"Excuse me?" Varian couldn't believe his ears.
The final attack of the Abyssal clone… was so targeted?
"The Space sub-systems are damaged. We can stay here and try to repair them back. We need to find the right materials. It could take days or months or even decades." The ghost floated in the air and reached Varian's eye level.
"Or we can return to outer space. You have one minute fifty, no, forty-five seconds before the take off space sub-system goes down."
The space ship shook. Varian suddenly felt the space around him, almost crushing him, before returning to normal.
In that brief moment, he was powerless against the solidification of space.
Varian tried to calm himself, but his heart pounded against his chest, threatening to break open. His throat parched, and he felt sweat rolling from every inch of his body.
"I'm barely holding the space systems together. Hurry up and choose." The white ghost said and the ship instantly crossed the white barrier.
Now inside the Dungeon, the threat of that deadly space binding was low.
"Phew. " Varian sat on the ground as he tried to think over the options.
Staying here was certainly beneficial. The resources, the magic beasts and, especially, the ambrosia. Perhaps he could find a more mature Ambrosia with the little ghost's help.
But the price was an uncertain return.
'What do I really want to do now?' As time continued to flow, Varian questioned himself.
'I want to get stronger, sure. But for what? I just want to get enough merit points, and find Sia.' He clenched his fist.
'I can grow stronger, but if it takes decades, then would the Sia be still there? It's been a year since mom passed away. Sia could've died as well.' Varian recalled his mother's serene smile as she uttered those words.
'Save Sia.'
"I will." His eyes gleamed with resolve.
His mean to her dream was growing stronger.
"One minute twenty seconds remaining." The little ghost reminded.
Varian glanced out of the window. One could see the outside from the spaceship, but outsiders couldn't see the inside.
He saw the white barrier, the gravel everywhere, and a few dried up red patches on the ground.
'Tsk.' He clicked his tongue in wonder.
It was the same location he fought the red-scaled rats.
"One minute, ten seconds remaining." The cute voice said.
Varian gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. "Fuck it. We're going back."
Even though this was an excellent training place, he had to leave.
"Are you sure? Once we start the outward journey, we can't go back. Not even a mile."
"I'm damn sure."
The cute white ghost smiled and nodded vigorously.
As it raised its hand, a luxurious golden seat appeared behind Varian and he sat down comfortably.
"We'll start. Fifty seconds remaining." The entire floor turned dark blue.
A small barrier was formed around the seat, and Varian presumed it was a protection mechanism.
"Wait! If you can, collect spacorts and space stones before we leave." Varian reminded in a hurry.
The little ghost looked at him in exasperation.
Varian felt his mouth twitch. "Forty-five seconds remaining. You better hurry up."
"Tch."
"What? You called me master multiple times. So you better follow the protocol." Varian played rogue.
He bet right. If it couldn't do it, it would reject him right away. But it didn't. So…
The little ghost gazed at him with wide, black eyes and sighed.
"Alright, master." The surroundings shifted and Varian saw a red light sweeping through the gravel all around.
There seemed to be a filter differentiating spacorts and space stones.
"Thirty Seconds."
The first space stone was collected.
"Twenty Seconds."
The third space stone entered along with a dozen spacorts.
"Ten seconds." Varian said in a low voice.
The seventh space stone was found.
As the countdown approached, the dark blue light continued to brighten.
"One second." Varian muttered.
Ten space stones and a heap of spacorts rested in the corner of the spaceship.
"We're off!" The little ghost announced and the dark blue light engulfed the ship.
Whoosh!
Creak!
Varian found themselves crossing the white barrier again and rushing into the endless, dark expanse.
Before he could question why, a blinding blue light shone on the darkness and space seemed to be ripped apart.
Boom!
He soon found himself safely seated in the shuttle as they travelled in a tunnel like spatial structure. On its dark surface, there were colorful twinkling stars.
After a few seconds, he turned to the little ghost lying on a small couch beside him and asked.
"Where the hell are we?"
"You really don't know?" Its voice was filled with suspicion.
Varian shook his head honestly.
The little ghost looked at him and clutched his forehead. Then it swiped its finger, and two spheres appeared on a hologram.
The smaller sphere was contained within the larger sphere. There was a blue layer covering the Inner sphere.
Varian recognized the model. The larger sphere was the Outer space. The smaller one was the Inner space.
The little ghost coughed lightly and began. "The hollow emptiness between the spheres is the Outer and Inner is the so-called boundary."
"Space awakeners enter this boundary, move a bit and then get pushed out. But once step inside is many steps outside. This is the so-called teleportation."
Varian nodded. He learnt this from Sylvia's class.
"But this blue covering…" the ghost magnified the hologram and Varian saw things more clearly.
The blue layer covering the Inner space was smaller than the 'boundary.'
"After you cross the boundary, you touch this 'Layer'. A Space Awakener has to enter the layer and with his own powers, exit it." It pointed to the other side of the layer.
"Inner Space." Varian said. How the fuck did he actually end up here then?
"A Space Sovereign is basically on the verge of entering Inner Space, but cannot." The little ghost threw another bombshell.
Varian almost tripped. So he reached a place where a Sovereign can't? Just because of some space crack or something?
"Now we're travelling through the Layer." It pointed to the beautiful warping space.
Varian enjoyed the view for a while but soon asked. "Is there any benefit from this? Like, can it make me stronger or what"
The little ghost snickered. "Missing the lost dungeon?"
Varian turned to the side and sighed. "Yes. I like growing stronger."
"Then you have an opportunity." The ghost declared.