48 . Departure for a cooperative mission

Selling crystal was going very well, what he was selling was not the best he had made but people like novelty. There are even some jewelers who bought runic crystals from him to make jewelry for the noblemen, special expectations had been asked by them, especially shields because some noblemen were afraid of assassins. A rather generous rent had been amassed by izel, that allowed him to buy a lot of raw material for these experiments from him and Otr. Otr had advanced in the ranks of the alchemists, and the potions he was preparing were becoming more and more complex. Otr was often at izel's house, an alchemical laboratory was installed on the second floor, where Otr brought all the utensils to prepare these concoctions. They started to prepare their trip by gathering everything he could have needed, the mission was not in a hurry for the association because he just had to check the loophole to see if it still worked.

During their time of preparation, Rose came over to their house, she wanted to stay with them for a while, her character was still as sharp as ever but the guys were getting used to her rebellious side. Her role as an heiress was weighing on her a lot, izel and trying to cheer her up while she was coming to them. The pressure on her to live up to her uncle, for her her uncle replaced her father and he was a duke loved by his people. He was respected among the other kingdoms, so replacing such a person was hardly feasible. Izel was never under this kind of pressure, he always did what he wanted, so he could not advise her so much. He could just give her a good time to relax.

The supplies for their mission were being bought and packed, and their departure was getting closer and closer. The security system of izel's house was activated, the horses were saddled. All they had to do was to pass by the inn of the father of the other to tell him that they were leaving, Izel also asked that he watch the house from time to time. Rose knew that he had to leave today and her face showed the sadness of losing two of her friends, during the time they knew each other they had been very frank and really sincere with her, she was not used to such behavior and she really liked it.

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The journey to arrive in front of this lake was rather hectic, the bandits had taken advantage of the instability of the period to fortify themselves and be more proactive. Some groups are starting to grow, well organized camps and even some who have settled in villages. For this kind of person two young men like izel and otr was an easy prey, but this is of course only an illusion. Both of them were well trained now and it is not bandits who will be able to beat them, unless they are in a huge group. Cuau and necalli also attacked these bandits, they were very effective in knocking out this kind of man. Necalli charges the man with these horns, cuau she flies and then swoops down to hit them. They kill a third of the groups that attack them, Cuau was really efficient with her energy coated wings, she could slash a man very fast.

Otr had bought a mare before leaving the citadel, a very beautiful mare with a white coat and silky mane. Necalli seemed happy to have someone to run around in the meadows, he could squabble for hours if you let them. Cuau prefers to perch on her father's shoulder, she flies a third of the time but the rest of the time she clings to izel's shoulder in her miniature form. Izel resembled a falconer more than a warrior, his spear was most often put away, his helmet was miniaturized in the shape of a crown. The speed of retrieving his weapon from the storage crystal improved with practice, so he never found himself in a situation where he was unarmed during a conflict. His storage crystal had recently grown to over four square meters, which allowed him to put in a much larger food reserve.

The lake was beautiful, turquoise blue, a lot of movement was in the water, fish swimming, insects too. Next to the lake is a small meadow where he could make a small camp, a large expanse of grass with flowers. Two tents were quickly set up by the two of them, they looked for stones to make a small campfire. In their minds he was going to stay here for a few days, going back and forth in the lake was planned to explore it. Today he didn't want to go directly into the lake, he had to make camp cleanly, but above all he had to go hunting and cooking whatever he found. Izel had found some edible roots and plants that were also edible, so they decided to make a stew with all this. For the two animal companions something edible was prepared, but especially for cooking because necalli was feeding on fat grass from the meadow.

The next day at dawn they warmed up receiving the first rays of the sun on them, five minutes of warming up was enough for everyone to be awake. Everybody had gone to wash in the lake, a water battle started between them, the laughter could be heard from afar. The first one to start this battle was necalli, he had sucked water into his mouth and spit it out on izel's face and there it went into a big battle. Izel used magic to get everyone wet, where he transformed himself into an elephant and used his trunk to sweep the water with it, taking its original shape.

The exploration of the lake began for the two boys, where it was transformed into a fish and izel had taken the underwater breathing pill. The lake was very deep, the light did not penetrate to the bottom. They didn't rush to the underwater cave, they never explored any body of water either. Algae were everywhere, they even found fresh water corals, storing everything in its crystal izel saw a pearl oyster on a sandbank. He approached it to observe it, when he was very close to it his shell closed in a few seconds. Its mother-of-pearl shell was very beautiful, so he took it into his storage space. The swimming was pleasant to him, the observation of all this diversity of creature was very interesting. Every creature he saw was different from the one before, many aquatic plants were found while digging.

For a moment he asked if the energy in the lake was different, and it was. The aquatic energy replaced many others, a healing energy was also present, it healed the impurities in izel's skin he felt it seep into the pores of his skin. It was not powerful enough to make a real change but it still made a small difference, he should ask if he felt something similar. Their exploration continued for an hour, after that they went back up to rest a little. They discussed what they discovered but also about the energy, as they felt something similar. The cuau plumage looked more beautiful than before, it must have had beneficial effects from this water, necalli also seemed to have improved.