31 (31) Useless

After Lysine left, Kraton decided to visit the Gargoyles, to hire some manual labour of course. He spent some time at floor 3 chatting with the Nagas, like any friendly neighbour would when passing by, but when he reached the second floor, his temperment changed to that of a military instructor.

"GARGOYLES!"

Kraton's loud yell suprised many of the lazing Gargoyles, some even fell off from the ceiling, cursing the intruder with words that would even make a Dwarf blush.

Three familiar Gargoyles stumbled in front of Kraton, their stone wings trembled slightly as they approached.

"G-gargoyle Duis pays repects to Boss Kraton" The leader of the three kept his head down, he shuddered as if recalling a bad experience. The other two Gargoyles also lowered their head, soon the rest of the stone creatures came to a realisation who Kraton was. They all hid in the crevices in the wall that they made, not daring to peek their heads out.

Duis murmered something along the lines of "flippin deserters".

It was unknown if Kraton heard this, but a smirk grew on his face. "Since you three volunteered yourselves, make some stuff for me. I need.... And if the quality isn't satisfactory, then I'll make you do it over and over again."

The three of them paled, looking more like chalk monsters than stone Gargoyles, however they didn't their argue against Kraton as they already had been whalloped once.

Kraton then made his way back down to the fourth floor, and god, was walking up and down these stairs tiring! It was roughly an hour later when the Gargoyles completed their errands and brought down many large and strangely shaped blocks of stone, much to the Nagas amusement as they watched the Gargoyles tumble down under the immense weight of the stones they carried.

"This one's cracked! Do it again!" Kraton roared as he pointed at the largest stone.

...

When the three returned for the countless time, Kraton finally let them go back to their floor. They all squirmed back up the stairs before Kraton could change his mind, however the ordeal for them wasn't over yet. It seemed that on the new years day, many new humans would become players and raid dungeons for their first time. Coupled with the increase in population in Florid Boulevard - due to the rising fame and attention on Ophid Creek's Double Boss - many low levelled players entered the first and second floor of the dungeon. In a way, the Gargoyle Trio were lucky that Kraton had given them a job to do, albeit an exhausting one, as otherwise they would be mercilessly challenged and killed by the new players.

The stone equipment which the Gargoyles had brought down were quite simple, the largest stone block was basically an anvil, it was made of the densest material out of the equipment. On one side, there was a large pit dug out of it, with a smaller hole near the bottom, like a drain. This small hole ended on the outside of the block.

The rest of the stone equipment were mainly moulds and standard equipment such as a stone mallet.

Once Kraton had arranged all the equipment near the back of the room, he stood near the anivil in deep thought.

"Why did I need all of this again? I don't have anything to make..."

In the end, Kraton sat on the central chair, seemingly depressed and eventually fell asleep. He had no use for the forging equipment right now, but at the end of the day, he didn't lose out. He could always use the equipment in the future when the time came, besides there was nothing else to do today.

Lysine came back at 5.00 in the morning on the next day, she was quite suprised when she discovered Kraton awake in the Boss Room, he was busy chatting through the data rock, and when Lysine approached Kraton, she saw a few messages from Psychi. The latest message read:

"Let me SLEEP!"

Kraton on the other hand, had no sign of fatigue at all, and upon enquiring, Lysine found out that Kraton had slept for most of the day yesterday and therefore felt restless at night.

Kraton asked how the Gathering went and found out that it was roughly the same as his Gathering, this meant Lysine had become level 13 now, as well as an immense increase in her Knowledge Points. The Boss Host for Lysine's Gathering was a guy called Zefyre, and he seemed much better than Hato as he had described in detail everything the Novice Bosses needed to know, including the differences between Advanced and Subconscious Knowledge. Kraton found himself learning much more from Lysine than Hato.

However, when Kraton asked her what her Innate Talent was, Lysine was clueless about the matter, so he just shrugged it off.

"Wait, you're friend Psychi is a Moon Immortal, right? Zefyre is also a Moon Immortal, their species really are knowledgable." Lysine sighed, if she had not been so weak and had stayed with her Lamia pack, then she too would have access to multitudes of information that her Pack had inherited.

Lysine quickly regained her usual cheery look , however her dejected look did not escape Kraton's eyes. Kraton had asked about her life before being a Boss many times, however Lysine carefully avoided the subject of her old pack, so Kraton left it alone.

"Did your Boss Host tell you the Story of Origin?" Sensing Kraton's thoughts, Lysine quickly asked Kraton to take his mind of, or maybe she was trying to take her own mind off it as well.

"Huh? No, Hato was useless, the only story he told us was how the High-Demon God led the race of Demons to their glorious state."

Lysine chuckled at the thought, she thanked Kraton silently in her heart for not asking anymore about her pack, every time she recalled it, anguish flared up inside her. What had happened in the last few days in her Pack had broken her heart entirely.

"Zefyre told us that understanding and knowledge of the world will give us power when we need it. But truth be told, the Story of Origin sounds more like a myth than anything else."