At that point, it didn't even come across as a surprise; in fact, Dream had grown too used to it. So much so that his mind had registered it as normal: "My luck is nothing short of terrible." If it were a status in his favorite tabletop game, it would be one of those highly negative debuffs that no lucky roll could recover from.
First, he had to deal with those BoomWingers he didn't have any business dealing with, only to realize there was nothing to gain from battling them. Then, he went through so much trouble to survive the army of BoomWingers, depleting all his reserves of prana just to take down their queen, only to have her detonate before his eyes. He was left with literally no gain, except for wasting his time, prana, odo, and energy.
“It's so annoying just to think about it,” Dream complained as he ran in the middle of the night, occasionally glancing behind him at several fluctuating threads.
From the variation in the darkness and clarity of the gray hellscape, Dream could tell that three days had passed since he awakened from his slumber. It had been three days since he saw his hope of acquiring such a powerful-looking aspect explode before his very eyes, without any chance of salvaging it.
After what happened that day, Dream quickly came to the conclusion that lingering over the loss wouldn't make his situation anywhere better, so he decided to advance further north, trying, for a time, to avoid encounters with monsters, as he had just emptied his reserve of prana—the fuel for his elementalis, his main weapon—to defeat that Boomwinger [Queen] for literally nothing.
Trying to cheer himself up and trying to make up for that mishap, as soon as he recovered enough prana, Dream went to seek out monsters to defeat. Specifically, he was looking for monsters that, like the Boomwingers, wielded the lesser aspect [Photomorphism]. To his not-so-much surprise, he didn't find any of those. Instead, he often stumbled upon awakened beasts and enlightened beasts that wielded lesser aspects he already possessed, namely [Aquamorphism] and [Cryomorphism], just like the creatures that were currently giving chase to Dream.
Sensing one of the several threads following him fluctuating vividly, suggesting that something beyond the fog was closing in, Dream turned around, knowing that there was no worse position than having one's back open for an opponent to freely launch an attack.
As soon as he turned around, his gaze locked with crimson eyes, situated two dozen meters away, staring right back at him, as a hissing sound rang in the air. The owner of those eyes rapidly started closing in on him.
"Tsk," Dream grumbled.
Skill: [ Aspect ]
Aquamorphism
[Morphogenesis]
40
With a decisive stop onto the ground, Dream connected with the earth beneath him and melded it through his skill. The soft ground beneath the creature's path began to tremble, and next, he manipulated the earth, turning it into runny mud.
The creature’s momentum faltered as its belly sank into the muddy trap Dream had cunningly set. Struggling to free itself, it hissed in frustration, its crimson eyes narrowing with anger as its body sank deeper and deeper into the mud the more it fought back. But Dream wasn't done yet.
Skill: [ Aspect ]
Cryomorphism
[Morphogenesis]
40
With a swift motion of his hands, Dream skillfully manipulated the earth he had turned into mud, freezing it with ice and trapping the lizard within. The lizard's scaly body wriggled and twisted within the frozen mud, its attempts to break free growing more desperate with each passing moment, until it came to a halt as the mud froze completely.
Seeing the result, the beginning of a smile appeared on Dream’s face. That’s right, after his bitter failure two days ago, aside from dedicating his time to defeating monsters, Dream had also started working on his newly acquired power, "aspects," or as it was easier for him to call it, “skills”.
Compared to his pranakinesis, which was fair to say, his current greatest asset, allowing him to control up to two main elementalis —electro and aero— "skill" allowed him to access elements that, while through a very different approach from the one it should be through pranakinesis, should be out of his reach as a mage in the first place .
.
Skills
Aspect
Lesser Aspect
W.P
Nexus System
⥈
⥈
Morphogenesis
Aquamorphism
0.2
0.4
Cryomorphism
0.2
From the look of it, a lot was leading him to think that there was much more to [Morphogenesis] than just these two lesser aspects. And that was just a single aspect; he was well aware that there were likely other aspects wielded by much stronger monsters, granting them the ability to alter elements, reality and who knows maybe one day maybe even the laws that binds reality. The potential of arcane with just this and what he had seen thus far was endless, and Dream could tell that the potential of arcane was boundless.
It was boundless but for now it was quite limited, as proved by the struggle shown by the lizard-like awakened beast escaping Dream’s prison of ice. With an ear-piercing screech, the frozen mud around the creature began to crack and shatter. The ice, once so solid and impenetrable, was no match for the creature's immense power. The ground shook as the awakened lizard-like beast thrashed within its icy prison, its fury fueling the strength to break free.
Name
H.P
P.P
Threat
Lizardon Lvl.3
7/12
512
Fiend
“Ah, crap.” Extending his arm toward the seething snake, Dream conjured his electro-elementalis.
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[ Electro ]
Apprentice
Thunderspear Lvl.3
71
With a surge of power, he released [Thunderspear]. The spear of lightning shot forth like a bolt of pure energy, racing toward the Frostcoil with deadly precision. The Frostcoil's eyes widened as it sensed the impending danger. It attempted to evade the attack, but the Thunderspear moved with uncanny speed, piercing through the creature's dark scales and impaling it with a resounding crack.
On top of leaving a large hole in the Frostcoil’s body, Dream’s thunder spear sent an electrifying surge of power coursing through the Frostcoil's form, causing it to convulse and writhe in agony as it lived its last instants. With each passing second, the Frostcoil's struggles grew weaker and weaker until it finally lay still.
Standing there, Dream took a deep breath, refraining from making a move toward the defeated awakened beast. Instead, he focused his attention on the three other threads he saw fluctuating vigorously amidst the foggy surrounding. From within the mist, he once again heard a hissing sound coming from where the Frostcoil had come from. Staring in that general direction, Dream’s keen eyes caught sight of crimson red eyes staring at him.
“Another three, huh?” Dream confidently mumbled. “Let’s get this done then.”
***
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Synergy initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Synergy completed.
Dream stood amidst the corpse of the lizard-like awakened beasts.
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Absorption initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Absorption completed.
The next instant their corpses vanished into thin air.
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Integration initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Integration completed.
[ Nexus Alert]
Awakened Beasts Consumed
H.P▲
P.P▲
9.89
485
Watching how much Prana Potential has improved, Dream smiled at the gain he had made from his battle against the Lizardon. Dream smiled, but as happy as he was with the results, he made sure not to linger in this place and continued his journey south.
Name
H.P
P.P
O.P
O.M.P
A.P
Level
Dream
107▲/108▲
887▲/1652
187/438▲
41.7▲
278▲
16
“This is quite the upgrade,” Dream noted cheerfully, as he skimmed through his stats. “Having reached this level, I should be in a position where I'll be able to cast novice-ranked mantras.”
Mantra
[ Aero ]
[ Electro ]
Rank
Name [Tier]
Rank
Name [Tier]
Initiate
Air Gust [1-5]
Wind Whip [1-5]
Aerial Clutch [1-5]
Gust Surge [1-5]
Air Blade [1-5]
Gust Wall [1-5]
Initiate
Flash [1]
Spark [1-5]
Slithering Bolts [1-5]
Apprentice
Gust Barrier [1-5]
Wind Fury [1-5]
Wind Cutter [1-5]
Gust Barrier [1-5]
Unrelenting Wave [1-5]
Apprentice
Thunderspear [1-5]
Acolyte
Wind Shield [1-5]
Unrelenting Surge [1-5]
Wind Blitz [1-5]
Gale Blade [1-5]
Acolyte
Lightning Fall [1-10]
Novice
Hurricane Slash [1]
Wind Fortress [1]
Unnamed Mantra [1-16]
Novice
Lightning Rain [1]
Slithering Strikes [1-11]
Thunderstrike [1-11]
Lightning Torrent [1-16]
Aside from the four ranks that were already available for Dream to cast, there were nine other attainable ranks within his reach. The only requirement for him to register or establish an elementalis stunt as a mantra was the amount of prana potential in his possession – precisely half of his Prana Potential for each newly ranked tier. Regardless of tiers or ranks, his strongest mantra would cost exactly, or at least less than half of his current Prana Potential – that was a rule of thumb Suraxai had established for him, and one that the Nexus's tiering system systematically abided by.
No matter how ridiculously potent or feeble the mantra Dream conjured, as long as half of his overall prana potential was enough to cast it, he could do so. This was the only limit to his pranakinesis, in other words, it all depended on himself.
But it wasn't as if there was no way to address this limitation – not that it was necessarily a problem. The only way, albeit both easy and tedious, to overcome this was to grind and defeat more awakened beasts, absorbing their potential. While this wouldn't change the fact that his strongest spell would always be the equivalent of half his prana potential, it would certainly grant him access to more high-tiered mantras, in other words, more powerful attacks.
***
From the look of it, as he ventured deeper southward into these lands, he noticed an increasing abundance of those dead, bony trees. It seemed that the place used to be a forest or something along those lines, but somehow ended up being nothing but a gray, barren hellscape.
“Is this the doing of a monster or something?” Dream found himself muttering.
Just as he did, he heard a high-pitched shriek. Dream raised his head toward the gray layer fogging the entire area. The first shriek was followed by several others, suggesting the presence of not just one, but rather a flockful of them above the gray fog. Less than half a minute later, the shrieks ceased, returning the area to silence, which, in spite of the said silence, was nothing short of ominous.
Dream declared to himself, “The quicker I get from this place, the better I will be,” as he remembered the fate of the gigantic Sloth-like Awakened Beast.
Alternatively, he also noticed that the deeper he ventured, the bigger the monsters became. So much so that on many occasions, he was forced to avoid direct confrontation and opt for a safer option, which happened to be dealing with Awakened Beasts.
With the Skyshriekers ruling the sky, the Boomwingers he encountered, and several highly threatening enlightened beasts whose stats and tendency to work not individually but as a group required him to spend extra effort on avoiding them, Dream came to understand that while it wasn't an absolute case, enlightened beasts tended to be at the top of the food chain, preying upon awakened beasts—A tendency that he also picked up.
“As they say, preying upon the weak is the surefire recipe for becoming a buff powerhouse!” Dream declared out loud, only to sigh in resignation at the silence he was met with. “While it sounded good, though, I really need to stop that bad habit of talking to myself as if there were someone to ans—”
The ground suddenly started shaking beneath him. Interrupting himself mid-sentence, Dream glanced around, trying to make sense of the sudden tremor.
Before he could react, a series of loud shrieks echoed across the entire place. He recognized the distinctive sound as that of a Mawcrawler, but what puzzled him was that it didn't sound like just one but rather several of them.
He was still too far away to determine which of the many threads he was connected to belonged to the Mawcrawlers. But he could tell the general direction from where the sounds came.
“Do I go or avoid it?” For a moment, he hesitated, uncertainty gnawing at him. But he knew deep down that he couldn't resist investigating. “It's ahead anyway, it can’t be helped then. And if it's something I can't defeat, I can always run away, like a coward,” Dream decided, bolstering his resolve as he rushed toward the source of the shrieks, which for some reasons, abruptly came to an end.
As he cautiously observed the threads, he didn't see any showing particular fluctuations, except for three threads that disappeared. It could only mean one thing – those threads belonged to the Mawcrawlers, suggesting that they had been defeated, their HP brought down to a level below zero.
In that moment, Dream wanted to come to a halt, but his curiosity drove him onward. He found a cover behind another of the many dead trees, peering ahead with wide eyes. The being that stood there, up ahead, was unlike anything he had encountered before. It was a creature of nightmarish proportions. Muttering, once again, to himself, "What the hell is that," Dream couldn't help but whisper in awe at the gigantic creature.