Chapter 103: Ghost on a Snowy Peak


    "Uhhh huuu uhhhh hu hu


    Comes the morning


    When I can feel


    That there''s nothing left to be concealed"


    Aldrich sang an old song as he stirred the half-fried egg in the pan.


    He looked up, and the morning sun''s rays came rushing through the windowpanes on his face. Most of the light passed through him, making the transparency of his body distinctively visible.


    Despite his ethereal state, he could feel, touch, and do all other things as usual. It felt like he didn''t belong in that space-time. The ck robe on him kept fluttering with no traces of wind and the hole in his forehead was still depthless and covered in Darkness. But in thest six months, he had made his peace with it.


    Sizzle!!!


    "Ah! Salt, pepper. And, Perfect!"


    Except for the little ck spots on it, the sunny side up half-fried egg looked almost the same as the blurry sun surrounded by the falling snow.


    Aldrich held the te and the coffee mug and went to the sofa near the firece. As he watched the fire and heard the crackling of the wood, he remembered the moment he had opened his eyes.


    He still had a blurry memory of someone dragging him on an asphalt road. The next time he came to his senses, he was already in this house and there was no sign of any other being near him.


    Aldrich savored the taste of the egg and took a sip of coffee. In front of him was a book, and its name was written in an unknownnguage. The symbols making up the book''s name felt like wriggling upon staring at them for long. The entire experience of trying to read or decipher the Book''s title could be mind-numbing.


    But Aldrich knew what the title was, and he could even read it without consequences. And why not, for it was he who had written the book.


    Space fluctuated around the book, and strange murmurings originated out of its closed pages. It wasn''t clear if it was the book itself was trying to tell a story, or it was the intention of the author.


    Time, it still had some meaning to Aldrich. After spending millions of years in the Darkness, contemting and meditating, 6 months felt like a blink of an eye to him. Yet Aldrich had a tendency to keep doing something.


    Lacking ess to any of his Items, he concentrated all his focus on mastering thenguage of Rumok''. Aldrich put down the mug and reached out to pick up the product of his half a year''s worth of effort.


    "My Morning Diary."


    Yes, the thing that could baffle the prominent schrs of the Gxy was a diary.


    Aldrichcked the materials to make a Rumok, but nothing could stop him from deepening his insight about the symbols themselves. He opened the book and went to the end of thest entry.


    A piece of charcoal came flying to his hand as he stretched it out at the firepit.


    *


    Day 182


    -I still can''t take a shit.


    -The food I eat tastes normal, but it doesn''te out. Supplies are replenishing as usual.


    -The season of winter has not changed, as expected. I feel hunger, pain, sadness, and other emotions, the same as before.


    -Yesterday, I got one more notification of 5 Dreamers entering my Dungeon. As usual, nothing happened after that.


    -I have yet toe in contact with any of thest hundreds of Dreamers that hade.


    -I hate my Elite Crawler.


    *


    Thump! Tink!


    Aldrich mmed the book on the table, making the empty mug and the te strike each other.


    An icy gust of wind somehow sipped from the unknown corners and hit Aldrich''s face. He felt the chilly sensation, not trying to find its origins in the least. His hand reached out to the firece again.


    "Pull."


    The erged Rumok on his right hand glowed blue from end to end. And the heat around the burning woods left its ce and gathered around his hand. Aldrich touched his face with that hand and the contrasting coldness and warmth made him remember the blurry faces of a middle-aged couple.


    The not-so-distant past felt eluding from his perfect memory.


    Aldrich stood up and went to the main gate. As he opened the door, a chilly wind ambushed him and tried to enter the warmed-up house. But the Rumok glowed again, and the wind got pushed back dozens of meters away.


    Aldrich walked on the snow and gazed at the valley in the distance. His naked feet rubbed the snowkes within its toes but left no impressions.


    On the snowy peak, in front of a small house, Aldrich was like an old ghost. A ghost, haunting nothing but the loneliness of the sunny morning and lifeless blinding sheet of snow.


    Aldrich looked at the foot of the mountain, and his sight gradually moved upwards. A film of Mana had covered the entire mountain. The Mana film was extremely blurry, making even the Sun in the sky a mere yellow spot. But the film didn''t prevent the chilly wind and the asional hail froming in.


    Through the film, he saw a blurry outline of a town. Even though he couldn''t make out anything, he felt a familiarity with it. It was like an old acquaintance who he hadn''t contacted in a long time.


    Just as he was about to turn back, a notification shed in front of his eyes.


    [23 Dreamers have entered your Dungeon]


    "23? What a waste of life, Sigh!"


    Aldrich shook his head and hoped that a few of them would make it into the Mana-film. He cared little about deaths, not as much as he used to before experiencing that Darkness. But the meaningless loss of life still troubled him.


    "Killing without a profit is in stupid. Tch!"


    Aldrich wondered what kind of profit his Elite Crawler was having. A frown came upon his face as he looked at the annoying film that was keeping him imprisoned.


    BOOM!


    Aldrich jumped to the surface of the film, sting away the snow underneath. He put his hand on the blurry Mana surface and repeated the same words he had been saying for thest 6 months.


    "Law of Mana, BANISH!"