After all, the cart was way too large to descend with using a mere rope. That and the warriors had grown complacent, what with there being a mage in their presence.
With a sigh, Lucius used Elmando to convert parts of the cart into ropes with very dense nail-like tips.
Of course, regardless of how dense he wanted them to be, his level of mastery in Elmando simply would not allow for them to be able to pierce through rock easily, so descending would still be a challenge.
He decided to go down first, whilst using Elmando to slowly move the cart towards the edge.
Once the first set of wheels went over the edge, he converted them into even more ropes and began driving their sharpened tips into the rock face.
This proved to be a difficult task since the mushroom material kept getting flattened under the pressure of the hammering action. But after a few attempts, he managed to make a hole big enough for it to anchor onto.
And that was just one of the 8 ropes he had created for anchorage, not to mention the first of many cycles he would need to actually reach the entrance to the Chames' den.
The rest of the group watched on in awe as Lucius dangled over certain peril whilst slamming the nail-like rope ends into the rock face.
*
After around an hour of doing this, the group managed to make it to the entrance to the Chames' den, with Lucius being completely exhausted.
If not for his level restrictions, he was certain his stats would've doubled due to this little exercise.
"Good work, Havon," one of the warriors whispered to him, as the group collected at the mouth of the entrance.
"Indeed, a mighty warrior," another added.
Once everyone had gotten down, they began moving toward the main tunnels of the den.
Due to the strain he had put on Elmando whilst descending, he couldn't use it to move the cart anymore, so the warriors were forced to move it manually.
Which proved to be difficult for them since Lucius did not reform the wheels. Something he could've done, but decided not to.
"Mighty warriors," he whispered as he walked passed them.
~Though I really need to find the river route that leads into the inner den,~ he thought to himself as he stretched his limbs. His legs and tail still hurt from supporting his weight for that long.
Once they got to the den's main corridor, the chief instructed one of the guards stationed there to alert Shavak of their arrival. And the group moved to the Council room whilst they waited.
However, Lucius decided to visit Sherlin instead. They were here to hand over the food, and nothing more. And he was almost certain that the guards would call the council members as well, something he wasn't sure he could handle in this state.
He was both mentally and physically exhausted, if he had to deal with Shavril's nonsense in this state, he might actually kill the 'senior advisor'.
~Perhaps I should stop by the children as well, after all, I'm supposed to be training them,~ he thought to himself as he tried recalling which tunnels led to Sherlin's quarters.
After a few wrong turns, dead ends, and several guards offering him directions, he was finally on the right track.
Though this little exploration tour of his made him realize just how small the Chames' population was in comparison to the Zeldraves. Of course, Lucius could understand why their warrior populations had such a clear disparity.
Whereas Avankor seemed to accept anyone as a warrior -made apparent by the fact that warriors and normal Zeldrave were the same size- Shavak only accepted those specially bred for the task. This meant that a lot of the able-bodied adult population ended up being guards, which to Lucius was quite a waste.
When he finally got to Sherlin's quarters, he found the old pundit reading the leather parchment he had given him some time back.
"Havon... you've returned," Sherlin said with a smile, before lifting the paper into the air. "I've figured it out. This 'alphabet' of yours, I've figured it out," he continued, as he approached Lucius.
Lucius on the other hand doubted the pundit's words. He had only written a few words for practice on the parchment, and even then he doubted that the pundit could properly read those.
After all, it had only been a few days, even if this was primarily a phonetic language.
Before Lucius could even reply, the pundit began reading the words off one by one. Sure, he took some time to form the sounds, but he was at a level where most non-native speakers of a language would be called fluent.
Lucius stared at the old Chames in shock for a moment, wondering if he was some genius. But this wasn't even the end of it.
Next Sherlin used his claws to write a few words on the parchment. Due to Lucius's encyclopedia, he could tell the words were spelled wrongly, but that was beside the point.
He could understand the words that Sherlin was trying to inscribe. It was a short sentence.
'This is an interesting tool.' it read.
"I spent every moment of the last few days practicing. It's the most fun I've had since I was a child," the pundit chuckled as Lucius just stared at him.
~This old man.~ Perhaps the only other creature Lucius had ever met on the same level of adeptness at learning was Hannibal. But even then, he doubted Hannibal would've dedicated this much time to such a boring task.
"Have you taught anyone else yet?" Lucius asked.
"Of course not," Sherlin replied harshly, before quickly calming down. "As if those old skin bags would ever share their knowledge with me. Besides, I've come to realize that our trade was unfair. How can I share what I am yet to completely repay," he continued.
Lucius couldn't understand what it was with these creatures and honoring trades. If it were up to humans, they'd be happy to leave with a bargain. Sure it was nice to know that they wouldn't cheat him, but it was annoying when he just wanted it to be over with.
