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Quicksand Dungeon of Time Pt. 1
TWO WEEKS had passed since the enchanted wild beasts mission—the mission that finally made Sophia and Solene friends. As usual, Solene snuck out of the headquarters every midnight, going to the forest to train. It became her habit now, since in order to get assigned to big missions, she must get stronger. And although her recent spell Breath of Chimera had been powerful, it took a lot of mana from her, which also resulted in her not fully able to control it.
However, she noticed that every time she trained, there seemed to be someone watching her. Her senses were sharp enough to recognize the same presence as she trained, even its location. At first, she was affrighted, thinking that someone could be spying on her. An enemy, a bandit, a kidnapper. There were endless possibilities.
But this time, she was determined to catch this mysterious person—and the time she realized her mana-sense wasn't that sharp.
Going to the wide clearing in the forest, she opened her grimoire. She already learned all her spells, but she thought it still wasn't enough to make her stronger. She needed a new one, more powerful than the others.
The leaves rustled from the trees. Her skin tingled as her peripheral caught a figure with a cape. Solene grinned.
The mysterious guy wasn't even trying to conceal his mana. Yet he was too bashful to approach Solene, who disappeared suddenly from her spot, leaving nothing but smoke.
"Got you!" Solene jumped in front of him, taking him by his shoulders—pinning him against the tree bark. "Huh? Lord William?"
The surprised masked captain froze, realizing what Solene did to him. "You really get better every time, Solene. That spell was impressive."
Solene flexed her muscles as if that contributed to her effective magic. "I call that Lampad Illusion! My flame figure looked realistic, huh?"
"Indeed it is." William said, looking at Solene's arms on his shoulders. "Uhm... can you let go of me now?"
"Nope!" Solene refused, moving her face closer to the captain. Captain or not—it didn't matter at this moment! "You have to explain why you're here—why you're always here. I will not let go until you answer me, so pardon me!"
A small curve formed on his lips. "Very well. I saw you training one time while I was resting on the balcony. That made me curious. I want to see how much you have improved."
William, deep inside him, had trouble sleeping. Even if he forced his eyes to shut down, it just won't happen. He didn't want to sleep anyway. His nightmares would haunt him, which was worse. Watching Solene was a good distraction for him not to submerge into those thoughts. And somehow, Solene did a good job calming those waves of thoughts.
Solene let go of him. "How about you train with me instead of being suspicious by watching me secretly?"
