I looked with great interest at the corridors with white walls that we walked through. Dwarf technology... was one of the things that really intrigued .
Well... I also had to work really hard to get here. So I couldn't help but feel justified in examining it.
Three weeks, three whole weeks... twenty-one days! That's how long I had to wait to get here.
Rector lany believing what I said, testing that I wasn't lying, saying she would consider my request, contacting the dwarves, them also testing that I wasn't lying, preparing the plane... and so on!
And I hadn't spent these twenty-one days just waiting. Apparently, the importance of what I had said was so great that I had turned a lot of things upside down, like my ordea training with Professor Calvin... Normally, we were supposed to start after I was discharged, but that had been delayed a lot.
And then there was the news, of course. We ca out of the dungeon in the middle of the street. And, sohow, a few things managed to leak out to the dia.
Three young people cleaning a B grade dungeon, one of them Adrian Caleo, the best of the CDA first-year students, the other Lucia Quie, the young lady of the Quie Family, and the last one... an ordinary girl. Although, after cleaning the dungeon, not so 'ordinary' anymore.
The news spread with terrifying speed. So I had to deal with that too.
But... in the end, I was here, I had managed to get in here after all.
I was surrounded by dwarves, and then there was Professor Calvin... their goal was not so much to protect but to protect the environnt from . Just in case... At least that's what they told .
It wasn't sothing I didn't understand, though.
I wasn't... heading for a simple place.
I was heading to perhaps the safest and most protected place in all of the Holar continent, no... all of Lunerra, where a hero was kept alive.
With every step I took, excitent built up inside that I couldn't contain. It had been months, literally months, since I had last seen Aiden, since I had last been able to talk to him. And now... after all these months, I wasn't just going to see him, I was going to wake him up.
How could I not be excited?
"Stop."
With the word echoing in my ears, I stopped so fast that I didn't realize what was happening for a mont. It was only when I refocused that I realized we had reached the end of the corridor, in front of a closed door.
The dwarf at the front stepped forward after we had all stopped. He spoke to the six guards standing in front of the door.
"Major Dorhud Gen'dai, behind be Adrian Caleo and Calvin Gladio."
Six guards put the three of us through a long, really long test. Our retinas were scanned, our fingerprints were taken, and even our DNA was checked... all the controls took about two minutes for each of us.
So, after about six minutes, we were finally done. The closed door in front of us slowly opened, accompanied by a transparent white gas that was released into the corridor. It revealed the huge room behind it.
It was a white room with screens everywhere, just like this entire facility. There were five dwarves in lab coats moving around inside. They were constantly checking the screens, occasionally tinkering with so of the devices.
But they certainly weren't the most noticeable thing. Instead... it was the huge screen in the center of the room.
It showed a view of a bed from above, from the side... from many angles. The person lying on this bed... was the reason for all these security asures, the reason why everyone here was working so hard and seriously in the first place.
I could see Aiden on the screen. From the waist down, he was covered with a sheet, but from the top, he was naked and open. So it was easy to see the condition of his body.
The left side of his body was actually quite normal, it just... looked like he was sleeping, even. But the real problem was on the right side. As soon as one's eyes moved to that side, his skin began to darken abnormally, his muscles were emaciated as if they had shriveled up. His right arm was in the worst condition, literally black... as if it had been burnt to a crisp.
I could tell he had been in a lot of pain. He may not feel anything now, yes... But there was no way that sothing that did this to his body could not be painful. I... I could only imagine it, and even that was probably not enough.
Just then, one of the five dwarves already in the room ca up to us. He had a serious expression on his face, studying .
Finally, he took his eyes off . He turned to the two who had entered with , the dwarf whose na was Dorhud and Professor Calvin.
"You wait here, Adrian Caleo be comin' wit' ."
No one objected, even the dwarf's tone of voice which lacked respect was unimportant. His work was important and serious, and it was hard to imagine the workload. So no one made a sound.
The dwarf turned around, moving to a certain side of the room. A holographic screen popped up in front of him even though he was doing nothing, then he quickly made a few changes to it as he walked. When we ca in front of the wall we were moving toward, he finished his work. The screens went black for a mont, then they moved toward us and retreated to the sides. The door hiding behind them was thus revealed.
The doctor did a few scans in front of the door, verifying his own identity and many other things. Then the sa process was done to . And, finally, this door also slowly opened. What was behind it... was another small room with a closed door on the other side.
"Go inside, wait."
I nodded my head, and without a word, I entered the small room. The door closed behind , and then a deep silence surrounded .
After a short ti, a transparent gas filled the room, and nothing happened for a few seconds. Then it was filled with another gas, which also lasted for a few seconds. Finally, when both of these processes were finished, the closed door on the other side of the small room opened.
What I saw this ti... was the room I had seen on the screen a few minutes before.
I swallowed, took a few steps into the room. The door behind closed the mont I entered. It quite literally locked in here. And right after that, the walls on all four sides of opened and four human-sized robots ca out of them.
They had eyes that glowed with a blue light. And... they were looking at . Like they were ready to kill at the slightest movent. It all showed how much Aiden was valued, so I could understand.
I didn't focus on any of the robots, though.
My first and dearest friend was finally in front of .
Excitent, a strange feeling telling to hurry, and... fear. I could feel many things as I looked at the bed in front of .
I swallowed, walked slowly to the side of the bed, and the robots around followed suit.
Finally, when I got to the very end of the bed, I paused. There wasn't even a ter between and Aiden now, I could have reached out and touched him.
But... I didn't.
On the contrary, I took a deep, really deep breath, cald myself, closed my eyes, and got ready. Then... with determination, I opened them. And... I imagined the system window.
This was the only item I got, apart from a few small stats and a single skill, which was actually pretty good.
It was a single drop of blood, and yet... it was an SS grade item.
I read through the description one more ti, then finally prepared myself for the real thing and took the item out of the reward inventory.
A blue glow appeared right in front of my body, then slowly materialized... A bottle, half the size of my fist, appeared grain by grain and then fell between my hands.
I had only ten seconds, so I acted without hesitation. I removed the cap from the tiny bottle, and the mont I did so... suddenly, all my perceptions were turned upside down.
It was mana. It was extrely intense, truly overwhelming... So much so that if I didn't hold back so hard, I would have fainted, it filled the whole room so quickly that it was difficult to keep my balance.
Everything in the white room suddenly turned red, the blue eyes of the four robots around turned the sa color.
But I didn't care. I gritted my teeth, ignored the blood oozing from my nose, and brought the bottle to Aiden's lips. Slowly, gently, I bent it down. And then... a single, tiny, golden-yellow drop fell from it. It went right between Aiden's half-open lips, seeping in.
For a while, nothing happened, nothing was different in the room except for the sound of the alarm going off and the red.
But, then... Aiden's body began to glow with a dazzling radiance. The extrely dense mana that perated the room slowly began to recede toward him.
Still, I kept my eyes on him.
I could feel it, nothing 'simple' was happening here. It was as if space-ti was breaking. My perception of ti had changed, things seed to be rging together. And at the center of it all... was Aiden.
Still, the whole process took a very short ti. My perception of ti slowly started to return, and the things that had gotten tangled were fixed. The mana levels in the room returned to normal, and the glow surrounding Aiden's body began to recede.
Finally, when it was all over... Aiden had changed.
No, it was wrong to say that he had changed completely.
I don't know why, but he had not fully recovered. The dark mark covering the right side of his body had largely receded, for example, his face was now completely normal. But... his right arm, from the shoulder down, was still a dark color and a bit veined.
For so reason, his right leg was the sa way, even though he held the sword with his right hand. However, the most important thing was... his body had not returned to the way it 'should' be. Sothing had gone wrong, even if I didn't know what. And... I didn't like it.
But, then... suddenly, my eyes widened. My whole body froze, I couldn't move a muscle.
Aiden's closed eyes seed to twitch for a mont, the index finger on his left hand moved slightly.
Then... his eyelids opened slowly.
His gray eyes, which I hadn't seen in months, were fixed on the ceiling, waiting. After a mont... he turned toward .
And that's when I noticed another change.
Not just his body, but Aiden himself... was different.
His eyes were much sharper than they usually were. His gaze, the expression on his face... was much heavier than before.
It was as if... he was a completely different person than before.
"Ah..."
Even his voice was different, as if... he had aged a few years.
But, nevertheless...
"Ad... rian?"
A smile appeared on my face.
Looking at my first and dearest friend... I could only smile.
And... I could only say one thing.
"Hi, Aiden. W- welco back..."
--Volu V: The Breaking Seals--
--The End--
*******
*(A/N: First of all... greetings. I'm your humble writer, the one who left you without a chapter for so long...
Well, volu five is now finished... and there's a lot more to co in volu six, literally.
I have so things to edit, I'm going to make a few character changes... I'm even thinking of deleting a plot completely and re-planning it. So it's a lot of work and I need so ti to do it.
It'll probably take about three days to edit the plot, and I want to go into volu six with a few stock chapters, so that's the reason for the 10-day break I'm planning to take.
And... don't worry, even though I'm not posting chapters, I'm still here. I'll answer your comnts, so if there's anything you're worried about, you can nudge .
For now... I'm done. Thank you all for reading my novel up to this point. See you in volu six, and again, I apologize for the little break.
Also, if you get bored in these ten days, you can check out my second novel and give it a chance :P)*
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