It's Not Something To Swallow

A shed with half of its roof was about to topple over, weeds growing on its walls, and a rusty bench covered in dust.

[What a nice place to take shelter in.]

A strong wind blew and splashed rainwater on Night, who was dusting the rusty bench, but it did not matter to him as he was already drenched from staying under it earlier.

"Can you not complain? You're not the one feeling the thing nor the one in my situation."

It was fortunate that Night brought the military bag from the Central Awakened Station. He took out a white towel and removed his clothes. As he threw his ragged clothes, they splatted on the floor.

"I'm curious about something. How can you see me?"

[...]

"Rafael?"

Night had the towel up on his chest, trying to cover it.

[You don't have to worry, Master. There is nothing to see nor drool over.]

Night sucked in his breath and removed the towel from covering his body and wiped it harshly. However, the redness in his ears and nape was evident.

"That's not my question."

[Well, if you're really curious, it's like watching you through a television. Hmm, maybe it's more like a CCTV camera?]

Night nodded his head as if it was the most natural thing to do while pulling a pair of clean clothes from the bag. Fortunately, the bag was waterproof.

As he was in the middle of buttoning the white shirt, which was twice his normal size, another strong wind blew.

Night looked out of the shed, confused why there were no rainwater splashes this time.

Another swooshing, and Night realized that the wind did not come from below but from above. His head snapped towards the half-toppled roof before his eyes grew wide.

Something at least two meters in size was about to crush him from above.

'Shit!'

Adrenaline rushed through his veins, and he dodged. Unfortunately, he only managed to salvage his short sword. Night fell to his butt and got out in the rain, causing his efforts of changing out of his ragged and drenched clothes to go to waste.

However, none of that mattered as soon as his eyes adjusted to the sight a meter away from him.

The shed's roof was slowly tilting towards him. It didn't matter that his clothes were only buttoned halfway; he kicked the ground and pushed his body behind.

The roof fell to the muddy ground with a thundering sound. The roof momentarily blocked Night's vision of what was the thing that made the roof like so. But it didn't take long for him to see what it was.

The thing that made it completely topple off was a Chaos creature.

Just like how Legions were divided into 5 classes: Common, Epic, Saint, Hero, and Legendary, Chaos creatures also had 3 classifications, which were Disaster, Calamity, and Catastrophe.

Disaster types were the Chaos creatures that could harm a society but couldn't cause its destruction. Calamity types were the ones who could cause destruction to Areas in a relatively short amount of time. And lastly, Catastrophe, they were Chaos creatures that could cause an entire small District its annihilation.

As Night's eyes locked with the monster's eyes, he couldn't help but shiver. The monster's eyes looked like that of a dead fish's eyes, but it was of a different color.

[Master, please be careful.]

"I know."

[No. Be careful for real this time.]

Night flinched after Rafael's voice echoed in his mind.

His eyes, which momentarily strayed off the monster, slowly returned, and his heart almost beat out of his chest after he saw what was in front.

Wraiths were normally not seen with the naked eye, but because Night was a Legion and he was blessed with a stronger system, he could see it. But that was only what he thought.

The fact that he could see the calamity-tier Chaos creature Six Mirrored Wraith was not because he was a Legion blessed with a stronger system but because of his identity that even he himself hadn't known.

The true body of the wraith became indistinguishable from the clones that it created.

[I'm sure you know a thing or two about wraiths, but let me tell you something different about this one.]

Night gritted his teeth and subconsciously gripped the short sword tighter.

[The monster you are facing right now is a calamity-tier Chaos creature, the Six Mirrored Wraith. As its name implies, it can create clones mirroring itself.]

'I guess I'll have to find the main body to defeat it.'

[Smart, but it is not that easy.]

Night's eyes shifted between the three wraiths wiggling excitedly a few meters in front of him.

[It will not be that easy to defeat that monster because it creates clones every ten minutes.]

'I guess it's not called a calamity-tier monster for nothing.'

[... I can't help you this time.]

'What do you mean?'

[The times I can interfere in your battles are limited. I can only directly intervene a total of three times a day. I will have to wait for the cooldown.]

'That makes sense.'

Although he told her that, Night couldn't help but be worried about what will happen during the fight.

Without Rafael supporting him, there was no way he could defeat that monster alone.

Night was at too much of a disadvantage for this fight. With Rafael being unable to support him and his nonexistent battle experience and his terrifyingly low level.

Fighting the Six Mirrored Wraith was like unintentionally buying a ticket for a trip to hell if it was not the trip itself.

'I didn't ask for this.'

[...]

There was a moment of silence before Rafael responded.

[I apologize.]

Her apology, which was something that she had never done before, if Night remembers correctly, caught his attention. He waited for her to explain.

[I am a stronger system. Stronger system's vessels tend to attract Chaos creatures more often than weaker ones.]

'I see. So that is the catch, huh?'

Night sighed as his eyes studied the wraith's tentacle-like arms. He hated how it reminded him of worms.

No matter where he goes, he seemed to always encounter insects.

Night's eyes widened at that moment. His momentary useless thought made him remember something that could give him a single advantage in this fight.

'Rafael.'

[Yes, master?]

'Open my inventory.'

[Sure, but why?]

'Enough with the questions and do it.'

A window reflected in his retina. There were rows and columns filled with nothing except for the first two boxes.

An unknown black orb and a magic crystal that shone thousands of colors. Night reached his hand forward, his eyes could see through the empty cells in his inventory and watched as the three wraiths stopped wriggling their arms and focused on his movements.

As his hands reached, it came to the point where his hands were enveloped in coldness and disappeared in space after being covered with a blue hue.

After his hand disappeared, he could instantly feel a round object in his palms. Unlike the coldness he felt when his hand went inside the inventory, the black orb sent a different coldness through his skin.

It was the cold that only people on the verge of death could feel. Night took his hand out of the inventory, and his eyes squinted at the object in his hand.

"Although I feel iffy about using this, but it's for my survival."

He could not complain about using the black orb because his life was on the line for real this time.

[Master, that's...]

Night ignored Rafael and took the black orb to his face. He didn't let his hesitation hinder his actions as he opened his mouth and popped the black orb inside.

[Master!]

'Of course!'

Night fell to his knees. There was no way swallowing something as big as his fist would be easy.

"Mmph!"

Night trembled as he tried to push it through his throat using his hands. He stretched his neck and glanced at the wraiths.

The sides of his trembling lips stretched after seeing the wraith's tentacle-like arms wriggling again.

"Those bastards... Just you wait, I'll destroy you-umph!"

Night's upper body tilted to the front, and he almost fell face first on the muddy ground if not for his arm stopping his body.

The coldness of death. The moments after a person breathes his last when the soul leaves the body and wanders and dies. It was slowly spreading through his whole being.

[Why did you swallow that thing?!]

'Am I not supposed to swallow it?'

Night thought that swallowing the black orb was the most natural thing to do.

[Be honest with me! You reading fantasy novels rather than the newspapers, weren't you!]

'Just tell me what I'm supposed to do.'

[I can't. I'm still bound by the cooldown!]

"Haa. Shit."

Night ignored the coldness filling his whole system up and stood up. It has been five minutes since he started wasting his time chatting away.

It was a miracle that the wraiths didn't attack him during that too long commercial.

"Aren't you too confident in yourself."

[Aren't you the overconfident one, master?]