Armor creature.

As Louis stood up from the rumble caused by his impact on the rocky ground, he was once again greeted by an empty field, devoid of any resemblance to what it once was. Louis felt ad if he had landed in a different world than the one he saw.

Before him, distant blurry mountains stood, their peak hidden by white clouds. Turning around, Louis was momentarily stunned.

There was an addition to the plains!

Around the planes were countless broken down wagons and carriages, together they formed a strange deserted land.

The sky remained shaded in a crimson light, caused by the crimson moon that hung on the sky. Their was no clouds to be seen, except those that covered the mountain peaks. The ground was shattered and there many rocky paths. Louis gripped the book tightly and walked forward slowly, his heart pounding with trepidation at the cause of the sudden change in the planes.

Was it his knowledge of beholders and boons?

Or the presence of Miss pisces?

Louis walked with slight fear, his mind churning to find an answer to the strange change. But all he could do was Walk slowly in full alert, at the very least, if any danger was to present it's self, he would be able to detect it.

Finally, he arrived at a broken down wagon with a missing wheel and rusty wood.

Louis stared at the wagon for moment, contemplating what to do with it, _Should I or shouldn't I?_ Louis felt that he needed his coin right at this moment.

Taking a deep breath, his eyes landed on a small black bag in the middle of the wagon.

Louis stretched out to the bag slowly, hoping not to activate something. His eyes fixed on it,

Slowly opening the back, the contents now revealed.

Inside the bag was a squishy black round object with multiple silver circle holes around it.

Louis instantly recognized the object as the same one he picked up from the corpse, _Did the thing get pulled into the dream? _ Louis wondered, but wasn't ready to fill up his mysticism knowledge of the day over some thing.

As such, Louis tied the bag and placed the object in his robe- thankfully they came with an ample amount of pockets.

Also in the wagon were cold coins, Louis recognized the bearded man depicted on the coins. It was none other than the first king and founder of the conea kingdom.

_The currency of this place is lent?.. Now that's nasty.. if some politician or noble saw this, they would probably go on about how the nation is mighty even in mysticism_

_But again, am currently dirt poor, if I can take this Money with me, I might be able to buy some rat poison_ Louis mused.

Without much care, Louis filled his robes with gold coins- hoping to awaken with his sofa filled with money.

_Take Goodness it's lent and not lern, I don't want to go back explaining that_

Lent and lern were the currency used in the conea kingdom, lent existed as gold coins while lern existed as silver coins. For some reason, silver coins were of more value than actual gold coins. Louis just didn't get it. Regardless, 100 gold lents were equivalent to a single lern.

Also their exist paper currency which was introduced about three years ago, but for some reason the public had not yet fully integrated it into society.

In reality, the people of conea still clung to the  issued currency of the first king, who supposedly actively participated in the third world war-due to which the nation is actively trying to whip away the smug and blood shed of the First king.

After pocketing, Louis continued his search for any other "Things" in the recently changed plain. He hoped perhaps their would be a written information that would explain more about this place and the sudden change.

As Louis walked through the ruined planes, his eyes remained vigilant while his mind was occupied with something else,

Louis was contemplating the mysteries behind the rule of "Excessive learning", _Hmm, perhaps the more you learn the more you get infected. But the body seems to naturally recover if the infection isn't too much, as such wouldn't it be okay if I learnt in bits? While leaving a few hours for recovery, that way I can learn more in a span of a day_ Louis slowly rubbed the covers of the book , his curiosity ever increasing.

_Nah. I reckon that reading the book might cause some effects,.. I better start with assimilating the information gotten from the "Teaching"_

Suddenly, Louis eyes fell upon a strange pattern on the ground, stained with a dark crimson color,

"Blood?" His eyes twitched as he quickly made a guess, the pattern was a three line scratch mark in blood red.

Immediately after, he made a educated judgement,

The blood wasn't fresh, but yet wasn't too dark- it looked like it had occured about an hour or two,

As his mind began to race, louis suddenly heard a growling sound echoing from a distance, as if a hungry predator was emerging!

The memory of the enormous battle he viewed from above the ship came flooding into his mind, like a broken dam. Causing him to take a stance subconsciously,

Without much thought, he rolled on the ground hiding behind a broken wagon, an attempt to avoid any danger. Though Louis would make a point to have the best of fun, he wasn't stupid enough to risk sure death over it.

"Thump!"

A loud menacing thump echoed through the air, as if a heavy object was making movement,

Louis eyes glanced around, vigilant to preview anything coming towards him.

At that moment from the corner of his eyes, he saw it!

It was a tall creature, whose height was perhaps 1.8 meters high, it's body clothed in a silver busted armor, it's face dark with crimson hollowed eyes. It's movement sluggish, as if it struggled to move. From the gaps of his open mouth, rows of black teeth and a yellowish liquid oozed out

It was a monster!

It's hollow eyes glanced around the field, and in his hand a long rusty long sword was held. It appeared to be a soldier or knight who had died for an extended period of time.

Despite all the ideas Louis had come up with upon discovering of the mystical world, he never imagined to encounter such a "Thing"  this early in his life, or even in real life.

"Whoosh!"

The stench of decaying corpse and blood merged together and permeated through Louis's nostrils as the growling of the monster filled his ears.

Instinct took over, Louis knew if their was something he was good at, and that would be running away.

Years of pranks and escaping had drilled that into his mind.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Louis charged at the opposite direction of where the monster was.

"Bang!"

A loud bang sound echoed through the air, as if a large object had been dropped to the ground.

Not caring for the reason of the sound, Louis ran hard with all his might- he wasn't stupid enough to try to fight a creature of unknown might and power. It would be better to play it safe untill he had the power to fight back,

Suddenly Louis mind churned as another part of the "Teaching"  assimilated with him.

Based on that, Louis came to know that the creature is vaguely regarded as monsters, which are individuals or beholders who got infected much by the hidden Existences within the corners of the darkness. Such creatures, are fundamentally different from the occurrence called the loss of humanity, but they still do possess the power held in their boons and the might of the generation they had cultivated it to.

_Now that's just great_ louis silently muttered, _So he does really have supernatural powers_ Louis still in the middle of running away felt like the most fucked up person in the whole world.

But without warning, a sense of dread came upon Louis, causing him to abruptly stood in his tracks.

Then at that moment, a golden piller of light descended from the sky to the spot louis would have been if he didn't stop.

A sizzling sound echoed, soon the beam vanished and left a scorched spot on where it landed.

"Haha. I almost died" Louis face contorted as a grin surfaced, but not one of excitement but of fear and trepidation.

Turning his head, he saw the iron clad creature which slowly approached him while dragging the long sword on the ground,

Louis grin grew wider, stretching from ear to ear, _Is it taking it's time to kill me?.. what a generous son of a bitch!_

Suddenly, the creature dashed at him, shattering all thoughts about "it" being slow, _Gonna learn to stop making assumptions!_

The creature within moments was now before Louis, swinging his long sword at him,

"Bang!"

The sword collided with the ground, sending dust and debris into the air.

Twisting his body at the right time, Louis had managed to narrowly evade the otherwise lethal strike,

But yet even with the evasion, a part of the sword still hacked at him. From the left side of his body, small drips of blood fall on the ground.

Cold sweat formed on Louis face, as his eyes twitched due to the pain, but yet a grin remained on his face, _i wonder if I should pray to the Radiant sun? After all am still not yet a beholder, so maybe HE might answer. No no, that's the last option... Miss pisces did say I could take over this space after the leaf falls more on me, but that hasn't happened enough.. yes! Just once, but that should count as something.

_I bet if I try enough, something amazing might happen.... Yep, am so gonna die today_ Louis focused his mind, his eyes glancing intently at the approaching monster, he was visualizing something that would aid him in such a situation.

....

Without hesitation, the monster raised his long sword to the air, and with a downward strike, his sword came bearing at Louis,

"Clank!"

Spark flew, as two metal swords came crashing together, one in in the armored monster, and another in Louis's hand.

_it worked!_ he exclaimed in excitement, his plan was following the principle of the book that appeared when he thought about it,

He theorized that perhaps, the appearance wasn't something done by Miss pisces, but an innate ability he had within this space- with that he tried once again, but this time with the image of a sword.

Standing firmly on the ground, Louis had on his hand an black iron sword with a round handle. This was a sword style found in the Ramian kingdom, and had been seen by Louis in el'costa, when he went to request for Wednesday.

Now armed, Louis pounced at the creature without hesitation, he charged in and hacked down at the creature.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Again and again, Louis swung at the creature with precision and force, and fortunately his sword seemed to cut through the creatures armor like butter.

Receiving extensive damage, and blood oozing everywhere. The creature roared in a high tone, suddenly, it threw away his sword and clasped his hands- forming in them a strange symbol.

Without warning, beams of golden light tore through the sky and defended on Louis.

But luckily, Louis managed to duck and roll, avoiding most of the scorching beams. Yet still, parts of his robes had been burnt out and his body was growing groggy due to the extreme heat.

_What is "it"? A warrior?  No it's more like a sorcerer._ Louis immediately reined in his thoughts and swung again at the creature, who seemed to be stalling for something, _Maybe he can't use the power for too long?_ with that louis hacked and hacked, sending a spray of pus and blood in every direction.

Finally, the monster knelt still, defeated by Louis's barrage of attacks.

"Ha! Ha!.. thank goodness you weren't still human, or I would have to face the full wrath of your power accompanied with human intelligence" Louis heaved a sigh of relief, his eyes showing slight pity for who " it" once was.

Looking back at the creature, Louis bent slowly hoping to scavenge something from the corpse. As his hands made contact with the iron armor of the creature, a buzzing headache came over him, sending him tumbling to his knees.

But the headache lasted for a moment and cleared up soon after, _what the hell was that?_ Louis wondered, _some remaining power?_

Glancing back at the corpse, Louis heaved a deep sigh, _i guess I won't be able to take anything, well anyhow that's it for today.. rest is very much appreciated_

Though his body was currently still sleeping, his mind still would get fatigued from the excess thought.

Looking around, Louis closed his eyes and allowed the fatigue to wash over him.

...

Louis opened his eyes feeling disoriented and groggy.

Through the broken windows, he saw the sunlight permeating through, _Back to reality_ he muttered.

A smile curled up on Louis face, as he realized the confirmation of his theory. He wondered if he could directly wake up in reality without any outside influence, and as expected it did.

"I guess I woke sort of early," Louis muttered to himself, subconsciously patting his pockets. But when he didn't feel the coins, he felt a tad bit disappointed. But soon received a rekindling, he also didn't feel the squishy object, which meant it was pulled into the dream- and if something could be pulled in, then something can be pulled out.

Louis took a deep breath and poised himself, his thoughts pondering over a problem,

How would he go about meeting the trio?

While he was incapacitated, they must have either moved him thinking he was dead, or didn't know what happened,

Regarding that, any of the options was something that would arose suspicion from them, they might even take him for the problem they came to deal with.

And Louis couldn't have that. Not yet at least.