Bke's eyes sprung open. He immediately tried to stand up, only to realize that he was lying on a fortable bed. His eyes remained wide and vigint for an instant before he realized where he was, finally being able to rex.

  He felt slightly lightheaded and it was difficult to remain awake, but Bke kept on staring at the ceiling of the underground base. His injuries burned, despite being treated by the Akatsuki. He still couldn't feel his right arm and he was having trouble breathing, yet he was alive, in the safety of their hidden base.

  And he had succeeded. He had killed six people in the process—the cost was huge, but he mao finish the Last Wish of his subjeightmare. Now, he could finally roll the dice again, hopefully getting someone good and healing his injuries in the process.

  The absence of his right hand disturbed Bke quite a lot now that he was away from trouble, but Bke hoped that the sensation would return once he received a boost in power from his new summon, whoever it might be, sidering that his injuries patched up upon summoning Nightmare for the first time.

  As Bke was deep in ption, he saw fures running up to him from the distance. Immediately, a smile sprung up on Bke's face, as he saw their ed expression. Nightmare pushed all of them away, rushing toward Bke in full force.

  Bke tio smile until he realized that Nightmare was not stopping. "Hey, Nightmare! Stop! Yoing to kill me!"

  Yet, the summon was not listening, as he jumped, flying towards Bke from above. Thankfully, Konan came in clutch, creating a soft wall of paper and separating the master from the summon. Nightmare got lifted into the air and released beside Bke's bed.

  "It's o meet you, Nightmare. How have you been?" Bke stopped his beating hard, gng at the overly excited cow beside him. Feeling the emotions of his summon, Bke sehe answer. Excited. Pride. Longing.

  A bit of sympathy formed in Bke's eyes as he patted the shoulder of his summon, who decided to do the same and pced his hand on Bke's shoulder. It was surprisingly gentle.

  Yahiko's ugh disturbed them from the moment of e. Side gng at Yahiko, Bke narrowed his eyes, though he kept the smile on his face. "How have you been guys? Yahiko, Nagato, Konan."

  Yahiko smiled. "Good, but not great. This pce is damp and smelly."

  Konan gave Yahiko a gre, but then turned back to Bke. "It was alright, how about you? You have to tell us what happened. You came back almost dead. You were luightmare sensed you ing. I need a full story."

  "Don't bombard the patient, Konan." Nagato sighed, making eye tact with Bke. Despite the man being his friend for quite some time, Bke couldn't get used to the man's creepy eyes. Nagato nodded. "I have been doing okay."

  Bke o each of them. "I will tell you the eory, but I need some information first. How long was I away? Did you get discovered? Tell me everything."

  "Now you are b us." Yahiko raised his hands, moving them around with a flustered expression on his face. However, Yahiko stopped joking once he saw that Bke had bee serious. Yahiko put on his stoic expression as well. "You have been away for not that long, only three days."

  Bke nodded. It seemed like time moved in the same way in both worlds, as Bke spent around three days in Danmachi. It was good news. Bke eyed Yahik him to tinue.

  Yahiko frowned. "Truthfully, we have not been doing that well. Upon your reendation, we have sent two people as scouts above. Our base had been occupied and Hanzo, as you have predicted, issued a search warrant for us. We don't know how much longer is this pce going to be."

  "Not good." Bke put a hand to his , frowning at the pain of such a simple a. "But it is not the worst. It is a good thing I came back so quickly. Your base would have probably already been discovered, and I would have died before you found me."

  Bke said the words in a light-hearted mood, but the trio didn't think it was funny. Nightmare puffed some smoke out of its nostrils. Bke rolled his eyes. "Dark humuys."

  "Are you going to tell us what happeo you?" Nagato ged the topic, pointedly gng at his injuries. "You appeared out of nowhere, half dead, covered in some green fluid, and wearing no…underwear."

  "When you say it like that, it does sound like pretty weird." Bke smiled bnkly, pointing at the multiple slices across his body and the one on the chest. "These injuries came from this crazy blonde who ursuing me everywhere." Bke then poi his right unmoving hand. "I was bitten by a gigantic dog over here." Bke then poi his face, which featured a bck eye. "Here I got kicked by a half wolf-half human, who had an annoyingly good nose. I shot him in the leg ohough."

  The triiving Bke bnk stares.

  “As for the green fluid and the bandages…I think I got drenched in the fluid when this huge ant tried to squash me from above, so I stabbed it i a few times. As for the bandages, I o spread my st, so I gave my underwear to my e.”

  Bke finished. So much happened ihree days.

  “Yahiko, I think Bke got hit in the head a bit too hard.”

  “I must agree with you.”

  Nagato was iing Bke with trated expressioually turning to Yahiko and Konan. “He looks sane, disregarding his bck eye. Perhaps the issue ys somewhere else?”

  “Nope, must be in the head.”

  Konan nodded. “Totally.”

  Nightmare nodded as well. Bke gave him a gre. Why was Nightmare nodding when he came from that world? That little…

  Nagato raised four fingers into the air. “How many fingers am I showing?”

  “Four.”

  “What about now?”

  “Two.”

  “What is 11 times 12?”

  “132”

  “What is…”

  “That’s enough, Nagato.” Yahiko raised a hand, frowning. “It seems like your head works just fine. Whatever happened on that other side of the door, it must have not been easy. If the creatures that you are depig have truly attacked you, then I am tent I don’t have to go there. heless, Bke, we are happy that you are back. Maybe not in one piece, but bayway.”

  “And I am happy that I didn’t pass through that door after all.” Nagato chimmed in.

  Bke smiled towards them. “Thank you, guys.” He felt tears building up in his eyes, but he forced them down a his face straight. g was fine, as long as it was done alone. He didn’t want to burden other people with his emotional turmoil. “It was hard, but I managed.”

  “It was hard…but was it successful?” Konan asked, drawing two pairs of curious eyes. “Did you get a new summon?”

  Bke smiled. “I was successful. As for the summon, we shall see.” Bke gave them a pointed look towards the door in the distance. “I would rather duct this process alone, as It is rather…private.”

  The trio nodded, with Konan blushing slightly, as she probably misuood what Bke meant by that. heless, Bke was tent to have a few minutes of peace the trio left, leaving behind Bke and Nightmare. Bke gave him a raised eyebrow. “I remember seeing you nod, little bastard.”

  Nightmare stood with a stupefied expression, pretending like he didn’t know what was happening. Bke sighed, leaving the versation at that. Instead, Bke focused on the lingering s in his vision.

  -

  [Quest plete – "The Minrudge"]

  Nightmare:"The debt is paid... The hunt is done... You have carried my will, and finally... I am free."

  -

  Bke spent a few seds looking at the s, thinking that it is rather uninformative sidering the actual danger of the quest. However, his ption stopped as soon as he saw Nightmare kneeling in front of him. Bke pushed away the s, looking at his summon from above.

  “Nightmare. Stand.” Bke anded and the creature stood up, fag him. Iing the summon’s expression, Bke felt the stroional turmoil within him. Pride. Graditute. “I have done only what ropriate. There was no way I was going to leave my summon unavenged.”

  Suddenly, Nightmare roared, beating his ow with his two fists iement.

  “Stop shouting!” Bke smacked the minotaur on the head, f it to stop. Nightmare looked at his master with eye of pity. “We are still in hiding, dumb-ass. If you keep shouting like a bull, then we will be discovered in no time.”

  All the seriousness of the situation vanished and Bke sighed, opening his stats.

  -

  Summoner System

  -Character Interface-

  Name: Bke Reynold

  Attributes:

  Strength: D+Endurance: D+Agility: D+Intelligence: B+Chakra: E+Charisma: DLuck: A+Passive Skills: [Tough Skin]

  Active Skills: [None]

  Summons: [Nightmare(Rank:C)]

  Dice Of Summon: Avaible.

  -

  It seemed like even after training with the Akatsuki for a while, his stats remained unged. It made sense when you thought about that. In order to advance even a bit, shinobi of this world spend years practising like mad-men, and Bke was definitely still a rookie. Yet, Bke could increase his prowess in other ways, for the Dice of Summon was finally avaible.

  “Well, let’s…” Bke was about to try his luck, before remembering something. Looking around, Bke promptly located his bag, anding Nightmare to take out all the monster crystals. “Okay, if I remember correctly…”

  Bke’s memarding Danmachi was subpar to say the least, but he still could recall a few facts. One of them were the monster crystals. Bke didn’t really hem for myself, but he khat other monsters could grow stronger by eating these crystals. He also khat they would, supposedly, beore violent and be in stant desire of the shards.

  “But Nightmare is already crazy.” Bke chuckled. In all seriousness, though, Bke thought that it was going to be okay. Nightmare was going to remain his summon anyway and, in Bke’s opinion, the cow would be uo resist his ands+. “But, more than that, I believe in you, Nightmare. Your mind is not weak, so you shall grow stronger. Eat all of those crystals and try to stay calm.”

  It almost seemed like the minotaur was waiting for this and, for he dived into the bag like an eist smelling some cash. “Calm down, man.” Bke whistled, seeing Nightmare throw multiple crystals into his mouth at the same time. Nightmare kept eating and everything seemed fine, until Minotaur put the biggest shard into his mouth, earned from the War Shadow.

  “Stay calm.” Bke anded, seeing Nightmare suddenly begin to grow at a ridiculous paightmare’s skin seemed to turn a shade darker, his eyes turning crimson, his chest hair extending. Most notably, Nightmare grew at least 30 timeters i, and turned bulkier.

  “Calm.” Bke said again, seeing Nightmare breathing heavily, like he had just sprinted a few kilometres. Calmly, Bke put a hand on Nightmare’s shoulder. Rather, his bicep, for Bke couldn’t reach the creature’s shoulder anymore. Nightmare’s red eyes, full of violeared at Bke. Bke felt the killing i from his own summo he kept calm.

  “Nightmare. Remember who you are.” Bke stated and Nightmare seemed to finally grow less agitated. The redness in the monster’s eyes diminished, and Bke smiled brightly. “Good job, Nightmare. I am sure it wasn’t easy.”

  Without further ado, Bke g Nightmare’s stats.

  -

  -Character Interface-

  Name: Nightmare

  Rank: C

  Last Wish: plete

  Attributes:

  Strength: B+Endurance: B -> B+Agility: D -> telligence: E+Chakra: C -> C+Charisma: C+Luck: EPassive Skills: [Tough Skin]

  Active Skills: [Battle Rage], [Roar]

  -

  Bke smiled. The ges might seem insignifit, but Bke could uand that even slightly increase meant a big ge in real life. Bke was especially tent with how much Agility improved, fhtmare’s biggest weakness was its speed. Now, after Nightmare would get used to his new body, that weakness would somewhat disappear. The increase in chakra and endurance were also wele.

  “Aheory firmed.” Bke put his stats o Nightmare’s. Bke was hoping that the 10% increase in stats from his summon was going to be a tinuous ge, meaning that when Nightmare’s stats improved, Bke’s would rise appropriately, yet that turned out to not be true.

  It was a bummer.

  “Okay, Nightmare. You have done well. Rest for a bit.” Bke smiled at his summon and Nightmare puffed some smoke from its nostrils before Bke unsummoned him. As soon as the minotaur was gone, Bke felt some of his chakra disappearing, probably treating whatever tears and injuries his summon received after the transformation.

  Now, Bke could focus on the exg part. Slowly, Bke leao the side of the bed, frowning as his chest strained from such a simple movement. Bke fished around in his bag, produg his phone and a pack of cigarettes. For some reason, Bke had a good hunch about this, so he was going to roll the dice with a little celebration.

  A song and a cigarette.

  Turning on his phone, Bke saw that it was at 2%. This was going to be his st song, it seemed. Perhaps not forever, but for a while, that was for sure. Bke opened his saved songs library, promptly pig the song.

  Bke settled on: Past Life – Tame Impa

  As the melody fell on the room, Bke lit the cigarette, inhaling the nie. The pain in his chest and hand disappeared for an instance, forced away by the good vibe. He had won the first round against the system. As Bke moved his head around, listening to the song, he summoned his roll of dice.

  And, then, without looking, threw it to the ground.

  It rolled on the ground…and came to a stop.