Chapter 172 172: 404: Error - part 2
The light of the teleportation pool was blinding but it did not hurt Aurora’s eyes. She could still see clearly when she opened her eyes after being transported to the 8th floor.
However, Quince and Clove did not seem to be having as good a time as she was. Clove seemed to be adjusting better but Quince looked miserable.
“Darn it Clove. Why did you have to push us all in? Are you even alright? I cannot see anything right now.”
Aurora sighed before making her way toward Quince. The poor teen might not be liked by Aurora but he had been someone Aurora had respected and dependent on.
He had also kept Clove safe this far for Aurora so she did not mind helping him feel better.
‘I guess I did care for Quince even after all our fights.’
Aurora’s hands covered the teen’s eyes and she endured the elbow jab she got in her stomach for her effort.
‘This brat! I want him to go blind now,’ but Aurora did help him out even with her mental complaining.
There was a short burst of magic and Aurora let Quince go. She had to dodge the next elbow jab Quince tried to hit her with.
“Calm down. I was just trying to help you before you went blind. Clove, should I help you out as well?”
“Yes, please.”
Quince did not say anything when he tried to open his eyes. His green-colored eyes did look better after having gotten the treatment. The milky-white sheen they had sprouted beforehand was as good as gone now.
Aurora turned toward Clove after she had gotten consent. She tried to move Clove’s head around to see the damage but she could not spot anything.
“Clove, can you see me?”
Aurora tried to gauge the damage but it was clear to her that Clove did not sustain any.
“My eyes are a little blurry. Can you help me out?”
Whatever Aurora wanted to say was left unsaid in her throat. Aurora was weak against Clove’s begging and she ended up complying with her.
“Come here and close your eyes. I will see what I can do for you.”
Aurora placed her hand on top of CLove’s eyes and used her magic. As she had expected, there was nothing for her to repair beyond basic fatigue.
p??-??-. Clove’s blurry vision must be due to her sudden moment and not due to an injury she sustained.
“You should be alright now. Do you feel better?”
“Of course I do. I am thankful for your help.”
Aurora felt weird to be flirted with by someone who looked half her age. Technically, Aurora and Clove were the same age and always had been.
But the tower had deposited Aurora back in the past with her adult body and she even had adult memories. In that regard, wasn’t Aurora the adult here?
“Your flirting disgusts me. Clove, Aurora is like, twice your age so show some restraint.”
“She is not. She’s more like, 10 years older than me. It is not that much. Weren’t your parents over 25 years apart in age?”
“That is a different case. My mother is a minor goddess so she ages slowly. Compared to her, my father looks like the older one. And also, they were both adults when they married. You are still a teen so control yourself.”
“Why should I? Ahhhh, I get it. You are jealous of me, right? You are jealous that Aurora likes me more than you.”
“No way. You know I don’t swing that way. Besides, she’s too old for me anyway.”
Aurora had no idea how her trying to help Clove had evolved into a mini-fight between the pair.
It was nothing serious but it was certainly the first time Aurora had seen the pair fight amongst themselves. It was amusing, to say the least.
Her laugh caught the pair’s attention and their irritated eyes turned toward her.”
“What’s wrong with you now? Do you find our fight that much fun?”
Quince’s words caused Aurora to laugh even louder. The more she laughed, the more irritated the pair in front of her got.
Aurora had to try her hardest to control her emotions or she was sure she would hurt herself with her laughter.
“Enough with your laughter. Are my feelings for you a joke? I am quite serious about you.”
Aurora stopped laughing as soon as she heard Clove’s serious voice. She knew that voice quite well since she had heard it quite often in the past.
Clove was serious in her claim about being interested in Aurora. Maybe it was fate for Clove and Aurora to fall in love at the first glance with each other. That was the only explanation Aurora could give for receiving such an earnest confession.
But, even with that being said, Aurora only had one thing to say about this situation.
“I am thankful for your confession but I cannot accept it. It is not because you are lacking something but rather because of your age. Quince is right in saying that you are too young for me. So you should grow up first and then confess again.”
Aurora finished her words and picked herself up. Her conversation with the pair had distracted her from her surroundings but she quickly decided to rectify that.
Now that she was paying attention to her surroundings, she could tell that there was something weird about it. She recognized the banners on the wall and even the residual energy clinging to this place.
“Quince isn’t this place…..”
“The tower’s base on the 8th floor. But I cannot feel anyone’s life signature.”
And neither could Aurora. It was like the whole base was devoid of any form of life.
“Clove, stay close to us. Clove?”
Quince called out to their third companion but she seemed to have disappeared into thin air. It was so much like Clove to have done this that it left Aurora baffled.
‘Some things never change no matter what you do.’
===========================
To say that Clove was disappointed would be an underestimation. She had done so well to hide her intentions and make her fall into the light pool as an accident.
But Quince had decided to accompany her and flop her plans. He had even managed to land in the same position Clove had intended for her and Aurora.
He was also interfering with Clove’s plan to figure out what was going on between her and Aurora. There was an invisible bond between them both that Aurora was more than aware of.
Clove had tried to figure out this bond but her efforts had been in vain. It was not a matter of attraction or even not having feelings.
Clove could feel that Aurora liked her enough to stick to her. But she still refused Clove.
So Clove had decided to be direct about her intentions and to let Aurora know that refusal was not an option. But of course, Quince had butted in.
And Aurora had found the most useless excuse to reject Clove, her age. Age was never a factor when it came to things between the divinity that lived for centuries and even beyond.
It had caused all of Clove’s plans to flop and now she had to find a way to age her body to her adult years.
‘Having my adult body back would be nice. I can fuck Aurora without a problem if I’m an adult. And I can also tell that she liked my adult face. I cannot wait to ditch this small body.’
Clove was lost in her thoughts so and that was what she would blame her getting lost on.
And then there was the problem of being followed around by something she could not see. But she could feel the energy signature from just behind her.
“You have some nerve to stalk me outright. Don’t you know you will be killed if you are not careful?”
Clove condensed her magic into a small before throwing it toward her stalker.
She felt the moment that invisible entity moved around to avoid her attack. It seemed it had a little intelligence left in that tiny brain of his.
Not that Clove cared. Why would she care about something that was doomed to die ever since it decide to target her?
The monster didn’t even see Clove coming before she separated its head from its body.
A gigantic lizard head fell on the ground and the invisible body became visible in a matter of seconds.
“So it was a monster foolish enough to stalk me? Surely this is not the only one in the base.”
Clove could not feel more monsters around her but she did not doubt that there were more monsters around.
Looking around her, she could recognize the building she was in to be the tower’s base for floor 8th. The lack of people around her likely meant that everyone else was killed off in a surprise attack.
“Hoh? Things are starting to get interesting now. I wonder if I can get some practice out of killing these ants.”