"Don't worry too much. The higher the floor, the more information is available, and right now they're only on the Second Floor. Who knows, maybe there's a way out on the First Floor?" Seeing Leona's gloomy expression, Aria offered as comfort.
Leona gave a bitter smile. Aria's words also indicated that no one had reached the First Floor yet.
But she didn't lose her fighting spirit because of this. A path had to be walked one step at a time, after all.
"How do I get to the Upper Floor?" Leona asked.
Aria clapped her hands. "I was waiting for you to ask that."
She straightened up and held up two fingers.
"There are two methods. The first is to wait until your Remnant Pages reach a certain amount, allowing you to purchase a path to the Upper Floor. The higher up you go, the more Remnant Pages it costs; going up to the eighth floor takes ten thousand Remnant Pages."
Leona's brows furrowed.
She did the math. If she lived on this floor by the bare minimum standards, just food and water alone would cost 160 Remnant Pages every seven days. Any lower and she might survive, but over time it would cause irreversible damage to her body.
Clearing an instance using the third path only yielded 200 Remnant Pages, and she had heard along the way that even the second path gave only 400 Remnant Pages.
Even if she managed to clear every instance via the second path, saving 240 Remnant Pages every seven days, it would still take nearly 295 days to advance to the next floor. And that was assuming no accidents occurred.
However, there were likely different types of instances with higher rewards. She remembered hearing Aria mention the term 'nightmare instance' earlier.
"What's the second method?" she asked.
Aria seemed to be waiting for her to ask that as well.
"The second method is collecting Final Chapters. When you successfully bring a story to a perfect ending, you obtain a Final Chapter. Unlike currency, a Final Chapter acts like an item with special abilities."
"How do you reach a perfect ending?"
"I wouldn't know about that. It seems to depend on luck; some people manage to complete it without even knowing how."
Leona stared intently into Aria's eyes for a moment; she didn't seem to be lying.
Aria noticed her gaze as well and said with a smile, "After hearing all this, will you join us?"
"Can I join both factions at the same time?" Leona asked, even though she already knew it was impossible.
"Of course not. Both the King and God imprint a mark on those who join their faction; the slightest hint of betrayal will scatter your soul to the winds." Saying this, Aria revealed a scepter totem on her arm.
Realizing she couldn't play both sides, Leona said vaguely:
"We'll see."
Seeing that Leona had no intention of joining a faction, Aria looked slightly disappointed.
"Alright. If you ever want to join us, you're welcome anytime. But I hope you don't choose God's faction. After spending time together, I've grown quite fond of you, and if we meet in the Tournament, I'd hate to have to crush a flower." Aria spoke with genuine sincerity.
Leona stifled a yawn and asked, "What is this Tournament about?"
Perhaps because Leona hadn't agreed to join her faction, Aria didn't answer her question and shook her head instead.
"No comment."
Leona smiled and didn't press further.
She would find out about these things eventually; right now, she still had an unknown instance to face.
Afterwards, Leona asked about classes and other matters, and the conversation drew to a close.
"It's getting late, and you look a bit sleepy, so I won't disturb you any longer." Aria stood up.
Leona nodded, having noticed Aria's intention to leave as well.
Aria pushed open the wooden door to leave, then suddenly turned back to look at Leona.
"My dear Little Red Riding Hood, may you smoothly pass the instance seven days from now. But before that, I hope even more that you have sweet dreams tonight."
"Good night, Little Red Riding Hood."
"Good night, freckle-faced witch," Leona replied.
The two shared a smile and parted ways.
Only Leona was left in the empty room.
She sprawled out, lying flat on the bed.
Sweet dreams? In a place like this, she would thank her lucky stars if she didn't have nightmares.
The ceiling was made of special stones that magically emitted faint beams of light. In a place like this, they were among the few things that could bring warmth to these outsiders.
After all, light was always far more appealing than darkness.
Leona reached out toward the beam of light, as if trying to grasp a sense of security from it.
The King, God, and the Snow White instance.
This world seemed quite interesting.
But I still don't like it. It isn't beautiful at all.
Slowly, Leona drifted off to sleep amidst her thoughts.
She actually began to dream, though she couldn't tell if it was a nightmare or a sweet dream.
She didn't even appear in the dream herself.
Only a crystal coffin appeared.
Inside lay a beautiful girl with a swan-like neck, cherry-like lips, and dark, flowing hair. Most striking of all was her skin, which was as white as snow.
Her small mouth was slightly parted, her expression pained, as if she were repeating three words over and over.
Leona mimicked her lip movements in her mind.
She appeared to be speaking.
She was calling her name.
...
Inside a special palace—this was a unique space, very similar to the Sanctuary.
Neither of them belonged to the Prison.
The inside of the palace was resplendent and grand, with a few lazy soldiers occasionally in sight.
A girl in a black robe walked in the opposite direction of the soldiers, heading deeper inside.
"Aria." A voice called out to stop her.
She turned her head to look; it was a slightly older, lean man.
Messy light-yellow hair hung over his forehead, his eyes slightly sunken, and a pair of light gray eyes stared at her.
"Hansel, is something wrong?" Aria asked suspiciously.
Hansel usually stayed with his sister, so it was a rare sight to see him alone in the palace today.
"Are you looking for the King?" Hansel smoothed his messy hair.
"Yes, I met an interesting fellow on the lower floor. She's a protagonist, just like you." Aria smiled; she had always been friendly toward others.
"Is that so?" Hansel chuckled casually. "Though you've come at a bad time. The King isn't in the palace right now."
"Oh, that's terrible," Aria said in surprise, covering her open mouth.
"Are you the one guarding the place during this time?" Abandoning the idea of seeing the King, she asked Hansel.
"That's right, or I wouldn't have left Gretel all by herself." A hint of helplessness colored Hansel's tone.
"Thank you for your hard work," Aria said politely.
Then, she stated her request.
"When the King returns, please let me know."
"It seems this new protagonist really is interesting, for Aria to care so much." The lazy air around Hansel suddenly vanished, his expression softening.
"Got it. I'll inform you when he's back."
After thanking him, Aria departed in a hurry.
"Wait, I haven't asked which fairy tale's protagonist she is yet."
Just as Hansel was about to stop her, Aria had already disappeared.
After reflecting for a moment, he walked quickly over to a wishing well.
Above it, an orb of water floated in the air, displaying a dazzling array of fairy tales that slid downward from time to time.
Finally, he found a fairy tale that had only recently dimmed.
Upon seeing the name of the story clearly, all his sleepiness evaporated, replaced by complete shock.
"It's actually Little Red Riding Hood... Could the Queen's prophecy really be coming true?"
Rate on N.U.
