Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!

Crack thud thud thud tap tap.

With the sound of gravel hitting the paved ground, the only remaining exit or entrance to the Cavern sealed itself up, good as new, as if it hadn't ever existed in the first place.

Much like the majority of the ones Aoni had gotten rid of recently, this one was naturally occurring over time due to weather erosion or something else unknown; however, the fact still proved this much since it was a straightforward entryway, contrary to the bug-made ones deep in the aquifer.

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Standing before the perfectly smoothed rocky wall and giving it a few solid raps with his knuckles, Aoni spun on his heel and began walking away while looking up at the ever-glowing moss carpet in the sky.

"I guess from here on out, we will see how well that stuff works. Gotta say, though, I'm kind of nervous; after all, there's a very strong possibility that the oxygen would run out and this place would end up vacuum sealed…shit, that's a horrible thought." Picturing himself teleporting into the Cavern only to end up suffocating, Aoni shivered before meeting back up with Nyria.

"We've got a few minutes if you wanna be the first to set up your room real quick." Walking up behind her and running his hand over her soft crown feathers, Aoni drew a faint cooing sound from Nyria, not unlike purring.

{'No, it's fine brother, I wanna wait for sister so we can set um up together.'}

"Sounds like a plan, you ready to test this thing out? Don't forget, you may get a little dizzy when we show up back in the cave, but that will pass pretty quickly since the distance we are covering is small."

{'Sure, but…you promise it won't hurt at all, right?'} Looking up at her Lord with innocent eyes, Nyria asked.

"No pain involved, I promise; now, if we were making a jump hundreds of miles away, it's pretty common that a person would throw up afterward, but for us, there is nothing to worry about." Giving Nyria another reassuring pat, he stepped passed the several-foot-wide opening in the fence and walked to the center of the now dim orange magic circle, with Nyria waddling behind him.

There, he found a waist-high pylon made of orange stone, housing a concaved bowl at the top. No matter how you looked at the pylon, it was hard not to notice it was covered from top to bottom in dim orange inscriptions; another indicator that this was the Activation pylon.

"Do you remember what I told you about how to activate the Array?"

{'Yes, brother, first it needs to be registered to someone, mainly you. After that's done, you will pick certain people, giving them access to the Array, and from there, we just gotta place three shiny rocks into the Bowl per person, and it will light up, bringing us to the cave.'} Hopping up onto Aoni's shoulder and being extra careful with her talons, Nyria explained.

"Very good, don't forget though, they are called Energia Crystals, not shiny rocks, silly girl. Also, always keep enough in your pack to use it 5 times; that way, you don't run out and get stuck outside."

{'Mmmhm, I got's plenty.'} Patting her chest-mounted pack proudly, Nyria snuck a peek into her pouch and checked on the over 100 energia crystals sitting there in a neat pile.

They were leftovers from when she was working to help Aoni set up the Cavern's floor and walls, and since the Lad had known about the Teleportation costs, he didn't mind letting her keep some of the so-called "Shiny rocks" if not to make her happy, then to have as backups.

Hearing that, Aoni smiled at her and rolled his eyes, still laughing internally at how she was so intrigued by shiny objects before reaching into his inventory and using Austr to slice his right palm open.

Self-mutilation aside, he quickly pulled his hand away from his inventory, clenched it into a fist, and allowed the blood to drop into the Bowl before beginning to chant.

"Tatayum, blanci datim, chroneesium plattatu dae veetrium." Speaking in a clear tone and watching as the blood cascaded into the shallow stone bowl, Aoni continued reciting several more lines from memory as taught by his Dad until, finally, the pylon flashed brightly and began glowing in a warm orange light.

| A Teleportation Array: ★★★, has been identified. |

| Now linking Array to the Territory Lord's Flume and the Lord's Display. |

| Lord's Display temporarily being unlocked |

| Linkage complete |

| Lord's Display has been relocked |

'Damn, and here I thought I could cheat the system again, heh, oh well, it's not like I won't be resolving that issue soon enough. Regardless, according to what Dad told me, so long as I mix my blood with Nyria and Glacia, I can access my Lord's Display long enough to add them as users of the Array.' Looking up at Nyria as she was perched on his shoulder, Aoni contemplated giving her alone rights to the Array and ignoring Glacia but quickly threw that idea out the window.

The last thing he wanted was for something unplanned to happen to her and for Glacia to get stuck outside accidentally.

"Nyria, I need to draw a little blood from you now so that I can give you access to the Array. Is that okay?" Approaching the topic carefully, since the birb was extremely frightened by any type of pain, Aoni still asked as it was necessary for the process.

{'Do you have to cut me the way you did your hand…'} Flinching slightly but being brave, Nyria asked with apparent fear in her voice.

"No, no, sweet girl, don't worry bout that; I have a tool that will let me do it quickly and painlessly, just a little poke is all. You just close your eyes, and you won't even feel a thing, I promise." Reaching up and petting her wing, Aoni's voice was calm and tender.

Trusting him fully, Nyria nodded, albeit still scared, and closed her eyes tightly, waiting for whatever her Lord would do to be over.

What she didn't notice was that the moment she'd given her consent and closed her eyes, Aoni had drawn out a needle and, while petting her wing, quickly poked her, drew enough blood, and withdrew the needle all within a couple of seconds.

"And all done, see, no biggie, right?" Aoni asked while continuing to pet her wing.

{'Huh? Done, did you really take my blood already?'} Opening one eye just a sliver, Nyria looked at him cautiously only to see him holding a strange tube filled with a gorgeous bluish-red liquid.

"Yep, all done; this here is your blood; isn't it a pretty color, just like my good girl."