Layers Of Nightmare

"..." William went slack-jawed at the language that was so foreign to his ears. If anything, it sounded like a complete gibberish.

"Say that again."

Contrary to his expectation, Madeline shook her head and said, "Try it, I'm sure you'll be surprised."

William lifted a brow, wondering why Madeline was so insistent, but he decided to try it anyway.

"A-" Just as the voice left his throat, something seemed to take control of his tongue. "עם הקודש בדם שלי, הדם שמגרש את השטן. What?!"

That instant, the Desert Eagle in his left hand exuded a silver glow before a similar clink resounded from it.

Seeing William getting dumbfounded, Madeline could not resist her laugh. "Ahahaha! Told ya you'll get surprised."

"How did that happened?"

"Once you heard the spell in this realm, you can just simply will it to recall it, neat right?"

"Ah…" William nodded slowly. "But you still hasn't answered my question."

Madeline shrugged. "Many thought that it was caused by our superhuman mental capability, which is further enhanced in this realm. As for who discovered the spell? No one knows."

"Hmm." William pondered about the existence of the Nightmare realm, the true forefathers of Dream Treaders, the system who assisted them since the time unknown. These stuff of fantasy that were full of horrific mystery…

He shook his head inwardly. Thinking about all of these now was useless, not to mention that he was a newcomer.

"How about you try firing a round?" Madeline said. "Get a feel on the firepower of your gun."

"Alright."

Knowing how great a Desert Eagle recoil was, William unequipped his sword and held the gun with both hands—right hand on the grip and trigger, left hand supporting underneath.

"I see that you have found out how to store your weapons too," Madeline said with a smile.

William shook his head. "It wasn't much of a thought."

Readying himself, William aimed the gun to the ground then pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The sound of mini explosion echoed around the tiny room, slightly hurting his ears. A new hole was formed on the floor, where a silver bullet was stuck.

To his amazement, the recoil was actually not as strong as he thought. Was it because of his newfound strength, or was it because of the firearms' characteristics of this realm?

Meanwhile, another clink resounded from the gun, signalling that it has been reloaded automatically. It did not even eject an empty bullet shell.

"Think you can use it with a single hand?" Madeline asked.

"Yeah," William said, astonished. "To be fair, I didn't expect it to be that light."

"Good! Now if you want to turn the 'safety lock' back on, use this spell: לְהַגלוֹת."

"לְהַגלוֹת." William followed suit.

Another dim lighting covered the two guns, before a stream of silver aura flowed out of them and into their arms.

William pulled the trigger once more. When a "click" was heard, he knew that the gun was empty.

"You don't need to say them out loud everytime, just a chant in your heart will do," Madeline explained, making her way back to sat on the bed. "You know the cost of firing one, so use them wisely, okay?"

"Right." William nodded, then asked, "How about the sword? Is there any spell to boost its power?"

"For that, you'll have to find out yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"Every weapon has their own unique effect and prowess."

Madeline unequipped her Lupara and lifted both of her hands. A golden aura suddenly burst out of the arrow head dangling from her right wrist, while a soft purple aura swam out of the sickle blade dangling from her left wrist.

"I believe I have shown you a picture of them," Madeline said. "The spell I used for my weapon wouldn't work for yours because they have different structure to begin with."

"By that logic, can I get spells from other sword users?" After all, his weapon had a semblance to sword.

"Hm…" Madeline pondered, pinching her chin with her thumb and index finger. "You can try asking, but I can't guarantee it will work either."

William frowned. "Then how do I find a spell that will work?"

"To keep it short, by using them to battle. A LOT of battle!"

"That's truly a simple way to put it." William laughed. "I suppose the spell just naturally came to mind as you battle?"

"You guessed it right!" Madeline smiled. "So don't worry if you haven't got one, it will come sooner or later."

"Great!"

Suddenly, a machine voice entered their ears, causing them to tense up.

"[Barrier will be down in five minutes. Loading tasks…]"

Madeline hurriedly took her backpack and stood up. "Pick up your spatial bag and get ready. We will do a quick briefing!"

Even if Madeline did not say anything, William was sure to slung his sling bag. He then equipped his Desert Eagle and chant the spell to reload it.

"Alright, there are several clues we can get from the riddle alone. One, the fact that this instance is a forest instance, which I mentioned previously. Two, there will be at least two groups of boss-class monstrosity in this instance; the first being the mother-child pair and the second being the dancing couple. Do you find anything else, Wil?"

Unlike her previous shy self, Madeline had fully revealed her capability as a veteran at that moment. Her expression serious, and her voice was loud and clear.

However, there was one thing that made William uneasy…

"What about the third one?"

A short question, but it caused Madeline's heart to shook. "What do you mean?"

William had also noticed that something was wrong. "It's hard to say, but there's another line containing a broken word after the one with the dancing couple. Is it worth noting?"

Madeline quickly shut her eyes for a second before asking, "Welcome to the blind forest?"

"No, no, there's another line before that one."

Madeline's frown deepened. She immediately took out her red orb of communication from the backpack and typed in a message.

"Unexpected situation occurred, in need of backup. Grand Sublime Hotel, 109. Code: unknown."

After saying that, Madeline pulled out a hand bell, then shook it.

Ting~ ting~ ting~

William just stayed silent over the entire situation. He knew that the anomaly he saw must be precarious for Madeline to call for immediate backup.

"Did Ines give you a bell like this?" Madeline asked. "Please ring it thrice if you have it."

"Okay." William took out the bell from his spatial sling bag and shook it.

Ting~ ting~ ting~

Another crisp melody resounded in the room.

Although William was curious about the series of procedure Madeline just did, he resisted the urge to ask anything as it may disturb her concentration.

Madeline peered at the system, noticing that they still have another three minutes remaining.

"Since we still have some time, I will quickly explain to you the procedure of calling back-ups in case you need it in the future," Madeline said, meeting eyes with William.

William nodded. "I'm listening."

"Let me start with our danger codes, which you need to explain in the red orb of communication where possible. You can see the request format in the message I just sent to the group."

William took out his own red orb and saw the message Madeline just sent. He understood that this format was to hasten information communication.

Putting the red orb back, William gestured at Madeline, saying, "Go on."

"Currently, we have four codes: green, blue, red, and unknown.

"Code 'green' signifies the lowest danger, it basically tells that you are in no danger and only need backup for menial tasks such as additional manpower for looting or assist you to explore clear areas.

"Code 'blue' signifies that you are in no immediate danger. Use this code if you require additional firepower or in need of specific Dream Treader's abilities to handle certain anomalies or adversaries you otherwise cannot beat.

"Code 'red' signifies a life-threatening danger. You can rang the magic handbell five or more times and the association will send urgent backup of high-ranked Dream Treaders.

"And finally, code 'unknown', which is our current situation…"

"An unspecified non-immediate danger and unknown anomalies?" William replied.

Madeline nodded and said with a heavy tone, "That's right. Although we're in no immediate danger, the unknown is definitely the most threatening."

William nodded solemnly. "So, what are we gonna do now?"

"Any high-ranked Dream Treaders close to our position in the real world will make haste to intrude our instance, but until then-"

Before she got to finish, the whole place shook whilst a monotone voice returned.

"[Deploying tasks.]"

The pair quickly closed their eyes. Revealed underneath their eyelids was a new silver prompt.

[Amidst the forest of the damned lies a golden tree that does not fear the darkness, nor the evil within.]

[New Task added]

[1. Find the mythical golden tree]

[2. Pluck the fruit of the golden tree]

Both had the same system prompt up until that point, but as for William…

[Bonus Task]

[1. Find out the mystery of n̶̨͞o̡҉̸̨t̶͡͠h̷͟i҉̨ń̢̧g͘͏̨]

Madeline said once more, "Until then, we will directly go for the main objectives and try to survive as long as we can."