"Is that a smartphone?"

Megumi stared at me for a second, then she scanned herself, "I sure do look piss poor, but I still can afford one!"

And there she goes, misunderstanding yet again. "No, not that, I actually lost it for a while!

Whatever~" I let out a fake sigh.

Megumi realizing her blunder, shifted her gaze and muttered, "Anyway, AHEM~

Why don't you state the terms?"

"Nah, too much work. Put something up and let me know; I'll sign if it's okay." I walked onward sluggishly, hands crossed behind my head.

Megumi shuffled to catch up with me and maintained an even pace. She started typing aloud, "The contract must include Tsukiko Megumi's safety. Garm, by no means, will harm me till the deal is done. Nor anyone associated with Garm will not harm.

How does it sound?"

I nodded in agreement. Megumi continued after noting down the 1st term, "How will we divide the profit?"

"I. Don't. Care!" I stopped as something crossed my mind, "Are you planning to upload it, umm... online?"

"Yeah, people must know. At least, I'll be just another sorry victim of capitalistic prick!"

"It doesn't have anything to do with people knowing!"

"Of course, it does! That way, if I get killed, and you attend the court as a violator of divine contract, you'll be sentenced faster!"

"I thought you not dying, was the contract! Why do you sound so sure that you are gonna die?" I turned around, staring at her deep black eyes, "Do I look like a murderhobo?"

"You should have seen yourself after butchering the trolls!" Megumi rolled her eyes.

"Or else I would've been dead, and if you were lucky enough, you too WOULD HAVE DIED!" I spelled the last part of it, smiling ear to ear. "And oh, if I wanted to, I could've killed you anytime."

Megumi just kept looking at me.

"They won't be coming to save you, the so-called justice warriors.."

"Justice- what?"

"Whatever, and since I've got money, I can buy out my bail!"

Megumi slouched, and her ears drooped too. She took a deep breath, staring at the pebbled ground. The purple blood was almost gone, and this side of the dungeon, near the stair, was free from their havoc, it seems.

"We're here; wait for more, and I'll leave you to face the 20th-floor guardian, alone! Good luck!" I stepped into the stairs, and the surrounding darkened, and I was in a spiral stairway, dimly lit by a torch. Precisely 12 steps later, I stepped to a new plain.

The 20th floor was not so big as the 21st, and it had a roof; though it was virtually unreachable, it had the same luster as a clear night sky, without any adornments. The depth of the dark blues faded at the horizon into much lighter shades. And the floor seemed to be made of a decayed layer of coal; everything reeked of death, the trees were fossilized charcoals, and overfilled backpacks resting against one of the trees. There were three, to be exact.

Megumi really must need money to collect all the scrapes, as broken bows, swords, hilts, spear tips protruded from the torn fabrics. I sorted all of it in the spatial storage.

I leaned against one of the trees, still waiting on Megumi. Wonder what's taking her long. Did she dive deeper? I know rich people can be assholes, but she really seemed to have some beef with them!

Oh, Well~

About four to five minutes later, Megumi appeared through the gate. She looked stressed. I waved at her enthusiastically; she didn't follow my gesture and slowly dragged herself.

"I take you stored them?" Megumi wore a blank expression.

I nodded in agreement, "You done with the contract?"

"Yeah, now we need to agree on the sharing of profit after selling the spoils."

"How about 90-10?"

"Whhaaat?"

"Is it too less, than how about 95-5?"

"You just decreased it!" Megumi shook her head, "Who was I Kidding!"

"Umm... There's a misunderstanding, I guess. You take the better share."

Megumi gasped incredulously at me. She seemed lost for words. Trust is shallow in this world, too.

'Sandy, how much money did mum leave me with?' I sorted out the items in the spatial storage, separating the items to be sold.

'Enough to last for few years, like a really spoiled rich brat, heck; you can even hire some skilled meat shields too. I see some pledges and contracts!'

That's excellent news! I tried waving at the gasping Megumi. She seemed out of it!

"Hey, you okay?" I poked Megumi's shoulder.

Megumi gave a slight response, then broke out of her stupor, "You're kidding, right?"

"I suck at humor!" I replied, maintaining a poker face.

"No, take backies!" Megumi cheerfully sorted out something in her smartphone. And gave me a bear hug, suffocating me!

"You stink!"

Megumi quickly retracted, "Sorry! I was just so happy." Her face turned sour after sniffing her clothes.

"Don't freak out!" I took out the mirror and started working on my appearance.

This body felt foreign. Luckily, I can shape-shift!

Quite the handy trait. Initially, I thought it would be painful to morph the bones and reconstruct this small stature, but I didn't feel anything. I felt like liquid, changing according to the container provided by Sandy's guiding; the whole process blinked in seconds.

The clothes now felt a bit shorter and tighter. I stopped the shape-shifting after adding some stubbles. Ah, I missed scratching this. The face that now stared at me belonged to well built, slightly tanned, tall, not so handsome guy in his 50s'.

Okay, I need to work on my face. A slight prominent jawline, a bit straightened nose, the eyes are fine, hmm... After a little more tweaking here and there, I was done.

I caught Megumi with the same gawking expression!

"Let's go!" The yukata magically adjusted with my current stature.

.

The portal led us to a ruin of a medieval city, the same that I saw in vision. The lazy late afternoon rays basked the desolate ruins in pale tints of everchanging orange. Taking life out of the narrow-dusted cobble-stone roads. The broken arches and relics of past echoes had their shadows flutter in ominous shades of darkness.

The portal stood, unsullied and untouched at the center of the city. As far as the eyes could see, it was ruins, ruins of a great city, and it had strange similarities to European towns. The contour of the city still was out of plain sight.

My enhanced vision, by the way, could detect it fine, the vast endless desert that surrounded its left. The majestic wall still had a smooth texture of loose cement, and it emitted a sinister aura. It stank of blood, anger, hatred, and grief.

The idea of staying in the ruins of a once majestic city didn't intrigue me the least. Too many variables in a brand-new world!

I glanced at Megumi, who stood quietly behind me. Her tresses, crimson strands, and drooping ears, with a splash of white at the edges, tainted in dusk golden.

An awkward moment of staring later, "Ahem* I suck at navigation, any idea where the nearest town is?"

Megumi's pitch-black eyes exuded nothing. I walked to her, waved my hand, no response.

"You out!?" Megumi jumped slightly. I shook my head, sighing. I crossed my hands, "You've been so out of it lately. Are you feeling sick or something?"

"No, I was just reminiscing!" One deep sigh later, "Let's go. You don't wanna stay here at night."

"Right," I quietly followed petite stature. Megumi looked sad. I don't know why seeing her sad sort of bothered me. She seemed like a sad puppy.

We crossed the cobble-stone roads. Only our footsteps echoed in the dusk wind. The broken bits of houses, and manors, all had the same sinister aura. And something about this place bothered me.

Megumi came to an abrupt halt, making me stop staggeringly. "What?"

She pulled out a cover, and beneath that was a dashing quadbike. It had a dirt texture, with mud splotch. The cover camouflaged with the surrounding.

"That's one damn, four-wheelers!"

"Umm... thanks, but it's not mine," Megumi handled the quadbike carefully on the road.

"I guessed that much," I stared at her. She lifted that so easily like it weighed less than an ounce.

"Never seen a weight-reducing rune at work," Megumi caught me staring.

"I did," A bit flustered, "Anyway, you sure you can ride this?"

"Won't find anyone better nearby."

"I can drive, though. I haven't driven in a while."

Megumi gracefully hopped on and gestured me to get on, "As I said, it's not mine. So, NO!"

"Yes, boss!"

It was very awkward. The quad bike started slowly but gained speed quite fast. "Hold On! I'm speeding!" Megumi's voice hardly reached my ear.

"I'm okay!" I sat fixing my posture. But the sudden outburst of speed slowed my perception, making me almost blow away. I held on at the last moment.

"That was unexpected," I shouted.

"You scared?"

"Nah! Is it at max?"

I only heard the roaring engine reverberate under my butt. And the desert sky left as fast as it came. The dusk was almost gone. I looked back at the broken past,

*GOODBYE, MUM!*

The journey went more somber than I thought. We didn't talk at all. And it was... umm, a bit weird. The sky had a dull tint of gray, and it had three moons, one at its full glory, shining in soft blue. Others were hardly visible. The sky was more like that on earth. A clear, beautiful, starry night? Wait, why's there no star?

The sky was clear. It had a few dark clouds floating aimlessly. The moonlight, though, was not so bright, and it had a weird azure tint. One had ominous red. Though it might be just me, or something with the atmosphere to make it look red. Who knows?

The starless sky was beautiful to look at. It soothed me. Somehow the cloudy blanket felt really, really soothing. I wandered to my subconscious space.

.

The forest was still lush and filled with thick bushes, and it had the fresh color after rain. And there was Sandy, playing with birds?

"Welcome, Master!" Sandy chirped, still petting one fat and cute little birb. "I materialized them. Aren't they cute?"

"How come I always get astonished when you reply to my thought!"

"It's only been a day. You'll get used to it eventually, Master."

"Hmm. I hope so too. So, Can you materialize whatever you wish?"

"No, If I could, I wouldn't have stayed in the shit house. I can materialize things synonymous with your own making."

"Oh!"

I scratched my stubbles, "By the way, how the hell is the necklace still with me? I remember getting decapitated!"

"They are bound artifacts."

"Artifacts as in... Wait, artifacts, not items!?"

"Yup. And as I said, they are bound, and it'll get destroyed after you die, if you don't pass it to someone, and held a ritual ceremony."

"Woah, woah, woah! Hmmmmmm...

Hmmm..." I stared at Sandy, she maintained her neutral visage, "Is it just me, or are you explaining in a way that gets over my head?"

Sandy shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"Tsk..." I stopped scratching my stubbles, "When are you going to revert to your original form? You look totally out of context."

"Are you not finding this form of mine charming, master?" Sandy intoned, holding her hands together, leaning slightly forward.

I took a step back, "Urghh!" escaped my lungs involuntarily.

Sandy took another step forward, one hand lying gracefully on her chest another on her head. She tilted her head, sobbing, "Oh, Master! What has become of you? How come you no longer enjoy my angelic voice!?" She slumped in a heap.

I froze for a second from the sheer cringe. "Blurgh! Okay, you don't deserve to be here."

"Oh, Mast..."

Before Sandy could keep up her fake charade, "I'm seriously gonna throw up and leave."

Sandy slowly got up, dusting off her bare knees, "Tsk, boooorrring!"

"By the way, where did you learn the pose from?" I asked as I walked to a wilting vine and started infusing it with life.

"Tee-hee!" was the only response I got from Sandy.

"Don't tee-hee me!?" I paused, thinking for a moment, "CAN YOU SEE MY MEMORIESSS?"

Another tee-hee, later, I just shook my head, carefully nurturing the vine. Sandy walked up to me, "You know you can just make it grow. Why bother?"

I said nothing and stood up to leave, as I sensed oddities outside, "Do tend it for me, and oh, I wanna try some new spells."

That said, I blinked out of my subconscious space to rediscover myself in the vast desert. As far as eyes could see, it was sand everywhere. But dangers were lurking from beneath the cold waves of sands.

My senses picked up about a dozen of oddities, and they were most prolly hidden beneath the sands. The vibrations that I could pick up were hardly noticeable, and if I'm to guess, there might be more than a dozen.

"Megumi, buckle up. Things are going to get nasty." I said, searching for the best spell to utilize.

"What?" Megumi shouted without looking back. Her voice distorted from the wind.

"Steer left!" Megumi heard me just on time to take a stern steer. The mana I was shaping to make a condensed pike of sand cut through the air, and a trashing noise followed a piercing scream. The pike made of sand blew off the upper half of scorpion-man?

What was that again? The upper half depicted a humanoid figure. Despite being night, I could easily see its complexion; it had the dark brown texture of rough granite and bristles covering the humanoid part. It had six beady eyes, and two lower tusks protruded at a slight angle. It was bald and had no ears. The lower part was the same as that of a regular scorpion, just overgrown out of proportion. The six tapered legs, heaped in a geyser of black ichor. And the upper part landed on the sand with a soft thud.

Oops, didn't mean to kill it in one blow. What I found more amusing was Megumi's concentration. She seemed experienced in these sorts of situations. She handled the quadbike smoothly, and she muttered something.

"I didn't quite catch that," I killed another creature. Unfortunately, it died even before it got to the surface, as the newly conjured pike leveled it along the sand surface.

"I wasn't expecting getting attacked by sand bandits," Megumi replied, eyes glued on the road.

"But they are missing the bandanas!"

"Not funny!"

"I wasn't trying to," I blasted of a critter that grossly crawled out of nowhere, "By the way, it runs faster, doesn't it?"

"It does, but the runes are falling apart if I drive any..."

"Step on the break, NOW!!!"

The quadbike skidded a few meters ahead just before getting thrown in the air by a gigantic sandworm. Megumi now looked a bit aghast. I asked her what was bothering her while skewering the sandworm with pikes made of dense sands.

"They've got a tamer."

"And so?"

"I know you're strong and all that, but don't underestimate them when they are fighting in their terrain."

I grabbed Megumi by the collar and chanted under breath, 'Gravity nullification' and tossed her mid-air, and to keep her from descending to her demise, I used 'Spatial Freeze'.

Of course, Megumi trashed and screamed at the top of her lungs, but not that it was helping. Storing the quadbike in my spatial ring, I walked to the sky, making steps out of spatial forming.

I stood beside Megumi. She started complaining about why I had not warned her before throwing. I was busy concentrating on the ambient mana. The desert night was freezing, and as always, the humidity was zero. The ambient mana, too, was scant.

Megumi flinched as a jet of sand rushed for her. I warned, "Don't move."

Megumi compiled. The jet struck a layer of invisible barrier. Megumi gave me thumbs up. I gave her a quick smile, "Stay there. Any attacks that can't traverse plane won't be able to do you any harm."

"Wowoah!" Megumi nodded vigorously, "Since they have aqrabuamels, there might as well be vampiric gargoyles."

I honestly have no idea what the first one meant. I was about to ask when Sandy chirped in, "Scorpion-man."

"And oh, can you not kill the sandworms? They can fetch a good price too."

"Any idea how to render it immobile, without killing," I dodged two lances, "You see, this is my first encounter with sandworm."

"I know you'll figure it out," Megumi whistled, trying to avoid eye contact.

Okay, so no mass killing. "Sandy, you up for bargain?"

"Why not just paralyze it?"

"Doable, is it a spell of some sort?" I spun mid-air, avoiding a stab from a … uh... vampiric gargoyles, I guess.

"No, just feed it some of your essence... that might hurt!"

Ouch! I felt my fist break as I punched the gargoyle on its face, "You should've warned me sooner."

"Tsk, how am I to know you're that stupid. Stupid-master, baka-baka!” I saw Sandy's flashing image of sticking out her tongue.

"We're not hitting it off ANY TIME SOOONNN!!!" I pulled out a dagger to stab the gargoyle, which broke without leaving a scratch on its body.

"Fuck!" I dodged a punch but got an arrow protruding from my back. I clenched my fist and punched the gargoyle again and again. Broken bits of my bones and flesh flew around. I can feel my vitality seeping each time I bled.

The next punch blasted it off, and I followed its descent. I sat on its chest and activated the aura of life, and kept punching. "You love sucking life force. Eat till you burst."

A flurry of blows later, the sand now vibrated with overfilled life. Sprouts of greens bloomed all around. But the gargoyle was still pretty much alive. Channeling all the ambient mana that I could muster from the surrounding, I infused it with my gift 'One With The Earth'.

The gargoyle finally started crumbling under my punches. Or rather, from the suffocating life aura that I was exuding. The stony form of the gargoyle was turning fleshy, and it started bursting at places.

The sand now exuded an aura of life and teemed with dull green. I was as good as new. The broken parts of arrows and spears formed a little heap just behind me. Sigh, It just feels so wrong.

The onslaught of attacks stopped for a while now. I looked around to check. The first thing that caught my eye was the mole-shaped figure, who were on their knees, strangling themselves. The aqrabuamels too became slower, and I still detected anomalies from underneath the surface.

To my astonishment, I saw a limb of the mole disfigure, and soon it started changing shape haphazardly. A second later, it burst into bits and flesh. That was gory!

I ducked to avoid an overhead swing, and the gargoyle disappeared again. Woah, that's neat. I dodged left. Hopping forward, I strangled it. It swung its massive blade to get free, but me being me, it was nothing.

"You got a pretty neat trick there, mind sharing with me, I might let you live?"

The response was not from where I was expecting, "They are unintelligent. And it's just using mirage and heat to hide, tsk, should've asked me."

"Do I know you?" I shooed off Sandy.

Now, let's try out this new move, shall we, 'Abnormal Regen: Life Overflood.'