After walking around for the rest of the day encountering a couple of calamities of the first rank and taking care of them without much trouble, Nathan decided to rest.
Right now, he was lying on a large double bed with a great view of the outside. Today the colossal whale was nowhere in sight. Nathan had noticed that it only appeared every few days.
Anyway, Nathan closed his eyes and yawned while he finished feeding Amelia.
With so little time, it was impossible for him to know whether the amount of essence in his body had increased or not, but somehow, he felt that it was doing some good.
When she stopped, Amelia sighed happily.
'Thanks for the food'
Nathan frowned in amusement.
'What does the essence taste like?'
Amelia was silent not knowing what to answer.
'Actually... I don't know. It's kind of sweet... but just a little bit'
Amelia fell silent again as she continued to think.
'I can't compare it to anything... it's been a long time since I've eaten anything, and I don't really remember the taste of things'
So far, thanks to Amelia's memories, Nathan had noticed something about her. He just hadn't seen the time to ask.
'Amelia... How long have you been in this place?'
Again, Amelia was silent, only this time the silence was somewhat more somber silence.
'I... I have no idea. I can only say too long'
Nathan didn't ask again and just stared at the ceiling in silence.
'...Too long' Nathan thought to himself.
Nathan was about to turn 18, but compared to him, it was possible that Amelia had been locked up in this realm for hundreds of years.
Nathan tried to imagine himself at that age.
With today's medicine, it was not difficult for a normal person to live to be a hundred years old, the average age of death being 130 years.
While people who possessed essence could live to be almost 160 years old. This was known because several people older than seventy years ago obtained essence, although these were rare cases, as people with essence tended to die quite young.
The danger within the realms was high, and usually hundreds of people died annually within the realms.
Even so, Nathan still had a long way to go to reach the age of 100. He wasn't even sure he would survive another day, so how could he be thinking about becoming an old man.
'I wonder how old Boreas is?'
As he was thinking about that, Nathan suddenly heard Amelia scream inside his mind.
'Haaaa!'
Nathan sat up in surprise on the bed.
'What happened!'
Amelia tried to speak but only a slight stutter was conveyed in her voice.
'I-I... I-I can... W-what?'
Nathan frowned at Amelia's nonsense words.
'Amelia?'
It was then that Nathan noticed his bracelet begin to glow slightly, a few seconds later Amelia shouted again.
'Look!'
It was then that the light from the bracelet focused on a single point and then an orb manifested itself in front of the bracelet and it began to float in front of Nathan.
'What...?'
'I got out of the bracelet! I did it!'
The orb began to swarm in the air surrounding Nathan and sweeping around the room.
'I made it out!' Amelia repeated once more.
Nathan stared in amazement at the small marble sized orb of light flying madly around him.
'Really?'
However, almost half a minute later the orb lost intensity and then disappeared.
Nathan's eyes widened as he watched the orb disappear.
'Amelia?'
After a few seconds in complete silence, Nathan heard Amelia's tired voice in his mind.
'I-I... I made it'
Nathan sighed.
'Yes, you made it... But what exactly did you accomplish?'
Nathan had a slight guess, but he wanted Amelia to tell him what exactly it was.
'I... materialized my consciousness out of the bracelet...'
Although Nathan noticed Amelia's tired tone, he also noticed how there was a hint of happiness hidden in her words.
'How did you do that?'
Amelia didn't know what to say.
'I don't know... it was just instinct'
Her answer was rather abstract, but it made Nathan really rethink Amelia's existence anyway.
According to what Amelia had told him, she didn't remember her past or why her consciousness was inside a bracelet. It was all a big puzzle, which remained unanswered no matter what she remembered.
'Is this what it feels like to exercise?' Amelia asked.
Nathan noticed how her tone became fainter and fainter until at one point Amelia stopped answering him.
Nathan did not worry, knowing that she had fallen asleep. Then he lay back down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling again.
'What and who are you?'
Nathan still had in his mind the risk of feeding Amelia with his essence. Day after day she was retrieving more and more memories, even today she was able to take a visible form.
Nathan had no idea whether Amelia was a danger or not... she could stop at any moment and leave the bracelet hidden in that same room, then it would be hundreds of years before someone would find it again.
Nathan sighed and closed his eyes.
'What difference does it make... if it turns out that I'm wrong, so be it'
***
Several days later, Nathan was walking the halls in search of another calamity to serve as his lunch. The problem was that the calamities rotted quickly, and Nathan had no way of preserving his meat, so he was constantly hunting for new calamities.
At that moment the gravity was turned around, so Nathan was walking along the ceiling of the corridors. Suddenly, he smelled something strange that sounded familiar, then he looked back and saw it.
'Shit!'
It had been almost three weeks since it had happened again, so Nathan had forgotten all about it.
An ominous red mist was beginning to spread across the ceiling of the hallway. The last time, he and Lynn had fallen unconscious thanks to the sleeping properties of the mist.
Somehow nothing had happened to him the last time, but Nathan did not want to fall fast asleep. Mainly because there was the possibility that after falling asleep, he would never wake up again.
Without a second thought, Nathan started running, trying to escape the reach of the red mist.
'Nathan!' Amelia screamed inside his mind, but he didn't need her warning to realize that the mist was coming dangerously close to him.
'Damn!'
Nathan was about to drop the greatsword so he could run faster, then as he turned at an intersection, he realized this was unnecessary.
The mist was also approaching from where he wanted to go, leaving him with no escape.
It wasn't more than ten seconds before the mist reached him.
Nathan covered his face with his arm and strengthened his body with essence. But no matter how hard he tried to resist the temptation to sleep, just like the last time, his consciousness began to darken.
'N-no...'
Last time he encountered the ghoul, and considering he even had to use his essence to fight it, Nathan figured it would be almost five minutes before he fell asleep.
Then, finally after five minutes his legs gave out. Nathan had to use all his mental strength to avoid closing his eyes, but his thoughts were already completely clouded.
His whole body fell to the ground and just as he was about to close his eyes and fall asleep, he felt someone holding his head.
He didn't even bother to fight back, he no longer had the ability to move, so he let whatever was holding his head do whatever it wanted to him.
Then he felt as if something was being put in his face, then it didn't take more than a couple of seconds for him to regain some clarity in his mind.
'Huh?'
His eyes came back into focus, then the first thing Nathan saw was a pair of huge mounds of meat in front of his face.
"I never thought you'd still be alive... I must say I'm quite surprised"
Nathan looked up a little more and noticed the beautiful woman holding him. Mary was wearing a gas mask on her face, but it was impossible for him not to recognize her.
"M-Mary?"
The woman who had made him the fur mask... and who had stolen his first kiss was right in front of him.
That day when the rift had appeared Nathan had lost sight of her, and for the last three weeks he hadn't heard from her.
But now she had come to save him.
Nathan slowly sat up again and massaged his head with discomfort. Then he remembered that for the last two weeks he had not had his mask on because he did not need it. But he had forgotten to put it on before he almost fell asleep.
However, then he remembered that Mary had already seen his face, plus by touching his face, he realized that he also had a gas mask like her.
"How did you find me?"
Mary stood up and help Nathan up. She then pointed to the back, where the bartender was looking at him while also wearing a gas mask.
"Roderick found you, he's good at spotting things"
Nathan looked at the bartender named Roderick and looked back at Mary with a frown.
"Where have you been all this time?"
Mary was silent for a couple of seconds, then replied in a somber tone.
"Escaping from a third rank calamity"
Mary looked around.
"The one responsible for this bloody mist"