I stood near the missing wall while staring at the city consumed by the heavy rain, and the sound of the falling drops striking the ground echoed around me.
It had been an hour since the rain had begun falling, and by then Elliot seemed to have finished cleaning the place and preparing it with his abilities while the others helped him.
As for me, I had simply stood there staring at the ruins of the collapsed city and the water paths that had formed below.
That sun that had annoyed us in the previous days had disappeared behind the thick clouds, and the hot weather had been replaced by a refreshing coolness.
Through my senses, I felt Kyle, who had been sitting alone upstairs, finally coming down the stairs... perhaps he was avoiding doing anything under the excuse that he wanted to explore the place.
Or sitting there thinking about his sister’s fate after being lost in this world... well, it did not really matter... each person had their own problems.
At the same time, the sound of footsteps echoed, and someone arrived beside me. I did not need to turn my head to know it was Elliot.
"It seems the rain will not stop anytime soon."
I nodded at his words.
"It is getting stronger as time passes."
He sighed, clearly not satisfied with this weather.
"This might slow us down if it continues for long."
I shrugged.
"I hope this rain does not last long, but if it does, then it will be a good time to take a proper rest after all these days of moving."
Even while we were talking, the rain kept growing stronger to the point that the water began to gather below among the scattered ruins.
He lowered his head and looked down before continuing.
"It is good that we did not stay downstairs, or else we might find ourselves surrounded by water after a few hours."
Well, water was not my biggest concern there... after all, there were easy solutions for that.
Silence spread for a while while the faint voices of the girls echoed behind us near the temporary bathroom they had created.
Then Elliot’s voice returned.
"You do not seem to care much about going back."
I turned my head toward him when I heard that.
"And why do you think that?"
Elliot shrugged as he answered.
"Simply because it is obvious, unlike us you accept things easily, as if falling into another world is like an ordinary day for you."
I shook my head while a smile formed on my lips.
"No... I also want to go back, but I am just not in a hurry to do it."
"Is that because you have no attachments?" he asked.
I shook my head again.
"No, it is just that going back now would not be useful to me... as you can see, this place and this environment make us stronger faster than ever before."
Elliot raised his palm and looked at it while muttering.
"You are right."
...
"We are here now."
Ellen’s voice spread through the room as she pointed to a small point on the paper map spread before us while we stood around the temporary table.
The point she was indicating was along the drawn path and a little north of Asfaria.
I placed my hand on my chin as I did some rough calculations.
"So we have covered around 600 kilometers in the past days."
600 kilometers was a huge distance to cover in a little more than ten days on foot, but that was for ordinary humans. As for Awakeners, it was within reason as long as we wanted to hurry.
"Not bad," Elliot muttered.
I nodded.
"Yeah, at this pace we will arrive in four or five months."
"Four or five months," Leona muttered in frustration.
"Haaah..." a faint yawn interrupted our thoughts.
I looked at Izel, who had her hand over her mouth and seemed to be struggling to hold back her exhaustion while my voice spread through the small room.
"Why do you not go to sleep? I will take the first watch... as usual."
I said that because there was not much to do after eating and staring at this map for a while.
Izel nodded as she moved her hand away from her mouth while drops of tears formed at the corner of her eye.
"I will go first then. Good night."
With that, she walked toward one of the other rooms they had prepared earlier, before the others followed her.
After some time, I found myself sitting at the end of the corridor where the broken part overlooked the outside.
Sitting on the edge while a protruding part of the building covered me and kept the rain from falling on me, I stared at this storm that had grown stronger and at the essence stone in my hand.
"Did I really live in an older version of this world?" I muttered while many thoughts wandered through my mind.
This question had come to me many times since the incident with Demon of Dream... since that day I had not been able to help but doubt everything.
I closed my eyes and focused on the sound of the rain consuming the world.
At times there would be a strong flash lighting up the clouds, followed by the loud sound of thunder.
...
While Caius’s senses covered a vast area around them, sensing every small movement in reality.
Kyle and Elliot were lying inside their temporary beds in one of the rooms they had cleaned, and so were Leona, Ellen, and even Izel.
After all the exhaustion caused by moving dozens of kilometers and fighting inside the grass field against monsters stronger than them, sleep was what they truly needed, whether to let their bodies heal or to let their minds rest and recover.
So, it did not take long for them to fall into deep sleep to the sound of the heavy rain outside.
Leaving their consciousness to detach from reality.
And move into another world.
The Realm of Dreams.
...
Between the dense trees, a sixteen-year-old young man walked with dark brown eyes and hair, sharp and handsome features.
His eyes stared at the space before him while he moved silently between the trees, holding a rope tied to something and dragging it behind him.
And it was nothing but a monster... a Rank 1 monster resembling an earthworm but larger than an adult human.
Even while dragging it across the forest floor filled with branches and fallen leaves, he did not make a single sound.
He continued like this for some time until light began seeping through the dense trees ahead, indicating that he was approaching the end of this forest.
Quickly and without making any sound, the young man emerged from between the dense trees, leaving the forest behind him to reveal a green plain before him, and behind him rose a city that was neither big nor small.
His home and birthplace, and also the place where he had lived his entire life.
Castelta.
The young man paused for a moment, catching his breath while sweat dripped from his tired body and made his dirty clothes cling to his skin.
Then with a short exhale he leaned his body forward and resumed dragging the corpse of the monster, which weighed several hundred kilograms.
The body of this thing left long marks across the grassy plain all the way to the city.
And there, once the young man reached the beginning of the streets, he could see the shops and merchants buying corpses and other things from hunters, along with some guild emblems.
He entered the streets indifferently while dragging the monster behind him until a shadow fell before him, causing him to stop in place and lift his head while dirty hair fell across his forehead.
Before him stood a middle-aged man with a slightly thin build. He stared at the young man before him with a greedy smile, and his voice spread through the place.
"Hello, Kyle. What an interesting hunt this time. Why do you not sell it to me? I will give you a better price than last time."
Kyle stared at the man before him calmly before opening his mouth and letting out his voice, slightly broken because of his dry throat.
"How much."
It was a simple, short question.
The man’s smile twitched slightly.
"Cold as always... but let me take a look."
With that, the man stepped forward while looking at the body lying lifeless on the ground.
"Let me be honest, this worm is not something in demand... it simply does not have many uses beyond some materials made from its body."
Kyle listened to the man’s words calmly until he reached the important point.
The man took his gaze off the corpse and returned it to the boy before him.
"I will give you 1500 for this."
"I refuse."
With those simple words, Kyle turned around and continued dragging the corpse indifferently while the man’s voice echoed behind him.
"Wait, what about 1800... fine, 1900."
But he ignored that completely as if he could no longer hear anything.
Immersed in his own world.