Going Back

"Let's go, Edric. We can't let that green slime off the hook!" Calle walked over to the same door that led to the slime dungeon and opened it.

"Yes, let's get it, Calle!" The little dragon said as he perched his body on top of Calle's shoulder.

Then the same light purple portal appeared out of the door, and it would only take Calle a single touch to the portal to teleport himself back to the slime dungeon where he could exact his revenge on the green slime.

Of course, he would need to figure out something new with his mana to defeat the green slime who was capable of dodging his ordinary attacks while also capable of launching its own attack that had been proven by Calle himself to be quite literally deathly.

'I can always figure them out later as I destroy more slimes.' He thought while moving his hand towards the violet portal.

But just when his hand was an inch away from touching the portal, he suddenly remembered something.

'System, how long have I been inside the dungeon earlier?'

[About three hours.]

'Sh*t, Vella will kill me if I don't come back soon.'

'System, can I go back to my world right now?'

[Of course, just tell me whenever you want to go back.]

'Now! Please! Send me back now!'

[Ok. See you soon, Calle.]

"Wait for me, Edric!" Calle said before his body suddenly disappeared from the circular room.

It might look magical for Edric who saw Calle's body disappearing out of nowhere from his sight, but for Calle, it was only a blink of an eye, and the same dizzying feeling that he got after being suddenly transported to another place assaulted his head once more.

But this time, Calle was already expecting it, and he was ready for the incoming headache. And just after shaking his head a couple of times, the headache was gone then he looked at his surroundings.

It was the same intersection where he tried to save a little girl from being hit by a truck. The little girl, the boy, and the truck were nowhere to be seen as the sky had turned dark and the road was empty.

One of the perks of living in a small city was that the streets were not crowded, and places like the park were not a popular place at night with the kids had gone back to their homes and only some couples could be seen sitting on the benches in the park.

Calle's sudden appearance didn't create any sound or any lights at all as he just suddenly appeared there at the place where he was about to be hit by the speeding truck, alerting no one as he took a few steps back to get on the sidewalk, out of the road.

He then checked his phone to see several missed calls from his sister before quickly putting back his phone into his pocket.

"Gotta go fast!" Calle muttered as he started running back towards his apartment as fast as possible before his sister became worried and called the police to search for him.

Arriving at the front door of his apartment, Calle took several deep breaths as he prepared himself to get a long nag from his sister for disappearing without a trace for three hours straight.

After calming himself down, Calle then put his thumb on the fingerprint sensor and unlocked his door.

Very slowly, he opened the door and peeked inside. Looking left and right, he didn't see his sister anywhere. Not in the living room or in the kitchen.

'I'll quickly take a shower before going into bed and text her after I lock my door.' Calle thought before walking inside and grabbing a towel from his drying rack and quickly going into the shower.

He quickly finished his shower and wrapped the towel on his waist before once again tip-toeing back to his room. Hoping his sister was already asleep in her room.

It was actually quite unlikely that she would go to sleep after he went missing for about three hours, but Calle thought that it must be fate and decided to not think too much about it.

However, when he finally opened the door to his room, he was startled when he saw his sister was already standing in the corner of his room fully equipped with boxing gloves on both her hands.

"WAA! What are you doing Vella!? You are scaring me!" Calle said while holding onto the towel on his waist, making sure that it doesn't fall down after his initial shock from finding his sister in his room, ready to punch him with her boxing gloves on.

"Where have you been for the past hour, Mave? I called you about 5 times and you didn't pick up even once!" She said while walking closer towards him.

"Did you mess around doing a quickie with a random girl somewhere? Mave, I know you're vaccinated but STDs are still out there. You should not do those anymore."

"What are you saying Vel!? Do I look that desperate to do that? And no! I'm not doing anything weird for the past three- Wait… an hour?" Calle tilted his head in confusion.

"Yes! You've been gone for an hour, Mave. Don't say that you've only been gone for three minutes. It's too much of a stretch even for someone who couldn't make up excuses like you!"

'But the system said that I've been gone for three hours… Did the system make a mistake?'

[Of course not, Calle. It's true that you've been inside the dungeon for three hours. That's your question right?]

'Then, I will change my question. How long have I been away from this world?'

[About a full hour and 20 minutes.]

'So time flows differently here and there… Besides, how could you go with me into this world, system?'

[I am a part of your soul now, Calle. Everywhere you go, I'll go with you.] The system replied.

"Mave! Are you ignoring me? And why did you not turn on any lights coming here? Do you think I would have not noticed you if you turned off all the lights?"

Vella's loud voice pierced through his ears and disrupted his conversation with the system and brought him back to reality as he looked around him and said,

"What do you mean? The lights are already on! Are you blind, Vella?"

"You… You're the one who's blind!" Vella stamped her feet forward as she placed her hand on the sensor on the wall to turn on the lights.

And with the lights turned on, Calle could finally see the lightbulbs above his head were emitting their glows.

'But…'

He then walked outside the room to see his living room which also looked like the lights were already turned on, but when he observed the lights above the living room, Calle realized that the lights were not giving any glow, different from the lights in his room.

'How…?'

[It was the dragon's eyes trait that you got from Edric, Calle. It gave you night vision ability. If not for it, how would you be able to cheat and send those mana blasts from ten meters away to kill off the slimes before they were able to detect your presence.]

[The tutorial dungeon is supposed to be harder than that. Those groups of slimes in complete darkness and the twists and turns in the cave should be hard enough for any beginners to kill them way earlier into the dungeon. You dying on the green slime was already something worth celebrating, you know?]

—-------

Back in the circular room, Edric was sitting alone and patiently waited for Calle to return as he slept in the middle of the room. Calle had told him to wait for him to come back, so he did exactly what Calle had told him and waited.

However, Edric was very surprised when he suddenly heard a cold mechanical voice in his head saying,

[Hi Edric. You can call me system.]

"System? What and who are you?" Edric said out loud.

[Don't worry, I'm on the same side as Calle, and just like you, I also want to make Calle happy. So how about we work together?]

Edric was still confused about the sudden appearance of the system's voice inside his head, but after hearing that the system also wanted Calle to be happy, he lowered his guard and asked,

"Work together? How?"

Right after Edric asked the question, the door to the slime's dungeon suddenly opened and the circular violet portal appeared once again in front of the door.

[How about I help you train so that you can be stronger the next time Calle comes here? You will be able to teach him new things and you will also be able to protect him better. Do you want to do it?]

Edric still remembered when he saw Calle's face was eaten by the green slime, and although it didn't hurt his own body a single bit, seeing Calle's agonized expression with his own eyes and remembering how he couldn't do anything when Calle's face was being melted away by the green slime, Edric couldn't help but feel the urge to make himself stronger than before rising from the depths of his heart.

He wanted to be strong enough that if something dangerous ever happened to Calle, he wanted to have the strength to save Calle and prevent him from ever being in pain anymore.

"I want to do it." The baby dragon said as he flew over and touched the violet portal, teleporting himself inside the slime dungeon.