Chapter 6: The tower of Dreams

A captain explains the theory of gravitation to the young recruits:

"When you throw a stone in the air, it falls back to the ground. That's gravity!"

"What if the stone falls into the water?" asks one soldier.

"In that case, it's no longer of our competence, my boy, it's the navy's problem! "

- Captain Dralen, during the military training of his recruits.

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The group of earthlings followed the soldiers in the lead like a group of tired zombies after a piece of not very fresh meat. Looking carefully Mars would have sworn to see some of them in the lot drooling.

The soldiers who accompanied the group were chatting among themselves, Mars paid attention to what they were saying, because he recognized the name of the person who was the object of the discussion among them, and also because he had nothing better to do.

Soldier number 1 said, "Yeah, it's unbelievable. Rumor has it that Captain Dralen will be accompanying an entire troop of Terrans to defend the front line in two weeks."

Soldier number 2 reacted with surprise "What? Are you really sure?"

Soldier number 1 spoke with some bitterness "Tsk yeah, nothing's for sure, but apparently it's his punishment for offending nobles who have good relations with the royal family the other day, or something like that. I am sure of the information since it was my wife who heard about it from the husband's uncle, from the wife of the butcher's sister, who heard about it from the nephew of a castle guard, who heard about it from the cousin of the Captain's wife himself. Apparently his wife almost strangled him the other day in his house when she heard the news."

Soldier number 3 snorted with disdain, "Uh, are you stupid? What kind of reliability can that kind of information have? Anyway, hasn't Captain Dralen already been demoted twice recently because of similar incidents? Plus he's a war hero, so why would he suddenly be sent to the front lines right now? It doesn't make any sense."

Soldier Number 2 spoke in an angry voice "Shut up, rookie! Never underestimate the reliability of rumors. Anyway it's not surprising, the captain was never someone who was able to hold his tongue properly, so it was inevitable that sooner or later he would offend someone he shouldn't have offended. Anyway, it should be fine, the area around the Bastion has been rather quiet recently Tsk. The captain always says that he is not afraid of anything, but it seems that he is obedient like a child in front of his wife, what a shame. "

Soldier Number 1 laughed, "Hey... you say that, but from what I've heard, you are completely submissive to your wife to the point that she is in charge at home."

Soldier number 2 blushed and defended himself "Fart! I've heard that as soon as your wife raises her voice, you get down on your knees and ask her forgiveness! I bet she can even wipe her feet on you without you even muttering. You limp dick."

Private Number 3 "Hey, isn't that the same thing about the sergeant's wife? Dudes, you act like tough guys but at home you're soft like a lamb., you're so weaks ahahahaha!"

Private number 1 was obviously embarrassed. "Shut up! A guy like you who hangs out in brothels every week can't understand. Women can also be sweet and loving, but behind their angelic appearance there are sometimes scary and manipulative creatures that you can't win against. Logic doesn't work against them, so how are we men supposed to fight? In any case it is not surprising that the Captain always delays his departure every time he comes home. "

Soldier number 3 replied "Hmm? Really?" he replied. My opinion is that we should send the Captain's and Sergeant's wives to command the front lines. If we did, we could easily win this war ahahahaha."

The sergeant, visibly embarrassed to be forced to listen to their chatter commanded them, "Shut up, soldiers! I don't want to hear another word from you on this subject, or else I will arrange for you to be assigned to clean the barracks latrine as soon as we return, and for the next few weeks. Have I made myself clear?"

The three soldiers straightened up and answered in their hearts, "Yes, Sergeant!"

The group arrived in a kind of building dedicated to a large public bath.

Under the soldiers' orders, the whole group rushed to the baths to wash themselves, regardless of gender differences. Mars was one of the few people not wearing any clothes, so he went directly into the public bath.

When Mars saw the reflection of his appearance on the clear water, he felt as if he was seeing another person. His appearance as an old man, exhausted by his misuse of forbidden techniques and the use of many combat drugs, had given way to a healthy and young body. The wounds he had accumulated after years of fighting, or the traces of human experimentation for which he had volunteered to increase his fighting power, had also all disappeared. There were no scars, burns, holes, acid-ravaged flesh, or traces of parts of his body rebuilt by magic. His face was still juvenile, and his hands were soft and tender. There was no calloused skin from exercise, and he was not missing any fingers.

It was the normal body of a young adult who had not yet seen anything of the war.

Even his sacred tool was intact and back. Unfortunately, there were wounds that even miracles could not repair, and the one he had received in this very important place over the past two years was one of them. He almost felt like crying when he looked at himself intact. In some ways, maybe coming back was not such a bad thing after all.

Hm. Had it always been so big?

When he entered the cold water, he hesitated before closing his eyes and relaxing. His mind was full of questions.

Why had the time crossing ritual been successful? Did Aleria know that it would be Mars that would be sent back to the past when she started the ritual? Or was it all an accident? Some kind of unfortunate stroke of luck?

Whatever the answers, he had made his decision.

Since this girl was responsible for him being sent back here, it was logical that the responsibility of saving this world would fall to her. So since she had tried so hard to go back in time to try to save this world, it made sense to let her go on this impossible quest.

He would go to her and share all his memories with her and what he knew about the future, down to the last detail.

He would share with her what he knew about future magical and alchemical technologies and magical engineering. He would even give her everything he knew about the forbidden and secret techniques that the different kingdoms and orders had finally deigned to share together when it became clear that they could no longer afford to keep secrets from each other.

For most of them his knowledge was only basic and fragmentary, but Aleria would be quite capable of bringing together all the best scientists, engineers, sorcerers, and various experts in everything and anything to find out.

With that she should be able to do something, even if Mars honestly doubted that it would change anything at the end of this war.

Once that was done, it would no longer concern him, and then he would be free to do what he wanted: live a comfortable life!

So when this world is destroyed, no one will be able to say that he didn't do his best to help this world.

A bell rang indicating the end of the bath for the earthlings. The group was guided out of the baths, and they were arranged in a line before being quickly and roughly inspected.

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Those who had clothes more or less suitable for combat would be allowed to put on their clothes again: that is to say, all those who were dressed in more than just shorts, bathing shorts, underwear, a thin dress and other fancy clothes.

The others were measured one by one, so that they could be given rustic clothes, made of rigid fabric and was solid. On closer inspection, Mars could see that many of the clothes and leather boots among those distributed were worn out or had suspicious small reddish-black stains. The majority of them must have been recovered from dead bodies.

Tsk, wearing the clothes of a dead person is something that brings bad luck.

The recycled clothing he had been given did not fit him very well. The donated clothes seemed to come in only two sizes, one size too big, and one size too small, and to make matters worse, the stiff, rough fabric was obnoxiously uncomfortable, almost as if it had been woven with red ants. He already wanted to take that shit off.

Maybe surviving wearing this kind of clothing was part of some kind of test to harden the minds of the future soldiers to whom it was given?

But at least he wasn't the only one affected by the misfortune of wearing this uniform, since all those like him who had arrived here at a bad time had the honor of being given the same kind of clothes.

Dressed in a mixture of earthly and medieval clothing, the motley group was sent to the barracks to be guides at the Tower of Dreams, so that they could endure their military training.

Several times along the way, Mars tried to break mind control spells when he was on the way so that he could attack someone and steal their clothes, but unfortunately, he was unable to do so.

Their group arrived in front of the four-storey barracks made of wood and brick before going through its wooden doors and entering the room that could easily accommodate their group.

In the center of the room, a sturdy, silver-haired man of sturdy build stood on the dusty floor. As he watched the group enter, the man stood up.

One of the soldiers greeted him and handed him a report that the man did not even pretend to read before he carelessly threw it back to the soldier and then turned to the group of earthlings.

Mars remembered this face, this man had been the captain who had led his group to defend a stronghold in charge of controlling the western zone a few days' march from the town of Kalar, the town where he was now.

He was going to guide them to the Tower of Dreams, the place where they were going to undergo a hellish training. There, they were going to receive the curse of Narkasum, which gave them the power to absorb souls in order to strengthen themselves, as well as receive appropriate military training.

The old man walked towards them with a jaded look on his face and spoke aloud. "Welcome to the army, Earthlings! I am Dralen, the one who will be in charge of the group of wimps you are when you come out of the Tower, if you survive... *cough*, so listen to my words! If you have a question then don't ask it! Well, not if like most of you could anyway, shit, why was I chosen to do this? Rubbing nettles on my ass would have been faster... * uh * Anyway, follow me! "

This guy was exactly the same as he remembered.

Transmitting orders to the soldiers, he had the group of docile earthlings put in an orderly line, and once satisfied with what he saw, they left the barracks together to go to the Tower of Dreams.

The tower was not far from the barracks. It looked like a hexagonal tower of turquoise crystalline stone that rose very high, probably a hundred meters, perhaps even higher.

All around it, a staircase was dug in the crystalline rock and which led to the top of the tower, where a portal was located that allowed to enter the world of dreams to which the tower was connected in a very special way.

As he climbed the tower, Mars remembered for the first time in a long time what it was like to have the body of a normal earthling who spent too much time in front of a computer. And the truth was that he felt weak as shit since only a few hundred steps were enough to bring him almost to his knees and make him want to faint.

Finally when they reached the top of the tower, Dralen urged the group to line up about ten meters in front of the gate.

The gate looked like what any video game player or fantasy film lover could have imagined. A kind of hole in reality itself was floating in the air in front of them, from which a golden, ethereal mist was coming out, and when some of the volutes of mist touched, his body seemed to become warm and deliciously light.

Through the portal, one could see scenes related to another world, while the surroundings of the portal itself blurred and seemed to transform reality into something else. On the top of the tower itself, lines of light came together and intertwined, drawing magical patterns to form a glittering pattern that seemed almost alive.

The image reminded him of the portals in the Diablo series of games he had played when he was a teenager.

Mars remembered the Tower of Dreams well. It allowed him to experience dreams as real and concrete as reality.

And it was also the answer to a question a fan of fantasy worlds might have asked himself: Could Earthlings be thrown headlong into a war as soon as they arrived?

An the answer was: Of course not, you dirty noob!

There was no universe where citizens accustomed to peace and living in a comfortable world could have made skilled soldiers, even with some powers to help them. To be able to immediately manage the omnipresent psychological weight in a fight to the death?

Watching a horror movie or playing a horror video game was no preparation for facing creatures from mankind's worst nightmares .It was simply comfortable entertainment, having your ass comfortably seated on a fucking couch, while eating snacks with a soda, a beer, or whatever.

He hardly knew anyone who hadn't pooped his pants during his first dream. As for those who said they hadn't (like him), he suspected they had lied (like him,). That was how bad the situation had been.

The Tower of Dreams was the ideal place. It was almost like some kind of magical and infernal virtual reality center, straight out of the craziest and cruelest fantasies. It was possible to die permanently inside dreams, but with that risk came opportunity. That of acquiring souls, and acquiring enough of them to gain superhuman strength, which also meant having a better chance of surviving on the battlefield.

The first time he had understood the situation Mars had found it stupid. After all, wasn't it smarter to send cannon fodder to die on the front lines than to lose manpower in training? It was better to die killing an enemy, than to die during training.

But apparently it hadn't been that simple. The souls of the Earthlings were so weak, that most of them would have died just by looking at a demon, even from a distance. And for those who survived, most would have gone mad. And in both cases it was obvious that everything would have been for nothing.

One of the real interests of the curse of Narkasum, was not simply that it allowed becoming stupidly powerful by absorbing the souls of the defeated creatures of evil. Rather, it was about strengthening the soul. Also, when demons captured the soul of a cursed one, they could not absorb the power of the captured soul. Or just a very small part of it. So no matter how many of them would die, they would not strengthen the powers of their enemies. So they could be sent to the front lines without anyone having to worry about the consequences.

This place was nothing less than a giant magic factory to mass-produce skilled, disposable soldiers from civilians accustomed to a lifestyle far too comfortable to sustain a world like the one they now lived in.

Dralen took a few steps forward to face the center of the group and lit up his voice a bit before starting what Mars knew was a very... special little pep talk.

The gray-haired man walked a few steps forward to face the center of the group and lit up his voice a bit before starting what Mars knew was a little homemade pep talk. "Well, listen to me. All of you are destined to be the defenders of this world, but right now you're nothing but a bunch of useless, good-for-nothing poop. In other words, wimps and slugs. Go into battle as you are now, and you wouldn't even be needed for a diversion. That's how bad you are. To the enemy, you would be nothing more than an opportunity to have a good meal."

"But there is hope for you. Luckily, before you put a toe on a war field, where you have no chance of surviving, so there's no need to tire yourself unnecessarily *hum*, you can learn how to keep yourself alive in an a-l-m-o-s-t safe environment! Well, most of you guys aren't coming back alive anyway, so don't worry abou.. oh shit, that's not what I was supposed to say! Huh.. what lie am I supposed to tell them to encourage them already? oh right! *mh* In short! When your miserable buttocks are confronted with the greatest fears of your existence, you will have the opportunity to learn how to become competent warriors".

"Fight and persevere and before long you'll be able to do something other than scream like a soft rag, pass out from shitting and peeing on yourself, or just run away in all the ingenious and creative ways I expect you to do. Except maybe you! Look at that big gut you're dragging. What are you? A dripping lump of butter melting on the floor? For you, it's clear that you won't be able to run. Your only hope will probably be to curl up in a ball and trying to choke your enemies to death.. *mh* Anyway! Be more than just scum. Be strong! Clench your teeth and endure the pain, my boys! Well, you'll understand what I'm talking about once you're inside."

Throwing a stern look, the man stuck a finger in his nose, before taking out a huge booger, and throwing it as if nobody had seen anything, almost as if to lie to the gravity of his words.

"Yet it won't be without effort for the heap of scoundrels with weak noodle arms that you are, surviving is rather difficult, you know? So I'm going to give you a piece of advice. Don't give up! Even if in your case, abundant use of prayer will be frankly indispensable... *mh* When the time comes, death is inevitable! But if you give up, then you will die for sure, and not frankly in the best of ways. "

The instructor let out a big fart and acted as if everything was normal, before continuing his disheartening speech.

This guy really knows how to put someone at ease.

"Oh, so let me tell you one last thing. You quickly realize that your lives will be very different from the one you knew before. Shout, scream, cry, and call your mom's name as much as you need to, but keep your courage up! And then maybe you can survive, okay? Come back alive, is your only mission! All right! Pray the gods to have mercy on you!"

Like all other Earthlings, Mars advanced through the portal.

Finally, it was time to kill a few things and have some fun.