Chapter 310: Have You?

As soon as Ned woke up, he was greeted with a burning sensation coursing in every inch of his body. He could barely move a muscle. And Ned doesn't need time to know how long he was dreaming or inside the Plain.

"Three minutes and twenty-second." Ned wanted to roll and stand, and stretch his body. He couldn't. His muscles felt as though a thread being pulled until it breaks and one little movement would snap it to half.

"ICE." Instead, he called to hear her voice.

[Ned.]

Without a second delay, ICE's voice echoed inside Ned's mind and traveled through his heart. Triggering something he was so aware of but deeply hidden inside him. Sadness.

Ned closed his eyes upon hearing ICE's voice.

Too much to bear, too much to handle. He just died. No matter how he wanted to get stronger, it feels like he was ten steps behind his goals. All he ever wanted was freedom. Freedom to choose what he would do with his life. Ned knew from the start, that becoming a human was a challenge. This was the first time that Ned felt defeated after the events that led to Kamma's death.

[You were in your sleep when the system detected something unusual happening in your body.]

Ned heard ICE, but it took him a moment before he could even respond. Somewhere inside him, in his chest, something wanted to claw out along with his beating heart. Ned's lips turned white from his bite. He promised Master Will, Kamma, and Calahir, he would never cry again. He promised himself, he would never... again.

"I can feel it." Between his words was a pause. Like he was about to burst to cry, but not that he couldn't. But because he doesn't want to. Ned held the thought of him crying and forced every fiber of his muscles to listen to him. Mind over everything else, Ned stood swiftly.

A series of chiming echoed inside his head.

In his vision was his display disparately trying to pop-in as it was breaking just like an old television.

Ned had to squint his eyes or rub his temple to relax his muscles. But once he did, he was surprised to see a change in his mana capacity. It went from an overall count of 6, 000 to 6, 800 mana capacity. Ned knew that in order to increase the number of mana he can absorb and store, he needed his body to undergo a change first. Yet again, to his surprise, under the bottom of his display in blue, his body in a rotating 3d model was all painted in red. It was as though he was run over by a massive vehicle for his body to turn all this crimson.

"What in the..." Ned had to utter words to let go of his surprise.

In real-time he had just lie down to the bed and closed his eyes, and in a quick moment, he was sent to the Plain.

But for him, the feeling of being trapped that even time was slowed was still clear to him. It was as though he went on a long vacation but did nothing but to train.

Ned could feel it, the time difference inside the Plain and in the real world was so stretched. So much that whatever he does inside the Plain affects him in the real world.

With that kind of thought, Ned raised his hand. It was clean, no wound, no bruises, no knife that went through. Next, he checked his right leg. Nothing. There was nothing but his skin. Undamaged like it always be.

"Wait..." Ned looked over his body, he was naked. "How...?"

Ned' eyes swept the bed, over the sweat-drenched bed was the Silk Road.

Of course, Ned thought as he reached for the Silk Road.

Under his display was his status: he was nearly out of both mana and energy. Now, without mana in his body, Silk Road was taken off involuntarily.

Ned focused and rubbed the ring on his right ring finger. He then produced mana stones.

On the surface, his mana absorption was slower than everyone else due to the impurities in the mana. To compensate for this, Ned needed the mana stones.

And so he does. In a matter of minutes, a pile of empty mana stones was making a small hill over his bed. He still needs the mana stones, not just for himself but he needed it to fuel the revolver he asked Barbo and Mina to make.

"Must save..." Ned muttered and laid down back to the bed.

As for his energy, all he needed was to sleep. Sleep was the fastest way for him to recover his energy, next was eating.

Ned closed his eyes, thinking about what in the galaxy's hole the Plain was, how it was inside him, and why him? Still, somewhere in his thoughts, at the far end of his mind was Rassus trying to gain ahead of him.

Ned doesn't wasn't to Devour and was not planning to.

Unless...

'Have you killed someone?' Master Will's voice was freshly echoing in his mind.

'Have you killed?'

'Have you?'

What's actually stopping him from killing someone? This world, Earflgard, was an obvious representation of the term 'Survival of the Fittest'.

Ned was fitted to survive in this world. A world where power puts anyone to the top. Magic, strength, Ned got all that. But does he needed to kill to gain such strength?

In his mind, whether he likes it or not, the impostor Master Will was right. If only Ned managed to kill the second thug, he shouldn't feel so weak. If it happened in real life, he should be dead by now. No more Ned.

Ned can't let go of the fact that what if did happen in real life? What if he got no other choice but to kill... Will he do it? Again?

"No..." Ned whispered under his breath. His blue dusky eyes were boring the ceiling. "I just need to make sure it won't come to that. I need to make sure..."

The sound of the window panel being blown by a strong wind woke up Ned in his long and, this time, a relaxing sleep.

Beside him, and under him, and below the bed was the empty mana stones that Ned doesn't know what to do and where to put.

Ned climbed down the bed and took all the empty stones and, for now, he put it back to his spatial Ring.

After taking the time to take care of himself, Ned didn't bother to do his daily exercises. Since parts of his body were still aching from the experience he had last night.

Ned frowned after putting the Silk Road back and sat down over the bed. He doesn't have the slightest idea on how and when the Plain will take him again. If the Plain could take him during the time when he was sound asleep, then it's fine. But what if he was taken during the Exam? Or during the time when he was simply doing menial things. That would be a hindrance.

"I need to find out everything about that Plain, and stop it from taking over me." The only person that gave Ned the real scare was his former emperor, Emperor Pontus. But now, with the appearance of the Plain, Ned was feeling uneasy. Not with the Plain or what's in the Plain but the thought of facing an unknown scares him.

"No... Not yet," Ned muttered. "It wasn't too late yet."

Ned slapped his face and plastered a smile. He might as well smile often. But it seemed that it was too early to do that.

Now, with the appearance of the Plain, Ned's goal must change.

"I don't know when will the Plain takes me back." Ned stood and tied the leather pouch on his waist. "But I need to make sure that when it does, I'm ready for what it will throw to me. ICE, to everyone I met in this world. Who could compete against Edwin's speed."

[Accessing information the host has stored.]

[Access complete.]

After a series of chiming and data displaying under his display, ICE pulls out an image that Ned was asking for.

"Master Will?"

[Indeed he is.]

[During the battle back at O'rriadt. Your Master was actually toying with the Royal Knight.]

Toying? Ned thought with a grin. Can't say much about that.

"I need someone closer in here." As Ned was asking over his display, he went down the Pint to be met by the busy people as though it was Monday in a crowded office.

Even if someone could at least put out a fight even for just less than a minute, Ned thought out his requests and nodded to the twins nearby the table while Teklavit threw a glare at him and proceed to clean the table with the remaining utensils.

[Aside from the former you and Master Will, there is one that is available. Although he might lose in a longer fight. But judging from the mana he was Leaking. He is, by far the closest to someone that could put on a fight with the Royal Knight.]

Ned's display was bombarded by an image.

"Twali." Ned paused outside the Forgotten Pint. There the sun was flaring over the east, carriages and pedestrians were walking here and there. Shops were nearly set-up. Still, Sudden Plate was a busy place.

With the Hunter's Exam coming in five days, Ned had to finalize his goals:

Aside from the extraction of the Mark of the Knight, Katolin was on the top of his list. And so, he needed to find Gogmurch.

Then the Hunter's Exam, followed by the revolver he needed.

Then there's the Plain. Ned couldn't put how important the Plain over his current goal. But something, in the back of his mind, the sooner or later the Plain will play a big role in his goals. He needed to overcome the dilemma: should he kill? And to do so, he needed to be strong.

He needed to be strong to pass the Hunter's Exam, and to overcome the Plain, and to find Gogmurch.

"Power it is, then..." Ned decided. He'll become even stronger.