Chapter 44 Dreams Equal Darkness

-Huh…

It was dark, very dark shall I say. It was as if the darkness enveloped me, not letting me run away. It had been 1 hour since I was in here but I couldn’t do anything. Even when I ran, I realized that I was going in circles.

-Hmm…

I sat down and tried to remember where I was, but nope, it didn’t come to me. I remember I was at the mountain fighting the red dragon and…. yeah, I returned his fireball back at him but… he didn’t die… did I? I quickly shook my head, there had to be more, I couldn’t accept this… so I tried to remember more. Yes, he did die but I didn’t kill him, someone else killed him with ice bolts and the person also caught me in it I think… I could remember now that the dragon was dead, I didn’t have to worry but the problem lay in that where I was currently.

-…

Nope, nothing. I don’t know how I got here and what this place was, maybe I am dead… no; I have to think on something else, yeah why would I be here? I looked around for an answer but I couldn’t see anything, only darkness, pitch darkness and empty space. I could see my hands and feet but not anything else, why was that?

-Well boy, you don’t need to fear.

I got startled. Like an echo, I heard someone’s voice but not in my ears, more like in my head?

-Who are you? Show yourself!

I tried to use perception but ever since I woke up in here, I couldn’t use any skills at all. I was really helpless, this better not be my end…

-You don’t need to be hostile boy, I am not your enemy, I am an ally I should say but enough of me boy, I don’t have time to introduce myself to you. The reason I am here is because you reached the limit of your species and are in the middle of evolution. The reason I am telling you this is because I don’t know what you will become…

I was confused, really confused… I am evolving so another rank up?

-Boy, you will wake up in a couple of minutes. I have tried to contact you a lot but in vain, I only have little time to speak so listen to my words carefully.

I nodded. By the voice alone, I could tell he was old, very old at least.

-You are a half-elf, half-demon breed. Your evolution path will be most likely inferior to the other demons but more unique. With that, your elder stone won’t help you to understand your own kind but by using the book that is bound to you, and because you are the first ever Deldurian to evolve to the next stage, that’s the reason why I’m here. It’s a reward to you for making it this far yourself…

Suddenly the place where I was standing started shaking so I lost my balance and fell…

-Hmm, seems like my time is up. I can’t tell you my reward but you will know what it is through time hehe…

With his laughing voice, I was starting to fall down into the darkness. I still couldn’t tell what just happened; this world had a lot of things that surprised me in a lot of ways. While I was falling, I was calm and closed my eyes and…

-Wah!

I woke up. When I woke up, I looked around it seemed like I was still in the mountain where the battle had been. My body didn’t hurt but I was hungry and tired. It wasn’t cold because I could see an orange sphere covering the area where I was sitting, shielding me from the cold weather on the mountain. I looked around and found some food and water next to me, mostly cooked meat though. I swallowed the food, satisfying my hunger and drank some water.

-…?

Something was strange, I wasn’t hurt. I had some little bruises on my body because the dragon used stones to attack my clones, I barely dodged those but it seemed like they were non-existent.

-…

I stood up. My legs were really stiff and so was my whole body. I looked to my right and left the sphere, feeling the cold breeze. I approached the cliff and looked at the sky and the sun was rising…

-…

I didn’t know what to think or to say, how long was I here? Maybe a day or so?

-Oww…

Suddenly, I felt a stinging sensation on my right hand. I closely inspected my hand; its skin was more purple-ish then before, not blue-ish. The tattoos also changed making strange patterns but what surprised me the most was… it was a tattoo. On my right-hand palm, the tattoo was white in color it had a strange feeling to it, it looked like a…

-Scythe…

I mumbled. I turned around to see the cave and found the dead red dragon lying on the ground; he was starting to rot and smelled awful. His eyes were pierced making him look like an empty shell… I thought for a second, his skin was really hard but it seemed really elastic at that so I figured that I could take him into my void but…

-He’s too big…

He was really big; the biggest portal I could open was 45 meters tall and wide but… wait a minute. As I thought about it, I said:

-Show status.

Name	Damon White	Title	Unknown Master Crafter
Guild Rank	N/A	Guild Points	0
Strength	567	Agility	624
Endurance	302	Stamina	823
Wisdom	562	Intelligence	725
Charisma	421	Leadership	20
Luck	41	Fighting Spirit	81
Fame	-20

My stats… were doubled? No, not really doubled but just increased, but why? I tried to make sense on what happened – waking up in this place was understandable but why were my stats that high now? The dragon was dead; that much I knew but… yeah, what happened to the other 2? Damn, I forgot that girl promised me to help Albi yet she isn’t here, god damnit! I was getting angry but it wasn’t the time for these emotions. When I turned around, I noticed something in the corner of my eyes; there was something near the sphere covered with a red and white cloth. I didn’t notice it at first so I stood up and approached it, taking the cover off.

-Heh?

What I saw next were flowers… a lot for red flowers; the flowers I was searching for the whole time… There were a lot so I quickly opened a portal and stored all of them into the void. When I did that, I was surprised how easily I could open the portal without even thinking. Usually when I did that, I would need to imagine the whole thing opening, but now…

-Show skills.

I said.

Skills
Dual Wield Mastery	Master LVL.Max
Sword Mastery	Master LVL.Max
Axe Mastery	Master LVL.Max
Spear Mastery	Master LVL.Max
Dagger Mastery	Master LVL.Max
Archery	Master LVL.Max
Perception	Expert LVL.7
Hand to Hand Combat	Master LVL.Max
Parkour	Expert LVL.7
Stealth	Expert LVL.5
Book Worm	Advanced LVL.4
Crafting	Expert LVL.8
Memo	Intermediate LVL.6
Demonic Enhance	Intermediate LVL.1
Mana Mastery	Intermediate LVL.7
Identify	Beginner LVL.9
Manual Spell Execution	Beginner LVL.9
Pressure	Master LVL.Max
Contract	Beginner LVL.8
Tailoring	Expert LVL.9
Handicraft	Master LVL.9
The Void	Advanced LVL.2
Blacksmithing	Master LVL.2

My skills had improved through time but my void skill got to the advanced rank. I ran to the dragon and opened a portal underneath him and stored him.

-…

I was impressed. Sure I needed to conduct more tests but the dragon was really big and I had just made a big discovery. I was still clueless on what happened… but I needed to go back to school so I opened a portal to my dorm room. Afterwards, the real confusing part came…