[Dreamscape]
Description: A unique space for training skills and sharpening instincts. Only accessible when you are asleep and the skill is active.
Attributes:
Time Dilation Effect: Time in Dreamscape moves 3 times faster than the real world.
Combat Masters: Train and test your skills with experienced teachers guiding you every step of the way.
Warning: Combat Masters have minds and wills of their own. Training with them carries the risk of real pain, with most of them known for their far-from-gentle, brutal methods.
Level 1:
Combat Master: Caelum the Edgebearer.
Challenge: Defeat him in a sword fight.
Reward: You gain experience and can advance to a higher level.
Penalty: 500 Mission Points
Level 2: Sealed
Level 3: Sealed]
Elias looked at the tab with his eyebrows furrowed, then he clapped his hands, his lips curling into a grin.
"Heh... now that's more like it!"
Unlike other Chordbearers his age, he had awakened pretty late. This was exactly what he needed to catch up, at least to some extent.
Although he was quite powerful for his rank, he was still lacking in experience and numerous ways to apply his abilities.
He needed a way to test it all out. And most especially, with the looming trials for the academy, he needed time.
But this wasn't the part that made him most excited.
His eyes looked downward to the last attribute, narrowing as he rubbed his chin in thought.
"Combat Masters, huh."
In this era, most children born into noble families or families with a long and ancient heritage known to frequently produce Chordbearers began training in combat as early as five years old.
From that age, they had already begun to be lectured by tutors working for their families, making them monsters when it came to a duel.
Although not all of them. After all, he hadn't broken a sweat when beating up Damon back on the train...
But the point was, how exactly would Combat Masters provided by a fucking god compare to those tutors from noble clans? In fact, could you even compare them at all?
Of course not!
And all he had to do was get a night's rest, and he would wake up every morning a little more powerful than he had been the night before.
Wasn't this just... wasn't this just ridiculous?
But there was still something about all this that made him uncomfortable.
He turned to Elyndra, resisting the urge to pinch those puffed-out cheeks as he asked, his voice nervous.
"Hey, what's this thing about brutal methods? It's definitely exaggerated, right?"
Elyndra floated toward his face, her lips curled into a grin.
"Hehehe..."
She flicked his nose with her tiny fingers, making his eyebrow twitch as he waited for her to speak.
"Of course, it's exactly as it says, dummy. You can be slain, gutted, and tortured while feeling the same amount of pain as you would in reality. So prepare that mouth of yours because you are going to scream... really badly."
He gritted his teeth, his fists clenching tightly.
"It's all to get powerful. It's all to get powerful..."
Repeating those words, he took a deep breath, his heart settling into calm.
'It's all just a little pain anyway. And those guys wouldn't exactly be so petty, right?'
He prepared to open the last tab for the night.
He swiped his finger across the interface, clicking the tab labeled System Inventory.
The interface in front of him buzzed before the lines of text changed, outlining the description of the System Inventory.
[System Inventory: A storage space that is unique to you alone. You can store personal items here, excluding sentient life forms.
Storage Capacity: Infinite.]
Honestly, Elias had been expecting something like this. After all, what other use could an inventory have?
But he already had the Realm under his control, and that place also served as his personal uhh... inventory too. It would take him but a thought to keep stuff over there and have it back in a jiffy.
But this was pretty nice too.
He scratched his hair, the interface in front of him flickering once before it disappeared.
Stretching out his arms with a yawn, he turned to the expanse around him, watching the world inside the dimension as a quiet sigh escaped his lips.
Even now, the place was no different from daytime. In fact, it looked a lot more lively. Countless holograms drifted through the air, flashing lights that encased the countless outlines of buildings with surfaces glinting like polished chromium in a majestic glow, the spires of massive towers reflecting the light of the holograms on their metallic surfaces.
But that wasn't the only thing.
Now that it was nighttime, the flowing moths of gold raining from moving hoverboards and flashing hover cars seemed to shine with even more luminous radiance, making the sight strangely dazzling.
It was quite enchanting.
Around the place, ringing sounds kept resounding continuously from the hover cars and hoverboards flashing ahead, but it wasn't a mash of sounds as one would think. On the contrary, it was quite nice to hear...
He felt Elyndra come to sit on his shoulder, his mind racing with further thoughts.
This place already made him feel so small, yet it was barely a fraction of the wider world. There were places far more fascinating, places that made even this dimension, for all its wonders, seem incomparable.
After all, the Concordia Labs were still inside a tier-two city. Tier-one cities existed out there...
He still had quite a long way to go.
'Honestly, there is no point thinking about all this right now anyway.'
He turned to Elyndra, his eyebrows furrowing as he thought about the inevitable test tomorrow.
"Little gremlin, do you really have no method to conceal my interface from those guys tomorrow? Or to at least fool them?"
She scoffed, running her fingers through her hair. "You are worrying too much, silly. That's nothing much. Someone only succeeded the last time because I got taken unaware."
Elias allowed himself to let out a deep sigh of relief, then his eyes narrowed when he finally caught on to the last part.
"Hey, what do you mean someone succeeded?"
Elyndra looked at him, her mouth slack-jawed for a moment.
"Oops, my bad. Bye-bye!"
Before he could retort, she had already disappeared, flickering blue sparks left at the spot where she had sat moments ago.
"Dammit!"
While Elias wanted to know more, it wasn't like he would get any information from pestering her. He just hoped that this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass.
He walked back to the sitting room, mumbling irritatedly under his breath. As he walked, he let himself feel the Realm pulsing beneath the weight of his perception, then he began to will out all the stuff he had stored in one of the rooms of the Withering Castle.
Around him, packets of toothpaste, soap, perfume, and numerous other provisions appeared, lying on the ground in a messy heap.
He left them, walking into the bedroom. He admired it for a moment, then turned toward the wardrobe. In his hands, numerous clothes began to appear, and he hung them carefully, already feeling exhausted when he thought about all the work he had to do.
Back on the train, he had stuck to carrying only his bag, which had just enough supplies that he needed at the time. He simply didn't want there to be a chance that anyone would see him materialize stuff out of midair.
Normally, he wouldn't be so cautious, but with suspicions still hovering around him from the invasion of Arvenelle, he simply had to avoid situations that would make him stand out too much, at least for the time being until this entire thing blew over.
Or at the very least, until he crossed over to the Apprentice Stage. At that point, he could probably excuse it as his awakened ability or something.
Done with that, he walked back to the sitting room, looking at the heap of provisions lying around, slapping his hand over his forehead as he let out a breath of exhaustion.
"How the hell did Mum make this look so easy."