The massive bone-beast paced at the base of the colossal tree for what felt like an eternity. Its heavy claws dug angry trenches into the moss, and its multiple glowing eyes glared up into the dark canopy with unfiltered malice. But eventually, the realization that its prey was out of reach seemed to sink into its thick, plated skull. With a final, frustrated huff that expelled a cloud of foul-smelling mist, the monster turned and melted back into the shadows of the Night Shed Forest.
Up on the massive wooden branch, the heavy silence of the forest rushed back in.
Sam slumped against the rough bark, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. Beside him, Lumielle was frantically brushing at her midnight blue dress, her face contorted in absolute revulsion. The elegant silk was stained with mud, snagged by thorns, and looked thoroughly ruined.
"Filth," she hissed, slapping a patch of wet dirt from her knee.
"Absolute filth. And you—you barbaric mortal! You dared to lay your grimy hands on me and drag me through the mud like some common criminal!" She turned her glowing amber eye toward him, practically radiating aristocratic fury.
"Do you have any idea how long it took to weave this fabric? I should have you executed for this insult alone!"
Sam just stared at her, his expression utterly deadpan. He didn't have the energy to argue. He just leaned his head back against the trunk and closed his eyes.
'Why did I get a summon like that,' he thought, letting out a long, exhausted sigh.
'At least even a cat would have been better than her. At least I could have used it to bait the monster. Damn it.'
He rubbed his face, wiping away a mixture of sweat and dried blood. Complaining wasn't going to get him anywhere. The DreamScape didn't care about his bad luck.
"Let's go," Sam said, pushing himself up onto his aching feet.
"We can't stay here for long."
"Go?" Lumielle scoffed, crossing her arms.
"And wander aimlessly through this wretched place? I refuse. I will stay right here until my authority returns."
"Your authority isn't coming back," Sam replied bluntly, looking down over the edge of the branch to make sure the coast was clear.
"And sitting here just means we'll get eaten by whatever climbs trees. Besides, we need to move."
He genuinely felt a hollow, gnawing ache in his stomach. He was hungry. But what could he even eat here? His appetite had already taken a massive hit after seeing that disgusting bone-beast drooling everywhere. The thought of having to scavenge for berries or, god forbid, eat something from this nightmare forest made his throat tighten.
He looked out into the dense, dark woods. Was this what his sister had to deal with? She had been a legend, diving into the DreamScape like it was a walk in the park.
'Was sister used to fight that kind of monster?' he wondered, a strange mix of awe and sorrow bubbling in his chest.
'Is that why she didn't fear anything?' She had always smiled when she returned, bringing him toys and sweets, entirely hiding the horrifying reality of what she had to face to earn them.
Suddenly, the quiet atmosphere was shattered by a very distinct, very un-regal sound.
*Grrrrrrr...*
It wasn't a monster. Sam slowly turned his head.
Lumielle was frozen stiff. Her hands were still crossed over her chest, but her flawless, pale face had suddenly erupted into a brilliant shade of pink. She refused to meet his gaze, staring intensely at a random leaf on the neighboring branch.
Sam blinked, then a slow, teasing smirk spread across his tired face. "Was that the Sovereign of the Silver Veil, or is there a dying frog hiding in your dress?"
"Silence!" Lumielle snapped, her voice cracking slightly as she glared at him.
"It is merely a temporary physiological anomaly brought on by the sudden restriction of my mana!"
"Right. You're starving," Sam chuckled, shaking his head.
"Don't worry, me too. But how can we find food in here?"
He didn't really expect her to answer. Instead, he pulled up his system interface in his mind.
"Hey, System," Sam whispered.
"Can I summon food? Like, a burger or something?"
[Ding!]
[Host cannot summon specific items through the Celestial Gacha. However, the Host may purchase basic survival provisions through the System Shop using System Points (SP).]
[Current Balance: 0 SP]
"Zero," Sam groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Of course. How do I get SP?"
[System Points are awarded for hunting and slaying the entities within the DreamScape. The amount of SP gained is directly proportional to the strength and threat level of the defeated monster.]
Following the message, a new tab opened on the floating blue screen. It was a modest 'Food Section' displaying items like synthetic water bottles, dried meat rations, and simple loaves of bread. A basic loaf of bread cost exactly 1 SP.
"Guess we have to hunt," Sam muttered.
They slowly made their way down the thick vine, dropping the last few feet onto the damp forest floor. The coast was clear, though the distant, unsettling sounds of the forest kept Sam on high alert.
He walked over to a thick, fallen branch nearby. Stepping on one end, he yanked the other side upward until it violently snapped, leaving a jagged, uneven point. He then picked up a solid, coarse rock from the dirt and began violently scraping it against the splintered wood.
*Scrape... Scrape...*
He worked quickly, filing the wood down until the tip was dangerously sharp. He at least knew how to make a basic weapon. His sister used to make these exact types of wooden spears for him when they went fishing in the artificial ponds outside the city. It was incredibly hard to catch a fish with one, but he figured he could at least stab a monster in the eye if he had to.
He broke off another piece of the branch and repeated the process, creating a second makeshift spear.
Sam turned and offered one of the sharpened sticks to Lumielle.
She looked at the dirty piece of wood, then looked at Sam as if he had just offered her a dead rat. She practically recoiled, lifting her chin in defiance.
"I will not," she dismissed coldly. "It is entirely out of my standard to wield such a primitive, barbaric object."
Sam just sighed and lowered the stick.
"Suit yourself. I didn't even catch your name, by the way. Since we're stuck together, I'm Sam."
She straightened her posture, the torn edges of her dress fluttering slightly in the stagnant air. She spoke with the practiced, arrogant cadence of absolute royalty.
"I am Lumielle Silverwyn, the Sovereign of the Silver Veil."
Sam looked completely calm. He didn't bow, didn't gasp, didn't even widen his eyes. He already knew she wasn't some normal, everyday summon. He had seen her initial arrival, the futuristic armor, the way the very air seemed to bend around her before the forest stripped her of her power. She was undeniably a being way above his paygrade.
But what was the use of that right now? She couldn't shoot lasers, she couldn't fly, and she was currently too proud to hold a pointy stick. She was just as pathetic and vulnerable as he was in this current situation.
"Nice to meet you, Sovereign," Sam said dryly, keeping both spears for himself.
"Let's go find something we can actually kill."
They crept through the thick undergrowth for about twenty minutes, every snapping twig making Sam's heart leap into his throat. Eventually, they stumbled upon a small clearing illuminated by a patch of glowing blue moss.
Sitting right in the center of the clearing was a translucent, gelatinous blob roughly the size of a beach ball. It was a Slime.
Sam let out a quiet sigh of relief. Even a kid who barely paid attention in Academy theory classes knew that Slimes were the absolute bottom of the barrel. They were the weakest, slowest, and most pathetic monsters in existence.
"Stay here," Sam whispered to Lumielle, gripping his wooden spear tightly.
"I'll handle this. Easy SP."
He crept forward, his boots making minimal noise against the soft earth. When he was just a few feet away, he raised the sharpened branch, took a deep breath, and lunged forward with all the pitiful strength he could muster.
*Thwack!*
The sharp point of the stick struck the Slime dead center.
And then, it violently bounced backward. The force of the recoil sent a shockwave up Sam's arms, nearly vibrating the stick right out of his hands. He stumbled back a step, staring at the monster in sheer disbelief. There wasn't even a scratch on it. The creature's gelatinous surface was harder than reinforced tire rubber.
"You've got to be kidding me," Sam whispered, his eyes wide. In this Cataclysmic-level zone, even a basic Slime was vastly stronger than him.
The Slime slowly rotated its form. Two dark, hollow voids appeared on its surface, functioning as eyes. And then, a horizontal slit opened beneath them, revealing rows of jagged, horrifyingly sharp metallic teeth.
*Clack, clack, clack!*
The teeth chattered together with the sound of grinding gears.
Suddenly, the bushes around the clearing rustled. Dozens of glowing, translucent blobs hopped out from the shadows. Then dozens more. In a matter of seconds, the clearing was swarming with them. They all turned toward Sam, their cold, hollow eyes locking onto him, their metallic teeth chattering in a terrifying, synchronized rhythm.
Sam slowly turned his head toward Lumielle, who was watching from the edge of the clearing.
"Run away," Sam said, his voice terrifyingly calm.
And then he bolted.
Lumielle stood perfectly still for a second, watching him sprint past her. She looked at the approaching Slimes with a look of pathetic disgust. "You run from glorified puddles of mud?" she mocked.
But then, the closest Slime suddenly leaped ten feet into the air, its metallic jaws snapping violently just inches from where Sam's head had been.
Lumielle felt a sudden, icy spike of danger shoot down her spine. She had no magic. She had no armor. She was just soft, mortal flesh standing in front of a swarm of carnivorous jelly.
She hiked up the torn skirt of her midnight blue dress and started running after him as fast as her legs could carry her.
"Wait for me, you imbecile!" she shrieked, entirely abandoning her regal composure.
They sprinted back the way they came, the terrifying sound of hundreds of bouncing bodies and clattering metal teeth echoing right behind them. They reached the colossal tree and didn't hesitate. Sam practically scrambled up the thick vine, hauling Lumielle up right behind him.
They collapsed onto the first thick branch, gasping for air, their chests burning.
Sam crawled to the edge and looked down. It was an absolute nightmare. Hundreds of Slimes completely surrounded the base of the tree. They were bouncing erratically, their metallic jaws snapping at the empty air, trying to reach the fresh meat above. Fortunately, their gelatinous bodies couldn't grip the rough, vertical bark to climb.
"Well," Sam panted, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "We're trapped."
Hours slowly ticked by. The dim, ethereal light of the forest didn't change, making it impossible to tell what time it was. The Slimes simply refused to leave. They stayed at the bottom, an endless sea of bouncing, chattering death.
Sam sat cross-legged on the branch, staring down at them, twirling his one remaining makeshift spear in his hands. He was hungry, he was tired, and he was getting incredibly annoyed.
"I have an idea," Sam muttered.
He stood up and walked to the edge of the branch. He gripped the wooden stick like a javelin, pulling his arm back. He locked his eyes onto a particularly fat Slime bouncing directly below him.
"Eat wood, you overgrown booger!" Sam yelled, hurling the stick downward with all his might.
The stick sailed through the air... and completely missed. It didn't just miss a little; it veered aggressively to the left, embedding itself into the dirt several meters away from the nearest Slime.
The Slimes stopped bouncing for a second, looking at the stick, and then resumed their chattering, seemingly more alert now.
Sam stood there, his arm still outstretched, completely mortified. His aim was disgustingly low-class.
Beside him, a soft sound broke the tension.
*Pfft...*
"Hahahhaha.."
Sam turned his head. Lumielle had a hand clamped over her mouth, her shoulders shaking. A second later, she couldn't hold it in anymore.
She burst into a clear, melodic fit of laughter. It wasn't her usual mocking, aristocratic scoff; it was genuine, unadulterated amusement at his complete failure.
Sam felt a flash of irritation, ready to snap back at her, but the words died in his throat. Her amber eye was crinkled with mirth, her cheeks were flushed, and for the first time since she had arrived, she looked surprisingly adorable. The cold, untouchable goddess was gone, replaced by a girl just trying to survive a ridiculous situation. He couldn't even be mad.
"Alright, alright, laugh it up," Sam grumbled, picking up his second and final wooden spear from the bark. He held it out toward her.
"If you're so smart, help me fire."
Lumielle's laughter slowly subsided, though a bright smile still lingered on her lips. She looked at the stick, then at Sam. This time, she didn't refuse.
She stepped closer, her expression shifting into a calm, focused determination. She reached out with her soft, delicate hand and grasped the back half of the wooden stick. Then, she stepped into Sam's space, sliding her other hand firmly over his own, tightly holding his grip in place.
Sam's heart did a weird stutter in his chest, completely caught off guard by her proximity. She smelled faintly of ozone and crushed flowers.
"Your stance is atrocious," Lumielle murmured softly, ignoring his sudden stiffness. She adjusted his arm, angling the point of the spear perfectly downward.
"Do not throw with your shoulder. Throw with your intent."
Before Sam could even process what she meant, she pushed his hand down.
It wasn't magic, but the sheer, practiced efficiency and kinetic speed she applied to the movement was terrifying. The stick ripped out of their hands like a bullet fired from a rifle.
*Thwack!*
The wooden spear plunged straight down, striking a bouncing Slime with such pinpoint accuracy and force that it completely impaled the creature, pinning it to the forest floor. The Slime let out a high-pitched, gargling hiss before violently bursting into a puddle of harmless blue liquid.
[Ding!]
[Monster Defeated: Slime (Cataclysmic Variant)]
[Reward: 1 SP]
Sam stared at the blue screen that popped up in his vision.
"One SP," Sam deadpanned.
"So it really was disgustingly low."
His weapon was now gone, stuck in the dirt below, meaning he couldn't make another one while trapped up here. He shook his head and let out a long sigh, dropping his shoulders in defeat.
He opened the System Shop interface again, navigating to the food section. He had exactly 1 SP. A loaf of bread cost 1 SP.
"System, buy one bread, and break it into two," Sam mentally commanded.
[Transaction Complete.]
Suddenly, out of thin air, a warm, perfectly baked loaf of bread materialized directly into Sam's open hands, already split perfectly down the middle.
Lumielle gasped, stepping back so quickly she nearly tripped over a root. Her amber eye was wide with absolute shock. She stared at the food, then up at his face, then back down at the food.
"How..." she whispered, thoroughly stunned.
"How did you simply conjure sustenance out of the void? Without a shred of mana? And if you possessed this miraculous ability, why in the name of the Cosmos didn't you do it earlier?!"
Sam just smiled tiredly, holding out half of the bread toward her. She just looked at it, hesitating. She was the Sovereign of the Silver Veil; she didn't eat plain, unseasoned bread. But her stomach let out another aggressive growl, completely betraying her pride.
It was clear to Sam now—she couldn't see the floating blue screens. The System was his alone.
"Just take it, Lumielle," Sam said softly.
"It's going to be a long thirty days."