Thalia and Claude observed Barry’s training going underway against groups of McGuinness’s droids and drones that were manifested from his thoughts alone. “Absolutely diabolical! Barry, I just gave you a demonstration 15 minutes ago, and you’re not even able to imitate a fraction of it!” Claude mocked, trying to piss him off.

  His harsh comments appeared to be having an overall improvement on Barry’s performance, it was true that the madder Barry got, the better he performed. Thalia was pleased with Barry’s evasiveness when weaving through attacks so far, it was sufficient for now but in the future she would teach him more advanced manners of movement.

  “I don’t want to see something sloppy like that again, you barbaric fool!” Thalia shouted, having her turn at belittling Barry.

  Barry utilized the pommel of his trident to mix up his maneuvers like an agile street performer in order to confuse his enemies while weaving through their attacks. Flipping, swerving, pushing off the ground for added boost, and when he closed the gaps, Barry carried all his momentum into every thrust of his spear. His attacks managed to puncture through the robots armor, destroying their power source.

  As he fought, Barry would describe the fighting-style that he was adopting to be very fluid with a lot of options to outdo his opponent. One of the benefits, to using a spear he saw, was that because it had a longer length, it meant that he could kite and halt his opponent’s from a distance. So he had some form of control over his opponent, depending on what foe of course.

  Yet, despite enjoying combat with a spear, he still missed being able to send wind blade projectiles like he did with a sword. That was the coolest aspect that Thalia had shown him with a sword.

  After dispatching his enemies, Barry looked back at his mentors to see them critiquing his performance. “Any more complaints? I must have fucked up somewhere, so just tell me now. I’m expecting someone to wake me up soon for dinner.”

  Claude was the first to reply, sounding neither impressed nor unimpressed. “I could see the creativity in your movements with a spear, how you try to incorporate mix-ups in order to keep the enemy guessing. However, I am not teaching you to be a circus actor. Unnecessary moves result in wasted energy and time, I’ll teach you a few methods that are good overall to close down an enemy. But…I can see that my sister has taught you well so far.”

  Barry shrugged his shoulders and accepted his opinion before facing Thalia who spoke. “We continue to see the resolve in your eyes, you're doing good so far. And with two mentors nurturing you, this challenge that you face becomes more manageable. I only hope since Claude has offered his support, that perhaps our last brother will later as well…”

  “He’ll come around.” Claude said with belief. “The reason why I decided to show myself, was for a couple of reasons that I just had to see in order to notice you might be worth the effort Thalia claimed you to be.”

  “And those reasons are?” Barry wanted to know.

  “For one, despite trying to encourage those other contestants in a harsh way, they were still inspired by your words and followed. Through the torrent waters, taking it upon yourself to turn back and assist them against a swarm of sea leviathans, that showed heroism. And when you were swallowed by that giant leviathan, I thought it was over for you. But I was wrong, your tenacity to cling on to life was remarkable. It made me remember the last time I was gobbled up inside a gigantic monster and survived, killing it from the inside as well.” Claude reminisced the day he was eaten by a massive serpent before going ham on the inside.

  “Well, it wasn’t a good feeling for me and no way in hell was I going to let my chapter end becoming food.” Barry recalled it being stuffy and hard to breathe inside the leviathan’s stomach.

  He then remembered something that Puck mentioned to him before that he was curious about. “Say, you guys have clearly killed a bunch of dragons to have your equipment crafted from their body parts. Have either of you heard of a dragon named Valkynox by any chance during your time of living?”

  The two knights sifted through their memories from way back in the past, thinking about the name that was given but could not recall such a being. Their memories were still coming together slowly themselves. “No.” Thalia responded, shaking her head. “And just to be clear, we never went out hunting for dragons for sport. There were wicked dragons that terrorized many civilizations, to which we disposed of and used their parts for our equipment. But this dragon you call, Valkynox, is not one we’ve heard of. Why do you ask?”

  “It’s just…Puck’s told me about a dream he had of a giant glowing dragon that appeared to him. It told Puck its name, but not why it showed itself to him. I just thought you two might know of this dragon, I don’t even know how long dragons live to be.” Barry was curious about the longevity of a dragon himself.

  “Haha, the Kobold had a silly dream about a dragon? That’s intriguing, and you believe him?” Claude questioned Barry, doubting that it was true.

  His response to his question bothered Barry somewhat. “Yeah I believe him, he may act like a child, but Puck has no reason to lie to me. And by the way, I can see the name of his Class which refers to him as a descendant of this dragon. He also has an affinity to unique draconic fire, it all makes sense if you think about it.”

  “Hmm…” Claude accepted Barry’s facts and resumed answering his question. ”Well, dragons can live for as long as they like as far as I know. So long as a dragon is not fatally wounded or is continuously nourished with magic essence, they can continue doing what they like. Though, a Kobold obtaining the fire affinity of a dragon is new to us…”

  While they were on the topic, Thalia remembered Barry’s question about if there were any powerful beings in the past with the potential of being revived just like how her, her brothers, and her king were brought back as zombies to play a part in Barry’s tutorial on Earth. “Barry, you asked me if I could remember any infamous enemies during my past and there was one such foe that was mighty. It was a being that was so tremendous that it united the forces of Scion to bring it down…it was an enemy that my king fought in his early days though. Yet I still can’t think of its name.”

  “I did ask that before. So there really was something that strong, huh…let’s just hope that thing stays dead. Though, I wouldn’t pass the moderators to do such a thing. Fucking assholes.” Barry wondered if the moderators or gods were able to listen in and watch him inside his dreamworld.

  Suddenly, he felt a disturbance coming from his physical body. “I think someone’s trying to wake me up for dinner. Time for me to go, I’ll be back later for more training. Tomorrow we’re heading back out immediately to potentially retrieve another prism.”

  The three said their byes and Barry drifted off again to return to his physical body.

  His body was sprawled all across his bed with a leg sticking out over the edge of his mattress. Someone was definitely shaking his body, and he awoke with a tired voice. “Is it dinner now?” He rubbed his eyes as he stood up before taking a look at who it was.

  “Y-Yes.” It was Kat, she was the one who was sent to wake Barry up. “Um, Anna made meat stew for everyone. She also said that you haven’t eaten all day either…”

  Barry’s stomach grumbled, making him feel a pain of hunger. He sighed and saw Kat turn her face away out of second-hand embarrassment without a word. “Tch, yeah, she’s right. I have to eat something. Alright, let’s go. Thanks for waking me.”

  “O-Of course…hey…Barry.” Kat replied shyly, she was hesitant about asking him something, but went for it when she saw him stop in his tracks before exiting out of the door.

  “What’s up?” Barry leaned against the door frame.

  She laced her fingers in between each other, something was clearly on her mind it seemed. “Puck…talked to us about your fight against that McGuinness guy…how it looked like you almost died. We all know he looks up to you, but the way he talked to us about you nearly dying was…concerning to us.”

  Barry knew that Puck saw him as his true friend, the first he’s had ever. Kat continued. “Before your fight, he said that you told him to focus on the mission because it was very important. I get that completing this main quest is important and all, b-but still, what about-”

  “We don’t move on if we don’t finish this damn game we’re in.” Barry cut off, sounding a bit stern. “I’m aware that my decisions and choices seem reckless to others, especially to Puck. I didn’t want him interfering with my fight at the time because of the potential danger of him dying. I can’t lose him. I was confident I would survive my confrontation with McGuinness, and I’m still alive to this day. Aren’t I?”

  There was a moment of silence before Kat replied in a meek voice. “Y-Yes…but s-still…” She didn’t want to see Puck upset over the loss of Barry, and she was sure that no else wanted that outcome.

  Just seeing her concerned face made Barry sigh, he didn’t need people around him worrying about his safety. Barry hoped that the people with him would just accept his reckless choices and focus on the bigger picture which was seeing through the end of this game. “Kat, Puck cares about me, yes, but I don’t plan on ultimately dying. So if I tell anyone that I plan to face something alone, know that I don’t make those choices if I know I’m going to outright die. I know my limits and when to ask for help…alright?”

  Kat glanced at Barry for a moment, seeing the seriousness in his eyes that showed how determined he was to get through their situation. She then looked away towards the ground with concern before responding. “Okay…as long as you know how Puck feels.”

  Feeling his stomach ache once more, he decided their conversation had to come to an end. “Come on, Anna’s going to nag at me the longer we stay here.” He then started making his way out the door. “Let’s go chow.”

  “O-Okay…” Kat followed behind him, still troubled by what he said. ‘Please be more careful…for Puck’s sake. The way he looks up to you reminds me of someone I once knew…’

  She then heard a noise coming from outside a window, what she could only describe as something falling and hitting the ground. Kat didn’t think much of it and resumed walking.

  The two exited the house to see everyone around the base eating the meat stew Anna had cooked, along with some biscuits and potatoes. “It smells good.” Barry commented, Kat agreeing.

  They followed the scent of delicious aroma, leading them to the last group of people who were being served food by Anna and Luna. “Barry! You’re awake!” Luna greeted him, waving her hand in the air.

  As they approached, Anna had finished serving the last person and started making the two a bowl of meat stew with sides. She made sure to give Barry extra portions and shoved Barry’s food into his hands. “Here, you better eat everything. Grouch.” Anna told him, sounding a bit commanding.

  “Why the hell are you acting like a mother?” Barry asked, looking a bit irritated

  “When you became too stubborn to take better care of yourself.” Anna countered, getting a few snickers from the others. “Now go, eat.”

  Barry rolled his eyes and took his food with him, taking a seat at a table with some other werewolves who were done for the day doing some construction work. And not a minute after, one of them started questioning him a bit more about his world which slowed him down from eating.

  “You know sis.” Luna said. “I think you’re about the only one capable of winning an argument against him. Must feel good when that happens, huh?”

  “It does, actually. I just hate it when he decides to do things his way sometimes, makes me want to sock his face.” The sound of temptation could be noticed in her voice, making Luna and Kat laugh a bit.

  Puck then appeared on the scene, following the scent of food. “Oh! Food is done, Puck wants some.” He raised his hands in the air for a bowl.

  Anna and Luna happily prepared him and themselves some as well and picked a spot close by where they could watch Barry continue being bugged by the werewolves. It was pure entertainment for them to see Barry interact and respond to their questions until eventually he started bickering at them to quit asking him stuff and let him finish eating.

  Sherry and Ron arrived after hearing dinner was ready while they were working on preparing for tomorrow's adventure. They got themselves some food and sat with the others, chatting about various topics ranging from Sherry’s personal stories to Luna’s trouble making days.

  Anna, Kat, and Luna noticed that Ron was less nervous speaking to Sherry than before. They believed that the two must have done some positive bonding during their time today, even if it was just them crafting and sorting potions and such for their travels. Regardless, they kept Ron’s crush a secret and made sure to help Ron out whenever he did slip up and let his nerves get the best of him.

  Suddenly, Buford showed up with a wide smile on his face as he looked around at everyone sitting down. “Hey, hey! You guys know what day it is!? It’s bingo night! Wooooooah! Who's in?” The werewolf sounded so excited like a little kid on their birthday.

  A couple of groans from the other people sitting down were heard. A lot of them started giving excuses to get out of bingo and walking away, not liking the game in general. Buford was sort of upset upon witnessing this. “A-Ah, okay…”

  “Puck wants to play!” The little Kobold was thrilled, he’d been wanting to learn how to play bingo since he was told about it.

  “I’ll play.” Kat volunteered as well, she could see the disappointment on Buford’s face when he saw the rest of the Nightwalkers take their leave. Anna, Luna, Sherry, and Ron offered to join as well, reinvigorating Buford once again.

  Abe, having been summoned by Kat earlier in the day, arrived to hear the commotion. “Did I hear bingo? Whose trying to get scored by the Great Abe, because I take no losses whatsoever.” The spirit said with pure confidence.

  “Awesome! The more, the merrier; if only Edward and Sylvia were here to join in. Too bad they left to get one of the prisms…” Buford felt blessed to have people who want to play bingo. He then turned to look at Barry who was finished eating. “Oh, Barry! What about you, care to join?”

  Barry stood up from his table and looked at Buford, seeing how happy he was. “Uh, I was going to head back to bed after eating. It is getting late…”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Oh, no worries. I would have liked to see you included, but maybe another time.” Buford replied, even though Barry declined, he was content to have the rest of the gang join in.

  The rest of his party figured he would reject game night, they too would have wanted him to take part in the fun. Puck spoke, wishing for him to join. “Barry, one game. Pleeeease.”

  Everyone could see the cute adorable expression Puck had on his face, like a cat’s pupils dilating to show how badly he wanted Barry to play. They all then glanced at Barry, wondering how he was going to say no to such a face like that.

  ‘Shit…’ Barry shifted his eyes from side to side, he didn’t want to play bingo but more importantly, he remembered his talk with Kat about Puck and inevitably caved into the pressure. “...alright, fine. ONE game, that’s it.”

  His answer made the rest grin and cheer, they were hoping he wouldn’t turn Puck down if he was the one asking. The whole group moved to a bigger table at the pavilion to set up the game. Luna made sure to shuffle the deck of cards well, as she was going to be the one to announce the cards drawn from the deck. Everyone else was given a bingo sheet and the game was ready.

  In the early stages of the game, no one seemed to be having a lead over the others. But as the game progressed, Anna and Abe were the ones taking the lead. Puck needed some assistance since he had trouble reading the names on his sheet, so Barry made sure to point out which ones he had.

  “Seems like you might have a bad bingo sheet, Barry. You must be pretty unlucky.” Anna mocked, hoping to get a rise out of him just for fun.

  “Why don’t you can it and listen to your sister announcing the names. Shit’s not over till there's a winner.” Barry shot back, he had faith that his sheet would give him the win.

  Some time passed and Barry was able to catch up with Anna and Abe to the point where either of them just needed one more specific card to be announced in order to declare victory.

  Finally, Luna flipped over the top card of the deck and spoke out the name. “Griffin!” She shouted, raising the card high for everyone to see.

  Immediately, Anna, Barry, and Abe placed a chip on their sheet. Barry was the first to speak out the words that would make him the winner…or so he thought. “Bing-”

  Suddenly, his sheet was flipped over with the chips sprawling across the table for some reason. “Bingo!” Abe called out, taking advantage of the unexpected occurrence that distracted everyone.

  “W-Wait!? What the hell just happened?” Barry asked, he wasn’t the only one who was confused by this strange phenomenon. “How did-”

  “Dusk! How could you!?” Kat rose from her chair, waving her hands above Barry’s head. She had witnessed her ghostly familiar mess up Barry’s chances of winning. Dusk began floating away after being told to go away. “I’m so sorry Barry, I wasn’t expecting Dusk to do that.” She sincerely apologized.

  “Well, you win some, you cry some. Am I right?” Abe quoted, as he wore a wide smile with his feet on the table, kicking back.

  Barry wasn’t going to accept what had just happened. “No, that’s bullshit! I was supposed to win, you all heard me about to say bingo.” He defended, clearly fuming with anger.

  “But you didn’t finish saying it, did you?” Anna commented, resting her head on a fist with an amused smile.

  “But you knew I was going to win, you just don’t want to accept it!” Barry then looked at Ron, Sherry, and Buford to ask for their opinion. “I won that, you guys have to agree with me.”

  The three took one glance at each other, as if communicating with their eyes for a moment before Ron replied for them with an awkward smile. “Sorry, going by the rules, you didn’t officially say bingo.”

  Barry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘I should have won! What the fuck!?’ Everyone tried to contain their laughter as they saw Barry trying his best to hold back from exploding with rage. “Fine! Let’s go again, since no one wants to admit that I clearly won that round.” He then swapped his bingo sheet for another.

  Anna poked fun at Barry some more. “I thought you said that you were only going to play one game? You must really be salty after losing-”

  “Shut it, Anna. That one didn’t count, this time will be different.” Barry interrupted, having his arms crossed in an irritated pose as he tapped his fingers.

  His reaction to losing was very entertaining for everyone, and he would continue to bring laughter to the table as they went on to play another round. Again, when it got towards the end of the second round, Barry just needed one more section on his sheet to be called out, and he’d win.

  This time, when Luna went to reveal the top card of the deck, it and a few other cards were flipped over by Dusk’s influence. Barry glanced at what the top card would have been and placed a chip on his sheet upon seeing that it would have been the one he needed to win. “Bingo! Yes! I fucking told you!” He shouted, acting more energetic than ever before.

  “Uh, I was supposed to call it out. So that doesn’t count…” Luna explained, feeling sorry for how Barry was going to react next.

  “W-What!? You were going to draw it anyways, so it shouldn’t matter if you were going to say it or not? Right?” Barry looked at everyone else for confirmation, but all he saw and heard were most of them telling him it didn’t. “No…you guys are just messing with me!? None of you guys want me to win, you’re all just allowing Dusk’s shenanigans to affect the outcome!”

  Anna chuckled. “And? Are you going to keep crying about it, or are you going to keep playing till you win?”

  A look of determination was written all over Barry’s face, he was not going to leave until he was given the proper win he deserved. “Start another match, I’ve got the next one.”

  Once more, they started another fresh game. This time, Kat opted out so that she could prevent Dusk from interfering with the game. Yet, Barry would lose again, this time with fairness and Anna being declared the winner. Frustrated and mocked by both Abe and Anna, Barry kept pressing on game after game. Everyone was dying from laughter at Barry’s comments filled with rage, this was the most fun any of them had.

  And through the bickering, trash-talk, and other nonsense that was spoken across the table; Barry eventually felt a slight headache along with his vision blurring into darkness. ‘Is this…another memory fragment? The hell is the significance of what I’m doing right now to trigger this?’ He wondered how he was suddenly getting another memory due to just simply playing bingo.

  Upon blacking out, he started seeing an apparition of a scene involving a group of people chatting and having a great time with some games. Among these people, Barry recognized Puck and the one True Barry who were enjoying a game of charades with others.

  Puck was trying to guess what the True Barry was trying to impersonate, eventually getting it right by saying he was being a horse. They laughed and started talking to a few others apart from the group, sharing their stories of adventure. ‘This is clearly a party, and they’re all enjoying it…is the reason why I’m seeing this memory is because…I’m genuinely enjoying the company I’m with at the moment? Or is it Puck who is enjoying it?’ Barry assumed.

  He continued to watch and listen to the events of the gathering, hoping to find out anything useful he could take from this wholesome memory about this mysterious True Barry or version of Puck he saw. But as the memory played on, he would not learn anything that he believed was worthwhile. All except for the fact that they were enjoying the party.

  The last film of memory he saw before it ended, was Puck putting on a show by igniting parts of his body with his magic before dancing. There were a group of musicians in the background playing energetic music, matching the beat and flow of Puck’s dance moves. The little Kobold was having the time of his life, and in a big finally, he exploded high in the air and extinguished his flames so that the people below could catch him. Everyone cheered, awestruck of his performance. Puck was then thrown multiple times in the air, while his name was being chanted. It was then that the memory faded like a wind blowing it away.

  His vision slowly returned, and Barry found himself back in his chair along with everyone else. “Bingo!” Buford called out with a bright smile on his face. “Yes! It’s been so long since I’ve won a game.”

  As Barry was recovering from his blackout, Luna happened to look at Barry’s bingo card to see how far he had gotten and saw that he hadn’t put any chips down. In fact, he should have won the round early because the first couple of cards drawn were what he needed. “Barry, what happened? Were you not listening when I was calling out the cards?” She asked him with a puzzled look, everyone realized what she was saying and were confused as well.

  “Oh, uh, I must have dozed off.” Barry got himself together and rose up from his seat, planning to take his leave. “Maybe this game isn’t for me. Anyways, I’m gonna turn in and get some sleep for tomorrow’s journey. Goodnight.” He rubbed Puck’s head before heading out.

  Everyone wondered why he seemed so out of it all of a sudden, there was the chance that he might have simply given up on the game in general after losing so much to unfortunate causes. But he could have won had he paid attention like normal, it was strange. They all resumed playing a few more rounds before calling it a night.

  Kat was actually the first to notice Barry’s little episode, yet hesitated asking if he was okay. She decided to let him rest and ask tomorrow about it, seeing as how it was a long day today.

  Barry arrived in his room, shutting the door behind and laying on his bed. ‘I’ve only seen very few memories of my past life, but not enough to tell me who I was exactly or how I died. And yet, I’ve started seeing more memory fragments of the True Barry, I’m just borrowing his name, I’m positive I’m not him. I’m still confused how Puck is connected to him somehow, especially since he’s never met him before…’

  He tried making sense from the memory along with the others including the True Barry and Puck. ‘So they’ve clearly gone on adventures together, meeting new people, saving lives, being heroes basically. I’ve asked Puck before when I met him if he’s ever met someone else named Barry, but he claims he hasn’t so…what am I seeing? WHY, am I seeing it?’

  And as the thoughts piled up, a call notification manifested in front of his eyes. ‘Who is…’ One look at the caller ID made him bothersome. ‘Ven…’ Barry picked up the call, hoping he had something interesting to tell him at least instead of rambling on about the views he was getting.

  “Barry! How are you champ?” Ven greeted, thrilled to speak with his cash cow once again.

  Barry sighed, he really didn’t want to entertain this bastard longer than he needed. “Fucking fantastic, now what the hell do you want now? Are you calling to gloat how many disgusting views I’ve earned for you or do you have something useful to tell me?”

  “Haha, you know me so well. Of course, I’ve called you to flaunt over how many-” He stopped talking when he saw Barry attempt to end the call with a finger. “Whoa, whoa! Hold on!”

  “Ven, I’ve had enough shit today! I was having a moment before I was going to get some shut-eye. I don’t like my time being wasted, so how about you give me some useful information in exchange for talking my ear off about how well your dumbass channel is doing all the time.” Barry valued his time very much, he wasn’t going to let Ven get what he wanted without giving something in return.

  “Ugh, I can’t have a civilized chat with one of my bestest contestants can I?” Ven said, as if acting like he was pouting.

  Ven’s words made Barry cringe, irritated even. “Civilized? There ain’t crap that’s considered civilized with what we’re being put through! All because you and the fucking gods want to put people like me in on entertainment show. So again, how about you tell me something worthwhile, and I might listen to your yapping.”

  “Hmpf! You drive a hard bargain…” Ven thought about his request, Barry’s finger was hovering over the end-call button on his screen. “Fine! If this is how we’re going to chat with each other, then I’ll be sure to share something with you in our future conversation’s.”

  “So…you’re saying you still have nothing to tell me as of now?” Barry threatened to end the call, inching a finger closer to the button.

  “Don’t you dare end the call, just let me ramble on about how well my channel is doing, and you can ask me something afterwards, I promise. You’ve made me so busy by racking up so many subscribers that my colleagues have been bothering me for tips.” Ven sounded both happy and exhausted at the same time. “It’s not always a good thing, whenever you’re as successful as I am.”

  Barry rolled his eyes, he decided to allow Ven to talk his ear off since he promised to let him ask a question after he was done. “Alright, but depending on how long you babble, you might have to answer more than one question.”

  “Yesssss!” Ven was excited to be given the green light, it was as if he never got the chance to talk about how great he was doing. “So, where should I start…oh yeah! How about when you…”

  Barry listened to his chattering, which was him talking about the gods and other moderators' reactions to Barry’s display of courageous and crazy acts. When he decided to help the other contestants fight off the sea leviathans, being swallowed by a giant sea creature, finding out that the Murkers were in-fact Merfolk before turning, and most importantly; his assault on McGuinness’s massive aircraft.

  It was disgusting to Barry how Ven spoke about transforming nearly all the Merfolk into Murkers, he hated how nonchalant Ven talked about their fate and wanted to rant at him for that. Yet, he held back and kept listening, knowing that there was nothing he could do at the moment. But one thing that made Ven most excited about, was Barry’s confrontation with McGuinness and his robot.

  Apparently, the gods and the moderators found it hilarious how Barry managed to make McGuinness spill out info to him about the other villains and their own agenda. Everyone was amused by the bantering the two had, there was an agreement that McGuinness was a perfect choice to become one of the main quest’s villains. Mainly because they saw him as someone to laugh at, rather than someone threatening enough to spice up the challenge against the contestants.

  Ven then wrapped up his rant after glorifying the dire situation Barry was in from nearly dying to McGuinness’s killer robot’s ultimate triple laser cannon. “You should have seen the look on my colleagues' faces when they witnessed your potential death. They were not expecting you to survive that attack, but you did! I knew you hadn’t used your Unicorn shield beforehand, there was not a doubt in my mind that you wouldn’t make it out alive. My precious cash cow.”

  Barry felt it was about time that he got answers, he wondered when Ven would shut up. “Yeah, cool. Hey, since you talked so much, I’m charging you two questions and to let me sleep. Me and the others are travelling back out to find one of the prisms.”

  Ven sounded a bit upset but figured it was only fair. “Alright, fine. But I won’t just tell you anything that’ll give you an unfair advantage over the quest. I am to be fair and impartial to all contestants, just because you're my favorite, doesn’t mean I’ll cater to you with everything.”

  He thought about what he was going to ask, Barry figured Ven wouldn’t tell him anything that would be considered cheating, and it wasn’t like he’d be able to trick him like he did with McGuinness. Eventually, he remembered something that Thalia said and went ahead and asked. “If the moderators, like you, orchestrate everything going on in this current world…then you all must know everything about it, including its history. So what I want to know is…am I to expect the potential revival of something incredibly dangerous to oppose people like me?”

  There was a moment of silence on Ven’s end, ranging between 3–5 seconds before he responded. “...well wouldn’t that be something! You know, that’s not a bad idea at all. I’ll put that in my list of ideas for you contestants. So what’s your next question?”

  “W-Wait, so was I right or not?” Barry was confused, he wasn’t sure if Ven gave him a clear answer or not.

  “Is that your second question?” Ven replied, sounding very sarcastic.

  Barry shook his head. “Huh? No! You just didn’t say if I was right or-”

  “Then next question! I’ve got some preparation to do soon, so hurry up.” Ven talked as if he was in a hurry, yet, Barry couldn’t help but feel like he was trying to steer away from the question he had asked.

  “Hmmm…” Barry collected his thoughts together and continued with his last question, wanting to know something else that might be important. “Are you able to check and tell me if there’s ever been a dragon or being known as Valkynox in this world?”

  “Valkynox, you say…hmm…one second…” There was silence on Ven’s end for a few minutes. If this supposed dragon that Puck told him about was real, then Barry was thinking about seeking out help from it. That is, assuming it was on the side of good. Ven then returned back with an answer. “...I will tell you this, but the moderators and I are still sifting through the records of this world as we speak. But as for your question, I do not see anything or anyone that goes by the name of Valkynox. Sorry to disappoint.”

  ‘That’s unfortunate, so the possibility of this thing actually existing is still in the air…it would have been nice to know if this dragon was alive.’ Now finished with asking his questions, Barry wanted to get some rest. “Alright, I’m done talking with you. I’m ending the call and going to bed.”

  “Okay! Do take care, and put on a grand show! Till we meet aga-” Ven was about to finish his farewell, but Barry abruptly ended the call.

  Barry turned over onto his side, covering himself with his bedsheets to get comfortable. “Finally, I can get back to my training…I need to get stronger, so that I can clear this quest quicker…”

  He soon went into a deep slumber, returning back to his dreamworld and resumed his training under the guidance of Claude and Thalia. The next day after would be the start of their immediate journey to scout for the next prism.