Another month passed in relative peace. I had never gone out during the weekends, instead I perused the library or practiced my abilities. Now that I had the powers of a Dreamer, to some extent at least, Brax didn’t pester me with meaningless annoyances. Professor Pure refused to teach me any more complex topics for my Dreamscape, but I still practiced on my own.

He caught me doing so, and actually approved. Apparently he thought it was important to explore those things without guidance sometimes. At the same time however he also warned me of the life threatening possibilities if I went to crazy.

My hypothesis was that in order to gain a true ability from the Dreamscape something must be made that represents the intended ability and I must focus on that thing when I wish to use that power. Like the Professor advised I did not try to make some incredible ability like turn lead to gold.

Instead I did what I had discussed with the Professor and tried to make something that increased strength.

So I made the most simple thing that I could think of that represented strength. A rock, I had initially thought of creating a muscle, however what if that only effected my muscles in response and I ended up shattering my bones from the uneven power in my body.

Therefore rock. Rock sturdy, rock heavy, rock strong. Rock rock rock.

I made it a huge river stone, smooth on all side in a circular disk but as wide as my arms stretched out.

When I usually made something it would be something I was interested in on a fundamental level. A diagram of a person, a watch, a brain in a jar. However I usually did not try to include the actual feelings such things gave me, or what their deeper meanings represented.

A smooth river stone was not particularly interesting to me. My creating it as perfectly symmetrical as I could was soothing to my mind, but not interesting. That added onto the fact that I was trying to convey my Intent while making it forced the task to take more than two weeks to complete.

I could feel the slight rejection of the object as it sat in my Dreamscape. Because it held no true meaning for me it was seen as unnecessary. It even seemed to dissolve quicker in my Dreamscape than other things despite me making it as detailed as possible.

As for if it actually increased my power, well it did. It was hard to tell if it was passively effecting me because my Intent was still suffusing my body and slowly empowering it, but when I focused on the river stone I could feel the power course through my body.

Now with it active I could easily lift my desk single handedly while only holding onto the end of one of the legs. I also tested if I became more durable as well. Obviously I didn’t do something as stupid as start off by cutting myself or jumping off a building. Instead I got a small hammer and tapped away at my arm with slowly increasing power.

It only began to hurt when I swung with the full force of my wrist.

I was definitely stronger and more resilient, but not to the degree I hoped. A part of that must be because of my Dreamscape’s rejection of the river stone, but it could also be that I was just over estimating the power I had envisioned.

Using the rocks power too much was similar to when I would channel intent through my body or create something within the Dreamscape. I would feel fatigued both physically and mentally.

Still for a fourteen year old’s body I was now superhuman.

Outside of my experiments with the Dreamscape I also practiced with Intent. I remembered the way that the Intent had flown down Mr. Riders leg and rippled across the door when I first came to the school. I also remembered the way that it pulsed down Professor Pure’s tattoo’s when he used his healing fire.

Obviously it could do more than just look like steam rising off the body to empower it. I tried to focus the Intent flowing out of my Dreamscape into my hand. It spasmed like a fish out of water. Pain lanced through the limb and it took me a few minutes after I stopped for my limb to feel normal again.

I figured out that I had been trying to build it up like I was trying to fill an already full vase with more dirt. In the way was my flesh. Which had caused the pain and spasming.

Next time I let it build like I had poured water into the dirt. My hand began to glow like a white sun had been born there. I punched a tree in the sparse woods that framed the path to the city. It wasn’t a particularly big tree, but it shook violently, the bark cracking and falling to the ground.

My hand spasmed like it had when I had first tried to focus Intent in it, and for the rest of the day it was sore and slightly numb.

Another few students in the last month had fully opened up their Dreamscape. Unfortunately Elina was not one of them, which she complained about often enough. We had gotten closer because I was apparently the only other person who would discuss fashion with her. Others would just say that she looks good or they love her hair, but not want to go into details about fabric, patterns or shape language.

One day I decided to ask her a question that had been on my mind for weeks now.

“Are we friends?”

She had been laying out different squares of fabric to talk with me about and she stopped to look at me with a slightly hurt expression.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“Yes?… I don’t really understand why you wouldn’t think so.”

“I just don’t understand the line that differentiates between friends and acquaintances.”

“The line that… Wait are you scared of getting friendzoned?” she asked with a sly smile.

I stared blankly at her.

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Well it means that you’re stuck and you can’t grow into something more,” she must’ve seen the look of bewilderment on my face and just shook her head while chuckling. “Never mind, why do you ask?”

“I’ve never had friends before so I was unsure what constituted one.”

“That is… so depressing.”

“Yes, it has made me unhappy many times.”

“I need to help you get some more friends then!” she said with an enthusiastic conviction.

“Unless they can be as interesting as you in conversation then no thank you.”

“Monty, you really don’t want to be friendzoned huh?”

“I… do want to be your friend though.”

She sighed but then gave me a warm smile.

“It would be so much more fun to tease you if you knew what I was teasing you about, but still, thanks.”

“You’re bullying me?”

“No! Its teasing.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Teasing is, well, I guess bullying with good intentions?” she said, sounding unconvinced of her own words.

She must have seen the glimmer of amusement in my eye’s cause she pushed me gently.

“I can’t believe I fell for that. You and your damn poker face.”

—

At the end of the second month we were separated between the ones who had opened their Dreamscape and those that hadn’t.

Professor Alyci, the pink haired gunslinger was the one to take myself and the rest of those with powers to the location of our field exercise.

A total of twelve students had opened their Dreamscape and could now be considered Dreamers in the most basic sense. To me the most basic sense was still an incredible wonder, but I still desired that next step.

The place we were being taken was called The Forest of Living Dreams. For most ordinary people it was a place that would feed on the energy of your mind by conjuring up specters to haunt you. However it apparently had a unique interaction with Dreamers and Nightmares.

Instead of feeding off the energy of the mind it would resonate with the Dreamscape and should hopefully lead the person to understand themselves and their dream better.

One of the dangers however was this was also a place for Nightmares to gather. Nightmares were any non humanoid creature that could use Intent. Many thought that the name was outdated due to it originating in superstition, and that there were actually many species of Nightmares that were not only generally friendly, but sapient and able to communicate with people as equals.

Of course that didn’t mean all Nightmares were friendly. The population of the forest would need to be controlled because of the increased rate in which the Nightmares repopulated within the forest. If the population got out of hand Nightmares would begin to migrate to the human settlements in the area.

That is why the Forged Order would be joining us on the excursion. They would be able to get their own training in hunting Nightmares, and at the same time would protect the students from those same Nightmares.

I wondered how the Forged Order would be able to protect themselves from the specters of The Forest of Living Dreams, but when I asked Professor Alyci she refused to answer just winking at me for some reason.

—

“All right students! Welcome to the Island of Refill! At once point this was the home of Ridley Refill or also known as Ridley Von Vallenhein the son of Cerith Von Vallenhein The Drowned King! During Ridley’s battle against his father thirty years ago they destroyed most of this island. The city, also named Refill, was destroyed in the battle. Now it is uninhabited other than a few weak Nightmares and regular animals,” Mr. Rider said.

He had on a pair of khaki shorts with suspenders along with a sleeveless shirt. His socks went up almost to his knees and were a bright white and he wore a pair of military boots. The hat that he had on was ten years out of fashion after being popularized by the military, it had a striped cylindrical top like a top hat, but a single bill out front.

Not only did the ginormous man look like a clown with his clothing it also didn’t look like it was particularly smart clothing for this environment.

They had traveled for almost two days by train then took a boat out to the island. Summer was still a few months away but the amount of bugs buzzing around was already too much for Elina.

“For the next month you all will live out in the wilderness. We have identified one Nightmare of which even a normal person like yourself could deal with if planned properly. If you need to be saved or give up you will fail out of the school. If you die before you can be saved then I apologize, lastly if you happen to kill the Nightmare you will be awarded an elixir crafted by our very own headmistress that will be customized to you to open your Dreamscape, if you do kill it but also open up your Dreamscape in your month long stay then you will get another prize.”

Elina had suspected something like this for their “field trip,” ever since Professor Pure had started teaching them how to survive in the wilderness for their afternoon classes last month along with Professor Alyci teaching them how to handle and maintain some basic weapons. If not for Monty’s information then she might have only half heartily paid attention to the classes.

She sighed, Monty was going to a place called The Forest of Living Dreams to further delve into his powers or something like that. What was she doing? Living on a deserted island for a month. Yes it had a rich history of some of the strongest Dreamers ever to walk the world, but it’s not like they were here or any of that rich history remained.

Elina hefted her two clubs. They had chosen their weapons the day before, and while Elina had thought of taking a sword or spear, she reasoned those would take more finesse than she was capable of with no training. Why parry and slash when you could just bludgeon something twenty times in the head? She also had some other basic gear that had been handed out to everyone.

She wore a pair of pants that tucked into her own boots held up by a plain leather belt and suspenders and a long sleeve shirt. She had left her jewelry because it would get in the way or she’d lose it and her perfume because it might attract animals. Her long red hair was in a braid and she was absolutely sure that she looked like some farm girl at the moment.

At least she could take comfort in the fact that the dull clothing made her hair and eyes pop to draw attention.

Looking around at the humid forest and rocky shores she sighed again. It hadn’t even been an hour and she was already missed bathing.