I didn’t notice it when I was talking with D, but I’m actually back in that vast white space, huh?

It’s quite odd how my mind just filtered out everything when she showed up, especially when you consider that I’ve been madly scanning anything and everything around me in the last few days.

Truthfully, my not so great encounter with that rot-clad squid boosted my paranoia and persecutory delusion to untold levels.

Not gonna lie though, I’ve been seriously fed up with this place for a while now, and this encounter with D only served to make this feeling much worse.

Getting chased into by dozens of ancient water dragons then cornered by hundreds of undead was a very hectic experience, but I actually enjoyed the new discoveries along with the high adrenaline moments involved.

However, both killing and getting chased by undead soon became annoyingly repetitive and incredibly irritating at the same time.

I mean, who in their right mind would actually enjoy hack'n slashin living corpses that wish for nothing but to eat you? 

This isn’t some 2D platformer game with jingly coins and rising scores! This is reality, my life’s on the line!

Besides, those dull lifeless eyes get to you the more you look at them, y’know? These guys were also living a long time ago.

Adding to that the fact that Greed doesn’t even work on undead and that I must disable my skills if I wanna stay hidden… Yeah, it didn't take me long to start loathing this little side trip of mine.

It’s just a complete and utter waste of time! Time that I don’t have much of at that.

And don’t get me started on the murder happy squid, the creepy soul sewage river, and the soul sucky flower.

The last couple of days were probably the worst I’ve ever experienced in both of my lives.

Sigh… sorry for the long rant. I’m gonna be leaving this place shortly anyways.

Right now, I need to get out of this lucid dream state, immediately seal the flower with a bunch of soul barriers, then quickly teleport back to the living area.

My intuition tells me I should be able to use Mischief again, so I don’t need to care about the dragon patrols anymore.

Though, I will certainly be slaughtering a few of them as soon as I’m back in top shape. Revenge is sweetest when it’s freshly served after all!

Actually, those guys most likely believe I’m already dead. After all, no matter how strong a creature is, it’s near impossible to survive in this place.

Ending that train of thought, I started searching for a way out of the dream.

Usually, said exit would materialize in the form of an abnormality in a memory dream or a traumatic past experience I’d be forced to relive, but there’s none of that around here, just a pure white expanse.

And as such, I do the only thing I could think of.

Taking a deep breath, I manipulate the only power I can still use in this state– my soul power to violently impact the space around me in all directions.

Nothing happens at first, but cracks soon start to appear in the pure white world itself.

The sounds coming from those cracks reminds me of back when I first came to this world, it’s as if I’m hatching from my egg all over again…

Bleh. This gives me the creeps.

Fortunately, it didn’t take much time for the entire place to collapse as darkness seeped in through the cracks, dying the entire place in its color and freeing me from this eerie prison.

My consciousness slowly dissipates, but not before I see D’s figure once more winking at me with a playful smile on her face.

Now that I think about it, I’ve never actually seen any expression on her cold face before this meeting, huh? I’m glad she regained a bit of her humanity…

 

An unknown amount of time later somewhere unknown, a cold breeze ran through the entire space.

Reacting to the wind caressing it, my body slightly stirs, soon followed by my eyelids fluttering open.

I sluggishly take in my surroundings with dazed amethyst eyes for a few minutes before my consciousness regains some clarity.

Closing my eyes once more, I reactivate my sphere and Spiritual Cognition and begin scanning every inch of surroundings once more.

Not even a second later, I lock onto what is pretty much the third most dangerous being I’ve ever confronted… just below D and Sariel!

Floating on the surface of a clear water pond, sandwiched between some emerald green lily pads is a water lily flower which I could only describe as breathtaking.

As soon as I set my eyes on it, I remembered a particular telescope photo of a white dwarf star I had seen online a few years ago.

Its outer petals are black like the vast outer space whilst its inner petals and core are a brilliant pure white color that lights up the surrounding pitch black environment.

Unlike D’s malevolent aura or Sariel’s cold mechanical one, the lily, or The Living Rose as it was named, gave off a calm encompassing aura, but I could still feel a bit of Sariel’s coldness hidden underneath.

Honestly, I’m starting to doubt whether those angels are actually “alive”.

Everything angel-related I’ve ever interacted with always gives off that cold inhumane vibe that even THE evil goddess of the underworld didn’t have.

If I’m gonna compare them to something, it would be every single genocide seeking artificial intelligence I’ve seen in movies back on Earth.

Maybe angels were meant to be a living Skynet? That’d be cool… and scary at the same time.

But I can’t really confirm this conjecture since I didn’t have any real interactions with one of their kind yet.

Even my conversation with Sariel was basically a business deal done through D’s system.

Suddenly, I felt a light tug on my soul along with an intense drowsiness invading my head, instantly driving away any confusion left in my eyes.

Without an ounce of hesitation, I instantly bounced up to my feet and began rapidly consuming my MP to cast tens of soul barriers around the flower.

When I found that it wasn’t enough, I hastily switched my consumption to HP instead. You can’t imagine how much I love those nifty out of system abilities right now.

A few more minutes passed before that tugging on my soul ceased, and gone with it was the blood-curdling feeling that had permeated my entire being.

I didn’t register anything else until I felt a strong impact rocking my sweat soaked body to the core.

Vexed, I look down, only to realize that I’ve unknowingly lost control of most of my limbs, causing me to fall back down to the ground.

I don’t have much time to contemplate the cause though, as I can feel the power I put into my barrier being rapidly depleted in order to keep that angelic flower at bay.

In fact, there isn’t even enough time for me to construct a long range teleport spell, so I opted for a short range one in order to get the fuck away from its reach instead.

It was a close call, but luckily, I disappeared from that place right as I felt that tug coming back, reappearing in Kratinz’s city square.

As I powerlessly float face up above the white marble ground, I direct my nearly exhausted magic power into Medicine Synthesis, creating some weak medicine to quench my thirst and heal my body.

Getting trapped in a dream for who knows how long without any water is fatal for a human, let alone a member of a marine species like me.

I can feel the severe lack of hydration throughout my body. I was especially tormented by a desert-like dryness in my throat.

I might actually become the first dried mermaid in history if I don’t fix this.

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Medicine Synthesis LV 1] has become [Medicine Synthesis LV 2].}

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Medicine Synthesis LV 2] has become [Medicine Synthesis LV 3].}

 

About 1000 MP’s worth of weak medicine later, the scorching dryness finally subsides and the rest of my body begins absorbing water from the outside to replenish itself.

I appraised myself, set the results to be always active, and placed them to the upper left corner of my vision.

The results were frightening, to say the least. My MP bar is just about empty while my HP bar has just a bit over 15% left inside even after all of that medicine!

Uhhh, I’m fairly certain both should’ve been freaking full before I was trapped by the flower! Phew… I guess this goes to show how ridiculous a god’s strength is even if they’re dormant.

I silently rested until I regenerated a solid chunk of my MP bar before I proceeded to open my Spatial Storage and dumped several tons of fish beside me.

Wooooh, that’s two more bullets successfully dodged right there!

Could it be that my Luck EX stat has evolved into plot armor bullshit level?

That’s three near death situations I escaped from within the span of an hour, freaking THREE.

And two of them were related to The Living Rose. That thing’s prime tier material for a cockroach level survival ability antagonist, I tell ya!

Amusedly shaking my head, I promptly partake in this mouthwatering sumptuous feast that I kindly prepared for and invited myself to, completely leaving behind about any ladylike manners I was taught in my kiddy days.

To be honest, I’m probably that one simple monster you can easily rope into doing your bidding in fictional works.

A few plates of tasty food and you’ve got yourself a most reliable ally!

I boredly mused on random thoughts as I leisurely ravished my meal.

As all of my resource bars satisfyingly crawl back to full and my excess stock numbers rise up to the max, I open my Spatial Storage again to store what remains, which wasn’t much actually.

Stretching my body, I think for a bit before electing to cast an enormous dimensional barrier around this sunken ruin.

Dimensional Barrier is a level 8 Dimensional Magic spell that designates an area and permanently turns it into the caster’s domain.

It has limitations and can be broken of course, but I can easily include the entire city in its range at my current strength and it’s almost unreachable in the first place.

I’m getting my very own super duper secret base, hehehe!

The casting time of this spell is insanely long though, so I might have to delay my return to the living area by a few hours.

Life without Sage’s instant casting is just pure hell, in all honesty.

The reason why it’s disabled has to do with the peculiarity of the dead zone itself if what my intuition is telling me is true.

Opening my Spatial Storage once more, I take out some food to substitute for MP potions, after which I start weaving the enormous magical construct of the spell.

Let’s hope The Living Rose doesn’t fuck up anything in the process…

 

{Proficiency has reached the required level. Acquired skill [Demon Lord LV 1].}

 

This isn’t plundering, it’s reclamation!

I certainly won’t refuse the free skill, but you’re still a rude asshole, system.