Chapter 83

 

 

 

Dream State in the spatial rift living space created by the demon box…again…

 

Curiously Sunghee and Fox have formed a sort of round table for us to talk and gather at in the orc training room. They seem to be acting like they are in counselor mode right now. It’s not really a table though, but more of a circle of big rocks we can sit on as we face each other like Boy Scouts might have done while figuring out a problem. They seem calmed down, but Fox is still a bit sleepy eyed and is rubbing her eyes.

“So please I could use your advice on this,” I stated after asking the current dilemma; namely what kind of creature is Asakura turning into and many etc etera’s after that which were amendments of the most current situation changes.

I didn’t feel bad about asking them for advice. I was developing my own logic capabilities in doing so by absorbing the reasoning power of others and getting opinions on if there had been a different way of doing things with more efficiency. I also knew that I was smart enough to come up with ideas on my own but this was a good chance to catch flaws and also show them I am reliable too. In many cases the others would have done things the exact same way as we went over the details. It was almost becoming like an intellectual game with each other to figure out if we can out-discover each other.

“Yet again, we get to talk about the problems at hand,” Sunghee chirps. She’s actually really getting into it while pretending to be burdened by it. She wants to make a difference. She looks kind of happy and you’d never guess she was in a demon prison crystal. “I guess I’m the only one that can help you huh?” she adds.

“So how will we deal with it? What do you think?” I wonder.

“So what exactly is your question? You are a smart guy Shun, I think sometimes you want to talk about stuff even though you have an idea,” Fox stated looking at me with sharp eyes.

She hit the nail on the head. It’s fun to talk to the girls and capitalize on this harem power thing. It helps to bring them in on the idea of cooperating and solving our problems together too. It teaches them to trust me more when they see we work on it together. When they help and cooperate they are staking ownership in our shared future after all. Sunghee wouldn’t think of this concept, but Asakura and Fox might realize it soon, if they haven’t already.

“So this is more like he’s visiting us as the shrinks?” Sunghee asked playfully, again smirking.

“Probably,” Fox says with a smirk before I can deny it. She gives me a grin that suggests she’s softening up to the ‘humans’ more than she’ll admit. This is pretty good considering at the beginning she’d once been a bit standoff-ish towards me.

“Well it’s not exactly like that. But I prefer ‘training instructor’ over ‘shrinks’,” I said, denying their attempt at an inside team joke at my expense. They are both still not realizing their eyes are almost sparkling as they look at me. Yep, pheromones are pretty awesome. They don’t even realize how much they are smiling at me.

“Are you sure? You say the dwarves already have made some kind of air bubble helmet made from glass right?” Fox asked pointedly.

“I don’t like it. Let them test their own inventions. Better yet, watch how much their effort improves when you tell them they have to test it out on their own family members,” Sunghee joked.

“You think that will change much?” I asked.

“I think so,” Fox chimed in right after that.

“If only he could say something like that. Stupid language barrier,” Sunghee shakes her head.

“Yeah, they like heated up the sand and melted it, and then using these tubes they blow into they slowly blew into it and the glass grew up almost like someone blowing a bubble with bubble gum. That’s how they started it, and then they just grew it more and more and then cut the hole big enough to fit a head through,” I said.

“Glass huh? Pretty fragile if you ask me…it’ll only hold under the water pressure if it’s in a circular shape to lend itself strength. It’ll be kind of unstable for other reasons too. That’s too bad. There’s no way to add a concept of some kind of diver’s air tank unfortunately,” Sunghee stated.

“I don’t think are ready for that kind of technology yet anytime in the next five hundred years even if they had the sense to think of it,” I said.

“Yeah you are probably right,” she answered back.

Fox has a weird look on her face. She’s probably wondering what we mean by an air tank. “Is that some kind of device from your home planet?”

“Yeah pretty much,” Sunghee said.

“That makes me really curious,” Fox stroked her chin while sitting on her heels.

“Yeah and apparently the dwarf inventor, the dwarves don’t even trust that much. So I’m worried we’ll all drown,” I sighed.

“That sucks,” Fox said, shaking her head sadly.

“Are dwarves really…like that?” Sunghee asked. By ‘like that’ I think she implies ‘failures’? Her face betrays her thoughts easily right now while she’s being open with me.

“Uh, no, no, they are usually pretty awesome. They’ve survived millennia of race wars on this world even before the demons came. They usually are pretty good at inventing stuff to, and good fighters. If anything they are actually one of the groups of people on this world you will be able to count on when the chips are down. It’s probably just that one piece of inventory or its inventor,” Fox countered.

Fox is probably being honest. She wouldn’t defend them for nothing right? Fox can also be brutally honest sometimes too. So if I follow Fox’s reaction, it probably means she thinks we’d survive better staying with the dwarves instead of moving on our own.

“Unfortunately I’ve also got a real problem that’s popped up that I need a second opinion on,” I took in a deep breath, considering how I might word this.

“Uh oh,” Sunghee says a bit too fast.

“What is it this time?” Fox sounded tired.

“Well something is wrong with Asakura,” I said.

“Like what?” Sunghee stands really close to me.

I explain her seemingly feral and robot like behavior. Except for biting, I think it does match her. Oh and the lack of rotting flesh and necrotic tissue and fluids.

There’s a long silence.

“And how long did you guys do it again?” Sunghee asks. She licks her lips when saying it. Did she realize she did it?

I’m blushing heavily. “I kind of lost track of the time, but it was probably awhile?” I guessed.

“How much is awhile?” Fox’s eyes narrow. She’s looking at me weirdly.

We discuss it for a long time. It was probably due to the fact that Fox was annoyed and Sunghee wanted to defend my honor. It seems like Sunghee has a strange fascination with how long it went with how she’s looking at me when her guard is down. She’s trying to hide it from Fox however.

There’s so much speculation we didn’t get anywhere. In the end both Sunghee and Fox were disagreeing with each other almost to the point of shouting. They weren’t bad. Both of them were doing well in their own right.

I feel suddenly grateful for everyone.

Now I also feel like because barriers are breaking down things are easier. In the past I’d been afraid to be too close to them because I hadn’t built up trust. Now it seems there isn’t as much stopping them.

I want to hold and touch both of them. It’s not like a feeling about sex, but like I want to be close to both of them. I’d like to hold their hands together and just take long walks and feel someone is beside me. It might seem silly but just being close to girls like this and having it be real while we had a good friendship with each other was quite fun and interesting to me.

Come to think of it, before coming to this world I was alone almost 100% of the time. It wasn’t healthy and it didn’t feel good. I think it was because both of our parents were working non-stop and having to help Rina out made me have to sacrifice a lot of friendships and social opportunities.

It’s still worth it to have a sister but I feel like I’ve woken up for the first time in realizing how alone I was for so long.

I want to hold hands with Fox and Sunghee, but I have to bite my lips and choke back the pain of it. They would let me do that now, but I’m worried that if I do, they will end up like Asakura. Because we still don’t know what’s wrong with Asakura it’s too early to be reckless.

All I know is that the pheromones are involved in it. That much is obvious, plus we’d discussed her eyes being dilated. Not to mention the inflated boobs, but that wasn’t much to complain about since the shape and beauty were accentuated.

But we didn’t know what kind of creature the pheromones were modeled after, I realized. That was the part I’d been hoping they could give me more information on, but neither of them could speculate at this point.

“Damn, I want bigger boobs too,” Sunghee frowned. “So not fair…”

“You…are just fine in that department. A little bit too fine, in fact,” Fox blushed saying it while avoiding I contact.

“What do you mean by just fine? You mean like when your mom tells you something is fine so you won’t worry don’t you?” Sunghee frowned even more.

Is she kidding, I wonder. She has to have realized she is probably in the 1% of the population that have the best boobs right? Or is it like when someone who is obsessed with being beautiful always thinks they are too fat, because of the obsession and can’t see it themselves?

Yeah probably like that…

“Yours are big enough already!” Fox said glaring at her.

“I don’t think so. I’d like to meet this Asakura person, but I’m afraid of how jealous I’ll become after hearing about her. Are you sure mine aren’t sub par?” Sunghee’s self confidence seems to be full of self pity. She starts to unbutton her shirt, to show us the goods so we can inspect them. She apparently has her beauty worries accentuated by the pheromones again.

“Don’t, please. That’s not necessary right now,” I said quickly, worrying that things will become unstable if she continues.

“Are you sure?” Sunghee is already on the third button, but Fox grabs her hands and stops her just in time. She didn’t have a lot of buttons left by that point…they are already hanging out just barely to the point of the edges of some aureolas to be...possibly at the edge, but not quite 100% certain to be sure.

Uh oh...

“Trust me they are fine,” I reassured her. She sort of has a frown that’s melting into a forced smile. Fox has a forced smile and a sort of red tinged embarrassed look too. She’s kind of cute when she’s like this.

“The changes are definitely from the demon box,” Fox said finally. “But at this point it’s hard to tell how far it will go.”

“So what’s your real worry?” Sunghee cuts to the heart of the matter.

“But is she going to stay looking human or like turn into something that looks like an orc? If she does I don’t think I could keep up the relationship,” I said voicing my worries.

“Well you’d still have us,” Sunghee chirped smiling extra big. She pushes out her chest to try to inflate her chest, but Fox elbows her before she can do anything more. Sunghee pulled away when Fox tries to help do up her buttons, so in the end a lot of her cleavage is already showing because three buttons are still undone.

I’m trying not to stare. Her skin has a beautiful healthy look too, that is just the right amount of tan.

“That’s not the point,” Fox said to her, pulling my attention off Sunghee’s cleavage with her sense of urgency. Then she turned back to me. “In each of the changes, think about is each one more ugly or more beautiful?”

Long silence…

“Point taken, I guess my worries were for nothing,” I replied. It can’t be helped that I’d be worried, but she’s right. Each change, and the time increments of the changes had only become better.

“So what was your magic question again?” Sunghee asked me, stealthily crossing her legs forcefully in such a way as to try to force her school uniform skirt to rise up her thighs more than it should. It’s dangerously close to showing me the goods down below, but I know that Fox is going to close that door as soon as it opens. Sunghee therefore, pretends to be acting serious.

Does she think Fox isn’t going to notice, I wonder. Sunghee leans forward showing me a lot of cleavage.

My gosh…I can’t concentrate anymore…stop!

“Ouch,” she says, sure enough Fox has elbowed her again.

“Is sex all you two think about now days? Jeez,” Fox shakes her head while both of us turn crimson in the face.

She doesn’t realize she’s being affected yet? Or …?

“So do you think my mana pool is built up enough to summon one of you back into the normal world yet? I know it’s best not to yet, but I can’t help but want to work this school out. If I can gain that skill then surely there’s also others related to it that I can build up right?” I asked.

“Hmm, probably? I still think we should wait a bit. That’s a pretty advanced spell, and if you are mana core isn’t strong enough, it could pop,” Fox guessed.

“Eh? Really?” Sunghee looks confused and is looking up thinking something in her head.

“Eh? Mana cores can be popped by doing spells that are too powerful?” I asked.

Fox paces a bit. “Well we don’t like to talk about such things and it’s rare, but you already know there are illnesses that mages and wizard types can have that other people don’t have. That’s just one of them. It’s not technically called ‘popping’ when your pop your magic core, but there are cases of people causing it to be burst by trying to do to much. Everyone has heard of the stories of magic academy students trying to cast Ultima or Meteor...” she shakes her head.

“What happened in that story? I want to hear it,” Sunghee said.

“You…don’t want to know…messy,” Fox shook her head again. “Stupid fixation on some kind of old legends I guess cause instability in the youth…”

“Wow, even I didn’t know that,” Sunghee said.

“Well magic users can get sick just like anyone else, only there’s that much more that can go wrong since the mana core has a circulation system of its own,” Fox reminded us.

“Wow, really…” I was hoping she’d tell me more. I hadn’t known it was like that.

“You know I seem to recall a magic user from the group of kids from my school when we popped here into this world years ago, trying to cast an advanced spell too…apparently someone gave him the idea that he was invincible and that all it took was a swish of the wand, without any practice and that he would know if something wasn’t good for him…” Sunghee whispered harshly looking at the ceiling.

“Sorry,” I said sympathetically.

“So how do we know when he’ll be ready? It’s not like the blue screens tell us everything. There’s a lot we don’t know about them. Why blue screens anyway?” Sunghee asked.

Fox scratched her head, “it was just the best idea that the ‘Gods’ or ‘Ancient Ones’ had at the time when pulling mercenaries to this world from others. They seemed to think they’d take to it somehow.” She shrugged, not getting it but Sunghee and I were looking at each other thinking the resemblance to certain objects like video games and computers from our world can’t be a coincidence. But it wouldn’t be something that we could explain to a very practical and realistically minded Fox and have her understand.

Sunghee said it first though, “you know Shun…we have to stop whoever it is from preying off the people from our world. Thousands are and have lost their lives to this system. We have to find out who and what’s behind it. Sure we’ve been told the Egyptians are involved, but that’s really not knowing very much at all don’t you think?”

“You’re right. But to do that, I really need more power and skills. Like this summon spell thing,” I said.

Fox shakes her head, “don’t do it yet. You held your own in battle, but the demon box could lash out at any time. That means you’ll want your two strongest people here in the dream state to promote defense and survival first. You can improve your offense later, but the idea of giving up defense for offense is an illusion that doesn’t work in reality. I’ve seen enough die to know it to be true. Every novice adventurer in this world thinks they will somehow beat the luck of the draw and be invincible by having a perfect offense and then they are dead and their families are being sent their remains. It’s also true that it’s good to wait for your system to clear out for awhile after the manaburn has left your system. It’s too soon since we dealt with that. I’d wait a few more days. Also there’s the fact that it will be very hard to explain. How do you explain you have a bunch of women stashed in a bag somewhere?”

My mouth hangs open and I stare at her. “That’s a terrible way to describe it.”

“Yeah! You make him sound criminal. Shun would never abduct women. He just came upon this bag that the orc boss had and saved us,” Sunghee said. She gets mad at Fox then, “it’s not Shun’s fault! He rescued us you know!”

The two of them glare at each other awhile. Will they come to blows? I’d not seen Sunghee ever get this upset at Fox.

Slowly Fox’s anger deflated. “I didn’t mean it like that. Shun you are pretty awesome. But others will probably view it that way without some kind of cover story. I just meant that we need a way to explain how you have so many top class gorgeous women with you,” Fox reasoned.

“So we need to come up with a really good cover story,” Sunghee reasoned.

“It will be easier to do that if we’re in a town won’t it?” I’m thinking aloud.

“Actually yes, you can always say we’re like a trainer or some kind or assigned to work with you through a job or licensing program. But you can’t wait till you get to a town to create this cover up. You need to have it in place before you enter a town,” Fox smiled broadly.

“I guess you are right. So we’ll have to explain a lot,” I sighed.

“I suppose that’s one route he could take,” Sunghee seems uncomfortable for some reason but I can’t tell why yet. “Wait, why not just say he’s like a traveling noble of some kind? Isn’t that more believable than some kind of master and apprentice job thing?”

“I don’t know the master and apprentice job thing is pretty believable,” Fox argued back.

“Believable yes, but there are other people with good skills who would still try to cut in on a guy to steal his women with the argument that they are ‘masters’ of their jobs too and could offer more,” Sunghee said shutting down Fox.

Fox suddenly looked down scratching her chin. “Dang. Actually you are right about that. Any time he’d go into a bar with us, people would be thinking he looks too young to have a bunch of hot, sexy girls with him.”

“I’m 18...” I objected.

“You think I’m sexy?” Sunghee said being emotionally moved. “You are so sweet Fox.” She gave the girl a peck on the forehead, making Fox blush.

“Ah, d-don’t mention it,” she said back.

“But doesn’t the idea of being a noble also have a lot of problems?” I asked.

“Like what?” Sunghee questioned.

“Well wouldn’t a noble have to have some kind of family registry and be able to show they come from a royal line, or have lots of fiefdoms or something?”

“Ah man, that’s true too. You probably don’t have enough money for that, and for just putting up that kind of show,” Sunghee admitted with a dour face.

“So we have to show a good reason to keep Shun untouchable by the masses. Maybe not so much from the peasants, but we don’t want mercenaries or other adventurer riff raff from coming close to try to get a piece of him…” Fox is voicing her thoughts aloud.

“And nobles would attract thieves too, I guess,” Sunghee scratched her head.

“So I don’t get it though…is it really so bad for other mercenaries and adventurers to not think I’m one of them?” I folded my arms.

“Adventurers and mercenaries both are known to prey off each other, especially outside of towns or in places where the law isn’t around. That’s actually been my biggest worry that I hadn’t felt like I’d really discussed with you yet,” Sunghee said.

Great…more problems.

“So the alternative is a possible story of a traveling noble from foreign lands with his own entourage, a slaver with sexy slaves that are too expensive for the locals or not for sale, or sold already while en route to deliver, a master craftsman which could be exposed if someone ever asks you to do a job for them, or some other story. We may have to revisit this discussion again,” Fox said thickly, her burning eyes looking at me seriously.

“So you think he should sleep on it, instead of deciding now?” Sunghee countered.

“These are just possibilities. He has to have a good story to not bring attention to himself,” she replies.

They were all the sudden looking at each other with rivalry again…

But I can’t help but also notice they’ve both had a lot of emotional ups and downs in the last hour or so that we’ve been talking. It has to be the pheromones influence too.

Actually this may be happening because while the two girls are getting close to me, I don’t have a skill for keeping targets of the pheromone from hurting each other and for getting along with each other. This sudden revelation made me stand up with extreme alarm and intensity. I hadn’t really thought that was necessary but there was nothing preventing Fox from attacking Sunghee or vice versa. Just because they obeyed me didn’t mean that I could always trust them with each other.

I have noticed that the rivalry between Sunghee and Fox is getting worse, when they used to be super close right from before the start of our lives together and like POW buddies almost as it were. They have steadily gotten more easily agitated at each other since I’ve received the advanced improved pheromone skill. Little things will set them off against each other sometimes and I have to be careful to deflect any aggression that comes up.

Pointing it out to them might do more harm. I’m afraid of even mentioning it.

We’re still talking about our problems when it happens…

It seems the demon box really is cursed and has activated. The girls and I are instantly quiet, as we take in what’s going on around us. Both of them get their weapons ready, while I stand with them in a protective formation around me.

A thick hazy smog has suddenly poured out from the walls of the room obscuring them. The air also feels different, like almost like a rainy fog smell of right before a rain storm hits an area. When it clears it’s like we aren’t even in the orc training room at all.

Instead we’re in like a hellish dungeon room with huge human sized iron nails sticking out from all angles from the floor and ceiling. Instead of the neat bricks making up the walls, it seems like they are made from some hell’s version of hardened and crystallized lava. In short, it looks like we aren’t even on a normal planet anymore, but in some room from a realm of fire.

There’s a sound like a bell and suddenly at one end of the room the doppelganger that we’d slain before has appeared. She’s floating in the wall, but like before she’s a mix of both Fox and Sunghee but she’s wearing a kimono like robe that Fox had and is wearing a strange white porcelain mask that conceals her features. Although her face and body are mostly concealed, I can see she still has a black shadow like neck. It seems that our slaying her earlier before she’d fully transformed has caused those areas to remain as they were when she was killed.

What?!

That monster is back?!

It was killed!

“Uh oh, Shun,” Sunghee says it first.

Fox is looking at it angrily. “What the hell. We already dispatched that thing. How can it be still alive?!”

“Yeah I know right? We worked so hard,” Sunghee shook her head.

I’m about to step forward to address it, but Sunghee stopped me, grabbing my arm. “Stay back Shun. You are the target here.”

“What does it want?” I wondered aloud.

“Choose your fate,” the doppelganger shadow says.

“What?” Fox is staring.

“What does it mean by fate?” I asked.

“How am I supposed to know?” Fox said back to me.

“How come she’s come back so soon? It hasn’t been that long,” Sunghee asked.

“I don’t know,” Fox said. “But you are right. The box is acting up on us sooner than I’d expected for its next attack.

“You expected it was going to attack us again?” I asked in shock.

“Yeah and this won’t be the last time either,” Fox said quickly.

That thing...whatever it is continues to observe us quietly.

The doppelganger reaches into its pockets and pulls out two small miniature model flags on neat wooden stakes, which it then held out in its hands. They both look nearly identical, having a gold trim with a face that was split with the left side looking like a dragon and the right side also in gold looking like a demon around a red banner in an Asian style artistic design similar to what you might see in South east Asia or Vietnam design.

But did she have it that way from my memories? Or was it a design from this world? Or some kind of universal emblem that spanned the probabilities of many worlds? I couldn’t help but wonder what the meaning of the half dragon, half demon face meant as well.

“Choose one, choose your fate,” the doppelganger’s eerie voice echoed through the hall. She’s holding each flag out, one in the right hand and one in the left.

“What should we do?” Sunghee asks.

“We could refuse to choose,” Fox suggested.

“So do you think it’s like choosing a trial? Like a choice between two types of …adversity?” Sunghee asked Fox, with a raised brow. Fox also nodded in return.

“That sounds reasonable,” Fox shrugged it off like it was nothing. “We should put this hoe back in her place first, however.”

“Ah, that’s not really progressing though don’t you think?” I asked her.

Did Fox refuse to choose, because her nature is to fight against authority?

“Well, you know this box is playing games with us Shun,” Fox added.

“Not choosing, only means I will choose for you. You might not like what I would choose if it’s up to me,” the doppelganger’s metallic echoed voice said, sounding very similar to Fox.

“Weird, she sounds just like you, except for that metallic echo. It’s like spooky,” Sunghee’s eyes are big.

“Focus…I don’t think we want the doppelganger to choose for us. You better make a move Shun,” Fox ordered me curtly. She snapped her fingers for effect and is staring down the doppelganger again.

“Weird, she sounds just like you, except for that metallic echo. It’s like spooky,” the doppelganger says in Sunghee’s voice this time. But this time she’d said it in a way that was somewhat mocking her. She then began laughing.

“Is she…a real person? Or like a construct of some kind?” I asked aloud.

“Is she… a REAL PERSON? Or LiKe A cOnStRuCt Of sOme KiNd?” the voice echoed right after.

“That’s…if she is a real person then I pity her…” Sunghee said.

“...pity her...” the voice echoed after Sunghee. Yet again the voice changed while she imitates us.

There was some kind of strange aggressive growl coming from the thing in front of us that resembled Fox, right after Sunghee said that. It also seemed her fists closed even tighter, clenching the flags in anger, where she’d clenched them delicately before.

“We could just cut her head off again and end this,” Fox said, gritting her teeth.

“But is it alive?” I asked. “Would that be harming another being?”

“It’s not alive, look at it. It cloned us,” Fox spat.

“You’re just mad because she cloned your cookie last time and showed it to us with no shame,” Sunghee chirped.

Fox looked like she wanted to hit Sunghee from saying that.

“Focus ladies, I need you to stay cool,” I said.

Suddenly the laughing stopped. The doppelganger regards Fox coolly. She seemed to want to hit Fox. She obviously understood what cut her head off meant.

That’s not good. She’s not just an illusion but seemed to have some kind of idea of her own life could be troubled. It implied a living organism capable of fear.

I scratch my head. “Can you tell us about the differences between the choices and more about how this works?” I asked the doppelganger directly.

Fox slapped her forehead, “that’s just like what a mage would ask. Just pick something and stop being so analytical!” It sounded like the doppelganger had really made Fox mad with her behavior last time. Sunghee was right.

“You shouldn’t have done…” Fox started to say but was interrupted.

“In order to keep the lives inside it alive, the demon item box must eat. Fates must be fed and sacrificed into the machine for the machine to produce work and energy. It basically rests on the same principles as those discovered by the one on your world called Newton,” the doppelganger said mystically.

“Seriously? A demon is trying to tell us about Newtonian physics? This is really fucked up,” Sunghee cried out.

“You’re telling me that?” I said back to her.

“Somehow I think the box is enjoying this a bit too much though. It’s a little bit convenient for it to show up this early, when it was fed plenty before,” Fox said angrily.

“You think so?” I asked. “Why would it suddenly show its cards now?”

“Actually if a demon can even argue physics with you it’s a sign you better not underestimate it,” Fox said, jabbing her elbow in my ribs.

“Do you think it absorbed any energy from when we were slaying the imps on the beach? Is that why it’s wanting to feed again?” I asked.

“…wanting to feed again…” the voice of the doppelganger wistfully echoed, confirming what I’d wondered.

“That I’m not too sure of, we technically weren’t in the box then. But we were in very close proximity to the gateway to get in it. It also can feed on death and bloodshed,” Fox shrugged in the end.

The doppelganger also shrugged and with a Fox girl voice echoied out, “…feeds on death and bloodshed. Hungry.”

“Hmm that’s weird. She did change her copycat wording to from feed on death to feeds on death and bloodshed. But is it really feeding on the death and bloodshed or the hate and despair emotions,” Sunghee said scratching her chin.

“Probably both,” Fox said nonchalantly, after calming down.

“That is weird,” I admitted.

The doppelganger suddenly gave a deep mocking bow. Then raised itself back up and gestured to the two flags. “Pick one. Choose your fate. Hurry...I’m hungry!”

“How do we know there will really be a chance to survive either one,” I asked it directly.

Its narrow eyes focused on me briefly. “A valid question from the young mage. Both roads tempt fate, so both will face a possible death route. But for the box to operate, there must be an inevitable chance for the owner of the box to survive. Guaranteed outcomes with no risk provide no amusement,” It concluded.

“What the fuck, it’s messing with us and thinks we’re here for entertainment?!” Sunghee said clearing losing her cool and raising her voice.

For me I felt it was too dangerous to lose my cool, and so I ended up grabbing Sunghee from behind and pulling her back, dragging her away from it.

But the damage was done. She pushed herself out of my grasp and ran forward towards it.

“Well, we might as well get this over with,” Sunghee grabbed the left flag before I could stop her.

“Shit, why’d you have to do that,” Fox said. She’s about to start a fight with Sunghee but we’re stopped by the laughter coming from the masked doppelganger.

Suddenly the room went black and I felt the same vertigo feeling from before. It was the same feeling like when Fox would warp us between the rooms holding the cells of the soul crystal prisoners.

“Uh, Shun, I think we just got dumped in a dungeon,” Sunghee said as she looked around.

So not only did we not finalize what my cover story was, but now we were in trouble again…