“That’s…” Catherine gasped at the sight of the colorful gem I picked up from the ground after defeating the slime.

I tilted my head in confusion as I took the gem closer. It’s a small gem with a plethora of colors imbued inside them. As I grabbed the gem and put it outward to the sky, I could see the afterglow of the sun illuminating the gem into shiny yet glossy reflection.

“What is this, Catherine?” I asked Catherine while showing it to her with an excited voice, yet maintaining a poker face.

Catherine leaned closer and kept a silence, while holding her chin to think. I could see her crimson red eyes glowed into an even brighter red color, closer to pink. Could this be her identification skill? I thought. After a while, that bright color on her face disappeared, followed by a sigh out from her mouth.

After grabbing something from her pouch, Catherine showed me two small crystal pieces of similar size to me. It was the same one I saw earlier in the day alongside Roy and Elise. However, the gem showed a pale blue color, different from the one I held.

“This is a magic crystal, and the source of our income as adventurers. You can obtain it by defeating monsters.” Catherine looked around her and saw a slime bouncing on top of a tree branch near her. She pointed at it with her staff, and a pebble from nearby ground levitated into the air slowly, until it burst into super speed as it knocked down the slime in an instant. The slime vanished into a magic crystal, and fell down on her hand. “Or at least, that’s how it’s supposed to be…”

I looked at the crystal on her hand and mine. There was a stark difference between mine and the crystal she just got in terms of color and radiance. However, the most intriguing part was that the gem I was holding was something I was familiar with.

“Is this a super rare crystal?” I asked Catherine with my fox ears fluttering in excitement. I was imagining all kinds of things I could do with it. Perhaps I could fetch a high price, and maybe my dream of lazing around in a luxury house could be realized. I had always fantasized about sleeping all day long while just rolling gacha my entire life.

“It is an extraordinarily, super rare crystal. But…” Catherine answered hesitantly. I leaned closer towards her with a more intense gaze as I waited for her to finish. However, her next words destroyed all of my hope. “But it's also extraordinarily useless. So no one really wants them except for some niche collector.”

“My hopes and dreams…” I fell down on my knees in disappointment as I looked at the vibrant gem in front of me. It was something I searched for, and desperately tried to get during my past life before Furukawa Shiro thrusted her knife inside my stomach.

The gem I was holding, also known as Luminous Gem, was a currency that you could buy using real life money to roll gacha inside the game of Luminous Dream. You can convert a hundred gems into one ticket that you can use to roll for a character or item, just like the one Shiro gave to me inside my dream.

Without knowing what to do with the Luminous Gem I was holding, Catherine gestured a motion of her putting the magic gem she got from the slime inside her pouch she was carrying. Since I didn’t have one, I figured that I could ask Catherine to store the Luminous Gem. So, I put the gem in front of her. However, before I could even ask, she opened her mouth first.

“You don’t need to give it to me. I know that I said it’s useless, but I think you should keep it with your fox magic like your sword. Who knows, maybe an antique dealer would buy it,” Catherine suggested.

Still a little confused by the term fox magic, I did what she suggested. I imagined the gem I was holding disappeared just like how I was able to make my sword disappear with my will. Just like that, the Luminous Gem I held dematerialized and replaced by a text bubble.

[+1 Luminous Gem]

“Though, even if someone wants to buy it, it won’t fetch a high price.” Catherine’s words immediately once again struck down my hopes and dreams. Just as I was wailing in despair, Catherine cheered me up by patting my head. It was rather awkward at first, but still comforting. I wiped my nonexistent tear and got up with a firm stance, ready to fight some more slimes.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Alright, that’s enough fighting slime for now,” Catherine said as she stopped me from searching for more slimes.

I sighed in disappointment, “aw… I’m not even tired yet.”

I looked around the forest to see the reddish sky alongside the sound of cricket. Although the atmosphere indicated an afternoon time, it felt like there was still some more time before the sky turned dark completely.

Without warning, Catherine rushed towards me and grabbed my hands, forcing me to run alongside her into the meadow near her house. “Remember to stick close to me!” Catherine yelled. I was shocked at first, but I ran in silence beside her. As we escaped the forest, a tiny burst of lightning filled the forest we just left from the sky.

“You see, the reason why this place is so isolated…” Catherine pointed towards the floating creatures in the sky, with perhaps three, no, four gigantic flying red creatures that I knew so well from stories and mythology. Its bright and majestic color was hard to miss as they ruled the sky with their red scales. “It’s because of that.”

“Dragons…?” I muttered in awe. I remembered Catherine talking about this afternoon being time to hunt slime and dragon, but I didn’t realize she was being serious. I turned over to Catherine in panic, but she only smiled casually.

“Stay close with me, okay?” Catherine said with a smile.

Catherine stomped the ground with her staff and muttered something in a language I've never heard before. I watched one of the four red dragons the size of a one story building fly towards us at incredible speed. With a reflex, I held both of my hands up while holding the sword I was carrying. Yet, before it could even reach the meadow, a transparent wall stopped the velocity of the dragon so hard that the thud rang through the forest.

The stoppage in speed after it was trying to maneuver its way into us was enough for it to fall down unconscious. Realizing what just happened, the remaining dragons grew wary and took a long distance approach instead and spewed fire into our direction.

With a casual swing, Catherine swept the remaining dragons away just by swaying around her magic staff, creating a mix of blizzard arrow and wind that made the dragons involuntarily guarded themselves by putting their wings in front.

I could see one of the dragons fall down after its left wing was hit by a giant ice arrow that Catherine casted. The momentum didn’t stop as Catherine kept on summoning all kinds of projectiles such as wind gusts, rock bullets the size of a boulder and dozens of ice arrows with a mix of fireballs.

“Amazing…” It would be inaccurate to call it a battle. Catherine completely dominated the dragons in terms of sheer strength, so much so that I could see one of them flying away to escape. The dragons that were sitting in the sky no longer exist as most of them fall down spectacularly. The trees that the dragons landed cracked down without much resistance.

I could see the corner of Catherine’s mouth smiling after I uttered my astonishment. However, that smile quickly disappeared as her eyes focused on the new colossal creature that slowly appeared from the distance.

“Well, here comes the parent,” Catherine warned.

Unsure of what to do, I kept standing behind her, waiting eagerly until the new fellow made its full appearance. The earlier dragons weren’t even close to matching the size of the new dragon that appeared in the sky, almost filling the entire forest with its shade. It’s comparable to even the biggest dinosaur fossils in the museum I went to, perhaps even more humongous.

Its dark, red scales similar to the color of Catherine’s hair were fitting its image. The way it is flying combined with its red body almost suggest an arrogant feel to it, mixed with its giant eyes that scoured the forest.

However, the appearance of the behemoth of a dragon didn’t make Catherine falter a single bit. She kept her stance high even though the wind breeze made from the dragon flapping its wings to fly closer kept hitting us strongly. I kept my hands in front of me to resist the wind from blasting me away, while Catherine simply stood still, grabbing her staff.

After what felt like an eternity, the dragon finally stopped flying forward and kept a respectable distance from us as its wings were flapping occasionally to keep itself from the ground, as if it was waiting for Catherine’s first move.

Catherine’s red eyes stared at the eyes of the dragons directly. She took a deep breath, and let it out. While holding her staff tightly, she closed her eyes for a moment. The next moment, she once again took a deep breath, and screamed from on top of her lungs, “Oi! Ancient red dragon! Discipline your children will you?!”

After letting out such an adorable scream, Catherine gasped for air. I was appalled at her sudden outburst, however, the dragon’s next advance interrupted my surprise as it opened its mouth, creating a roaring sound that filled the atmosphere. However, amidst that roar, the majestic voice of a wise, yet almost childish-like voice entered my brain.

“Sowwy! I forgot to hire a babysitter again!”