Layers Of Nightmare

"So, you're saying that she will accompany me to my second instance?" William asked.

"Yep," Alex said. "I told you about Lee's ability last time right? To be fair, he has the power to make a prediction on Nightmare instances in the near future."

"Is that what being a ⟨Guide⟩ is?"

"Exactly, which is why they are so valuable in any Dream Treader group!

"Usually, Lee would predict what we will face in the next instance. But this time, I requested him to predict yours, as it will be your solo instance. As a result, he's dead tired at the moment."

"Oh…" William scratched his head, feeling slightly guilty. Now he knew why he could not see Lee among the people.

"Is it okay, though?" William asked. "Don't you need some kind of rare items to force your way into others' instance?"

"Hahaha!" Alex pulled his head back as he laughed. "What good is there to keep the wealth without using them? Its true that they are rare, but we have acc.u.mulated a significant amount of them over the years!"

He patted William's shoulder. "So don't worry about it. Also, you'll need someone to explain some basic things, correct?"

"Ah, yes!" William suddenly got reminded about the fact that he still did not know how to use the gun yet... and a certain orb.

"Right, can you tell me how to use the communication orb?" William asked.

"Oh, it's simple." Alex moved his hand toward the side of his h.i.p.s, but suddenly realized there was nothing over there. "Hm… I left my satchel home it seems."

"..." An awkward silence ensued between them for a moment.

Alex's face turned slightly red from embarrassment, he quickly turned toward William and said, "Don't just stand there! Lend me yours!"

"But sir," William replied hurriedly. "You told me that I don't have to bring anything!"

"Here." The nearby Madeline suddenly offered a red-glowing orb to Alex. It seemed that she went away unknowingly to fetch it amidst their arguing.

"There we go! Thank you." Alex took the red orb then waved at William to come closer as he pointed at the orb. "Here, do you see this part covered in small holes?"

William pushed his head closer and squint his eyes to see what Alex was pointing at. Indeed, there was a thumb-wide patch of hard-to-see micro holes on the orb's surface.

"I see them, what about it?"

"You'll see…" Alex hovered his finger over the patch and something emerged from within the holes.

"?!" William.

A similarly micro black tentacles danced upward like snakes being charmed.

"Now, if you want to put up a message just squeezed these tentacles with a part of your hand," Alex said. "As for how to make one, you should know how already."

"Oh…" William stared at the wriggling tentacles once more. It was a curious and very unusual thing in any case.

"It may be off your concern, but this thing also take a bit of your blood to function."

"Ah?!" William yelped as he flinched in shock.

"I said, don't worry! Christ!" Alex raised his voice, slightly startled. "Even if you send a million messages each day, you'll still be fine!"

"Is that so?" William heaved a sigh of relief silently. He then asked, "By the way, what did Lee said about my instance?"

Though Alex said that Madeline will follow him to teach him stuff, William doubt that that's the whole reason. After all, there were many methods to spare if teaching him was the only reason.

Giving him a written instruction for example.

"Okay, let's get to that." Alex nodded. "I'll say this directly; a full-fledged rare tier 3 monster will appear in your next instance."

William heart skipped a beat. He knew full well how terrifying the power of a tier 3 monster; it was the same as the Hallowed Menace that almost killed him!

"Lee said that it will be a mind-affecting entity. Although it's not a high tier, their loots are usually pretty good if you can kill them." Alex gestured at Madeline. "Madeline's ability is the perfect counter of such creatures, so you don't have to worry too much."

Madeline smiled shyly in response.

"I see…" Now that made more sense!

Something about Alex's words caught William's attention though. "Did you just say that a tier 3 is not high? Just how many tiers are there?"

"Ah, I almost forgot!" Alex smacked his forehead. "Wait here, I'll go fetch something."

"Alright…" William said.

Then Alex left toward another group of people a distance away, leaving the two of them in an awkward silence.

"..." William stole a glance at Madeline.

From their interaction, he knew that this shy lady was not the one who talk much. The same goes for William; if there was nothing of importance or piqued his interest, he preferred not to talk.

Old habits die hard. Maybe because he was often humiliated in the past due to his physique, William was especially bad with women. Although he had changed, he did not know if his current self was already 'socially acceptable'.

At this moment, Madeline could feel a pair of eyes staring at her. She turned her head and instantly meeting eyes with William.

A tiny gasp escaped her mouth before she turned away. Simultaneously, William also turned away.

After a couple of seconds passed in silence, William mocked himself internally, 'Am I a chicken?'

He took a breath in before finally opening his mouth and said, "Hey, since we will work together, can we get to know each other better?"

William thought that his words were a bit inappropriate, but 'f.u.c.k it!' it was better than being awkward!

Fortunately, Madeline did not seem to mind. She turned to William once again as she sighed and said, "I suppose you're right. Sorry, I'm not good with meeting new people."

Seeing her smile, William also smile and said, "No problem, I'm not that good with talking either."

Both stared at each other's eyes for a while. Seconds later, they began to chuckle. If anyone was looking at them, they would probably be unable to resist the cringe.

"You can call me Lina," Madeline said.

"Sure, call me Will."

"Alright Will, I will explain myself… hehehe, that sounded a bit weird." She joked as she puffed her c.h.e.s.t slightly, then continued, "My weapon is… this!"

Madeline pulled out her phone, showing a drawing of what looked like an arrowhead and a sickle blade—each was attached to a long silver chain.

"Good drawing!" William commended, while silently jeering at James' creativity.

"Hehe, thank you!"

William saw that the arrowhead was colored in gold, whereas the sickle blade was shining like an amethyst.

"They look special," William said. If Madeline colored them correctly, it should be anything but normal.

"Yep! To put it simply, the sickle part has a magic power, while the arrowhead has a destructive physical power," Madeline said.

"Magic eh…" William pondered. "So, they are real..."

"Don't forget, it's a dream world after all!" Madeline giggled.

"And what about your ability?" William changed his standing position, no longer tense. "How come Alex said that you can counter mind manipulation?"

"Oh, you'll be shocked."

William chuckled. "I'll try not to."

"No, no, I mean that literally!" Madeline said in a hurry.

"Huh?" William was taken aback.

"I'm able to manipulate brainwaves, so I will have to jolt you awake in case something affect you," Madeline explained, then slightly lowered her head. "For that, I'm sorry in advance!"

"No, don't be sorry. It's for the best." Although William knew nothing about the type of monsters on the other side, he had gained some ideas of it from their conversation.

'Something like hallucinogens or illusions?' he thought to himself. Suddenly, a question came up to him. "Right, if you can change brain waves, can't you use it to wake anyone up?"

If this was the case, then it would be akin to a cheat!

Don't want to do the instance? Wake up!

Can't complete the system's tasks? Wake up!

Overwhelmed by adversaries? Wake up and restart!

"Ah, that?" Madeline shook her head and smiled wryly. "Unfortunately, it's impossible."

"Why?"

"Alex didn't tell you yet, eh?"

Just as Madeline's voice fell, another voice answered, "It's because you're pretty much dead in the real world when you go to the Nightmare realm."

Both turned their heads toward the voice, it was the Korean guy who argued with Alex before.

"Ah, hello," William greeted. "Yeonji, yes? What do you mean by dead in the real world?"

"Hi." Madeline also greeted with a smile.

Yeonji smiled back. He said as he approached William, "Simply put, it will be as if your soul drifted away to the other realm, leaving any activities in your body shut off. Again, no scientific explanation can explain this."

"Ah, so that's the case…" William sighed, no longer surprised by all these fantasy-like information coming to him.

Yeonji stood in front of William and offered his hand, on which William took for a handshake.

"Glad to have you here, William. I'm sure you have heard my arguments with Alex, so here, I will give you this."

Yeonji took out a business card and handed it to William.

The first thing he saw was a logo of a famous hospital in the area, followed by Kang Yeonji's name and a Ph. D. at the end.

William gasped in surprise, he thought that the guy was of the same age as him, but he was a PhD working in a famous hospital?

"You're a PhD?!" William could not help but ask.

"It's nothing, really." Yeonji waved a hand dismissively. "You know that us, Dream Treaders, possess an enhanced brain."

"Hm… That's true."

"Anyway, I know this is a bit early, but I really need someone to manage the midrange in my team! So please, if you want to join any squad in the near future, consider mine."

Seeing him being sincere, William said for the sake of politeness, "Alright."

"Thanks." Yeonji then added jokingly, "Youngster like us should take the chance to be freed from boomers!"

"Who's the boomer?" Another voice suddenly came from behind Yeonji.

"Shit!" Yeonji turned around to see Alex's face right in front of his.

"Ahaha…" Yeonji gave an awkward all the while retreating one step at a time to his group. "I'll go now, see you later!"

Yeonji left the scene…

Alex sighed audibly, mumbling, "Youngsters these days."

William really had the urge to reply with, "Ok boomer." but chose to hold back… for the sake of politeness!

Eventually, Alex shoved a thick textbook toward William. He said, "Here, the current records of monsters that thousands of Dream Treaders had reported throughout the years. It's not a guarantee that everything is in it though."

"Thank you." William took the book.

"Now that that's done, come, let's enjoy the party!" Alex waved his hand. But he noticed something midways. "Ah, are you two still need more time to talk to each other?"

"Do we?" Madeline replied and stared at William to see his reaction.

William stared back. He saw Madeline smiling at him, somehow he could feel that she also wanted to meet up with other people as well.

William smiled, replying to Alex, "Nah, we're good, let's go."

On the way back to the group of people, James was once again being the one to approach William. Meanwhile, Alex and Madeline waved at William and return toward their own respective smaller group of acquaintances.

"Talk to you later," Madeline said as she went away.

James waited for Madeline to walk for a distance, before he slung his hand over William's shoulder and whispered, "Took your interest, huh?"

"Hmm… maybe?"

"Come on, dude! You can't a girl with that unsure tone of yours!"

"Have you got one yourself?" William sneered.

James snorted. "Hmph! Back in highschool, this casanova-"

"Alright, alright, I heard that story way too much." William put up both of his hands.

"Tch, fine!" James grumbled. "You're free now, right? Let's grab some food, then I will introduce you to some people here!"

William smiled. He was thankful that he had James as his friend, who could cover up for his lack of social skills. To be fair, William was the type of person who liked to listen more than talk, as such he had so many friends who were similar to James.

"Sure, let's."

In the future, this was probably the day William remembered the most. The day he began his path as a Dream Treader, the day he had made the most friends, the day his whole life changed, and most importantly... the day he met the love of his life.