"Is she stupid?"
"I guess so."
"Yeah, I have the same thought."
All the Dreamers' eyes were on the two Dreamers who were standing above Salthas.
"Wait, is that Salthas?"
"How did they tame it?"
"I thought it was nearly impossible!"
The smart ones there had already realized that these two Dreamers weren't fools or amateurs. Being able to tame such a beast showed that they shouldn't be taken lightly.
***
I was looking at Sia, who couldn't stop smirking. Her chest was puffed with confidence because she was standing on a beast that was called out for its untameable nature.
But I was curious about something else.
"How did you even get that microphone?"
Sia looked at me and said, "This? I got it from the Exchange Store."
"And, what is that?"
"Wait, you don't know? You can buy skills and stuff in exchange for your Exp. I bought this for 50 Exp, and even those two skills I had were also bought from here." She explained it to me.
(It was true that I didn't know much about this world, but I didn't realize I didn't know this much.)
"How much did those skills cost?" I asked. We both were having our own little chat while the whole colosseum was shouting at us.
"Ragebaiter cost 50 Exp, but..." She paused, her facial expression was now of regret. "Copycat was a bit costly."
"How much?"
"1000 Exp."
"So you were awakened and you gave it all up for this skill?"
"No."
Hearing that answer, I was confused. I asked again, "Then what?"
She opened a window in front of her and slid it toward me. She turned her head away like she was embarrassed.
[Exp: -850/500]
I nodded to myself and said, "You gave up your awakening for a skill, now you are at minus. Is this what they call stupid?"
She kicked the window that was in front of me and put on an almost pouty face. "Shut up, I thought ahead, and this skill is useful. I can copy powerful skills!"
"You bitch, talk to me here!" A voice came from down. It was a huge man with a long beard. He had a big bag on his back and was wearing a weird outfit.
"Your mom's a bitch!" Sia shouted from beside me.
"Bruh." A guy beside the huge man started cracking up in a laugh. The huge man looked at him and he shut himself up.
"How immature you sound, young lady," the huge man continued.
"And you are mature for calling me a bitch, right?" Sia put on that wolf-like smile again.
The huge man went silent for a moment. All the gazes were on him because the huge window up in the sky was showing him. All that made him embarrassed and most probably hurt his pride, but he tried to act cool and let out a theatrical cough.
"Ahem, my bad. But put that aside, you know because of you two it has been so late here. We are not your underlings to wait for you."
All the Dreamers around him agreed with him and became hostile towards us. They started talking to each other while staring at us.
"Then why are we wasting more time in this useless conversation?" I asked him calmly. "Let's start the summit already."
"You bastar—" the huge man gritted his teeth while looking at me, but before he could say anything completely, a new window appeared in the sky.
[Ding! Ding!]
[So everyone is present now, let's start the summit!]
[Shifting text to sound...]
[Shifting complete!]
The window that was appearing in front of us was written, but now we could also hear a strange robotic voice.
[Announcement for all the nominees present here!]
[You are one of the a million nominees from your Earth!]
[And beside your Earth there are tens of other galaxies' Earthlings summoned here!]
[The purpose of this summon is to protect the World-Root!]
"World root? What is this?"
"Why are you asking me like I know?"
"What is world root?"
An uproar started within the Dreamers' crowd. I was also curious about the World-Root, but I stayed silent and let The Order continue.
[World-Root holds the spiritual essence of the universe. In every century, World-Root releases a powerful surge of spiritual essence, and it attracts many wandering Dreams of the universe toward Somnara.]
"Universe? What the hell?"
"Are we supposed to fight some beings that are wandering in the universe?"
Most of the Dreamers there were shocked by the word universe, maybe because in most isekai it's only limited to a single world.
[But you don't have to worry that much, you aren't normal here. All of you would have already known that you can awaken influence, and maybe many of you have already awakened it. Influence is your own dream, the one you are inside or what you feel to become. And those influences that didn't awaken inside anyone later turn into dreams you can see all around this world.]
Then the window showed us and Salthas and continued,
[This horned grey wolf, Salthas. He is the failed influence of hundreds of people who were arrogant and wanted to be predators. But none of them were worthy enough to awaken it. In the end, that failed influence was born here as a dream.]
Suddenly the window changed and showed us the live footage of multiple Salthas. Some were pups, some were old, and some were young like the one on whom we were standing.
[There is a whole race of Salthas, as there is no shortage of people who want to be predators or those who want to be lone wolves.]
All the Dreamers there went silent. Many of them were processing the information they just got from The Order, but some were there who lost the hope to even survive.
[If any dream eats the spiritual essence of World-Root, then our universe is doomed. That's why, every century nominees from multiple galaxies are summoned here to fight them. The war that happens to protect the World-Root is called...]
[The Great War of Catastrophe]
The name sent a chill down the spine of multiple Dreamers. While turning my head to see the Dreamers' reactions, my gaze landed beside me. Sia was drooling with the same shining, starry eyes and was muttering something.
"M-my fantasies of saving the world is coming true." That was what I heard from her mouth.
Maybe she was dreaming of herself as the hero of this world. Either she didn't understand the weight of the situation, or she was extremely strong, that's why it didn't even make her flinch.
[The time left before the World-Root will release the spiritual essence is 12 years, you all have that time to grow stronger. The Order has provided you all a Nominee Degree, or is providing one now.]
[In your inventory, a DataTab is provided. As I can't tell you everything just now, you need to identify things for yourself to make good use of it. DataTab will help you understand things I didn't tell you now.]
I opened my inventory like Sia did and saw a tablet-like thing. It was the DataTab. I clicked on it, and in the description of the item it was written,
[Lore Teller]
(So this is it.)
[And with that, The Order's side of the Dreamers Summit is completed. Now it's your turn. You can make teams to fight dreams easily and gain Exp faster. Do anything that can make you stronger, as there are no rules.]
[The True Dreamers Summit begins from here!]
The Salthas below us disappeared suddenly along with the window in the sky. We both hit the ground but somehow managed to get away without any injury.
Even the hole in the colosseum wall disappeared and it looked like it was unbroken from the start.
Sia slowly stood up and stretched her body. I could see guys around admiring her beauty.
Then she turned to me and said, "How long are you going to stay in that position?"
I slowly stood up and looked around. Even though there were millions of Dreamers, they still looked few because of how massive the colosseum was.
All the eyes around were on us, it was like we were some sort of celebrities, and Sia especially was enjoying the attention.
Some of the guys who came toward us, particularly toward Sia, got thrown off by the huge man from before.
The huge man smirked and looked at Sia. "I'm Taylor Markson, from United States. Nice to meet you." With that, he extended a hand for a handshake.
Sia took the hand and put on her wolf-like smile. "I'm Sia Zeliang, from India."
I continued looking at them shaking hands, but Taylor's grip on her hand was visibly increasing, and Sia was trying to pull her hand away without giving him any reaction.
(You can kick his balls, you know. But it will look like we are starting a fight.)
"Would you stop messing with this young lady, Mister Taylor?" A feminine voice came from behind us, her voice had a noble tone in it.
Taylor Markson's eyes widened and his grip on Sia's hand released. "Q-Q-Queen Elisabeth!"