THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

"Fuuu…Finally."

It took us almost twenty minutes to kill all the arachnies. Unlike what I thought, they are really nimble and when I got caught in their silk, I had a hard time getting out of it.

My uniform got torn off thanks to it.

"Okay. Now, let's see that Angas pool."

I go back to the place while storing the arachnies I killed. Some of them are cut so gruesomely I don't think I will have anything from them. Still, let's take their bodies back.

"Oh, by the way.. How much did you kill, Cissa?"

"I think around twenty."

"What?" She killed more than me?!

"You got entangled into their webs so…"

"Shit. I will kill more next time."

"This isn't a competition."

"It is. Human versus dragon. Let's see who is better."

"We are, obviously."

"Oh, don't be so sure about it. Don't underestimate us humans."

"I am even overestimating you right now."

"We will see."

***

The Angas pool seems bigger than last time.

"It's really beautiful." The way it goes from brown to green then light blue is really beautiful. But this doesn't tell me how and why it is here.

"My luck can't be that good."

Is it a trap? Is somebody possibly waiting for me to enter it and then kill me? Whoever it is, I won't go down without a fight. Besides, I remember that Excafol said anything which touches this is returned to its most primary form. There is a chance that those chains will be destroyed then. And I can't let such a chance pass.

I take off my clothes and enter the pool. Like last time, I start feeling things again. And the first thing I immediately notice is that my left hand hurt. I got wounded by the arachnies, I hope it is poisoned.

"Maybe it happened when I got caught in the webs."

The pool isn't that deep, the deepest area, at the center, reaches only to my knees. I sit inside and close my eyes. I feel like my body is melting, disappearing into the infinite nothingness. Then, I am reconstructed, rebuilt, changed. A surging and stirring pain suddenly appears, like somebody is ripping my chest and my head apart.

"ARGHH!!"

"Woof!"

"Don't come!!!" You must absolutely not touch this, K'nor. I don't want to lose you. "I am okay!! So, don't come!!"

I can't even see anything even though my eyes are opened. Nevertheless, I must endure this pain. I focus even more, trying to see something that shines there, in the absolute darkness.

"Now, release it all."

"AHHHH!!!"

I hear something exploding inside me, then another explosion, a third one then a lot of explosions occur at the same time, everything is just exploding, until it is all calm. No more noises, no more nothing. And then my sight comes back.

"That's weird."

I thought there were explosions just now but nothing seems to have changed. The Angas pool is gone, though. Did I just suck it up through my body? I also feel lighter, stronger. Looking at my skin, even its complexion has slightly changed. My skin is brighter than before. Do those Angas pools act as some kind of beautifying agent. The maids at the mansion would have loved it. They were always looking for…

"Anyway. Those chains weren't destroyed after all."

I had really hoped that they would be destroyed but it seems not even an Angas pool can destroy something blessed by that goddess.

"I really can't do anything except asking the heroes. I will be stuck in that academy for a long time, then."

I focus and go to the inner soul. But once again, everything has changed. The forest is now even denser. There are so many trees I can barely see between them. The glade is wider as well. At the center, there are now four lines of trunks well aligned together, forming a square figure, the fire inside them is burning aggressively.

"Well, things have changed again."

"Yes, indeed. Our soul has been strengthened and our body healed as well."

Cissa is now sitting on a stone-like chair. Like a princess of some unknown country. Her clothes haven't changed but the way she is so elegantly sitting is almost divine.

"I see. That's why I felt better than before."

"However, you must not grow overconfident. Such events will not happen often. Focus on becoming stronger."

"Of course."

I can't forget since I have to get my revenge and destroy the Longinus as well.

***

On our way out of the cave, we didn't find any arachnies, I suppose we killed all of them.

"It was a good day, right K'nor!"

"Woof! Woof!" K'nor starts rolling himself on the grass as soon as we get out. As he does, I see grasses getting glued to his fur. Some silk fell on him while we were running.

"Oh, poor you. Come here."

I use Tatiana's dagger and remove the fur that got glued. It won't be as even as before but it doesn't matter. They will grow back after all.

"Let's go back."

"Woof!"

The sun is already setting behind the trees.

As we run towards the city, I notice another cave that looks weird. Then suddenly, it disappears. An illusion? Am I so hungry I am hallucinating?

"I must be really famished. Let press on."

"Woof!"

***

We reach the city quite fast and I directly go to the guild with my tattered clothes. When I enter, people immediately start whispering and I see the receptionist smiling from afar. Does she think I failed?

"I see you have come back alive. Don't worry, even experienced adventurers can sometimes fail a-"

"I have come to deliver the materials I acquired."

"Eh?"

"Where do I go?"

"N-n-no, wait. You finished one of those quests?"

"I finish all of them." With the number of arachnies in my bracelet, I am sure of it.

"But…"

"Can you please show me where I have to go?"

"Y-yes, follow me."

She comes out from behind her desk and brings me outside the guild, then we go behind it and there is another building there, with the same color as the guild's building.

We enter it and there are people hard at work, dragging corpses here, cutting others with big butcher's knife there. The place is big enough to contain a lot of monster corpses. While I am admiring the place, a titanie with short orange hair and light-dark skin comes to us.

"Hey, babe."

"Don't call me 'babe' you traitor."

The receptionist fires a glare at the guy who doesn't even seem to mind.

"You look so beautiful when you are angry."

"Fuck you!"

As she utters those words, the whole place stops. Everybody who was working stops to look at them.

"You don't have to act like this, you know."

"So what? Please don't talk to me. I am here to see the chief."

"He isn't here so I am-"

"Then handle this guy. I am leaving."

"Wait."

The guy tries to hold the receptionist's hand but she looks at him with so much killing intent he freezes on the spot. Well, I don't know what you did but it must have been serious.