The water poured off the showerhead, drenching the floor in a puddle.
Under the showerhead, with his head full of shampoo, Kiernan washed his hair while the water cascaded down his naked body.
"Cheater… cheater… I won!"
Julian muttered at the neighboring shower while washing himself with a frustrated look on his face.
"You didn't win anything!"
Kiernan shouted to the neighboring shower, then left the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist and walked to the mirror to brush his teeth.
"I was faster than you, though."
Julian appeared next to him, towel wrapped around his waist, and also brushed his teeth with a look of annoyance.
"Therefore, I basically won!"
"I was the first to arrive at the dormitory, though. I don't know in what dreamland you're living in, but you lost."
"Huh? You want to fight again or what? I'll beat you up!"
Kiernan just scoffed and walked away, rolling his eyes. He heard Julian shouting something, but he ignored it all, and left the showers.
When he arrived at the second floor, the doors were already closed as others were getting ready to go to sleep.
It was past ten at night, so everyone needed to be quiet and respectful of others trying to sleep.
As he was about to open the door to his room, another door opened at the end of the hallway, and Julia came out with a towel in hand, ready to go to the shower.
At that moment, she saw Kiernan and blushed bright red. The water was still trickling down his well-toned body like a shimmering waterfall.
"W-why aren't you wearing anything?"
Julia asked with a blushed cheeks, pouting slightly.
"I didn't take my clothes there with me. I thought everyone was already sleeping. My bad. The shower is still occupied by that stupid moron Julian, so don't go there just yet."
Julia rushed back to her dorm room to hide her embarrassment.
With key in hand, Kiernan opened his room, closed the door behind him, and changed into more comfortable clothes—it included a t-shirt and sweatpants.
At that moment, his phone buzzed with activity on the desk. He didn't take it with him on the jog, and especially not into the showers.
Kiernan took the phone, plopped down on his couch, and saw that he had received messages in the Martial Order chat room.
When he opened the app, he saw that it was all private messages from Cold Shade. It wasn't the shared chat room with her and Gentle Rose.
'Why would she want to text me privately? She doesn't want her disciple to know what we're talking about?'
He opened the chat room, and saw that she sent a couple of messages.
'Maybe she is asking for a return for her money…'
[Cold Shade: I think I might know more about this lottery wheel of yours. Sparkweed, Sword of Maraketh, and Whispering Shell are all items of Dead World]
[Cold Shade: I think this lottery wheel is connected with Dead World somehow. If so, it is a very valuable item]
[Cold Shade: None of us really know anything about Dead World. The government has sent expeditioners there to check it out, but no one returned back, so it is assumed that it has some toxic poisons in the air]
[Cold Shade: However, these items don't seem to be poisonous. Sparkweed is from lightning fields, and this soil in the pot seems to be soil from the lightning fields. The soil is rich with various minerals and nutrients that are beneficial for plant growth]
[Cold Shade: It makes me question whether Dead World is really inhabitable for humans, or if it is just the plant life that is thriving due to the unique properties of the soil]
Kiernan read it through and felt his eyes spin a little bit. It was a lot of stuff to suddenly dump on someone.
'Connected with Dead World… hmm, I wonder if this Duelist's Map is also from there. It is a weird consequence if every other item is from there. Maybe all the shop's items are also from Dead World.'
It made him really curious about this Dead World, and he definitely wanted to go check it out one day.
'Should we try it again?'
Kiernan scratched his chin, looked at the phone, and began typing.
[Revenant: Should we try once more?]
[Cold Shade: My wealth is not limitless either. It is expensive, but sure, I'd like to give it another try. Sparkweed already made me learn so much about Dead World, so if you receive any herbs, plants, or flowers from the lottery, please give them to me]
'I don't mind giving her those. I don't need them. I am sure she told me all of this so that I would give her the herbs, plants, and flowers so that she can receive more knowledge, which she will then share with me.
'A mutual cooperation is fine with me. I don't really know anything about potion brewing, so I don't need them.'
After lighting up the candles one more time, they did the countdown to the one, and when she typed one in the chat, both shouted at the same time.
The candles got blown out, and after turning the lights back on, a pouch filled with 100,000 gold coins had appeared in the middle of the six-pointed star.
He sucked those gold coins into his system interface and summoned the lottery wheel back to the dorm room.
"Give something good…"
The lottery wheel spun around rapidly. It started to slow down. Then it stopped.
Its pointer landed on 'Screaming Bamboo.'
As the screaming bamboo appeared in Kiernan's hands, it started screaming so loud that the windows started to shake.
Kiernan panicked and quickly threw it inside his wardrobe to try to drown its screams, but the bamboo continued to shriek even louder.
Some annoyed shouts came from other rooms. It sounded like the screaming bamboo woke up the entire dormitory.
"Shit, please shut the fuck up!"
The bamboo didn't stop screaming.
He picked up his phone, told Cold Shade to start the trade ceremony as quickly as possible.
He then went to lit up the candles, and as Cold Shade started the countdown, he went to retrieve the screaming bamboo from the wardrobe, and threw it to the middle of the six-pointed star.
With cold wind blowing through the room, the screaming bamboo disappeared.
The darkness swallowed the room, and as Amara was about to turn the lights back on, a loud inhumane-sounding shriek echoed through the room.
Amara turned the lights back up and saw a long greenish bamboo lying on the table. It had a mouth, and it was screaming at her.
The screams flew out of the balcony and across the sleeping city. The screams were so loud that they could be heard from a long distance away.
Angry, frustrated shouts came from the city, and the dark houses started to light up as families began waking back up.
The castle, where she was living, also woke up to the sound of the inhumane screaming.
Amara looked at the screaming bamboo with a tired look.
"Screaming Bamboo from the Screaming Forest. It is another species that has gone extinct because of Dead World.
"That lottery wheel is indeed connected with Dead World, but… how do I make that screaming stop!"