Chương 74: Foregone Conclusions

June twirled a couple of buckshot pellets in his hand and walked with the gait of a nutcracker. He walked through the forest shirtless; his pants were baggy, dirty, and torn.

'The missing shirt is fine, but if I would like to wash my pants…'

'Well, I'm not exactly paid to give nosebleeds; that's what my fists are for.' As much as June wanted to wash his pants, he had nothing on underneath; he only had one pair of underwear, and his only option otherwise was a loincloth. He didn't know how to tie a loincloth and was too embarrassed to ask.

At the end of the day, the colosseum was a show; he didn't care that millions of people were watching him confidently stride through the forest shirtless, but exposing his lower regions was not an option for him; it was one of the reasons he only changed in pitch-black spaces like his tipi.

'I wonder if my pink hydrangea survived.' Silvester walked behind June, happily inspecting his bow. June ended up handling the repair since he had some professional experience taking care of weaponry during his early days in the nightrealm. June even applied a decent chunk of his will into making the bow more resilient.

Silvester was fairly muscular, which was a given for a bowman, especially since he wielded a longbow over a short one; it took a lot of strength just to pull back, but it was a good trade considering most of the strength you put in comes back out at a quick force.

'Surprised that people brought guns into the sim.' When June made it to Grace's office that fateful day, he was greeted by an entourage made purely of Dreamers; they overwhelmed him quickly and grabbed his arms. They presumably didn't know of his flesh-shaping nature since he tore his arms off, and just as he was about to leap into the lake from the tall building. June winced at the memory. Buckshot riddled his body.

If he had bones or had something resembling a true human body, it should have killed him on the spot. But for June, the pain was only blinding enough to stunt his jump and have him plummet down 20 stories. Silvester put his bow in a sash and sped up to walk by June's side.

"You said you had an appointment?" June nodded and replied with a positive hum.

"Say, Silvester…. I don't know much about elves and the like; we only have humans in the mundane realm."

"Are spirits commonplace?"

"Like the water and light spirits floating around us?" Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Silvester's eyes widened, and after a while of staring, he let out a cough.

"Y-You can see spirits?" June made a finger gun, and some water squirted out and looped around in the air.

"I think they're spirits, the blue ones like the water and the white ones like my eyes." Silvester's jaw had slowly been dropping until he shook himself out of it. He cleared his throat and spoke.

"Spirit magic is very, very, VERY rare."

"A lot of elven tribes worship high elves for their ability to convene with spirits."

"Well… they have an innate advantage since they are half spirits while they live." June nodded along slowly.

"Can I still use regular magic?"

"Spirit magic is cool, but I would rather not be dependent." Silvester looked taken aback by June's comments.

"June, to elves, spirit magic is something aligned to godhood."

"A human being able to use spirit magic is incredibly rare since out of almost any other sapient species, humans have the lowest compatibility with spirits." June looked at Silvester; as happy as he was to hear that spirit magic was esteemed, he didn't like to borrow unstable powers.

"Shouldn't I be seeing more than light and water spirits? Or is it like a thing where they show themselves to you?" Silvester pondered for a second.

"I'm not very good at magic; I use QI, but Leonard did mention to me once that illusionary magic was often related to mist or light refraction." June immediately understood what Silvester was insinuating: the Colosseum was a large virtual world, and the fact that there were specifically these two spirits probably meant that the simulation worked on magic instead of another source or science.

"…"

"Does that mean we could influence the sim?" Silvester shrugged.

'Guess he doesn't know either.'

It had taken a week to get back. June ended up carrying Silvester on his back. His leg was injured, meaning he couldn't run or make sudden movements, so the duo decided to make a pitstop by Brighthaven first to get him healed. The two already knew what had befallen Brighthaven, but they wanted, no, NEEDED to see what happened to it themselves. The journey back and forth was a 3-week journey if made by Aspirants, but June was a Dreamer, so he was able to move at an inhuman speed when he used his will on his body.

They had taken the long route around to the lake underneath Brighthaven. June looked up, gritting his teeth.

"You see that too. Tsk." Silvester raised a hand to his brow and frowned.

"Shit… June, we…." June gestured for Silvester to climb onto his back, and June started climbing the wet cliff under the plateau of Brighthaven. It was a nearly impossible stunt for an Aspirant, but June was a Dreamer; he was incomparably faster and stronger, and he had his revenants to turn into climbing picks. Carrying Silvester was not a problem despite the elven man being significantly taller than him, but his height did affect the weight distribution when climbing.

He climbed up, and his hand crested over the cliffside. June tossed Silvester up, then climbed up and rolled onto a bed of grass and lay on his back.

"Shit!" The castle city of Brighthaven was blown to bits. The side they were currently on was mostly untouched, considering that if the side next to the lake blew up, it might have obstructed the escape path that went underneath it.

"Silvester, I don't think there's going to be any healers for you." Silvester pursed his lips and nodded. They both accepted this as a possibility since they learned how many Dreamers the Royal faction had.

"Well, June…. I guess we really are ghosts now." Silvester began to slowly scale the rubble, trying to get to a high point. It took him a while, but the second he peered over his vantage point, he recoiled back and mouthed something to June. A L L D R E A M E R S'All…'

'Dreamer…'

'All Dreamers!?'

'Shit!' June skulked over to the wall, and Silvester gracefully hopped off the wall to loudly whisper.

"JUNE, THEY'RE ALL DREAMERS!" June pinched his cheek.

"Like…. All Dreamers?" Silvester nodded"W-what about Aspirants? Are there any?" Silvester nodded falsely. June brushed his lip with his fingers and, after a while, spoke.

"Martin, he's probably here, probably in an office."

"…" June clenched his teeth. He grabbed Silvester's shoulders and looked him square in the eye.

"The Beast of the Blue Bonfire is going to start hunting…."

"Dreamers…"