Whoosh!


    The wind whistled and hissed as it rushed past Alex''s face.


    A few hours had passed since he had made his way to the surface ''safely'', and he already noticed quite a few changedpared to when he was back on the floating ind.


    First was the fact that this ce waspletely barren.


    Like not even a single piece of vegetation barren…


    The entire piece ofnd for as far as the eye could see was just a deep, t piece of exposed rock.


    There weren''t even any mountains in sight or anything!


    It was just one massive, open in of rock that seemed to continue on endlessly.


    And after hours of constantly running, a theory had made its way into Alex''s head about this ce.


    "The surface that I''m on right now isn''t really the surface, but the crust…"


    "Those floating inds weren''t always ''floating'', and perhaps they were once thends that covered this ce, but for some mysterious reason they separated themselves from the surface and made their way up to the sky one day…"


    As strange as it sounded, his theory actually made sense.


    ''It wasn''t like the floating inds just popped out of nowhere in the sky one day… I think?''


    Alex really was unsure about this whole thing.


    The System worked in mysterious and odd ways, and rarely did it like to exin the reasons behind its actions.


    From the way things looked, he just chose to believe that the floating inds were literally just ripped from the surface and used some sort of mysterious force to stay afloat.


    Only a power like the System''s could achieve something like that.


    Or maybe something like a Divine ss S+ rank beast…


    Either way, Alex was incredibly bored.


    Ever since he set foot in this ce, it was like he was forced into some sort of purgatory.


    It reminded him of the area he firstnded in when he came to the Primordial Expanse.


    It waspletely silent.


    There was not a single beast within the 1000 kilometres he had run so far, and even when he jumped from the ground with all his force, he couldn''t spot any specks on the ground that would indicate something was there from over 10 kilometres up in the sky.


    It was all just one big, boring ce.


    ''I wonder how Mira''s doing…''


    His mind once again brought him back to Mira, who he assumed was probably having a much better time up on whatever floating ind she was on, assuming she was the female human the siren was talking about.


    If only he knew…


    ***


    "Ugh…"


    Mira slowly regained consciousness, her head throbbing in pain as she awoke from what felt like aa.


    ''Wha- Where am I?''


    Immediately though, her head cleared up as she tried to move, but found herself unable to.


    She looked down, only to see that both her arms and legs were bound.


    Normally this wouldn''t be a problem, but she was unable to break these bonds…


    Something that could bind even her, who could contend with C tier Variant ss beasts, wasn''t normal…


    Thest thing she remembered was seeing thatst dire wolf escape in fear, and then copsing to the ground as fatigue took over and Golden Presence ran out.


    But she suddenly recalled something hitting her in the face really hard, and then…


    She woke up here.


    She looked around herself, and realised she was in a dimly lit cave.


    Her gaze swept around the ce, taking in the surroundings.


    It was small and enclosed, a little ustrophobic, the kind that barely allowed room for 10 people.


    The air was damp and smelled faintly of stale air and moss.


    Her eyes darted around herself, spotting Nichs.


    He was sitting on a t rock, calmly sharpening his weapon.


    The metallic sound of metal grinding against stone was the only thing that broke the heavy silence.


    "What did you do to me!?"


    Mira''s voice was sharp and using, her eyes narrowing as she red at him.


    It didn''t take a smartass to figure out what was going on.


    Thest thing she saw was Nichs, and now she woke up in apletely unfamiliar ce, arms and legs bound!?


    No beast could have done this.


    If a beast saw her lying down so vulnerable in the dirt, it would have just eaten her right then and there.


    A beast wouldn''t go through all the trouble of tying her up and dragging her over to this ce.


    Only a human could have done that.


    And there was only one human Mira knew of within thousands of kilometres.


    Nichs.


    The fact that he was just sitting there while she was in this state was already an admission of guilt.


    Nichs looked up, his expression unreadable.


    He paused in sharpening Mira''s sword, his eyes meeting hers.


    "Rx, I didn''t do anything to you while you were asleep."


    He said this calmly, as if to reassure her.


    But it wasn''t.


    In fact, it only made her more suspicious and angry.


    She tugged at her restraints again.


    "You expect me to believe that!? I wake up bound and unable to move in a cave and tell me to rx!?"


    Her voice wasced with anger and disbelief.


    "Nobody binds someone like this with good intentions, what are you nning. Nichs?"


    She sounded a little fearful as different kinds of scenarios came to her mind.


    But contrary to her thoughts, Nichs didn''t move from his spot.


    He sighed, setting the de down and leaning back against the wall of the cave.


    "Do you really not remember me? Not even a little?" Explore more stories with m,v l''e-NovelBin


    His sudden question stunned Mira a little.


    Was she supposed to remember him?


    She looked closely at his face.


    "Nope, nothing pops to mind. As far as I''m concerned, the first time we met was two days ago, when I encountered you."


    "Tsk. So your little boyfriend Alex humiliates me, and you don''t even bother to remember my name, or even what I look like?"


    He stood up, clearly a little butthurt.


    "I''m done with that little farce I was putting on over thest two days. I was hoping it wouldn''te to this, but it has."