It was a pure white space with no shadows, I couldn’t tell if there was even a floor, walls or ceiling.

“Create something. Something related to why your Dreamscape opened would be best,” Professor Pure instructed.

I remembered the lessons. By creating an object inside the Dreamscape it will create a link between myself and the Dreamscape making it to where I could draw on its power at anytime.

Something related to why it opened. I wasn’t going to put a doll of Brax in there, however…

A piece of paper formed, slowly, it was a diagram of a young male human body. The words around the head and face were the most distinct, but that was all I could do before I started gasping for breath.

My mind felt sluggish and full of cotton, as though I had just spent the past three hours getting a stern lecture.

I idly noticed Professor Pure shoo away Brax after healing his wounded thigh with a ball of pink fire.

“You’ve used up quite a bit of mental energy and Intent to create whatever that object was. It’s normal. Think of it as working out a new muscle.”

I placed my hand back over the face of my watch and breathed in time with my usual pattern. Five in, hold for three, five out. Within a couple of seconds I was able to get a hold of myself, and looked over to the Professor.

“Thank you Professor for your help.”

Professor Pure shrugged, but he had a slight smile on his face.

“Over time the object you created will disappear, if you let it disappear completely your Dreamscape will close and you will need to find a way to get it open again.”

I swiped the sweat from my brow and nodded. During the history lessons we were given about Dreamers we learned that back in the old days Dreamers would practicing opening their Dreamscape on command, back then they didn’t know that creating something inside would keep the link open so they had to find another way to access Intent.

“Next class you will join Cystella and me as I guide you through creating things in your Dreamscape and the meanings for those things. At first we will just get you used to using Intent, but I want you to start thinking now of what your Dream is. A common string of thought that Dreamers use is what they wanted to be when they grew up. For some it could be a profession like a constable, or in my case it was to be able to commune with animals. It doesn’t need to be complex or unique, it just needs to be personal, otherwise the power you hold will never truly be a part of you,” Professor Pure instructed.

After that he left me. It felt surreal, one moment I was being bullied, and the next I was a Dreamer. I could understand how important visualization training really was. When I had been imagining the anatomy of Brax’s eye it had almost seemed as though I could actually see it happening in front of me.

I wanted to take notes, but I had a class to get to, maybe if it wasn’t anything important I could. A slight headache had formed, probably from the effort of creating something in my Dreamscape for the first time.

Still I wanted to see it again. I felt the link in my mind that the diagram had created. It didn’t seem right to say that I pulled on it, It was more like I was looking for it. Again I saw briefly in my mind’s eye an expanse of white that was both small and endless, floating in the center was a diagram of a fourteen year old boy. It wasn’t Brax specifically, but it did resemble him to a degree.

If I was correct then the base color of my Dreamscape was also the color of my Intent. Like I had done with the diagram I “looked” for the Intent. I must’ve concentrated too hard because a torrent of white energy poured out of me.

That was until I ran out and collapsed onto the ground. My headache went from slightly inconvenient to splitting my skull in half. Not only that I could feel what it had done to my body. It had empowered it sure, but my body was not used to it, so it felt as though my blood was boiling. My heart slammed against my chest faster than I ever thought possible without it exploding.

I was in pain, and exhausted, but I was full to bursting with satisfaction.

—

“Your Dreamscape is the source of all your power and abilities, and Intent is both the fuel and material of that power. Intent itself is generated from your Dreamscape, and based on how complete your Dreamscape is the higher quantity and quality of your Intent. Put a bit more simply having more crafted things in your Dreamscape will increase the amount of Intent at your disposal, and the clearer and more real you make those objects increases the power of your Intent. Over time all things in the Dreamscape begin to fade away, we must continually reconstruct our Dreamscape in order for it to stay as powerful and to keep it from closing on us,” Professor Pure instructed me.

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Cystella had already gotten this lecture, so she was was sitting quietly by herself. They were in another classroom where the other students from the class couldn’t bother them.

“Soon our class will go onto our first outing. Those that have opened their Dreamscape will go with a single teacher while the rest of the year go with the other three. For those yet to open their Dreamscape they will be placed in a dangerous environment in order to try and kick start it open. For you both, you will go to an arguably more dangerous location. Controlling and manipulating Intent is only the bare minimum of your abilities. In order for you to truly become a Dreamer you must craft your Wit from inside your Dreamscape. As I told you yesterday your Dreamscape is personal to you. Where you will go on the field trip will hopefully help you draw out what is most personal to you, or if you are weak of mind you will go brain dead, or possibly make your body explode as you force yourself to the wrong answer.”

That was a terrifying thought. I remembered the feeling of boiling blood as I tried to harness Intent. I would need to be more careful in how I experimented. Small steps.

“What you will be doing today is creating more things in your Dreamscape. When crafting your Wit it will matter more what you place inside your Dreamscape and how, but for now you will only be using Intent in the most basic ways. We need you to get your body used to Intent running through it. Not only will it help familiarize you with the power it will also generally strengthen your body and nourish it.”

“By how much? Does it double my strength? Or is it more that my muscles are reinforced so they can take more strain?” I asked.

“You will see the greatest increases in the beginning, but it is a constant process. As long as you have your Dreamscape open and actively use Intent you will grow stronger and stronger. Unless you craft your Wit specifically to gain strength however the increase in power will become negligible eventually.”

“How come everyone doesn’t craft their Wit to increase power then?”

“Why don’t you tell me why?”

I thought about it for a few minutes, the room lapsed into silence. It only took me a minute to think of a few reasons but I wanted to play out the theories in my head before I spoke.

“Time and energy for one. To make something in your Dreamscape it takes time and focus. To use that time to create something that you will probably not need is a waste if it won’t last forever.”

“Yes, it also-” the teacher began.

I raised my hand and he quieted.

“Apologies professor but I wasn’t done.”

He nodded for me to continue.

“Strength also might not align with their Dream so to speak. Would a cook need to be especially strong in order to make a meal? Or does a doctor need to be able to lift a boulder to perform surgery? So then it should be more difficult for them to do such a thing with their power.”

Professor Pure nodded again.

“Yes that is an accurate assessment, but you are thinking of it more as it is not applicable to their Wit. It is more that it is unnecessary. Strength is great for combat as well as a few other things, but lets say that this cook wanted to find the ingredients themselves. A strong arm would surely be helpful then.”

I nodded.

“So if one Dreamer cook liked to find the ingredients themselves and another was fine with the ingredients given then the former has a good chance to incorporate a strength aspect to their Wit. Meanwhile the other one had no need for such a thing and would find such an addition a waste of time and energy.”

“Then there is the fact that plenty of Dreamers have powers that outclass another persons increase in strength. So what if one person can collapse a building with their fist if another can turn anything they touch to ash or their words can control the mind of others.”

His smile grew a bit sly.

“Just think about the Drowned King.”

The Drowned King was a living myth. From almost every historical record he alone had been responsible for The Drowning which had almost wiped out civilization on the Core Layer. Everyone knew he was a Dreamer, but there had never been a record of any Dreamer matching that sort of power.

I wondered what his Wit was, obviously it had something to do with water, only a dumb ass wouldn’t make that connection.

“Now that is not to knock on someone that uses strength based Wit. Its no secret that Mr. Rider is one such person, if we were ever to fight for some reason I might be able to whittle him down, but one strike from him and I’d be blown to smithereens.”

Mr. Rider had made several examples of his abilities in the weeks of training we did with him. One such was jumping up the wall of the cliff the sandwiched the school. He did it in a single leap.

For the rest of the class Professor Pure had me craft things inside me Dreamscape. He said it would get easier with practice, but I had to stop well before lunch time to catch my breath. If having a more detailed thing made within my Dreamscape made for higher quality Intent than I would prefer that over quantity. If the Intent was suffusing my body and strengthening it, then it should be better to have the best quality Intent I could to start out.

That was my hypothesis anyways.

I made the thing I was probably most familiar with in the world. My watch, specifically the one I wore every day. Wood and silver, I imagined the cool feeling of the silvery case along with the slightly rough texture of the wood. I put it together in my Dreamscape like I did in real life, a piece at a time.

I had that thing memorized so well I could draw a diagram of it without having to look at it. Once I was done I even visualized it ticking like it would if it was actually on my wrist and using the Stygoscript to draw energy from me.

Afterwards I was sweating and panting, a headache in my head similar to the one from the day before.

“Good work,” said a quiet soft voice from next to me.