Chapter 238: The Night Before the Storm (3)

Ian's party always pursued hardcore hunting.

As the break, which were always around 10 minutes long, grew longer, Kaka, who sat leisurely found it strange.

"Yo, Bbookbbook."

"Why did you call me bbook."

"Haven't we been resting for too long?"

"You do have a point bbook. I feel like 15 minutes have already passed bbook."

Kaka glanced at Ian, who sat in the corner and quietly meditated(?), as he opened his mouth again.

"The owner dude is acting a little weird."

"What's weird bbook?"

"He's sitting there completely still without the slightest movement. To be honest, I'm saying that ever since our break time went longer than 5 minutes, our owner dude isn't being his normal self."

Bbookbbook nodded his head.

"That's true bbook. Now that you mention it, it is weird bbook."

Kaka scratched his head as he kicked up from the ground with all his strength and jumped up.

To be honest, rather than kicking up from the ground, he pretended to jump, but his body was already floating.

"Since something is unsettling about this, shall I try waking up the owner?"

"...!"

Bbookbbook and Kaka were suspicious that Ian's condition was not normal because their break time was 5 minutes longer.

If they were Familiars of normal users, they wouldn't have had any suspicions and would have enjoyed their break, however, unfortunately, they were already trained to Ian's hunting pattern already.

"Then... I'm going to go try waking him up once, okay?"

Bbookbbook's pupils trembled slightly.

"Bbook... Are you seriously going to wake him up bbook?"

"Hmm..."

"Bbakbbak and Karceus are going to hate you, Kaka bbook."

He said that because Ian waking up meant nothing different from the fact that hunting would start again.

"Still, it can't be helped. What if the owner dude is sick somewhere?"

A small sigh slipped past Bbookbbook's mouth.

"Whew, I guess it really can't be helped then bbook. Then go try waking him up once bbook."

Kaka, who gained a little bit more confidence at Bbookbbook's permission(?), wagged his short, fluffy tail as he flew towards Ian.

And floating up so that he was in front of Ian's face, he began to dilly-dally.

"Owner dude, are you sleeping?"

However, Ian was just silent.

"You're not sick anywhere, are you? Just give me a response and then you can go back to sleep again. There's no need for you to completely get back up again."

It seemed that he couldn't hear Kaka's proposal at all, as Ian meditated in a completely still state without even a quiver, and Kaka, who felt something was weird about him, stared intensely at Ian's closed eyes.

'Hmm, what is going on?'

Kaka slowly grew closer to Ian until he was right in front of Ian's eyes.

However, just then, Kaka's body suddenly began to shine a white light.

'What, what the hell? This...!"

And Kaka, who discovered the change in his body, was soon able to figure out what kind of phenomenon this was.

"Is... This a momentary awakening?"

And shortly after, as Kaka looked at Ian again, he was able to see a pitch black smoke rise up from around Ian's body.

That was, to be honest, a phenomenon that only Kaka could see.

'This is definitely the ability of the night hag! To think that I would actually be able to manifest this ability!'

And in front of Kaka and Ian's eyes, a system message simultaneously popped up.

Ring-!

• Inherent Ability 'Greedy Night Hag' has been awoken to the next level.

• From now on, 'Kaka' can go into the dreams of others at a low success rate.

As if Kaka was possessed by something, he was sucked in towards the pitch-black fog that was rising up around Ian.

Following that, another message additionally popped up.

• 'Kaka' is entering User 'Ian's dream.

A new world began to unravel in front of Kaka's eyes.

* * *

The 'Greedy Night Hag', one of Kaka's inherent abilities, was an ability that allowed him to pull out one item that he wanted from a dream.

And that was a fact that Kaka was aware of more than anybody else.

'It's a dream. This is definitely the owner dude's dream.'

In the dream, Kaka was floating above a wide site in the air.

And below him, tons of soldiers and knights, as well as combat mercenaries and magicians formed a large army.

'What the hell? Is the owner dude dreaming of a war?'

Kaka thought that he was currently inside Ian's dream using the ability of the night hag, but to be more specific, the world that Kaka was currently in was not Ian's dream.

The place that Kaka was in was the world of the 'Record of the Devildom War' that was connected to Ian's mental world.

Into an outlook on the world that happened a thousand years ago, which was shared with all the users along with a world message, Kaka was also sucked in on an impulse.

And it may be obvious, but Kaka, who would have had no way to know that was the case, began to diligently understand the situation in the dream.

'I need to grab the most valuable item within here before I leave!'

If Ian were to wake up from his dream, Kaka would also be thrown out of this world by force.

He needed to find the most valuable and rare item that was also still something that he really liked before that.

'Euh, why of all the dreams that he could have dreamt, he's dreaming of something like this, this owner dude! I thought something was weird when he did nothing but battle without rest like a demon who was holding a grudge as they couldn't fight...'

Kaka recalled his owner's face as he grumbled internally.

This was because in this current situation, where he needed to leave after grabbing the most valuable and rarest item possible, a war environment like this was of no help at all.

Exactly what kind of rare item was he supposed to find and carry out in a war like this?

'Still, there's no way of knowing when I'll have a chance like this ever again.'

Kaka began to flap his wings with all of his might.

It was unknown as to whether his flight speed itself actually quickened from him flapping his wings fast, but still, whenever he became hasty, Kaka always moved his wings quickly.

'Speaking of which, from what I remember, the skill of the night hag is displayed only when you are not conscious of the fact that you are in a dream world, but is that not applied when you go into someone else's dream?'

Normally, when a night hag came out of a dream with an item, they were not able to recognize that it was a dream.

It could be considered the same thing as when most normal people dream, they don't realize that the situation is a dream.

As that was the case, to be honest, even if the skill was displayed, it wasn't like the night hag came out carrying a valuable item every time.

This was because they cannot recognize that it was a situation where their abilities were being displayed.

Then every so often, in cases like those there were times where they didn't wake up despite becoming conscious of the fact that it was a dream, and that was called 'lucid dreaming'.

'Alright, if I cannot find a valuable item, I need to at least find a Magician's artifact or an ancient weapon and take it with me before I leave.'

After Kaka steeled his heart, he slowly began to head down to the ground.

Despite it being a dream, the expressions of the people going out to war were incredibly serious and wild.

'Speaking of which, what kind of war could this one be? Despite having lived over three thousand years, I feel like I haven't seen this large-scale of a war very many times, that is.'

Just when Kaka was wandering around the humans like that, searching for a decent item, suddenly, at the front of the unit, an incredibly large cry began to ring out.

Aah- Aaah-!

Kaka, who formed a curiosity over that, began to float up to the air again.

And in the next moment, he was able to discover a shocking scene.

'What the hell? This... Was the Devildom War?'

The scene that appeared in front of Kaka's eyes was one where a giant portal ripped through the sky as it opened up, and from within it, magical beasts began to pour out of it.

It was the exact form of the massive war's opening act that happened a thousand years ago, the one that he had personally experienced.

"How could such a thing...!"

Kaka, who mumbled out his shock with his voice, recoiled with fright.

This was because if the humans, who were in the middle of a war with the devils, were to discover him when he had a strange outer appearance like a sooty smoke, there was no way of knowing how they would harass him.

It was possible that they would just abruptly strike down their swords.

However, Kaka was able to be relieved shortly after.

It seemed as though none of the humans that were in this world could see him.

"Hmm..."

And the mind of Kaka, who roughly cognized the situation, began to race.

'In this battleground right now, what exactly could be the most valuable item that I could take out with me?'

Kaka began to strain himself in order to drag out his ancient memories.

It was a historical situation that he had already experienced, and so, as that was the case, it could be considered a situation where Kaka was incredibly advantageous, but that wasn't exactly the case.

This was because of the variable that was 'time'.

The fact that he didn't know when Ian, who was dreaming(?), would wake up was the biggest reason as to why Kaka was so restless.

'Owner, just wait, since I will properly show you during this opportunity that I am not useless!'

While imagining Ian's expression, where his two eyes would have rounded, Kaka began to snicker.

* * *

Lilson, who was 1st place in the Explorer rankings, was quite a famous user in the official community as well.

He liked to share any information or special stories he obtained through exploring with other users, and naturally, because that was the case, his threads couldn't help but become a topic of conversations.

Although he may have been a pitiful explorer who was outcasted when there were hunts, at least in the community, Lilson's popularity was quite high.

He was a famous named user to the point that his ID had its own personal channel in the official community, and thanks to that, quests related to the new relic that Lilson opened recently were interlocked with that channel as well.

And the view count of the 'Record of the Devildom War' as well as the video overflowing with spirit that was inside of the record began to go up in an instant.

The video that only Lilson's subscribers, which amounted to a little less than a couple hundred, were watching at first had reached a view count of over hundreds of thousands before even a full 10 minutes passed.

• Guys, what kind of video is this? Did at least a new story related to the Devildom pop up?

• I'm not sure, but what is this for everybody to be in such a frenzy like this? Is it a video related to some sort of patch note just like the videos relating to the hidden classes last time?

• Oh, no. It's nothing like that, but it does seem like there is some sort of relation to the Devildom. It especially seems like a video related to the Devildom monster wave that is to open in a couple weeks from now...

• The person above's words are almost correct, but to be more specific, it is apparently a story related to the dimensional war between the Devildom and human world that had happened a thousand years ago.

• Ooh, how do you know that so well?

• That is because I watched this video from the beginning.

The users watched the video of the Record of the Devildom War with interest as they chatted boisterously.

Regardless of whether they were a high-ranking user who had already stepped foot into the Devildom, or were a low-ranking user that hadn't seen even the shadow of a low-ranking magical beast yet, all of the users couldn't help but be interested in the content that popped up in the video.

Along with the behind story of the dimensional war, as the stories related to the 5 God Dragons, which had not been told up until now, were being aired through a realistic video, to be honest, that was natural.

• Wow, that green dragon has some serious swag. It's totally my style.

• Pfft, for me, rather than the green dragon, the red dragon that came out at first looked really cool.

• Whoa now, guys, they're not the green dragon and red dragon, they are the Dragon of the Earth and the Dragon of the Sun).

• Huff, isn't that the same thing? How picky.

• Keu, anyhow, if you could tame a dragon like that and handle it, it would be worth being a Summoner...

• Hey, are you a Summoner?

• Yes, why?

• No, just, how to put it... Snap out of it.

• ...

While they idly conversed like that through the chat window as they watched the video, suddenly someone just said something totally unexpected.

• Hul, wait, guys! That guy over there, I know who that is!

• Hmm? Who even is this dude? Ever since he said that he wanted to tame a dragon, he continuously keeps shitposting.

• No, I'm being serious with this! I'm telling you, I know that white-haired swordsman carrying the greatsword over there.

At the random words of one user, the users attentively looked at the video once again.

In the video of the channel, the two people faced each other.

There was 'Maress', a handsome, black-haired man who was the God of War, and a man with his white hair let down as he carried a giant greatsword on his back.

• Kaizar! That's right, it was Kaizar!

• No, dude. How do you know that person? They say he's a person from a thousand years back.

• No, I remember for sure. That man is Kaizar, one of Ian's retainers.

• Huh? By Ian, you mean... Are you talking about Ian, the 1st place in the unofficial Summoner rankings?

• Yes, you see, I'm a fan of Ian. That's why, amongst the retainers and Familiars, I have the names of the famous ones memorized.

• Hul, now that I look at him, I feel like that's actually right! I did notice that there was an incredibly famous dude named Kaizar amongst Ian's retainers... They seriously even look the same!

The uproar that had started due to an out-of-the-blue words of someone like that had begun to spread out significantly in an instant.

The fact that the NPC of the main story of a large game like this was only a user's retainer was enough of an issue.

• Wow... Seriously unbelievable! God Ian! As expected, the rumour that he even tamed NPCs was true!

• Keu, seriously amazing. Kaizar? That NPC is really cool. I feel like he'll be hella strong.

However, separate from such a small uproar, the story within the video continued to proceed.

And shortly after, just when the story within the video that was almost an hour long was ending, most of the users couldn't help but be in shock.