Kai’Lenar seems to lose a lot of his worry at my words. He opens his mouth to say something, but I am already applying the spell that Isis taught me.

I can feel the beginnings of another sleep spell, but Isis’s spell does its work and I can feel the sleep spell lose its lock on me.

I look up to see Kai’Lenar looking at me expectantly.

“Did you say something?” I ask him.

“I am confused, are you alright?” He asks and I only now notice that the lizardman has a tight grip on his sword.

“I’m fine.” I say, winking at him. “Someone was just looking for me.”

I leisurely stand up and stretch my muscles. How much more time is left in this hour?

At that thought, a helpful little blue screen pops up.

I don’t have to wait too much longer until I get to go home. It will be nice to get away from all of these things that are trying to kill me.

Which brings me back to the question; who is casting a sleep spell on me?

Isabelle doesn’t seem like the type, and I can’t think of anyone else who could have put the sleep spell on me.

I glance over at Kai’Lenal, I believe the lizardman when he says that he wasn’t the one casting magic on me.

He is still staring at me with a puzzled expression.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people look at me like that, I wonder why?

A question for another day I decide.

I stop everything and wait for them to cast the sleep spell again. I prepare my psi for the moment they cast their spell.

There.

I grab onto the spell and follow it towards its source. My psi slips away from me as I follow the spell. I am close to finding them, when they cancel the spell.

“Craps.” I curse, irritated. They must have noticed my psi following the trace of the spell.

I know the general direction they are in, but in the- I glance at the helpful little clock -five minutes I have, there is no way that I am going to be able to catch them, whoever they are.

Wait, five minutes? That took quite a bit longer than i’d thought. I must have been really focused.

“Are all humans as… confusing as you?” the lizardman brings my attention back to him with his question.

“I hope not.” I answer, then, taking a moment to consider the question, I continue, “definitely not.”

“This world is very perplexing.” Kai’Lenar responds.

I smile at him, “It certainly is.” I take one last glance at the clock. “Well, it was fun meeting you Kai. Let’s do this again sometime, without the whole killing giant spiders thing.”

A flurry of blue screens appear in front of me as the timer runs out.

I wait for a few seconds before another blue screen pops up.

Since you have reached level 5, you have gained the class ability

“Yes, I would like to return home.” I say to the screen, a tiny amount of exhaustion leaking out in my voice.There are a lot of things that I need to think about in those screens, but for now...

I don’t think I got much sleep last night.

A normal wooden door appears out of thin air on top of the subway tracks. I happily walk towards it.

“A moment Beta Tester.” The lizardman calls to me.

I stop in front of the door, turning my head to look at the lizardman.

“If it won’t be a bother to you, I would like to travel with you through that door.” Kai’Lenal motions with his hand to the door.

I look him up and down. “Sure. I already have a fairy, a lizardman won’t hurt.” I open the door and step through it into my room.

I hold the door open, allowing Kai’Lenal to step through it, once he steps through. He follows me into my room, then stares in shock at the portal that leads to The Shop.

“A Beta Tester with a Shop.” I hear the capital in the word Shop clearly. “It seems that I have underestimated you Elena.” The lizardman appraises me with his stare.

I close the door and watch it disappear. I only smile at Kai’Lenal in response.

“Elena! You’re alive!” A small winged being crashes into my nose, giving me a hug. “When I heard that there was an event, I was so, so, worried. But you’re back now, so everything is ok.” Dee, pulls back from my face, looking me up and down. “You have a lot of holes in your clothes.”

I chuckle, “I’ve noticed.”

“And this is?” Kai’Lenal asks, his eyes glancing back and forth between me and the fairy.

Dee finally takes notice of my guest. I watch as her expression becomes more guarded. “I am the guardian of this home. I take it that you are a Chat’Kai.” She says in a surprisingly serious tone.

“You may call me Kai’Lenal.” He responds, with a bow of his head. “Thank you for guarding this home Fairy, it is a noble task.”

Dee opens her mouth to respond, but I interrupt her. “I know that you both want to talk, but I have had a very long day.” I say, gathering their attention. “Guardian,” I say, not using Dee’s name, since she hadn’t used it herself, “If you would be so kind as to show Kai’Lenal the way out of my room, I want to get a little sleep.”

Dee immediately nods and motions for Kai’Lenal to follow her. He does so without any resistance.

I fall into my bed and look at the blue screens that I had read earlier. Twenty two thousand beta testers killed by other beta testers. Twenty two thousand people killed because of greed.

I sit up in my bed and say a small prayer for all of those people that had died because of a stupid “game”.

I look over the messages until I find it again

That means Isabelle, me and probably Hans lived through the event. Which means I didn’t kill him.

A realization hits me, causing me to immediately check my mark of protection on Rose. A breath of relief hits me when I realize that she is safe in her home. I had felt danger sense trigger on her more than once, but there was nothing I could do, I’d been dealing with my own problems.

My gaze travels up to where the blue window says “You have almost completely stopped the infestation”.

We didn’t kill them all, which means that there are still giant spiders alive out there in Korea.

“This stupid fucking system.” I curse out loud.

I turn my gaze to my reward, the [Dungeon Core]. This was the reward for being the #1 team in the region. It must be pretty good.

“What is a Dungeon Core?” I ask the system out loud.

I look at the description for a moment, considering. When I think of the word dungeon, the prison in a castle immediately comes to mind. But I think that this is referring to something different.

I vaguely remember reading a novel online about game like dungeons. If I remember correctly, the dungeon produces monsters that the heroes then fight.

“Ele… Elena… Can you hear me Elena?” I hear the voice of someone I hadn’t heard in a week.

“Sheyla?” I ask, surprised to hear her voice.

“Oh good. I was worried that I had missed my chance to talk to my newest disciple.” Sheyla says, humor in her voice.

“No one can let me sleep can they?” I mutter out loud.

“That’s a pretty ungrateful thing to say to someone who is trying to save your life.” Sheyla responds.

“I can be a pretty ungrateful person.” I say, smiling before I continue, “I would appreciate it if you could get to the point. I’ve had a long day with little sleep.”

“Of course.” Sheyla continues with a hint of annoyance in her tone. “Despite my warnings, at the first opportunity you got, you decided to align yourself with a god.”

I shrug, “What can I say, she seemed like a nice person and I didn’t feel like saying no to a person literally called ‘a god’”

“Your nonchalance about such a big decision is a little worrying.”

I open my mouth to respond, but she cuts me off.

“None of this matters anymore, we can’t change it.” Her voice brokers no argument. “Your decision has made you enemies, as you have no doubt found out.”

My hand unconsciously moves to spot where Isabelle had stabbed me through.

“Isis is not as powerful as she once was. In fact, she has very little power left and only the protection of her son Horus keeps her alive.” Sheyla explains, “This protection does not extend to you. You have made yourself a target of her enemies, for you are her only hope in returning to power.”

I think about Sheyla’s words for a moment, before a wide smile appears on my face. “A lot of things make sense now. Thanks Sheyla.”

“You don’t sound as worried as you should be.”

“Don’t worry my esteemed instructor. I’m sure that I can work everything out over a nice cup of tea.” I pause for a moment, “The tea probably won’t be poisoned.”

PrinceCorwin

This is the last chapter for Book 1. The next chapter will be chapter 1 for book 2.