“Thanks little guy…”

While he was focusing his hardest to maintain the surfboards under his shoes, the little crab slowly nudged him across the water, getting him closer to the shore where Marie was, standing with her eyes wide open.

“And...”

And finally, after what felt like several hours, he managed to get back to the shore without dropping right into the pool. Seeing as Alex had made it back safely, the little crab went back to the pool and started playing around once more.

It’s just like trying to learn swimming all over again…

Wait, can a crab swim?

Hmm…Now that’s a question I can’t answer.

“A-Are you alright?”

“…yeah.”

“R-Really?”

“…………yeah.”

With an even longer pause, he replied back weakly. His eyes stared aimlessly into the moving wind.

Using some of his leftover energy, he conjured another wooden chair and sat down, not realising that his previous chair was still waiting for him. Taking this chance, Marie dragged her chair close and sat down.

“A-Alex…?”

“Hmm?”

“U-Uh…Well…I’m-“

“…It’s alright.”

Without waiting for her to finish, he cut her off, as if he knew what she was about to say. Not that he knew what she was going to say, but he knew the general idea.

He didn’t have {Foresight} alright?

“E-Eh?”

“I…won’t do that anymore.”

“W-Wait, I-I mean I…”

Quickly feeling that something bad was incoming, he picked up his backpack, which was on his previous chair, and took out an apple. He gave the apple over to her.

“Here.”

“E-Eh?”

“You’re hungry right? Here.”

“…T-Thanks…”

“Don’t mind it.”

Successfully diverting her attention, he showed her a warm smile as he took out another apple. She blushed slightly as his eyes locked onto hers.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing…I-It’s just…”

“…I don’t smile often?”

“H-Huh? I-I mean…yeah.”

“Hey, I’m not a robot alright?”

He said jokingly as he took another bite from the sweet apple. Looking at her apple bashfully, she took a small nibble.

“Pii!”

“Here.”

Without looking back, he took out another apple as he took another bite at his. With his spare left hand, he set it down beside him.

“Pi!”

Happily, the crab got back onto the soil and began munching straight at the apple. Little crumbs came flying out.

Can’t this guy eat cleanly?

…Oh, it doesn’t have a normal mouth.

That’s why…

Crabs don’t even eat apples!

“…I guess the next island will have to wait…”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

Taking one last bite, he conjured a small leather pouch and threw away the remaining into it. “When you’re done, put the remains in here.” He said as he placed the pouch between him and her. She nodded in agreement as she took another bite.

“Hmm…”

Slouching his back against the wooden chair, he brought back up his status page, I’ll be calling it that now, because saying only status sounds a bit odd to me.

I’m the narrator alright?

Status: Damian Alexander Lv 21

Health: 154/203 (+68)

Mana: 12/248 (+83)

Strength: 89 (+30)

Intelligence:108 (+36)

Resistance: 92 (+31)

Agility: 101 (+32) (+5)

Skills:

{Illustrator} Rank 1 (57%)

{Blood Borne} Rank 2 (%)

[Agility] Rank 1 (47%)

[Cleaving] Rank 1 (17%)

[Blood Hound] Rank 1 (19%)

[Magic Manipulation] Rank 1 (22%)

[[Concentration]] Rank 1 (18%)

[[Third Vision]] Rank 1 (03%)

[[Sea Surfing]] Rank 0 (34%)

Titles:

(Blood Borne)|(Illustrator)|

“Uwah…It’s getting close to 0…”

He shuddered as his eyes noticed how low his MP had gotten.

It reminded him of that time his MP dipped right below 0, into what he calls the ‘Negative Zone’. Alright, that was probably not its name, but it sounded cool, so he stuck with it.

But he vividly recalled the intense headache he felt because of it. Even if he had only experienced it once, the pain he felt was not something he could tolerate, especially not in battle.

If by any chance his MP dips below zero in the middle of a battle, the battle would be a lost cause, and since there are no save stations, once that happens, his life would be long gone.

He shivered when he thought so.

“Using my magic would probably be a bad idea.”

When he had reached such a conclusion, he sighed in defeat and rested his back against the chair. His magic exhaustion seems to have caught up.

“Quuuaaack!”

But the world doesn’t seem to agree.

“…F*ck.”

Cursing under his breath, he stood up weakly to see a single bird monster flying in the air. Closing its wings, it dove down with its sharp beak pointed straight at him.

“I’ll have to make do…huh.”

Using the magic he had left, he activated [[Concentration]] and dodged its attack. Not bothering to fly back up, it used its beak as a sword and swung it around. He quickly evaded the sharpened edge.

“Marie!”

“Y-Yes!”

With her asteroids orbiting around her, she charged straight at the bird. Opening up its wings, it flew back up. Marie arrived a second too late.

“Tch. I’m too tired.”

“W-What do we do?”

As they were worrying about their battle strategy, the crab looked on in curiosity.

“Be ready.”

“Y-Yes!”

Taking his stance, he carefully observed as the bird began to dive down once more. Making full use of his boosted reflex, he dodged the incoming attack.

“Quack!”

Not letting up its attacks, it began swinging its beak at him. He continued to dodge as he waited.

“Mar-“

“Pii!”

Just as he was about to call her, a familiar sound was heard from the pool beside him. Both Alex and the bird turned around to see, only for the bird to suddenly scream.

“QUA?!”

“Pi!”

It seems like the little crab had his own plans!

Using its built up speed from continuous surfing, it lunged off the water and straight towards the bird! Using its sharpened claws, it tore apart one of its wings! Blood sprayed out into the air.

“Umu?!”

Putting his hand over his mouth, he turned away in both disgust and fear. His heart began beating abnormally as his face grew pale.

“QUUAA!!”

“Piii!”

Pushing away the shock it felt, the bird swung down its beak. The little crab easily dodged to the side, before jumping straight to the bird’s other wing. With its orange claws, it opened up a hole in its wing.

“PII!!”

Shouting a strong crab battle cry, it relentlessly attacked the beaten and bleeding bird. “Qua…” Weakly, it tried to fend off its claws, but the crab’s speed far surpassed its.

“PI!”

*Gra!*

With one last mighty swing, the birds body was sliced in half. The battle was over, and the crab was the victor!

“Pi!”

Cheerfully, it watched as a white orb flew out of the bird’s remains, and into the little crab. After it did a little victory dance, it jumped straight into the pool and cleaned off the blood on its shell.

“A-Alex?”

“Hah…”

Seeing the little crab jump happily right after a battle, really made him wonder what kind of things that little guy had went through.

Could this guy be a survivor of war or something?

Its attack pattern was quite different from the crabs he remembered.

Oh well, he’ll find out soon enough.

“A-Are you okay?”

“…I’ll be sleeping now.”

“I-I see…”

…………………………

Cold.

The air around him felt oddly cold.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

“W-Where…?”

But to his surprise, the sunny scenery of the floating islands he was just in several seconds ago was nowhere to be seen. His two companions were nowhere to be found.

Instead, what surrounded him, was a dark and empty room. The walls were built out of steel, reaching up to about 5 meters. The room itself was around the size of half a badminton field.

Where could this be?

Is this perhaps, a dream? A lucid dream even?

He didn’t know. He didn’t want to know.

“Huh…?”

Looking down, he was surprised to see himself sitting, on what looked to be an armchair built out of pure steel. His hands were resting on the two sides of the armchair. Oddly enough, there seems to be what looked like a shackle, perhaps placed to restrain him. But it was now long gone, the shackle broken and torn in half. Specks of steel could be seen lying around him.

Standing up from the armchair, he turned to see what this really was. And what he saw before him, raised some truly terrifying questions.

“W-What…is this…?”

Behind the chair he was sitting on, he could see an enormous machine. Although, because of the dim lighting, he could only barely see the face of the machine, while the back remained shrouded in darkness.

The machine seems to be far past its life span. The multiple scanners and displays built into the face of this machine was broken far beyond repair. The steel had turned a yellowish brown because of the rust that had built up. The cables connected to it was torn and twisted.

Just what is this machine?

What is its purpose?

Questions after questions rose inside his mind, but with no answers to back up his speculations, he simply left them unanswered.

Turning his back to the machine, he turned to see the other side of the room. He slowly made his way to the other side, making sure that he wouldn’t slip on this slippery cold steel floor.

The one light bulb hanging above shined dimly, poorly illuminating this room to aid his eyes.

*Puchi*

“Huh?”

And because of the dim lighting, he failed to notice what was in his path. In both curiosity and tension, he looked down to see what he had stepped on. The colour red tainted his black shoes.

“C-Could t-this be…?”

Fearing the possibilities of what he could have stepped on, he quickly pushed away the thought and walked on. His shoes left red trail marks in its path.

“H-How far is this- Gofuh?!”

Just as he was about to ask himself, his face was greeted by the cold embrace of the steel wall. Rubbing his face a couple times, he squinted his eyes to see if there was anything special on this side of the room.

And there sure is.

“Is this…”

Right before him, Alex could see a pair of sliding steel doors, about 3 meters in height and 1 meter in length. Honestly, what could be the reason to install such a uselessly large door?

And to be honest, he didn’t know.

The machine, that chair he was sitting on, and this room itself, he failed to see what their purposes could have been. Could this room perhaps be a prison room?

He wasn’t sure. The one thing he knew was that this was, even if he wanted to deny it, his own dream, and every dream had its own meaning. If that’s so, then what’s the meaning of this dream?

His mind failed to comprehend such a thought.

“Oh well.”

Shrugging the thought away, for now, he placed his hands on the door, and pushed, only for him to realise that this was a sliding door. He silently thanked the dim lights and slid the door open.

And what greeted him on the other side was…

………………

“Ugh…w-what…?”

And that was it. He never managed to see what was on the other side of that door. Slowly, he opened his eyes, to see the ever-present sun he knew all so well, greeting him with a warm welcome.

No, that was not a pun.

He felt a small comfortable feeling course through his body as he felt the warmth of the sun, washing away the coldness of that steel room.

But still, what was that room?

“Muu…”

“Ppp…”

“…Seems like their asleep…”

Looking around, the dark and cold steel room was no more, and the sight he knew was back into view. The floating islands around him floated in the air with no support, with the three giant rivers flowing in the air.

In front of him, he got to see Marie, who was making soft sounds as she peacefully slept on her own wooden chair. The crab seemed to have taken advantage of her and used her lap as a pillow.

What a cheeky little guy…

Either ways, now that that dream was over, he moved on to the next thing he had in mind.

His MP.

Before his sleep, his MP had dropped below 10%. And he dearly hoped that it would never drop below zero ever again. That painful headache isn’t something he wanted to feel on a daily basis.

Actually, if he somehow managed to get his MP below zero once again, would the painful headache grant him a new skill? Like, pain resistance or something?

Hmm…Now that’s a tempting choice.

Although, if doing that required him to undergo such an intense headache again, I wouldn’t suggest it.

“Oh well.”

Status: Damian Alexander Lv 21

Health: 203/203 (+68)

Mana: 160/248 (+83)

Strength: 89 (+30)

Intelligence:108 (+36)

Resistance: 92 (+31)

Agility: 101 (+32) (+5)

Skills:

{Illustrator} Rank 1 (68%)

{Blood Borne} Rank 2 (%)

{%^&#$ &f &^([email protected]%r) R$3^ Y (&&&

[Agility] Rank 1 (57%)

[Cleaving] Rank 1 (17%)

[Blood Hound] Rank 1 (23%)

[Magic Manipulation] Rank 1 (28%)

[[Concentration]] Rank 1 (30%)

[[Third Vision]] Rank 1 (10%)

[[Sea Surfing]] Rank 0 (34%)

Titles:

(Blood Borne)|(Illustrator)|

“…The f*ck?”