Cold sweat ran down Gaius’ spine, and he got up from his bed, rubbing his neck furiously.

“What a dream,” he muttered. “Am I going crazy with the need to fight?”

For the past few days, his dreams had been filled with fights. In those dreams he had, Gaius was in the Holy Temple’s treasure vault, acting as the guardian. Most of them had been good entertainment for him, although the enemies he faced had grown stronger and stronger over time. In fact, some of them were so lifelike that Gaius had the feeling that he could write a novel or a book about them.

It was a rather novel experience, since the body he had during those dreams was far weaker than his current one. The last battle, the one that had woke him up, was particularly exciting too, although his memories about it was beginning to fade. But it was one of those rare times when he was defeated…as to how, Gaius had the feeling that it was due to him being overly-anxious.

The boy looked around the house. His eyes fell upon his apprentice, La-Ti, who was busily snoozing off on a mattress of his own. A few days had passed since Weiwu had brought him into that weird place — it was apparently called Podia by those from Orb — to watch a few people breakthrough. But none of that mattered in the face of the few masterpieces he’d created shortly afterwards, and the rich young fellows who had ordered them left happily.

Ever since then, Gaius had returned to carving little sculptures of everything he laid his eyes on or in his memory. Things like a sculpture of a sculptor sculpting, or a young boy doing a handstand, or a little mushroom cloud. Most of them were curios that were snapped up by people foreign to City No.2558, but he had received a few orders for more lifesized statues.

The boy tried to yawn, but the fatigue he was feeling didn’t really exist, now that he was up and awake. The moon was still high in the sky, but since Gaius couldn’t sleep, he slipped off his bed and headed outside. A few flips later, he was sitting on the roof, watching the quiet street.

He had lost track of time, with such his focus on carving and living here. For one, he didn’t want to think about the others he’d left behind on Orb, but thankfully, he had gotten Xanadu to live with them. They were probably worried, but since his wounds were probably healing at a somewhat visible rate, it wouldn’t be such an issue.

He turned his gaze to the quiet moon, and then thought of the world outside Cybral. The Orb outside didn’t have a day-night cycle, which meant that this Cybral was probably using the other Orb as a reference…but how did they even get such a reference? From what the Chanter of Innocents said, this Cybral had been up and running long before he actually took notice of it, so…

“Let’s not think too much about this,” Gaius muttered to himself. “I get a feeling that anything I think of will affect me. I’ve enough on my plate as it stands already, so…”

He leaned back on the roof and enjoyed the cold night wind. Other than the occasional creak, it was tranquil out there. Right now, he could hear the steady breathing of his apprentice, the whispering wind and the sounds of people beating each other up.

Gaius got up. “I suppose that last one isn’t really a regular occurrence, is it?”

The wind answered him by puffing some cold air at his face, and the boy rolled his eyes. Now that he was paying attention to the faint battlecries and the sounds of fighting, courtesy of the wind, Gaius couldn’t really not ignore it. Sliding off the roof, he followed the sounds of someone being beaten up one-sidedly. It just so happened that he was feeling somewhat frustrated at being killed in his dreams, so the boy was willing to intervene for once.

He soon arrived at a rather sorry sight. A group of five adult men were beating someone in a gunny sack with kicks and sticks. All Gaius needed was one look to ascertain that these fellows weren’t anything good — they looked like the dregs of a criminal underworld trying to earn their keep.

But since you could sustain yourself by eating even debris, the pursuit of better tasting food — or to put it bluntly, greed — is why you’ve accepted someone’s commission to beat another person up. Gaius shook his head. Even in this pseudo-utopia, things like these still happened. He wasn’t going to intervene in every little wrong in this world, but if anything like this caught his attention, then so be it.

Maybe it was fate. Or something. Gaius wasn’t too sure.

Walking over to the group of five beating up the poor sod inside, his body flickered, turning into a shadow that struck all five of them at once. Even without the mystical properties of qi, a whole bunch of passive Abilities had made him into a monster in this mundane world. Gaius had the feeling that he was the equivalent of a one-man army right now, as five bodies dropped like sacks of potatoes.

Most of them would wake up tomorrow with a pounding headache, but that was all. As far as Gaius knew, their current forms were that of souls, so there really wasn’t anything called permanent harm to their body.

The fellow in the gunny sack trembled and writhed, clearly waiting for another renewed round of beatings. Gaius watched interestedly as the realisation that the beatings had ended dawned on him or her, and after a few minutes, the person inside wriggled out of the sack.

One man and one boy looked at each other in silence.

“Meep?”

Gaius blinked twice, and then meeped back.

“Uh. Meep. I suppose you don’t know who saved me, do you?” the man asked. “Well, whatever. Here, take this.”

“Huh?” Gaius caught a small box. “What’s this?”

“The reason why they were beating me up. Someone important wants it, and I don’t dare to toss it aside.” The man got to his feet. “Good luck, kid! Give it to someone important if you value your life! I’m skipping town. Too many people want me gone.”

Before he could say anything in reply, the man had fled, turning into a little figure that vanished into the night. Gaius could catch up with him, but the little box had caught his attention. It was the size of his palm, and there was apparently something inside.

Popping it in his pocket, Gaius decided to return home. It was better to inspect his new spoils there, rather than around here, in a place that was definitely a crime scene. It didn’t take long for him to reach his little makeshift courtyard and resume his place on the roof.