9. Lurking Danger

The next morning, Mai woke up with pain in her back, feeling as though she had slept on a rock last night. Yesterday, she had also slept poorly.

"When will I sleep well again?"

*Ping*

Quest: Heal 

Time limit: 1 day 

Skill Points: 10 

She furrowed her eyebrows at the sight of the quest screen.

Again? She had ignored it yesterday, but nothing had happened, so she chose to do it again.

"Where did I get skill points from?"

Was it because she had healed the man from last night?

She distributed the points again.

Attack: 5 

Crit: 4 

Pierce: 3 

Resilience: 1 

Defense: 1 

Block: 1

"Those numbers are really low. Does it even make a difference?"

Today, she finally made it to work without disturbances from Waves. While putting books in place, she thought about the beasts and the man she had met last night. She looked at her hands and suddenly felt the warmth of his chest. She had not experienced side effects, only a slight pain in her back. So far, she had only healed normal people and no S class.

"How did I heal him in the first place? Was it the stats?"

The skill points couldn't possibly have anything to do with her heal since it was offensive, and healing was the opposite. She had managed to defeat chimeras beyond the boss.

Suddenly, an old man with long white hair approached her, that was Flint.

"Is it difficult to sort fiction?"

"I've been a bit under the weather for the past few days. Can I leave early?"

"Of course. It's hard to find someone like you these days. Your health is the most important."

Mai hurried home and took out an orange, cutting it in half. She healed it immediately and felt no hangover. Her quest still had not been completed, so she was now forced to heal people. She entered the Essence Forum, which covered all topics about Essence in the world, and skimmed through them all but found nothing close to her experience. She tried looking for topics on death and boss killings, leading to Hunter and Predator. Suddenly, a topic caught her attention.

Thread starter: "I saw death, and it was a man. I was killed by a boss and woke up in a dark room, and a man was staring at me. He said it wasn't time yet and sent me back."

Comment 1: "Dude. Are you sure you didn't hallucinate?" 

Comment 2: "Are you on medication?" 

Comment 3: "I also saw a dark room... my anus."

Comment 4: "Realistically, we can't die since we have Essence, and the more we have in our bodies, the longer we live. We keep ourselves much younger than our previous generations from before Essence came. Take God Ezekiel as an example. He was 35 when Essence arrived, but he hasn't gotten a single wrinkle on his face, and no one uses Botox anymore. Maybe you hallucinated. I would advise you to visit the Spirit Temple and talk to a guide."

Comment 5: "Spirit Temple is nonsense. It's just normal people sitting there, but the only difference is that they have their heads up their asses all the time. They gorge themselves and laugh at us every time we deliver a Spirit Pearl to them."

Comment 6: "I am John from the Spirit Temple, and we don't gorge ourselves. Where on earth did you get that information?"

Comment 5: "Are you sure you're from the Spirit Temple? I heard they're not allowed to use electronic devices."

Comment 6: "Dude, take a chill pill and go to bed. I have a Spirit Pearl to retrieve so I can gorge myself."

Mai furrowed her brow, becoming more confused by reading the comments than finding her answer.

"Who the hell has so much spare time to insult others online? The world is still the same, just with magic."

She sighed and chose to start her own thread.

Anonymous: "I have seen a..." 

How should she phrase it without getting snarky comments like the other guy?

Anonymous: "I have seen a gigantic Spirit Pearl in a dark place after I died. Don't ask me where because I have no idea. Has anyone else experienced the same?"

It only took a few minutes before her phone reacted.

*Ping*

Followed by repeated pings, she checked her thread and saw a flood of responses. Her heart pounded fast, but she dared not read them all, afraid they'd label her as crazy. She checked the first few responses.

Comment 1: "Dead and seen a Spirit Pearl? Where?"

Comment 2: "I would like to buy your Spirit Pearl. Tell me where you found it."

Comment 3: "If you really have a Spirit Pearl, it's mandatory to deliver it directly to the Spirit Temple, especially with that size. Be careful not to get arrested; they have a Spirit Pearl tracker."

Comment 4: "Hey dude. Your experience is a bit like mine, but when I died, I saw a person. If I swung that way, I would have jumped on him because he was really handsome."

Comment 5: "Tell me your address, and I'll gladly bring the Spirit Pearl to the Spirit Temple."

Mai furrowed her eyebrows and locked her phone. I'm no dude! Since when had the Spirit Temple created a Spirit Tracker? People had completely ignored her question, which was why she hated using social media.

The next morning, Mai was awakened early with a terrible burning pain in her left chest. She crawled out of bed, looked in the mirror, and pulled down her nightshirt. There was a purple mark of a flower, and when she touched it, she felt a burning sensation. Her heart began to tingle, and she got a dry throat, coughing.

"What the hell? Where did this come from?"

She placed a wet, cold cloth on it.

*Sizzle*

The cloth began to corrode away, and an intense smell of acid and burnt spread in the room.

"There goes that washcloth. Odd that my shirt didn't break. Does it have anything to do with me wearing it?"

She couldn't sleep and took Kenta for an early morning walk, which he didn't decline. Her breath was visible, and the air felt extremely cold, like below -10 degrees, which was really cold in Denmark. She had already experienced something in the park and chose to take the sea park, but it could only be a short trip as she was concerned about Kenta's body. She was sure he could withstand the cold since every day for three years, she had injected Essence into him—not that anything happened, but she hoped it would prolong his life.

With Essence, one could sense magical things and surroundings, but unfortunately, Mai was bad at it, or her Essence just didn't bother helping her beyond that. Additionally, she also had a poor sense of direction.

When she reached the end of the dog path and arrived at the playground, which was the beginning of the park, she felt that she was being watched and looked around but saw nothing. The sun's red rays had appeared in the sky, illuminating the area. She was the only one present and furrowed her eyebrows.

"Where are the other dog owners?"

She walked forward slowly, staying attentive to her surroundings. Suddenly, Kenta pulled violently on the leash, dragging her to the right towards something dark lying on the grass. She approached and stopped a meter away from it.

There lay a dead person on his back with an open mouth, and it seemed like his body had shrunk or something had dried him out; he resembled a mummy. Next to him lay a small white terrier that also appeared shriveled.

Mai was terrified of mummies and always avoided the Egyptian section in museums. Shriveled skin and protruding teeth were just so disgusting! She quickly pulled Kenta away, who eagerly wanted to sniff the man.

As she headed home, she noticed other dark, shadow-like silhouettes scattered around the meadow, and something dawned on her. Her heart pounded rapidly, and she felt a knot in her throat. They are all dog owners!

She now pulled hard on the leash and briskly walked back to the bike path.

*Swish*

A long, thick icicle came flying from behind, narrowly brushing the right side of her hair.

"Tch. A miss." said a man.

"Let me try." said a woman's voice.

Mai turned slowly, and Kenta began growling loudly.

There stood a woman and a man with blue skin and black hair with gills near their ears, wearing very little clothing.

The man had a pair of black leather pants with a slim bare torso displaying visible muscles, and he wore wide leather bracelets.

The woman wore a thigh-length black leather skirt and a matching strapless bikini top.

Their eyes were yellow, and as Mai looked closer, she spotted glistening fish scales on their skin. Their breath was visible, but their bodies didn't shiver.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, it can talk. Can I keep her?" The man burst into laughter and looked at the woman beside him.

The woman furrowed her eyebrows and shot Mai a sharp glance.

"You want to keep that? She'll break before you can catch her." Her words were not reassuring.

Mai prepared herself and released Kenta, who stood by her side. She clenched her fists under her black leather gloves and took deep breaths.

"The one who reaches her first wins," said the man, making a quick move and running towards Mai at full speed, who didn't react in time before she felt a cool hand clamp around her throat.

She struggled to breathe but kept her head cool.

Kenta barked violently at the man but did not attack. He could only bark and was a big coward, only attacking other dogs if they bothered him.

The man tightened his grip on her throat while staring deeply into her eyes with his reptilian eyes, resembling those of a fish.

Suddenly, he stopped and furrowed his eyebrows. "Why aren't you screaming for help? Aren't you afraid of dying?"