Chapter 128: A Dream I

In M City, at the Awakened Association, Erick finally opened his eyes after lying unconscious for two days. Among all the Espers who had entered the dungeon that appeared in B City and managed to survive, he was the last to regain consciousness.

His golden eyes were still clouded as he blinked several times in a daze, staring up at the white ceiling. Once his awareness had fully returned, the corners of his lips gradually curled into a smile.

It was a wretched smile, devoid of warmth and laced with nothing but utter mockery.

His body felt perfectly fine. The exhaustion and lingering aches that had plagued him before were gone, and even the familiar restlessness that came with his need for guiding had subsided. The Association had probably taken care of him, treating his injuries and having some guides stabilize his condition while he was unconscious.

Yet, despite his physical recovery, it had taken him two entire days to wake up.

The reason was simple.

He had been dreaming.

A very strange, very long dream.

A dream of his first life.

In that dream, everything had begun with Zephyr’s death.

He had watched himself and his team react too late to save him. Lucien and Nana had started arguing at the worst possible moment, and neither of them had provided Zephyr with the guiding he needed. By the time the situation was brought under control, Zephyr had already died inside the A-rank dungeon that had appeared in the prison.

And Erick?

He had watched himself walk away from Zephyr’s lifeless body with complete indifference, without even recognizing the person he had just abandoned.

How amusing.

Afterward, the dream had carried him through the years that followed. His life had settled into a monotonous routine, each day passing much like the one before it. He worked, fought, completed his missions and assignments, and occasionally dealt with whatever trouble came his way. Nothing particularly interesting happened. Nothing worth remembering.

Five years passed in what felt like the blink of an eye.

Then, while Erick was having breakfast in the Association building, a group of evil Espers suddenly launched an attack. He dealt with them with his usual casual indifference, secretly allowing them to kill several Espers simply because he was bored. Their deaths meant little to him, and so did the chaos unfolding around him.

But before the consequences of the incident could even be dealt with, a strange and unprecedented dungeon appeared in M City, inside the training dome behind the Association building.

It was unlike any dungeon humanity had encountered before. Its emergence unleashed a catastrophe that wiped out half the city in a short time, leaving countless people dead. Even with Erick’s involvement, clearing the dungeon required an immense collective effort, and even then, victory came at an appalling cost.

That dungeon was eventually classified as a Disaster-Level Dungeon.

And within it, Erick found something that made him willing to put effort into the fight.

Treasures.

Unlike the ordinary treasures he usually found in other dungeons, these were exceptionally rare and powerful.

And there was an astonishing number of them.

These treasures dramatically accelerated his growth, allowing his strength to increase at a frightening pace.

Although he wanted to hoard all those treasures for himself, he wasn’t the only one in the dungeon. In the end, he distributed some of them among Nana and the others who were following him to clear the dungeon. With those resources, they, too, grew stronger alongside him.

For the first time in years, something genuinely interesting had happened.

Naturally, Erick was a little excited.

But the real change came afterward.

The Gaya System, which had spoken to him only once when he first awakened and acquired a Gaya Skill before disappearing entirely, suddenly reappeared.

It began communicating with him from time to time, offering advice and revealing information it had never shared before. More importantly, it repeatedly reminded him to protect himself and cherish his life.

How strange.

Why would the Gaya System, which had ignored him for years after informing him that he had been selected as one of the Chosen Ones, suddenly become so concerned about his well-being?

Erick had found it amusing, but he hadn’t given it much thought. As far as he was concerned, the system was simply another tool he could make use of.

Then the second Disaster-Level Dungeon appeared.

This time, however, the dungeon’s emergence brought something far more dangerous than monsters.

A demon.

The first demon Erick had ever encountered.

That demon called himself Slar.

Their battle had been fierce. Although Erick had failed to kill him, the two had fought on relatively equal footing, and he had ultimately managed to inflict enough injuries on Slar to force him to retreat into the dungeon.

Unfortunately, Slar’s retreat did not mark the end of the disaster. When he had emerged, a horde of monsters, including several S-rank ones, had poured out of the dungeon.

The aftermath was devastating.

Regardless, as the surviving Espers struggled to contain the rampaging monsters, Erick sat beside Nana inside a protective dome while she guided him, helping to purify the corrupted mana that had accumulated in his body during the battle.

From where he sat, he could see monsters slaughtering Espers in the distance.

S-rank creatures tore through the battlefield while countless lower-ranked monsters swarmed the surrounding areas, leaving destruction in their wake. The screams of the dying echoed through the air, yet Erick watched the massacre with little more than idle curiosity.

It wasn’t as though their deaths meant anything to him.

However, an attack from an S-rank monster suddenly shattered the ground beneath him and Nana, catching Erick completely off guard.

The surface split apart with a violent rumble, and before either of them could react, the section of the battlefield they occupied crumbled completely. Erick and Nana were suddenly separated from those nearby, plunging into the depths below.

Nana let out a startled cry.

Erick clicked his tongue in annoyance as he used his skill to float. Although he had little regard for the irritating guide, whom he considered only marginally better than Lucien O’Connell, he still reached out and seized her by the collar before she could fall any farther.

"Don’t flap around too much."

He hauled her toward a more stable ledge.

"Keep it up, and I’ll let go and watch you fall to your death."

Nana stared at him in disbelief. How could Erick say something like that? However, there was no time to argue. The ground continued to collapse around them, forcing them toward the monsters. As they tried to evade the monsters and avoid the ongoing battle, an S-rank monster suddenly launched an attack nearby. The sheer force of the impact swept them off their feet and sent them tumbling straight into the portal of the second Disaster-Level Dungeon.

In a way, they were actually lucky to have entered the dungeon rather than falling into the horde of monsters.

Separated from the others, Erick and Nana were forced to explore the dungeon alone. They didn’t dare go back outside, as the area surrounding the dungeon portal was teeming with monsters. If Erick had been alone, he would have simply left, but unfortunately, he had a burden to look after.

Fortunately, there weren’t many monsters left inside the dungeon, as most of them had gone outside to cause chaos. This made their time inside relatively safe. Not to mention, they even stumbled upon a wealth of treasures. As a result, Erick decided to stay a little longer and see what else he could find.

The first treasure they found was a golden fruit that looked remarkably similar to the ones Lucien had eaten a while back, along with numerous other rare treasures. He had casually tossed the fruit to Nana when she complained that she was hungry, assuming it was nothing more than an ordinary piece of fruit since no monster was guarding it. It wasn’t until after she had eaten it that he realized how precious it was, leaving him to regret his carelessness.

After that incident, Erick began eating anything they found before he could make the same mistake again. Although he still shared some of the things he deemed useless with Nana. After all, her greedy eyes, which followed his every move, were becoming far too annoying to ignore.

That was how they ended up eating a handful of strange berries that contained mana, whose effects even Erick couldn’t identify.

He realized too late that those berries actually had an aphrodisiac effect.

Fortunately, they hadn’t eaten many.

Regardless, Nana was still muddled and began clinging to him, rubbing her body all over him and becoming increasingly difficult to shake off.

Although annoyed, Erick was also affected by the berries. He eventually leaned down and kissed her to calm her down. Although nothing much happened between them in the end, he had indeed touched her while kissing her. So, when she declared that they were finally a couple, he chose to remain silent and let her indulge in the thought.

Yet the most significant discovery in that dungeon had nothing to do with the treasures or the A-rank water skill core he found in a hidden underground chamber.

It was finding the dungeon’s core.

Through it, Erick learned of a realm known as the Fallen Realm.

The moment he touched the core, a dark mark appeared at the center of his wrist. Resembling a bat with its wings spread wide, it initially seemed like nothing more than an unusual symbol.

However, after leaving the area where the dungeon core floated, Erick discovered that the mark possessed a special power. Curious, he immediately tried to activate it as he walked toward Nana, who was waiting for him outside the barrier surrounding the dungeon core, tears streaming down her face. Her fingers had frozen and become completely unresponsive after she touched the still water surrounding the core.

If Erick hadn’t reacted in time and thrown her out of the barrier, she might have died.

The moment Erick activated the dark symbol, he and Nana, who had rushed to hug him while crying, were instantly transported to the Fallen Realm.