David had no idea of the time flowing around him. More specifically, he didn't even care about it.
His consciousness was still drowned in the land of summersweet dreams. All around him, warm colours fused flawlessly into the surroundings creating an extraordinary ambience.
David opened his arms, closed his eyes and asked to nobody in particular. "Am I in heaven?"
However the delight didn't last long as he felt a large shadow behind his closed eyes.
He almost flinched, his heart stammering involuntarily as his first thought was of the wraiths.
He opened his eyes almost readying himself to activate Vision.
Suddenly the land of the different colours he was in started fading away, their edges blurring as in its place, a metallic helmet covered face appeared.
"No, you are not in heaven." The young feminine voice echoed like a beating drum from all directions.
He woke up.
'Crap, that was just a dream?! All those joy and warmth...they were just my delusions?' He almost fell like crying and he even tried to go back to sleep just to reach that strange, welcoming land.
All this time he hadn't yet opened his eyes for he feared he would lose the dream forever if he did so.
And so he tried to turn on the other side and sleep again.
Unfortunately for him, he could only TRY doing so...
For a heavy hand suddenly fell on his shoulders and jerked him up. His eyes opened abruptly as he came face to face with a full body armoured person.
"...And you were sleeping as well." The person completed.
Instantly, David's sleepiness vanished as he recognised the voice as the same feminine voice he heard in the last moments of his peaceful
dream.
He blinked rapidly at the lady in front of him. Her face was covered by a helmet, her slitted visor the only way for her to see. The pauldrons on her breastplate hung heavily as they glistened in the faint sunlight that filtered the cave they were in.
"Wait, it's morning already?" He stammered as he realised how close his face was to the lady in front of him. The question he asked was just to distract her so that he could move away without creating an awkward moment.
As he inched away from her, she replied from behind the visor. "It's still dawn. The sun hasn't risen yet."
David nodded as his mind wandered through the various possibilities of why she would be here. She didn't even look anything like the soldiers that had invaded them.
He glanced at her to ask something but paused as he noticed she was still looking at him with eerily focussed eyes. Although he couldn't actually see her eyes, he could feel the stare directed at him.
Out of curiosity, he asked in a polite tone, "Is something wrong?"
"Yes." Her answer was rather curtly spoken. Just like all the other words she had said before it.
Seeing as to how she wasn't going to elaborate on her words, he asked again. "And what exactly is wrong?"
The woman didn't say anything for a while. Then she got up from the ground as she waved her gauntlet covered arm behind her.
"How exactly did you awaken a premature dungeon? Yesterday wasn't even the night of the blood moon."
'We are in a dungeon?' David felt his cheeks scrunch in what he felt must have looked like a funny face.
But he shook his head slightly as he decided to speak the truth. "I didn't even open this dungeon. The Ancient Tree was responsible for this."
"Who was responsible? A tree?" Even though there wasn't any change in her tone, he could tell she appeared confused.
The main reason he decided to say the truth was to probe her reaction to it. And he did get one, which he was satisfied with for now.
"Yes, it was a deity actually. In fact you must have seen it while entering this dungeon."
Amother pause followed from the woman, as if she was trying to recall something.
She then answered, "No. There was not a single tree beside the dungeon. Only a direwolf lying dead on the ground."
Now it was David's turn to be confused. Inwardly he thought that she probably had missed the tree. Afterall who would even look properly at their surroundings if a dungeon would just pop up out of nowhere?
So he didn't go deep into it and just nodded as he got up from the ground. He dusted his clothes and looked at his dirty uncovered feet in slight resentment.
His clan didn't even have the concept of shoes or any other type of footwear. For them, walking on a ground full with grovels barefoot was some sign of strength.
'Yeah, definitely doesn't make sense.' He grimaced as he instinctively looked at the woman's feet. And obviously, a pair of sabatons covered them.
Noticing his gaze, she moved her feet a little as the sound from the metal covering her feet resonated in the empty cave.
David quickly glanced away. Then he looked around him and became slightly puzzled.
"Where did the river go...and where is the staircase?" He asked, directing the question at the woman standing opposite to him.
She simply answered, "This is the second floor. I rescued you from the wraiths here."
"Thank you, I guess..."
David answered uncertainly, questioning internally as to how he was here when she entered the dungeon. He clearly remembered falling unconscious at the foot of the staircase.
Did the wraiths from this floor carry him up here?
A sudden question struck him. "Where are the wraiths?"
In response, the woman took out a sword from her scabbard and slashed in the air as if to show she had killed them all.
She out it back in its place as she started walking towards a runic circle engraved on the ground.
"You ask too many questions."
Her voice carried to David who rubbed his nose in slight embarrassment.
He too followed her since he didn't want to be stuck in this dungeon as well.
"So we are going back, I suppose?" He started asking her only to shut his mouth as she stared at him intensely.
"No. The boss floor needs to be cleared yet."
Saying that, she stepped on the circle as suddenly mana rushed in from her feet and the runes on the engraved circle started glowing.
Taking a long breath, David stepped on it as well.
'It shall be wraiths only....how difficult can that be anyway?'