been some form of common language throughout the integrated universes.

Ashvattha Rana had been able to speak English through her connection to her summoner.

Jon suspected that it was the same for all Avahni's summoned companions as well.

Despite the… sense of harmony that slowly seemed to form amongst the five of them, Jon could not help but glance towards the two satanas, narrowing his eyes as he stared at them through the flames.

After watching the familiar figures of Shamael and Sariel escape the grasp of that powerful Knight Ranked creature, Jon wondered what sort of end the two humanoids would come to, although through some random twist of fate, the pair had run into Avahni, who had just completed the summoning ritual to manifest Metzli into this world.

Avahni had moved to introduce herself to them but noticed that Shamael had been inflicted with powerful debuffs that his companion had been unable to cleanse or refine. Sariel had attempted to use her two abilities [Tenderness Is The Gentle Hand Of Spring] and [Twelfth Sonnet Of Life], to prevent her brother from dying, but swiftly ran out of life natured spiritual energy, unable to cleanse the afflictions given her Rank and insufficient level of mastery.

Through some miracle, Shamael had been saved through the combined efforts of Ru Luan Di and Wilheim's [Celebration Of Thou Hallowed Halls]. Avahni had overloaded her Fragment Of Ginseng, allowing the little ginseng king to access the minute fraction of power that was still contained within his Title Liver Of The Ginseng King.

After removing all the debuffs and afflictions from Shamael, Avahni had been attacked after being nearly completely drained of all the spiritual energy from her Wood Mana Core and Fire Mana Core. She had been protected due to the ability that Sariel manifested through her Fragment Of Repulsion [Thou Shalt Not Gaze Upon Thine Image].

After which, Wilheim had eliminated the Mortal Ranked sentient creature, using an overloaded [Mountain Art; Weight Of The Frosted Peaks].

"Do you think the two are lying Jon?" the human heard Ashvattha Rana's voice echo throughout his mind. Jon swiftly removed his gaze from Sariel's figure still wearing the jumper he had offered her, throwing his small meatless skewer into the crackling flames.

Jon shook his head but did not say anything through their mental connection.

"I admit, it is somewhat strange that two Mortals managed to escape from a Knight. Even someone like me, who is not able to easily move after being planted would be able to hunt down to Mortals who have not yet reached their Sixth Initiation. Although, the female one, Sariel also has a Space Mana Core. I, for one know how powerful spatial natured teleportation or displacement can be," Rana admitted.

The bodhi tree once desired a Space Mana Core while still a Mortal at the Fifth Initiation. Instead, Rana settled for an Earth Mana Core.

Jon had also once thought about integrating a Space Mana Core. Although knew that it was much heavier concept than Fire or Wood, still wanted to choose something more abstract as his next Mana Core.

"Jon… the little ginseng king, he wants to offer you something," said Rana, causing the human to remove his gaze from the two satanas across from him.

Lifting his head, Jon noticed that Ru Luan Di had moved from his position beside Ashvattha Rana, sitting down next to him, his back facing towards the tree line. With Rana able to perceive the movements of living beings through her extended roots, Jon felt safe even with his back to the unknown.

The little ginseng rested itself on the log that Jon had claimed as his own, lifting its head to peer up at the human, causing Titus Claudius to open three of its eyes as it peered towards the human her summoner called Jon.

Jon looked down towards Ru Luan Di, his [Monstrous Intuition] still able to comprehend all the conversations still going on around him.

Sariel chatted with Avahni, the latter using words that Jon was able to understand such as "courageous", "hair" and "warrior". Jon did wonder why Sariel had short hair while her brother had longer hair, down past his nape, but thought that it was merely personal preference more than anything else.

Wilheim and Shamael on the other hand, seemed to talk using their hands and drawings in the sand, the former using his finger to draw grand-looking castles while pointing to the worn-looking symbol for House Freytal-Isenburg over his chest.

Jon smiled softly, knowing that Wilheim had done to the same to him just a couple days after meeting each other.

The human felt Ru Luan Di place one of its limbs on Jon's hand, followed by a swift and sharp pain, the surface of his Sea Of Knowledge surging as waves rose up to defend his memories and experiences from this foreign intrusion.

"Jon don't resist. It is not malicious. Ru Luan Di just wants to talk," Jon heard Rana's voice echo throughout his mental landscape, causing him to furrow his brows before controlling his Sea Of Knowledge, returning the mental construct to its calm and still appearance. Within the span of a few seconds, the surface of his Sea Of Knowledge regained its mirror-like surface, fragments of glaciers littering the surface of his mind.

Taking a deep breath, Jon allowed a wisp of foreign fire natured spiritual energy to extend towards the surface of his Sea Of Knowledge, before touching it, an enormous torrent of knowledge and information flowing into his mind.

Jon almost forgot to breathe, before hearing strange words in a language that he was suddenly able to understand.

"Hello Jonathan Randal Guilliman".

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