1.01

“Giant snakes are constrictors and not venomous, right?”

Theo wanted to agree, but he could clearly [Detect poison] in Oliver, and he hadn’t the heart to lie. So, he said nothing as they washed his wounds in the morning. Oliver hadn’t woken up yet, and there was nothing more they could do.

“It even has rows of tiny teeth, as opposed to fangs. So clearly not poisonous, right?”

Surely, Harry had noticed the pus, the paleness, the discoloration, he must know. Is he in denial? And the teeth were only “tiny” compared to the snakes’ size, the snake was Huge. The fact that the teeth had sunk in diagonally at a steep angle instead of perpendicularly was the only reason Oliver was still alive.

--

Back when the dawn was just brightening enough to see, they had gone back to check if the snake was truly dead. Even in death, the snake was beautiful. And Harry realised it was the exact shimmering pattern of the rocks he saw at the bottom of the river. The snake was longer than they thought, its tail getting thinner and longer still, almost whip-like. The exact thing that had knocked them off the snake.

Theo had been hit with the thicker side; the pain was already dulled by dawn. Harry, however, had been hit with the tapered tip which had cut his shirt and left a nasty bruise underneath and on his arm.

“Think we can skin it? Ollie and I could use some clothes.”

“I think I can do it.I’ve seen it on TV. Cut its head off and roll back the skin inside out like a sock. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Cut its...with what?”

Theo ineffectively tried tearing with bare hands and sharp rocks. “I miss my knife so much.”

“At least we have water bottles. Come on, let’s check on Oliver.”

They returned back to Oliver, cleaned his wound as best as they could, dripped some fruit juice in his mouth and just sat.

--

Harry had been replaying his last dream over and over. He just couldn’t get the unearthly scream out of his head. He could still feel the lingering remnants of dream, the fear, anguish, and the Pain. As phantom as it was, he couldn’t help but shudder at the memory of it.

“I was with Ollie when it got him.”

“..What?”

The bruise on his chest had gotten worse with time. It didn’t hurt as much when idle, but the slightest touch would send unbearable waves across his chest. Even moving his arms caused substantial agony. So, he avoided motion all together. Stupid whip snake. And the thought brought him right back to where he began. Screams and pain.

“I have this skill, lets me [dream walk]. And I walked into his, we were … hanging out when ...”

“... Is that why you were screaming? I thought you were having a nightmare.”

“We dreamed of home. And food. It was nice… right until it wasn’t.”

“…”

Harry suppressed another shudder at the reminder. “What I’m trying to say is, I want to [dream walk] again, go see if he’s alright.”

“Think you can do it?”

“I have [instant nap] too, shouldn’t take long.”

Theo took some time to contemplate, more worried about scavengers or worse.

“..Ok, I’ll Keep Watch, then.”

--

[Dreamer level 8]

[Skill - Sleep storage]

[Skill – Scented Thoughts]

[Skill – Dreamscape]

…

[Skill - Perfect Recall (Dreams)]

“Perfect recall? Is that why I keep remembering? You have reeaaally shitty timing whatever you are.”

He was standing in a white space, no walls, corners, or ceiling. He couldn’t even see the floor he was standing on. But it felt more real. He felt he had more control over the place.

“So, this is my [Dreamscape].” Harry briefly wondered if he would have normal dreams ever again. “ I’ll figure it out later. First things first.”

At his thought a section of space grew transparent revealing the void again. He could sense Oliver’s dream nearby, so he walked out.

--

When the Dream coalesced, he found himself standing back in the gym, just like the day they left their world. If not for the blur all over the place he would have thought the past few days to be the dream instead. The lingering pain in his chest still bled through in the dream further anchoring him. The room was dimmer than its real counterpart. And in the flickering light stood Ollie.

Oliver was visibly tired and sweaty, like he was fresh off a heavy work out session after pulling an all-nighter.

“Oh, you’re finally awake. Wait for me a bit more? I still have a few more reps to go.”

There was a dull ache from everywhere, but it was more akin to muscle-burn from the workout rather than the piercing pain from before.

“No dummy. You’re the one sleeping. I came to check up on you.”

“That makes sense, I had this really weird dream too. We were in a different world but video game. Where we could level up and everything. It was so cool.”

“You’re still dreaming buddy.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I am?”

“Yea. But tell me about it.”

“It was so realistic and so… scary. There was this huge snake, but that’s ok, I had [Lesser poison Resistance], probably from the fish.

“But we were attacked in the night, so I didn’t get any sleep, I’m pooped.” Oliver was drooping over, exhaustion heavy in his eyes.

“I bet you wish you had my skill now huh.” Harry tried to cheer up Oliver.

“Sure. After I’m tired of mine maybe. I’ll be a Wizard soon enough, watch me.”

The dream was getting dimmer by the second. Harry tried not to let his worry show.

“Whatever you say, buddy. But you need a bed first. Let’s get you home.”

Ollie just lay down and the world reformed into a bed. The room had grown dark, or the rest of the room had never materialised. Nothing other than the bed was visible. Almost like floating in the void smothering the tiny island of thought ever growing smaller.

“Goodnight Ollie. I’ll catch you on the flip side.”

And even that soon faded.

The ground slowly gave away beneath him, but he didn’t fall. He just floated where he once stood. In the void, deprived of any sensation, he could almost convince himself that it was relaxing.

Harry knew what had happened. He was just not quite ready to deal with it, not quite ready to go back out into the world yet. If only he could just stay in his dream forever. He also knew It wasn’t likely, but just for a while, just for now.

He rests in the void between dreams.

[Dreamer 10]

[Skill – Dilated Dream]

[Skill – Dramatis personae: Oliver]

[Skill – Daydream] → [Skill - Dream over Reality]

Harry was dragged out of blissful oblivion by a sensation in the void, faint or maybe distant.

He had lost track of how long he had been here, but the foreign dream gave him hope. When he drifted into it, he immediately felt the difference.

The dream felt like it was made out of dirt.

faint sense of pain, different than Ollie’s, more concentrated in hands and legs

A Hunched Figure Shovelling at the wall, a faint rhythmic humming.

“Ollie?”

The tunnel, for that's where they were, fuzzed.

He could feel the Surprise in the air.

And moments before the figure popped away, he knew it wasn’t Ollie.

He could recognize the telltale signs of the dream fading. And he knew from experience what it was this time, whoever that had been had woken up.

He was back in the void again. He tried going back to his own dream, but it wasn’t there anymore.

“My [dreamscape] don’t exist if I’m not dreaming my own dream. … That’s a confusing sentence.”

He still didn’t want to wake up still but the void was shaking again, and there was a voice accompanying it this time.

“Wake up, Ollie’s not breathing. I think he’s … . I-I think …”

“I know”.

Silence for a while.

“Should we bury him?”

“…Think there are giant dingoes too? Considering my luck it’ll probably dig me up.”

Theo hadn’t reacted to the presence. Seems he hadn’t heard it either.

“Cremation then”

“like the fucking Vikings? I like that one better.” Harry ignored this too.

Harry had been avoiding looking in the general direction of the apparition. Gathering the kindle was much more difficult without Ollie’s skill but they managed. Soon a modest pile was gathered over … the body. [Ember] would have made short work of igniting it too, but they managed. Amidst the stifling smoke, the silence was too unbearable in the crackling fire.

“Should we say something? I only knew him once we got here. You knew him from before, right?”

Silence again. Oliver was the outspoken one, he would have been better at this too.

“I’m sorry I am so useless. …That I couldn't help in the most crucial time. Even in a magical world I get useless skills. … And I’m a coward still. I can’t even look at him.”

“…”

“Not his … It’s just … I got a skill. Or just schizophrenia labelled nicely. I… I can still see Oliver.”

“...Wha… like a ghost?”

“No, it’s like a memory or something. A skill. [Dramatis personae]”

“… Personae? as in plural?”

“What? ... It’s just Ollie. At least I don’t see anyone around.”

“...Ok, we’ll think about it when we have more data. … So, is it your memory or his?”

“What?”

“Is it your memory or his? Does he know things you don’t?”

“... i don’t know.”

Theo looked around and asked in a random direction. “Hey Ollie, what did we talk about when Harry was brooding by the river?”

“Brooding? I don’t-”

“Bear grills, your knife and uh magic?”

“...”

“Did he say something? What did he say?”

“Are … Are you really … ”

“Well, I know I'm dead, If that's what you’re asking. Just a product of a skill. But I still feel like me, you know. Got all my memories, even the last one in the dream. And what was it some old guy said? ‘ I think therefore I am’ ? Well, I think yo momma’s so ugly that your daddy’s genes didn’t help you at all.”

--

They talked a while beside the funeral pyre, like the fucking vikings, reminiscing the good times, the fun times and some embarrassing ones too with Harry repeating Ollie's stories for Theo albeit biased.

“It's no fun when you won’t mediate your embarrassing stories I tell.”

“Ollie says he is a big fat idiot. And ugly too.”

Theo chuckled understanding the situation even with only half the conversation. Besides he had heard enough to get the context before Harry cut off.

--

During a brief lull in a conversation Theo broke in. “I’m sorry for all, it's worth.”

“He says he understands, there wasn’t much we could do

“You’ll owe me one. Just … don't forget about me.” added the quiet memory.

Author’s Note

…

So Yeah, Olivers dead. That's not a ghost or anything, just a dream of a memory. The real one’s in Kaligma.

And it's that kind of chapter. Reconciling with the situation.

It has been described as “happening to someone else” or “going through the motions in third person”. In my experience, I would say it’s like when you’re reading a book but can’t focus on it, you’ve reread the same page three times over but at the end of it you still can't remember anything from the page, you know it has a predictable sad ending, saw it coming a mile away and still makes you cry even though. Disconnected but still can’t avoid it.

So the vagueness in this chapter is on purpose. To show the disconnect … and totally not because I’m terrible at writing it.

And for Harry, the “crash” was somewhat mitigated by [dramatis personae] anyway.

Viking funerals usually happen on a boat but which one of you sick bastards gonna tell them that now?

As for the skills, let me make some things clear just in case.

[daydream] basically splits his mind, like Valeterisa’s [parallel thoughts], one in the dream, one out but still connected.

[Dream over reality] overlaps his dream over the awake, so two minds are not necessary. He dreams like hallucinations others can’t see or touch. So he sees Oliver even when he’s awake. Basically, he’s trippin.

He’s not gonna have Numb-tongue’s possession skill, purely imaginary friend, perspective advice maybe. But plot.

Like the angels and devils riding shotgun on his shoulders. Actually, I initially wanted to name the skill [Advocatus diaboli] but that sounds too antagonistic, I don’t want him constantly arguing on opposite sides.

For any one who thinks they are levelling too fast may i remind you the following:

3.14x exp modifier for outworlders

Lower the level faster they level up, cant get any lower than 1

Overcoming difficult hurdles equals moar level up, these snakes hunt gold rank sword crabs for food. In my mind they have a rock-paper-sciscors-gun thing going on with sword, shield, whip, wand variants.

Overcoming capstones require realisation that changes their perspective, higher levels requiring more profound realisation, 5 and 10 being the lowest capstones. Also they had their realisations last chapter, just hadn’t slept yet. Theo still hasn’t.

Also i like the idea from some other fic i forgot, that humans get more exp in exploration/civilization jobs, drakes get more in money / magic jobs, dwarves >> mining/smithing drinking/shouting? etc

Now that's out of the way, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Erin’s new skill in vol 10 that looks suspiciously similar to Harry’s.

In my defence, I wrote this plot just after vol 9. I had this whole thing figured out, Harry was supposed to go in the sanctuary and have a nice synergy combo skill in the hill. But pirate aba had to fuck me over right in my juicy plot. This is the reason I was undecided about uploading it or even continuing writing. But then again this is a FANFIC. They are meant to break canon plot. But now I wanna fix my plot a bit. Probably remove the skill combo entirely or push it back until vol 10. I mean the plot still holds without it. RIP real ollie