Lone: The Wanderer [Rewrite]

No more than a few paces away from Lone was a perfect copy of himself just standing there with his arms crossed grinning away like a Cheshire cat.

This other Lone had deep purple hair, eyes, and tails, all that seemed to be darker than even the darkest of blacks, oddly enough.

Lone had no idea what was going on. He'd just closed his eyes in hopes to get some rest after a long set of days and now he appeared to be in an unfamiliar set of ruins in the Farwinds with a distorted clone of himself staring him down.

"Weird dream," Lone commented calmly as he looked around. "These don't look like dwarven ruins. I wonder if I've seen them in a game or something and that's where my memories are pulling them from..."

The purple Lone seemed quite amused by his speculations as he watched on with glee.

Lone ignored his strange counterpart as he stroked his chin. "No, wait. I see some dwarven buildings mixed in... Hmm... I wonder if this is a lucid dream or if I'm just a passenger..."

A deep yet smooth rendition of Lone's voice flowed out from his copy's mouth. "Haha, if either of us is a passenger, it's me, I'm afraid. Or at least, I will be."

Lone raised an eyebrow as he focused on his incredibly purple other-self. "That's weird. I've never had another person in my dreams talk to me before. Hmm... "

"I do hate to burst bubbles but I regret to have to inform you that this is very much so reality. Or, a fragment of it, at the very least," the calm and still-smirking clone of Lone said.

"Purple Lone? That's an interesting if not simple name, haha," the relaxed man said. "Sure. I can acquiesce to your request. Hmm... let's think... Aha! While I absolutely adore her, Radiance is not exactly my biggest fan. It's a shame, really. We're cut from the same cloth, after all."

"Radiance? Do you mean the Primal Radiance?" Lone asked suspiciously.

Purple Lone nodded happily. "Indeed I d-"

"Mental Destruction," Lone coldly stated before immediately chanting the same skill five more times, consuming all six daily uses.

Purple Lone crumpled to one knee but his smile never left his face. "Clever little fox. You knew this wasn't a dream from the start, didn't you?"

"Yeah. And I also know you're bad news since you're not dead from that. Later," Lone said before sprinting away at full speed.

The being that looked a lot like Lone giggled as it slowly rose to its feet. "What a dangerously delicious unique skill. Well, no harm, no foul. Now, let the gauntlet begin, hmm? I'll break you yet, Lone."

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Darkness Corruption Resistance] has levelled up. It is now Advanced Level 4.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Darkness Corruption Resistance] has levelled up. It is now Advanced Level 5.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Darkness Corruption Resistance] has levelled up. It is now Advanced Level 6.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Darkness Corruption Resistance] has levelled up. It is now Advanced Level 7.

"That thing was definitely Darkness itself, right?" Lone mumbled as he sprinted with full power in the opposite direction of the creature that had taken his form.

'First, it was covered in purple, the signature colour of Darkness. Second, it didn't die or even seemed bothered by a bunch of Mental Destructions beyond light irritation. Third, it didn't seem fucking bothered by multiple Mental Destructions!' Lone felt it was imperative to reiterate that second point in his mind.

'No way in fuck am I dealing with another Primal! Void and Sky living inside of me is bad enough as it is,' Lone yelled internally.

He knew he wasn't dreaming the second his eyes opened. His Darkness Corruption Resistance started levelling, after all. Also, he had never once in his life had a lucid dream.

Magic made the most sense, funnily enough. And so, he attacked with his biggest trump card and booked it like an old racehorse desperate to not lose and get a bullet to the head for the trouble.

Soon, Lone's running efforts seemed to have bore fruit. He'd been sprinting full-force down the only tunnel he'd seen and, from the looks of things, it opened up just a bit further down the Farwinds.

'A junction, maybe? Maybe a larger abandoned urd or even a krieg? Whatever it is, maybe it has more exits and I can find my way back to Krieg Moor soon,' Lone thought hopefully.

He entered the newly discovered settlement and it was, sadly, abandoned. It was also littered with the same alien ruins that Lone had seen in the other town where he had that encounter with what he assumed was Darkness.

"Weird," Lone muttered as he looked around. "This place is... like, really suspiciously similar to that place from earlier..."

"Oh, that's because it is the same urd," a soft and eerily familiar voice said right into Lone's ear.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Darkness Corruption Resistance] has levelled up. It is now Advanced Level 8.

Spinning around and jumping back defensively, Lone opened his eyes wide in shock. "You can even look like Soph?"

Before him was a perfect copy of Soph in one of her noble dresses. Her hair and eyes were a deep shade of shadowy purple and a grin that didn't belong on her face was ever-present.

"What a shame," the being said sadly with a shake of its head. "Such an old soul but her only partner has been you? Really, you got the short end of the deal there, Lone. Imagine the kind of crazy experiences she could have shown you if she was a bit more normal in a romantic respect... Ah, I'm just rambling. Do ignore me if you prefer purity over pleasure. That's not my cup of tea but I'm not the one brewing the pot."

"... What are you?" Lone asked in an angered tone.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Darkness Corruption Resistance] has levelled up. It is now Advanced Level 9.

It didn't bother him seeing his own body being mimicked like that but for some reason, with it being Soph now it really got on his nerves and made him feel... disgusted at whatever the thing in front of him was.

"Kind of you to ask," the being answered with a sweet and innocent smile. "I'm just a lonely little thing looking for some company. Care to fill that void?"

"You're Darkness, aren't you?" Lone asked, ignoring its question. "Just by standing near you, my Darkness Corruption Skill is skyrocketing."

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Darkness Corruption Resistance] has levelled up. It is now Advanced Level 10.

"I suppose that's what I'm called in a few religions. You can call me whatever you want though," Darkness admitted with a coy smile. "I do hope you can see how kind I'm being, especially when you so viciously attacked me for no good reason."

"No good reason?" Lone wore a dubious expression. "What do you call kidnapping a man during his sleep?"

"Entertainment?" Darkness asked back with a tilt of the head.

Lone scowled deeply. "Void didn't leave a good impression on me regarding your kind. You're not doing great either."

"Haha 'your kind'? I thought you hated speciesists. Strange language to use if that's truly the case," Darkness giggled softly with Soph's bell-like voice. "Anyway, I just wanted to have a chat. Ah, do be a dear and don't tell anyone about meeting me tonight, please? It's for your own good. If there's one thing I care about, it's your well-being."

"What? You're just letting me go?" Lone was very puzzled. "What the hell is going on? Why'd you drag me here then? Better yet, how? Through my sleep or something?"

"That's a lot of questions. I don't really feel like answering them. It's more fun if you're a bit lost, no?" Darkness winked with Soph's face then blew a kiss in Lone's direction which actually materialised into a set of floating deep purple lips.

Lone tried to dodge them but they seemed to be magnetised to him or something of that sort since no matter what he tried, he couldn't avoid them. They made contact with his cheek and then his vision blurred.

He felt like he was wading through shadows and murky water before his eyes opened once more.

He sprung up and started breathing heavily, sweat covering his whole body. He was back in his bed at the Rusty Sprocket with Sophie's cocoon by his side but he didn't feel any sense of comfort.

"I need to tell the guild about that. Those scattered dwarven buildings... That fucker could be responsible for the weird going-ons in the krieg..." He sighed deeply and bit his bottom lip in frustration.

"I just wanted to come here and relax after what happened in Milindo but now even more shit is happening around me... Fuck..." He shook his head and sincerely hoped the stress wouldn't kill him one of these days.

Being transported to a new world wasn't all sunshine and rainbows with a pinch of magic, no matter how hard Lone tried for it to be, it would seem.

Lone entered The Adventurer Guild's branch in Krieg Moor with Breena by his side.

Sophie had been returned to The Summoning Room and Kyuubi was sleeping soundly in Breena's arms.

The pair joined the queue to the reception desks and patiently waited their turn to be served.

"Hello. How can I help you today?" the dwarf behind the counter asked with that fake neutral accent dwarves used when masking their natural one.

Lone smiled at the woman and said, "Hi. We're here to report what happened during a quest that led us to the Farwinds. From my understand the guild should have already received a preliminary report from the Nightwatch?"

The dwarf nodded. "I see. Can I see your adventurer plate for a moment, please?"

Lone reached into his shirt by the neck and pulled out the chained bronze tag necklace he was wearing. He held it steady so the employee could read the details on it with ease.

"Thank you," the dwarf said before she gestured to a side door. "If you wouldn't mind, would you be so kind as to wait in one of our side rooms for someone to handle your case? It would take too long here, sadly, and we're rather busy right now."

Lone understood so he thanked the woman and took Breena with him into the room that had been pointed out.

"... We're not in trouble, are we?" Breena asked timidly.

Lone smiled softly at her. "Of course not."

"B-But we failed the quest..." Breena was a lot more torn up over this than Lone had expected her to be.

'She cares that much about adventuring?' he thought as he soothed her verbally. "No. Don't be silly, Breena. Four-twelve turned on us then killed himself. He appeared to be getting manipulated by a very strong outside force. That's beyond the difficulty of the posted quest and, also, the circumstances of the quest changed from the poster himself without our consent."

Lone reached over and rubbed Breena's head. He still hadn't apologised to her and she, naturally, wasn't over her phobia of men yet but he wanted to show her that he obviously still cared for her.

"If we're being technical, It'd be absurd to punish us for what happened in that urd. Especially considering Sophie's condition," he reasoned.

"... Okay," Breena answered plainly.

Lone could see that she was holding back her true thoughts and that only reinforced the idea in his mind that he needed to say sorry sooner rather than later for how he had treated her the other day.

Not long later an old dwarven man with droopy eyes and large golden earrings entered the room. He adjusted his steamforged glasses as he held a report in his hand.

He took a seat opposite Lone and Breena before saying, "I'm quite confused by this case, Mister Immortus, Miss Redtail. Tell me everything that happened on your quest from the top. Spare no details, if you wouldn't mind, please."

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