The days at the Academy bled into a singular, grueling rhythm. Arjun found himself entirely preoccupied with the dual demands of physical training and the acquisition of esoteric knowledge. His routine was a fortress: the mornings were dedicated to the Wilderness Survival Class, where he absorbed the mechanics of the Dream Realm's harsh ecosystems, and his afternoons were spent in the combat halls, refining the movements of a body that now felt both alien and terrifyingly efficient.
The "gifts" the Beastmaster—Bin—had bestowed upon him were nothing short of a small fortune. Upon inspection, he had realized the sheer scale of her generosity. He now possessed a set of Ascended-rank Armor and a matched Sword, both shimmering with a restrained power that felt leagues above anything a typical Sleeper could dream of wielding. Along with the equipment, she had provided two utility Memories: one capable of conjuring localized flames and another for producing pure water. In the unforgiving reaches of the Dream Realm, these were not just tools; they were life insurance.
Socially, Arjun remained an island. The only person he spoke to with any frequency was Diana. He had observed her during their shared training sessions—she was a natural archer, her focus as sharp as the flint of her arrows. Her aim was exceptional, and there was a quiet, desperate steel in her movements that he respected.
Then there was Lucas.
Lucas was hailed as the undisputed prodigy of this generation. He was a tall, imposing young man with an aura of effortless superiority. Arjun often caught Lucas glancing at him with a simmering, barely concealed hatred. It was a grudge born of the domain—Lucas was closely tied to the Clan Valor, and to him, Arjun was a silver-haired anomaly from the rival Song Clan who had dared to claim a True Name.
Arjun didn't care. He watched Lucas from the periphery of his vision, trying to recall if the boy had ever appeared in the novel he remembered from his previous life. I don't remember a 'Lucas' in the original story, Arjun mused. Maybe he's an anomaly of this timeline, or maybe... he simply died during the Solstice. With that grim thought, he turned back to his own blade. Two months passed in a blur of sweat and steel. The Solstice was no longer a distant threat; it was a looming shadow at the door.
******
The final morning in the Waking World arrived with a heavy, oppressive silence. Arjun woke up feeling as though his limbs were made of lead. The exhaustion of two months of non-stop preparation had finally caught up to him.
He made his way to the cafeteria, but the usual clatter of trays was missing. The room was dull, filled with the hushed, anxious breathing of hundreds of teenagers. Every face was a mask of terror. They all knew the statistics. For most of them, this would be their last meal in a world with a ceiling and four walls. They feared the unknown lands where they would soon materialize.
As for Arjun, he was calculating. He knew the geography of the Dream Realm better than anyone, but that knowledge was a double-edged sword. Outside of the Forgotten Shore or the Chained Isles, most locations described in the novel would be straight-up suicide for a lone Sleeper, no matter how Divine their Aspect.
I have a plan, he thought, staring into his coffee. The moment I land, if the situation is impossible, I will use the innate ability. I will die, regress backwards before Solistce, and use the knowledge of the terrain to prepare. I'll collect data, find Memories, and learn the patterns of the local Nightmare Creatures. Whatever the Realm throws at me, I will turn it into a scripted encounter.
"Are you prepared?"
He looked up to see Diana standing by the table. She looked pale, her fingers twitching near the quiver at her hip. Arjun offered her a small, reassuring smile. "I did what I could. That has to be enough."
Diana looked around at the other Sleepers, many of whom were weeping silently. "If the Spell is kind and we land in the same area... let's team up."
Arjun nodded solemnly. "I agree. If we find each other, we survive together."
*********
There were no classes today. The Academy had gone quiet, transformed from a school into a staging ground. Arjun made a final stop at the Wilderness Survival classroom to say a silent goodbye to Teacher Julius. The old veteran had given him the only thing that truly mattered: the logic to survive the illogical.
As the sun began to dip toward the horizon, painting the sky in bruises of purple and gold, Instructor Rock gathered the batch in the foyer of the Sleeper Center. He led them through the snowy parks that surrounded the white buildings, heading toward a structure that loomed like a cathedral: the Academy's medical center.
The interior was a jarring blend of high-tech machinery and ancient mysticism. Polished chrome pods lined the walls, overseen by the best Healers the Awakened could provide. These pods would sustain their physical bodies while their souls were cast into the Dream Realm.
Instructor Rock stopped the group in a hallway lined with glass partitions. Inside the rooms sat people—men and women of various ages—staring blankly at the walls. Their eyes were open, but there was no spark of life, no movement, no soul.
"There is a reason I brought you here," Rock said, his voice grating with suppressed emotion. "Look well. Some of you know who these are. For those who don't... they are called the Hollow."
He gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping over the trembling Sleepers.
"Each one of them was once like you. A Sleeper or an Awakened. Some were weak, some were incredibly powerful. But their souls were destroyed or devoured in the Dream Realm, leaving only these empty shells behind. The Spell didn't take their bodies, but it took everything that made them human."
Rock looked directly at Arjun for a moment, his eyes hard as flint.
"So... don't die out there. Don't let yourself become a statue in a hallway."
*****
The speech left a chilling residue in the air. Arjun walked to his assigned pod, the cold metal reflecting the silver of his hair. He ran a hand over the smooth surface of the machine that would hold his life in stasis.
"Whatever it takes," he whispered to the empty room. "I will rise."
He stepped into the pod.The Waking World vanished.
In the vast, echoing darkness of the void between worlds, a familiar, cold voice whispered directly into his soul:
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Arjun!]
Arjun stood up, his silver hair whipping in a wind that shouldn't exist, and simply muttered:
"Holy fuck."
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Kindly give a support & powerstone,Wherever he is going to land,It will be hellhole