Summoner: The Book of Dimension

85 A Vague Plan

Peter wasn’t sure if his plan would work, but he had to think quickly, or else he would be in a more dangerous situation, such as instantly dying in the hands of these people.

After his offer, he heard vigorous laughter outside, followed by the laughter of other people. “A negotiation?” the man he assumed to be the leader asked sarcastically. Peter thought it would be funny if he weren’t the leader, and he was just the group's all-talk.

“Yeah,” Peter said so seriously. “What’s so funny about that? I know you guys want to know about the book,” Peter said. “The thing here is, you just have to give me ten days to tell you everything. If I failed to say everything until the tenth day, you could do whatever you want with me,” he said.

There was silence behind the door. Peter stopped himself from grinning. He thought that if they agreed to this trap he created, that meant that these guys didn’t really have the book. “What do you think?”

There was only silence then the pair of eyes he was staring at disappeared from the hole on the door. He heard a few murmurs behind the door, but he couldn’t hear what they were talking about. Then, he saw the pair of eyes back at the hole on the door again.

“We agree to your negotiation,” they said.

Peter almost grinned. He was right. They didn’t have the book. They failed even to take it even if they had the chance. He wondered who got the book. It would be great if his friends took the book. That was if ever they returned safely.

“But why do you specifically need ten days to tell us everything?” he asked Peter in an intimidating and demanding tone.

“That would be enough time for my friends to find me and save me,” he said confidently.

There was laughter again, mocking Peter. “Save you? No one will ever save you. No one will even find this place. No one can easily get here,” someone else said that, and it wasn’t the one Peter was talking with. “But sure, ten days. Whether you finish it on the tenth day or not, we’ll still kill you.”

That scared Peter, but he had a plan. It was a lie that he was using ten days to wait for his friends to save him. If he waited for his friends to save him, he could die. He just said that to stall, and ten days might be enough for him to figure out how he could use his power to kill them in their dream.

It was just an idea that suddenly appeared in his mind. Something he almost forgot in a while. That he was a dreamlord, as a dreamlord, he could kill someone in their dreams. He had known that he never actually tried using his dreamlord power to kill someone in their dreams for a while, although he was aware of his power.

Basically, because he didn’t have any reason to do that to someone, but now that he was held hostage and these kidnappers of him were threatening to kill him might as well use those motives as a reason why he had to kill them before they could kill him.

“Today marks your first day, kid. You better give us something,” the assumed-to-be-leader said before he heard their footsteps leave the door.

Peter lay down on the cold floor and stared at the concrete ceiling, thinking he had made the wrong decision. He sighed and closed his eyes. It was too late for him to back out. In the middle of his thoughts, his stomach growled. Yeah, another problem. He was hungry.

To his surprise, something slid under the door. Peter sat up and saw a tray of food. He looked up to the hole on the door and just saw a different pair of eyes. The person behind the door glared at him before leaving.

Peter quickly took the tray and studied the food placed there under the oil lamp's dim light. He scooped his hand on the first food and tasted it, grimacing at how salty it was for a mushroom soup. He wasn’t even sure if the mushroom was used there. It tasted like seaweed in mayonnaise.

He picked up a piece of thing that was on the next circle in the tray, and it was a variety of vegetables. He shrugged. They looked edible, at least. The last thing there, he knew, was mashed potato without needing to taste it. The one he hated the most. He contemplated eating anything on the tray, but his growling stomach told him he had to. He decided to leave the mushroom soup and eat the salad and the mashed potato.

When he was done, another tray slowly slid under the door. The person on the other side of the door was careful to slide it, so it made him curious. Peter walked to slide the tray he had got earlier and looked down at the new tray. It was water.

He carefully picked it up, but no matter how careful he was, it was slowly spilling. He attempted to drink the water, which looked like it could fill one glass. He managed to get two large gulps. The rest spilled on his clothes. At least, he got to drink.

He slid the empty tray and stepped back. Right then, the door opened, and two large men entered the room. He was thinking of running past them, but then he saw two more men standing outside the door.

Peter raised his hands in defeat. The two large men who entered the room tied his hands behind him. And then dragged him outside the room.

It was the first time he was introduced to the appearance of the place. It looked dark, with lit torches on the rough walls to only light the dark place. It was around the place. The middle was empty and only had a large rock table and wooden chairs surrounding it, with few middle-aged men sitting there, looking at him. Few rooms had the same door as to where he was kept.

It made him wonder how many people had locked in those rooms.

“Welcome to our place,” one of the Dark Abyss Regiment said. “It might not look as cozy as those homes on earth, but this place is decent.”

Hearing that, he might not be on earth. Then these men were right. His friends wouldn’t possibly save him.

“If you have plans on your mind about running outside and escaping, I must tell you right now that if you get out of this room, you’ll die in the hands of the shadow monsters waiting outside,” one of them said.

Peter glared at him. “Are you the ones who sent the shadow monsters to my friend’s wake?” he asked, his voice harsh and angry.

The one who just mentioned the shadow monsters looked at everyone else and laughed. “I don’t remember that this negotiation is about asking us questions. You’re supposed to tell us about the book. Where is it?”

Peter grinned even if he was forced to sit. The two large men held both his shoulders with a force that told him to not even think of standing up and running away. “If you took me here without the book, then that’s because I don’t have it,” he said.

The middle-aged men glared at him. “Tell us.”

Peter shrugged. “I said I don’t know,” he said and sighed. “What do you want to know about the book?” he asked them.

They exchanged glances, and one of them asked, “How does the Book of Dimensions work?” Peter almost laughed at that question. They were after the book, and they didn’t even know how it would work. It was funny to Peter that he slightly snorted. “What’s so funny about that?”

Peter shook his head. “Sorry. You probably know, but the Book of Dimensions is a book where different mantras were written. The summoner should form a summoning circle first, and then the summoner must choose a mantra of creature he might want to summon. However, it is written in Orrinatta language,” Peter said.

They looked at one person who looked the oldest of them all. “You know Orrinatta,” they said to him.

“And then what?” one asked. Peter looked around and counted there were around thirteen people in the place. Four looked like guards, and the others he remembered were the ones he met back when they were escaping yesterday. There were not many people, but ten days were surely enough for him to learn about their weaknesses. He could use those as a way to kill them in their dreams.

Peter grinned. “That would be enough for today,” he said, which made everyone yell at him. “I told you, I’ll tell you everything in ten days. It won’t be fun if I tell you in one day, right? Besides, you’re holding me here. I can’t possibly escape.”

“Lock him up,” one of them demanded, and he was dragged back to his cell. “It’s late as well. We need to sleep.”

Peter grinned at the perfect timing. “Well, I must pay a visit to the dream world, too,” he murmured.