The Forest of Living Dreams was a small forest nestled between three mountains. A foggy mist surrounded the woods and glowed with a soft yellow color. The class of twelve along with Professor Alyci and the Forged Order stood halfway up one of those mountains.

The professor was standing on top of a rock while looking down at the students, the Forged Order was a few feet away, still in earshot.

“Okay class, now I will be explaining your role for the next few days. Your goal is to reach the center of the forest where the tree that generates the power of the forest resides. During your journey you will be haunted by things that are related to your Dream. Dream in this case is the basis in which your Dreamscape formed. The hope is that this journey will be a great experience for all of you to understand yourself better and gain inspiration for your power.”

So this was a walk on a trail with monsters, amazing.

“I myself will stay up here to keep an eye on you all, and each of you will enter the forest from different locations, too many Dreamers in one place will cause the apparitions to warp and mutate.”

Up Here? They were still miles away from the edge of the forest. Apparently someone had a similar line of thought because Marollo raised his hand.

“Yes Marollo?”

“Would it not be better for you to come with us?”

Professor Alyci took her rifle from her back and patted it lightly.

“Up here I have a vantage point to see you all. The Forged Order will be the primary protectors for each of you, but I will step in from here should anything get too bad.”

That was both terrifying, imagine what she would be able to do on a battlefield if she could actually help from so far away, and very intriguing.

“Alright the Champions have already been briefed on the paths and their own roles so go and join them and start heading down the mountain.”

“How long do we have to accomplish this?” I asked raising my hand.

“Either until you finish or until I get bored of waiting. It should only take you a couple of days and most of that will be going up and down the mountain, but some do like to hang out inside the forest for further inspiration.”

Were all Dreamers so blasé about these things? I would much rather have a hard time for getting down there, then one for entering the forest, one for reaching the tree, one for traveling out of the forest and another for getting back up the mountain. Of course that didn’t include rests for bathroom, sleep and food.

Was I allowed to make that schedule for my group? I wasn’t the leader of the Champions or anything, we were more like symbiotic entities having different goals but being able to accomplish them together.

—

Professor Alyci watched the students and Forged Order Champions leave down the mountain. The rest of the Forged Order was staying with her, not only would she be able to protect them from any Nightmares that happened to come by they hadn’t been through the same training as the Champions and would only be a hindrance in a place like The Forest of Living Dreams.

Line Sergeant Brightstrike also went with the Champions, but he was not assigned to any one group. She was sure that he didn’t need to go, but his niece was down there so he was probably worried.

Professor Alyci ran her hands over the pair of Sun Stone revolvers on her hip, feeling her connection to them from her Intent. Her eye caught something off in the far distance.

On the other side of the forest a group of seven were coming around a bend in a pathway on the far mountain. Anything else could never see something like that from so far away, but her eye was special. Part of that specialty was that she had only one eye and the other one was a glass fake.

Zeroing in on the group she raised her eyebrows in surprise. Four of the people were armored with bronze and steel with the numbers 36, 42, 51, 52 stamped onto their chests as well as tattooed on their upper left forehead. Two of the others were wearing bland black armor stamped with the number zero, they had helmets on but Professor Alyci knew their foreheads would have a tattoo similar to the others. Between the two Zero’s walked a young boy Alyci could see the nine tattooed on the young boys head, unlike the other four who’s tattoos were all black, the boys were a metallic silver. The boy, who had to be around twelve years old, also had a type of jewelry called plating where extremely thin and flexible metal plates were placed onto the persons skin. Each of the people had bronzed skin, and while the four Mid Numbers had black hair the boy had purple hair. She recognized their homeland in an instant, what was a group from the Bronze Isles doing here?

As if sensing her sight the boy’s head tilted suddenly and his eyes narrowed. Another Dreamer then, one talented enough to feel her gaze.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

—

Ravik trekked through the mountains of the Sun State the two Zero’s beside him. Had he been a Double Digit like and eleven or a Teen then he might have asked the two Zero’s to carry him in a palanquin, but a Single Digit was not carried. Even The One himself was not carried. It spoke of being incapable of walking on your own two feet.

They had been silent for most of the trip there. Ravik had learned long ago that for him it was better to be silent than say unnecessary words. It was due to his stoic silence most of the time that led him to becoming a Nine. Had he spoken more his deficiency would have hindered his ranking even more than it already did. Maybe he would have been a Twelve instead.

Then again, if he didn’t have the defect to begin with then he would have been a Five or maybe even a Four.

Intelligence, looks, wisdom, willpower, cunning, immune system, strength, all of it contributed to his Low Number. His Dreamer abilities helped push him to becoming a Single Digit, an achievement so rare that only geniuses and incredibly powerful Dreamers got the honor.

Of course he was still young, should he stagnate he would never be able to rise the rankings, in fact he would lose his position if he didn’t.

The Forest of Living Dreams should be able to help him advance his own understanding of himself, then if possible he would take the core of the Forest so he could bring it back to the Bronze Isles. He would take a resource from a rival nation to bring to their own.

He also knew that the Rising Dreamer Academy would be close, along with the Forged Order. If he was able to gleam information on the newest students of their first years then that would also be a boon to him.

It would be troublesome but as long as Ravik didn’t start slaughtering the students then whatever teacher accompanied them wouldn’t intervene. Though if he did actually get his hands on whatever made The Forest of Living Dreams function then they might.

Just then he felt attention, someone or something had noticed him. It was an ever so slight reaction in his Dreamscape from feeling the Intent of another. He readied his Wit. Bronze colored Intent coming off of him in a torrential haze. The Mid Numbers halted and even the Zero’s hesitated for a moment.

“Move,” Ravik commanded, his word slow and deliberate.

They did not question him or why he was outputting so much power so suddenly. You needed to be at most twenty Numbers higher than someone in order to be allowed to question someone and 36 was seven off. The Mid Numbers and the Zero’s would die following orders from a Single Digit even if he told them to kill themselves for no reason.

As no reaction from whatever watched him came he let his power ebb, but still kept it ready. He was in enemy territory at the moment.

—

The next morning myself and the three Champions moved to the inside of the forest. We had made it to the edge of the forest the day before but unanimously decided to rest from the trek down the mountain. The Champions had carried their own gear as we had left the other three of the team behind.

Now as we entered the forest they donned their armor for the first time. The suitcases that held them were compact and didn’t seem like they should be able to hold a whole giant suit of armor. Each suitcase was labeled with their rank and name and had a lock that required a small tablet similar to the card that I was given for my room in the Academy.

When they opened the suitcases I saw that that they were full of steel, bronze, and Stygoscript, with gears all around and mirrored orbs for the Sun Stones inside to power the armor.

The metallic rectangular contraption that made up their armor was split in two inside the suitcase and the Champions each picked up one half and pressed it to their stomach’s. Prismatic steam began to gutter out of the unfolding armor and the clanking of metal echoed out.

Plates of metal spun on gears and wrapped around the three Champions, going around their waist and folding downwards around the legs. After that they put on the top half on and it too wrapped around their upper bodies in a rather loud clanking grinding sound. Once it was finished folding around the body the three Champions were fully armored and ready to go.

Their armor seemed to give them another half a foot in height, bulking up their form. The armor was a lot less ornate than the one I had seen the in the museum, but I also knew that because they were still trainees they did not have the right to more fashionable armor.

Still it was intimidating and reassuring at the same time to have three huge armored knights surrounding me.

“We are ready to go mister Niko,” Private Quint said to me, his voice slightly echoed with a metallic.

I stared at the older boy for a moment getting my words in order and Private Quint shifted. He didn’t say anything though, they had gotten used to a few of my habits.

“I would prefer if you called me Monty,” I said.

Its not particularly that I hated my last name, but it brought up memories of my parents that I wasn’t too fond of remembering.

“Of course, Mister Monty.”

That was fine, I’d be able to ignore the fact that he was five years older than me.

The armored Champions wearing shining steel and bronze nodded hefting their weapons, two spears and one hammer, and began to move forward, small amounts of prismatic steam coming off as they moved. Private Downs carried an additional pack that had additional charged Sun Stones to fuel their armor.

We began our journey into the forest, with Private Icy in the front with his hammer and the two other Champions behind with their spears. The glowing purple fog all around reminded me of Intent except how others Intent would have impressions of other things, like how Heidi’s reminded me of sunlight on a cold morning or how Professor Pure’s reminded me of a wild untamed jungle, the fog would instead cling to me and seemed to mold to the feeling of my Intent.

The silence became tense as the fog around us grew thicker and thicker. I was just mulling over if that was because we were heading deeper or if it was gathering around me in response to my abilities when a small form walked through the mist, it only appeared to be a foot off the ground and seemed long. I thought it was a snake at first, but as it came into focus I recognized it.

Burst, a small dog that had white fur with large patches of brown and large hazel eyes came into view. It tilted its head in a familiar way and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. Stretching out behind him were his organs, blood spilling from the diamond shaped hole in his stomach.

The dog barked at me happily.

The three Champions yelled in disgust and surprise.