For a moment, the trio, Jeannie, John and Adrian didn't respond, their eyes half lidded and dazed as they started at Alan, their smiles gone from their faces, their expressions a complete deadpan, giving nothing away.
Seconds passed slowly, they felt like hours to Alan who felt like he would be drugged, possessed or worse at any second by now.
It was at that moment, that a change occurred, the trio finally reacted to Alan's question as their lips slowly curled up once more, it wasn't a wide toothy smile this time, instead it was a small barely noticeably quirk of the ends of their lips, an almost gentle smile as their eyes widened and the dazed look, the faded pupils seemingly focusing for a brief second.
And then they spoke, in a perfect voice, their original voice, it was as if the previous clumsy control that the thing had over them had vastly improved in the span of a few seconds.
"I… am already here. Alan Walker."
"I… am already here. Alan Walker."
"I… am already here. Alan Walker."
Alan's eyes widened and he didn't hesitate even for a single second, as he instantly opened his system panel.
'System Dungeon, System fucking dungeon, open, open.' Alan screamed inside his own mind as the system holographic panel instantly appeared before him, floating infront of his face and blocking the eerie sight of his three friends for a moment.
[ System Dungeon ]
[ Dummy Dungeon ] [ Level 0 ] [ Join ]
[ Slime Dungeon ] [ Level 5 ] [ Join ]
[ ??? Dungeon ] [ Level 50 ]
[ ??? Dungeon ] [ Level 100 ]
…
..
'Join slime dungeon, join, yes confirm, just fucking join.' Alan thought almost instantly as soon as the holographic screen appeared before him.
"What… are you doing mister Alan?" Another voice asked, it wasn't a voice he recognised, it wasn't the voice of Jeannie, or the voice of John and neither was it the voice of Adrian.
It was soft, velvety and somewhat gave a posh accent feeling to the listener, but most importantly, it was coming from right in front of him.
Alan's eyes couldn't even widen any further than they already had, as his vision started darkening as the transmission to the dungeon started, and in those last moments before his vision fully darkened, he saw someone lean forwards from behind him, from over his left shoulder, putting their head before him as they turned and gazed directly at Alan.
It was a beautiful face, with dark hair and blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through into Alan's very soul, and they were close, they were right behind Alan, leaning over him, their head right next to his, he could practically feel their breath on his face cheek for a mere moment before the dungeon teleportation took that sense of his away.
A moment later, as his heart was beating at speeds that he felt like were loud enough that even someone on the other street block could hear, he saw all the surroundings disappear, as he arrived in that same senseless weightless space, for a brief second.
A moment later, his vision returned, there was no face next to his, there was no trio infront of him.
He was back into the Dungeons tokyo streets, back into the dungeon that had given him one of his traumas, and the place where he would have to reside for as long as he needed to grow strong enough.
Alan stood there, on the main road, not even bothering to look at the alleys, his eyes still widened, his body completely frozen, he had gone much further than any other time, he was too terrified to even tremble anymore, all he could do was take deep harsh quick breaths over and over as his heart felt like it was about to explode at any second.
This state of his continued for an amount of time that Alan wouldn't ever be able to tell anyone truly, he didn't even notice the passage of time, he only knew that for a while he was frozen and then suddenly he felt like he came out of the deepest waters of his mind that he had ever been in.
Slowly lifting his hand to his face, he put his entire palm over it as his breathing slowly started stabilising, his heart rate starting to slow down to regular levels slowly.
'That… that's the thing… it's… human… or atleast It looks like one, or it is one, I don't even know at this point… fuck, I didn't even use observe on It. I came here to hide and grow strong enough to be able to defeat or atleast survive that fucker but I don't even know how strong 'It' is. How do I know when I'm strong enough to defeat it?' Alan thought to himself, as he slowly felt a feeling of pure helplessness appear in him.
The thing had most definitely seen him teleport away to the dungeon, and now… now he had to defeat it if he wanted to keep his secret safe, and yet he wouldn't even know how much stronger or how long he had to spend here to get strong enough to do so.
Lifting his head up and removing the palm that he had placed over his head, Alan took one last deep breath before slowly releasing it in a sigh and looking around.
He was back in the dungeon, wearing his leather armor and holding the combat spear, he would be able to get enough coins to eat and drink as long as he wanted in here with the shop, so survival wasn't a problem, however…
'The mental toll that I'll take from living in a combat zone… I'll have to get used to it quickly, or I'll start making mistakes in fights and that… that could lead to my own end.' Alan thought as he gripped his combat spear tighter in his hand before taking a step forwards, and then another and another until he slowly approached the first dark alley on the long tokyo street.
_______
Here's the first chapter of the day.
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