“Where am I?” Michael looked around with a confused look, just a few moments ago he was talking with the system before falling asleep.
Now here he was, standing inside some strange place, a vast expanse of nothingness all around him.
He tried walking and the moment he did, he heard a crunching sound beneath his feet, it was getting louder and louder as he walked forward.
All of a sudden, a bunch of mirrors appeared out of the ground, the amount he could definitely not count.
Wherever he looked, he saw mirrors, surprisingly, not a single one was the same shape or size as the other.
Michael found it odd and mysterious, yet for some reason, he couldn’t help but approach one of them.
The single mirror looked incredibly normal as opposed to the rest of the mirrors, however, he felt like it resonated with him.
Just as he approached it and placed his hand on top of it, every single mirror in the room disappeared, except for the one in front of him.
Michael did not take his eyes away from it, instead, he looked further, it felt like his Eyes of The Healer passive skill was being activated, albeit more naturally.
He kept staring into the mirror and eventually, something stared back at him.
It looked like an older man, almost identical to Michael, however, he had golden hair, not black.
‘Who is this guy..?’ Just as he wondered that the man in the mirror made a small gesture that completely startled Michael.
‘He moved?’
The man in the mirror suddenly made eye contact with Michael and all of a sudden, a small smile appeared on his face as he began moving his mouth.
However, it was silent, although he was trying to talk, his words were not going through.
“I can’t hear you..” Michael said aloud, hoping his words reached him.
And surprisingly, they did, as in the next moment he suddenly stopped trying to talk, resorting to scribbling something on the mirror instead.
‘It’s that language from the temple..’ Michael began paying full attention, trying to understand it fully.
However, the sentence wasn’t as long as he thought, the man in the mirror just kept repeating it but nonetheless, it was enough to stir up Michael’s curiosity.
“What do you mean I am the last one?”
The man smiled and began writing on the mirror once again.
‘You were once one of the first, now you are the very last’ Michael noted down and frowned.
“Can’t you be a bit more specific?”
The man appeared to sigh and began jolting down a short sentence.
‘Last Pureblood Archangel.’
Those words seemed to startle Michael a little bit, while he knew he was related to some higher power, he didn’t expect he himself to be the higher power.
Just as Michael was about to ask a few more questions, the strange world he found himself in began to shake uncontrollably and cracks began appearing on the mirror.
The man noticed this too and just before the mirror finally broke, waved at Michael with a small smile.
‘…Last Pureblood Archangel huh..’ He thought to himself as the world around him slowly began cracking, similar to how a dungeon collapse happened.
However, he was not able to see what happened next as he suddenly jolted awake, finding himself back in the truck.
‘What a strange dream..’ Michael thought to himself, absentmindedly sitting while his party members were still on their phones.
But no matter how much time has passed, the memories of what had just happened did not disappear, in fact, it felt as if they were engraved inside his mind.
‘System?’
What?
‘What do you mean what? Check my memories’ Michael asked the system to hurry up as he wanted to know whether it knew more about this than him.
What are you talking about? You fell asleep and the next moment woke up, I understand if you struggle to sleep, it’s only natural while on a journey.
‘…It can’t see those memories?’ He was a bit confused at this outcome, this is the first time the system was not able to see something inside his mind.
Did you.. hit your head?
The system seemed to express genuine concern which slightly pissed Michael off.
‘Nevermind..’
He guessed that if the system couldn’t see those memories, meant that it shouldn’t see them or at least that’s the hunch he had.
If the time comes when he finds out more about the system besides what he knew from the trials, then he might just explain what happened in his memories.
Michael sighed and sat back down, he once again lost the urge to sleep, the only option he had was to sit through this entire ride to the next village.
And that’s what he did, simply glancing out of the window and enjoying the passing view until they finally arrived.
Along the way there surprisingly weren’t any disturbances, he had expected to at the very least see a monster or two, however, it was completely empty.
Even those cultists he saw from before, he was expecting to encounter at least one of them as well, after all, he killed 5 people from their not so little cult.
Especially since they all had Mana Cores, he doubted that they were completely worthless, he definitely angered somebody with those actions.
Stepping out of the truck, the entire party made their way to the Association’s building, despite the village looking a bit shabbier than the previous one, the buildings were placed in an oddly similar way.
As they were walking, a thought popped into Michael’s head as he turned to Chloe.
“Hey, does your family also have a hotel here?”
She glanced at him for a moment then pointed at a wide building in the distance, causing Michael and the rest of the party to sigh.
They walked into the Association’s building and headed straight to the receptionist, explaining the same thing they had to the previous one.
The conversation was quick and they were told to stand by for a moment while he attempted to contact Vivum.
However, only after about 5 minutes, the receptionist came back, a small frown on his face.
“Sorry.. there is some kind of a disturbance, we can’t get in contact with Vivum.”
‘Again? There’s no way it’s the mountain this time..’ Michael thought, while the village was indeed further away from Vivum, it was nowhere close to that mountain from before.
“Do you know when you will be able to contact them?” Elizabeth snickered with a sour expression.
“I am sorry.. we don’t.”
Michael decided to stand up and head back to the truck, the others following right behind him.
“Something is not right..” Kevin walked up to him and said in a cautious voice.
“Really? What gives you that impression?”
His eyebrows twitched upon Michael’s sarcastic comment, however, before their argument began to escalate, Elizabeth stepped in front of them once again.
“Wait until we are back in Vivum to fight, you guys are being annoying.”
‘Says you’ He rolled his eyes and noticed the truck had still not begun moving, meaning they had time to get on the ride heading for the next village.
Michael sent Kevin to go talk to Torin while he headed back inside the Truck with the others.
“Hey.. Why do you still pretend to act like a Saint?” Elizabeth’s voice rang out from the side, she had a serious expression on her face for some reason.
“Maybe because I am a nice guy?”
His reply was met with a scoff “A nice guy? You? Don’t kid yourself, give me an answer or I’ll keep bothering you.”
‘Unreasonable as always’ Michael sighed and looked straight into her eyes.
“What do you think I gain by acting strong? Being strong means people fear you, by acting nice I give off the impression of a weakling” He replied nonchalantly.
However, Elizabeth did not seem convinced “So you do it just for the sake of it? Do you really expect me to believe that?”
Michael walked up to her and suddenly summoned a bunch of Swords of Light, circling around her neck.
“Of course it’s bullshit, I only do it because I can” He finished off with a laugh he had been holding in since the start of the conversation.
The Swords of Light dematerialized and only Elizabeth was left, a scowl clearly plastered on her face.
“I don’t like you..”
