Sputtering awake, I frantically shot up from where I lay, disturbing the water around me as I did so.

I was completely soaked from head to toe and without a way to start a fire, I would surely freeze to death during the night even if the weather was spring-like in nature, but I didn’t care about that.

Remembering Abetra, a sharp pain began to radiate from the back of my head, and when I went to inspect the area with my palm, my hand returned bloody.

The place I had previously lay unconscious was in the shallows of a lake, and the water around where my head previously was had been dyed red by my blood.

I got up and began to inspect my body for any other injuries, and as I did so, the fact that Abetra was almost certainly dead finally hit me.

Strangely, despite the fact that I knew that death in the dream wasn’t permanent and that he had pretty much gotten himself killed from the way he had so stupidly and ignorantly chosen the 400% pain option and willingly picked a fight for no discernible reason, I still felt a strange sense of desolation wash over me.

Had he not pushed me into the river, I would have died, with running away by myself not even an option in my mind. And for that, I was grateful to Abetra.

Continuing to get a read on my current situation, somehow, despite my getting swept up by a river for who knows how long, I was still wearing the satchel and quiver, though the contents of both had been lost.

All of my remaining food, my leather waterskin, the knife I brought, my spear, my crossbow and it’s bolts, it was all gone, thought what hurt the most was the 7th Compendium.

Unlike the rest, the compendium had been transferred over to the dream, not provided, and as such, there were consequences to such items being destroyed, damaged, used, or lost.

Though, it wasn’t all bad. My sword artifact was still in it's scabbard around my waist, and floating near me were four of Abetra’s hemoroots, with one of them even being the one that was the size of my head.

Squeezing some of the water out from my shirt, I trudged my way over, and quickly sent them into my golden thumb ring.

As I did so however, suddenly, a red, fleshy blob floated down one of the streams that fed into the lake I stood, and began to approach me.

Unsheathing my sword, I pointed it’s tip towards the thing, especially nervous after the encounter with the hobgoblin.

Though, it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t a monster.

It was the corpse of Abetra.

His face was puffy, his features indistinguishable, but it couldn’t possibly have been anyone else. The body’s hair was colored brown, and an arrow was still sticking out of his back, but I would’ve understood it if even his mother wasn't able to recognize him.

His right arm was cut off at the elbow, and his legs were very obviously broken, both sticking out in directions legs weren’t meant to go. His shirt had been cut open, and dozens of lacerations ran across the entirety, with some even going deep enough that I was able to see glimpses of his insides even from where I stood.

Most horrifying of all however, was the shoulder of his arm that hadn’t been cut off; parts of it had been forcefully broken and torn off, such that his flesh didn’t have a support on which to properly attach, and was just limply dangling, barely still connected via his chest

As his corpse continued to float on the surface of the lake, it dyed the water red with blood and attracted the fish, with five particularly ferocious looking specimens already beginning to tear into and devour his flesh.

I turned away, resisting the urge to vomit.

Making my way away from the lake, I began to have difficulty in perceiving my surroundings and in making coordinated movements.

The trees of the forest began to twist and distort, and whenever there was a sudden rustling in the bushes, it took me much longer to react than if I were in tip top shape.

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Not only that, whenever I would try to move my leg forward, it would only partly respond, such that I required almost twice as much effort to move.

This wasn’t good. Not only was I currently severely weakened, but I had also lost a lot of my range on account of my no longer having a crossbow or spear.

But strangely enough, there were no signs of life near me.

Previously, even if I generally didn’t see any animals while wandering around, I was at least able to hear the chirping of birds or the buzzing of cicadas.

Now, there was nothing. Only the howls of wind, the scratching of branches against wood, the swaying of leaves.

A feeling of wrongness came over me. Like despite there being no immediate danger in my vicinity, I should still do my best to leave.

And I always listened to my instincts.

Beginning to speed up, I broke out into a light jog, my scabbard bouncing up and down with my movements.

At this point, finding alchemical ingredients for me to work with in the hopes of growing stronger was no longer a priority. I was already satisfied with my harvest of purifern, hemoroot, and goblin's blood. I just wanted the dream to end and for me to go back.

Though, such a thing was seemingly becoming increasingly impossible.

Already in a near sprint, I slowed, suddenly finding myself in front of a clearing of hauntingly blue flowers.

My heartbeat began to quicken, and I came to a full stop.

I knew that if I were to continue forward, I would die, and all that I had gone through would be for nothing. Whatever it was that brought about such a feeling of paranoia, I didn’t want to stick around to identify it.

Slowly backing up, I turned, and sprinted away.

***

Opening my eyes, I was finally once again back in my room.

Sufficiently disturbed by the events of the second day, I spent the second night and third day either curled up in a ball, or carefully wandering the forest, gathering whatever alchemical ingredient I could find.

By the end of the dream, my ring had been 80% filled by some goblin blood, though mostly purifern and hemoroot, though with my two times multiplier, my harvest would be much greater.

Getting up from the blood red magic circle, I stretched out, before moving to my desk and checking my iron pocket watch.

It was currently 12:01, and judging from how the sky outside was pitch black, in the AM.

The dream was made even more impressive by how that one extra minute was most likely a result of my needing to take time to calm down after the fact.

I had heard from Rat that although the dream felt like it lasted three days and two nights, in the real world, it would be nearly instantaneous, but I had to admit, I had doubts at the truthfulness of his statement.

You didn’t get a nickname such as “Rat,” by being a paragon of moral virtue.

Smiling to myself, I realized that I wasn’t the least bit tired despite clearly recalling that before entering the dream, I had been in a severe mental haze from not sleeping, and as my stomach began to rumble, I realized just how hungry I was.

Leaving my room and subsequently the U dormitory, the idea to check up on Lunia entered my mind, so I did so, quickly moving to building 34, the dormitory for those of S grade.

As I reached and raised my hand to knock on her door, it suddenly opened, and Lunia ran into me face first, only not falling over because I reflexively held her in place.

Rubbing her forehead in pain, she and I both set out for the mess halls along with hundreds of others in our year who had the same idea.

“-nd I saw this big pig,” Lunia stretched her arms out for emphasis as we waited in line to get our food, “It took me like half an hour to chase it down and kill it.”

“Did you end up eating it?”

“Yup,” she nodded.

“Was it cooked?”

“I meannnn,” Lunia dragged out her words, before changing the topic, “What about you?”

“Unlike you,” I haughtily shot back, “I actually brought food,” though my voice gradually weakened as I continued speaking.

“I noticed you got a bit quiet near the end there,“ she smiled, her eyes closed, “And?”

“...I fell in a river.”

“And?”

“...I lost it all.”

“And?”

“...I starved for the second half of the dream.”

“And?”

“...Shut u-”

“Hey,” Luna, exaggeratedly serious, interrupted, “Don’t get all angry with me, I’m not the one who made you fall into a river.”

Staring at each other in quiet mirth, we burst into laughter, before getting our food, and finding a table to sit at.

“-o I was thinking, I’m probably going to join Anasthesia. She looks mean, but after you talk with her for a bit, she’s actually pretty nice. And she also said if I join…”

“Yup,” I absentmindedly nodded, shoveling another spoonful of food into my mouth, before suddenly spotting Abetra.

Just standing in the distance, and holding a metal tray of food, he looked out of it. Like he wasn't all there.

I raised my hand and waved to him, getting his attention. But he just made a slightly pained face, before turning and walking away.

“Who was that?” Lunia asked, leaning in.

I bit my lip, and bitterly smiled.

“No one.”