Chương 266: Running Tests

Kalersky only seemed to realise that something was wrong when the dream-spawned version of Tanaya Uolip turned into a monstrously rotten abomination that barely even resembled the person it originally imitated.

"What the hell is… Oh… Wait… Am I dreaming? And here I thought lucid dreams were supposed to go as the dreamer wanted…" He leapt backwards in fright, his back hitting a wall as he let himself slide to the ground. I audibly cleared my throat.

"This is not a lucid dream, Kalersky" The disgraced head of state stood up–Fell right back down due to having his pants gathered at his ankles. He swiftly fixed the issue and then proceeded to act as if nothing had happened.

"Who are you? And if this isn't a dream, then what is this place and why was I… Huh… Doing what… I was doing?"

"You stupid idiot, I said it wasn't a lucid dream, not that it wasn't a dream at all. Were you cradled next to a brick wall? I just knocked you out in the real world, which basically sent your consciousness here. You were busying yourself with your prime minister because you are a dirty little bastard–And you also have a very strong imagination. She doesn't have all that in reality, and neither do you down there""Did you invade my dreams to verbally abuse me?

Because I must tell you, words can deal a lot of damage to a person. They are nearly as bad as a tangible weapon!"

"You truly are one of the most despicable people I have ever met, and I have owned mirrors in the past" I pulled out the nifty dagger that came with this particular form, whom I will dub something like… Huntress, perhaps? Traps are a hunter thing. Anyway, I flashed the dagger at the idiot in front of me.

"I am going to cut it off""C-Cut what off?" I didn't say anything, nor did I budge a muscle, but he got the message nonetheless and quickly took off running. Well… He was quick to begin running away, he wasn't swift in the least at actually escaping. This is quite embarrassing, not just for him, but for all the people who genuinely took time out of their day to vote for this guy more than once. A ruler who can't even coordinate his arms and legs properly… So this is what democracy is all about?

This is just embarrassing. Since I had decided to take the role of a hunter, I whistled to send the monstrous being that had resembled Uolip not so long ago after Kalersky. Meanwhile, I merely walked, investigating the full extent of 'Dream Walker' and by extension, of the partial 'Nightmare Form'. From what I could tell, the amount of influence I had over dreams was dependent on the strength of the dreamer. I suppose it took into account both the general strength of their mind and also their sheer willpower…

This man had neither of those things, so I had immense authority over his own dream. It was to the point that I could know exactly where he was at all times, and could even warp and teleport around as I saw fit. There was absolutely no resistance from him. I could do as I please. Being that I was dealing with the bottom of the barrel, it quickly allowed me to discover what I simply couldn't do at all in general. I couldn't manifest creatures out of thin air.

I either needed to corrupt something that had been imagined by the dreamer's mind, or I needed to rip pieces of the dream apart to create something. Here, I could create some sort of golems from the stone of the twisted reflection of the House of Freedom. Speaking of which, the landscape of the dream was under my control as well. I definitely wouldn't be able to manipulate everything like this against a better prey, but it was good to know that I had such an ability.

As for my ability to switch between the various sub-forms from previous nightmares… It could be used rather frequently, it seemed. I could go from huntress to black tigress, to being able to freeze time. Of course, I presume that certain abilities would also be subject to limitations if I attempted to use them in the dream of someone who could actually put up some resistance. In any case, I'll probably invade this guy's dream a few more times to test a few other things.

I used my ability to twist his dream into a nightmare of my own, but I wonder just how much control I can exert whilst the dream is still a dream. If I could invade someone's slumbering reveries without alerting them to my presence. If I could kill without ever allowing them to realise that the dream they were experiencing was much more real than they believed. Good thing I have a rat to experiment upon… Speaking of which, the twisted creature caught up to Kalersky.

Not that it was surprising, this man couldn't run quickly to save his own life–Literally. I casually walked to where he had been pinned down and crouched beside him. His face was pressed up against the ground as the nightmarish entity had its hand on the back of his skull. It didn't even seem all that strong.

"Your entire existence genuinely gives me second-hand embarrassment. Honestly, I am not a very good person myself, but even I can say with certainty that having you rule anything was unusual torture inflicted not just upon the citizens, but upon the land itself, as well as the continent as a whole. Let me tell you, they could cook up the most brutal, disgusting public execution for you, and all that you would hear before your demise would be the enthusiastic cheers of the crowd""Yep…

But anyway, let me show you something cool" I stood up and took a step back. I spread my arms and activated the only ability of my 'Nightmare Form' that had not yet been put to use, the nicely named 'The Cauchemar Beast'. The fact that the name had 'The' in it made it a bit difficult to say smoothly, but it was only a minor issue. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. My entire body was covered with a black smoke holding hints of deep, dark purple.

The smoke expanded, completely concealing what was happening beneath, and also giving this transformation a very grand feel. With a swing of my arm, I dispersed the smoke and stepped forward. I bore my full weight into this step, making the ground shake as Kalersky had to move his eyes to look at me in full.

"What the hell…" Oh my, I'll definitely test things more with this… Mmh… Form within a form. This creature of nightmares was definitely an intimidating presence. My height had shot up a lot. My 'Base Form' was currently two meters tall, but this one was two meters and fifty centimetres tall, which was a huge difference. This form, while still retaining mechanical elements, was definitely far fleshier than any other I currently owned.

It seemed like my bones were made of steel, but just like a living body, my bones were surrounded by muscles. There was no skin to speak of, only exposed muscle mass and metallic bones peeking out. What was weirdest about this form was the suit it came with. A nice pair of pants, a shirt, and a waistcoat alongside a bowtie. The whole attire was not ripped or anything either. For some reason, this form was a well-dressed monstrosity. And what a gorgeous monstrosity it was!

The first thing I noticed when I stepped forward was that while most of the form was humanoid, the ankle joints were actually akin to those of some animals. I needed to stand in a different manner than I would in any other scenario. It was a fairly small hurdle, however. The details my prey noticed first were definitely the steel, hooked claws prominently coming out of my hands and feet. I didn't have any proper fingers or toes, only claws, the sharpness of which could be deduced with just a glance.

My feet even had a claw jagging out from the heel, like some sort of bird talons. As for the rest… It was rather similar to my 'Base Form', actually. Two dots for eyes, and a beartrap-style maw, only with bits of flesh growing upon it. However, I actually had three maws instead of one. One large beartrap, a smaller beartrap inside of the former, and finally, a rotten, human-like maw with a full set of pearly white teeth. It even had a rotten tongue that I could move.

This–Naturally–Freaked out my victim a fair bit, and he actually put some actual effort into trying to break free. Probably the first time he had put real effort into anything.

"Let's SEE if damage carries over in FULL, shall we?" Huh… This form's idea of distorted speech was to put emphasis on certain words by making me sound like a devil that had just crawled out of Hell, not that I sounded much better normally. My voice was impossibly deep, but somehow still obviously feminine. Well, it seemed obvious to me at least.

Regardless, I slowly cut Kalersky across the face with one of my claws, doing so delicately as the mere brushing of the sharp edge was enough to cleanly slice through the man's flesh. Once this was done, I roared at him for no particular reason and exited the 'Nightmare Form'. I immediately found myself back in the real world. In the exact same spot I had been in previously. That's interesting. Do I always return to the spot I had been in at first, or can I change that a bit? Something I'll need to run tests about.

Kalersky seemed to remain unconscious for now, so I grabbed his head to check for the injury, and sure enough, the cut was exactly the same as in the nightmare. It was neither shallower nor deeper. A perfect match. Alright, so there is no drawback to attacking someone in their dreams in this regard. Why is this fool not waking up, though? I know he is alive. I didn't get his soul or anything like that. Good thing I furnished the Gravescape a bit. I summoned my ghostly little sisters.

"Alright, girls. Let's see how mu–much you remember about the lessons on torture, what do we do when the victim doesn't wake up–up, but we want them to be awake?" They all raised their hands and replied in unison–Except for Anathema, who wasn't there for the lesson.

"A bucket of water!"

"Exactly. Will someone please demonstrate?" Naturally, Elowen was the one to make a demonstration. When it came to grabbing physical items, she was unmatched. She went over to the side where I had already prepared several buckets of water and proceeded to dump one on Kalersky as hard as she possibly could. The mix of getting slapped by water and its utter coldness stirred into consciousness.

"Oh! Oh! By the gods! Please! I'll do anything if you let me go–Why are there more people now?"

"Don't pay attention to the details. They are learning… Anyway, Ana! You haven't gotten to participate–pate in anything like this so far. If you wanted to, let's say… Make him talk about information he possesses, what would–would you do to make him spit it out?" Anathema thought about it for a few moments. Her innate curse wasn't very adapted for this. She had gotten her name from this curse, and its effect was to take the form of what the target was weakest to, or most afraid of.

It could vary from target to target, and the effect itself would pretty much always be completely different. She also didn't know what the effect would be before the curse was cast and had taken hold, and since she was the curse itself, it meant launching herself at someone. Which wasn't ideal if the person could actually deal with their own 'Anathema'. Nonetheless, she wasn't a true spirit. She was a Living Curse with a handful of ghostly traits, so…

She grabbed a nail that was near the buckets of water and pretended to stab him in the thigh. He still reacted like a scaredy cat despite nothing happening to him.

"Very good. Why don't you try–ry stabbing him once?"

"What?"

"Alright, Big Sis!" Kalersky screamed into the emptiness of the Gravescape.

"Don't worry. I got paid with some healing po–potions""This is terrible news! Come on… I swear I can cover you in riches!"

"Alright, who else wants to make him–him miserable?" Everyone raised their hands.

"Have mercy…" I tapped the lower portion of my maw.

"I have me–mercy. Otherwise, Faelan would be here, and let me tell you… He would tear into you harder than anyone here will""That… That's not mercy! You just don't want me to die so you can torment me longer!"

"Would you look–ook at that. You aren't as stupid as you look–Elowen, you can start. Make sure not to punch him unconscious""I understand… Big Sis" Kalersky looked at the oncoming fists.

"The gods have forsaken me"