26

{What do you mean?} Ethan cocked his head at me.

{Just a feeling} I lied.

Explaining that there was a system in my head was still something I didn't care to do. We turned back toward base, and started heading back to the base. We'd have to do some investigation. I knew he was in the base. I'd left him there.

Calen didn't have time to leave the base. He was too busy ninety percent of the time. He didn't leave the base unless their was an emergency. At least I didn't think he did. I allowed Ethan, Savannah, and Jax up on my back for the trip back.

That got a few envious looks from the other two, but they didn't really have time to complain as my tail wrapped around them both, and yanked them along with me as I ran back to base in less then a quarter of the time it took to get out that far. My wings flared slightly open as I rushed along. Just slow enough that I wasn't risking the safety of the two I had wrapped up in my tail. Now this was a real workout. I wanted to pick up more weight, and really go crazy, but I really couldn't do much.

I guess that would be my plan for later. Get myself something heavy enough for me to weightlift. I needed to exorcise more, and up my strength stat. Maybe sprinting as fast as I could over, and over again I would be able to up my speed. The same way Goliath had pushed my stats up slowly.

My elemental control needed improvement as well. I dropped the two guys by the gate as I walked through with my bonded sitting comfortably on my back. My calm stride took me to our temporary abode faster than most people could run. I crouched down to let them off just outside the warehouse, and walked in. My wings twitched as I went up to the map I was working on.

I'd slacked off on working out because it took forever to gain stats that way, but I needed to keep Calen alive. I couldn't lose ten levels of my affinities right now. I couldn't lose them anytime. I needed those affinities. My wings kept on twitching as I tried to figure out how I could protect someone like him.

He hardly ever left the guild. I scratched away at the map I was making bit by bit. Adding more detail as I went along. I'd finished up most of the base map by now. Finished scratching it in.

Now I just had to start working on the surroundings. I wondered how much I could fit on this floor before I ran out of floor to map on. I could keep on putting details into the map until I thought it was detailed enough for me. A perfect aerial map of the area. I could add notations for the things in the area, and the creatures that lived in the area.

People would probably notice the map eventually, but for now the surface area it covered was still small enough that I could just lay over it without much of a problem. I could figure out what to do with the map later if anyone ever noticed it. My wings twitched as I tried to carve a map, and advance my lightning affinity at the same time. It was the only element I could focus on while still doing things. I kept at it.

Advancing my affinity slowly while carving a map into the floor of the warehouse. I wondered what the max level of my affinities was, and what happened after that. I decided it was time to go out. Mapping was rather boring, and I'd have enough time to finish that eventually. For now I needed to get stronger.

I wasn't alone so I didn't have to watch Calen all the time by myself.

{Savannah keep an eye on Calen} I opened the warehouse doors.

{Ethan mentioned that you thought he was in danger} Savannah replied {Is that why you want me to watch him?}

{Yes} I snorted at the guards outside the doors as I flared my wings {Something here is wrong. You can investigate if you want, but I don't want him dying while I'm working on getting stronger.}

{If that's what you want us to do then fine} I had no idea how she was able huff mentally.

I flooded her, and Jax with mana again. I could feel her irritation flash through me as well. I shrugged off her irritation, and did the same to myself to expand my own mana reservoir. Using up all ten thousand mana that was stored in the fourth storage crystal. It made my eyes burn, and churned up my insides.

A glow came off my skin. Lighting up the outlines of my scales as my eyes bled. I was glad that I cut off my bonded or they would have felt the same pain I just did. I'd need a few days to recover after this. I needed to send the other three back to be emptied.

It made me growl slightly. Startling the guards into drawing their weapons. I gave myself a few seconds to heal the damage before jumping into the sky. Flapping my massive wings as I flew out of the settlement. Exhaustion flooding into my body following the damage I'd just done.

It was probably worse than I originally thought. There were no external signs of damage. That meant it was mostly internal churning. My pain tolerance being high was a little inconvenient at times like this. Not being sensitive to pain made it hard to tell how much pain I was in a lot of the time.

Unless I was in a lot of pain. I kept flying until I was out of the others line of sight. There weren't many dangerous creatures around here. Not many that were dangerous for me anyways. I could recover outside the base without worrying about it too much.