Emma

'Finally, I have engraved 70% of my skill (ice manipulation). I have not assumed it would be so exhausting and take such a long time to memorize and engrave my skill further, hope it is worth the time.' Nile stood up and stretched himself. It had been 7 months since Nile or Darren last left the cave. In these past months, Nile had raised his cultivation by 1 rank, from Human rank-3 to rank-4. Raising one initial rank in the Human realm in a span of 7 months was considered slow and poor progress even for an average cultivator. The reason Nile had just ranked up once, was because memorizing a skill and further engraving it on the Skill Stone (in cestation) was exhausting and a slow process. Nile had planned to divide his day into 2 equal halves, giving equal priority to both cultivation and memorization of skill. Once he implemented his schedule, he then realized how exhausting it was to memorize a skill beyond 60%. Most of his day was spent recovering from the exhaustion caused by memorization of skill, leaving him almost no time to cultivate.

After stretching for a while, Nile used his ice manipulation on his hand. Within just a second, a small ice cube could be seen floating above his hand.

Seeing the cube a smile appeared on Nile's face.

'Now I can freeze the moisture present in the air, basically, I can form ice out of thin air. Let's check its strength and limitations.'

Nile then started depositing more energy on the ice cube, the size of the ice cube kept on increasing as more and more energy was deposited into it. Within 20 seconds Nile had depleted 80% of his energy in his energy pool, but a smile appeared on his face indicating he was satisfied with what he was seeing. The small cube had enlarged into a foot-long and 2-foot wide ice cube.

Nile gently raised his hand, in front of his raised hand just a foot away the ice cube came floating. He moved the floating cube around him just trying to check his control over it, when he was done he made a sharp vertical motion with his hand.

'BAAAAAAAAMMMMM' a loud sound echoed inside the cave, and just a foot away from Nile dust particles could be seen floating. A small crater was formed, when the dust particles settled, a shattered ice-cube was resting in the crater.

Nile stood there for a while thinking something, he then again raised his hand and slowly clenched his fist, as soon as he made a fist the shattered ice cube started to vibrate and the broken pieces started to bind with each other. Within seconds a new ice cube stood there in the crater, Nile had fixed the shattered ice cube by his skill.

"That was some show." Darren said while clapping, he had been watching Nile right from the start.

"Sorry for disturbing your cultivation, I was so absorbed that it slipped out of my mind that I wasn't alone." Nile said while sitting on the ground.

"No worries, even I was getting bored of this monotonous schedule. Shall we go out slaying some monsters?"

Just 2 months back Darren had increased his cultivation level, he was now a Warrior-7 cultivator. Darren had preferred slaying monsters in the wild rather than sitting in one place and cultivating, that was the only reason he had been stuck in warrior-6 for almost 2 years. These last 7 months were the longest he had cultivated in a single go. If Darren would have had given time to cultivation like an average cultivator, he would have been at peak Warrior rank (Rank-9).

"We can go once I have refilled my energy pool." Nile's whole energy pool was depleted earlier. He sat down and started to absorb energy.

(At the center of the Withlock town, in the Mansion)

"Congratulation, it's a beautiful baby girl." Kaya joyously said while gently resting the crying baby beside Elora. The baby was fair-skinned and had the exact same hazel colored eyes as Elora, with arctic-silver lanugo (newborn baby hair).

Elora looked at the baby and said "Emma..... we will call her Emma."

"Emma" Kaya repeated, "A beautiful name just like her." Kaya said while standing among other maids. Mia who was standing a few feet away had a little sparkle in her hollow eyes. Both of Mia's mental and physical state was far better now than it was 5 years back, she had found a happy and warm place where everyone treated her as a part of the family.

'Creaaaaakkkk.' The door opened wide and Drake entered the room worried.

Seeing his worried expression Kaya said- "Both mother and baby girl are safe, you don't have to worry."

Kaya was someone who had spent a lot of time around Drake, she could read Drake like a mother, just by looking at his facial expression she knew what Drake wanted to hear the most.

Hearing Kaya Drake tensed face relaxed. He bent down and looked at Emma. By the time Emma had stopped crying and was looking around her with her beautiful eyes.

"The baby has the same eyes as your's El." Drake said shifting his gaze from Emma to Elora.

"What is wrong ?" Drake said when he saw a tinge of sorrow hidden in Elora's eyes.

"I miss him Drake, I wonder how happy he would have been today meeting his little sister." Elora said with a gloomy tone while gripping the pendant which was glowing with green light around her neck.

"He will be back soon, don't you worry." Drake paused, glanced at the pendant, and continued- "By the way El, are you sure Darren had given Nile the other pendant ?"

There was pin-drop silence in the room. A realization hit Elora, there was a possibility that Darren had not given Nile the pendant she had asked him to give Nile.

The pendant was a magical item, it was used in pairs and were connected to each other. If the wearer of, even one of the pendants' heartbeat stops then both the pendant would stop glowing.

Two days before Nile and Darren were leaving, Elora was expecting a delivery of 2 magical pendants, but due to some reason only one of the pendants was received by Elora and the person bringing the other pendant got late by a whole day, reaching Withlock just an hour before their Departure. As Elora was busy she had asked Darren to receive the Pendant on her behalf and give it to Nile. At the time of their departure, she had completely forgotten about the pendant.

Seeing the panic growing in his wife's eye Drake spoke again reassuring her "Don't worry the pendant is glowing, someone among Darren and Nile must be wearing it."

Seeing Elora had panicked eyes he further added "Until Darren is fine, he won't let anything happen to Nile and you know that."

After hearing Drake her tensed face relaxed."Yes I do trust him." she said while caressing Emma's small head.

Even though Darren was an air-head, but she knew Darren was someone she could trust blindly and his knowledge about the wild forest and monsters was unparalleled in Withlock town.

'I can only wish they are hiding well in that deadly forest. Even though Nile is brave but even seeing a dead monster for the first time could give night-mare to children, and eating them is the worst for someone so young. I hope Nile had got used to the taste of monster meat.' Drake thought while imagining how afraid Nile would have been when eating monster meat for the first time.

Only if he had known the number of monsters his son had slain, he would have vomited blood.

Note-[ When I have mentioned, they cultivated for 7 months, it does not mean continuously, they took short breaks for eating and even rested once in a while especially Nile who is a human rank cultivator (he could go without food and sleep for a week) , as for Darren he just needs to rest and eat once in a month due to his high cultivation level].