Two months. The first month was spent moving forward. After which Jessica moved on. Third floor, saw an additional month. From there it was fairly clear, even to Leo, Jessica had accomplished everything she could. Not only did she not rush. At the moment, she didn’t have too many issues facing the wolves. From the four elemental, regular, and even a spider wolf. In terms of variety, there was a lacking perspective for Grade F dungeons in general.
Leo had been watching for a long period of time. Without saying anything, he had finally completed the mana storage rune. Within a period of a year, he could start to actually assist Jessica in battle. This came as a shock, he was a living weapon. One that could store its own mana. Combined with the fact, he compressed mana before storing it. Without a grading system, he could continue to gather mana indefinite. There were no diminishing returns. While all this held true, Beast created two weapons that would require an estimated year, to reach a level he could beat them.
In conclusion, needing an entire year might not be wholly accurate. Partially incomplete dataset, he didn’t know the full conclusion of how his body and mana interacted. Memory slip spoke of mana efficiency that was layered on top of a rune that allowed him to use minuscule amounts of mana to reinforce his body. Without testing, it wasn’t reasonable to expect any results. Therefore, he kept to himself and haven’t said anything to Jessica about the runes' completion.
He was staying silent since she left the second floor. Watching silently from the dark. He was memorized by her efficiency. If before, she had trouble coming to a conclusion between her movements when calculated around her opponents. By this time she could dispatch the wolves with the least amount of movement. No longer did she run, jump, or flip here or there. She kept her feet squarely on the ground as she tilted and spun to generate the necessary required force to whittle down her opponent. Allowing her to find openings and slice a part the string holding the wolves to this plane of existence.
That was until he saw the spider wolf, it wasn’t that she had significant trouble. It was true she struggled, only he found the creature disgusting. He swore, without a human body, he still felt goosebumps and chill run down his non-existent spine. The creature was no different from a normal wolf from afar. Only this wolf didn’t just run around on the ground. Once you saw the creature in action, it looked like something possessed by a demon as it crawled and ran on the walls and ceiling. With three extra set of appendages between its two normal legs, it used these to cling to the walls and run on them like it was solid ground.
Still, he was quietly watching and trying his best not to let it be known he was watching. Without much struggling, she moved through the four rooms. When she made it to the fourth, he saw something that truly flabbergasted him. With great discipline, she did a check of her pockets, making a note of the supplies she had left. Since the second floor on, she would add wrapping to her daggers, placing a mana stone she used in case of emergency. Checking the dullness of the edge, she finally clipped the fiber to the pommel and stepped into the room.
Strangely enough, she wasn’t moving the same way. As if she had been sent back in time, her movements were rough and wild. Jessica didn’t measure the length between her and the opponent. Paying more attention, it drew an even weirder picture. The more he watched, the stronger the invoking of déjà vu. It took him the entire fight to realize the severity of the problem. Watching Jessica sit cross-legged as she was recuperating. He remembered the fight he just watched, was one that had occurred on the first floor. It was the exact same fight.
Materializing outside, he appeared three steps away from the cross-legged figure. Narrowing his eyes, he moved a fair distance, he focused on his senses. Returning he felt himself speeding across the room as he reached the cross-legged Jessica and was swallowed as his senses returned to the seal in her right hand. While everything seemed fine, he noticed two problems that couldn’t be explained.
He appeared next to Jessica, he purposely always appeared two feet away. Appearing three feet away meant that the body he was seeing was close, however not exactly where she was. This was further proven when his body deconstructed itself and reached less than a foot and entered Jessica’s body, with a space in between the body he was seeing and when he no longer sensed the outside world. Unfortunately, he didn’t know what was going on or how to fix it. Trying to send a message, allowed him to see a problem with the link between the two.
Outside the dungeon, roughly two miles to the south-west, was a small mountain. Surrounding said mountain was a small forest. The mountain was secluded, only those who did find it would notice the scene from the top was spectacular. At the moment the sun was setting on the horizon that gave the mountain a breathtaking scenery. If only anyone was on the mountain. Which nobody could be seen there.
With physically eye-sight at least. Having walked into the fourth room, Jessica had seen a few wolves that didn’t really pose much of a danger to her anymore. Moving in, she didn’t need a plan and could physically overpower and defeat any arrangement with very little effort. Without having five, she wasn’t given very much pressure. Yet, once she stepped foot inside, she felt a stirring as she lost control of her body. Walking to the middle of the room, she sat down cross-legged. As she was closing her eyes, she saw the wolves running around, chasing an invisible target.
Trying with all her might to fight the alluring she felt, having failed to even keep her eyes open as a wolf ran through her. With a fast beating heart, she felt a pulling as she opened her eyes to the sight of a gorgeous view of the setting sun on an elevated platform. Finally being given back control, she looked around to see she was on a mountain top. It wasn’t a large mountain, instead she guessed maybe a half an hour journey from the base to the peak. Feeling a great amount of unease she felt strange, she didn’t know what was going on, instead she had a sense of familiarity with her current state. Even while at the same time knowing she had never felt it before.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” A gentle voice spoke out at that moment, drawing her attention. With a great sense of dread, she could only turn around to face the sunset to see a shadow being disfigured by the blinding sun.
The voice itself gave off a gentle energy that made one subconsciously want to lower their guard. At that moment, she replayed everything in her head. If she wanted to fight back, she needed to stop panicking and follow along until she could understand what was going on. She could feel her heart race, and at the same time she currently felt herself calming down. Two contradicting conditions occurring at the same time, causing nothing but more confusion.
Moving closer, she was able to see the gentleman was in a standard set of clothes. Neither overly fancy nor unbecoming of his figure. He had lighter clothes on, yet they were covered by a dark-colored travel cloak. He had blonde hair and light brown eyes. Jessica felt uncomfortable as she took a quick glance, and the man smiled gently at her as he looked straight into her eyes. Not willing to look too deeply she wasn’t able to really size the man up, or she didn’t dare to.
Not saying anything as the man turned to stare into the distance, she couldn’t help but start to feel more unease. Possibly on purpose, she reached a point she couldn’t stand the silence, “What is this? I was in a dungeon, is this an illusion? If it isn’t what is this body?”
“It is a state you’re infinitely familiar with. Just think about it, body unseen by everyone but who is unbound. The inability to interact with the outside world. To see, but not hear or speak. Does that remind you of anyone?”
Her heart sank. It was only at this moment she realized her speech was impaired and unable to hear anything in this silent world. A fuzzy feeling covered her body, as if there was an invisible static film isolating her from the rest of the world. It caused her to start panicking as she felt fear starting to spread no matter how hard she tried to shove it down. She tried to reach out, but the seal, that was invisible to the naked eye, sat clearly visible on her arm. Silently, dull, and unresponsive.
“Calm down. This isn’t permanent.” Snapping his finger as he kept his hands behind his back. The world around her exploded into noise. Seeing the woman cover her ears as she took a few steps back. He waited patiently as he turned around to face her, she had no choice but to look at the shadowy figure who had most of his figure hidden by the brightness of the sun behind him. Her eyes were wavering from the discomfort she was feeling.
There were hints of a smile on his face, however his eyes looked completely different. There was a thick crack that ran from the edges of the iris to the pupil. The crack would sway and turn as it almost appeared his eyes were spinning. Only she was given the feeling that the crack was not physically on the eye. Like an invisible hand gripping her heart, she felt like it was something wrong with the man’s soul that gave off a feeling far worse than what she felt in the dark room she found Leo in. “Who are you?” She was panting as there was pain in each breath, as if the hand was gripping her heart harder and harder.
Most of his face was covered in shadow, the only thing truly visible were the eyes that lit up as mana constantly moved through his body. With just the smallest hint of a smile, “Me? Ah, I am just a little ol’ nobody. Just someone your little friend swear vengeance on.” Pausing, he watched as her face distorted as she had an image popped into her head.
Frowning slightly, the man turned to look back at the sun, “It wasn’t entirely my fault. Certain circumstance forced my hand. I couldn’t allow him to appear in the outside world. Therefore, I had to wait. We agreed, she wouldn’t destroy him if I locked him in until the one fated came around.” Turning to look at her with a cold and desolate expression that only needed to see the eyes to show what he was feeling, “How was I supposed to know you would only appear many, many years later.”
Exhaling as his eyes closed, “When I noticed a problem, it was already too late. He had already broken down the door and caused heavy damage. In exchange, he started to long to leave. Fate is a tricky bitch. I thought the fated one would appear by the time he reached the door. So, I didn’t pay too much attention. How was I supposed to know you would only appear, an ungodly amount of time later. By the time he broke the door, there was nothing I could do. Any intervention would likely lead him further down that dark spiral.”
She wanted to say many things, only every time she opened her mouth she found she couldn’t say anything at all. With no way to retort, she silently listened to the monologue.
“In the end, the second your fate reached fruition, I came as fast as I could. The plot wasn’t given enough time to thicken. Unlike her, the amount of control I have in this world is finite. Thus, a half-assed story unfolded. But I digress, I brought you here to give you a gift. I hope in the future you will help lower his hatred of me. And this is a request and not a demand. Though it isn’t like there is not any demands in this, I have collected all the jade slips in the ruins I have left behind. If he wants to truly go back to the way he was, he will need to learn them from me. Regardless of how much hatred he still has, though of course I won’t force him.”
Finally, she felt she could speak, unsure how, Jessica just had a feeling. She opened her mouth to say… She didn’t know what to say. There was so much she wanted to say, to scream, to shout, to vent. With a minute of silence, she only asked, “What is your name?”
As the sun set, she was given access to the visages of his face. Later down the line, she truly wishes she had never seen it. With a large smile that appeared to cut his face in half, it gave a creepy feeling as if the top of his head was going to fall as his mouth opened wide giving a front row seat to a toothy grin, “Izic, Izic the mad, mad blacksmith, and of course my favorite, Izic the monster. Now that I have given my request, I will send you back now. It would be in your best interest to keep our meeting a secret for the moment. Hopefully the next time we meet will be on better terms, only as the tricky bitch seems to have other plans. I can only hope, it doesn’t come to pass, for your sake.”
She very quickly felt like she couldn’t breathe, as if she had been holding her breath for an indeterminate amount of time. When she gasps for breath, she fell forward and clawed the dirt. She was met with a dark environment as there was a set of legs in front of her. The clothing was different from anything she was used to seeing, looking up she was met with a concerned pair of eyes.