Nada nodded, "true that."
"Are you both going to just ignore me and lose time?" Aefia asked, standing by an open door with folded arms. At her hand was a brochure that wasn't there five minutes ago. "Hurry up, the gates are closing within the next thirty minutes. And Nada... You know what I mean."
"Yes, I know." She immediately climbed the steps faster, catching up to her while Helio followed a step back. He didn't have the strength and confidence to ask anymore questions.
Though he did have one last about the novel.
The room that Aefia led them to, was filled with people. Almost all were adults. Most were nobles and others rich merchants.
"I suppose we should start controlling our mouths from here," Aefia warned without a backward glance. "But for now, our mission is something else."
Nada's eyes lit up. "Wait... The dragon blood. Right?"
"Yes." She nodded, turning on her heels to take a left turn. She stuck to the shadows, making almost no sound. Her hands trailed along the wall as she searched eagerly for something. She knocked twice.
Aefia pressed her ear against the wall. Then, her eyes widened in surprise.
She turned back to their place. "The room opposite this," she whispered frantically. Without word, she stormed towards that area. The identity card at her neck snapping in the air for whoever was looking her way.
Helio looked at Nada for approval, before taking off behind her too.
Aefia raced down flights of stairs into the basement which had been constricted for 'regular customers'. Her steps grew heavier and heavier as she came into a secret room that looked immediately put of place.
"Found... It...!" She heaved, a small smile surfacing on her face. "It was really hard... Wasn't it?"
Nada scoffed, stepping forward. "Well if you say it, then yes."
She rolled her eyes in response. The only person so oddly quiet was Helio. He only watched and kept it in memory.
They were huge double-doors that anyone would have usually seen in any fantasy movie, anime or webtoons.
Nada stepped forward to press her hand against them, pushing it forward with just a slight pressure. But that small force slammed the doors open entirely.
He stared in astonishment and shock. What... was that?! Is this why she is the protagonist?!
Ice-crystals formed at either sides of the doors. She dusted off the few snowflakes at her hands on her clothes. Slowly, her head turned over her shoulder to face their Squad Leader.
"Do you recall how readers get more and more powerful when they transmigrate into a novel?" She asked with a tilt of her head. "The same logic goes here. It is fact that the readers know much about the skills already, so they can use them all to the maximum limit stated in the novel. In our one, it is limitless."
"I see..." He gulped. "That is... Impressive."
"Sasha is also this powerful," Aefia chimed in from the other side, resting her hands against her the flatside sword at her shoulder. "Actually, she can demonstrate even more skills because hers has a range. She can vary."
His eyebrows creased. "Why are you telling me that?"
"I don't know?" She shurgged in response. "Maybe because I have an ounce of humanity left in me and I want to use it to keep at least one Sunny Pest alive. And keeping you alive will save perhaps a hundred lives someday. You have the healing element, a very precious thing for mankind."
"You speak like someone who has more wisdom then your grandma. But thanks though," he replied, matching her tone. Then, that question flashed by in his mind. He surpressed it for now.
"If you are quite done, let's head in. The doors slam shut to keep the rest of the basement out of attention." Nada said, pointing her thumb at the inside.
They walked in, and as soon as the threshold was crossed, the entire foundation shook. The space clamping shut.
The ceiling was out of reach and deep in the dark. The dim area was becoming a problem and a restriction.
Suddenly, a small light source illuminated the area around them. It was from Aefia's palm.
She turned it upside-down, and slammed her fingers onto it. The room exploded back to total darkness, before the oil-lamps on the pillars lit up abruptly.
The walls were like a piece of space taken and compressed into a block. Stars lined every border and pattern. The ceiling was still too dark to even know where it ended.
Helio scratched his head, in irritation, frustration and severely clueless. "Hey! What did you do?!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Aefia.
"What did I do?" She raised an eyebrow.
Nada turned around curiously. "Yeah, I was going to ask the same thing," she looked at Helio.
"She just—she did—that! She did that!" He pointed at the fires on the lamps. "How?! Wasn't her power 'Instincts?! And wasn't it the weakest?!"
A moment of awkward silence downed around them. Then, Nada broke into a laugh.
"Seriously? You believe the faculty?" She asked, tilting her head as if she found the question amusing. "Trust me. That 'Instinct' stone carries powers far beyond your imagination. And it might even save us all someday. You just haven't seen what that thing can do just yet."
"But what can it actually do?! Is it even Instincts element or is a Fire element?!" He yanked at his hair.
"Pfft—" Aefia muffled back a laugh behind her fist. "Calm down rookie. You still know shit about this world. But you will adjust in no time—or at least I assume it is. And my assumptions never come true."
"Shut it!" Helio shot at her. "You are one suspicious beast!"
"I gladly take that title. It feels like it gives me that high-authority." She waved her hand in a dismissive way, walking towards the centre of the room.
Right there, sat a large sleeping dragon with silver scales and blue details. Its horns were each at least fifteen feet tall, and its tail was two school buses long. Its face and snout was massive.
The Sleeping Dragon.
In folktale, this very dragon had the power of destroying cities if only enraged once. Though in the novel, it is said that this was made up by a clan of people who used to worship this very dragon, that the real folklore is this dragon is normally an uncontrollable single-time ally. So it would destroy anything it didn't need anymore at the end out of greed and arrogance.
Nada stepped forward, moving past the safety-zone. "If we need the 'Dragon Blood', we need to abominate this creature."
Helio stared with disbelieve. "Wait. Isn't it going a bit too far? Who knows what will happen if you even wake that thing!"
"Nothing will happen—" Aefia begun.
"Shut up! You make things worse!" Helio pointed a finger at her. "I want to hear from Nada."
Aefia simply chuckled and clasped her hands behind her, turning silent.
"It is easy thing to defeat this thing anyways. I don't think I need help anyway." She answered, letting out a sigh. "Step back, please."
Helio looked over at Aefia, who simply shrugged at him while walking backwards like how Nada had requested. Noticing this, he stepped back too.
Slowly, she reached out her own hand towards the air above her head. From thin air, a shape flashed in bright colours before revealing itself to be a spear. A dark blue and white combination with her element lining the shaft.
She lifted it high into the air, and brought it down onto the concrete ground. Ice coated the floor around Nada.
Sensing the disturbance, the dragon began to steer. Its yellow eyes locked onto the girl standing right in front of it. But she made no move to step away. A wind rose around the space, as the dragon stood up to it's full height and let out a roar.
Helio immediately gasped and raised a hand to block it, his eyes tracking normally towards where Aefia stood. Her expression immediately made his eyes widen.
She wasn't blocking any debris, and her face was stiff with seriousness. Her eyes tracking the beast, while her pupils narrowed.
Sensing his stare, she turned her head slightly. "Just so you know, and in case Nada hasn't told you yet... Like in games, we all have ultimates that we can cast for the most critical damage to the opponent. We have normal attacks, special attack, special skill and an ultimate."
He slowly lowered his arm, gaining a bit of confidence. "You know about the novel too?"
She raised a hand to rub her forehead as she let out a sigh. "Stop acting like Nada hadn't told you. And you yourself have already said I was 'dumb unless for the novel'," she folded her arms.
He gritted his teeth, "yeah... But still, I have a question."
"What?" She asked, slowly releasing her hand as she held her sword at her side. The wind had just begun to die down.
He hesitated a bit before saying, "what kind of character were you in the novel?"
"..."
He waited for a long time, but no answer came. When he finally turned his head back at her face, he froze.
Her eyes were wide as if she was secretly panicking inside her mind, her hands trembling.
"...Fifteen?" He asked.
"So Nada hasn't told you yet...?" She asked, mumbling.
"What?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing.
She looked away. "Nothing."
He couldn't even force her to ask anymore. His gaze immediately followed hers, where Nada was mid-fight with the beast.
Somehow, she was demonstrating more skills here then she had in the first dungoen by the faculty. And honestly, he was amazed.
He watched the protagonist harm the scales at massive scales. The beast groaned in pain while its tail thrashed around to stop her.
The dragon raised a law high up from the ground, and slammed it down the place Nada was a few seconds ago.
The temperature in the room was going down rapidly. So much so that both Aefia and Helio were shivering subtly.
Suddenly, a bit of ice reflected off the scale of the dragon and headed towards their direction.
He snapped his eyes shut, waiting for the impact. But instead, he felt a sudden warmness envelope him from where the ice was. He peaked open one eye behind his arms.
"Calm down. I have already melted and evaporated it," Aefia said, dusted her hands a bit.
Then, she lifted her head back at Nada. "The dragon too is nearly finished at this rate." She looked back at him. "You should see what happens next. This is the first and probably the last time you get to see Nada use her special skill this way."
He removed his hands out of his face.
Nada slammed the tip of her spear onto the concrete. Then raised a bare hand. She breathed in through her mouth.
"Winter Blossom..."
The whole dragon froze over in the air, and stayed levitating as if stuck in time.
She pulled her hands back together, and the ice collapsed inward and bursted out in a shower of pink petals that rained down onto them. Helio looked dazed by the show, his mouth opening a bit to say something maybe, but then shut on itself as he held his hands out.
"It looks like I am standing underneath a cherry-blossom tree," he said while letting the collected petals fall to the ground.
"Correction... Winter Blossom." Aefia chimed in from beside him, a proud smile on her face as she watched Nada walk over to them. "And honestly? This is way more amazing in real-life then in a paperback description and a piece of imagination. That even makes me realize just how much everyone else missed when this novel wasn't mass-published."
He didn't reply, but did smile. "That sounds amazing. Though I wish to know what my special skill would look like?"
Aefia's face immediately dimmed as she looked away in annoyance. "Well... Healers supposedly have a very cool set of skills—not gonna lie..."
"Here... I got the artifact..." Nada panted while holding up a glass vile containing a shimmering blue liquid. "This... Should do... Right?"
Aefia helped Nada by becoming as support as her arms wrapped around her shoulders. "Leave the next part to me. This artifact is my work anyways..."
*********************
First draft: 10.11.2025
Rewritten: 01.10.2026