NOVEL NEXT 0063
It was late at night and Sera was already asleep in the tent the two sisters shared. They were camping, as the physically more active girl had called it, though it wasn't much more than simply placing a tent a couple hundred meters away from the mansion, a bit into the forest of their families expansive property.
Though, while her sister did manage to persuade Sarah away from her books, she was still lying next to her sister, lost in thoughts. Thoughts, which were interrupted from a sudden realization.
"... No, this is wrong. So a dream again..." The still awake girl muttered.
Figuring out that she was in a dream was never the hard part, thanks to her memory. But unfortunately, just because she knew it was a dream, that didn't mean she could control it. She could think about whatever she wanted, yet the part of her mind responsible for creating dreams refused to produce anything but faithful recreations of her own past.
Well, the girl had some freedom. She could move her own body and interact with the people around her. She could still think about the problems she had in the real world. But anything more was impossible.
Unfortunately such freedom never meant much, as soon a chemical smell joined the young girls in the tent and drowsiness swept over Sarah's mind. The last thing she could then remember was the distant sound of falling people informing her about the fate of her guards.
Then the scene changed and she found herself on the cold floor of an empty expansive room. Kidnapped. Her hands tied behind her back, her legs bound to prevent her from escaping and tape over her mouth so she couldn't call for help. Not that potential help would have been nearby, as they were in a larger abandoned building somewhere in the city. A fact she would only learn later.
Her sister was already awake for a while and fighting against her own restraints, a fight she actually won. Though Sarah was well aware that it would be useless. Having regained her freedom, Sera quickly went over to her sister and started to work on the tape binding her hands.
"Wait a moment, i'll get you out!"
The first times she had this dream, Sarah tried to stop her sister, but by now she had given up on it and tried to just ignore what would follow.
Only seconds after her sister had started to handle the tape the door opened and one of the men, who had taken the girls for whatever reason, entered. Finding one of the girls no longer bound, he got enraged.
A kick.
A pain filled scream of her sister.
Then... she didn't want to remember and just dove in her thoughts.
Sarah had come to accept that there would be abductions, that people around her would suffer and die. For some reason she didn't even really care about what happened to others, aside from the hassle it would cause her family to get good guards again. But reliving certain moments rather helplessly was still hard, even when she tried to think logically and argue that everything was just a dream.
Maybe her mind even tried to reproduce her feelings she had back then.
If she had to guess why she had those dreams, it was likely the perfectionist part of her, who wanted to find ways to correct her past. Find better solutions. Escape with her own power. But while she did manage to actually solve some of her dreams thanks to her knowledge about the imminent future, more often than not there wasn't much she could do. Usually there were only moments until she was robbed of her freedom and even if she managed to warn her bodyguards, the attackers were more often than not prepared. In most cases she just made the situation worse.
Back then she was only a young girl with a strength far below the average and even later, while she had become more valuable for being a genius, her physical weakness didn't help her in such situations.
Similarly Sera did also become more valuable with all her talents, but as she also learned some self-defense techniques, she could at least fight back. It didn't always end well for her, but at least she didn't become a target as often.
By the time the girl returned to the reality of her dream, she and her now rather bruised looking sister were held by their kidnappers and standing in front of the building they had been kept in.
Surrounded by police and the members of whatever private security firm her parents had hired, the kidnappers tried to negotiate with guns held against their hostages' heads. An idiotic notion in Sarah's opinion, but those doing the kidnapping usually weren't the most intelligent. Those with a brain preferred to stay a good distance away to not accidentally catch a stray bullet should the crime fail, be it literally or figuratively.
Though Sarah had to correct herself.
This time the kidnappers actually had a brain. They just didn't use it, as the bullets of snipers quickly proved. Their timing prevented any other untimely deaths.
...Not that it would have mattered in her dreams. She even caused her own death in some of them so she wouldn't have to experience worse.
With the situation resolved the dream started to fade.
Fortunately the kidnapping that dream forced her to relive was a rather short one. Unfortunately it usually also meant that her brain found it adequate to add more.
Why couldn't she just wake up already...
Witnessing her teammate collapse, Nia quickly looked for potential attackers, yet failed to notice anything dangerous in the still sealed chamber. However that didn't make attacks impossible. With the right set of conditions one could still be vulnerable. Was it space magic? Time magic? Some other hard to track attack?
In a world of infinite possibilities the ways one could die were just as varied.
Though a look at the status of her party showed that the mage didn't suffer the worst fate, just a few more missing points in her health and being unconscious.
But why now?
The war was over. Sure grudges did exist, but people who gave in to those usually didn't make it far and those who did, would do more than simply cause a girl to pass out. Well, if it was a delayed attack of the time attribute it could be possible, though the attacker would still need to know where they were or would be...
However, just as she wanted to look after the girl in a more physical sense similar to her sister who had rushed over to her, Nia noticed the mage's mana value.
[Mana: 423/2060]
However, having over 2000 mana at level 39 was basically unheard of. Even most mages only got to 1000 at around double the girls level and while in some of the clans, churches and guilds, which try to min-max their members, they could push down the level by evolving affinities first, most mental classes still increase other attributes first. Therefore, by the time they reach 1000 mana, they would have decent physical values.
Physical values Sarah was likely missing, if Nia went by her rather low health and stamina.
Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue for a mage, however...
Looking at the unconscious girl and her sister who was about to give her a potion, Nia quickly acted.
"Stop!"
"Huh?" Stopping more out of surprise than actually registering what had been said, Sera looked to the guide.
"You will likely just make it worse with a potion." She added.
"Why?" The warrior questioned, wondering how a potion, which didn't seem to have any side effects, could cause issues.
"What are potions made out of?" Nia asked.
"Hm...Plants? Herbs?" Sera answered, not quite sure what the guide wanted with the question.
"Well, you aren't wrong, but mostly mana. And if i'm right, her condition is caused by mana. By her core, which is currently forming itself." Nia tried to explain.
"And that makes you pass out?" The twin tried to dig deeper. If people could just lose consciousness, that would be quite bad.
"Not normally. But Sarah has more than four times the mana of most other mage of her level and cores are normally formed once one reaches 1000 or more mana, 100 points in one's soul attribute. Now she has suddenly more than twice that value, low physical attributes which are even lower due to her current status condition and a low health. I've heard that some people, who purely focus on their mage class and, similarly to Sarah, rush past the 1000 points mark through quest rewards, feel a bit uncomfortable during the core formation, when their mana forms the somewhat unstable crystalline structures in the center of their bodies. Though even they don't have such a big gap of values as she.
Anyway, since i assume the condition comes from having too much mana in her still adjusting body, giving her a potion now would be suboptimal. ...At least as long as her health isn't further decreasing." Nia concluded, mostly based on her assumptions, as a case like Sarah's was likely a first in the Realms, but it seemed plausible.
And apparently Eas deemed it quite passable.
[Your Dimensional Guide class has reached Lv 25.]
[The Map skill has been awarded.]
Normally she would have looked up what the skill did or at least checked it's description for more information. Though for once, she already had that knowledge. Not because someone had taught her about it, or because she found information about it in a dungeon, but because a three dimensional map had been added to the overlay. It was currently showing their small chamber, yet with a thought she could easily zoom in or out, rotate the model and switch realms. Focusing on her faith based connections to others, she could even use the map for more efficient tracking.
[Your Map skill has reached Lv 1.]
Though as nice as the map was, most of it was just blank, apparently only adding locations she had already visited, seen or knew about. And while the skill showed a map of the Flame Sea Shore, she doubted it was in any way still accurate, after the realm became the Volcanic Rainforest.
Maybe not the most powerful skill for the moment, as it just helped her memory, but that might change once she got her spatial affinity.
Regardless, after quickly checking her skill, she joined the twin in watching over the unconscious girl.