Chapter 117: My Beautiful Lady
Ding...
[Congratulations! You have cleared the second phase of the first floor of Ascension Dungeon!]
[Returning to the real world...]
The space around Vlad twisted, electro and umbra mana swirling around his body. Before he could react, he vanished from the dungeon, swallowed by a strange dimension from behind.
The golem toppled forward onto the spot where Vlad had been sitting just a moment ago. Its rocky body shattered into countless fragments of stone as it struck the floor.
---
The world dissolved into countless streaks of colourful light as they rushed past Vlad, his body drenched in thick waves of mana.
Thud!
Vlad opened his eyes to the familiar evening sky above him, clouds of various shapes scattered across it while the sun bathed the earth in a golden hue. He was lying on the stone rooftop of his dormitory.
While he was still writhing in pain from his broken ribs, his insides suddenly twisted, forcing him to retch.
Nothing came out. His rations had run out on the fiftieth day. He had not eaten anything in the past eight days, which only made the twisting sensation in his gut feel worse.
"Cough-cough... fuck this shitty feeling," Vlad muttered between heavy gasps.
Once his insides settled, he removed the ragged shirt he had been wearing for the past fifty-eight days. Even the simple motion of raising his arms sent a sharp, stinging pain through his chest.
Beneath the shirt, his chest revealed an ugly purple bruise, the ribs on both sides bulging outward, slightly pressing against the skin.
"Fuck... this is going to sting," Vlad cursed, pulling a potion from his storage ring. He clamped the glass bottle’s cork between his teeth and pulled the bottle down, breaking the seal.
Taking a deep breath, he poured the potion onto his chest. Smoke rose from his skin, the scent of burning flesh filling his nostrils as he groaned in agony, pressing down on the cork until his teeth dug into it.
The broken bones ground against one another before snapping back into place. The torn flesh twisted and crawled over itself, the purple bruising fading into deep red as the wound slowly healed.
"Hah... hah... this was one hell of an eventful day," Vlad murmured through heavy gasps, lying back on the floor, his whole body glistening with sweat. He had learned Mana Blade, fought a rock golem, teleported back to the academy, and endured both the nauseating aftereffects of teleportation and the agony of a healing potion, all in one stretch.
After a few seconds, once his breathing had returned to normal, he made his way back to his room and took a long shower, washing away the sweat and grime accumulated over two months. He tossed the clothes he had taken off straight into the dustbin, unwilling to wear them again.
Now that he was back at the academy, the date and time on his phone synchronized with the academic calendar.
He made his way to his bed, the mattress feeling even softer and more comfortable beneath him. Noah wasn’t in the room, probably off attending a lecture. The first thing Vlad did after lying down was check how many days had passed.
"Oh, awesome! It’s only been two days here," Vlad exclaimed, raising an eyebrow as he saw the date. "So one day here equals thirty days in Ascension Dungeon. If only I had brought more rations, I could have trained for longer there."
As he scrolled through his phone, he found a string of notifications and seventy-one missed calls, sixty-eight of them from Chloe and the remaining three from Max.
He opened the chatbox with Chloe.
---
Two days ago:
Vlad: I will be doing some training with the benefactor for a few days. Don’t skip classes in my absence or eat too much meat.
Chloe: All of a sudden?
Chloe: Where are you going?
Chloe: When are you returning? Pick up the call!
Yesterday:
Chloe: Good morning! You back?
Chloe: Going to attend the lecture... Address me as My Beautiful Lady if you want notes.
Chloe: I’m eating all meat at lunch. No one to stop me. Yay!
Chloe: Going back after lectures! I skipped legs training. Yay!
Chloe: Eating all meat at dinner. Don’t come back. It’s so fun.
Today:
Chloe: Good morning. Still not back?
Chloe: ...
Chloe: I’ll eat dinner with Senior Raphael if you don’t come back!
---
"This little gremlin," Vlad chuckled, reading through the messages. A bitter smile crossed his face at Chloe’s silly texts and the vulnerability hidden beneath each one. "Now that I think of it, I haven’t eaten anything in over a week. Dinner with my Chloe sounds nice."
He rose from the bed, changed into his academy uniform, and left the dorms.
---
"That’s surprising, Miss Chloe," Roman said, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "You ran fifty kilometres today, even in Mr. Vlad’s absence. Where is he, by the way? He never skips gym."
Chloe stepped off the treadmill, her breathing heavy, skin glistening with sweat and hair sticking to her forehead as she answered, "Hidden training."
After taking a shower and changing into her academy uniform, she sat on the bench outside the gym and pulled out her phone, opening her chat with Vlad.
"Where are you, stupid Vlad?" she muttered, drawing her knees to her chest and placing her feet on the bench.
Although she had been separated from Vlad before, while forming her core, she hadn’t missed him then. She was completely focused on absorbing the mana stone, oblivious to the passage of time as a day and a half slipped by. It felt as though she had only just woken from a long sleep.
But now, she felt every moment of their separation deep in her heart. How could she not? Never before had she been apart from him for so long. Though only two days had passed, to her it felt like an eternity.
Her lavender eyes clouded with sadness, she hugged her legs, rested her chin on her knees, and murmured, staring at the chatbox that still bore no reply from Vlad, "Come back already..."
The moment those words left her mouth, a warm hand settled on her head, followed by a deep, gentle, yet teasing voice: "Your wish is my command, my beautiful lady."