"Did you analyze its magic earlier?"
It was hard to break free of the crushing pressure without killing the dragon outright. Parasitism and poisonous thorns gnawed at him constantly, but before my vines could fully grow and bind him, he would tear them away as if they were nothing.
"No, I need to see the spell again"
The dragon raised a claw and slammed it down again.
He had already seen that his magic was useless against me. He wouldn't waste it a second time.
"Hey, I need your help."
"What is it ?"
"Help me use necromancy on one of the corpses above ground. The dragon will attack it with magic."
The system reluctantly answered, "You should learn to remotely use your consciousness."
"I am."
A foreign presence forced its way in and tore off a fragment of my consciousness.
"Distract the dragon with magic" the system spoke.
After a while, the light above disappeared as another figure fell through the quicksand.
The dragon quickly stood up and looked at the animated corpse warily. The chimera stood up and ran towards him.
Seeing it move, the dragon spewed fire from his mouth.
"Did you catch that?"
"Yes."
A black-and-red sphere formed as the dragon raised its foreleg again.
The moment its foot touched it, the sphere collapsed inward. The dragon roared as its body began to break apart.
Its large wings suddenly extended and it soared above. The underground ceiling collapsed, light filtering through the cascading sand in its wake.
The sand buried me. After it quieted down I began climbing to the surface.
The system voice spoke before I emerged above ground, "Congrats, you've completed the 23rd floor."
Upon emerging aboveground only the lonely land greeted me, no visible sign of the dragon.
I laid down on the sand. I need to unearth the room to get to the portal.
Wind blew and sand flew into the sly.
"Aren't you going to move?" The system's voice interrupted.
"What is the outside world like?"
"What?"
"The world outside the dungeon."
"I don't know," the voice hesitated, "But just because we don't know doesn't mean it's meaningless to climb."
It continued, "There should be something you wanted to do in your past life. Many people dream of saving human lives and helping others."
Sigh
Why was it coming to conclusion?
I didn't mean I wanted to stop climbing, I just felt bored and wanted to know what was outside. But its words about wanting something to do struck me.
"I don't remember what I wanted to do."
"There must be something you wanted to try at least once."
"Maybe, not being a bother for... the people around me and not being sick."
"...sick?"
"Yeah, in my past life I had an undiagnosable illness."
The voice didn't speak again and I started my work of unearthing the portal.
It was only when several days had passed that the system suddenly asked, "What's your name?"
"Yun"
Then it became quiet again.
Through floors filled with ice, floating islands and more interesting landscapes why was it that all of it paled in comparison to this single moment?
But the more I thought about it, the clearer Insight became, the system was hiding something.
The portal to the 23rd floor stood before me.
I went through it.
"Boss room of the 23rd floor, Epiales"
Immediately?
***
My eyes closed, and when they opened, what came into view was a familiar white ceiling, ceiling fan, and an autumn tree outside the window.
The door opened and in came a faceless nurse pushing a tray. She nodded at me and my body nodded before I could react and swung my legs down, standing up.
My body began moving without control and stepped towards the nurse, taking the tray.
Though the tray had nothing on it my hands still grabbed a piece of fork and ate an invisible food.
The nurse pushed her trolley and disappeared from the room.
This floor was weird, it was made based on my memories and I couldn't control my body.
Though, insight was humming with anxiety, but there was no danger signal. It told me I just needed to wait and see.
The food was finished and put away at a nearby table as a heavy sigh escaped. For a while the body stayed still, looking outside the window.
The sound of the door creaking open sounded, and a faceless doctors came into the room. No sound could be heard as he and my body conversed.
After the doctor left, my body also went out and started going through the familiar hospital, greeting other patients and talking with the nurses.
After a while, of spectating silent conversations, the familiar pain from my past life returned. The body I was inside also hardened and quickly ended her conversation went back and fell on the bed.
The pain became stronger and a fever started where I couldn't tell if time was passing. Before I knew it the next day had already started.
Everything repeated all over again. However, it wasn't the same. Objects and people were slowly disappearing around the hospital and the walk outside the room became shorter. By now my room only had a bed and the tree outside had almost lost all of its leaves, with only one remaining.
In came an empty trolley with no one pushing it and my body simply stayed in bed simply looking out the window.
I went out bed and began walking through the hall.
There was no one in the hospital, only an empty stretches of rooms. Upon coming to the reception the waiting chairs had disappeared and the cabinets in the reception desk were all gone except one telephone line.
When my hand touched the telephone, my heart thumped.
The phone was dialed as my hands shook.
The phone rung.
But no one picked it up.
It was dialed again, and again as the ceiling light buzzed and flickered. With failed dial the flicker of the ceiling light increased and the pain started.
But the girl didn't seem to give up anytime soon. She continued dialing until the flicker turned into a black out and she was drenched with sweat from the fever. The pain was unbearable.
I felt cold, the sweat was making it worse.
The telephone fell to the floor and my body finally turned around.
Though the morning had passed, it was still the afternoon so the hospital wasn't as dark at some parts.
My knees hit the floor. Slowly, my hands pulled me forward.
When my room came in sight, it had become dark and the last leaf of the tree had disappeared.
I fell asleep on the floor.
"Yun, honey wake up. It's breakfast." A warm voice said amidst my sleep.
It was the nurse with her trolley, her face was still blank but her voice rung in my ears.
I immediately jumped up, I was back in my bed.
"It's breakfast already? It's an egg!" A joyful voice replied.
The nurse left.
Everything had turned to normal, all the people and the furnitures had returned and unlike before their voices were audible. However, the tree outside was still gone.
My body moved and began going through the hospital rooms, touring and greeting the other patients.
A group of doctors and nurses hurrying a patient on a stretcher passed by me.
Suddenly, a sense of loss and anxiety like never before to see the face of that person lying on the stretcher overtook me. As if I could only see their face, all the emptiness I'd felt since reincarnating would finally make sense.
However, the stretcher passed by and my feet continued to walk forward.
Seconds passed and minutes passed, the image of the stretcher and the person on top of it didn't leave my mind. I wanted to turn around look for it even if I would't be able to find it.
During a conversation with another patient, the nurse who'd delivered my breakfast came, "Yun we need to go to your room."
My heart dropped.
"Oh, bye." The voice happily spoke.
But when we came out, the people and objects in the hall had all turned into grey figures except the doctor. They all looked like a backdrop against the nurse's white uniform.
We came in front of our room.
"Sit down, Yun" The nurse gently spoke.
I sat down.
The nurse's empty face stared at me for a while. "There was a car accident and your parents, they had died this morning." She continued, "In front of the city tower, there was a driver on drugs who went through red light and collided with your parent's car."
A black whole appeared in my mind eating away at everything.
It was probably, probably the emotions of this body so this overwhelming sadness for their death couldn't have been mine.
"Sorry, sorry" A voice that sounded so much like mine gasped.
The nurse immediately hugged, "You don't need to apologize. It wasn't..."
Tears filled up my eyes and everything, even the nurse, began crumpling apart into grey.
Suddenly, amidst the swirling tears from the distant depths of the grey backdrop, a raw, piercing scream exploded outward.
It sounded like a child crying all alone with grief and loneliness.
That day when I saw a rabbit being killed and butchered, there was also a similar cry from the distant mountains. The two adults with me didn't say anything, but later on I learned a rabbit's cry sounds like a child's.