Chương 371: Arrival

Acting none the wiser was quite easy in my 'Base Form', on account of the fact that there were no facial expressions that could be read on it. I just needed to adjust my body language and approach the most obvious trap I had seen in a long time. To be convincing, this fellow should have prepared the terrain more instead of just plopping down randomly. I pretended to inspect the remains from a distance before casually walking up–And biting at it with full force without warning.

To my surprise, the parasited skeleton was able to react swiftly enough to not be reduced to a pile of broken bones and bonemeal. The creature's swift reaction only allowed me to take its left arm, while the rest of the body dexterously threw itself away, rolling to the ground before standing up, its teeth grinding against one another. The roots were present all over the hijacked remains, so crushing one arm destroyed and severed several roots as well.

It bled sap and experienced pain, as I could tell by the sudden influx of negative emotions that flooded into my body. These days, it was a bit more complicated to read people due to the constant and enormous stream of negativity the chaos on the continent had created. Quite a lot of people had me in mind as the architect of this mess. Which wasn't fair. I was a co-architect at best, but definitely not the main brain of the operation. Not that I would ever bother to clear the record.

Gorging on so many intense negative emotions was far too profitable for me to bother. The puppeteered skeleton twitched intensely before stancing up in a manner that was suspiciously clean. This stance looked a lot like what some mages would do when casting spells–Since magical talent was far from equal and that 'talent' in the area of energy manipulation was quite an unclear and broad concept, mages could behave quite differently depending on how lucky or unlucky they were with their initial draw of talent…

Also known as being born. Mages who used stances, movements, or incantations despite those actions clearly being hindrances to their performances did so because they were a beginner who needed it to properly cast, or because they had gotten the short end of the stick and had no choice but to use them.

I lunged forward like a mad shark trying to kill prey standing on the shore, but the parasited skeleton summoned two blasts of mud beneath its feet, launching itself right above my head and landing a distance behind me, immediately stomping the ground in some sort of dance, swinging its remaining arm into an upward motion and rising a great wave of mud out of thin air. It looks so ridiculous since it isn't even injecting mana into mud or dirt.

The motions would seem more sensible if it were doing something like that, but this was just your typical magic, manifesting elements out of nothing but mana… Which meant that it had an advantage. This damned marsh was naturally quite abundant with mana types that suited its spellcasting. Mud will definitely mess up some of my upgrades, as well… And how the hell am I supposed to play around with my light-themed upgrades against parasitic roots using an eyeless corpse as a host?

Is a girl not allowed to have fun irreversibly frying people's eyes? I see how it is… I rushed straight at the wave of mud. It wasn't strong enough to actually push me around, only dense enough to kill my momentum and slow me down for a few moments… With a nice pinch of dramaturgy, I exaggerated just how much it encumbered my movements, prompting the mud mage to try and pile up with another restrictive or offensive spell instead of using a movement spell to place more distance once more.

I don't know how this damned parasite thinks or even sees the world, but it would seem that nothing can resist a good bit of theatrics. I transformed into my El Gigante-01 sub-form, increasing my height by a full meter, which drastically lengthened my reach, allowing me to grab the pesky parasite and its host. El Gigante-01 explicitly gains strength based on how many upgrades I have, so the recent additions made it significantly more powerful than it used to be back when I used it in the sewer.

The feeble possessed mud mage stood no chance of breaking free or slipping out. I crushed it in between both of my palms, rubbing them together with it in between until I was certain that the roots were completely dead. I didn't want to use any forms on the way to the Cave of Somn, but I guess El Gigante-01 isn't a big deal. If asked, I'll just say I have a gigantify ability or some bullcrap like that, not like anyone can prove or disprove such a claim.

Besides, I am certain that the knowledge that I can transform in some capacity is already out there. Hell, I bet the rulers somehow have a list of some of my forms plastered on their wall already. I returned to my 'Base Form' and feasted on the bones and roots. Unsurprisingly, the roots were considered flesh, which meant that the trees of the swamp were definitely valid targets for me to devour, not that I was going to, but if needed, I would think about them. … The rest of my journey was mostly uneventful.

I did my best to stay away from the trees that would try to drag me down into the mud. Although some did manage to extend their roots enough to try, they could only ever bring one or two, as the rest of their roots were probably too short. I didn't even use the flames. I grabbed and ripped the offending roots before eating them, making distant trees shudder. At one point, without warning, I stepped forward, and instead of mud, my foot landed on solid stone. I had reached the curtain.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Once my eyes went through, I was able to see the Cave of Somn for myself, the place the Deep Dream had picked to settle and practice their worship of slumber, dreams, and nightmares. The Cave of Somn was basically located on an island amidst the swamp. Several other directions that could have led to this place were dense with murderous trees… Looks like the intel was correct.

As always, Leou knows where to find the right information. The landscape here is completely different from the marsh surrounding it from all directions. It feels akin to what I heard an oasis was like. An area teeming with vitality and water in another endless plain of desolate sand… The apple tree I had seen earlier was probably from here, as there was a forest surrounding an area filled with carved pillars.

The pillars themselves surrounded a hole in the ground, revealing the rough interior of a cavern that had only been mildly modified to accommodate people. The staircase was just about as primitive as it could look, but gazing deeper, it was clear that the further in one went, the more refined things became. From where I was, I could already spot smooth stone. I transformed into the 'Gynoid Form' using the exact same appearance I had used with the System Fundamentalists. No one seemed to have noticed my arrival.

The security doesn't seem that great, and… I looked around for a few moments. I suppose they are around here? I knew well what Ririlt and his men were currently doing with Argentis. The foxfolk were pretty much working for me, after all, but I hadn't expected them to be so close to the entrance of the Cave of Somn. Unfortunately, Argantis was too competent. I could tell that there were a few sources of negative emotions nearby, but I was unable to determine the direction it was all coming from. No matter…

From what I heard, Argantis wants to be buddy-buddy with me as well, so he'll probably try to show up when I come out. I could avoid him by warping away the moment I am done with my business here, but I'll entertain what he has to say. Having more meatshields couldn't hurt. Though I get the feeling that Argantis would be harder to keep on a leash, if it is even possible at all.

In any case, I descended into the Cave of Somn, promptly ignored the defensive measures that Nara told me were supposed to place any intruder into a state of profound sleep, and eventually reached chambers carved through solid stone, which split into dozens of hallways. They have a real ant colony down there…

"Excuse me" The first chamber I encountered was quite crowded with purple-robed clerics and the like. Most of them seemed busy discussing the meaning of dream-related terminology as if it truly was the most interesting and pressing matter in all of existence.

I did find a lone figure seemingly trying to get from point A to point B, and so I intercepted them, and only then did someone present here notice that I wasn't a member of the Deep Dream, as should have been evident by my completely different colour of attire. The one I stopped right in their tracks was a priestess a bit shorter than me. She curiously had just one giant eye taking up pretty much all of the available space on her face, leaving no room for a nose, mouth, or anything else.

She slowly narrowed her singular eye, looking me up and down before settling on my smiling face.

"Wait… You are… Are you…? Oh, by the sweet dream! You're her!"

"I am indeed her""Whoa, it is no wonder that I didn't realise you weren't one of us. The land of dreams and nightmares truly favours you! Please, follow me!" She said this, but she hurriedly grabbed my hand and dragged me into one of the hallways. A few passing clerics threw some confused or curious glances our way, but none seemed to take notice of who I actually was.

"Mister Mnolm has been trying many things to contact you, but it would seem like Mister Lopst managed to reach you first!" She spoke as we reached an important-looking door of stone engraved with various runes and the like.

"Lopst? I didn't see this guy at all""Heh? But… He willfully entered your nightmare trials, Miss Nebulo…"

"He did what?"

"Since anomalous mechanistry has been appearing all over the place, he found one and watched what was being shown to become infected with the Nightmare Plague. He's been busy with them for the past week or so, I think""Is… Is he fucking insane?" The one-eyed priestess tilted her head.

"I don't think so? Mister Lopst is single as far as I am aware""That's not… Oh, aren't you a precious little thing. How old are you?"

"I am twenty-five!"

"... Someone seriously needs to have the talk with you, girly pop" I sighed.

"Forget about this Mnolm for now. Where is that overly lanky rabbit? Take me to him""His room is actually the one right here" She pointed at the door directly opposite the one she had just led me to.

"Alright then, let me demonstrate to you how big of a deal I am in the domain of dreams and nightmares" I went forward and pushed the door–It didn't budge. That's a bit embarrassing… I eyed the keyhole for a few moments and then extended several wires from my open mouth, using them to try and locate the locking mechanism for a few minutes before finding it and forcing it to open.

"Are heavy stone doors a requirement here?"

"Everyone likes to have dream tales inscribed on their doors. I would do the same if I had the strength to deal with such a heavy door" I invited myself into the room where everything seemed too big and too long, which was to be expected since the resident was an incredibly tall and thin beastfolk. I could probably just go dormant and check the Dreamscape, but I decided that it would probably be best to be flashy and use my 'Nightmare Form'. I never actually used this form to infiltrate a nightmare trial…

It feels like kicking down the door to my own house.