"And then… finally you came along. Somehow. Maybe by fate—I don't know. But somehow, this happened.''
''No, That's not what I meant. '''Alexia cut off decisively.
Muffin got curious and bumped up by her response. ''Then! What?''
''Since, You're still locked up. Slip back to the system.''
"Not gonna happen." Muffin slapped back her request and rolled back.
**
After sometime his amber eyes rolled at Alexia. "Just… give the system a little time to process." Alexia didn't care. She slightly tilted her head, her cold stare on the panel, scrolling through the panel ."Why is there no notification bar? I want to change its sound?" and continued tapping it repeatedly.
Muffin muttered to himself, tail swirling, "I guess… it's not every day someone breaks the system just by showing up…"
After a while, she gave up and sat onto the sofa with ease, she felt restful that she had only felt after death, almost heavenly. She let her body emerged completely and slowly drifting off.
She was in her room with the man in a soft purples and pinks in the background indoors, quiet, cozy atmosphere. The soft ambient light around them and both were focused on their interested work. In her deep thought, her eyes shifted towards him, light blonde hair tied back loosely in a messy bun, with a few strands falling gracefully over their face. She watched him with her unseen calm and introspective expression.
A large pair of high-quality over-ear headphones with a vintage design rests comfortably on his head, deeply immersed in music. He was dressed in layered clothing—an oversized jacket with a visible zipper and a hoodie underneath, creating a casual yet fashionable look. Then, his light blue eyes turned to her, sharp and reflective, gazing downward as they rest their fingers near their lips in a contemplative pose.
''Are you looking at me?"
***
She opened her eyes slowly and noticed, she had slept for a past couple of hours. Her grey eyes slides over a system panel instantly opening her consious. Muffin half sleep, on the far side of the sofa, saw her staring at the panel and saw some new words at the panel..
''Did the task just pop up? She isn't tapping anymore". Uncertain, Still clinging to both dummy fish and the star plushie, he scuttled towards her idly.
[System Notification]
[Task: Find the Blue Spider of Bedtawa Cavity]
[Reward: Silk fabric]
[Time: 19:58 minutes (running)]
[Penalty: No food]
Muffin tilted his head, tail flicking unresponsively.
"Ohh… task. Mmmh.. Cavity'' he blabbered scratching his back. ''So, it's implying your sweet tooth for a mission? ''
''Easy peasy''
He looked at the timer lazily.
"19 minutes, huhh! 3 minutes is enough. To finish this''.
Alexia's expression remained cold and unimpressed. She stood up and immediately walked toward the glass door, to not lower her IQ with his nonsense foolish yap. She began scanning her eyes outside the door.
"The time was running even before I woke," she murmured after realizing something is not right. "That doesn't count, it begun without any alert."
[System Notification : The task started 1 hour ago.]
"What?!" Alexia stiffened with voice sharp and narrowed eyes in anger inside still in her relaxed posture externally.
[Task: Auto mode]
''It updated.'' Alexia noticed that the same system was updated but remained junk.
Muffin monitored her motion slowly gaining consiousness and read the task properly. "..find the blue spider? So, she has to go for a mission to complete."
"Anyway! She would be back shortly. No worries"
Ding!
[Hunt the Blue Spider]
[Participant : Alexia and Muffin]
[Task status : Impossible]
What? Muffin froze, amber eyes glowed with his pointed tail in disbelief. ''Can you make the sound in silent mode as well?.'' feeling frustrated. '' Hurry up! we don''t have much time'' Alexia called him in loud tone. ''Coming!''' he quickly answered.
'' Do I have to go? I'm a house cat " he whispered to the panel. No response. "Oh! Nooo. ''
"I will come back soon.. Sweetie" . As he gently puts the plushie down and runs up in his two leg holding his dummy toy along with him. His eyes shocked after looking at the new feature.
"Auto mode. Ohh! Wow I can't even take a nap now."' Muffin laughs off lightly, with a dark circle on his face hinting a weight of this update.
''So, Weapon.'' He forward his paws waiting for it to show up .
Suddenly, a sudden flash erupted at the half pillar surface. It starts sparkling like firecracker then in an instant changed to a unstable ball, gathering light from every direction.
''Seems like a fusion reaction. I'm already dead. Anyway''
Muffin eyes shine with anticipation while Alexia still looks her usual cold face like a no big deal. The light starts to shift molding cylinder like weapon with tube tip.
[Bug Spray]
[Level 1]
[Usage: Hides Bug]
[Minimum content : 1 press]
"Pleaseee bite me!" Muffin said, pinching the bridge of his nose in sheer embarrassment. Alexia instantly gave a dismissive glance and her eyes flicked toward the long wooden cleaning stick leaning beside a huge pot of . She walked up, picked it then rested it on her shoulder. Without hesitation, she grabbed bug spray no bigger than a nail polish practically lost completely in her fist and threw to Muffin.
"'Take it" bug spray dangling in his paw. "Are you… going for cleaning?" His voice cracked catching the spray.
"None of your business," she said flatly.
Muffin blinked. "…But it's a cleaning stick and this looks like your lip stick.'' Passing over from his yapping, Alexia opened the door, fist clenched and unclenched as she tensed her muscle rolling her shoulder and stepped outside, calm and composed. Muffin in panic followed her, with spray and dummy fish in paw, muttering anxiously all the way.
"Wait for me…Don't leave me behind"
The door slowly closed from behind and locked officially initiating the task.
[Task : Hunt for the Blue Spider of Bedtawa Cavity]
[Reward : Silk Fabric]
[Penalty: No Food]
[Time : 14 minutes]
***
''Why is it so dark here? He complains walking around in a dark."' Hello! and where is Albina "
'' Woooh-wooh" he stumbles on a rock and fall on the floor. ''Ow " Ugh! He grunts of pain.
Bop!
"Owww! Hey" Muffin yelped scrambling as his body glowed illuminating the surrounding area with a soft amber light. It isn't a void anymore. Blinking against his own sudden brightness, he discovered himself next to Alexia, who was calmly staring at him, eyes still sharp and unamused.
''Did you seriously had to hit me? ". Alexia just kept staring at him intensly as if her mind was filling in with lots of question.
"Ahh! " Feeling the sense of danger from her cold, unreadable expression, he backed out. Alexia's tilted her head and kept glaring at him as he started exploring small peebles looking for blue spider.
The outside was no longer an endless void it was damp, heavy, echoing cave. It looked dark and gloomy even though Muffin was emitting light it only gave brightness to some perimeter and kept swallowing light outside. So, Alexia got blend with the dark as he walked by himself.
Muffin find himself alone and started to get frightened. On the spur of moment, she again popped from behind scaring him even more. Alexia's eyes narrowed and her cleaning sticks broken down to piece of broken pike. Ready to kill. "This place won't be simple. Other monster might come along with spiders" Her voice was calm, alert and fierce with her warning.
"Don't wander around recklessly like a prey. Walk with me". Muffin blinked, his amber eyes glowed softly and felt a protection from her. Joined by annoyance for spooking him. Every step echoed kept bouncing back, deep and twisting tunnels, until they saw a alluring blue and green ripples of light shimmered through a side passage.
Muffin looked at her completely bloomed. "Finally", he mouthed, though no sound left. Alexia quickly flicked her gaze sharply to the passage and avoided him. He got boomed by that ignorance and cursed her multiple times in mind.
The passage led them to a massive cavern glittering with the wavy green and blue water light coming from a centered vast underground reservoir jagged and stretching deep inside the water.
Alexia stretched her neck to underwater reservoir to see it's depth. The entire pit was filled with green colored gem adding reason for a captivating view of underground water.
"Why does the lighting feels abnormal"? as she noticed that at the very deep it is completely dark and somewhat strangely murky as if it is masked by something with a stench of something almost alive. ''It seems something is down there. It's hiding and waiting in the depth".
''I don't intend to be surprised by them." She mutters clutching the pike strongly about to break and stood like a sentinel-silent cold and unshakable as her presence along gave a daring to anything foolish enough to emerge.