I didn't feel rested at all.
From the state of light darkness outside my window, it must've been almost dawn, meaning I'd slept for maybe... 4 to 5 hours at most. Not nearly long enough for neither normal humans nor Awakened to feel rested, but I already had experienced with this.
Even after managing to think up all that, it still took me a long while before regaining any semblance of consciousness, then staggered to the bathroom. The only thing guiding me was the hazy feeling that I ought to clean myself up first, but after that I would have to think a bit more of where to go.
I looked in the mirror and saw a trail of red had formed down to my chin while I was unresponsive, so I turned on the tap to spray myself with the cold morning water. My hands felt numb on top of my already fugue state, so it was hard to dry myself off properly after, never mind filling up my hands with enough toilet paper to clog up my noise and stop the crimson from flowing.
Letting out a rickety and shaky breath, I didn't feel much better in any particular way.
'&#@($&@...'
I couldn't even think straight.
My head felt like it only weighed as much as a feather, but also as much as a ton of bricks at the same time, further jostling my thoughts.
Any train of thought I tried to keep kept breaking apart – like clouds of vanishing smoke – before I made sense of them, and not before long I felt sick, too sick. My stomach lurched and I gagged, the feeling of bile rising to my throat choking out everything else.
"Ugkh...!"
I retched and felt my intestines wildly twist and tangle, even though there wasn't anything for me to vomit.
Hacking and coughing after further emptying my already-empty stomach, I absentmindedly reached for the toilet paper again. The bitter taste in my mouth settled there and nested in my tongue, making itself comfortable as I groaned. It was far from being the most physically miserable I'd ever felt, especially since going through that very morning's events, but still.
The thought brought me no comfort.
After some vitality returned to me, I sat down on the toilet, breathing through my mouth because of the small strips of toilet paper still plugging my nose. I sighed after realizing that I'd have to replace my pillow, and as for how I'd explain myself...
'#%@$!%#$, $(@$&!%...'
I vaguely knew that someone wouldn't just clean a blood-drenched pillow without asking questions, but my mind was still unable to focus on one thing for long, so I went back to blanking out as I breathed. Very slowly, inhaling and exhaling, until I stabilized.
I didn't dwell on the dream, or what it'd done to me.
While I was calming down my eyes couldn't help but wander to the barrage of panels taking up a part of my vision:
[Warning! A large amount of the user's Providence has been damaged by an external source.]
[Damage analysis: 46% of user's Providence eradicated, 12% rendered unstable, 42% still usable.]
[External source has been identified as the world of the Hero, Earth.]
[The natural Providence of the Hero's world has been analyzed and mimicked successfully.]
[The Slayer's Legacy will initialize hibernation protocol (H-63) to repair the user's Providence, please standby.]
I didn't fully grasp what the writings meant, but it felt important.
'Providence' particularly stuck with me.
What I did grasp though, was that I felt... awake. No, that wasn't really the word — it was more like sober. As if I'd been drunk for the past few hours before recovering, like a tightly-knit collar around my neck had been loosened.
My attention was taken away by a sharp hiss, followed by an explosive sound coming from somewhere far away.
It was a short whistle followed by a dull and fiery boom, then by sparkling crimson light shining into my dark little apartment through the window, drawing my eyes like an open flame drew a moth's. I stumbled as I slowly rose to my unsteady feet, walked out of the bathroom as I attempted to center myself all the while.
I strained my eyes to peer through the window, seeing a most curious thing:
A flare.
A small red star whistling across the dark and cloudy sky, closely followed by a shower of similarly colored specks illuminating the entire military outpost. And then came the sound of gunfire.
They were different from the low rumble of thunder I'd become accustomed to; more like a handful of firecrackers going off. An ever increasing number of curt and sharp bursts, accompanied by flashes and streaks of painful yellow in the darkness.
They were coming from all around the camp, from the walls.
I felt a little bit of myself coming back together as I took in the sight, finally remembering how to form coherent thoughts again as I organized my heart and took a final deep breath. I put my hands on the frame of the window for support, leaning my body through.
'It's probably a common occurrence, with all the monsters around. They don't need my help with it.'
Just relax...
'You don't need to do anything, Misha. They'll deal with it just fine.'
Seeing how they already had a way to signal events like this, it must've happened before, and if they got through it then, they wouldn't need my help with it now. A few more minutes of gazing down the window confirmed my thoughts, as there was no commotion or agitation in the streets.
Though that didn't mean things were perfectly calm outside:
Lots of people were gathered in various odd spots around the outpost, but they weren't going towards the walls. They didn't even look worried; they probably didn't go outside to see how the defenders were doing.
'So why are they there?'
After looking more closely, I saw 3 distinct spots people were agglomerated around, and I could still make out a thin but steady trickle of folks coming in from all around. Since there were so many people despite it being early in the morning, it had to be something important.
Does it concern me or not?
After a few seconds of thinking, I decided it did.
'Would still be smart to take a look.'
I retracted my body from the window and made my to the wooden closet, throwing open the doors to see my set of armour taking up the place of the sleepwear I was wearing now, my heavy lance resting vertically next to it with the spearhead grazing the bottom. I also – for the first time, curiously enough – took notice of there being a divide, with 2 extra pillows and another blanket tucked away on the top.
Thinking about how nice it was to have replacements on hand, I put on my armour again and strapped my spear to my back.
"Always good to be prepared," I mused, then repeated, "Always."
I took the clean pillow and switched it out with the blood-drenched one, and then made my way to the door with the stained item in my left hand. I took a few seconds to look for my keys before seeing them on the kitchen table, right where I'd left them before.
As I stepped out onto the hallway, I looked around, noticing how still and dead the entire corridor was. I'd have heard a feather drop.
Putting the keys away inside my armour, I ignored it and made my way to the stairs. They must've either been outside with the rest of the Avatars, or sleeping soundly without a care in the world. Like I wanted to be doing.
When I reached the reception, I was surprised to see the woman still behind the wooden table.
'Has she not gone to sleep?'
She smiled warmly at me just like she'd done before and waved lightly, leaning over the table in a way that emphasized her bust in just the right way. I didn't know if she was doing it on purpose, but I didn't mind either way.
'She probably isn't. Why would she?'
She was the first one to talk.
"Going out already?" She hummed.
"Ah, yes," I cleared my throat, "I just want some fresh air."
"You certainly look like you need it."
She leaned back, sinking into her chair while looking at me up and down appraisingly. I tensed up a little.
"...What?" I questioned.
"I mean, your nose is bleeding, you look exhausted," She paused for a second, "And you're holding a blood-stained pillow."
"Ah."
A heartbeat of silence passed.
"Actually, where can I put this?" I asked, offering my left hand.
She knelt down and rummaged under the table, soon bringing out a green basket made of plastic and laying it down on the wood between two plant pots. I put the pillow inside it and watched as the woman put it back into its place, wondering.
'Just how much stuff does she keep under there?'
My thoughts was interrupted as my stomach growled, quite loudly too.
"..."
There was another heartbeat of quiet, and then the woman chuckled softly.
"...I'm sorry," I muttered, quieter than I wanted to, "I haven't eaten in a while."
"Don't worry about it, darling." She waved away my concerns, "If you want, I can serve you some food."
"Oh?"
The woman reached into the pocket of her coat and took out a small ivory sphere. When she clenched it tighter between her fingers, a silver ring of light shone outwards and encircled her fist, accompanied by small flashes of bright cyan energy in front of her.
Various semi-translucent squares of light blue appeared floating above the table, holding an array of items inside them. Some of them had fresh fruits, vegetables and other foods inside, some had raw materials for them like wheat and seeds, and some even had glass tinctures and tonics filled with glowing mystery liquids; only the small strips of paper with names wrapped around them gave away their effects.
The woman seemed delighted with my reaction as I stared blankly at the spectacle, mouth hanging agape.
"Are you surprised," She smiled, "Dear customer?"
"...Just who wouldn't be?" I sighed.
"Well, this is actually a pretty basic thing. This is a Skill called the Blue Enforcer Cage," She continued, "And it has the purpose of setting up a fixed area of influence, always shaped like a square, which the user can use to store items and assign attributes to."
Realizing that I was about to be taught something, I peeled my eyes open and listened intently.
"For example, I can set the interior temperature much lower to preserve food, or set rules that specify who can take items out of them, why, and when without any restrictions. The only thing I can't do is modify whatever's inside."
"Or," She sidetracked a little, "Place living beings inside. But that isn't a problem; there's plenty of Skills for that."
"But anyways, some production Jobs with a Skill called the Incarnation Seal can link another desired Skill to a certain object," She stretched out her hand to me, showing the small pale orb, "Like these ones, which are easy to carry around."
Now that I looked a bit more closely, I could see a small and intricate black crest was carved into it.
"There are some other kinks to both of those abilities, but you'll have better luck asking their owners." She smacked her lips.
"And just like that, everyone has their very own storage space, my dear pupil."
She stood up straight now, looking deep into my eyes from behind the table.
"Understand it better now?"
"Oh, yes," I drawled, taking in the information. "Thank you."
She was staring up at me with her bright cyan eyes slit into crescents. It was a weird feeling that even though the woman was older than me, she still had to look up at me to talk. It was... honestly, quite cute.
"You said I could take something?" I half-asked, looking at the items. "Is it the same deal as with the price for staying?"
She hummed in agreement, "Knock yourself out."
"Sorry, I wish I could pay you right now." I frowned, licking my dry lips with dissatisfaction.
"Don't worry, I trust you."
'But you shouldn't trust me so easily.'
The words rested at the tip of my tongue as I avoided looking at her, and rolled then around for a bit before deciding to swallow them back down. Why was I even so bothered with the fact she already trusted me, to begin with? Was it because we didn't know each other enough for that? That it came too easily? Maybe a combination of the two?
Or was it because of something else?
I pushed those worries out of my heart and went to looking at those items, seeking out anything that caught my fancy. I told myself I could choose whatever I wanted since she'd given me her blessings, but I still felt bogged down by the discomfort in me.
In the end I choose a few soft loaves of light brown bread, some dark slices of crispy dried meat, and a small greenish bottle filled with a vibrant spice of many red hues, made of what I assumed to be – from sight alone, since I was no expert in the subject – various herbs.
The last one was at her recommendation, and she just said to season the meat with it right before eating.
"Anyway, you're going out, yes?" She reignited the conversation, erasing the blue boxes, "You could get some good gear if you're lucky."
"Equipment, you mean? How?"
The woman sat back down on her seat, crossing her legs.
"What do you mean, how?" Her brows scrunched up, "The same way everyone else will today, through the Starshop."
"I... don't have any idea what the Starshop is." I confessed.
"What? Just how..." She blurted out.
This seemed different from the previous matter, this seemed more like common knowledge. It would do good for me to learn these things sooner rather than later, to allow myself to blend in better.
"How come you're an Avatar, yet you still don't know?"
"I just don't," I shrugged.
"Just like I didn't know about that storage thing."
"Those are very different..." She sighed.
As I waited for her to explain way, she just murmured something under her breath and looked pensive for a second, then proceeded to wave me away with a sort of languid look to her eyes.
"I think I've already explained enough today," She admitted, "Just know you'll be pleasantly surprised when you go out, or maybe not. Depends, really."
"But why?" I pressed further.
"Look," She said, "It's annoying to ask for things twice. And it's also bad manners."
"And secondly, you shouldn't lean on other people to explain everything for you," She jabbed lightly again, "Anymore and you should start paying me."
Her chiding face bloomed into a soft smile again as I clicked my tongue, beckoning me closer.
"But come closer for a second, before you go."
I took a tentative step forward, "Alright...?"
As I stared awkwardly at her from above for a few seconds, I saw her smile falter before she hooked a finger towards me.
"Bend over a little, please."
The woman produced a small azure leaf with glowing emerald lines from inside her sleeve, seemingly without using any Skills from what I could see, and I obliged; bending down until we were both at eye-level with each other.
She pressed the leaf over my nose, and then the small piece of foliage shone warmly. I resisted the urge to pull away in surprise, feeling my whole body warming up as my head went fuzzy. I felt a different kind of energy coursing through my veins now, not the cold Force Aura I was used to, but instead a much warmer and gentler thing.
And neither my body nor my mind rejected it like when I'd felt such pure energy before, surprisingly enough.
I didn't dwell on that thought, just enjoying the moment as that strange refreshing energy filled my body. I felt my insides turning into cotton as I eased into her touch, every muscle and bone and tendon relaxing and softening and healing.
Eventually it came to a halt though, and though the sensation dissapeared in an instant it still took me a second to realize that it had as I opened my eyes. I saw that the leaf had withered and turned grey, and only the smiling woman was standing in front of me now.
I didn't rise up to my full height again though, no; I stared a bit more first, searching for... something I thought I'd seen.
'...Her face looked different for a moment, weird.'
There was a bad taste in my mouth all of a sudden, but I pressed it back down and decided to ignore it. There didn't seem to be any red flags with the situation to warrant it... none that I could see, anyway.
Just because I had good intuition, survival instincts or whatever else didn't mean that every little feeling I got meant something more.
"Now," She said, "Take out those pieces of paper from your nose, and blow here."
Lenardia took out a piece of white cloth from beneath her table and brought it close to my face.
I did as I was told obediently, and took the cloth from her before blowing her nose on it. As expected, when she distanced the piece of white from her face there was a pretty big crimson stain on it, but there were also small patches of azure on it too. She then noticed that, to her surprise, her nose wasn't bleeding any more.
"What was--..."
"Don't worry about that, honey. It's a trade secret."
The woman smiled and pressed her finger to her lips, and Misha felt her mouth water a bit when she stared.
After a few moments she coughed lightly into her hand and licked her lips, then opened her mouth again:
"Thank you, miss."
"It's rude to keep calling me just miss, dear customer. Just call me Mrs. Lenardia."
She didn't quite follow the logic of going from just miss to Mrs. Lenardia, but she obliged.
"Anyway, now go on."
Misha looked back at her just a little bit more before bidding her farewell and closing the door to the building behind her, stepping onto the street. She didn't see when Lenardia's face changed, or that her eyes were still glued to her back.
She chuckled and mused to herself softly for a bit.
"How cute... She's just like an obedient little puppy. It's a pity I'll have to kill her, she's just my type."
After that though, her eyes narrowed and her demeanor changed quickly:
'How unusual.'
The first suspicious thing was how ignorant she was about the use of the Blue Enforcer Cage, or about the Incarnation Seal. Both were standardly used in all 4 military camps she knew about, and their overall usage was greatly essential to survival after the start of this giant game they'd all been forced to participate.
The second thing was that she had no knowledge of the Starshop, which didn't make sense. It wasn't like thousands of weapons and pieces of armour were just waiting around for the Avatars to use as soon as the Earth started changing, so she had to have gotten her weapons one way or another.
'And her equipment... It doesn't look like something made by the System.'
Should she say it felt like they were made especially for her?
If she was a Challenger there's no way her Goddess would've left her in the dark, which meant that she couldn't be one of them. At most, maybe she had some kind of connection to the 3rd Main Quest, which would actually explain a lot of things.
Gaia had never actually said that she was an Avatar, which left some room for thought. No matter how much she didn't want to admit it, all of the Gods – including her Dame – were fickle and whimsical, and wouldn't do anything that reduced their entertainment.
For all she knew, her Goddess could've purposefully omitted that fact to make things more interesting.
Lenardia sighed, cradling her right cheek with her hand.
"Truly... My Goddess can really be such a handful."
[The Dame Of The Blooming Earth (Gaia) pays 250 Star Points to send you a private message | Accept & Deny.]
"Ooh? Looks like she heard it."
She smiled softly and chucked inside her heart, then agreed and felt themselves being connected:
[Gaia: Why are you letting her get away? And healing her too!?]
[Do not worry about these things, Dame Gaia. They all play into my plan.]
[Gaia: And you don't want me to think that you're just luring her in because you want to fuck her?]
[I am a bit ashamed to say that you do have a point, but me being aroused by her won't interfere with my plans.]
[Gaia: I swear, you're by far the horniest, most shameless Avatar I've ever fancied sponsoring.]
[Your humble follower shall take that as a compliment, Dame Gaia.]
[Gaia: Don't talk like that. And you better not forget what you're supposed to do.]
[But by the way, Dame Gaia... If this is so important, then why don't you warn the other Gods close by?]
[Gaia: Isn't it obvious? If I subjugate her myself, I'll receive all of the spoils.]
[Gaia: Now go and make sure that whatever plan you have there, it's a good one.]
Since her Goddess hadn't paid as much SP as before, they only had enough time to exchange a few lines.
But that was enough for her, and she reached below her desk and pressed a small red button hidden deep inside it. A few moments later she heard footsteps coming down the stairway, accompanied by swearing before a young man popped out.
It was a young man with spiky black hair and a scarred lower face.
"Now, just what the hell do you want with me right now?"
Lenardia couldn't help but grin coldly at his words, and her heart pumped a bit harder.
'Looks like this mutt needs to be reminded of who owns him...'
