Chapter 55: Back to Cube

Luna spoke about her concerns about Safo’s nightmares that happened every night. It started with the first day in New Tenga and no one could pinpoint the root of the issue. Deep inside she feared that her soul stone crashing with his and that it was consumed by his soul stone played some part in Safo’s sleep disturbances. But she couldn’t remember being in the field for a picnic with her parents and running away, so it wasn't her bad memories. It was very rare for her to gather enough strength to walk more than a hundred meters, there was no talking about running around.

“I guess it is just the stress and pressure of the tournament playing its games with my mind, I will be fine.” Safo tried to assure Luna and himself, but it was to manage that with a tone full of uncertainty.

Their chit-chat was interrupted by the knocks to the door of the hospital ward.

“I heard you talking to yourself…” Kutch pushed his green lion head peeking. “Hii, champ. How do you feel?”

Everyone save for O’rmon followed Kutch invading the room, momentarily crowding it. Even Jo’ra came to visit him more to be sure that the device he put his efforts into was fine as well as to know that the character that held the hidden item remains alive.

Achraf almost fainted several times throughout the matches in his worries about Luna’s well-being, so he also came to check up on his daughter.

“The healers did their best with your legs and now you just need to rest while remaining taking your Immortality Path. It was fortunate that you started your first course. It was a good boon to your bone regeneration. These couple of days I will drive you around in a wheelchair. But worry not,” Kutch exclaimed with pride, “Because I even watched some tutorials on how to be a proper chauffeur. Haha.”

Seeing Safo’s wry smile Jo’ra bumped him with his elbow. “Tell him about the evening, it will cheer him up.” He whispered jesting, tilting his head towards Safo’s bed.

“Ah, yes! Guess what?! Tonight is a banquet to celebrate your brilliant performance in the tournament. Everybody will be there, even the advisors. And the food, oh the food will be fabulous.” The giant lion made sure to gesture in a fancy manner to give more weight to his every word. “Rest for now, you slept the whole night but you need a bit more. Play the Cube or something. We will be back closer to the evening. See you.” With that, the gang left as quickly as they appeared.

“Oh well, I guess we can play a bit then.” He attached his device back to his neck, he had to took it off to keep it safe while fighting, and comfortably placed his body into a soft hospital bed. He didn’t feel any pain or fatigue at that point, thanks to the medicine and healer psioras. But there was still mental tiredness and that he was about to heal with a good portion of monster beating. He sent a text message to Miloud Ennmar, via VDtalk, to let him know about his intentions and started the game.

The sensation as if he was floating in the sky rushed to him giving comfort to his thoughts. Safo quickly chose [Play] and after a short black screen, he found himself standing in the plaza of a Cilla Village on a warm, sunny day. A smell of fresh ingredients for the potions and shouts of merchants met him with outstretched arms. Luna once more appeared behind him and hugged him as soon as she saw him.

“I’m glad you are alive, you know right?”

Her soft feathers and squishy bumps were a generous compensation for his struggles in the arena. “I know.”

They stood like that for some time and only after feeling more awkward than comfort they separated their bodies.

“Uhm, what do we do? I need to level up to reach the next Cube. Do you know someplace so I could get myself in a good fight, Luna?”

Before she could answer a voice came from the side. “I know.”

Both Safo and Luna looked to observe a humanoid made completely out of crystals. There was a cluster of different shapes and colors, some parts of the strange character were smooth while some parts were pointy sharp, others were like sandy. Some crystals were transparent or semi-transparent in contrast to others, full with the color of all spectrum. Bright reflections from the sunlight were dropped all around, crystal-humanoid was like a shining chandelier. Seemingly no-gender character stood looking at a couple as if he was expecting something from them.

“Hi, my name is WorldDestroyer. What is your name?” Safo tried to be polite even though the crystal men's stare couldn't be count as a friendly one. He stood in front of them all shiny and glittery, his different color eyes locked on Luna.

“So this is the one who you mentioned? Your companion. Are you guys a couple or something?” Crystal humanoid merely pointed his finger at the two.

“Who… We … No -- … Why you think… No… We are friends.” Both Luna and Safo stuttered unfathomable words. Embarrassed they tried to change the subject, in unison they said. “Who are you?”

“I congratulate you on your victory in the last event of the tournament, WorldDestroyer.” Stranger clearly was embedding some meaning in his words, which a moment later struck Safo. Miloud Ennmar didn’t wish to name himself in the public, he was the guy who was deeply in his role of an assassin.

“You created a new account! Nice to meet you, man. How are you?” Even though for Safo a kid in front of him was a big mystery he somehow emphasized him. Not everybody could dedicate so much effort to a childish and silly dream as 'to be the greatest assassin in the world'.

“Twenty-six, in truth, before I found a suitable character. Tell me about your character and we can go hunting, I have things in mind.” Miloud Ennmar was a straightforward guy.

“For real? Twenty-six times? Tell me about this character first, it is probably something outstanding if you decided to stop your search.”

“Indeed, it has an upgradable character perk and it has a worth-to-play secret quest.” As soon as he finished his line, his crystal body began to transform, gems slowly turned to show their different angle, colors that fueled the stones slowly faded away, and soon Miloud turned slightly transparent. One could see him, and his shape was obvious, but the perk definitely made him hard to distinguish from the surroundings.

“It is only the first level at level 3 I can be completely invisible.” Miloud didn’t mention the fact that he couldn’t move while using the perk, to keep his flaws hidden from others as if the true assassin did.

“What is up with all these invisible people lately, I don’t get it. But it fits you well. So in a way you are saying that 'this is not even your final form?'” Safo chuckled but neither Miloud nor Luna apprehended the joke. Miloud simply nodded.

“What is your secret quest then?” Safo remembered that he also needed to check his secret quest since he was stuck with his broccoli-like character.

“It states that I need to gather a raid party and conquer one particular castle in the Eighth Cube. What about you two?” Hearing that Luna giggled to herself, everybody noticed it but didn’t pay much attention.

“She can observe the land from a high angle as if she was a bird in flight.” To that Miloud stated that the perk was pretty useful for an archer. “Yes. And about her secret quest; She refuses to reveal. So I don’t know.” Luna giggled again but firmly shook her head letting them know that she wouldn't change her mind.

“Let me see mine,” Safo opened his status menu in search of his secret quest, “You know already my character's perk is to get healing from the ground if stay put in one place… and my secret quest is to visit all nine “Dwellings of the Living Trees”. It says that I will get rewards each time. Nice, right?! Can we go there first.”

Safo didn't even finish his sentence, Miloud already was looking up at a map to locate the place.

“We need to use instant travel scrolls, it is 4 days away from here. Too far for a walk.”

The problem was that none of them had been in the Enchanted Forest before to be able to instant travel there. Miloud ordered Safo to sell all trash out of his inventory, except his orb and gloves, of course. After all the dancing with the mud monsters, Safo obtained a ton of Tier 1 gauntlets. Luna didn't need to sell anything, she did a surprisingly good job with her character and already reached level 8, with a little fortune in her wallet.

Miloud left them at the plaza to buy necessary armor and other gear while he went to find a person who had visited the Enchanted Forest before.

The armor set in the Cube world was simply a three-piece set. A helmet, armor, and boots. Luna already was equipped fully in the Tier 0 set, bought in the village market. Due to the rules of the game in Cube 1, players couldn’t get any armor pieces from the monsters. Only materials for crafting, money, and all sorts of weapons could be looted from the hunt.

Safo came to one of the town shop owners and got himself a defense-based armor set. All in all, he had 1.5 Defense points. Meaning that an attack with 1.5 damage will not harm him at all.

When he closed his shop menu and looked at himself he understood why Luna was laughing at him.