Chapter 23: Visiting the Horned Statue

I walked down the hillside towards the pond, with excitement written on my face. I looked at the peaceful looking pond, there were frogs that swam around, tadpoles floating around, several heron sitting at the water's edge. I walked around the large pond, as I took in the nice mountain breeze, I watched the sun that was high in the sky, with a small smile on my face. I had calmed down a lot since arriving at the pond and had finally prepared myself to meet the horned statue, or my Master.

I walked over to the statue, and kneeled down onto my knees and said, "Hello master, I have come with essence to trade off."

"Ah, I almost thought that you gave up and were going to avoid me." He said with amusement clear in his voice, "So what is it you want for these essence?"

"I was wondering what you'd trade for them?" I said with confusion as I didn't know the trade system. "You didn't exactly explain what was available for trade, our last meeting."

"Well there are two ways of trading, absorbing part of the monsters' essence to stabilise a random attribute. Be it their strength or healing capabilities, these both have a random chance of happening, you can of course pay to secure a higher chance for certain boosts, I am after all a businessman." The horned statue said, the last part playfully so. "Or you can trade in a larger quantity of essence for more specific boosts like increased stamina, certain resistances, or improved vision. There are pretty much endless possibilities, it's just that they are a bit more… pricey."

"Okay, I want to absorb part of the monsters' essence." I said after a short period of thinking. "So what's the process like, does it hurt or anyth-?" I asked before an abrupt pain pierced my body.

"Hah ha ha." The horned statue laughed, before speaking, "I'm sorry that was a joke. Should've seen the look on your face. Classic." As he said that the pain disappeared, and the only thing left was a slightly uncomfortable feeling covering my body.

I looked at him with anger apparent in my eyes, "WHAT THE HELL!?!" I shouted at him, before quieting down in fear of passerbyers hearing me, "That is your idea of a joke?"

"Oi, stop getting so riled up, it was only a joke." The horned statue stated it like it was a fact. "Okay, done, you have gained an increase in vitality of roughly 1 heart canister. This, alongside an increase in stamina equal to 1 stamina vessel, and a slight increase in heat resistance. Your welcome."

I stood there quietly while trying to feel for changes to my body. I felt more energetic and slightly colder. "I can certainly feel different, I feel like I'm healthier and more energetic. Thank you, master."

"If you keep bringing me essence I'll keep strengthening you." The Horned statue stated seriously.

"I shall continue to do so. I hope to meet you again soon, master." I stated, before bowing and turning to walk away. After getting 10 meters away from the horned statue I decided to relax near the pond.

I walked over to a tree facing towards the pond, and sat down next to it and pulled my blue flame from my side and sat it next to me on a rock. I sat there calmly for a couple minutes, staring into the pond waters, after which I pulled out a book that was in my inventory and read up on types of plants commonly found in the Necluda region. The more commonly found plants will make a useful tidbit of information that will help me make a lot of money over my next journey.

*An hour later*

I looked up from the book and noticed how much time had passed, and put my book away, placed my blue flame back on my hip and stood up. I stretched a bit before starting to walk towards town, I looked up at the sky as I walked. I felt my stomach growl a little, after that I changed my destination to the closest food stall.

I didn't have to look far, as I walked for 6 minutes and came across a small stall selling kebabs. Didn't specify what type of meat it was, but meh, its food, I'm hungry. Combine the two and what do you get, ignoring the alternate timeline where it's a horrible abomination, you get a not hungry me… yay.

(AN: Sorry for my attempt at humour.)

I went to the closest outhouse and used said outhouse, then started my walk up the hill. I walked past the gate, up the hill. After roughly 50 minutes I arrived back at the tech lab, I walked in through the front door, and saw Purah sitting at the centre table.

"HI Purah, I'm back. What are you reading?" I asked her as I walked towards her.

"Oh, hello Joseph, I was reading more into the applications of Sheikahn runes, all in preparation for that de-aging rune I talked to you about." Purah said as she looked up from her scattered pieces of paper, which seemed covered in ramblings about the applications of certain characters of the Sheikah text, and how they influenced the inner workings of different runes. To be honest, I couldn't understand a single work of it.

"Okay, so who's cooking tonight." I asked while walking towards the door.

"Symin is cooking, I think he is going to cook a pot of curry rice." She said looking up from her notes. "You did get goron spice, right?

"Yes I got some." I answered with a small smile on my face. "Well, I have to go put away my traveling gear. So, see you in… about 10 minutes." I walked through the door and up the stairs to my room, I placed down all my gear, placed my blue flame next to my bed. I changed into my casual wear, and went back down the stairs, and started stocking the cupboards with the goods I bought.

The cupboards were divided into vegetables, dishes, spices and dairy products. Each had their own rune reinforced storage areas, the vegetables and dairy products each had a rune set up in their respective storage compartment that keeps the food stuffs fresh.