Alexia

My eyes slowly flutter open, and I find myself staring at the ceiling, feeling both tired and confused.

A dream? I haven’t had one of those in a while.

But why would I dream about the commencement ceremony? Nothing particularly important happened there. Other than that guy getting a crush on Astrid during it.

I continue staring up at the ceiling for several seconds in silence before opening my status.

Name: Alexia Knight Species: Quantum Reaper(T4) Level: 758 Class: Quantum Reaper Soul: 31,021/66,262.5 VIT: 2,272 DEX: 2,780 STR: 2,272 MAG: 3,029 MEN: 3,029 Racial Skills Active Skills Passive Skills General Skills

Not even halfway filled yet.

Great.

Guess I’m stuck waiting here until it fully regenerates. Because I’m not going out there again unless it’s filled to the brim.

Nothing but silence fills the tree trunk I’m in as I stare up at the ceiling. Then after several minutes of silence, I move my hands up and begin tapping on my collarbone in rhythm with mom’s song. Somehow finding myself quietly humming it as well.

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An act that Astrid says I do all the time, but I don’t think I do. Probably.

I just continue staring up at the ceiling while patting my collarbone, or more accurately, the scale armor on top of it, humming away. Feeling rather bored.

Kind of wish I brought a video game to play or something.

That thought has me blinking before I frown.

Am I really considering the idea of bringing video games around with me? As if I were one of those cheating dragons?

No. I can’t turn into one of those cheaters.

If I go around carrying games everywhere I go then that’ll be the first step towards becoming like one of them and flipping the board every time I lose.

And I won’t allow myself to become like that.

I continue tapping away at the rhythm for several more minutes, just watching my soul gradually rise. Then the minutes turn into hours.

But throughout it, I only stop humming a few times. And for some reason, I feel a few tears leak out of my eyes as I hum.

I ignore them though and just continue staring at the ceiling.

Eventually I stop humming, leaving me staring at the ceiling in silence.

Mom…

I slowly feel my eyes closing again. And when they reopen, I find that I’d fallen asleep once more. But this time without any dreams. And I find my status still floating above me.

With my soul filled to the brim now.

A peaceful sleep.

Nice, I guess.

I finally sit up, my hair falling over my shoulder in the process as I look down at my hands in my lap. Then I look around the tree trunk to find a wooden door at the edge of the trunk.

Hmm.

I climb to my feet, feeling a little wobbly due to it being the first time I’ve stood up since almost dying and since my naps. But the unsteady feeling barely lasts more than a few seconds before I regain my normal balance.

Right. Time to see what this hidden area is about.

No time for… whatever I was doing.

And I can’t let myself grow too apathetic about battle. Too arrogant in my apathy. As if everything will just work out in the end.

Apathy is nice and all, since it means less worrying and stuff, but it’s not so nice if it ends up with me dying. Leaving Astrid behind almost on her own.

Although at least Mom is still alive so she wouldn’t be entirely alone. Same with Gramps, even if I’m pretty sure Astrid is slightly irked by him still. Due to his lying about who he was.

I pause mid-step at that thought, only to shake my head and continue walking. Reaching my hand out and opening the door.

Only to find another tree trunk room on the other side.

Huh?

The room looks almost the exact same as the one I’m in now.

Odd…

I step through the door into the room, and the door closes on its own behind me. Then I walk across the room to the door on the other side.

Why do I get the feeling…

I reach for the door and open it, revealing another room just like this and the last one.

…that this room is just repeating itself over and over again.

Okay, why is this happening? And what am I supposed to do?

I repeat the process three more times, just passing through one door after another after another. But every single time I just end up in another room exactly like the second one, with two doors on opposite ends including the one I enter the room through.

Eventually a thought comes to mind and after entering another room and letting the door close behind me, I turn around and reopen the door. And surprisingly, it leads to a slightly different room. One with three doors.

Of the doors, there’s the one I’m entering through, along with one on the wall to the right and one on the wall to the left.

Thought so, but I need to make sure before I come to believe it fully.

So I walk into the room and step up to one of the other doors before opening it. And finding myself right back into the second room again.

Yep. Thought so.

I step through the room, let the door close behind me, and turn around to open the door behind me again. And just as expected, I find myself in that new room once again.

It’s a puzzle.

One that I have to navigate by passing through specific doors in a specific order, with the number and placement of doors varying with each room.

I pass through the door on the left this time around and judging by the new doors in the room, it looks like the correct one. Because this time around there are four doors. Then I pass through the one directly across from me, and end up back at the start once more.

This is going to be a pain, isn’t it?

I let out a sigh before retracing my path.

It definitely will be.