Fortissimus had been waiting for his son in the town hall, clearly sweating and pacing around. Hearing the door open, he sighed, “Were you successful?”

Caelus entered the room and responded, “Here’s the head. I hope I have made the scene authentic enough to fool them into thinking the birdmen attacked them.”

“Knowing their pride, even if it wasn’t that authentic, they’ll make up some stupid excuse to continued their stupid war,” Fortissimus responded as he opened the sack and nodded his head.

He then walked to his son, and knelt down to hug him, “I’m glad you’re safe.” Caelus was startled, but quickly returned the embrace.

After a couple of seconds, Fortissimos quickly pushed his son away and exclaimed, “Ugh! You smell disgusting! Take a bath before coming home next time. You smell worse than most birdmen!”

Angry, his son picked up a chair and threw it at Fortissimus, causing it to explode upon contact with Fortissimus’ body, shouting, “I only smell like this because of that nasty perfume your disturbed mind concocted, old man!”

“You seem to not know your limits, child!”

About to grab Caelus with his hands, Fortissimus found that even with his superior vision, Caelus disappeared with a blur. Feeling a force from behind, he was pushed, causing him to tumble down.

Caelus then spoke, “You don’t know your limits, dad. This mission has also taught me that I’m still too weak. If I hadn’t broken my limits during the battle, I would’ve died.”

Getting up and wiping the dirt off his furs, Fortissimus asked, “How do you want to proceed with your training then?”

“I’ve ventured out this village a lot recently. But those messages from the slime race can’t come any sooner. I want to get stronger and get a better understanding of these lands.” His son looked through a window towards the forest surrounding the village.

“Are you at that level? To develop an infinite mind?”

“Yes. But not just that. Once this war is over, I really want to see what’s out there. What’s beyond the Savage Lands. I want to see what this world truly has to offer. Life would be too boring if I stayed here for the rest of it.”

Fortissimus looked at his son with a gaze that he gave to Olbek earlier and smiled, “I know this place won’t be able to contain you in the future. Why do you think I gave you your name?”

His son looked at him with a knowing glance. Fortissimus then smacked Caelus at the back of the head, “But you’re still 8 years old and my son! Why do you want to leave me so soon?”

As the two fought and argued, they went to rest. Delton and Caelus looked on at the night sky. After a brief moment of awkward silence, Delton spoke, “So…Isn’t it about time I head back to reality?”

Lucius gave a creepy smile, causing Delton’s body to instinctively shiver, and answered, “Again, you’ve reached First Grasp earlier. Also your soul has grown much stronger since you first entered. At this level, your mind and soul can handle around five days’s worth of time per dream.”

Feeling sweat run down his back, “What?! Five whole days! Why do I need to do that much per dream?”

“Because at the previous rate, you would have died long before you can inherit all my memories.”

“Can’t you just skip to the interesting ones like you did—“ Delton bit his tongue before he could finish his question, since he saw Lucius glare at him.

“Now that I’ve grown older, my memories are much more consistent. Also, it needs to be like this so our souls can sync at a better rate, or else your mind will get destroyed trying to make connections between the memories. Besides, don’t you want to escape from your current situation?”

Delton looked down after hearing that question and clenched his fists, “You’re right. Thanks for giving me this.”

After another moment of awkward silence, Delton asked, “So what should I actually do now?”

“You can go train.”

“But why should I? Can’t I simply train in the morning?”

“Yeah, but your soul won’t improve as quickly.”

“It’s not like I’m in a hurry to train, right? I’ll just go explore around.”

Lucius shrugged his shoulders, as he floated behind wherever Delton went.

Delton, then walked beyond the village entrance as he slowly walked in one direction. As if recalling, he stopped sometimes and continued walking, until he came upon the same clearing where Caelus massacred the draconians.

“To be able to kill 20 of these beasts must be amazing. How many of these draconians are there in these lands?”

“Come on. Do you really want to spoil that for yourself?” Lucius smugly asked Delton.

“When will I find out then?”

Then Lucius’ face grew sour as he said, “In less than 2 years.”

“Did I say something?”

“Yes, you brought up some bad memories.”

After walking past the clearing, Delton made his body take an ephemeral form and started to float, “Wow. It’s much easier the next time. How high can I float up to, old man?”

Lucius shook his head and resumed his indifferent demeanor, “I wouldn’t fly too high if I were you. Your soul won’t be able to handle the pressure from space.”

“It can’t hurt to try, right?”

“Hmph. It’ll be much worse to what you felt when fighting against that draconian.”

Delton hesitated for a moment then slapped his face. With a determined gaze, he zoomed up a mile above the forest. Even though it was night, the moon casted a bluish glow around the forest. Delton saw multiple light sources around the area.

Before heading there, he looked up to see the moon, which looked much larger than the sun during the day.

“You know, when I was younger, I wanted to be someone who could pierce the sky. Though, I won’t be able to do that in reality, I shall indulge my wishes in this dream,” Delton spoke, then flew higher and faster in the direction of the moon.

“Woah woah woah! Hold on, kid!” Lucius put away the phone and also flew up but at a much faster speed compared to Delton.

The ground receded more and more, as the moon encapsulated all of Delton’s view. With a backdrop of stars and galaxies as far as the eye can see, Delton continued to fly higher and higher, now dozens of miles above the ground.

After reaching a certain point, Delton crashed into an invisible barrier, causing several bones to break in his soul body. Feeling a refreshing aura, Delton looked towards Lucius, as Delton’s body reformed back into its original shape, not feeling an ounce of pain.

“Thank you.”

“Now will you listen, you dumb kid?”

Delton looked at his palm and tried to press it beyond the invisible barrier. However, no matter how ephemeral he made his soul, he could not get past it. He then asked, “What the hell’s going on?”

“Though you are dreaming of another world, you are still dreaming based on my memories. Even though, it already has such a large radius, it won’t be able to encapsulate all of the world. This barrier is that boundary of my memories.”

“But this moon, I could still see it. Those stars and galaxies beyond, I could still see them. Why is there such a boundary?”

“You’ll understand when you’re stronger.”

No longer looking above, Delton saw several land masses away, a large cliff that jutted from the ground. Because of a large amount of clouds, Delton could not even see the top of the cliff. Judging from what he saw, the cliff should surpass the boundary. “What the hell’s that land formation over there?”

“Hohoho. Brings back too many memories. You’ll see in the future,” Lucius looked at the cliff face with a reminiscing look. He then said, “Let’s go back down. Explore within your power.”

Delton nodded, then flew down in the direction of a light source. Crossing a dozen miles, he came upon an encampment and hearing the grating voices and shouts of draconians, Delton stopped for a moment.

“Go on, kid. Didn’t you want to know how many there are? Here’s one of the army camps,” Lucius egged on as he started to look back at his phone.

Delton then entered the camp, which had several draconian guards watching the entrance. Most of the draconians were wearing light armor that mainly covered their chests and thighs, revealing their hardy red scales.

The smell of meat filled the air, as laughter could be heard in large campfires. Most of them also imbibed alcohol as they feasted on their food. There was a pile, easily ten times the size of what Caelus had found at the clearing, by a group of laughing draconians.

Going through the encampment, Delton was able to bear the pressure due to the improvements to his soul. However, he came upon a large campfire that was surrounded with blue draconians, all of them much larger than the average soldier. Looking ahead, he also saw a golden scaled draconian occupying a throne in front of the campfire.

A putrid smell assaulted his nose, causing Delton to see what was being roasted on the campfire. There were multiple naked bodies twice the size of humans. Moreover, their arms looked to be much larger, like wings, and their legs were extremely thin but Delton could make out sharp talons at the feet.

However, what caught his attention the most was the slowly roasting human bodies.

Feeling nauseated and the immense pressure coming from the campfire, Delton quickly floated away, as he escaped the encampment, not stopping until he was miles away.

Gaining a more corporeal form, he leaned over a tree and started to throw up. “What the fuck are those beasts?”

"They’re the birdmen.”

Wiping some vomit from the corner of his mouth, Delton said, “No. Those draconians are the beasts I was referring to. To eat humans, what the fuck.”

"If the animals you eat had sentience, what do you think they’ll say about you? That is life in the Savage Lands.” Thinking for a moment, Lucius spoke again, “Actually this is the life of those who are mortal.”

“This world is insane! My world is much more advanced and safer compared to this hellhole of a world.”

“Hmph. You are just a regular mortal in your world.”

“No no no. Use language I understand. A First is a stable job, which will allow me to live a stable life.”

"But you will always be under the power of those who are much stronger.”

"Yes, and I will be protected by them.”

“Until you are no longer of value.”

“By then, I’d have saved enough credits to retire comfortably.”

"Hehehe. Sounds nice, for the time being. But that’s not the case here. In the Savage Lands, if you do want to live, you will have to fight tooth and nail and have enough power to survive. Here, the strong are respected. And if you aren’t subservient, you die.”

"I guess I’m lucky to have been born in just the right time and place to be able to live a comfortable life as a regular mortal.”

“Expendable.”

"Hey, old man. You’re talking to the Jack of All Trades here. If Mom Sol needs me to work on something other than manufacturing, I can easily pick it up. No way I’m that expendable.”

“But what about your family?”

This question caused Delton to choke on his words a bit. Hesitating to say it, “My family will be fine.”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Because Mom Sol says so. All the corporations will not allow any of us to go hungry or lose their jobs.”

“Because they will overwork you to your deaths. I’ve also been reading the news. Ha! There’s even insurgencies in your own manufacturing lines. When shit hits the fan, you’ll see how expendable you are, and why you need the power I can provide you!”

Furiously Delton waved his fists in the air, “Why the fuck are we even talking about this?! We’re in my dreams! What’s going on in my world shouldn’t matter here.” Delton turned himself into an ephemeral form as he continued to explore the surroundings.

After another hour of exploring the forests, he did not find anything too interesting. Feeling a bit tired, he went back to Fortissimus’ village. Sitting on top of Fortissimus’ house, Delton asked, “Can’t I sleep?”

"Why would you want to sleep?”

“What do you mean? I basically haven’t slept for two whole days.”

“It’s all in your mind. Souls are always awake. Sure they need to recover sometimes, but they’re always awake. Just visualize the image of me and my mom.”

“But I don’t want to get energy. I just want to rest,” Delton shook his head. Looking up at the night sky, he snapped his fingers. He then floated to Lucius’ house and saw the sleeping toddler Lucius nuzzled into his mother’s bosom.

Delton then asked Lucius, “Can’t I do the same thing with Caelus with your younger self?”

"Yes I suppose so.”

"What do you think my dreams will be about?”

"I doubt you’d dream.”

"We’ll see about that,” Delton rubbed his hands. He then looked towards the lazing Lucius and asked, “How do I actually do that thing?”

...

"Alright. See you in 8 hours, old man,” Delton’s corporeal body then entered the sleeping Lucius.

Seeing that Delton did not call out to him, a lazing Lucius sighed, “This kid is too fucking lazy. It’s gonna take forever to see you again.”