I advance while looking for a place to camp, and as I’m thinking camping by a river sounds nice, I find ruins.
The scale is bigger than the others, this is like a small town. They’re destroyed, but there are big buildings, like three stories tall.
I want to explore it, but it’s getting dark, so I’ll leave that for tomorrow.
I enter a building that’s relatively intact, and it appears to be a church. There are broken chairs lined up, and there is a stone statue with its top half missing enshrined up ahead.
I don’t know if it’s a man or a woman, or something else entirely, but it piques my curiosity. It’s exciting, a town in a dungeon filled with monsters, with something like a church.
I want to go investigate right away, but I contain myself and prepare to camp.
Today I got three sky fighting fowl, and five mirage great snakes. I haven’t taken the snakes apart yet, so I’m leaving them be, but I take sky fighting fowl meat from the Storage Space and start cooking it.
I say cooking, but I’m just adding flavorings and roasting it, so it’s really simple. Still, the meat itself is tasty, and it’s very appealing if I think of it as camping food.
I cook a lot for Fuuma, since it worked so hard, and place a full plate in front of it.
It disappears in an instant, and it cutely pesters me for more.
I giggle.
“That’s all there is you idiot.”
Suffice to say, Fuuma starts rampaging with an expression of despair.
◇ ◇ ◇
After putting stuff away, I washed myself with the flower vase I got today, and go to sleep. I placed monster repellent, so I shouldn’t have to worry about monster attacks too much.
Even Fuuma calmed down after I cooked some more meat, so it should be fine.
So surely what I’m seeing now is a dream.
A lot of people running, escaping from a town.
Some are like me, some have animal characteristics, some are long-eared elves, some are small but strong dwarves, some have blue skin… It’s like they’re from a fantasy story.
The sun is in the sky, but it’s kind of dark, like an omen of something bad happening. No, it’s already happening. What are they running from?
◇ ◇ ◇
Suddenly I’m in the church.
Many people are hiding, praying to the enshrined goddess statue. This goddess stone statue has a staff in her right hand and a branch in her left. Her ears are pointy like an elf.
People are praying desperately. They’re whispering something, but it’s not a language I know.
There are kids and babies among them, holding their parents strongly. The kids are gripping tight, most likely sensing the anxiety from their parents.
What is going on?
It feels weirdly real for a dream.
I hear screams outside, many screams that are audible in the church.
One after the other, they disappear.
Eventually there’s silence, and everyone in the church holds their breath waiting for whatever it is to pass.
But they don’t get their wish.
The door suddenly opens, and something slowly peeks inside.
A skeleton. A bone monster.
How good it would be if that was all.
That skeleton is about twice as big as regular monsters, and it’s holding a staff. It’s wearing a ragged robe, and has an ominous feeling to it.
It also seems to be intelligent, because it says something to the scared people, intensifying the pressure.
One beast person jumps at it to resist, but he’s grabbed with one hand, withers and shrivels up, and crumbles into a pile of ash.
People scream and cry at this terrifying sight.
Help us, spare the children, won’t you save us, they scream at the statue.
The skeleton pays no heed to their thoughts, raises the staff, and darkness pours out.
The darkness envelops the church, and swallows all it touches.
I try to take the greatsword of fortitude from the Storage Space, but this is a dream, so the skill doesn’t activate.
Then what about magic? I can’t feel magic energy.
Then how about punching it? I can’t touch it.
It makes sense, it’s a dream.
Then can I wake up already? This is hard to watch.
Lots of people disappear into the darkness.
Men, women, young, old, different races, all are mercilessly swallowed.
I can’t do anything. I can’t even touch the people or the monster.
I stand before the stone statue, and see the final sight.
People run to a corner of the church to escape the darkness, but that only lengthens their lives by a few seconds.
The darkness encroaches. People cry, scared of the dark.
I want to turn away, but somehow, I can’t.
I watch as the darkness swallows them.
All I can do is watch, but then, an old beast woman grabs me somehow.
She screams something, but I don’t know her language.
And yet, I understand what she says.
Help, hero.
And then I wake up.
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