Chapter 36: Sara saves the day (Part 2)
Seeing the firebolt easily stop the wind blade, she heaved a sigh of relief. She had been genuinely worried that the enemy was completely out of her league.
When she saw the wolf create thousands of smaller identical wind blades, her pupils shrank. She quickly sent more firebolts to intercept them.
She couldn’t get a clear read on this wolf’s strength. One moment he looked weak, the next his energy spiked, and now, after creating the wind blades, his energy dropped again. It was almost looked like it was being suppressed by the universal laws she read about in the reports, but this one seemed different like the wolf was suppressing itself to appear weak before the same universal laws.
Seeing the unstable situation, she considered entering the portal despite the unknown risks. Then she saw Night shine in a brilliant green light and dash towards the portal.
She quickly activated another magic circle, this one shining with a deep violet color.
She knew the wolf would not let him leave easily. However, if Night managed to reach just a little closer to the portal, she might not have to escalate the situation by entering it herself.
The intelligence she had received stated that if another being entered while the portal was active, it would not close upon their exit; it would stay active for longer allowing the monster to exit the portal and invade.
This applied only if something from Earth crossed over. If Invaders came, unless they killed the dungeon challenger—in this case, Night; the portal would naturally close after some time.
This was also true if Night chose not to return before the portal closed in which case he would be stuck in that world unless someone opened another portal from Earth.
As if fate had heard her plea, Night managed to get close enough to the portal for her to use her space magic and teleport him through. She stepped near the tear and caught him as he tumbled out of the portal.
As soon as Night returned, the portal closed immediately not letting the wolf follow him out.
Seeing it seal shut she finally relaxed.
She stood there for sometime, then she looked down; It was then she realized she was hugging Night tightly; she gently pulled him a little back.
But she was entirely unprepared for what happened next.
From their comfortable embrace, she saw him raise his head. However as soon as he looked at her, his focus locked onto her right eye. He screamed in absolute terror.
"Aaaaaah!"
And then, he fainted.
He looked as though he hadn’t seen her beautiful face ahem but a literal nightmare. Considering his name was Nightmare, he was truly dragging his own name through the mud.
Night’s POV
He quickly opened his eyes and looked around only to see Sara sitting on a chair nearby, looking at him worriedly.
She smiled as soon as he opened his eye.
But remembering what he saw before he lost consciousness, his gaze immediately darted to her right eye. Finding no monocle there he calmed down a fraction, but he was still terrified.
He half-expected a translucent worm to crawl out of Sara’s ear while she smiled and said, "Ohh, I got caught. I can only add you to my collection now" (a trauma anyone who has read LOM could relate to).
Seeing him still so spooked, Sara assumed the fight must have been deeply traumatic.
He must have been incredibly tired and scared, all alone in some godforsaken place. He even slept for 18 hours straight, she thought sympathetically.
"Want to talk about it?" she asked softly.
Night, finally managing to calm his racing heart, sat up.
[Energy Value (EV) - 422]
Looking at his EV, he knew all the corpses in his domain had been fully digested. He must have slept for quite a while. Glancing out the window, he saw it was already morning.
He looked at Sara and shared everything that had happened since he entered the dungeon, trying to be as detailed as possible. He shared Lucy’s theories about the dungeon’s true nature, the skills he had acquired and even his own personal guesses.
After hearing his account, Sara shared some general information she had only recently learned.
She shared with him as much as possible.
Of course, she conveniently omitted the instructions she had received about silencing any witnesses.
Now that they had talked and he seemed back to normal, she couldn’t help but ask, "Why did you look so scared when you saw me earlier?"
Night gulped, deciding to be honest. "Why did you wear a monocle?"
Sara blinked. "What’s a monocle?". Then she remembered were he looked before fainting realised what he meant, she smiled. "Oh, you mean the Error Lens."
Hearing what it was called Night almost jumped out the window to run for the hills. But seeing her looking perfectly sane and human he forced himself to calm down. "Error Lens?"
"It’s a Mythic Greade Artifact I got when I just started adventuring a long time ago," she explained.
Night wondered why something like that was a real artifact in this world.
Why is this a real artifact in this world? Am I trapped in some bizarre dream? He stealthily pinched himself.
He was worried that he got caught in a illusion similar to the one Lucy put him under during her ’test’
"Ouch." Looking at his red skin, he realized with dread that this was indeed reality.
Looking at her cautiously, he explained the reason he was so spooked and the weird coincidence with its name. He shared how he had read about a similar monocle in a famous web novel from his past life, detailing the terrifying character who wore it as well.
It was only then Sara realized what had happened. She chuckled and said, "I see why now. You seem to know the lore behind the Artifact."
Now Night was genuinely puzzled. Sara looked like she knew something he didn’t. But ignoring his questioning gaze, she brought out six plates of food. Looking at the spread, his mouth instantly started to salivate.
All of them looked similar to the noodles she had bought him previously, but the smell they emanated was different. His [Sensitive Nose] worked in overdrive. Looking at the food, He felt saliva pool in his mouth and his stomach gave a small growl, despite not feeling hungry a moment ago.
He looked at her with glistening eyes and pointed at himself, silently asking if is it all for me?
Her lips twitched in amusement. "No, dumbo. Everyone gets to eat one. Eating too much fast food is not good for kids."
He looked at her weirdly. How was this considered "fast food"? If a meal this magically nutritious was fast food, then what the heck was the tasty but unhealthy labeled as fast food in his previous life?
But he was touched that she had bought food for his summons as well. From swirling dark portals, his four companions emerged their eyes immediately locking onto the food.
Lucy was fine but how were Death, Lilith, and Eve supposed to eat? Death was literally a skeleton, and Lilith and Eve were advanced robots. Did they even have stomachs to digest it?
Mirroring his thoughts, they wore puzzled expressions. Even they didn’t seem entirely sure if they could consume human food.
Sara looked at them one by one, marveling at how special they all were. Lucy was a unique beast and it was her first time seeing a beast quite like this. Its shape was like a wolf’s, but it possessed lizard-like scales instead of fur. They were beautiful and iridescent, almost resembling the rumored scales of the legendary Dragon race. The small white horn on its head looked as exquisite as a crafted ornament.
Death looked smaller than Night had described. She was all bones, but there was a peculiar aura surrounding her; it was similar to the anomaly Sara had detected from Night through the Academy’s magic circles, though much milder. She must be the other kid that was experimented on, Sara realized, looking at the skeleton with a gloom of sympathy.
Then she observed Eve and Lilith. These two were the real mystery to her. Night had said he used his Unique Skill; the Nightmare Domain on them. But they looked remarkably alive like real beings rather than artificial machines. Well, she could figure out more about them in the future. Right now it was time to eat.
She got up and clapped her hands. Instantly, a sturdy brown dining table made of rich wood and six chairs materialized in the middle of the hall. The chairs were of different sizes to accommodate everyone perfectly.
Sara quickly sat down on the chair suited for her and gestured for the others to join her. Magically, the plates arranged themselves neatly in front of each seat.
Seeing them just gawking at the magical display and not moving, she offered a warm, slightly teasing smirk.
"Come, let’s eat." (¬‿¬)
