Nightmare Realm Summoner

Alex’s eyes snapped open.

He bolted upright, drawing in a sharp gasp, only to find himself sitting in bed. The logs making up the walls around him immediately identified his location as one of the cabins in Mirrorwane. He stared for a moment, his brow furrowing as fragmented memories flickered through his thoughts.

I was walking. Running? In the room. Then the pressure — damn it. I think I fell on my face again.

Alex gingerly reached up to his nose. He was relieved to find that it felt perfectly fine. For that matter, there was no pain at all anymore. His body felt great. Alex reached for his magic, and it responded instantly. The blocker on his abilities was gone. He could access them again.

“Whew,” Alex said. He swung his legs out of bed and rose to his feet. Then he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Something felt really good. It was hard to say exactly what it was. But it was like waking up on the first day of vacation as the sun filtered through the windows to warm his face just right. It was the sensation of knowing that the day was going to be a good day before he’d even set a foot outside his room.

Everything felt right.

Alex flexed his fingers. Then he threw a quick punch in the air. It was… well, a punch. It wouldn’t have been right to say he felt stronger. The punch didn’t look like it was any faster than what he’d have been capable of before entering the Forsaken Grounds either.

But it felt better nonetheless.

There was a creak from off to his left. Alex glanced in its direction to find that there was a second bed on the far end of the cabin. Claire sat up within it, rubbing at the side of her face with a grimace.

“Did we fail?” Claire asked.

“No idea,” Alex said. “I don’t think I made it to the door. I don’t think we were meant to, though. It was more about seeing how far we could get… right?”

“I think so,” Claire said. She paused for a moment. “Probably.”

“How many steps did you make it the first time?” Alex asked. “I got 10. Technically.”

“8. What do you mean by technically?” Claire slipped out of bed. Then she glanced down at herself, her head tilting to the side. It looked like she’d noticed the odd sensation that Alex had. Apparently, he wasn’t unique in having it.

“Well, I kind of cheated. I ran ahead when the teacher wasn’t paying attention,” Alex said with an unabashed grin. “But I think it still counted. He gave me credit for it, but he wasn’t all too happy about the whole thing.”

Claire blinked. “I didn’t realize cheating would have worked. Damn it. I should have tried that. Maybe I could have gotten a bit farther. Oh well. Have you noticed that your body feels different?”

“Yeah,” Alex said. He shifted his weight again. “But it’s kind of hard to place why. Have you figured it out yet?”

“Not yet.” Claire walked over to join Alex. Then she paused, her eyes boring into him with a bit more intensity than normal.

“What?” Alex asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

“I’m going to punch you,” Claire said. “Fair warning. You should probably dodge.”

“What? Why—”

Claire punched Alex in the stomach. He let out a curse, but it died on his lips. He blinked. Then he he looked down. Claire’s fist had definitely hit him. He’d felt the impact, and while it certainly hadn’t been comfortable, it didn’t feel anywhere near as painful as it should have.

“Reflexes aren’t changed,” Claire observed. She grabbed Alex’s shirt and pulled it up. Then she let out a thoughtful grunt and prodded him in the stomach with a finger. “Huh. No bruise. At all. That isn’t increased healing. You’re just tougher.”

Alex looked down at himself. “That’s interesting. It didn’t hurt as much as it should have, either. Did you hold back?”

“Only a little,” Claire replied. She pulled her own shirt up partially. “Do me.”

He shrugged. Then he punched Claire in the stomach.

The impact was surprisingly solid. It felt more like hitting a slightly soft brick wall — which was really an oxymoron in itself. While he didn’t hurt himself from the punch, it did send a faint tremor rolling down his arm. It didn’t look like he’d even managed to so much as knock a bit of the wind out of Claire’s lungs.

“Whoa,” Alex said, moving his hand to get a look at the impact.

There was the faintest red spot on her stomach, but it was already fading. He’d barely done any damage at all. It was like he’d flicked her rather than punched her, and a punch from someone with a System-enhanced body was nothing at all to laugh at.

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“Did you hold back? You didn’t really put your shoulder into that,” Claire said.

“I mean, a bit. I’m not trying to fold you over here. But not by much. It was a normal punch.”

“Hm.” Claire let her shirt drop again. “That’s impressive. That much of a difference from just one visit to the Forsaken Grounds… no wonder that building is Mythic. It’s ridiculously powerful.”

“So long as things don’t go wrong,” Alex said. “It looks like it’s way more risky than the Cultivation Array. If we’d messed up at some point, we might have ended up even weaker than we’d been going into the room.”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

Alex grinned. “I never said it was a bad thing. It’s just worth noting. That’s definitely not the kind of place we want to be going when we aren’t at our max potential. We could end up permanently hindering our growth — and we need to make sure everyone else in Mirrorwane knows that as well.”

“That would be wise. Furthermore, I would suggest banning anyone that isn’t approved to enter that building. The chances of someone crippling themselves are too high.” Claire hesitated for a moment. Then her jaw clenched slightly as her eyes flicked to the side. “I… even I nearly failed. It was close. Much closer than I would have liked.”

“I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gotten all that far myself if I hadn’t literally cheated my way to victory,” Alex said with a shake of his head. “Did you manage to make it far the second time around?”

“About as far as I possibly could have,” Claire said. “I can’t imagine any scenario in which I could have moved so much as a step farther.”

“Then there’s not really much nearly involved, is there?” Alex gave her a dry grin. “That sounds like an undeniable victory to me. Any amount to success is still success. But, out of curiosity, how exactly did you almost fail?”

“I waited to long to try and use my magic after drinking that body tempering potion. My arms wouldn’t move. I nearly passed out after just a few steps. My body was far weaker than I thought. By the time I realized that I’d pushed too far and tried to use my magic, it was already almost too late.”

“Wait. Your magic?” Alex blinked. “You used your magic?”

“Yeah. I managed to drink my own blood.” Claire paused for a moment. Her brow furrowed as if she were trying to dig up a memory. Then she shook her head. “But I can’t remember exactly what happened. Everything is a bit scrambled up. To be honest, I could have sworn I didn’t make it. I was trying to drink my own blood… but I don’t remember actually managing to get my hand to my mouth. It just happened.”

“Hold on. You didn’t just try to use your magic. You actually did it? And what does drinking your own blood do? Are you telling me you literally used your whole magic words thing to puppet yourself? You can do that?”

“Apparently. I wasn’t sure if it was possible at the time. Never tried it. Didn’t really think it would work. But I didn’t have much other choice.”

“Goddamn,” Alex said. “How? I tried, but my magic wouldn’t work at all.”

Claire just shook her head. “I have no damn idea. And I don’t like saying that much at all. Especially not when it happened twice. I just forced myself to walk with my magic until my body literally couldn’t move anymore. Blade said something about me being at my limit. I think I turned to head back, but I must have passed out at some point. What about you? Can you remember anything odd?”

“No,” Alex said. He cleared his throat. “I think Blade was paying extra attention to make sure I didn’t go cheating again. I didn’t use any smart tricks at all. Didn’t think it was possible. Thought the System just straight up didn’t work in that room. That shows me to listen to what people say without really verifying it myself.”

“So what did you do? You just walked as much as you could? Your body seemed just as reinforced as mine, so you had to have done pretty well, no?”

Alex scratched the back of his head. “I guess so. I kind of just ran until I couldn’t anymore. Frankly, I don’t even remember how far I made it either. I was a bit preoccupied. Guess I managed decent enough, though. I kind of want to go back in there. I wonder how long we’ve got to recover before we can head back. I don’t feel weak.”

“Probably best to give it some time. I don’t want to push my luck,” Claire said. Then a small grin pulled at her lips. “And I still want to pay the Cracked Steps another visit before the auction rolls around. We can’t get hyper-fixated on the Forsaken Grounds now. It’s not like it’s going anywhere, after all.”

“Good point,” Alex said. “But, until then, let’s go make sure everyone knows what the Forsaken Grounds is so nobody stumbles in on accident.”

***

Blade tapped a foot on the ground, his arms crossed before his chest as he studied the still-dark entrance to his floor.

Two interesting candidates. Ones entirely unfamiliar with the System, and from the exact same town judging by the timing of their arrivals. My consciousness split just seconds between their arrivals.

And rarer still, he actually liked both of them.

Blade had trained a great deal of warriors. He’d taught some who deigned to stop monsters and others who sought to become one. Some of his students had been miserable to work with. Others had been considerably less so. The ones who found creative solutions were always his favorite. They kept the tedium of being trapped within an ancient, rotting tower at bay.

For an Adept Stage to break the barrier and access her magic here— that was worth his attention. She was going to become a real menace in due time. And the other one…

Amusement creased Blade’s lips. Sheer blunt force. That was the best way to describe his strategy. Plunging ahead before he got directions, then immediately taking the opportunity to steal power the literal instant it arose… that was the attitude that a real monster needed.

That was exactly the kind of student that Blade was looking for.

Blade’s thoughts were interrupted as a shimmer passed through the dark entryway of his room. He glanced toward it, head tilting to the side. Three newcomers in such shorter order was quite rare — and he doubted Alex or Claire would have been stupid enough to come back so soon after he’d warned them to spend time outside of the Forsaken Grounds to recover.

Sure enough, the one that emerged was neither of the two that had been here a short while ago. It was a large, heavily muscled man who seemed to have traded his shirt for an assortment of weapons that sprouted from his body like weeds in an abandoned field.

Did he just stumble out of a battle? How is he even walking?

The man glanced around, his nose slightly upturned as he examined his surroundings. Then his eyes landed on Blade.

“Huh. Hello there.” The man scratched at his neck. “You’re not an Anomaly. Damn. I was hoping for a fight.”

Blade tilted his head to the side.

Then the corners of his lips pulled upward. There was another interesting person standing in his room.

It seemed the day’s entertainment wasn’t done quite yet.