CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Dream Walker
WARNING! Members of the Pantheon have noticed your ritual!“Bloody hell!”
Sweat dripped down Bram’s brow.
“We’re not ready for their attention…”
He tried to rise from the chamber’s cold stone floor, but Rowan ed her hand around his and pulled him bato her arms.
“Worry not, My Prince.” She iwined her fingers with his fingers. “They ot see us…”
ALERT! Phoebus’ gaze has turo the Atn Imperium.Bram’s free hand flew to his sword’s hilt, which he realized a sed ter was a foolish act. For what could bastion-fed steel do against the sun god?
“Don’t be afraid,” Rowan whispered into Bram’s ear. “They ot hear us…”
ALERT! June’s gaze has drifted to Lotharin.“They ell us…”
Her breath tickled his skin.
ALERT! Pals’ gaze is fixed on Sundermount.“They ot touch us…”
Her lips pressed against his neck, drawing out the ay from Bram’s body along with the blood she sipped from him.
A moan escaped the prince’s lips.
He wasn’t sure how long she fed, but eventually, her lips parted from his ned the pleasure he felt from her touch vanished.
In his mind, he wanted her to keep going, to sate her hunger by taking more of his blood in that blissful way that set him afire…but Bram didn’t say this aloud. He couldn’t. trol of his senses was returning to him, and with it came the embarrassment of one who’d overindulged in a drug in which he alone could partake.
When Roulled away from Bram, her cheeks showed a rosy tinge. She looked full of life unlike a minute ago when the ordeal of her sorcery had sapped her plexion of color.
“And even if they knew where to look…”
Rowan’s gaze drifted zily away from Bram’s flushed face toward the chamber entrance. Long moments passed by without anything or anyone arriving to disturb their vigil…not even a passing breeze.
“…They would do nothing.”
She rose from the ground where she sat o him. Then she ughed. It was ughter of a girlish sort but with a hint of mali its echo.
“The gods are impotent without their champions,” Rowan scoffed. “We need not worry about an enter…not yet.”
Hers was quite the decration sidering that three of the most promi members of the pantheon ruling High Heaven—the Sun God Phoebus, June, Mother of Life, and Pals, Keeper of Knowledge—had turheir attention to the mortal world. ‘She Who Knows’ had even pinpoihe mountain from which Rowan had cast sorcery potent enough to break the fual ws of two worlds. Yet despite this btant flouting of their rules and the distortion it caused to the fabric of the world they goverhe gods did nothing. Rowan’s cim proved true.
Still, the pantheon showing i in the mortal world was so rare that mortals who witheir portents in the heavens were left with their mouths agape while feeling a sense of wonder, fusion, and even fear striking through them… Meanwhile, the two rulebreakers who’d drawn the gods’ gazes cared not for their attention. Bram, whose mind was still rec from the trickster’s bite, and Rowan, who was busy iing the item she’d just acquired from another world.
“I expected something mmorous.” She sounded disappointed. “Perhaps one of those moving pictures I saw in your visions…”
Rowahe metal der in her hand with fusion flitting across her face.
“‘Tis cold to the touch…” she observed. “Perhaps it’s a on of some sort?”
“I don’t think it’s a on…” Bram blinked. Owice, and then a third time to ensure his mind was his. Only then did he decide to speak again. “It looks more like one of the ever-heating fsks we keep our tea in.”
“A drink then…?”
Rowan shook the der, causing the sound of sloshing liquid to reach their ears.
“I wouldn’t—”
She pierced its top with her nail—and a frothy brown liquid exploded out of it to spsh across her face.
“—do that,” Bram finished mely.
The otherworldly knowledge he gleaned from his dreams proved accurate this time too because he khat one should never shake liquid trapped in a tainer lest they wished to be doused in it, though he didn’t uand why this rea could occur within so tiny a thing.
To her credit, Rowan didn’t fly into a tantrum like most of the highborn dies of the Imperium would have if they suffered from such a mishap. Instead, she brushed her finger against the bead of brown liquid sliding down her cheek and then pressed it to her lips.
“It’s sweet,” she whispered.
“Is it?” Bram asked curiously, though it may not have been the beverage’s taste but the way she tasted it that caught the prince’s i.
To his secret delight, she offered to let him try it in the same way she’d done. Funnily enough, it was in this promising position—Bram pressing his lips against Rowan’s outstretched fihat they were ihey felt the wind stir.
“Um, should I e back ter?” came a familiar voice.
He appeared nearby as if spat out by starlight, with bits of stardust still ging to his body.
“Good evening, Hajime,” said Rowan who disentangled herself from Bram’s side.
With an apologetice at Bram, Hajime greeted Rowan back with, “H-Hello!”
“I didn’t expect you to return without my summoning you…nor fully clothed.” Curiosity fshed on Rowan’s face. “Iing…very iing.”
Hajime hadn’t arrived on Aarde like a newborn babe this time. Instead, he wore the same loose-fitting shirt and trousers they’d given him before.
Bram recalled that when Hajime left Aarde the previous night, the Loom had asked him if he wao save his progress. Hajime’s current state must’ve been what the system meant, and if so, then this solved one of the issues Bram had been ed with when he first met Hajime. Starting over on Aarde after dying once seemed a harsh enough challenge, but to lose all of ohings wheurning to Earth and then ing back to Aarde without one’s hard-earned loot seemed a hellish endeavor even for Bram.
A new grew on the prince’s mind though; the fact that the otherworlder appeared unbidden, and so close to where he and the trickster were too.
What if she or I had been taking a bath? he wondered. What if we were both in the same—
Bram knew better than to finish that thought especially since Rowan could sometimes glean his thoughts through his emotions.
“To be able to record the state of your st visit”—Rowan’s fingers brushed the fabric of Hajime’s shirt—“means the Loom is more than a simple tool for training… ‘Tis powerful, this strange sorcery.”
Rowan cast a sideways g Bram.
“A pity it doesn’t work the same with you, my prince,” she said.
“Most likely because I’m not a soul plucked from another world,” he replied, desperately trying not to think green-mihoughts now that her gaze was on him and failing miserably. Bram cleared his throat and quickly turhe spotlight ba Hajime, “What were you doing before ing here?”
“Um,” Hajime’s brow creased, “I think I just closed my eyes…”
The otherworlder reted the moments before his soul was whisked away to Aarde, expining to them how he had the most awkward versation with his friends, who, with a lot of ving and copious amounts of alcohol, finally agreed to sleep in his apartment so that they too might visit the new world he’d allegedly visited.
“I don’t think they believed me even after they dozed off,” Hajime admitted. Then, in an uone, added, “They were just drunk enough to py along…”
ed that Aarde ah time weren’t synized like he first believed, Hajime y down and shut his eyes thirty minutes before the schedule he’d pnned with Rowan the night before.
“I was worried that I dreamed all of this…” His gaze drifted to the round depression at the ter of the summoning chamber. Wonder and relief filled his face. “I’m happy this pce isn’t a dream…”
“You returned here thanks to wish fulfillment…” One of Bram’s eyebrows hitched upward. “Is that even possible…?”
“Not usually.” Rowan’s expression turned ptive. “Without a summoning from our side, a duit to allow the transfer of a soul would be necessary.”
Bram nodded.
They’d already expio Hajime st night that they wished to use the virtual reality device he called the ‘Visionary II’ for the totem that would allow otherworlders’ souls to travel to Aarde.
“But we’ve yet to establish the liween the Loom, the ritual, and the Earther’s device,” Bram reiterated. “So, how is Hajime here?”
The prince couldn’t help feeling anxious. His new panion’s unscheduled arrival awakened a possibility he didn’t expect; they might not have full trol of the otherworlders’ ings and goings.
But, while Bram worried over this possibility, curiosity was alight in Rowan’s eyes. “I suspect Hajime could be a dream walker.”
“Bloody hell,” the prince whispered.
Dream walkers were sorcerers who could ehe dreams of others to reshape their dreamscape, influence minds, or even harm the dreamer. There were even ats of powerful dream walkers crossing into other realms through the dreaming. Tales of such people were plentiful, for there were famous sorcerers in Imperium history who cimed to possess this rare trait.
“The touagic may have awakened Hajime’s tent talent, allowing him to travel to Aarde since he wished to visit us again in his dreams.” Rowan looked delighted. “If I guessed right, our new friend has great potential for sorcery.”
Hajime, who’d been iing the two beasts sacrificed to summon a single of soda to Aarde, looked up now, his cheeks fring red in embarrassment.
“No,” he nervously swatted his hand in the air, “I-I’m not special… This is just…”
Bram guessed Hajime was about to say ‘ce’ but stopped himself.
His curiosity also ignited, Bram asked, “What sort of potential are we talking about?”
“Do you recall the sorcery I used at the cave’s entrance?” Rowan replied.
Bram’s eyes widened. “The Transmutation Arts…you think Hajime use it?”
As far as Bram knew, no modern sorcerer had yet learhis lost sorcery.
“A dream walker’s ability to reshape the dreaming is simir in theory to the power of reshaping matter to one’s will,” she expined.
A part of Bram couldn’t help but feel jealous of Hajime’s potential, though his envy was quickly stifled by delight because if they trained him right then Hajime could bee a powerful sed fang for the prio bite his enemies with.
“Let’s find out.”
Bram pulled up Hajime’s status using his authority as the Loom’s chief administrator.
STATUS NAME:Hajime Hideo MiyamotoRACE:Humah)LEVEL:1JOB:Not yet determinedBram frowned.
He’d been stuck with the administrator job, but it seemed Hajime would be allowed a choice.
AFFILIATION:[Bastille Shire]TITLE:[Lead Game Designer] [???]“There.”
Bram clicked on the suspicious title but found only a single phrase in its details.
Unknown… May be revealed once user’s potential has blossomed…So, even the Loom isn’t all-knowing… This thought made Bram grin.
“Iing,” Rowan said as she looked at Hajime’s status from over Bram’s shoulder.
“Um, isn’t this…invasion of privacy?” Hajime pined.
He too was looking at his status from over Bram’s other shoulder.
“No,” Bram and Rowan answered, with Rowan adding, “Shall we see what else the Loom thinks of his potential?”
Hajime’s brow creased. “Let’s not…please.”
He was outvoted.
HEALTH POINTS (HP):90MAGIC POINTS (MP): 300STAMINA POINTS (SP):80FATIGUE:8%“I guess I’m the only one in two worlds without talent fic,” Bram chuckled ironically.
Rowan giggled at his self-depreg humor. “I told you he has potential.”
Hajime looked on with embarrassment. “Eh…”
STRENGTH:8DEXTERITY:9STITUTION:9INTELLIGENCE:30WISDOM:14WILLPOWER:17Bram frow the sight of Hajime’s poor physical traits. “Your ck of training is gringly obvious.”
“I-I’m a game designer. I didn’t have time for the gym,” Hajime protested, though his voice faltered by the end.
“Work isn’t an excuse for poor health. There should be a bance,” Bram insisted.
Inwardly, he couldn’t help chug. Until retly, his life was the opposite of Hajime’s; training his body until he coughed out blood but living idly while hiding from his responsibilities in the Sn’s court.
“I’ll speak to Ser Anthony about training you on your visit,” Bram promised.
From his weak, “Yes,” it was clear Hajime wasn’t as enthusiastic as Bram when it came to building one’s muscles.
ACTIVE ABILITIES:N/APASSIVE ABILITIES:[Programming Lv.1] [Keen Mind Lv.1] [Gift of Tongues Lv.1]Bram and Rowan shared a look.
“It takes time to groom potential into talent,” she insisted.
Hajime’s other two passives were the reason for his high mental trait scores. Programming even allowed him to fiddle with some of the Loom’s features, assuming the prince gave him access.
“These abilities make it clear. Hajime should train as a sorcerer,” Rorocimed.
Bram agreed.
When they first met, he thought Hajime looked the part of a sorcerer who spent too much time with his nose buried in books. It’s why the prince brought it with him tonight, his gift to the otherworlder.
Bram walked back to where he sat earlier and procured the item lyio his lute. It was a box. led within it was a wand; thirteen inches long, made of pale wood from an a oak, with decorative magical inscriptions carved throughout its surface.
“Beginner sorcerers use wands instead of staffs.” Bram pressed the wand into Hajime’s hands. “And while staves have their are focuses attached to their tips, a wand’s focus lies within the wood.”
Bram gazed fondly at the wand he’d given away.
“This wand’s focus is a royal griffin’s feather,” he revealed.
Bram didn’t say it aloud, but the wand had been his; a gift from the Sn back when she was still optimistic about his potential.
“Thank you,” Hajime said, bowing his head. When it came up a moment ter, delight repced his initial embarrassment. “I’ll try to be worthy of it…”
“I believe you will be,” Bram said encingly.
The Loom seemed to agree. Because, as Hajime raised the wand—the runes on its surface suddenly lit up in a dull glow—notifications arrived for him that he was quick to share with his new employers.
ALERT! You have received [Young Griffin’s Wand]. This is a magic item that requires attuo wield properly.Bram expio Hajime that attuning to his new wa f a bond with the magic item. This was often achieved through practig with the item in a practical setting or by studying the item’s inner ws and gaining an uanding of its entment. Both methods took time…a lot of time. And, until he attuo it, the capabilities of the Young Griffin’s Wand would be weakened.
Speaking of its capabilities…
Would you like tister this item with the Loom?Last night, after the Loom was boo Hajime’s soul, he’d been asked if he waister his new clothes with the system. He’d clicked on [YES], of course, resulting in his clothes receiving statuses of their own though these statuses were nothing special. This time was different.
The Loom’s All-Seeing Eye appeared over the wand in Hajime’s hand. It glowed, blinkiedly, until, a few seds ter, a new message appeared.
ITEM:Young Griffin’s WandDESCRIPTION:A wind-elemental wand made of top-quality materials whose are focus is a griffin’s feather plucked frhtcloud, the personal steed of Sn Johanna Barbara of House Attin. This ornate wand was the Sn’s present to the seventh prin his seventh naming day, though the prince cked the talent to use it properly.BOONS:+2 to Intelligence, +20 Magic, +5% spell damage, 2.5% increased magic regeion speed.Bram’s brow creased. “There was o mention this st part…”
He was surprised by how accurate the item’s description was because only the wand smith who’d fed it should’ve known all the wand’s boons. Bram didn’t since he never mao attuo the wand.
ALERT! You have yet to attuo [Griffin’s Wand]. Most of its boons will be locked until the attu process is pleted.“Amazing,” Hajime whistled. “The Loom has a built-in item feature.”
Rowan cast a sideways g Bram. “Has it ever dohis before?”
“Not for me,” he admitted.
To be fair, the prince had only retly been given access to the system’s tools, and with everything that’s happened, he’s barely had the ce to truly explore this strange sorcery of his.
Meanwhile, Hajime spent a long moment iing the item window and he had thoughts on its makeup. “It’s g some information. Rarity, attack power, and others. We’ll o rework this. Maybe give the feature an update.”
‘Ping!’
A new notification arrived for Hajime.
The potential to wield powerful magic lies within you… Would you like to bee an [Are Novice]?[YES] [NO]“W-What should I do?” he asked.
“Say yes,” Rowan answered. “You’ll to help our prince secure sacrifices for your friends’ summoning.”
Hajime’s brow creased. “S-Sacrifices?”
Taking his cue from Rowan, Bram patted Hajime on the shoulder. “Your new job arrived right on time. Rowao prepare a new summoning ritual. So, you get to join me in hunting the beasts that’ll fuel that ritual.”
Again, Hajime’s gaze drifted to the two carcasses at the edge of the Rowan’s circle. They were red grizzlies that were rger than the one used for his summoning.
“e on.” Sensing the otherworlder’s desire to flee, the prince ed an arm around his shoulders. “It’ll be fun.”
While Bram half-dragged Hajime toward the chamber’s entrance, Hajime’s eyes widened with worry. “Ee~~eh?!”
GD_Cruz
