Chapter 126 Volume III - Chapter 47: Blocked Past
~beep! ~beep! ~beep!
"H- huh?!"
I suddenly jumped out of my spot, drew my sword, and then I saw that there was nothing around me.
I turned my eyes to my arm, and when I saw that the alarm I had set on my watch was ringing, I calmed down and let out a deep sigh.
'Ahahaha... You jumped pretty cool.'
I was so focused that I didn't realize...
"Shut up, it just got me out of space."
'That doesn't change the fact that it looks funny. Anyway, are we going back?'
I looked at the clock again.
'Yeah. That's enough.'
Since I came out of the cave, I fought a total of... four trolls and eight apins? That's how I remember it.
The later ones were much more difficult than the first trolls I faced. On top of that, the technique I use at the end of each battle puts more strain on my body, so my whole body throbs as if I've been training with Professor Calvin for three hours...
It's not a pleasant experience, but I don't really care because I think I've improved in every way.
So I turned toward the cave and started walking carefully.
I'm not too sure where the cave is, but as long as I find the frozen lake, the cave is easy to find. The frozen lake is even easier to find because it is very big.
So it took me only four minutes to find the lake and nine minutes to reach the cave. Not only did I not encounter any creatures, but I had gotten quite far without realizing it...
When I saw that Alexander was still asleep, I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall of the cave.
There's still an hour and a half left of my shift and I can't fight outside any longer... As much as I want to, I'm tired and I don't want to leave Alexander alone for too long.
So what can I do in this hour and a half?
"Hmm..."
I shall continue practicing the Ambiguous Flow then.
I closed my eyes and spun my mana inside me, which had recovered with the help of the potions I had drunk over time, and let it run wild freely. As my mana continued to swirl inside me, I could feel it slowly getting out of hand, but I did my best to keep it under control and continued the process.
After a while, the mana I was spinning inside me got out of control, it suddenly spread violently through my body and I felt all my muscles contracting as a backlash. A sharp pain spread through my body, combined with my previous pains, I felt like I was stumbling a bit, but I took a deep breath and relaxed myself.
I have been through this many times so far... I know that as long as I continue like this I will improve.
So I closed my eyes again and started the process again, even though I knew it would be painful.
I lost control of my mana many times over the next hour and a half, my muscles contracted in pain many times, and as much as I was used to it, I couldn't help having difficulty reducing my reaction because the pain was so sudden.
The help of the Absolute Mind in such matters cannot be underestimated.
I'm not a person who likes to suffer, I'm not a masochist as I believe. So using the Absolute Mind to stabilize my mind was quite helpful, even if it was a bit of a drain on my extra mana. So I ignored the pain and kept working, and just as I was about to start the process over for the thirteenth time... my watch vibrated.
Oh... my shift is already over.
I silenced my watch and sat up from where I was leaning. I stretched slightly and after taking my own sleeping bag out of my bag and laying it aside, I approached Alexander, who was sleeping soundly.
Hmm... What would happen if I scared him?
A slight smile appeared on my face. Even though doing something like that would make him angry with me, I think it would be an effective step to heal things between us.
Still, after thinking about it for a while, I decided against it. Maybe it would be better if we became a bit more 'friendly'.
"Alexander."
I nudged him lightly and he didn't even move, as if my gesture meant nothing.
"Hey, Alexander!"
I poked him a second time, a little harder, and his body slowly moved. His eyes opened, he looked at me with eyes he couldn't quite open, and then he sighed.
"Is it time for my shift...?"
"Yes, as much as I didn't want to wake you, I need to rest too."
Alexander sighed and got out of his overalls and stood up. He took a bottle of water out of his bag, poured some into his hand, and splashed it on his face, then took a few sips and rubbed his eyes.
"The pills are working, I feel like I've had a normal night's sleep, even if I was a bit light-headed at first."
I feel like he's getting more comfortable talking to me as time goes on... good.
"Of course they work, I paid that much for them."
I slowly climbed into my own sleeping bag, took one of the sleep-enhancing pills, just like he did before going to sleep, and closed my eyes.
I heard Alexander sigh and mutter something, but truth be told, I didn't really care. As I was slowly drifting out of my world, falling asleep, the only thing on my mind was to get some rest so I could get going tomorrow.
*******
I did not wake up as if time had passed in a flash after my world was plunged into darkness, as it would be in a normal sleep. On the contrary, I just waited in the darkness I was in.
Questions slowly began to appear in my mind.
Who am I? And what am I doing here?
I am in the middle of nowhere, this is not hard to understand, but... why?
The more questions I asked, the more mysterious this endless darkness became.
And finally... this darkness slowly began to lighten. So I found myself in a room.
It was clear, the sun was shining in through the window and I was at a table. I was not in control of my body, it was moving on its own. I was just a spectator, nothing more, nothing less.
My eyes shifted to the three other people sitting at the table with me, then to a little girl sitting right across from me.
I didn't want to take my eyes off her, I had a strange feeling I couldn't make sense of, but then my head automatically turned to the side. The person next to the girl was a woman who looked quite similar to her, except for her hair color. It was probably her mother.
"Mom."
The woman turned to me curiously as my body called out to her.
"Yes, dear?"
"I'm going to drop out of school."
A deep silence suddenly fell on the table.
"What do you mean you're going to drop out of school?"
This time the voice of the person who spoke was not in front of me, but from my left side. It was a rather ordinary-looking man... and it had to be my father. His brow was furrowed.
"I know everything they teach, the teachers are stupid and my peers chat and play about useless things. I don't feel like I belong there, and you know that going to school won't do me much good. I'm going there just to go. I'd rather help you instead because dropping out won't change anything in my life. It's easy for you to show that I've had special training in the lab, and it's not illegal."
My father's eyebrows furrowed further the moment my body said that.
"Help us?"
"Yes."
My father took a deep breath, and my mother's brow furrowed as well. The little girl at the table was looking at me blankly.
My father took a bite from the plate in front of him, the silence lasted for a few seconds and then my mother interjected.
"I thought you hated it."
"I do."
Before she could say anything, my father turned angrily to me.
"Then why do you want to help us?"
The boy I had been watching through his eyes smiled, then turned to the little girl at the table who didn't seem to understand much of the conversation. It felt so strange to know that I was 'smiling'. It was as if I hadn't smiled for years.
"I don't want to help you, don't get me wrong."
The little girl smiled brightly when she saw her brother smiling at her. She looked cheerful.
"I want to help her."
The light coming in through the window was suddenly cut off. The room trembled as if an extremely violent earthquake was happening. Everything snapped together and my eyes widened.
What I saw next, was the darkness of the cave I was in. The watch on my wrist was vibrating.
I took a deep breath, put my hand to my head, sat up, and frowned. The moment I tried to think about the last dream I had, I realized that I remembered very little about it and that the memories of this dream were quickly fading from my mind.
The content of the dream was fading into darkness, as if it had never existed. No... not the dream itself, but the conversation between Aaron and Aria Tenebra and Aiden was quickly fading from my mind.
I still remembered being at the table, the attitudes of the family, but... what was said had already disappeared.
Why does this happen every time?
I forced myself to bring the table, the image of the room, and the bright light of the sun into my mind. I tried to remember, to connect the blurred images and sounds, and the moment I tried to do that, something happened.
All those images and sounds suddenly became more blurred and blurred. I felt the connection between them weaken as if a frosted glass had been put between them.
My eyes widened suddenly, and I realized something.
My memories of my dreams have not been erased, lost, or forgotten by me. There is something blocking them.
Absolute Mind started working, I slowly calmed down, then I paused, closed my eyes again, and took a deep breath.
Is it something the producers of the game did? Is there something else going on? Is it my Wiera side doing something? Or is there something bigger going on that I don't know, that I can't think about...?
What am I supposed to do? Why am I having these dreams in the first place? Why were they absent before and why have they started to appear recently?
My brow furrowed and my nerves frayed at these and many other questions that suddenly began to plague my mind, but since there was nothing I could do by just sitting there, I could only sigh.
I'm in an important place for my future, and I can't answer any of my questions here. So I have no choice but to leave it all for after I leave the dungeon.
When I get back, I will press Ulka a bit on this, but I also have other options, which I will also consider.
"Are you awake?"
Alexander's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
Yes, it would be best to leave that for after the dungeon.
"Yes, I slept pretty well, we can move on."
I stretched and stood up. I splashed some water on my face and sipped some to sober up. Then I quickly packed my sleeping bag and turned to Alexander. He had already packed everything and was waiting for me.
"Since we have nothing else to do, let's not waste time and keep moving forward."
I made my way to the entrance to the cave that we had blocked off, where the sun was shining through. I opened a space big enough for us to pass through and stepped out.
The sun was shining in the dungeon, and the environment looked much livelier than at night.
"After all, we still have a long way to go."
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