Dreamer's Throne

Settling into the Dreamer’s Throne, Garrett closed his eyes and activated his connection with Viper, his view shifting to his First Guardian. Viper and the others had just left Dreamer’s Rest and stepped into the dream, passing through the connection that Garrett had created between his personal dream and the inn in the dream. With the flowers at their back providing a bright glow that chased back the fog for a good distance, the team could see for quite a ways, though that did little to reduce the spooky nature of the dream world.

Next to Viper, Pax, who was the former Swamp Shark Hollice, hefted her axe, licking her lips in nervous anticipation. She had been following Viper for the last two months and was almost used to this new, creepy world that she had fallen into. The flower ghouls still creeped her out, but as long as she didn’t look at them too often, she found herself able to keep it together. All of the weapons and equipment that the team was using had been created from their own mental energy, and all of them could feel a subtle drain as they walked through the fog shrouded streets.

For the first mission, Garrett had requested that they explore the nearby streets, slowly clearing the fog. As they did so, he was planning on planting flowers in strategic locations, ensuring that the fog wouldn’t return. However, he was worried that the flowers would begin attracting the attention of the nearby nightmares. The lesser nightmares were no match for the flowers, but the stronger nightmares would not only be able to consume the flowers, but would also grow stronger as the monsters absorbed the energy the flowers contained. Carefully moving forward, Viper kept an eye on the alleyways and twisting streets, but it was actually Maren who stopped the group, his gaze flickering as he stared into the fog ahead.

“Something the matter? Viper’s voice rasped in the darkness.

“There is some sort of creature up there. It… it doesn’t seem dangerous.”

“Practically everything in this place is dangerous,” Pax said, sounding like she was speaking from experience.

A moment later, a small hooded figure drifted out of the fog, its hood close to the ground. Immediately, Garrett recognized it as a Seeking Wraith, one of the first nightmares he had ever encountered. Giving a command to Viper, he watched as Viper’s sword flickered, glinting in the faint light as the adventurer rushed forward. Stabbing down, Viper’s blade tore through the ragged cloth that covered the nightmare’s head, meeting faint resistance as it punctured the monster’s large eye and continued down to the cobblestones below. Writhing, the Seeking Wraith vanished, leaving Viper standing alone in the road.

“Whoa! That was quick,” Pax said, jogging over.

“I thought it would have been harder to kill,” Asher said, his expression dour as he stared at the spot where the nightmare had died.

“Be thankful it wasn’t,” Estel replied, shivering slightly. “Did you see the eye on that thing? Disgusting.”

Crouching down, Kinsley ran his hand over the empty stones but came up with nothing. Shaking his head, he stood up and shrugged.

“Nothing a blade or a bit of flame won’t solve.”

“Flame? Can you even use your powers in here?” Maron asked.

Smirking, Kinsley ran his hand through his flame colored hair and pulled away a spark that transformed into a tongue of flame.

“I can. Which probably means that all of you can too. Asher, you have tamer abilities, right? Think they’ll work on these nightmares?”

Thinking for a moment, Asher nodded.

“Don’t see why not.”

“What about you, Estel?”

“Not sure. Hit someone with that flame of yours and I can try it out,” Estel said dryly, causing Kinsley to chuckle and extinguish the flame.

“Maron’s scouting ability clearly works, so we just have Pax and Viper. What are your abilities anyway?”

Raising her arm, Pax flexed her impressive bicep.

“Strength and damage absorption. His powers are speed based.”

“Then it seems like Geller is correct,” Kinsley said, his eyes gleaming as he stared at the fog around them. “If we can use our powers here, we’ve got a whole world waiting for us to plunder.”

“It’s more than that.”

Viper’s raspy voice caused everyone to fall silent and look over. Garrett had been paying close attention when Viper had killed the Seeking Wraith, and he had been excited to see a small portion of the nightmare’s strength attaching itself to Viper’s soul spark. As it melted in, the soul spark brightened slightly, causing Viper’s strength to inch up.

“I gained something when I killed that monster,” Viper continued, putting his sword away. “It was some sort of energy that strengthened my soul spark. I have a feeling that if we keep killing the nightmares, we might actually grow stronger in the process.”

The pregnant silence that met his words lasted a whole minute until Kinsley couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Are you serious? Because that is crazy, if that is true.”

As the group began to excitedly discuss the possibilities of gaining strength as they killed monsters, Garrett opened his eyes, his mind turning. So far, his test was going well, but the fact that killing the Seeking Wraith had strengthened Viper, if only a tiny bit, changed his plan considerably. Originally, he had been planning on luring awakened into the dream with the promise of dream artifacts like the shield that he had created, but if Viper’s strength increase was reflected in the real world, as he suspected it would be, he would have no need of creating elaborate rewards.

Instead, he could create a natural ecosystem where Dreamer’s Rest served as a hub for teams going out into the dream to grow and improve. At the same time, he could still issue his quests, helping them improve even faster. The more awakened there were, the faster they would clear the nightmares around the inn and the further out they would have to push. This suited Garrett just fine, as he was hoping to create a buffer around the inn to protect against the attacks that he knew were going to be coming.

Already, the flower ghouls were expanding their territory in the crypts that ran under this part of the city, and the Family was slowly increasing its influence above ground. This just left the dream as a weakness in the inn’s defenses. If it could be closed by a horde of awakened, Garrett thought he might finally feel safe. On top of that, he had still gotten his experience point when Viper killed the Seeking Wraith, and he was hoping that the same thing would happen when the others killed nightmares as well. Each carried one of the dream flowers, and Garrett was looking forward to seeing his experience points starting to grow again.

Each time he leveled up, the number of experience points he needed for the next level doubled, and if he was correct, he would have to level up three more times before he got to the manifesting level, so currently all of his attention was focused on figuring out how to set up an experience farming system. Having other awakened farming experience for him seemed to be the best idea so far, and his mind spun with possibilities. After watching the team of awakened combing through the streets around Dreamer’s Rest, Garrett felt his connection to the dream weakening and knew that it was soon going to be dawn. Before he was kicked out, he opened up his status once again and checked out what abilities he had.

STATUS

NAME: Garrett Klein

PATH: Path of the Watcher

SUB-PATH: Dream Gardener

LEVEL: 4

EXP: 98/160

ABILITIES: [6/10]

Whisper of the Dream [1]

Observe the Dream [3]

Dream Seed [3]

Dreamer’s Cloak [1]

Beautiful Bewitchment [2]

Spirit-sucking Thorns [1]

[Whisper of the Dream]

-You have gained the ability to communicate with those who can walk the Dream.

Skill Level: 1

[Observe the Dream]

-You have gained the ability to see the Dream clearly.

-The energy cost of activating this ability has been reduced.

-You may now use your other abilities while using Observe the Dream.

Skill Level: 3

[Dream Seed]

-You have seized one of [???????], Crimson Eye of Shalmoroth’s abilities, Dream Seed.

1 EXP - Observation Seed

2 EXP - Communication Seed

3 EXP - Loyalty Seed

6 EXP - Guardian Seed [1/1]

(Other types of seeds locked)

-You can now plant seeds anywhere in the Dream and nourish them yourself.

You can now set your Dream Flowers to the following states:

-Defend [Default] - Dream Flowers will actively protect their hosts, or locations, from nightmares.

-Hunt - Dream Flowers will release spores to attract nightmares with the intent of consuming them.

-Growth - Dream Flowers will absorb the mental energy of their host or any creature that enters their location with the intent of growing stronger.

Skill Level: 3

[Dreamer’s Cloak]

-You have gained the ability to use the Dream to cloak your presence, reducing the likelihood that you will be seen.

Skill Level: 1

[Guide Growth - Beautiful Bewitchment]

Your Dream Flowers grow, guided by your will to become objects of supernatural beauty. Those who look upon them cannot help but become enthralled.

Modify Dream Seed: Increase the bewitchment ability of Dream Flowers, strengthening your influence on hosts.

Modify Dream Flowers: Clusters of Dream Flowers will now produce a bewitching scent that will have one of the following effects:

-Distract: Affected targets will grow distracted and forget what they were doing until the effect wears off.

-Enthrall: Affected targets will grow enthralled and peacefully admire the flowers until the effect wears off.

-Enrage: Affected targets will grow enraged and attack anyone around them until the effect wears off.

Skill Level: 2

[Guide Growth – Spirit-sucking Thorns]

Your Dream Flowers grow, guided by your will to become fearsome predators, hiding sharp thorns under their beautiful petals.

Modify Dream Seed: Increase the attack strength of Dream Flowers by improving their ability to consume the mental energy of their hosts and enemies.

Skill Level: 1

Garrett’s skills were concentrated almost entirely on the dream flowers, which made him slightly nervous, but also made sense for the path that he was taking. The flowers were incredibly powerful, and allowed him to do a number of different things that he wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. A good example was his [Whisper of the Dream] ability. The first level only allowed him to talk to someone he touched, but with the flowers, he had found that he could communicate with anyone who was near one. It became even easier if they carried a dream seed or blooming dream flowers, meaning that he didn’t need to spend one of his precious skill points on upgrading it.

The dream flowers themselves were becoming formidable, and between their bewitchment ability and their increased offensive ability, Garrett felt confident in his capacity to protect himself from most things. In the back of his mind, however, were those two Chosen who he had seen fighting in the streets of the city. While the flowers were enough to deal with low and standard level nightmares, he was pretty sure that either one of the greater nightmares would tear through them without much trouble.

To that end, he wanted to start upgrading his other forces. Specifically Viper and now Pax, who would be better able to deal with the more powerful nightmares, especially if they were supported by the dream flowers. Even better would be an entire army of awakened. Feeling like a rough plan was starting to come together, Garrett closed his eyes and woke up on his bed. Early dawn light was just starting to spill into his room, and for a moment, he just lay there, his mind still spinning. Finally, with a sigh, he sat up and pulled himself over to the side of the bed.

It had taken him a long while to learn how to get himself around, but he felt like he was slowly adapting to his situation more each day. Much of the confusion he had felt over who he was when he first arrived in this world had faded, and more and more, Garrett had come to understand that he was his own distinct person. Both Garrett, the young nobleman, and Joseph, the cold, calculating accountant, were gone, replaced by whoever he was now. In many ways, that was a freeing thought, as it released him from the baggage that each of them had, but in another way it caused a thread of anxiety to spin through his heart.

Having a history, having a past, was an anchor, and it was an anchor that Garrett lacked. He had been trying to build his own anchor, through the dream flowers and the inn, but there was an impermanence to it that frightened him. As if everything would suddenly fly away, or dissipate like a broken dream. Shaking his head, he pulled his chair over and levered himself into it. There was little point in dwelling on his fears so he chose to push them aside, focusing instead on the mountain of tasks that lay in front of him.

After a light breakfast at his desk, Garrett got down to his latest project. The supplies that the Ghoul’s Tooth gang had liberated from the crown’s warehouses had been either used up or sold, and currently Garrett was trying to ensure that they could get more. According to the whispers, the city gates would be reopened at some point in the next few weeks, but Garrett had another idea. The Dreamer’s Inn was located near the city’s bay, and according to a few of the old timers in the Family, the tunnel system that the Ghoul’s Tooth gang had made their fortunes on used to have a route that went under the city wall.

For the last week, Garrett had been having his flower ghouls expand in that direction, hoping to find the collapsed tunnel and reopen it. Ghouls were better at digging than any excavating crew, and Garrett was hoping to open up a new route out into the swamp. Even when the Royal Duke reopened the city, he was sure to declare a heavy tax on the merchants shipping goods in and out of the city, just like the king before him had, so Garrett wanted to get ahead of it, providing a less strict way for the merchants to do their trades.

Best of all, he would be able to run the whole system without anyone being the wiser. It would be simple to have the merchants drop their goods off in the crypts under the city, transport them outside the wall using the flower ghouls as his labor force, and then leave them for the smugglers who would take them through the swamp. Garrett was already starting to collect additional nest stones, working on expanding the number of flower ghouls by having them destroy the other undead they encountered and was slowly expanding the area they controlled. All in all, things seemed to be proceeding smoothly, and Garrett was more than happy with their progress.