Eliron opened his eyes, only to realise he was falling right into the quick sand.
"What the hell??"
Lost in the thrill of a well executed plan, he had forgotten the mammoth was standing right in the center of the sand.
As he was falling, he saw something flash in the distance. A ball of shimmering light was vanishing and appearing, covering wide distances as it raced towards him.
And then just as he was about to land in the sand, the light appeared right in front of him, followed by a lock of red hair and a stoic expression.
"Artie—woah!"
She grabbed him and vanished, the world blurring in Eliron's eyes. The moment he disappeared, it was as though he was seeing the world through water.
His body would feel extremely light for a few seconds, only for his weight to come back suddenly.
'So this is what her teleportation feels like…'
It was disorienting.
Thankfully, it did not last long, as shortly after, Eliron found himself back on solid ground.
Artie was carrying him as though he was the princess in a romantic fantasy novel.
"What a nice twist… If this goes according to the traditional plot, then you'll be asking for my hand in a few chapters."
Artie sighed tiredly as she stared at him, but Eliron could see some relief in her eyes.
Then she frowned lightly.
"Now that I think of it… was getting swallowed part of your plan?" She asked, her voice emotionless.
Eliron smiled brightly. "Of course it—ack!"
Before he could finish talking, Artie dropped him right on the floor.
He was about to complain when a soft body suddenly collided into him, tackling him to the floor.
Yennefer, not bothering about the slime, hugged him, tears streaming out of her eyes.
"I th…ought you w..ere dead…" she stammered, her words slurred by her tears.
Eliron smiled and patted her back. "Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine."
'I guess I should have told them my plan…'
Yennefer nodded, still crying as she hugged him tighter. "Good… good… my v-vacation won't end so soon…"
"Hmm?"
'Is she only concerned about having to return to Celestia?' Eliron gave her a blank stare.
Suddenly, he didn't feel so guilty.
The hunters all wore relieved expressions when they saw their lord was alive, and they spent the next few minutes in silence, too exhausted to do anything.
After spending some time next to him, Yennefer sniffled.
The blood that she had bled when she countered the mammoth's blast had left a red streak below her nose, and she looked completely exhausted.
She tugged on his shirt and said, "I'm hungry…"
Eliron sighed. "Alright, let's get you something to eat."
That was when he realised something was terribly wrong. He suddenly shot up to his feet.
"Where is Ash??"
Everyone suddenly turned to face a certain direction. "We told him not to…" one of the hunters mumbled.
Eliron turned in the direction of their gazes, only to see a head sticking out of the sand…
He blinked, trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing. And then…
"Ash?!"
Eliron had not even pulled him out completely, the moment his mouth was free, tears streamed down his eyes as he yelled.
"My lord, it's good to see that you are alive!" He cried while shaking in the sand.
Eliron sighed and smirked. "You're really something Ash…"
Dragging himself through the sand meant Ash was ready to die for his sake, which spoke greatly of his loyalty.
It took quite the effort to pull him out, and when he was finally free from the mess, they could finally assess the situation.
The magister mammoth had been successfully killed, meaning Eliron's alliance with Artie was now sealed.
But there was one problem…
"So Eliron.' Artie said calmly. "How do you plan to transport this beast?"
Their original plan was to come into the forest to hunt after all, it would be a total waste to leave the mammoth here.
"We can cut it up into chunks and take what we can?" Ash suggested as he watched the beast.
Eliron shook his head, and then suddenly, a small rickety pouch appeared just in front of him, floating in the air.
"This should be more than enough…"
Ash stared at it in disbelief. "My lord, is that an artifact?!"
A wave of murmurs spread among the hunters.
Artifacts were like this word's version of technology, or rather, a branch of it.
The main difference between an artifact and regular technology, or regular magical tools, was that artifacts were more unrealistic in function, because they were powered by strong magic.
Because of how effective they were, and how expensive they were to produce (since most of them used spirit shards), artifacts, especially the more useful ones, were very rare.
Eliron had never left the village once, and yet, he had somehow found an artifact.
"Is that a storage artifact?" Artie asked, masking her suprise well.
Eliron nodded proudly. "Of course it is. With this, we can hunt as many Monsters as we want, and take them back stress free."
She blinked. "But… how did you get it?"
Eliron gave her a blank stare, then coughed, muttering in some quick words. "I found it in the belly of the mammoth…"
Artie stared at him for a little longer then sighed. "Why am I not supirsed…"
Using her short range teleportation, they managed to get to the mammoth, after which Eliron sucked the entire thing into the infinity pouch.
"Alright…" Eliron said when his feet touched solid ground. "Let's head back home!"
The walk back to the camp was filled with a lot of discussion about what had happened.
Eliron was still covered in slime, and now, Yennefer and Artie were also stained in it thanks to him.
So all he could think about while going back was scrubbing every single inch of his body clean.
But the moment they arrived, they were greeted by a shocking surprise.
Laying on the floor, covered with blood was a monster that resembled a large chicken with black feathers, a razor sharp beak, and white scaled feet.
"What happened here?" Eliron asked, his blade already out of its sheath.
They had left a few elves to guard the girls just in case something like this had happened, but Eliron was surprised to see a monster had actually wandered into their camp.
Thankfully, everyone seemed fine, but they all bore concerned expressions, a few seconds later, he knew why—
"You're back…" Came a raspy voice as a man walked past the other elves.
"Durin?" Eliron's gaze darkened. He had a nasty wound on his shoulder and looked deathly pale.
'He must have been injured during the fight…' Eliron thought.
"You guys are back." He said weakly. "Don't worry, this was the only monster, we've checked."
Unable to stand upright, he fell forward, Eliron catching him before he could hit the ground.
"What happened?" Eliron tapped his shoulder, but he was already unconscious.
"We didn't see the monster coming until it was already in the camp." Said one of the hunters, his expression distraught.
"If not for Durin, someone would have died. He put himself in harm's way for our sake…"
Eliron nodded. "You did well, Durin."
Although the elf could not hear him, he felt it was important that he said it.
Yennefer then walked up to him to examine his condition. She was still exhausted from the battle, but she still forced herself, pushing past her fatigue to heal him.
And then a moment later, Durin opened his eyes, the wound on his shoulder gone as though it was never there.
"T-thank you!" Durin said bowing, but Yen just waved her hand. "It was nothing…"
She sighed deeply and closed her eyes, heavily exhausted, but Eliron held her hand to steady her.
"How do you feel?"
Yennefer glanced up at him. "Like I was put through a meat grinder…"
"It's expected, you healed my bruises after the fight after all…" Eliron paused and then glanced at the dead monster.
"Here's what I'll do, as a thank you, I'll prepare a special dish this evening."
Yennefer's dull outlook suddenly brightened up at the mention of food. "Now you're talking!"
…
After their conversation, Eliron immediately went to the river to have a bath.
He made sure to wipe off every single last drop of slime and blood from his body, then he discarded his leather armour for free clothing.
When he was done, he summoned his infinity pouch and then stuck his hand into it, pulling out objects.
On one side was a dark red crystal that gave off a soft glow, while on the other was a blue shimmering crystal with lightning encased within it.
The spirit shard of the goblin king was not new.
But after the fight, Eliron had acquired another piece, the core of the Magister mammoth.
And now, he knew exactly what to do with them…