By the time Red was done practicing, it was already night and the lunar gaze set upon him again. It was once more diminished in intensity. Red had thought this meant the being itself was growing weaker, yet he noticed something strange.

For a few minutes at a time, the gaze would entirely vanish, before abruptly returning. It wasn’t just a matter of decreasing intensity. The pressure altogether disappeared out of nowhere, as if this lunar being had difficulty maintaining its concentration.

That was, however, an absurd train of thought now that Red reflected on it. Whatever the real reason might have been, it nevertheless helped his peace of mind. At least he could sleep comfortably now.

...

The boy woke up, to a sight simultaneously both strange and familiar. Red looked down at his feet and saw that he stood on fine grains of pitch-black sand. Around him, giant bone mounds rose to the crimson sky, where a dark star shone as the centerpiece.

The youth at once recognized where he was.

The firmament had sunken even lower to the ground this time around, a phenomenon that Red could not explain in words. The boy didn’t notice the same terrifying emotions or pressure weighing down on him, though. This world still remained on the edge of annihilation, and yet something had changed.

Red didn’t feel like a foreigner to it anymore. In fact, he barely felt affected by the strangeness of this realm.

He took a few tentative steps. Nothing inhibited his movement, and he found himself able to explore his surroundings. He crouched down and tried to scoop some of the black sand off the ground.

To his surprise, though, his fingers could not part the grains, and it was as if Red was working to weave through solid ground. This confused him, but he tried a new approach anyway. The youth pinched his fingers and sought to grab a few grains of sand, finding a proper grip with his nails. Once he tried to lift them up, however, he found out he couldn’t move them.

It felt like Red was trying to move a mountain and not a grain of sand. Such a phenomenon left him shocked, and after making no progress with multiple tries, the boy gave up. He got up and once again observed his surroundings.

Nothing had changed. In fact, Red had spent more time in this dream than any other before, and this worried him. However, he knew from experience that nothing could hurt him inside this dream world. Something was missing compared to last time, though.

‘Where is that fiend?’

It had appeared after only a short time back then, but now there was no sign of it. Red suddenly found himself stumped on how to proceed, before he looked at the bone mounds around him. They were so enormous that the boy had a hard time seeing them as bones. Still, with no other choice, he walked toward what looked like a titanic rib protruding out of the sand.

Unfortunately for him, the environment had twisted his sense of distance, and the boy failed to reach the bone even after a long time of walking. It continued to grow in his field of vision, but the youth never got close enough to touch it.

An hour passed by, but he continued his steady march.

Then two hours. Then three hours. The rib was still impossibly far.

‘This is absurd...’

Red stopped walking and sat down on the sand. Such proportions were outside of the realm of possibility, and the boy reasoned that no matter how real all this felt, it was still a dream. It continued to play tricks with his mind. The real problem remained, though, and Red was still stranded here.

‘What now...’

Nothing else had changed in his environment, the whole desert being quiet, except for his footsteps. No winds blew through the endless plains. The only movement Red saw was the shimmering crimson corona surrounding the dark star in the sky.

Stumped for ideas, the boy experimented with a few things. First, he looked around his body. He was wearing the same clothes from before he had gone to sleep, but he found no other items on his person. Focusing on his crimson sense, Red also could not find any fluctuations.

After finding nothing out of the ordinary with his body, the youth decided to practice his exercises. He passed through the three-minute mark with no problem, yet as his body approached exhaustion, he still felt no signs of tingling on his skin. Red tried to push himself to the absolute limit, but nothing changed.

‘There’s no Spiritual Energy.’

Of course, the boy didn’t know what he was expecting. Even if there was energy, this was all a dream, and he wouldn’t be able to carry his progress to the real world. Having exhausted his limited supply of ideas, Red got up and continued walking towards the rib.

There was no point in waiting for anything to happen.

Unfortunately for the boy, it seemed he still had underestimated the expanse of this desert.

...

Red didn’t know how much time had passed. Perhaps a day, maybe two? It was difficult to tell the time in this place. The image of the rib continually grew in his vision, but the boy couldn’t tell how much longer it would take to reach it, and he found himself physically exhausted from all the walking.

Much to his surprise, he also felt hungry and thirsty. It put into question whether or not this was all still a dream, and eventually a particular idea crossed his mind.

‘Do I need to die to leave?’

That was the condition that had allowed him to return to the real world before. His time in these dreams was always short, but that was because death came quickly. Perhaps if he hadn’t died in those situations, he would still be stuck in those fantasy worlds.

Still, in this situation, nothing stood out to kill him. Without his usual killing, perhaps Red would remain here forever. There was, however, one solution to that.

‘Do I need to kill myself?’

The youth at once shot that idea down. It didn’t matter if this was a dream or not, the boy found it impossible to force himself into suicide. Red would rather die from natural causes before resorting to that.

Still, that was his last resort, and the youth would keep pushing himself until he couldn’t do it anymore. Laying down, the boy rested on the steel-like desert floor. Staring at the crimson sky and the dark star, Red thought back to the energy mist.

‘Is this where you come from?’

This was the likely scenario. It would be surprising if he couldn’t connect the crimson mist’s existence to this crimson sky world. Although he couldn’t imagine what kind of being could live in such a desolate environment, he knew his fate was now tied to this place.

One day, he would probably need to come here and save whatever that thing was from whatever was harming it. At least, he instinctively assumed this was their agreement.

With these thoughts circling his mind, the boy fell asleep from exhaustion despite the hard desert floor and desolate world. He didn’t feel uncomfortable. It was all a dream, after all.

...

When Red woke up, the wooden ceiling of his room greeted him. The boy threw an alarmed look around and noticed that he had returned to the real world after all.

He got up and did a cursory examination of his body. There was nothing abnormal as far as he could tell; his hunger, thirst, and fatigue were all completely gone. Yet, the events of his dream were still fresh in his mind.

‘Did I die?’

This was his first thought. Perhaps something had happened while he was asleep, which had brought about his demise. Yet the boy did not know what could have happened. He had been nearing the point of no return with his bodily needs, but it wasn’t to the extent of death just yet. Whatever the cause, it must have been external.

‘Or maybe...’

Maybe his sleeping had prompted his return. It was hard to verify without another attempt, and Red would rather not return to that place if he could help it.

The youth looked outside the window and noticed sunlight was already streaming in. Time within his dreams had always been weird, so the boy doubted days had passed since he went to sleep. Still, it was best to confirm it.

Walking outside, Red saw Domeron in his usual seat, sipping from his mug. He approached the swordsman without hesitation, at which point the man gave out a long sigh.

“This last week was pretty nice, you know?” Domeron remarked.

“Why is that?” Red asked.

“Because I didn’t have to deal with your nagging in the morning to train.”

“Isn’t that your job?”

The man’s eyes twitched, but he didn’t respond.

“I’m not here for practice right now,” Red said. “How long has it been since our meeting?”

“What do you mean?” Domeron frowned, annoyed.

“Was the meeting yesterday?” the boy tried to rephrase his question.

“Of course it was, kid! What, did you suddenly suffer amnesia?”

“Not really.”

Red turned around and walked away without explaining. He heard the man cursing behind his back, but he ignored it. Walking over to Goulth’s workshop, the youth knocked on the door.

“Come in!” the blacksmith immediately spoke from inside.

The boy found him in his usual spot, preparing breakfast. The smell was already spreading through the room, and it reminded Red of how long it had been since he last ate. Still, he put the topic to the back of his mind.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Red spoke up.

“Not now!” Goulth cut him off. “We don’t discuss business before breakfast.”

“But I didn’t- “

“Shh! Not before breakfast.”

The boy could only relent. He helped the man set the plates, and after the breakfast was ready, they both got to eating it. Red finished his own portion and had to wait patiently until the giant was done.

Ten minutes later, the blacksmith set his plate down and looked at him.

“So, what is it you wanted to ask?”

Red pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to the man. It was the knife he had brought from the underground.

“Can you tell me something about this?” the boy asked.

“It’s a knife.” Goulth simply shrugged.

“... I know.” Red nodded after some thought. “I mean, can you tell me where it comes from or who might have crafted it? You told me in the past items like talismans and pills have signatures, so I was wondering whether it would be the same for weapons.”

“In most cases that’s true, but that’s only for superior equipment.” Goulth had a frown on his face. “And that is not a superior product.”

“Is there nothing you can tell me about it?” the youth felt disappointed at that reply

“I didn’t say that.” the blacksmith smiled. “I can’t tell who made it but there are other things I could discern. It depends on how unique the steel they used to craft this is, and on the method they used to smith it.”

“So you can do it?”

Goulth laughed.

“As long as you’re willing to help, sure! A true master can glean a thousand details from a simple lump of metal!”