Chapter 3
In the bedroom of the apprentice knights, deon and his friends were preparing to sleep for the night.
In the bedroom, there are ten beds available for ten apprentice knights. Despite the number of occupants, the room is spacious enough to accommodate each individual and does not feel crowded.
Deon’s bed is in the corner of the room, making his bed more private than others, with Lucien and Caleb’s Bed next to him.
While Lucien and Caleb discussed the capital, Deon chose to ignore them and focus on getting some much-needed rest. Being too tired to converse, Deon simply wanted to sleep undisturbed.
“Did Deon sleep already?” Caleb asked
“Yeah,” Lucien replied when he saw deon already asleep
“It still amazes me how deon fall asleep so fast,” Caleb said. He has just seen deon close his eyes earlier, and deon is already asleep
“Deon has always been like that,” Lucien replied, not minding deon’s strange ability
………
After falling asleep, Deon's consciousness entered a strange space in his mind.
Deon “awoke” within his mind as he looked around his surroundings. Deon found himself standing in a field that seemed to be made of clouds. Surprisingly, he was able to stand firmly without sinking. The sky above him was a beautiful shade of blue, completely clear without any clouds or sun.
Deon calls this strange space in his mind a Dreamscape since he can enter this space when he is asleep, and in his Dreamscape, Deon can create and control things the way he wants to, making him like a god of this strange space.
Deon obtained this ability when he was only four years old when he had a severe accident that made him fall into a comatose state.
However, during those times, he wasn’t unconscious. Rather, he was lucid and was trapped in his mind, unable to wake up.
Deon tried countless things, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t wake up. For the four-year-old deon, it was a traumatic experience that deon wouldn’t be able to forget no matter how old he becomes
After nine days in a comatose state, deon was finally able to return to the waking world, even though he didn’t know how he was able to return. He was nonetheless grateful that he was able to return.
And from that point on, he could go to his Dreamscape every time he fell asleep.
At first, deon panicked as he didn’t want to be stuck in his Dreamscape for another nine days, but eventually, deon learned that he could easily transition between the two worlds at will.
However, deon always fears that one day, he might not return to the waking world and be stuck in his Dreamscape forever.
Seeing the familiar sight, deon snapped his finger, and the surroundings started to change, with the ground turning into finely cut grass, and walls started to rise from the ground.
The cloud-plain field turned into the training ground of the imperial knight institute, where the apprentice knights held their tournament.
In his Dreamscape, he could change the surroundings into places where deon had been before with a perfect copy, and all he had to do was think about the location, and the Dreamscape will do the rest.
After the Dreamscape changed into the training ground, deon snapped his fingers again.
The moment deon snapped his fingers, a silhouette made of a cloud appeared in the center of the training ground, and soon, it turned into another deon
The other deon was holding a silver sword and faced deon with battle intent in its eyes.
“Should I practice today? Or should I rest for today?” deon said out loud.
The “other” deon did react to deon’s question and continued to stare at deon, but deon didn’t mind since he never expected the “other” deon to respond.
The other deon is a dreamscape clone that his Dreamscape created. It has a perfect memory of deon and could fight like deon; however, it isn’t a “real” person and can’t talk or form any thoughts.
The reason deon could become the top apprentice in the institute is mainly because of the dreamscape clone.
With the dreamscape clone, he was able to practice for 8 hours every day and improve drastically because of it, and since he was fighting his clone, he was able to remedy his weakness, allowing him to perfect his technique.
Dreamscape grants Deon the remarkable ability to maintain limitless stamina and unparalleled concentration within his Dreamscape, freeing him from the hindrances of exhaustion. Although Deon's physical body cannot reap the benefits of this extraordinary gift, he can continue refining his techniques without worrying about fatigue in his Dreamscape.
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“No, I can’t be lazy just because the tournament is over,” Deon said with determination, and a silver sword appeared in his hands.
Deon took his stance, and like a trigger, Deon’s clone began to move and copied deon’s battle stance.
“All right, Let’s start,” Deon said
The moment deon finished his sentence, Deon’s clone immediately rushed and delivered a strike to deon’s head
*Clank*
Two swords collided, creating sparks. The clone continued its fierce attack, and deon kept blocking the attack.
He plans to stay passive during this fight to study the clone’s movement, to see if there is any flaw in any of its attacks, and improve his swordsmanship.
Deon has been sparring with his clone ever since he learned swordsmanship, and he could easily defeat his clone.
After all, it could only copy his movement and technique and aren’t capable of having its thoughts.
Deon also tried to clone his instructor but failed and could only create an instructor clone that was weaker than his clone.
However, deon always tries every time the instructor shows off his technique since he thinks he always fails because he barely knows anything about the instructor and doesn’t know how strong the instructor is.
If deon could make a perfect clone of his instructor, then he might be able to improve his battle experience since right now, he could only fight his clone to gather more battle experience, but fighting with his clone also has its limits.
After a few more sword bouts, deon easily cut the arm of his clone, ending the fight.
“All right, phase two,” Deon said, and the clone’s severed arm grew back to its original, and a shield appeared in the hands of the clone.
“Begin,” Deon said, and the fight between deon and his clone continued
The imperial knight institute teaches the student the Imperial Battle Arts, which consist of three types of weapons; the Sword, Shield, and the Spear
And every imperial knight must know to wield the three weapons to master the imperial knight battle arts fully
The Imperial Knight Battle Arts have three levels of mastery; Beginner, Intermediate, and advanced
The beginner level is about learning all three weapons' basic techniques.
While intermediate is about learning the three combinations of all three weapons, such as; sword and shield or sword and spear or spear and shield
At the advanced level, apprentice knights need to learn how to use all the weapons in a perfect combination. To be precise, the apprentice knight must be able to switch to any weapon without any delay or without losing any battle power.
Deon has mastered the three weapon combinations and has reached the advanced level, and he only needs a few more practices to complete his advanced mastery.
Most apprentice knights are either at the intermediate level or the start of the advanced level. That’s why the apprentice knights can only use one weapon during the tournament to balance the fighting powers of all the apprentice knights.
If deon had used two or three weapons during the tournament, then he would have dominated the tournament faster and easier than before
Of course, deon didn’t let his domination in the tournament go to his head since it was only his first obstacle to his original goal: to become a high knight of the imperial knights.
………
The next morning
A bell rang throughout the institute, waking all the apprentice knights, and they began preparing themselves for the morning.
In Dreamscape, Deon has an intense match with his clone. The clone uses a sword and shield combination while Deon uses a sword and spear combination, giving the clone a huge advantage as deon didn’t have a solid defense.
Deon was about to attack when he heard the bell ring throughout his Dreamscape, making deon pause
“Is it already morning? Damn, that was quick,” Deon said as he relaxed his body.
Seeing deon’s relaxed figure, the clone didn’t hesitate and attacked deon with full force, aiming deon’s neck.
“Wait…” Deon also realized his mistake and was about to say something when the sword slashed his neck, sending his head to the ground.
Deon’s head rolled into the ground, his facial expression in shock
“Damnit, Why do I always forget to turn you off” the head spoke annoyedly at the clone
The clone ignored the annoyed face of the head and quietly stood at the center of the training ground with the air of victory making deon more annoyed
“Hmph”
The moment deon humph, the clone quickly disappeared without a trace, making deon somewhat satisfied: “Oi, Come here and get me,” the head spoke to the headless body standing at the training ground.
Deon’s headless body picked up his head and put it back to his neck, and the wound in his neck quickly healed as if nothing had happened.
Deon massaged his neck and grumbled, “I can never get used to the feeling of my head getting severed. It’s too damn painful.”
In his Dreamscape, Deon is immune to death and can modify the amount of pain he receives, and when he is sparring with real swords, deon makes sure that he only receives 50% of the pain.
At first, deon wanted 100% pain so that he could experience “Real Combat,” but with countless sparring that deon did every night, it was too painful for deon to handle
When Deon experienced his first "death," he was brutally stabbed in the heart, and the fear he felt was so overwhelming that he almost lost control of his bodily functions.
However, deon also doesn’t want to get used to “death” since it might make him careless when a real battle happens in the waking world, and he ends up dead.
After deon’s neck healed, he closed his eyes and snapped his finger, returning his consciousness to the waking world.
Deon observed the other apprentice knights stifling their yawns as they roused themselves from sleep to begin their morning training regimen.
Strictly speaking, deon had been awake all this time, but his physical brain was still sleepy, making deon quite muddled as he yawned. However, deon was already used to this feeling and quickly stretched to wake his body and mind.
After stretching, Deon also prepared himself for the morning training.
“Morning, guys,” Deon said to his friends to him, who also woke up
“Morning,” Lucien and Caleb replied but were still sleepy as they kept yawning
Every morning, the apprentice knights would do their morning training first before breakfast, with their morning training consisting of running and several calisthenic exercises.
Suddenly a loud thud spread throughout the room, drawing the attention of all ten apprentice knights in the room and making them look at the source of the sound.
At the door of their room, they saw their instructor
“Move it! The training starts in 10 minutes!” The instructor shouted and quickly left
Soon they heard the instructor shouting the exact thing to the other rooms
The presence of the instructor sobered all the apprentice knights as they quickly put on their training clothes before going out of the room
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Thought for your thoughts
* Dreamscape introduced
* Immune to Death and Fatigue in Dreamscape
* Able to control everything within the Dreamscape (From to landscape to pain tolerance)