Chương 29: 28. Walking in Dream Mist

I expected to be mocked upon the return to the pool. Instead, I got a bunch of angry glares. No one was in a positive mood, not even to the point of insulting me. Sebastian remained sitting in his inflatable boat in the middle of the pool. The others weren't. It was also of note that the remaining boats were missing. A short distance from the pool, I caught Marcus' glance. He was definitely displeased about something, although I got the impression that it wasn't me. There was no sign of Eleonor, though.

Come to think of it, I couldn't remember seeing the goth girl ever since the trial began.

"Look who crawled back," Sebastian said loudly enough to convey his message.

"Are we good enough for you now?" I looked at him. According to Harlequin's Sight, he was in possession of seven card types. Most of them were laughably weak, though when it came to numbers, I suspected him to be the day's winner.

"Better than getting eaten by a blade snake," I deliberately said the creature's name wrong.

"Did you wake it up?" The corners of the man's mouth curved up in the semblance of a smile. He had taken this as a compliment, just as I suspected he might. People like him were all the same.

"Not this time. I guess you're not completely stupid to seek strength in numbers. There's still the matter of the toll, though." Of course, there was.

"I'm sure it would be no problem sharing with your fellow participants."

"I just got one card," I said with a shrug.

"Would be a bit difficult to split that." Sebastian turned pale, then red, then pale again. I had no idea what thoughts were going through his mind, but I strongly suspected there was more than one person there. If it were just to him, he'd accuse me of lying regardless of whether it was true or not. Someone else was pulling the strings, someone who could tell that I had only gained one new card.

"Let me stay the night, and I'll go hunt the snake for you," I added. My words had an immediate effect. Everyone stopped what they were doing and focused their attention on me. It also helped that I was using both my bard skill and the charming specialization to affect the mood.

"That should make up for it, right?" Anyone with a bit of smarts would see through the ploy. When the next day started, the safe room would shift, and it wouldn't matter whether I stayed or not.

"I'll hold you to that!" Sebastian pointed at me as if he had any sort of authority.

"What are you doing?" Cathy whispered as she approached me.

"You said that—""It wouldn't have mattered," I quickly interrupted.

"They would have sent me, anyway. I just beat them to it." Also, this way I'd get to see who was the person really running the show. Right now, I had four potential suspects: the goth girl, Sebastian's deity, Harlequin, or—in the highly unlikely event—Carl. The sniveling coward had already shifted loyalties and was doing everything in his power to subtly, and not so subtly, indicate that he wasn't on my side.

"Don't give out your cards," I whispered.

"When you are given the choice to end the trial, take it." Any other time the woman would argue against it, but now even she knew that she wasn't in condition for this trial. What was more, her goddess knew as well.

"You think I've got the most?" Without turning, she subtly looked around.

"No, but you'll get your turn. Those with more will wait to see me devoured by the snake." I tapped her shoulder, then walked off.

"Hey," I went up to Marcus.

"How are things on your end?" He still had his weapon, from what I could see, but his cards were a lot less than one would have expected.

"Nothing much." He looked away.

"I'll probably ask to have you join me on the snake hunt," I added. Marcus looked me straight in the eye.

"That's not a good idea." The warning was clear. If he came along, there was a good chance that I might feel his blade in my back. I was prepared for such an eventuality, of course, though still preferred if it didn't come to that.

"It's always better to hunt with someone." I smiled.

"I'll give you the night to think it over." Choosing a comfortable spot near the wall, I lay down and took a snooze. Normally, that would be considered a risk, but I was confident enough that none of the people involved would do anything to me right now. It was only when night fell that they would start having second thoughts. During the pause, I kept thinking about the note the deity had given me. The person with the key betrayed me. The statement was simultaneously highly specific and extremely vague.

Thinking back, I didn't remember anything about a key of this sort. As a rule, keys were something lacking in the trials. Coins and cards were the actual keys, with everything else being little more than props within the specific trials themselves. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. What are you trying to tell me? I thought. And how do you know about my past future? There was every chance that all this was nothing but a lure to pull me in.

I had known deities to infect participants with addicting dreams, turning them into their followers. At the time, I hadn't been particularly skilled or valuable enough to be worth the effort; and when I was, I had obtained the means to protect myself. Pup, I thought. The creature emerged in my dreams. No longer the monster of before, it had taken the form of a black Dalmatian my family had when I was a child. Has anyone tried to break in? The creature barked, though no sound came from its mouth. That was good.

Stay on guard, I told it. And be ready. I'll need you in a bit. When I woke up, everything was quiet. Sebastian remained the sole person on the boat. Everyone else had placed blankets and pillows on the floor next to the pool's edge. Cathy was also among them. Sebastian clearly didn't fully trust me or her, for he had arranged the people in such a way as to separate us. This way I couldn't exchange a single word without someone hearing. Yet, the same couldn't be said for Marcus.

As I stood up, I checked my status window and my inventory. Everything was there, including the rib rings I had gotten from the skeletons. Calmly, I stood up and walked up to Marcus again.

"What's going on?" I asked, loud enough for even Sebastian to hear.

"Waiting for the announcement," he replied.

"Already?" I looked at the LED displays in the room. If they were to be believed, a few minutes remained until midnight. It felt too fast to be true, although Harlequin had shown he could speed up time before. At the stroke of midnight, everyone fell silent.

"You have made it to the end of another day, participants," Harlequin said. The lack of greeting told me he wasn't pleased.

"The deities were disappointed in your docile performance. After a promising start to the morning, all of you went to the safe room and stayed there. For this reason, a change will be made. If this repeats tomorrow, the Blade Serpent will be allowed to roam everywhere." It was an idle threat. If the deities were that upset, they would have had Harlequin change the rules earlier.

"The person with the most cards is Eleonor Ray," Harlequin continued.

"She has chosen to remain in the trial, so the next choice goes to Sebastian Gable. Do you wish to leave the trial?"

"No," Sebastian's voice trembled as he replied.

"I'll stay."

"Sebastian Gable has chosen to stay, so the next choice goes to—""I'll leave," Cathy said. Everyone, myself included, turned in her direction. I enjoyed the surprise on the people's faces. They had been so convinced that I would ask her to join me for the hunt that they had never expected such an eventuality.

"The trial has its winner," Harlequin said. Meanwhile, Cathy spontaneously vanished as if she had never been there. There was no portal or glow; she was just whisked out of existence and returned to the preparation, just like when I had initially been snatched by the Grand Arcana. All that remained waited for anything more, yet it never came. I suspected that many of them feared that there wouldn't be any chance to get back without penalties, and they would be right.

It was still a bit early, but the following day Harlequin would announce that the only way to end the trial would be through death or killing the Blade Serpent. I also suspected that the number of undead would greatly increase.

"Do you still have your touch?" I whispered to Marcus while the others were busy figuring out what had happened.

"Told you it wouldn't do you any good," he whispered back.

"But have you?" For the first time since I remembered, the left side of his face curved into a sadistic smile.

"I've gotten better than you know." In another time, the response would have been terrifying. Now, it was perfect for my needs.

"Go to sleep." I tapped him on the shoulder and returned to my spot in the room. It took twenty minutes for everyone to calm down. The usual phases were observed: whispers, speculation, anger, then finally silent hope that Harlequin might give them another chance the following day. Ten minutes after that, Marcus lay down on his allocated blanket. Not long after, I felt the dream pup stir within my mind. Time to work. I forced myself asleep.

I found myself still sitting on the floor, but a grey mist had surrounded me.

"Are you here, pup?" I asked. The edge of the mist twisted, creating shapes. A Dalmatian's head gained form, then moved forward as the rest of the body followed. I looked down at the creature wagging its head. It was difficult to imagine that a nightmare would change to such a degree. Most likely, it must have made use of my memories and emotions relating to my parents' old dog.

"You'll have to be tougher than that," I said. Instantly, the Dalmatian exploded into a cloud of mist, transforming into the dream beast I knew.

"Better." I turned towards the wall of mist.

"Take me to Marcus' dreams." Strictly speaking, the Sleeper card didn't allow me to invade or attack another's dream, but just to battle in the dream space. Yet, as long as someone else led me, nothing prevented me from fighting when I got there. The mist expanded as the dream pup approached it, creating a tunnel. For the first time in quite a while, I was fascinated to see something new. There were many things I had witnessed during my previous run, but dream walking wasn't one of them.

Even stranger, no one liked to talk about it too much. Dreams, like pacts and curses, remained a taboo subject that most preferred not to touch. Once we were fully inside, the tunnel closed behind us. Once again, I found myself in a bubble of mist, only this time there was something more. Threads of magic ran through the mist, flickering in bright purple. So, that's how it works. The further I went, the more the number of threads increased. Soon it was like walking through a cluster of cables.

Then, the space expanded suddenly again. I found myself in a new space, only this time, there was someone else there.

"Greg," a dream version of Marcus said. He was pretty much the same, wearing biker clothes and way too many blades for my liking. All the strands that came out of the fog went into his very skin.

"How have you been?" This was different from the dream beast that had attacked me. Rather, it was as if someone maintained a permanent level of control, transforming Marcus into a living puppet.

"Who did that to you?" I asked.

"Oh, this?" He didn't seem even bothered.

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm not. I just want to know who did it." Threads came out of his chin and cheeks, sewing his mouth together.

"Guard," I ordered as I drew the blades from my inventory. Using a double arc slash, I cut through as many threads as I could on either side of him. Some attempted to resist, but the divine nature of my weapons gave them no chance. Spontaneously, the walls of mist pulled back, tripling the volume of the surrounding space. All threads that had been sliced off pulled back, disappearing into the surrounding fog. Marcus barely reacted, looking at events with the confused fascination that dreams had.

No wonder he had been caught—despite all his strength, he was helpless against such a type of attack. Thinking about it, I was relieved that there hadn't been anything better than the Sleeper among the batch of cards provided. If there had been, there was a good chance that I might have ended up like him or worse.

"Stand still," I said as I kept on slashing the strands. Whoever had placed them was likely aware of what was going on, and still refused to release their hold over Marcus. Just then, a giant sabertooth head formed in the mist.