Chapter 20 - Mana and Nightmare

Thirty minutes later, after Sheila left the scene.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Ugh... I only remember that I was going to go to grocery shop... to buy some milk but midway.. I don't remember..anything other than waking up...with bruises over my bloody body."

An officer asked the question to the man who was now covered with bandages all over his body. The man answered back while groaning in pain from time to times. The officer nodded his head as he listens to the man and noted it down on his notebook before excusing himself and walked away.

"By the look of your face, it's the same, huh?"

His colleague said when the officer gets in the car. The officer, Max, could only sigh in defeat as he nodded his head.

"It's already the fourth victim, and we still didn't find any clue of the culprit..."

Just like what his colleague said, the previous three dead victims didn't leave any clue behind. Now that they found a victim that survived against the pyschopath murder, Max had thought that he would finally manage to get on the tail, but Max and his colleagues were disappointed.

The pyschopath is too cunning and ruthless. Max couldn't let such dangerous being roaming around the street full of weak civilians. He has been taking quite a lot of his free time to resolve the case before it gets any worse than this, but with no clue, he couldn't get anywhere. His family missed his presence in the house, and his cute daughter keeps on pestering his wife on his whereabouts.

After a few weeks passed with no result, the case was put to close. Max let out a relieved sigh as he thought, I'm coming home now, my little honey.

But what he didn't expect was for this 'psychopath murder' case to not be the last one. When that happened, he could be seen complaining about how he didn't have enough time to spend with his family, but that was for the future.

***

"I'm home!"

"Welcome home, did you bought everything that I told you?"

"Yes, I did."

Sheila slowly walks to the kitchen, and when she arrived, She left the bag of groceries on the dining table before going upstairs to her bedroom.

『 Welcome to the Leveling System! 』

『 Host: Sheila

Age: 17

Title: Gamer Girl (+1)

Level: 11

EXP: 15/300

HP: 90/90

MP: 100/100

STR: 20 ( Hxlk would be proud of her. )

INT: 20 ( Welcome to wizard world. )

AGI: 13 ( With this agility, she could debut as a pro gamer. )

VIT: 18 ( Vitality is very much healthy and strong, just like the person herself. )

LUCK: 10 ( Seems to be blessed by the Goddess of Luck.)

AP: 10

Detail: Never make this girl mad, or you will be sorry. 』

The experience gained from killing the goblin is apparently only amounted to 15. It's pretty low even though it is stronger than a slime.

『 SKILLS

Passive:

— Photographic Skill

— Mana Sense

Active:

— Swordsmanship LV.1

— Presence Detection LV.1 』

Sheila nodded her head when she looked at the skill window on her phone. With the <Mana Sense> skill, she noticed a few things that give her quite a shock.

Mana, a supernatural power/force that people of modern often believes only to exist in a supernatural world such as a fantasy or their imagination. It is like Ki which exists somewhere inside the human's body.

Sheila also believes as such, but the moment she left the Trial Tower right after the lottery, she was surprised to sense that there was mana in her surrounding albeit little. It was the world that she believes to be realistic! How could a supernatural force such as mana to exist?! Her worldview was overturned right at that moment.

When she saw the green creature back then, she was very much surprised. She had thought she was suddenly getting 'isekai-ed' to a fantasy world, but the same scenery(of the building of bricks) told her otherwise. She was currently restless and worried that perhaps, she had gotten into some kind of big wave along the way without any of her knowledge. The big wave that might potentially bring calamity to her world, Sheila shuddered, and she could feel chills running through her whole body.

A world filled with crimson fire. Everything burns and the only remain is ashes. Monster wreck havoc here and there, bloody and gruesome corpses could be seen everywhere around the street. People hide in the underground while despairing how cruel the world has become. The modern weapon is useless against the monster that is a league above. Dragons flew in the sky freely with no restraint and sometimes breath a mouthful of fire to the ground, leaving it blackened filled with ashes. Before long, a giant hand rush toward her and—

"No!"

Sheila shouted in despair at such world-ending scenery, only to realized it was just a dream. Before she knows it, she had fallen asleep and got such a nightmare which woke her up with covered in sweats all over her body. The dreams feel so real and lucid as if something is giving her a warning that this could perhaps be her future.

After taking a few deep breaths and drinking a mouthful of cold water, Sheila managed to calm down her furiously beating heart.

"I have to level up!"

Only by getting stronger could she protect herself against the dangerous future. The nightmare might be a dream caused by the fear inside of her running wild, but she couldn't completely ignore it either. But before she enters the Trial Tower, she needs to take a bath to clean off the sweat.

***

Private Hotel, Fifth-Floor, Room 3.

"...is this fine?"

The woman muttered softly to no one but only herself in the room. Her beautiful outer appearance indicated her age to be in 3X. She has a pretty brownish eye with a smooth, silky black hair and mature facial.

"It's fine. It's the only path that I could take for a better future."

The frown on her beautiful face diminished a little at the word, better future. Although her future is already bleak and white, that girl still has a chance to change the future. The raging power inside of her calmed at the thought.

After calming down herself, the woman takes a sip of wine as she looked into the mirror in front of her. What was shown in the mirror was, a girl that has just woken up from some sort of nightmare which could be seen simply by gazing at her face.

If someone doesn't know who she is, they would have thought that the woman was the mother of the girl inside the mirror due to how their face shockingly almost looks identical like that of a copy.