A claymore carrying a box of earth, and next to it is a human piggybacking an unconscious girl. Anyone would think it's a rather unique team, especially the floating claymore. People might be both impressed and fearful of what it could be capable of.
Reaching the camp, Shun immediately gathered dry twigs and leaves. Clashing the two rocks together, which were flint and steel, sparks rained upon the flammable materials.
Ember sparked to life, and without wasting much time, Shun breathed out a steady flow of air. The ember struck the others, and as it got brighter and brighter, it brought out flame.
Crackling noises accompanied Shun as he prepared dinner from the gryphon.
It might be very, very late to mention this, but he learned these wilderness skills from his grandma, and the school also had a program for that. But it didn't explore too deeply, only scratching the surface. It helped, however, shaking his memories.
After all, there's little use for such skills in a modern civilization.
Anyways, he cut a small portion of the gryphon's meat for himself. He paused for a moment and cut an extra as a change of mind.
After planting the meat deep into the dagger, he conjured a stick and grafted the short blade. He continued by embedding the stick with the edge leaning toward the fire.
Shifting his gaze to Akira, simply a cautionary note in case the earth digested her again. They needed to do something.
Shun contemplated for a moment in silence before nodding to himself.
"That might work."
Before he implemented his plans, he looked at the sky. The last ray of light still lingered. Shun believed it would take around thirty minutes before the sun completely set and was replaced by the shivering night.
He approached a spot a bit far from the tree. Cloaking his hand with aura, he cut the ground into a one-by-one cube.
Picking it up as dust trickled, and carrying it on his back with a grunt of struggle, he dropped it just next to the tree.
"Neat." Shun smiled and touched the cube, using his skill and shaping it into something else. Its initial form stretched, changed, elongated, until it became a bed frame.
He then used what was remaining of the gryphon's pelt and carpeted the bed.
Putting Akira there, gently. Shun clapped his hands with satisfaction.
He shifted his eyes to the meat and noticed its color had changed to gold. He turned the stick, exposing the pale, raw side to the fire, before making his own bed.
It took a few moments before it was completed. The bed was positioned on the opposite side of Akira, with the fire in the middle.
"I don't have to worry about being digested by earth." Shun's voice was light, feeling relief that one of the problems had been solved.
So far, everything had been going according to plan! Hopefully nothing will—
"Night… mare." Akira's shaky, fear-filled voice echoed in the air. The atmosphere became incredibly still and suffocating.
Shun's body tensed up, and he slowly shifted his gaze.
At the same time, in his mind, there lay an ethereal switch to transform. All he needed was a little push.
Two seconds felt like days went by. The last ray of sunlight snuffed out and was replaced by a sheet of darkness, stirring the air into a colder grip.
He kept waiting, but nothing happened. And that made his guard even higher, forbidding him to do what he had originally in mind.
His breathing was sharp and tight, yet steady. His eyes narrowed, intense and focused.
Although low, there's a chance for the nightmare to appear when he lowered his guard—and against such a deadly opponent, it meant death.
As that occurred, gray fog emerged from the depths of the darkness. Shun shifted his attention to his surroundings and was ravaged by a strong sense of unease.
This fog invoked a strong sense of sleep deprivation.
If he slept now, would Akira be able to survive if her nightmare appeared? Her ability was support-related, and she didn't seem to be the combat type either.
Damn it! Is there another way? Shun clenched his fist, desperate for answers, when he noticed the fog never reached them.
Like stepping on a brake, his mind ceased for a moment. For a brief second, relief flashed through his eyes, but soon confusion came.
He took a closer look at what was going on.
At the edge of the soft radiance, the fog seemed alive and retracted, not daring to enter.
'It dreads the light,' he whispered to himself and heaved a sigh of relief.
A flash of thought then appeared in his mind and burned his relief as he recalled Akira's words. He eyed her for a bit longer before determining it might just be sleep talking. It could just be that she was experiencing a nightmare in the Dream Realm.
Shun calmed himself down with these lines of thought before coming down from the bed and approaching Jade Blood.
This claymore had just stayed afloat as soon as it reached the camp and hadn't moved even an inch ever since.
"You okay?" Shun asked worriedly, but there was no response. Concerned, Shun shut his eyes and perceived the faint connection. He sighed out of relief—nothing had happened.
There's nothing wrong, yet something's out of order. I couldn't put my fingers around it, Shun thought to himself.
Foreboding cast in the air, and Shun couldn't help but feel it thicken. The air seemed still and dense, and the night felt even colder.
Regardless of hidden dangers, he continued what he had in mind while keeping his guard up, though not as intense as before.
He picked the box of earth and used his skill to open it. The walls collapsed to the side with a thud, raising small particles of dust, revealing the stacks of books.
His eyes descended, scanning each title that might have intrigued him, before picking a book that seemed to summarize the lore of the world.
Flipping the page, producing a crisp flutter of paper, Shun glanced over the important points and learned that this world belonged to seven races—or at least ones they recognized—and they worshipped the four orthodox gods.
Humanity and elves worshipped The Constellation of All Monarchs and Authorities, the demons and the cybernetic life forms worshipped the Reverence of Madness and Steel, while the angels glorified the Melody of Heavenly Conductor, and the dwarfs bowed to the Sovereign of Instruments.
What was so interesting about them was that they had never gone into wars between one another, but they settled their differences by sending their best fighters into a duel.
It seemed it was a divine system, an agreement between the gods.
Then how come such a world got destroyed? Shun asked himself, recalling those memories, and shivered to the core. Best not to think about it further.
He shifted his attention back to the book. Within all the complicated races, conflicts, and dramas, the world was running with magic, alchemy, advanced machinery, and swords.
Truly a complicated setting to live in.
If Shun got reincarnated into such worlds, he doubted he'd live!
Just as he was about to close the book and digest the information.
The air shifted and he turned to the source. He immediately suffered the urge to look away in revolt. He managed to endure, however.
A three-headed pink sheep. Eyes pitch black, and each head had a different mouth. From the left to the right was one with a bug mouth, one with sharp teeth with two protruding saber teeth that should belong to beasts, and one with uncanny human teeth. The last head was pink. The other head was blue.
Shun checked its status.
[??? - Lvl ???]
His eyes shook in terror as he lifted his gaze from the panel.
"What are you?" Shun's lips trembled.
"A game?" The first pink head had a velvety voice.
It ignored his question.
"Join us." The second pink head sounded like a sweet summer child.
It took a step closer.
"It'll be fun." The blue head had the hoarse voice of a heavy smoker.
It then eyed the fire.
"Or there will be consequences."
Three voices mixed into one and became ominously terrifying.
Shun's heart jumped and beat crazily. His first thought wasn't whether he should join, or if they were aiming for the fire, but—
Why must I feel fear from this thing? He felt insulted.