'Is it morning already?'
Just as every other weekend, Damian let himself go, sleeping as much as he could, but for some reason, he still woke up early today.
'Ah, right, I must have stopped at an exciting part.'
It didn't take long for Damian to find the reason, there was only one thing that made him let go of his sweet sleeping time. It was Fate's Guide!
He usually tried to limit himself so he wouldn't end up sleep-deprived once the new week started, but sometimes, there was no stopping it. As the only thing that brought him joy as of late, Fate's Guide was Damian's weak point.
'...Where did I stop again?'
However, for some reason, Damian just couldn't recall where he had left the game. What level was it and which stage did he reach? What part excited him this much?
'Well, it doesn't matter.'
Feeling an intense headache at pay, Damian could only blame it on how little sleep he had. A normal person would have popped a couple of painkillers before going back to bed, but Damian didn't even wash his face before jumping in front of his desk.
'It will all come back when I open it again.'
If he wanted to continue sleeping soundly, he had to remember what excited him and get through with it!
'Eh?'
Damian leaned down to click the power button, but the computer just didn't want to turn on. First his memory, and now this, was this weekend destined for ruin?
His PC wasn't that old, nor did he overload it. If anything, the game he played barely tickled the device's processor…
'Finally!'
Hearing the signature click, Damian sighed in relief. His PC was safe. It was just a bit of delay, now he could finally play.
However, once Damian raised his head to look into the screen, he was assaulted by an explosion of white light.
'Is this why it was delayed?'
At this point, Damian wondered if someone planted a bomb in one of his devices, but why would anyone do that?
The only logical explanation that he could think of was something Gate-related, but even then, nothing made sense.
Damian was still somehow able to recognize the game's opening screen amidst the bright light, and his only reaction was to reach out to it!
"Greeeen!"
Suddenly, all the light was replaced by a barely lit surrounding. Damian turned out to look in the direction of the angry sound, only to find a hideous green creature.
Moreover, the creature seemed to multiply. More of them appeared as soon as Damian increased his field of few, and they all gave him deathly stares.
'What is this?!'
Damian wanted to run, but his entire body seemed to be frozen in place, the whole monster horde lunged at him and he could do nothing!
"Greee!"
{Wake up!}
Damian expected his body to be torn to pieces and braced for the pain, only to hear two more screams, one of them was even intelligible.
'Wait. Wake up?'
Damian jumped in place and opened his eyes, suddenly recovering from his amnesia and remembering where he was.
'Inventory.'
The green creature was still in front of him, but it was on its own. Grabbing the shortsword that appeared out of nowhere, there was a flash of platinum light as its head was sent flying.
[ You have defeated a Goblin. ]
{Damian!}
"It's alright. I'm okay."
Seeing the worried Iris hovering around him, Damian held his head while trying to control the dizziness.
He hadn't had a night of deep sleep ever since he fell into the Labyrinth, and the one time he did, it had to end up with a nightmare, and a close call?
'Are you the reason?'
Looking at the Goblin's corpse, Damian quickly slashed it open. The Life Stone inside of it was welcome, but he was still a bit perplexed. Did he have that nightmare because of this little monster's screams?
It would have made sense if this was what dreamed of after the first day, but he was no longer scared of Goblins at the moment, a Hobgoblin horde was more like it.
He could be missing home, but was there really anything to miss? He was technically still playing the only enjoyable thing in his life. Damian was simply unconvinced.
'Then…'
If nothing else could justify this, then it had to be something that happened the day before. What was the only different thing that occurred on Day 6?
'Fate Limit?'
Was this an aftereffect of using the Plot Armor System to collect the maximum amount of Fate Points?
Damian felt that he was jumping to conclusions, but the nightmare did indeed seem to be focused on Goblins.
Compared to the game, there might be something more reaching the Fate Limit other than maximizing benefits.
'I hope it isn't something permanent.'
Imagining himself waking up to the same nightmare over and over, Damian sensed another headache on its way. He had yet to go far, but he was already experiencing the inadequacies of his Respawn ability.
Considering that Fate Points weren't retained when going back, erasing what he did might have been possible, but Damian had already saved before he went to sleep. Whatever reaching the Fate Limit meant, he was stuck with it.
'... It should be alright.'
Since there was nothing he could do to change what happened, Damian could only try and be optimistic. It was probably a one-time thing!
'I did get a free Life Stone delivered to my door. This should be a good thing instead.'
With that decided, Damian decided to give himself the luxury of wasting some water to wash his face. He definitely needed that right now.
'Let's focus on what I have to do.'
Collecting Life Stones was still the main task, but Damian had to make sure not to waste his time. Just because things had become easier now, it didn't mean that it would last forever.
Proper preparation was necessary, and Damian wasn't looking forward to it…