?? — A Strange Encounter - II

A/N: So this won't make as much sense untill you read the first part here. 

***

I  stared at a dragon flying at me, as I stood within a broken library,  flying across the sky on a crumbling island. Only one thought came to my  head.

“Of fucking course.”

How  had I gotten here? I had no fucking clue. All I knew is that I was now  in a LitRPG with this girl called Jennifer, who’d someone gotten both  herself and me here, and that we were about to be dragon food.

“Dodge!”  I screamed, flaring my Qi as I jumped to the side, grabbing Jennifer  alongside with me. Thankfully, despite the girl being pretty much a  normal human from what I could tell, she wasn’t nearly as clumsy as I’d  expected, quickly following in with me as the two of us rolled to the  side.

A  resounding explosion shook the ground beneath my feet and I wrapped my  hands around Jennifer, flaring my Qi to shield us both as we were swept  in the explosion.

You’ve lost 3% of your health.

Fuck you too system.

I  turned around, and my eyes widened for a moment as I saw shards of glass  that had cut into the dragon’s body. My eyes went towards Jennifer and I  saw the girl panting, her hands outstretched.

Quickly,  I let go of her as we both pulled to our feets and turned to face the  dragon. My hands went towards my drugnades, but I found them empty.  Shit.

I  turned to glance at Jennifer, who looked back at me with an equally  apprehensive and surprised expression. I raised my hands, flaring my Qi  as I tried to call out to Lu Jie. My other half stirred within my soul,  notifying me of his presence.

“At  least you’re here,” I muttered, watching the best roar and claw around,  thrashing. I kept my guard up, and Qi was circulating, ready to shoot  out at any second and fight, but a few more moments of slashing and  roaring told me that the dragon wasn’t attacking us. Far from it.  Instead something else was attacking the dragon.

Blood  burst out from the dragon’s skull, ripping apart and being vanished in a  pocket of darkness that surrounded it for a bare moment. I stepped back  to avoid the spray of blood as the dragon roared for one last time,  before it crumbled, taking its last breath.

Ding! You’ve killed the [Tyrannical Abyss Dragon - Lvl 543]! Experience points granted!

Ding! Drug Alchemist has reached Lvl 2!Ding! Drug Alchemist has reached Lvl 3!

Ding! Drug Alchemist has reached Lvl 4!

…

Ding! Drug Alchemist has reached Lvl 9!

“Wait what? I didn’t kill that though?” I muttered out loud, staring in confusion.

“Passive  soul absorption. If something strong enough dies near you, just being  nearby is enough to level you up,” a voice muttered, and I turned to see  a man stepping out of the corpse of the dragon. He wore a simple shirt  and pants, or what would’ve been a simple shirt and pants, if they were  not drenched in dragon blood. A grin covered the guy’s face as he walked  closer, and I felt a strange sense of danger fill my chest.

“Name’s Ryan. I’m assuming the two of you also got pulled into this mess?” Ryan said, and I nodded.

As I was about to reply, I found my eyes drift towards Jennifer, who stood staring at the dragon’s corpse, as if mesmerized.

“Is something wrong?” Ryan asked the girl.

“N-no  it’s just. Dragons are supposed to be dead. In my world my world at  least. But, I can feel a strange bond with this one…” Jennifer muttered,  before turning around. “I’m sorry, this is all just very confusing. I  was back in my home, and there was already enough happening with me  dying and waking in a time loop and an invasion and demons and then  this. I’m just struggling to keep up.”

“A time loop huh?” I muttered, as I saw a surprise flash on Jennifer’s face for a moment, before the expression passed.

“Well,  for me, I died back home and got sent to a Xianxia world. So now I sell  drugs and play with a lightning rat. I’ve got a split soul thing and my  other half has demonic energy and the heavens of my world want me to  die, It’s a whole thing,” I said, before turning to look at Ryan. “What  about you?” I asked curiously.

The  man looked oddly embarrassed when I asked him that. A moment later, he  extended his arm, as a smooth black spear zipped towards him rapidly,  resting snuggly in his arms.

“I  punched my boss in the face, then met a weird tentacle monster and a  warrior woman. Somehow got teleported into a high level dungeon and died  to the first enemy. Woke up as a zombie after that, with an ability to  eat souls. Now here we are,” Ryan said, smiling.

“A zombie? I- don’t get it. You… don’t look very undead to me,” Jennifer muttered, and I nodded.

“Well.  It’s complicated. I’ve got the Titan Seed of gluttony. So technically  I’m more of a spirit of Hunger than anything else. But to simplify, I’m  something akin to a draugr, but I’ve still kept my mind. As long as I  can find enough strong souls to keep the titan seed satiated, I don’t  really go rogue. Frankly, that was me from like 2 evolutions ago. I can  control hunger a lot better now, it’s pretty sick to be honest,” Ryan  said.

“Man, you’ve got an entire MC package over there,” I muttered to myself and Ryan burst out laughing.

“I  can’t deny that,” he grinned cheerfully, and I couldn't help but smile  back in return. My eyes turned towards the dead dragon next to me, and I  let out a whistle. “Man, you must be really strong. What level are you  anyway?” I asked, before realizing something.

Looking at Ryan, I tried to call for a status prompt. Unsurprisingly, something popped up in front of my face.

[Hunter - Lvl ??]

“You  won’t be able to see my level. Too big of a gap. But I don’t mind  sharing, I’ve been here for a few hours, met another girl and a lich who  were lost in the dimensions as well, so I trust you well enough. Not  that you could hurt me,” the man said, and for some reason I didn’t  doubt that. Even with my Qi senses not quite working in this world, I  could still somehow feel how strong Ryan was. As if him killing that  dragon wasn’t proof enough.

“I’m a Void Hunter, close to level 300, oh and a draugr, also close to level 300,” the man muttered and I let out a whistle.

“How  far do levels go? I- I’m pretty sure my world doesn’t have anyone with  level 300 or something. Only a handful of people ever reach level 50 in  their entire lives…” Jennufer muttered.

“Different  systems and I have no clue, but I do plan to find out,” the man  replied, spinning his spear once, before it disappeared with a pop.

“Sera,  I think I can feel something up ahead,” Jennifer pointed and I turned  to look outside. Around the swirling hurricane, and the floating islands  of madness, I felt something tug at my mind. My eyes widened in  surprise, as the sensation started to become more and more evident the  more I focused on it.

Just  how had I missed that? It was as if I was walking during midday,  looking up at the sky and somehow, I had failed to notice the sun up  there.

“Ah, so you feel it too now. Yes. That thing. I have a feeling that it was what got us here,” Ryan said.

“Just  what is it? There’s no mana in it, no nothing. Yet its power is obvious  to see. Sera take me, this day keeps getting weirder and weirder,”  Jennifer said.

“Are  we going there? Inside that storm?” I asked, turning to look at Ryan. I  didn’t need to hear his reply, the smile was enough.

The  man jumped atop the corpse of the dead dragon, bending down as his skin  flared. Tendrils spread across his body, encasing him in a slick black  armor as wispy white flames spread across the dragon. With a roar, the  dead beast opened its eyes once more, flames filling them.

“Hop on. I hadn’t killed this thing just for fun,” Ryan said and I flared my Qi, jumping up.

“So you did kill it at least partially for fun then?” I asked, amused.

“Eh,” Ryan replied, shurring.

I  turned towards Jennifer, about to help her up, when I saw the girl shoot  up with a burst of wind underneath her. She grabbed one of the  protruding scales of the dragon, setting her foot as she climbed up.

“Man,  I’m so glad I have xianxia cheats. You’d floor me otherwise,” I  muttered, looking at Jennifer, who returned a light smile towards me.

“Yiyip!”  Ryan exclaimed, as the dragon roared and with a slight scream from  Jennifer and a laugh of delight from my mouth, we took to the sky.

I  watched the area, covered in fog amidst an endless sky, with a  hurricane at its center. There were places, both familiar and unfamiliar  swirling in a chaotic mess in this place. Castles ending in fields and  floating libraries with cracked walls. It was a mess, as if someone had  grabbed pieces of various worlds together and smashed them into a single  mess.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” Ryan said, turning back to look at me.

“I’m not sure. Ominous perhaps?” I answered, glancing around.

“What do you think could’ve brought us here?” Jennifer asked, grabbing onto my back for support.

“Your  guess is as good as mine,” I replied, turning back to face her. She  looked down at the book in her hand, clutching it tighter to her chest.

“Okay,  the winds will get rough here. I’ll try and shield the two of you. Try  to hold on,” Ryan said and before I could reply, we were diving down  into the gaping hole within this space, where the hurricane originated.

A  layer seemed to pass over my skin, after which I was assaulted by a  powerful gust that nearly threw me off. I circulated my Qi, steadying my  posture as I grabbed on, one hand kept on Jennifer to keep her from  flying off.

Ryan  exclaimed, as we sped up even further, and soon, the world was  swallowed by unending darkness, as the winds threatened to prove to be  stronger than I was.

“Jump!”  Ryan shouted, and I leapt, not waiting to find out why. With a crash, I  heard the dragon roar, before a tremor through the world itself  decimated the beast within a second.

I  fell for a few more moments, when I felt wind flare around Jennifer. The  floor wasn’t far off as I quickly found out by my not so gentle  landing.

“Why’d you do that!” Jennifer shouted at Ryan, staring at the man.

“Because  of them,” the man pointed backwards and I turned to see the tendrils  crawling all over the abyss, moving and reaching out to grab at anything  that moved. I saw a dragon being snatched out of the sky, and meeting  the same fate as our ride had.

“Yeah… that sounds a lot more reasonable all of a sudden,” I said.

“Follow  me, it should be in here,” Ryan said, walking ahead. I turned to look  at Jennifer, who looked back at me. Both of us shrugged, before  following behind the man.

It  didn’t take long before we came up to the thing that we’d been looking  for. A round pulsating orb that thrummed and moved with an odd rhythm.

“So, what now?” I asked, as we moved closer.

“I was thinking of trying to destroy the orb,” Ryan said, and I stared blankly at the man.

“Yes,  let’s destroy the unknown object that might launch us into space and  instantly kill us. Good idea,” I replied in a dry monotone.

“I- think I know what to do,” Jennifer said, walking ahead.

“Well,  be my guest. But I don’t plan to go near that thing,” I said, watching  as the girl headed close. I felt something shift around her, as wisps  rose from her hand. She opened the book in front of the round ball of  darkness, before swiping her fingers in air.

Golden  characters lit up, cracking as I felt a powerful tremor shake the  ground. Something rose from underneath our feet, as light began to seep  through the ground.

“Great! What now?!” I shouted, trying to keep my balance, as words floated in front of my eyes.

Ding! You’ve awakened the Eternal Void. The voice of chaos speaks to you.

I  frowned, noticing Jennifer stumble back. On the edge of my awareness, I  heard a song playing. Frowning I focused, as the words started to chime  in.

[Standing here, I realize.]

The world shook beneath my feet.

[You were just like me, trying to make history.]

Light split the ball of darkness in two.

[But who's to judge the right from wrong.]

An overpowering presence descended upon me.

[When our guard is down I think we'll both agree.]

A figure stirred in the abyss.

[That violence breeds violence.]

It rose.

[But in the end it has to be this way.]

Ding! You’ve heard the song of the Void. You cannot move for 10 seconds.

Ding! The final boss has appeared. Good luck!

“Fuck me."