Part-267

  As James colpsed onto his bed, his heart still rag slightly from the frontation, he couldn’t help but sigh. “She should be w in CID or something,” he muttered under his breath. “How did she gather so muformation from just a strand of hair? And how did she evehe shampoo on it? That’s just freaky.”

  Lily was relentless when she wao know something, and her knack for sniffing out details like a bloodhound alut him on edge. As much as he loved his sister, her overprotective antics could get exhausting. Still, he knew she meant well… most of the time, anyway.

  James rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling, trying to clear his mind. He could still feel the weight of everything from earlier—the fight with Rakib’s thugs, the fake “date” with Toya, and even the subtle tension that lingered between them after it was all over. He hadn’t goo the Lamp of Time dungeon earlier because he didn’t want to be mentally drained before dealing with Rakib’s nonsense. But now, with all the drama behind him, he realized he needed a distra.

  Reag into his pocket, James pulled out the Lamp of Time. The a oil within had replenished long ago, waiting patiently for him to return. He held it up, the small fme flickering in the low light of his room. The mome the mp, time around him froze, as it always did wheered the dungeon.

  The world blurred, and in the instant, James found himself standing in the familiar stone chamber that had bee his sed home over the past ten days. The Lamp of Time dungeon. A pce outside of time and space, where the rules of the real world didn’t apply, and where James had spent tless hours honing his skills, pushing his body and mind to their limits.

  The air was cool and still, the stone walls stretg high above him, carved with intricate ruhat glowed faintly in the darkness. This was the pce where he trained, where he had fought aed the Ratlings and other creatures that inhabited the lower levels. His strength had grown siderably since he first discovered this dungeon, and he knew he was ready for more.

  James took a deep breath, feeling the familiar rush of energy that always apanied his entry into the dungeon. His senses heightened, and his muscles felt lighter, stronger, more respo was like slipping into a sed skihat was faster, sharper, more capable than the one he wore in the real world.

  He took out his wooden sword, its wooden body gleaming in the dim light, and began his dest into the deeper levels of the dungeon. The air grew colder the further he went, and the faint sound of skittering echoed off the stone walls. Ratlings. The creatures were still a challenge, but he had fought enough of them by now to know their patterns, their weakhey wouldn’t be enough to stop him tonight.