Chapter 20: The war (4)

After realizing the weirdness of these goblins, I called Logier and notified him of this.

“Eh? What does that mean?” he asked back with a questioning look. He couldn’t understand a single word I said, as expected of a lower intelligent being. So I dumbed down the explanation and said it again, “these goblins cannot feel pain or fatigue. So to kill them for good, just break their neck and be done with it. There is no need for you to waste your time on these freaks by having a duel.”

“Ah, I understand now. So, in other words, just kill him in one shot, that’s what you are saying. Right!?”

“Yes,” I sighed and nodded in rejection. That’s not what I was trying to convey. What I really wanted for these pigs was to make sure not let even one of ours die or get serious injuries. If one on one combat wasn’t going on their favour, then it was no problem to go with a two on one or more on one. In any case, the enemy has already broken the rule, there was no need for these people to hang into the stupid pride they have. Alas, even though I dumbed it down a lot, Logier still couldn’t catch on to the flow.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t say it directly. These fellows are already compromising on their pride by switching when someone’s wounded to a certain level. Anymore was close to impossible for the time being. The best I could do was to give them as much support as possible.

In the meantime, I decided to try out a certain experiment. I often wondered what would happen if I kill someone in the illusion realm or Nightmare realm. Would they die in the real world too? Would they become mentally retarded? Either was possible, since this is a world of magic and mystery. In order to find that out, I got close to one of the healthy goblins who was sneaking around to mount a sneak attack and used my skill, ‘cast illusion’ on it.

When it appeared in the ‘illusion realm’, I conjured a sword and sliced off its head. Suddenly the goblin in the real world started to spasm uncontrollably as if it was suffering from FIDs. Its legs, hands and everything shook violently, and then slowly green blood started to pour out of its ear and eyes.

After a few more spasms, it just laid there with its eyes, ears, and nose bleeding. I placed my finger below its nose. It was breathing. That means it was still alive, however, looking at the state it was in, I guess this was what they call vegetative state. Seeing at such a goblin, I thought, what would happen if I kill someone in the nightmare realm?

Putting that to my memo, I thrust the pole through the adult goblin’s eye, ending his suffering and gaining some EP in the process.

You have killed an adult goblin and gained 20 EP

I also discovered that killing one adult goblin would give me twenty EP. That means, I got 10% of the total number of EP whenever Gyuk kills somebody. That’s a very astonishing number. Especially when I still couldn’t make sure of my involvement.

A second after I gained some EPs, Gyuk killed a few more of the goblins, and that’s when I received another notification.

You have accumulated enough Evolution Points to further evolve. The following paths and branches opened for you:-

Adult Dream Weaver 90 EP Juvenile Dream Weaver 50 EP Juvenile Dream Eater 100 EP Adult 2 tailed Kitsune 100 EP

Note: You can only choose one path and each path would cost corresponding evolution points.

Note 2: You have to choose an option within an hour. Failed to accomplish the task would result in random selection.

This time too, four options came out. As expected, all of them were illusion-based paths. This proved my earlier conjecture. That is, depending on the attribute upgraded after each evolution, the further path would set accordingly. Moreover, an extra note also came out this time. Which means, my earlier thought of keep accumulating EPs was not possible anymore.

I clicked upon the adult Dream Weaver option first.

Race: Adult Dream Weaver

A rare race of Imps that thrive on other’s dreams and nightmares. Despite being physically weak, this race is known for its ability to take the form of their opponent’s worst fears. They are nigh impossible to defeat alone unless the target gets over their fear.

Perk 1: +20 INT, +10 WIS

Perk 2: learn skill Metamorph (!)

Perk 3: learn skill Nightmare seed (!)

Perk 4: all previous skills +3 level

Hmm… aside from a huge upgrade in INT and WIS, I would also learn two skills. Those too active ones! Good bargain for 90 EPs I guess. Well considering adult was like this, I already guessed what juvenile would be. Also, I didn’t click on the skills to elaborate on what they do for the time being. I skipped past it and clicked on the Dream Eater.

Race: Juvenile Dream Eater

A mutation of Dream Weaver that targets other’s hopes and other positive emotions. Dream Eater is considered an evil race, in comparison to Dream Weaver’s neutral alignment. Dream Eaters grow by eating the hope and positivity of its prey.

Perk 1: all stats +10

Perk 2: learn passive skill Dream Devour (!)

Perk 3: will gain perk 2, perk 3 and perk 4 of Adult Dream Weaver.

Only two perks were mentioned. But I didn’t think they were weak in comparison to Dream Weaver. Let’s start with the first perk, it increases all my stat value by 10 points. I had four stats, which means the total points would be 40 points. That’s ten points more than adult Dream Weaver’s perk.

Second, the passive skill, I concentrated on it to elaborate.

Dream Devour (Passive)

Every time the user plunges a target into the depth of despair, or in an illusion of satisfaction, the user will be able to absorb hope, happiness, dreams and other positive energy from the prey. A gauge called ‘Despair’ will then be generated. When the despair gauge fills up to the max, the user can convert it to 10 stat points, which he can freely distribute to any available attributes.

Note: This is an evil alignment path. Once you have chosen this path, you can only follow the path of evil alignment from henceforth.

The description blew my mind in many ways. While the strength of the skill itself was astonishing, what blew me was the note that was attached to it at the end. If I chose this path, I will have to follow the evil alignment path from now on. If so, is there a monster that considered to be of good alignment?

It was something worth thinking over. This time, I didn’t even look at the kitsune option. Skipping past it, I re-focused on the skills of adult Dream Weaver.

Metamorph

Cost: 30 MP/cast and 1 MP/hour to maintain it.

User will be able to shapeshift or transform any part of their body or whole body to anything they desire.

Note: only forms of which the user has a thorough grasp on could be taken.

Note: partial Metamorph is also possible; the MP cost varies according to the number of body parts the user wants to change.

Nightmare Seed

Cost: 2 MP

When the user pulls someone into his illusion, he leaves behind a strand of his magic in the body of the target. This strand of magic acts as a link between the caster and the target. When the magic seed sprouts inside the target, the user can implant memories and suggestions into the target as they wished. At this stage, the user can also take over the target’s consciousness for a brief period of time.

Note: at level 1, maximum 5 nightmare seeds can be planted.

Note: It takes 5 hours for the seed to sprout into a tree.

Note: After the seed completely blooms inside the target, the caster can sacrifice the Nightmare Tree inside the target’s consciousness to absorb 30% of the target’s stats and make it his own. Doing so, however, will harm the target, even death is possible.

After reading through this, I was very surprised at the versatility of the abilities. Moreover, none of the abilities was weak. Be it Metamorph or Nightmare seed, both of them were strong on their own aside from their versatility. If used correctly, it can even make me invincible in some cases. That being said, my eyes again landed on the Dream Eater path.

Aside from all the things of adult Dream Weaver, I will also gain an extra ability, a passive called Dream Devour. By absorbing the positive energy of my target, I can easily increase my stats by 10 points. But I couldn’t make my mind, especially after seeing that note attached to the end.

“Little friend, they have used that again. What should we do?” while I was deep in thought, Logier’s shout came, successfully withdrawing me from my reverie. Looking forward, I saw the same purple gas spreading around. This time its intensity was huge in comparison to before as there were many goblin corpses around to act as a carrier.

“Retreat!” I ordered without hesitation. I have already achieved my goal for now. Although we didn’t discover their real home, I was able to confirm that it was somewhere around here. Moreover, I had something of much more importance to think about. I didn’t have the time or mood to think of a countermeasure.

Temporary retreat was the way to go for now.

Logier had stopped questioning me since long ago. He already tested what it was like to listen to my advice. Therefore, as soon as I commanded, he ordered his whole battalion to retreat and fall back. With my head full of thoughts, I also returned to the hole I call home.

The time limit was one hour and only some scant few minutes have passed. There was a lot of time remaining to make my decisions. No need for me to hurry. Before I make my decision though, I wanted to know more about this alignment path. I hope Logier knows something about it. If not, then I would have to abandon the Dream Eater path for the time being.

My current self, Dream Weaver was mentioned to be a Neutral alignment path in the system. I will only take the safer path until I know more about what I should do in the future. I don’t want to jump into obviously good-looking paths while knowing nothing about it. What will happen if I chose the Dream Eater path and then it reveals an annoying curse like weak against light path or good path…?

I don’t want to have such weaknesses in this cruel world that would give others the ability to lord over me. I had enough of them back on earth, I don’t want to have them in here too.

With my mind made up, I came out of the hole in search of Logier. We have some discussions to do about my future.