101 Gaoh's Treasuries

Following Gaoh into the cave, I find it to be incredibly bright despite there being no identifiable source of light. Taking a closer look, the source of the lights are actually the rocks that line the cave walls. Proceeding deeper into the cave, the number of rocks giving off light gradually decreases as we eventually arrive at a split path, a centre path and one to each side. We follow Gaoh moving down the centre path, but a quick look shows that each path leads to a large door.

"These are my treasuries, in the centre path are the Roots I promised. There are several that I have gathered over many millennia, but only two will be of use to you, the Greater Elemental Roots of Light and Dark."

"Since you have more, can I take a couple extra, just enough that won't trigger my evolution?"

"No. You will only receive what it is you need for the Cosmic Spirit Dragon. The only reason I am even handing these over is due to the covenant, even still, I am reluctant to give them to a fool like you."

I should have expected as much, and with his overwhelming strength it's not like I can fight for more.

As Gaoh approaches the giant door, it slides open and although I've never seen the contents of the room before, I instinctively recognise them as various different Elemental Roots. Although I am tempted to rush out and grab them, the pressure from Gaoh keeps me from moving.

"Stay here," Gaoh says as he moves deeper into the room.

After a little under a minute, he returns with two orb like objects that I instinctively recognise as the Roots of Light and Dark. One gives off a bright light the feels as if it were trying to remove all traces of the dark. The other is pitch black and radiates a darkness that feels as if it were trying to consume the light of the world.

"You know what to do," Gaoh says, pushing the Roots towards me.

I swiftly move to swallow them up and immediately feel a heat radiating from my stomach as I try to accommodate the essence. The heat isn't painful thanks to my immunity to it, but it's clearly discomforting for Lia and Aurelia as they jump off my back in a hurry.

Within a few more minutes, the heat dies down and I receive the notification from the System telling me that I've gotten Light and Dark Absorption, as well as the corresponding Creation & Manipulation skills. I also got two new breaths, but from their names, they feel more like a laser than a breath, Beam of Light and Beam of Darkness.

"As a part of the agreement, I will impart unto you a bit of wisdom. The Only half of the required Primal Elements you need have Roots that correspond to them, Gravity, Space, and Void. The others require special conditions to obtain. The Roots for Gravity and Space currently exist, but no one has yet to lay claim to them, so it is up to you to find them. As for Void, it has existed many times through history, but it's not stable like other Roots and fades away a few hours after forming. The Void Root can only be found in the impact sight of meteors. As for the remaining three, Divine requires you to proceed down the path of Apotheosis. But the last two are not something I can help with, I simply know that they exist and a way to accommodate the essence also exist, you will need to accommodate the Essence of Void before them but beyond that, I know nothing about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Now that my end of the covenant has been fulfilled, leave my dwelling, going the way you came will return you to where you started, for now. But know that I am watching, through the covenant, I will know if you continue the path of calamity."

Before giving us a chance to respond, Gaoh lets out a deafening roar, forcing my eyes closed. But as I open my eyes, I find myself at the entrance of Gaoh's cave with Lia and Aurelia by my side.

"If I'm not mistaken, that was spacial magic," Lia says.

"It was, but Lord Gaoh doesn't know any spacial magic, what brought us out was a teleportation array. According to what I've heard and read, only one of the Sacred Beasts have knowledge regarding spacial magic, but I'm not sure which one it is. Regardless, we should heed Lord Gaoh's words and take our leave, unless we intend on angering him by staying our welcome."

The two once again jump onto my back and we descend down the Stairs of Wind. Without the need to stay behind Gaoh like we did when ascending, our descent took just over an hour and a half, but by the time we reach the bottom the sun has already begun to set.

I return back to my humanoid form once Lia and Aurelia hop off my back and immediately begun to play around with my new abilities. Creating a zone around me the blocks off all light from the outside, causing all those within to go blind, momentarily causing the guards to panic. But I quickly craft balls of light that illuminate the zone.

"It would have helped if you said something beforehand, not everyone can see into your head like us," Aurelia says.

While Aurelia complains on behalf of her guards, Lia asks, "so what else can you do?"

Preferring actions over words, I release the zone of darkness and open my mouth, from it comes my newest breath attack, the Beam of Light. Hitting some trees in the distance, they've been completely vaporised, leaving the ground nearby singed.

Seeing some of the guards still injured from Gaoh's rampage, "I can also do this," I say as a light begins to shine over the injured guards, healing them from their injuries.

As I try to show off my new abilities, Aurelia interrupts, "that's enough for now, the sun has set and we only have a single tent up right now."

Isn't that because your tent is super extravagant and takes a while to put together, is what I think, but I refrain from saying anything and just do my job to help setting up the campsite. And by that, I mean walking around looking for something to hunt.