Chapter 404 – Cut Off
After walking a short way from the goblins, Damion opened Portal and took himself back to where he first arrived in the middle of the ruined city. The sun was finally setting and since he had no idea how dangerous nights would be, he decided to set up camp here.
Casting Manipulate Earth he began to hollow out an area next to a broken rooftop. After he had his hollow, he carved a small tunnel down with a slight curve to it before creating a small cave that would be just large enough for him to sleep in. Hopefully, nothing would decide his cave looked like a good place to explore or seek shelter in themselves. He did his best to disguise it, but there was no telling how successful his effort would be.
He recalled that the goblins had said they came to this forbidden land because the mana density was lower, but he could feel the density of mana was about what he felt when in the A Rank floors of the labyrinth. If it was not for his search for information, he felt it would have been a great place to train for a while.
Damion crawled into his little hole and promptly fell asleep, despite his worries.
Not long after Damion fell asleep, he began to dream. As he dreamt, his thoughts drifted to his family and before he knew it, he was dreaming of his house. Homesickness quickly overwhelmed him, seeing the house he had built. When he lived by himself in the wilderness, there was hardly any sign that anyone actually lived there, but that was no longer the case.
Bethany had toys left out all over the living room. There was a crib for Helge set up and to his joy, he saw his baby boy laying there looking up and him. Damion reached down and picked his son up, cradling him gently as he began to sing lullabies to him in English.
While he was walking around the living room, he did not notice when Elicia walked into the room. She remained silent, as she watched Damion sing to their son. Tears formed in her eyes as she watched but was unable to find the words to speak to him. It was not until another member of the family walked into the room and shouted that they all realized they were not alone.
“Brother!” Bethany shouted, running over and hugging Damion’s legs. “I ‘iss’d you.”
“I’ve missed you too,” Damion replied. When he looked up from the child holding onto his leg, he saw Elicia standing there. “I’ve missed you as well.”
“Oh, Damion. If only this wasn’t a dream,” Elicia cried, the dam holding back her tears finally giving way. “Why did you have to go? Why? Why?”
Damion walked forward, unhindered by his little sister still clutching his leg, and pulled his wife into his embrace.
“What happened?” Damion asked in a soothing voice.
“What do you mean what happened? You went to Viridis and didn’t come back!”
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“Viridis. Oh, that’s right. Don’t worry I am fine.”
“How can you be fine? Phil says you are, but you were Exiled,” Elicia cried. “How can you be alright?”
“If Phil says I am alright, then I am alright.”
“But this is just a dream.”
“Is it?” Damion questioned, he realized that it might not be. He had no way to verify if this really was just a dream, but Elicia did. “I’ve had a dream like this before. I dreamt of Bethany in Levande, before I even knew they were there. And she shared the dream with me.”
“What are you getting at?” Elicia asked, wanting to believe this was more than a dream, but not sure how to know for sure.
“Well, you are here, Helge is here,” Damion said, pushing the baby into her arms, “and Bethany is here. “All you need to do is ask Bethany when you wake up.”
Elicia looked down at her sister-in-law and realized Damion was right. If they both remembered the dream, then it meant they really did enter a dream with Damion. Then she could tell everyone that he really was safe.
“Do you know where you are?” Elicia asked.
"The ruins of an ancient human city. Oddly enough, it was named Atlantis. I ran into some goblins, and they told me a few things. But I didn’t want to reveal too much or push too hard for answers. I’m going to try and find the Iblis next.”
“Why the Iblis?”
“The one I ran into before didn’t immediately attack us. And he gave me a ring with quite a few good things in it. I have a feeling that the Iblis wanted me to grow stronger so I could do something in the future. Now it seems I need to figure that out.”
“Mage Teft said that Mage Thresbane sent you through the Spatial rift so you can redo some seal.”
“I’m glad someone understood my last words then,” Damion said, chuckling. At the time, he had truly believed those to be his last words. Having only a split second to call out, he had shouted out the name of the spell that forced him into Mage Fletcher’s Exile spell.
“We were all so afraid, but Phil scratched on the floor that you were safe. We had to believe in Phil’s connection with you. I’m glad we did.”
“I’m glad you did too. I don’t know how long it will take me to get back. But I promise I will make it back to you and Helge. I think I just need to be stronger, so I can open a Portal all the way to Nerotath.”
“What?” Elicia asked. Suddenly Damion’s voice had cut off, and she had not heard what he said.
Damion could see the confusion on Elicia’s face and then he saw her mouth move but heard no words. A moment later, he heard a familiar chime in his head.
*Ding*
{System reinitializing…}
*Ding*
{System Update complete.}
*Ding*
{Upgrade to Level 4 complete.}
The instant Damion heard the first chime, he awoke from his dream. Elicia, Helge, Bethany, they were all gone. He was back in the small cave he had made to sleep in.
‘System, what happened?’
{Due to host reaching the Mother World sooner than expected the Magic System was taken offline to receive updates as well as upgrade the System to Level 4}
‘Mother World?’
*Ding*
{New permissions for host have been recognized. Mother World is the seed of all magic and center of the universe and all creation.}
‘Great, now I’m dealing with a Magical Religious System,’ Damion groaned inwardly. ‘System, did I earn the upgrade to level 4 or did you grant it to me?’
{Multiple quests were completed by host on Nerotath and reaching the Mother World completed additional quests, resulting in host having sufficient experience for the upgrade.}
‘What about your update? What was that about or my new permissions?’
{Error. Unable to reveal inner workings of the System.}
{Host’s new permissions are to allow System to provide answers to certain questions. Any questions Host is not authorized to know will be denied.}
‘Somewhat better than before,’ Damion thought. At least the System was saying it would answer some of his questions. First things first through, he needed to clear out the mountain of notifications he had.