Chapter 80: "I looks like it hurts" System Girl
As Night sat cross-legged on a mat in the middle of the huge training hall, the others looked at him nervously.
After they had explored the Nightmare Castle to their heart’s content, Night said there was something important he needed to do and came directly to the training hall. Incredibly curious, they all followed him.
They had briefly used the System Shop to purchase some small decorations, new clothes and some daily utilities; the soft training mat was one of them.
The training hall was fully sealed with no windows, and even the heavy double doors were made of some kind of strong soundproof metal.
The vast hall was brightly lit by dozens of embedded mana lights.
The group watched from afar as Night sat quietly.
[Dream]’s voice echoed in his mind. "Such a lovely house. I wish I could take a closer look," she mused, making Night’s eye twitch.
System Girl chimed in. "Ahem... [Dream], I think you should start."
[Dream] scoffed lightly. "Tsk, yeah, yeah..."
"Night, we will now be officially awakening the Dream Aspect in you by utilizing my Records. You will need to come inside the soul space for this."
Immediately, Night’s consciousness was pulled into his soul space. He could clearly see the thick purple fog gently blanketing his dark [Nightmare Domain].
Standing gracefully beside him before he could ask, [Dream] said, "It is a necessary part of the process. During the awakening, I will be flooding my Dream Mist directly into your main body and trying to force it to evolve in a very particular direction. This foundational step is necessary if you wish to begin cultivating using my personal Cultivation Techniques."
"There will also be many other benefits. One of them will be that you will finally be able to use the full potential of your personal System Girl," she added, giving a teasing look to System Girl, which made the younger girl fidget nervously.
Night asked, puzzled, "Cultivation Techniques?"
[Dream] realized her oversight. "Ah, I forgot you don’t actually know about the two Paths, right?"
Night was even more puzzled. "Two paths?"
She waved her elegant hand, and three plush purple chairs magically appeared. As they sat down, [Dream] crossed her right ankle over her left, leaned back comfortably and explained, "There are two ways to reach the peak of the cosmos. One is the Immortal Path and the other is the Divine Path."
Night was suddenly very excited. "The Immortal Path?" In the inherited memories of Levi Rose, there were ancient stories about characters who were called Immortals. They pursued ultimate strength by defying the heavens and performed all sorts of miraculous feats.
"Yes," [Dream] nodded. "It is actually pretty similar to what you currently have in mind."
"What do I have to do to walk this path, then?" Night asked, highly motivated.
"It’s relatively simple in theory. You really just need to be able to sense and gather Qi using a proper technique, all of which you can now do easily with the fundamental changes I have already made to your physical body."
Night raised his eyebrows. "Changes?"
It wasn’t just my Race that was changed? he thought.
"Yes," [Dream] confirmed. "Previously, your main body, the [Nightmare Domain] automatically made sure to completely absorb anything that came into contact with your physical shell."
"So, any natural energy you absorbed was instantly and transformed into EV by your cheat. Now, I have fixed this issue. You will finally be able to properly cultivate Qi with this body."
"The other path is the Divine Path, which requires no active techniques. Both of these paths have existed since the very creation of the cosmos. Traditionally, these paths were more available to worlds situated closer to the center of the universe. The same goes for universes located closer to the center of the cosmos."
"But with the System’s arrival, the Divine Path became available to all Awakeners. What everyone on calls the ’Evolution Path’ is literally just the Divine Path in disguise."
Night summarized, "So, I have been walking this Divine Path up until now and after I start to cultivate, I will be walking the Immortal Path." Night then asked unsurely, "Won’t there be any internal conflict?"
"Yes, there will definitely be a conflict," [Dream] admitted easily.
Night looked at her blankly, as if asking: Then why the hell would I cultivate?!
( ￣ー￣ )
[Dream] held up two fingers. "There are two main reasons. One is that it will drastically increase your foundational strength. The second is that at the higher levels, unlike what you might think, there are significantly fewer people at the top."
"The System currently gives you levels for securing kills, right? But what happens when there is nothing left to kill? Or when the remaining enemies are far too difficult to kill? Well, you can always fall back and cultivate the Immortal Path later, but it is vastly better to start building the foundation early, especially for you, now that you finally have a proper, stable body to cultivate it with."
"As for the internal conflict between the two energies, if you are careful, it shouldn’t happen. Besides, that’s exactly what she is here for," [Dream] said, pointing a thumb at System Girl.
System Girl proudly patted her small chest. "I will ensure you don’t face any troubles and can cultivate in peace!"
ᕙ( ˘▽˘ )ᕗ
"The good thing for you is that you already have the [Body Modification] skill, which will aid in rapidly improving your physical body and making it almost indestructible if the correct cultivate it correctly. So, you will have to spend significantly less time painfully tempering the body manually," [Dream] explained.
Night didn’t understand the intricate details of everything right now, but he felt that as he progressed on this path, all these concepts would eventually become crystal clear.
[Dream] stood up gracefully. "Let’s begin."
Right before she started, she added one last warning: "I possess the [Dream Soul Physique], which might bring some unpredictable changes, so don’t be worried. Everything is completely under control."
She confidently assured Night.
As [Dream] raised her hand, the thick purple mist directly onto the dark [Nightmare Domain].
All of a sudden, Night felt insanely itchy all over his body and the incredibly annoying thing was that he was unable to figure out exactly where to scratch.
He watched as his [Nightmare Domain] finally showed a physical reaction. It aggressively tried to push back the invading purple mist, only to fail miserably.
Night’s lips twitched as he watched the one-sided struggle. I thought my main body would be overpowered, but this is just too pathetic, even if the opponent is a former Goddess.
Suddenly, changing tactics, the [Nightmare Domain] tried to devour the invading purple mist. It successfully managed to absorb some of it, but instead of the mist being fully digested and destroyed, it actively merged with the black fog, turning the Domain blackish-purple color.
The annoying, itchy feeling Night felt instantly disappeared.
Next, the [Nightmare Domain], clearly not knowing what else to do pulled in Night’s direction. Night who didn’t know how to properly respond; since it was technically his true body, his mental avatar was forcefully dragged directly into it.
As his consciousness merged flawlessly with the [Nightmare Domain] for the very first time, he suddenly sensed everything from its vast perspective.
It was a wondrous sensation.
Deep inside himself, he felt many distinct things. One was the dissolved remains of the Level 62 Devil’s body, another was the corpses of many Winged Bison and finally, there was a particularly annoying wind that kept swimming restlessly within him, treating his Domain as if it were a lake.
What is this? Night wondered.
[Dream]’s voice echoed, "That must be the Spirit Wind of Desolation. It must have escaped The Ghost’s body right before he was completely eaten by that rune."
Speaking of runes, at the center of his Domain, he saw a weird, ethereal black plant. It was a tiny sapling with two black leaves, possessing small, wriggling roots that moved constantly as it floated in the Nightmare Domain.
Coiling tightly around the tiny plant was a small, glowing white snake that looked awfully similar to the Ouroboros image he had seen right after The Ghost was executed.
[Dream], reading his thoughts again, explained, "That tiny plant is your actual Core. The Ouroboros snake is not a real, living snake; it looks like a remnant of a one-time-use Divine Skill. Even I am not able to understand exactly what it does, but its aura feels incredibly ancient."
Night clicked his tongue. "Tsk. I understand one mystery and five more appear."
"What do I do now?" Night asked out loud.
"Just try to absorb more of my Dream Mist. I’ll handle the rest of the fusion process," [Dream] instructed.
Night then actively tried to replicate the devouring sensation he had felt whenever the [Nightmare Domain] automatically devoured those corpses, and it actually worked!
And because it was his conscious mind actively guiding the process, the absorption rate was much faster.
He didn’t feel the itchy sensation anymore, probably because his Domain had already successfully assimilated some of the Dream Mist’s properties.
As he rapidly devoured the Dream mist, the purple color became more and more prominent within the black fog.
After some time, half of the surrounding Dream Mist had been fully devoured.
His [Nightmare Domain] now looked half-black and half-purple. The devouring process came to a sudden halt, his Domain had finally faced the problem of having a ’full stomach’ for the very first time.
"Now, fully your Core. It is time for the final step," [Dream].
Not knowing how, Night focused his will and mentally tried to split the thick fog, acting much like Moses splitting the Red Sea in the Old Testament.
Upon [Dream]’s command, the remaining half of the Dream Mist immediately rushed toward the small floating plant. Sensing something intrusive approaching, the plant frantically tried to escape, but all it managed to do was shake its two small leaves.
As all of the remaining Dream Mist tightly gathered around the core like a cocoon, the [Nightmare Domain], unable to hold its split form any longer, snapped back to its previous shape, only this time, all of the Dream Mist was trapped securely inside it.
[Dream] then looked down at this and said with a sweet smile, "I look like an ’old model’, right?"
Night froze. Uh... where did that come from?
Sensing something was amiss, Night immediately shook his head frantically. "What do you mean?! You are easily the most beautiful woman I have ever seen!"
[Dream]’s smirk widened dangerously. "A woman? Not a ’girl’?"
"No..." Night backpedaled, really not liking where this was going. "What I mean is, look at me! I am so small! To a kid like me, even a teenage girl is a respectable woman!"
[Dream]’s eyes flashed. "Liar." She then raised her hand. "I am afraid this next step will hurt."
Night stammered, terrified. "Ho.... how much?" For a former Goddess to warn him about pain, especially after reading his memories and knowing exactly how absurd his pain tolerance was...
[Dream] giggled darkly. "How would an ’old woman’ like me know?"
"Wha– AAAAAAHHHH!" Before Night could speak any further...
It happened.
All of the Dream Mist forced its way into the small plant at once.
All he felt was pure unadulterated agony. It was so much pain that he almost lost consciousness...
AAAAAAHHHHHHH!
His piercing screams violently rang out across the entire soul space.
...
Outside in the Training Hall
The summons watched in wonder as Night meditated peacefully as beautiful black and purple mist dancing elegantly around his still body.
Death spoke her thoughts aloud, gripping her scepter. "Awww... look at Master meditating so peacefully. It’s so soothing to watch."
"Look at those gentle tears of pure bliss falling from his eyes! I wish I could meditate so deeply," she added dreamily.
The others nodded in agreement.
...
Inside the Soul Space
System Girl looked worried as Night thrashed and screamed. "It looks like it really hurts..."
[Dream] looked down at the screaming boy, her right eye twitching slightly.
"Really? I couldn’t tell..."
( ⇀_⇀ )