Teacher for a week(2)(corrected)

---Pov Zoe---

'Again...'

Surrounded by the dark world that was now part of my dreams, my gaze was focused on the white door in front of me.

Since the events of the Middle Floors, I hadn't seen the door in my dreams, but now here it was in front of me as if asking to be opened.

With some hesitation but a willingness to understand what it really was, I reached out my hand towards the handle and opened the door.

'Clack.'

Opening the door wide, I was flooded with light and before I knew it, the landscape around me had changed.

As before, the scene had several black spots, but this time there were many more. Also, I was no longer in a building, I was outdoors from where I could see the sky which had an orange hue due to the sunset.

'What strange houses.'

Unable to shift my gaze, what caught my attention were the houses. They had a structure I had never seen before, I could even catch a glimpse of a perfectly flat street. I also saw other strange things, like a metal carriage moving fast without horses or a huge metal bird flying in the sky.

'What is this place?'

Even though I wanted to take a good look, my body kept rocking, it felt like I was on a swing. As I began to swing more and more, eventually my body launched itself, ending up further forward.

When I landed, my body turned towards the swing, where there was a small black figure that was swinging, and like me, he threw himself, only he ended up slightly ahead of me.

"######!"

I seemed to be irritated by the way my body was slamming my foot on the ground as the shadow scratched his head in confusion.

"######."

Another voice made me turn around, there two larger black figures were waving and as soon as I saw them, my body started running quickly towards them. When I was close enough, the sturdier figure took me in his arms and stroked my head.

"######."

"######."

I didn't understand what they were saying, but my head turned to look at the smaller figure again and I waved at him.

"### ### M###."

'Huh?

As if it had all been an illusion, I found myself in front of the door again. Just before, I had seemed to call that figure by name and although it was for a moment, I noticed something connected to me.

'The tips of the hair I saw, were blond.'

Although my hair was black, it had blonde tips, so there had to be a reference, but if I wanted to find out more I had to open this door.

'Clack.'

Unlike before, the door wouldn't open. No matter how much I turned the handle or slammed the door, it refused to open.

"Please open!"

Maybe it sounds ridiculous since I didn't even know if this door was actually connected to my memories, but it was the only lead I had. Besides these dreams were too realistic to be fake, I could see and feel as if I was there, it had to mean something.

'Bang!'

"I beg of you! I just want to understand who I am!"

The door remained locked and all I could do was lean in.

In some aspects, the possibility of recovering my memories frightened me, would I still be myself, or would the me of now be erased?

I now had family and friends I could rely on, so I should be happy right? So why did I feel so empty, was there seriously something so important in my past that denied me living in the present?

So many doubts were swirling around in my head, those two figures looked like my parents, and from the way they treated me they seemed to love me, so why didn't they give me a name? What was that place? That dream about marriage I had on the 18th floor, was it really just a dream?

'I just... I just want to understand.'

That was my last thought before consciousness was pulled away.

---Pov general--

'She learns fast.'

That was what Mark thought as he watched Zoe sleep against the wall. They had practiced late into the night on the dosage of magic and the more she used it, the greater her mastery became. Today, they would go down into the dungeon and there, he would concentrate on getting her used to fighting multiple monsters at once so that she would get used to using magic in different situations.

'Haaaa another failure.'

Of course, Mark would not only focus on training Zoe but also himself. Needing only a few hours of sleep, he had spent all this time training the second phase of the aura, even if it wasn't that simple.

He tried to imitate the Guide by merging his aura with his magic circuits, but it proved more difficult than expected. It required a lot of concentration and patience because the aura was difficult to control. When he managed to connect one point, another would detach and this was repeated again and again, so much so that it gave him a headache.

'I thought it would be easier once I got to level 3.'

[Reaching level 3 was the minimum requirement, now the host just has to practice. A word of advice, rather than starting with something as complex as your magic circuit, you should infuse your aura into something simpler].

Taking note of the advice, he closed his eyes and concentrated. He formed the aura around his hand, this was the first stage that increased his defense. Afterward, the aura became like small filaments that connected to the muscles of his hand by fusing.

'Phew.'

Exhaling a breath, he looked at his hand which didn't look any different, apart from the aura that surrounded it, but when he squeezed his hand, he felt it exerted much more strength than usual.

'I need to master this technique.'

Mark immediately understood that if he improved his use of the aura, it would decrease his use of 'Golem Heart.'

'rustling.'

"I see you're awake, what do you say if..."

His words stopped as he shifted his gaze to her face, or rather to the tears that were slowly sliding down her cheeks.

"...Are you alright?"

"O-Oh y-yeah, sorry for the scene."

Realizing she was crying, Zoe quickly wiped her tears away with the sleeves of her robe, but even as she finished wiping, an awkward air floated over the two. Mark didn't know whether it was better to say something or remain silent in that situation, while Zoe looked away with her face red with embarrassment at being seen crying.

"Guys I brought breakfast!"

'Oh God, I've never been so happy to hear Tiona's voice.'

As if divine grace had descended to save him from that situation, he did not hesitate to take advantage of it.

"Now that I think about it I was starving, don't you think so too?"

"...You're right, I was looking forward to breakfast too."

Zoe also seemed to want to use the opportunity to lift that atmosphere and the two of them quietly went downstairs, as if the events before had never happened.

The five of them sat together on the walls as they ate the breakfast brought by Tiona and discussed training.

"How did it go yesterday?" -Aiz asked.

"Pretty good, I jotted down some points in my mind, now I have to see how she does in a fight, how did it go for you instead?"

"He grows so fast I can hardly believe how he does it." -Aiz said.

"Aiz is right, Argonaut seems as strange a case as yours." -Tiona agreed.

"Argonaut? Oh, that's because he resembles the description of the hero in that story."

Mark nodded at the reference, though he regretted his words soon after.

"You read it too?!"(X2)

"Who's your favorite character?!"

"I preferred the third book, you?!"

"Favourite adventure?!"

"Best fight?!"

The two launched themselves at him, bombarding him with questions, and the naturalness with which they exchanged questions had surprised even Mark, but his patience had a limit.

"First, do you seriously have to attack me like this to ask me questions?" -Mark asked, massaging his head.

Hearing this, both Bell and Tiona recoiled in embarrassment at their behavior.

"Second, I did not read the story for its content, but references to myths and legends."

"What will you do now?" -Aiz asked, interrupting the scene.

"Haaaa, I'll go to Tsubaki's workshop and get my stuff, and then we'll head to the dungeon."

"When are we going to the dungeon instead?" -Tiona asked Aiz.

"We don't need to go. Bell needs to train more against people than monsters and here is perfect for that."

"Eh?" -Tiona froze momentarily at her words.

{No matter how you look at it, a guy and a girl going down the dungeon together alone is obviously a date, no wait, since they will be spending multiple days together, it will be more than a date!}

'Cough!'

As Zoe was about to choke on what she heard in Tiona's mind, the latter looked around confused, because for a moment she felt like she was being watched.

Once they had finished breakfast, Aiz dragged Tiona with her, who protested, to continue Bell's training. Instead, Mark and Zoe separated momentarily to prepare the necessary things for the dungeon.

There were six days left until the choice of the War Game, which meant that the training from there on would become more intense.