Dreamland: Freedom (Terror Infinity, Ultimate Evolution)

Eden ended up spending most of his week before his 1st mission in the Training Grounds, not only in the Intelligence Room but also in the other rooms.

It had only taken Eden a couple of hours to determine the language in which his copy of the Necronomicon was written and to find a reliable translator for it, which cost Eden 500 Dream Points. It was a steep price for a mere dictionary, especially since he had to do all the work himself, but it was worth it.

As it turned out, Ancient Sumerian Runes was a rather valuable language. It took Eden two days to learn the entire language. If he had doubts before, now he knew for sure that his boosted Intelligence impacted his learning speed.

He had always been a quick learner, and he knew a few languages, but learning a complete language in two days was well above anything Eden had ever done.

The speed at which he learned it also had to do with the language itself, though. It was not a language that had been created to be spoken, so once Eden had learned each of the 21 basic runes, all he had left to do was to learn how they could be combined to create complex runes, which were combinations of several basic runes.

In any case, once he had learned to read the Ancient Sumerian Runes, Eden started reading the Necronomicon, and was quickly greeted with a surprise. All this while, he had believed he would find spells inside the book. That was what he had been led to believe by other players as well.

As it turned out, though, there were no spells written inside. Eden considered what he found to be even more valuable.

Instead of being directly given spells, the book taught the basics of Dark Magic, which he could use to create his spells of said school. Creating one's spells was supposed to be very difficult, especially if it were spells of one's own level, but this book rendered the process much easier.

On the second day, Eden learned that while studying the basics and core foundations of magic was related to Intelligence, actually using that knowledge to create spells and master them was associated with Wisdom instead. That was where Eden spent the majority of his time, doing his best to decipher the concepts held within the book and using them to create dark spells.

After a week, although Eden could not even come close to boasting of having mastered everything within the book, he did read it several times and became familiar with its contents. Although he could not understand everything that was written in it, he theorized that he should be able to create spells up to the second or third Circle once he did.

For now, though, he had only managed to create three 1st Circle spells. Eden may have been able to learn more if he had spent all his time in the magical rooms, but he did not want to restrain himself to a single path.

Among all his attributes, Wisdom was the one Eden had known the least about. All the others he could guess what they did, but this one, other than the fact that it was related to magic, he knew nothing.

Now, though, Eden had learned that where Intelligence was the quantity of one's mana, Wisdom was the ability to control it. It did not directly impact the strength of Eden's spells, but raising it allowed him to gain greater control over his spells, thus mastering them more easily, which would lead to lowering their prices and enhancing their damage.

His Wisdom had improved rapidly with him learning his spells. What had helped the most was learning [Strengthened Fireball], as it was a 2nd Circle Spell. It had been harder to learn, and it was even more difficult to master, but it was quite powerful.

Another interesting effect of the Wisdom Room was that Eden's mana recovery had been drastically increased inside. On the highest setting, Eden would only take a few seconds to recover all of his MP.

This allowed him to improve at a breakneck speed and learn four spells in a single week. Actually, in less than a week, since Eden had also spent a good amount of time in the rooms for other Attributes.

Despite spending so much time in the Training Center, Eden still had plenty of Dream Points to spare. Training for a week had consumed 4000 Dream Points, but his SW1911 had earned him 6000 Dream Points, after Maggie's commission, meaning he had even more Dream Points than before he started his training. That was a good price for an Uncommon weapon.

That was why he had allowed himself to splurge a little. For his path as a mage, Eden already had more than enough equipment with the Necronomicon, and he likely would not find anything better for quite some time, so he chose not to buy anything that would serve him as a mage.

He did not buy any equipment either, as those that would be useful to him would be too expensive, and he believed he would be able to find them during missions. He also did not want to limit his own path by buying a bunch of equipment, and instead used what he found. That was something Guts had advised him to do, although he did not explain why.

In the end, Eden had instead decided to buy a personalized training within the Personalized Training Room. It was the most unique of the training rooms, and one could train basically anything once inside, from what Eden saw.

Eden decided to buy a virtual instructor who taught him close-quarter combat, or CQC, as well as fighting with a machete. The Specialized Room also worked differently from the others in its price, as staying inside did not actually cost anything.

Instead, one would buy whatever they wanted to add to the room. For Eden, he had to buy the techniques he had wanted to learn, as well as the virtual instruction. The price had been steep, but now that he had bought them, he could go to the Personalized Room at any time and learn them without having to pay anything.

While training, Eden clearly felt the difference in his physical and magical potential. He was several times more efficient at anything magic, compared to physical training. But MP was a limited resource, and Eden did not want to turn into a helpless lamb ready for slaughter once his MP ran out, so he persevered and learned how to fight like a warrior.

Another factor that led him to train as a warrior was because of something he had learned when he passed by the Nightmare Realm. He did not spend much time there, actually, he only went there when he had something to buy or to sell, but while he did so, he learned that mages were often seen differently within mission worlds by NPCs.

That was because a warrior, even if inhumanly strong, remained in the realm of the comprehensible for most people, and warriors were also often seen as trustworthy and direct, while a mage was of the realm of the unordinary, of the mysterious, so NPCs tended to treat mages weirdly.

There would be even some settings in which mages would be actively hunted by NPCs if their nature was discovered, so being able to pass as a warrior was important. Also, Eden had people hunting him, so if he could keep some of his weapons a secret, he would.

Lastly, Eden had bought four potions, two Minor Health Potions, and two Minor Mana Potions. He would have bought more, but they cost him 500 Dream Points each.

[Minor Health Potions]

[Rank: Common]

[Effect: Restore 25 HP upon consumption.]

[Minor Mana Potions]

[Rank: Common]

[Effect: Restore 25 MP upon consumption.]

Eden would have bought more of them, but the potions just cost too many Dream Points for what they recovered. It already pained Eden to buy four of them, but he still did because while the recovered HP and MP were not much, it could still help in a desperate situation.

Anyway, that was about it for his week, and it would soon be time for his mission. Before it started, Eden threw one last glance at his status screen.

[Name: Ozymandias]

[Title: Monster Hunter II, STD Free]

[Talent: Soul Overlord]

[HP: 100/100]

[MP: 200/200]

[Strength: 8 (10)]

[Agility: 9]

[Physique: 10]

[Intelligence: 17 (20)]

[Wisdom: 16 (18)]

[Skills: Analyse (Support), Demon Claw (1st Circle), Dark Pool (1st Circle), Evil Possession (1st Circle), Strengthened Fireball (2nd Circle)]

[Currency: 7150 Dream Points]

Eden's stats had improved quite a lot, with his Intelligence being raised the least, with only 1 Attribute Point. Still, it remained his highest stat. On the other hand, Wisdom had gone through the most drastic change, going from 11 to 16 and almost catching up to his Intelligence. That was from creating and learning his four spells.

Eden had been fine with only gaining a single point in Intelligence as well, since with the Necronomicon's copy equipped, Eden had just enough MP to cast Dark Bolt, which could be his trump card.

The week over, Eden was back in his personal room, which only he could access unless he granted someone else access, and he was mentally preparing himself for his next mission. He had already bought everything that could be of use to him, so now he had to prepare himself psychologically.

Unlike in the Tutorial, Eden would not be the only player in the next mission world. The other players would also not necessarily have the same mission as him, and could be in a completely different region of the same world, but if there was something Eden had been warned about by other Nightmares, it was that he would definitely clash with other players, bounty or not.

Some would pick missions clashing with his own, some would be greedy for his equipment and Dream Points, and some would just attack for the thrill of the hunt. Adding to that, the open contract from the Holy Order, this mission ought to be dangerous.

Eden was not afraid, though. If anything, he was excited. According to other Nightmares, missions were always fair, and Dreamland placed players in worlds suited to their power levels, unless there were some extraordinary circumstances. It would not make sense to send a player capable of destroying a planet, if that even existed, into a world like Friday the 13th. Any mission would become pointless before them, and other players would get crushed.

And even if he was sent into a world with an extremely large power scale, the system would put limits on it so that higher-ranked players could not just massively slaughter lower-ranked players at a whim.

As only a few minutes remained before the start of his first mission, Eden ended up in front of his mirror. His room had been given to him by the system for free, and he could customize it any way he wanted.

Eden had simply gone for his old room.

Staring at his double in the mirror, Eden saw a handsome man with semi-long raven dark hair, high cheekbones, sharp features, and deep black eyes.

But while his features had not changed, Eden could spot differences. His once still, empty black eyes now held a depth of expectation to them, and an unmistakable excitement. It added to his charm, in his opinion.

[Time until 1st Mission: 0:00:00]

[Calculating Challenge Rating… Mission Adjusted.]

[World: Pirates of the Caribbean]

[Main Mission (Enrolment): Who doesn't love some drama? Join either a Pirate Crew or the Navy. If you do not succeed in joining either, you will be hunted by both for the rest of the mission.]