After taking a few deep breaths, Sean looked around him.
The candles in the room had long gone out, but the sky outside was already faintly brightening. It must be nearly dawn!
Looking out the window... lowering his head slightly, whenever he could see the sky, the time would gradually appear in his vision: [Night: Clear, 2:12:23].
Only two hours until dawn.
Sean rubbed his head, his thoughts still lingering in that nightmare just now...
Why did he dream of such a scene! Now, as he tried to recall, some details were already blurry, but the corpse sealed within the mountains and those eyes he saw in the sewer were deeply etched into his mind.
What the hell was that?!
Just a nightmare?
Or was it because he was too tired during the day, leading to random thoughts while sleeping at night?
Though he had just woken up, some details of the dream were fading quickly, but a few particularly vivid images refused to leave.
He quickly got up, rushed to the table, and picked up the quill pen lying nearby... Sean felt he needed to write this down.
Where to record it?
Looking around, there seemed to be nothing suitable for writing. Scribbling it anywhere would make it hard to find later.
Suddenly, he remembered the magic book Lucille had given him... He flipped it open, found a few blank pages at the back, and jotted down some keywords: nightmare, corpse, contamination, sewer, etc., so he could recall it later.
After finishing, Sean leaned back on the bed for a while.
It wasn't dawn yet; there was still time to rest a bit more!
He didn't know how long had passed when Sean was again roused from his drowsiness by a knock at the door.
"Brother Sean... Brother Sean, wake up! Wake up!" It was Claude's voice. The two siblings always rose early, though Esmeralda sometimes went to check on the Skov Forge, leaving her younger brother Claude to mind the shop most of the time.
As for himself, he was still used to sleeping until he naturally woke up.
"What's wrong?" Sean called toward the door.
Usually, Claude wouldn't come to wake him. Why today?
He glanced sideways at the sky outside...
[Day: Clear, 9:00:12]
It had only been an hour since dawn, just as the sun was rising.
"Outside... there's someone outside looking for you," the voice said urgently from beyond the door.
Someone looking for me?
He barely knew anyone in Koga City. How could someone be looking for him... If anything, it might be someone from the trade market, or perhaps a message from Tylermian.
Just as he stood up, another face suddenly flashed through Sean's mind—Igunia?
That girl had said yesterday she'd wait for him to go find her precious "monster" together. She'd said it so casually he thought she was joking, but she actually came, and this early!
He glanced at the magic book resting by his pillow.
Well, it's fine that she came. Otherwise, he'd have to go find her himself.
After quickly washing up, Sean opened the door...
Claude was still standing outside, and when he saw Sean, the words [Utterly Baffled!] and [Very Envious!] even appeared above his head.
So it really was Igunia who had come.
"Who's waiting for me?" he asked, pretending not to know.
But Claude didn't answer immediately. Instead, he stared at Sean with even more curiosity, as if trying to memorize his face!
"Brother Sean."
"Hmm?"
"Do you have any relatives or acquaintances in Koga City?" Claude asked.
"If I had relatives here, I'd have visited them long ago." Seeing Claude's attitude, Sean was even more certain it was Igunia.
Just as he was about to head downstairs, Claude grabbed him again.
"Brother Sean, are you sure you don't know anyone else in the city?" he asked once more.
"Of course I'm sure. If I do, I've only met them recently."
Leaving that remark, Sean continued downstairs...
This kid was interesting. Could he have taken a liking to Igunia?
In the center of the Skov Shop's main hall, there were seats for customers to rest. When Sean came downstairs, he indeed saw Igunia sitting in the middle.
Today, she wasn't wearing a hood. Instead, she had on a floral-print long dress, probably for easier movement later, paired with a small leather vest and tall leather boots.
At first glance, she was a strikingly beautiful young woman.
"Sean!" She stood up happily when she saw him coming down.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, didn't we agree yesterday to keep searching today? We haven't found it yet... Are you trying to back out?" Igunia said, eyes wide.
We never made any agreement, Sean thought.
Just then, Claude followed him downstairs and, upon seeing Igunia, broke into a wide smile.
"Thank you!"
"No problem, no problem..." Claude nodded repeatedly.
Then Igunia started urging him to get moving quickly, or they'd never make any headway today.
When Sean mentioned he hadn't had breakfast, she dismissed it, suggesting they eat outside... And so, under Claude's envious gaze, she practically pushed Sean out of the Skov Shop.
The morning on Brucan Avenue was still bustling with traffic. Once outside the shop, Igunia began asking where they should start searching today...
"How about we pick up where we left off yesterday, starting from the docks!"
"No... this time, we start from the sewer," Sean said suddenly.
"The sewer?" Igunia looked at him with some confusion.
Sean didn't know why, but he wanted to confirm whether what he saw in his dream was real, or just a jumble of fragments his mind had pieced together from all the bits of information he'd heard lately.
He'd heard of this phenomenon before.
Those dreams of places you've never seen—most of the time, they're just random images stitched together by your consciousness, with no special meaning.
Just imagination.
"Why start with the sewer? That place is dirty and smelly, and I don't want to go there in the clothes I'm wearing today." Igunia glanced at her outfit. She'd finally put on such a pretty dress and didn't want to ruin it.
"I can't explain it, but I have a feeling. Igunia... do you believe in foreseeing things?"
After all, she was a witch—she should understand this better. He remembered Lucille mentioning that professions like seers existed.
"Foreseeing? Isn't that the ability of prophets and seers?"
Igunia suddenly looked at him with a strange expression.
"Sean, are you a seer?"
"I'm no seer... No... I just overheard someone talking about it while shopping last night." Sean didn't admit to knowing magic, because suddenly bringing up prophets and seers made the world's power structure seem chaotic to him. What kind of professions were there?
"Really?"
Igunia seemed skeptical.
"Of course. I don't even know what you mean by seers or prophets. By the way, how are the ranks of wizards, warriors, and all those professions divided? Can you tell me?"
Taking this chance, Sean thought he could learn more.
Of course, Lucille hadn't gone into detail because he was too ignorant about this world, lacking even basic常识. So she hadn't touched on deeper topics. Now, he realized that without understanding this, he'd never know how to improve.
Even knowing that magic proficiency could increase, it was hard to distinguish the ranks.