Alexia

Over an hour passes as Astrid sleeps, and during that time I just look around at our surroundings. At the outside of the dungeon. And I mean really look around.

Since I haven’t had much of a chance to do that till now. Not with those entitled idiots to deal with earlier, and then talking with Astrid a bit before she fell asleep after that.

Fortunately the others down there seemed too nervous to bother me after what went down. So that’s nice.

I have absolutely no intention of staying at this base outside of in my off-time between hunts. Assuming I have much of that.

The others aside though, I can’t help but look up at the two moons in the sky. Something I’m not used to seeing.

The planet we were on before the Reset was a place called Terra, and it was part of the Ancestral Galaxy. A Galaxy formed solely of inhabited planets brought there by the original Initialization of the System and its original Tutorial.

Meanwhile anything outside of the Ancestral Galaxy was free for anyone to claim. And only those who have been to the Ancestral Galaxy actually were initialized into the System. But the System still existed outside of the Galaxy despite that.

Made for a dark and depressing life for anyone born outside of the Galaxy.

Actually, I wonder. Did the System send everyone here even from outside of the Galaxy? That would be interesting.

There was also a way for users outside of the Galaxy to Initialize into the System even without being in it, but the monster cores that it required were rather expensive.

I blink at that thought before reaching into my pocket and pulling out a monster core. One I got from the boss of the dungeon. The only place to get one in the first place. Dungeon final bosses.

Not much use for it right now though, so I put it back in my pocket again and continue looking around at the large jungle, then over the edge of the island into the clouds down below.

I’ve never been to a sky world before. It certainly matches the beauty that I’ve been told they had.

Although they’re also generally less hospitable since there’s far less land and water on them than other worlds. I also didn’t get to the descriptions of the planets themselves during class, so I don’t know how those worlds even work in the first place.

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Other than how magic is involved.

I turn my attention to the floating islands around us. None of them seem to be moving, instead just staying in place with the bridges connecting them all. Meanwhile the wind… the wind is very strong here.

And it feels really nice compared to those windless caves.

Astrid suddenly starts stirring, bringing my attention back to her to find her slowly beginning to blink her eyes open. So I smile and pat her head before looking back down at the base again, finding the others seemingly trying to set up a more permanent presence here than I would’ve expected.

I wonder why?

“Lexi…?” I hear Astrid mutter, bringing my gaze back to find her sleepily looking up at me through half-lidded eyes. And when I nod with a smile, her eyes widen a little and she smiles back before hugging me. Then she lets go and gets off of my shoulder, standing up on the rather large branch that someone must’ve expanded with magic at some point. Possibly for their battle earlier, since I’m pretty sure I saw some people on these larger branches using skills on those down below.

I stand up as well as she turns around to face me and asks, “So… what happened?”

That question has me pursing my lips for a second while I try to figure out what to say. Then I clap my fist onto the palm of my hand and tell her, “I was forced into a rift to the void where I was also forced to kill the creator of the System, turned into a Quantum Reaper against my will, sent to a dungeon to fight alone, got poisoned, almost died, got a pet, and came out alive.”

She blankly stares at me for several seconds without saying a word. Without even showing a hint of emotion on her face.

“So, um, is that a good enough explanation?” I ask while tilting my head slightly.

She continues staring.

“It’s not, isn’t it?” I ask again, feeling awkward.

Astrid nods and agrees, “It’s not. Try again.”

Although I can’t help but notice her eyes straying towards Luna, who is sleeping on my right shoulder – the one Astrid wasn’t sleeping on.

Yeah, I’ve never been very good at explaining things verbally. I’m much better at writing them down.

Astrid suddenly blinks as if she’s realizing something before she asks, “Wait, did you say that you killed the creator of the System?”

“Yep,” I state with a nod of my head. “The guy’s a real asshole.”

And I’m willing to bet that I’ll be seeing his clone again when the Tutorial finishes.

I grimace at that thought.

Lucky me.

“Hello?” I ask Astrid after she just stares at me for several seconds.

She doesn’t say anything back. Not for nearly half an entire minute at least.

When she does, the first thing she says is, “How do you end up in these situations?”

My lips part open as I stare at her for a second, only to cross my arms and defend myself, “Hey, it’s not my fault! How was I supposed to know I had an affinity for quantum magic? Or that there was a rift there that would lead me to the void?”

Astrid stares at me again before eventually sitting down on the branch and motioning for me to do the same.

Then she says, “You should start explaining from the beginning. And do it slowly. Don’t just jumble everything into one confusing mess of an explanation.”

I frown at that before sitting down and getting into the explanation right away.