Chapter 21: Sky Express
Amidst all these thoughts and the passage of time, he had reached the end of the third week.
Dean had become better at using both his mana and his holy power.
That is to say... at least he was now able to separate and use those two energies within his body without suffering great pain.
There was still a slight ache, but it would be more accurate to describe it as a pain caused by strain.
As a result, Dean had at least managed to achieve something.
The end of the third week, however, would cause everything to change abruptly.
In the middle of the night, just as he was getting ready for bed, the young man came across something he really didn’t want to see at that moment:
[The Cosmic Terror, First Beta, Third Dungeon!
Title of the Dungeon: Sky Express
Task: Reach your destination (Skyline Borders)
The dungeon will start in 2 minutes.]
Dean immediately jumped out of bed and, rushing about his room, swapped his pyjamas for a tracksuit.
Immediately afterwards, he took a deep breath, sat back down on his bed and began to wait.
The system window was made of blood, which told him he was heading to the Nether.
The young man was, frankly, stressed, but he also knew he would face whatever was to come with great courage.
So he began to wait for those two minutes, which felt like two days, and closed his eyes.
When the time had passed, the blood had engulfed him, swallowing him whole.
When the young man opened his eyes again, he could see that the entire area around him had changed.
There were many ghosts around him.
[Welcome to the Dungeon.
Title of the Dungeon: Sky Express.
Task: Reach your destination(Skyline Borders)
Players Inside the Dungeon: 12]
The young man realised he wasn’t alone this time either.
As he looked around more carefully, he could see many cowards.
There were, of course, a few people standing calmly amongst them who seemed to have more experience, but in the end, the cowards far outnumbered them.
The young man smiled and began to wait calmly.
At that moment, he felt something in his hand, clenched in his fist.
When he opened his hand, he saw that he was holding a piece of paper... a ticket.
Only then did he realise.
When the young man examined his surroundings more closely, rather than observing the people around him, he could see what was happening.
Dean was in the air.
He was above the clouds.
[Sky Express.]
This name was neither a lie nor an exaggeration.
The young man was truly flying.
He immediately unfolded the piece of paper in his hand, or rather, examined the ticket.
[Sky Express Premium Zeppelin.
Only for those who are worthy to hold them.
Valid until Rainy Dawn Station.]
Dean couldn’t make sense of what this statement meant.
"Only for those who are worthy to hold them."
To make matters worse, the destination listed on the ticket was completely different from the location specified in the task he’d been given.
To be perfectly honest, for a few seconds he’d even thought it was a mistake.
Just as the young man was repeating to himself the words he’d read only a moment earlier, the door to the cubicle he was in suddenly swung open.
It wasn’t just Dean; the eyes of every single person in the cubicle turned straight towards the door, their gazes fixed intently on it.
Dean saw a large, masculine man with a sharp, stern gaze standing in front of the door.
"Get your tickets ready!!!"
Dean was taken aback when the person entering the room suddenly shouted.
It was a woman’s voice. A high-pitched woman’s voice.
Unable to quite grasp what was happening, the young man clutched the ticket in his hand tightly, standing ready to defend himself by drawing the Spear of Dawn at a moment’s notice.
What he couldn’t quite fathom, however, was the power of this person standing at the cabin entrance.
Ghosts, Demons and Angels each had their own power rankings.
Ghosts were categorised into power levels starting from the lowest: Intermediate, High, Superior and Ready for Evolution.
Ghosts that underwent evolution became either a Demon or an Angel.
Angels and Demons, in turn, had their own distinct power tiers.
There were many different power rankings across numerous regions, but a definitive power chart, found in both Aether and the Nether, provided information on the nature of these power tiers.
The journey began at the Seventh-Tier or Seventh-Grade and progressed to the First-Tier/Grade, after which it simply advanced through Mid-Level, High-Level and Superior-Level.
After that, whether an Angel or a Demon could be considered a god or goddess was measured by their sanctity and the functionality of their power levels.
Thus, angels and demons managed to become demigods or demigoddesses.
The person Dean saw was a ghost of Mid-Level power.
There was NO WAY that Dean and Percival, who was bound to his spirit, could defeat this ghost.
The cabin crew member had stopped at each seat in turn, checking the tickets of the passengers seated there.
After a short while, she suddenly stopped.
Everyone’s eyes turned nervously towards this woman.
Before Dean could even comprehend what was happening, the woman spoke:
"You don’t have a ticket!"
Or rather, one might say she had shouted.
Before the passenger could even find the chance to explain himself, the woman had grabbed him.
In an instant, the woman’s mouth had opened to the size of a human and swallowed that ghost, who had no ticket, in a single gulp.
It was a terrifying sight.
Whilst the passengers began to tremble uncontrollably, Dean was trying to think of a way out.
A voice inside him seemed to be telling him that this time, he wouldn’t be able to get out of this by paying up.
This was bad.
That inner voice had almost always been right.
In this situation, he mustn’t let his guard down and really did need to find another way out quickly.
Yet, contrary to what he’d expected, this female cabin crew member hadn’t eaten any of the passengers. In fact, she’d treated them just as politely as she had the other passengers.
This was something you’d hardly ever come across in the Nether.
The passengers had been checked one by one, and it was now the turn of the last row of seats.
Comments