I don't even hesitate a second after seeing that my assignment has been completed, I speak out into the space I have created. "Increase my analyze skill and give me the basic level in NVR defense against such things as scrambling." My voice rings out through the space and I feel the world answers. The vr-dreamscape seems to grow more solid and detailed before my very eyes, and I see and dismiss a notification about my analyze skill increasing.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have learned the Interface skill: Interface Defense at level 1. Interface Defense is a skill which governs your ability to fend of attacks on you via NVRs or attacks on your NVR. Among possible specializations are: Scramble-reflection, Cracking shield, Nanite Therapy

I make a snapping sound with a mouth while imitating a finger snap, as that skill is still beyond me. My analyze skill makes me better at gathering information with the NVR. Knowledge is what I lack the most in this strange new world and as such gaining more knowledge makes me stronger. The second skill increase is similarly obvious as the battle against the skulker taught me. I could not allow such a glaring weakness to remain, as I do not plan to face such an undignified defeat.

Waiting for Tlokbur to feed me the crumbs of knowledge I needed to learn how to defend myself, would be both foolish and wasteful. As my own tenure as a teacher for my new patron have shown, teachers never give their pupil all the knowledge they need. We keep the true secrets close to our chests, as we after all don't want to be surpassed by our pupils. Tlokbur and the others seek to keep me under their thumb, obviously, and as such I need to make strides on my own.

This experiment was the final step in finding a way to realize just that ambition. As I now can spend that time I otherwise would be wasting with meaningless things like sleep, in a truly productive manner. I am a Warlock and know that power comes through pain and sacrifice. This vr-dreamscape would let me practice my skills for hours and become stronger, without none of my compatriots being any wiser. Since, a normal dreamscape does not seem sufficient when it comes to practicing skills I had to try and make it into something more.

"AND I succeeded!" I shout and cackle once more while spinning around in the center of the Hobgoblin Warcamp. Even in my depleted and weakened state, I am still an innovator of all things magical. I don't let the thrill of victory complete me consume me, however. Such displays are permissable in short bursts, but I must focus. Each second wasted would be precious and I am not in the habit of wasting anything.

I shout out the challenge that I will use to train myself over and over and over again for most of this night. "INTERFACE DEFENSE!" The dreamscape shifts oh so subtly, but I feel the command of the interface reverberate through me. "Withstand the scrambling and try to reflect it." That was all the warning I got as a floating eye appeared before me, and my view became slowly consumed by empty interface messages.

The amazing thing about these NVR interfaces is that they have found a way to actually transfer knowledge perfectly to the owner. I would have had no idea how to defend myself against such an assault upon my person only a mere minutes ago, but now I am suddenly aware of how I should block out these foreign signals. I focus my mind on pushing an imaginary wave of sound out around me to drown out the chaos trying to overtake my mind. Soon enough the various meaningless boxes disappear from my view, like plucking eyes out of a prisoners face. The scrambling attempt is still buzzing at me like a subtle flicker in the air, I feel it is there but it does not reach me.

The true difficulty with this challenge comes when I try to reflect the scrambling back on the floating eye that assaults me. It is like learning how to fling hellfire at people, it requires skill and concentration at the novice stage before it can become instinct. Essentially the way to reflect scrambling signals seems to be the reverse of the actual blocking, one must let them come near you but rather than letting the signals be read by your body. One must let the nanites absorb them and spit them back out as it were.

At my neophyte grasp of such talents it becomes clear that it is not condusive for me to use it in a real conflict until I have learned more. As the exercise demands this, however, I slowly drop my ward and try to reflect the scrambling signals. It takes me over twenty attempts and with each one I have to drop my shield more and more, but I do eventually manage to reflect the scrambling back on the eye. The effort and imaginary pain that came through this challenge would have floored a lesser being, but I am better than all. Only moments after it has been completed I command the world to make me go through the challenge again.

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I spend several hours mentally tiring myself out as I force my mind to practice this alien skill through these incomprihensible machines within me. This resolve is born out of pain and experience as much as necessity. Compared to having imps nibble your flesh in the cradle, the pain of mental effort is nothing. I will purge myself of this flaw that I did not know about, I will never be humiliated in that manner again and I will reclaim my station once again. That is the mantra that consumes my very soul as I go through various challenges, again and again and again. Each stumble, each mistake, and each failed challenge is punished by increasing the difficulty of the challenges and repeating that mantra to myself.

The only thing that stops me from continuing this endless sea of challenges is when I feel that I am being watched. I turn to look at an assembled squad of hobgoblins and normally they would have been ignored. Dreamscapes have mindless dream automata in them that only act according to a "script" after all, Oneiromances call them Actors if I recall correctly. But these ones seem different. And my old mages senses combined with the analyze skill confirms it. These hobgoblins are described by NVR as "Lesser Dreamborn", and ignoring that I can feel that tiny specs of eldritch mana seems to be contained in them.

These Dreamborn seem in fact to be somewhat alive, compared to the obvious ephemeral nature of Actors. The strangeness of these creatures makes my abandon my single-minded focus on challenges, and instead approach the Hobgoblins whom I cautiously greet with a raised arm. They mimic the gesture before one of them utters in a rather uncouth accent. "Whatcha doing over there?" The speech is certainly stilted and after I try to engage him and his group in a conversation it becomes clear that while they are not Actors, these Lesser-Dreamborn are far from sapient.

However, I might be able to alter that as the knowledge of how to manipulate the VR-Dreamscape is within me. I stretch out my hands towards the dumb creatures and clap my hands together with a loud boom. My mystical senses are focused on the sparks of mana within them and I am forcing the very surprised hobgoblins to start molding together. My hands form themselves into claws as I push them closer together, and with that effort the hobgoblins cluster closer and closer together. Until their dreamflesh starts bubbling as I forge the now screaming creatures together, I force their manasparks to coalesce into one whole spark and with it their bodies as well.

It takes several minutes of intense concentration but soon enough my efforts are rewarded. Before me stands a massive monstrosity of warped flesh and bone, it's myriad of eyes all looking at me hatefully and with pain radiating from it. My analyze now classifies this as a "Minor Dreamborn", I lift a hand and force it to kneel before me with my mind. "Alive you might be, but your flesh is still constructed from my thoughts and your animating spark comes from the excess of my mana. You are mine and the sooner you accept that, the sooner we can move on to something more productive."

I instinctively feel that this dreamborn is anchored to me in a way normal actors are not, it will stay within my mind as a semi-separate entity until I choose to let it die. Maybe the anchoring is possible because it is partially a construct of my thoughts as well as my nanites? This can be experimented with more in the future, but I am confident that this creature can serve as another layer of defense around my NVR and my mind. It is a crude monster, but I am not some flesh-shaping magus. My monsters do not have to be refined, just effective. In time as I practice this skill I am sure that I can construct more powerful Dreamborn than this flesh-creature, but that practice will have to wait. Defense is of paramount importance to me at present and that has to come before experimenting with the new branch of magic I invented.

Therefore, I turn away from my unnamed monstrosity and once more refocus my attention on training. I fend of the various challenges that the NVR throw at me for many an hour, until my mind is practically begging for release. When even my peerless fortitude cannot manage to overcome the challenges, I let myself float in the VR-Dreamscape until the black cracks of wakefulness breaks through the projection and brings me back to the physical plane.