The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 56: In the Far Distance

Chapter 56: In the Far Distance

Day something something of travelling in space. It had been about another month of floating after I had left the moon with the dungeons.

Time was getting harder to keep track of, I believe I was still close to the standard time number of days and months that had passed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I was a day or two off.

I had three methods of attempting to keep track of time.

First, I watch the stars and planets move with my sight and [Star Mapping] and estimate time based on them–this did require a bit of maths but I was decent at this trick. Second, simply counting, I didn’t have much else to do. Third, I kept track of my mana consumption and recovery, I knew the rate of both nearly perfectly and thanks to that I could keep a rough track of time.

Using these methods together I could keep a mostly accurate measure of time. But still, after months I was bound to become slightly off. 

The beauty of space always astounded me, the multi-colour stars that shone so brightly, the different planets and moons, and the other eccentricities were all wondrous. It never made me bored, but the joy of it was slowly fading.

I was already nearly halfway to a full year of being trapped in space. The goal of getting home within a year was still plenty possible, but still, nearly half a year with zero progress greatly soured any positive emotions.

Espoiramissa had continued to keep the talking to the minimum which was a refresher.

None of the questions I asked were answered and the majority of the time Espoiramissa spoke, they were just making small jabs at me. Not sure why, maybe in a vain attempt to test my will in the empty void. Wouldn’t be the first time Espoiramissa tried testing me before.

“What is that…” 

When I was floating I noticed a small old reflection in the far distance.

I tried to refocus on it but I couldn’t. Within a moment it was out of sight.

That has to be something.

I made sure to check everything old I noticed, while old occurrences nearly never happened and my previous two attempts had no luck, but it was always worth a try. So I prepared to get a better look at the object.

(“ It appears to be a spaceship ”)

I ignored Espr’s sudden appearance and checked the situation myself. 

I used [Star Mapping] to get an eye on the object. My Mana and Starlight were full so even with the object being extremely far away I had plenty of resources to get an eye on it.

Espoiramissa was correct in its statement, it was a spaceship of some kind, and by the way it was moving, it was clearly operated.

Why is there a ship out–No that doesn’t matter.

I was not going to let this opportunity get away from me.

Time to fly!

A torrent of fire burst below my feet and I soar through space like a burning comet.

I dodged the space rocks and curved around the asteroids that littered the space until I reached the vessel.

I came to an abrupt stop diagonally above the ship. I examined the craft–the ship was decently large for a small vessel and was built with a mostly non-reflective dark material.

Whoever was in charge of the ship noticed my arrival and a large crowd emerged from different points on the ship, totalling twenty people.

Their armour had no obvious logos or signatures. This wasn’t normally an issue as plenty of hunters didn’t wear logos. But these people didn’t look like hunters and they were a bit too organised. The armour itself looked heavy and each carried a large rifle.

The armoured individuals quickly surrounded me, staying a decent distance apart but close enough that they could attack. 

With their decent numbers, outfitted ship, equipment, and their response, it led me to the conclusion that these people weren’t running the most legal of businesses.

“Didn’t expect to see some pirates out here.” I shrugged and smiled under my mask, “What my luck.”

The pirates, concerned but still feeling confident they had the upper hand, moved closer.

A female voice commanded, “Deactivate your amour and suppress your mana, then we will bring you to our ship.”

“Good joke.”

“This is your last chance, we have no qualms about killing you.”

I laughed, “Congrats, I’m glad we shared the sentiment.”

The lady went quiet for a moment, most likely communicating with someone, before she said, “Open fire.”

From all directions, a burst of crimson light came crashing down.

I laughed once more, and quickly [Burst] out of the way and grabbed the lady by the neck.

(“ Are you going to kill them all? ”)

No, I have some questions and I prefer to not be the one driving the ship. I want to relax after all.

But first I had to deal with the ants trying to bite.