I glance at the sleeping Hisako then at the long stick I’m holding. It’s been seven hours since our encounter with the horse-lizard, and I don’t think it’s going to pursue us seeing as it still hasn't shown up. But now I have another problem, Hisako lost consciousness during my escape and she stayed asleep since then. Guarding her is boring, I’ve already done a round of flash sleeping, and went and grabbed her bag.

So, obviously, I do what any gentleman in my situation will do, and poke her cheek with a stick.

She frowns and mumbles something, but she’s still asleep. I poke her with more force, and this time I provoke a stronger reaction, but her eyes remained closed.

Damn, how can a person sleep so heavily!

She blinks a few times and yawns before her eyes focus on me, she sighs. “Do I even want to know what you’re doing?”

I don’t say anything and throw the stick away before focusing on a particularly interesting blade of grass.

“You know what, I don't even care," she says in a disinterested voice. “Could I have some clothes, or do you plan on making me walk around half naked?”

“… Well, if you insist then-”

A rock barely misses my head, “I can see my bag from here, you degenerate!”

I hand her the large bag I teleported from the river while doing my best to sneak a peek at her uncovered chest barely hidden by the blanket. But I don’t see anything, and the look of pure hatred in her eyes is enough to make me stop in my tracks. I don’t really care about her opinion of me but I bet she can be even more annoying.

She snarls, “Turn around!” and I do as she says.

“Did the Spirit pursue us?” she asks before handing me the blanket I used to cover her up.

I guess Spirit refers to the creature that attacked us? Spirit does certainly sound like a better name compared to horse-lizard…

“Not at all, so we should be safe, and you can keep the blanket.”

She raises an eyebrow, “Really? Something of this quality could fetch a good price. I’m not going to dissuade you though.” she says, shrugging as she shoves the blanket into her backpack.

Good, I don’t want this dollar store blanket covered in alien germs anywhere near me.

“So where are we off to?” I ask Hisako, who looks around for a minute before focusing back on me.

“We are near the mountains, so we should arrive at the mine in two hours, but…” she flinches when I take my Portal Gun out.

“I’m not going to use that thing; I don’t want you to make me sick again, so we’ll walk.”

I sigh and store my Portal Gun, her being sick was what caused our encounter with the Spirit, so I don’t want a repeat of what happened. We were lucky to get out of this confrontation in one piece: I couldn’t damage that Spirit at all and it shattered my shield with a single glance. Furthermore, I’m certain that a fight against it would fall into a deadlock. No amount of Rewinds would allow me to be victorious so I better lay low for now.

I sincerely hope we’re not going to cross its path again, because teleporting it away isn’t likely to work a second time.

I follow Hisako while thinking back on the encounter with the Spirit; my bullets just bounced off its body without leaving a trace. It doesn’t bode well for my future fight with the Scalebound Patriarch since there's no way for the leader of a powerful Family of Enforcers to be weaker than some random beast from an uncharted planet.

Maybe a spell jammer could stop spells from blocking my bullets, but what should I do if the resistance is purely physical? And there’s no guarantee that the Goblin actually has any useful information, so I shouldn’t count on the jammer in the first place…

Another option would be to replace the bullets themselves. But I don’t believe I’d be able to surpass the Exploding Growth Bullets. And another session of intense training isn’t something I want to experience again unless it’s absolutely the last resort, so I’ll have to look into alternative solutions.

The large mana explosion was pretty effective against the Black Claws, so maybe I could try to turn it into a weapon? Although I feel like I won’t have enough space on the bullets to engrave the runes needed to absorb that much power so quickly.

However, Hisako mentioned some sort of spatial storage, so it could be useful to cram a lot of artifacts that are made to explode in one place. I could maybe make some kind of bomb… But I bet spatial storage isn’t easy

“Hey Hisako, can I ask you something?” She doesn’t say anything, so I continue. “I was wondering, what do you know about spatial storage?”

She says nothing for a while before answering, “Nothing much, I only know that it can only be made by a master smith. Now could you stop talking? You’re annoying.”

Remember that punching your guide in the face isn’t going to do you any good, so stay calm…

Jesus, I regret saving her.

But I need her, and the sooner we clear that mine the sooner I’ll get my information, and I’ll finally be away from her. Of course, I’ll also try to get information about spatial storage from the chief once I get back. If he reveals something to me then I’ll have to find a way to steal whatever’s needed to make a spatial bag.

I hope it isn’t too big; otherwise, I might not be able to use my Portal Gun to make the items mysteriously disappear.

Uhh, why is everything so difficult? I can’t wait to be off this damn planet…

We travel in complete silence for the next two hours; I pass the time by thinking about potential new weapons while Hisako probably doesn’t have the brainpower to think about anything more than walking forward.

"We're here." She says while pointing towards a part of the mountainside. I can barely distinguish it for the rest of the rocky surface, but there's a faded path that betrays the location of the sealed entrance.

“So how do we enter?” I ask while tapping on some rocks.

“That’s your problem, not mine. But our Clan sealed this mine with their best techniques, so you won’t be able to-”

A large rock hitting the ground interrupts her.

“I’m very impressed by those techniques," I say while chucking rocks away until I clear out a passageway large enough for a man to pass through.

“This shouldn’t be possible…” she mutters under her breath, but I ignore her since a good sealing technique for their Clan is probably just using wet mud as a mortar between the rocks.

“Now, are we going in?” I ask before pointing towards the dark mineshaft.

She nods and readies her sword after I enter the dark cave. The surroundings flicker for a second while the armor adapts to the light, it stops when I can see like I’m in the middle of a sunny day.

We slowly progress into the narrowing corridors carved into the rocks, and I notice old rusty pickaxes on the floor along with rotted clothes.

The Elder wasn’t kidding when he said that the miners just disappeared… It looks like they vanished in an instant.

I can’t help but gulp, something that can make a large group of people disappear in an instant doesn’t sound like a fun adversary. All I can do is hope that it isn’t another Spirit.

We reach an intersection, “left or right?” I ask.

She looks around and narrows her eyes, “Something’s not right…”

I look around and finally notice what caught her attention; an arrow was recently engraved into the mineshaft’s wall.

“I can also feel faint traces of World Energy around the area. Someone’s definitely been here before us. We should be careful, the mark on the wall looks to be pretty recent so it’s very likely that whoever engraved that is still in the mine.”

I nod and tighten my grip on my pistol while we go deeper into the rather steep man-made cavern. A rumble suddenly erupts under my feet and causes clouds of dust to fill the corridor.

Fuck, what was that? Maybe it’s an ambush!

I sweep the area with my weapon, ready to pull the trigger as soon as I spot the slightest movement. I also keep a close eye on Hisako; she doesn’t have any way to filter the surrounding air, so she's forced to inhale a large amount of dust with each breath. Her dying of respiratory failure would be more than annoying, since I would have to find a way to protect her.

A few minutes pass and the dust finally settle down. Hisako stops coughing and looks around with panicked eyes. "What was that?"

"No idea," I answer while scanning the area. "Are you going to be all right?"

She glares at me and shakes off the dust on her clothes, "I'm not so weak to be disabled by mere dust!"

Jesus, could she be any more annoying?

I shake my head, antagonizing her even further isn’t going to help anyone. Right now, I need to focus on what caused the rumble. Was it the person who made the mark? Or is it what caused the disappearance of the miners?

Whatever it is, I hope it isn’t immune to bullets.

Another rumble shakes the cavern; the shock is greater than the last one so that must mean we’re getting closer. Hisako, who covered her face with a handkerchief to stop the dust from entering her lungs, look around the area.

“It’s coming from beneath us, I can feel it!” Her panda-like ears on top of her head twitch and her body tenses up.

“Can you hear that?” she asks.

“Hear what?”

The woman sigh, “Of course, what could I expect from you… But there’s an ongoing battle near us, it’s probably what’s causing all those shockwaves. And whoever is responsible for those rumbles must be pretty powerful…”

I sigh; with my luck, I bet there’s a hungry Balrog down there. Or worse, maybe the guy before us awakened some ancient doomsday demon who wants to destroy the planet or something. If that’s the case, I’m bailing out. I’d rather wait for another week while the Scanner finds another planet than deal with some ancient evil.

My senses are in full alert as we progress down the mineshaft. I notice that the cavern gets narrower, and the edges look rougher than the rest of the tunnel. But the rocks around us somehow seem to be smoother, almost flawless despite being clearly smashed to pieces.

Looks like they were in the process of extending the tunnel, so-

My thoughts are interrupted by a sliver of light and sound of metal hitting metal coming from a sharp turn in the tunnel. I crouch near the corner and lean just enough to get a glimpse of what's on the other side.

Fuck, this doesn’t sound good. If these people can make the entire fucking mountain shake just by crossing swords then I’m in deep shit.

What I see makes my jaw drop: The dull gray stone of the tunnel is gone, replaced by a deep-red, almost black, polished stone brick with a metallic sheen. There are a few rusty pickaxes strewn along the floor near the crude opening in the bricks, so I can pretty much guess what happened.

The miners found the wall of bricks when they were expanding the mine, and they did the most reasonable thing when faced with an unknown and ominous buried construct.

They went at it with their pickaxes until they broke through.

And what was sealed in that room made them its dinner.

For crying out loud, why am I always right about the worse things?

Another rumble takes me out of my thoughts, and I lean just a bit more to get a better view on the battle. A crouched dog-eared man was waving a metal rod over a small iron plate while another one wielding a thin sword was jumping around. A weird iron backpack near the man with the wand provides the light that I saw earlier.

Their adversary is… hard to describe. It looks like a tall, cat-eared man with a deformed face made of bright yellow light clad in thin plate armor. But, while the top is normal looking, his unarmored bottom half reveals a set of goat-like hind legs covered in thick pulsing veins.

“What the fuck is this?” I ask Hisako who looks at the unfolding battle with an open mouth.

Please don’t be some ancient legendary bullshit. Or I’m fucking out of here.

She blinks a few times, and almost jump back when the man with the sword strikes the figure, causing a shockwave to propagate through the mine’s walls. “I have no idea… But this is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. The amount of World Energy coming from this thing is so enormous, I’m-”

The figure deflects another strike and sends the man with the sword crashing into a wall, causing a small crater to form around the now limp swordsman.

“You bastard!” the one with the wand grits his teeth and point at his opponent with his wand. The plate at his feet lights up and rumble, and the Spirit that attacked us yesterday suddenly appears!

The Spirit rushes towards its target before I can understand what’s going on, so I turn towards Hisako who just look as dumbfounded as me.

Looks like summoning a Spirit isn’t normal, I wonder who those guys are, and what they are doing here… And also who their opponent is. But maybe this fight will tire them, so I should be able to take on the winner without too much difficulty.

A shockwave that nearly knocks me off my feet forces me to focus back on the battle. The man is kneeling with his eyes closed, he’s moving his wand as fast as he can while tremors course through his entire body.

Meanwhile, the figure just stopped the Spirit’s charge with a raised palm, and a smile full of disdain creeps on his corrupted face.

“Tsk… This is just a pale imitation! Who do you think I am?”

An imitation?! What-

My thoughts grind to a halt when the figure flicked his wrist, causing the Spirit to emit a pathetic shriek before disappearing into a thin cloud of mist that quickly dissipated. The figure doesn't stop here and pierces the man who didn't even have the time to open his eyes. The cat-eared man’s hand goes right through the other’s torso and he rips out his opponent’s still beating heart before crushing it between his fingers.

A trail of red mist comes out of his hand and it goes into his torso, causing him to become a bit less transparent.

Yeah, that doesn’t bode well. But he should be somewhat tired after that fight, so maybe I have a chance.

His empty eyes then focus on us and his smile gets even wider, revealing a set of mangled shark-like teeth.

"Fresh blood!" he screams before light gathers into his eyes.

Hisako screams and is forced to her knees while blood pours out of her mouth. I can’t do anything since a tremendous pressure suddenly forces me to the ground. My Glove exhausts it’s ammunition in less than a second and my armor groans before giving out under the pressure. Blood fills my throat and muffles my screams as pieces of metal pierce my flesh while the enchantments desperately struggle against the unstoppable pressure.

Quick, I have to-

It takes all of my willpower and an immense amount of pain to move my fingers to press the button hidden in my left palm.

Please work, please work…

I sigh with relief when the pressure suddenly lessens, but my happiness only last for a second when I realize that the world hasn't shifted.

It means I didn’t Rewind.

“Interesting, truly interesting…” the figure approaches me with devious eyes.

Hisako tries to move and only manage to groan; the figure turns his hideous head towards the woman. "I don't want to waste my time on trash," he says.

A single glance from the figure is enough to make her explode into a shower of blood and entrails. He chuckles before focusing back on me.

Fuck, no! I need to Rewind as soon as possible! This bastard is too powerful!

“I can’t sense a single speck of World Energy coming from you, yet you survived my aura…” he steps towards me and I frantically click the button, but nothing happens.

Shit, the pressure probably broke the phone! Why didn’t I reinforce the phone? I’m a fucking idiot!

My only hope now resides in my other phone stored in the most reinforced part of the armor that’s still relatively intact. But I can’t possibly use it no matter how much I struggle; the pressure doesn’t allow me to move!

“And your body can certainly take a beating…” The pressure increases near my knees and the joints explode before regenerating a second later. They explode a few times before the monster is satisfied, and he finally stops breaking my knees after what feels like an eternity.

The abomination ignores the pained profanities coming out of my mouth and takes another step towards me.

“I’m currently in need of a body to leave this prison, and yours caught my attention, it has some interesting properties and it isn’t defended at all, so…” He turns into a beam and enters my head, causing me to lose consciousness.