Nico woke up in a strange place. The sun beating down on him, the first sunlight he felt in ages. Green curtains swayed with a gentle breeze that smelled of something Nico had never experienced. His hands dug into wet ground, and the surroundings whistled, clicked, and creaked.

“I made it.” Nico said aloud. His mind was a clutter of emotions, but the most prominent one was pride. He had made it to the dream realm. A pang of guilt ruined the moment. Riollo would soon return to find his brother lying in blood. Nico discarded the thought and sat up.

Real trees. That was all he could think of. Not the synthetic and imitations, but real ones. Nico crawled forward and felt the bark. The rough surface. This was nothing like his first nightmare.

Nico was on a barren island, his first nightmare, with only a cave. Nico spent days exploring and readying himself before taking on the island's inhabitants. His fights in the slums proved their worth in gold, and he survived.

Nico summoned his runes and studied his aspect, something he never did since he woke up.

Name: Nicollo

True Name: ----

Rank: Dreamer

Core: Dormant.

Shards: 1/1000

Memories: [Suppressing Cross][Lustrous Mirror]

Echoes: ----

Attributes: [One path]

Aspect: Beast Tamer

Aspect rank: Awakened

Aspect description: [A lonely soul that longs to adventure. Such a person needs servants.]

Aspect ability: [Echo Harvest]

Aspect Ability description: [You gain an echo for each creature you slay stronger than yourself]

Flaw: [Weak Body]

Flaw description: [Your body is weak.]

Nico grimaced from reading his flaw and moved on.

[Suppressing Cross]: Charm

[A once proud priest banished the power of a Daemon with this cross, so you too will use it to suppress evil]

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Lawful binding: [You are not strong enough to use this memory.]

[Lustrous Mirror]

[A mirror that shines brightly]

[one path]

[When your fire of determination is still lit, luck will be with you]

Nico pushed his shaky body up, and balanced himself. The whole jungle congratulated him with noise, and he began to walk.

The forest was a myriad of colors, smells, and sounds. Nothing here was artificial. Nico past, tree after tree, feeling smooth and rough bark, round and sharp leaves. The jungle was a massive maze. Nico listened, trying to hear water. That was his priority. A dead dreamer can dream any longer.

Suddenly a branch snapped. Nico turned too fast and tripped on his own legs. The largest monkey he’d ever seen came bolting through the jungle. Nico tensed and his already sweating body, sweated more. But the ape didn’t give Nico a glance and ran right past him.

If that thing is running… Nico got up as fast as he could and hid behind a tree. That monster was at least an awakened beast, what could make it flee like that? Nico got his answer.

His lungs burned, and his body trembled. He fell to the ground, trying to breathe, but every breath made it worse. He clawed at the ground trying to move, but the air in his body was attacking his insides. Nico convulsed and thrashed. The whole area was clouded, either his eyes were failing or a fog had descended onto the forest. He spotted a break in the trees, at least fifty feet away.

‘For the love of’ Nico pushed himself up. Nico ran for the first time in ages. Nico fell, breaking his arm and rolled onto rocks. Then Nico laid there, trying to breathe. Nico felt around with his arms. He was on a bed of rocks, smooth, and numerous.

‘River rocks,’ the gas must have affected his senses, since he couldn’t see or hear clearly, but he felt around until his hand touched the water. Nico lifted water to his mouth and drank, soothing the burning in his body. He coughed, drank, and coughed.

Something exhaled, and bared its teeth.

“Can you not give me a minute?” The ape said no in a grunt and reached his hands out. Sparks flew, and a memory melded itself into existence. Nico raised the mirror towards the ape and closed his eyes. His eyes picked up a little bit of light from behind his eyelids. Nico opened them, and the ape was roaring, and swinging violently. Nico rolled, his muscles telling him to stop.

Grabbing a rock, he threw it at the beast. It bounced harmlessly off the ape’s hide, and the ape turned, his eyes still disoriented.

‘Crap’ Nico threw another in the opposite direction, and the ape ran over and smashed the ground with its fists. ‘I can’t beat this thing.’ Even if his body was normal, this was an awakened beast, he was just a sleeper. He slowly pushed his legs into the water, then his torso. He’d crawl away with the water covering his movements.

‘Stand and fight’ Nico stopped. The whole point of this was to get stronger. He looked back at the ape, who was beginning to recover his sight.

‘Let's do this.”

Nico put his leg under him and lifted his body out of the water. The ape heard this and turned its head, locking eyes with Nico.

‘Come get me’ The ape ran furiously and swung its arm. Nico grabbed it and used the

force to propel him away. His back protested with this plan, and responded by sending pain up his spine. The ape stalked over, heaving with anger. Nico limped up and was able to stand. The ape was two heads taller than him. An awakened beast on one side, and a forest of deadly fog on the other. Talk about a rock and a hard place.

The ape bared its teeth in a cruel smile and reached out, ready to rip him in half. Nico threw a rock at its face, aggravating it more, and it stepped forward to hug him to death. Nico fell out of the way, and flashed the ape with his mirror. The ape tried to turn around, but Nico tackled it, knocking the off balanced ape to the ground. The ape thrashed and Nico found a stick to shove in its eye. Another roar.

Nico couldn’t hold his breath and the painful burning started. They both lost the strength to fight and succumbed to the jungle fog.

[You have slain awakened beast ‘Steel Back Ape’]

[You Aspect has extracted an echo] That was the last thing Nico heard.