When Dante opened his eyes, he was no longer in his hospital room but in a great plain filled with green grass that stretched far away into the horizon. When he looked around him, Dante saw things that could only be seen in fairy tails, he and his friends had appeared in the middle of a herd of sleeping short and chubby rodent-like creatures. Those creatures were covered in yellow fur with two horizontal brown stripes on their backs, they had small mouths, long, pointed ears with black tips, and brown eyes, and all of them had a red circle on each cheek. Any anime fan, hell, even a non-anime fan would have recognized those creatures, they were the face of an entire franchise in Dante's previous world after all.
""""""Pika?""""""
The sudden appearance of Dante and his friends in the middle of the pack immediately woke up the creatures, but they soon went back to sleep after they saw it was just a bunch of humans.
"Ah, sorry pikachus, we didn't know you guys were here."
"Sorry guys!"
"You should be more careful of where we spawn Dante."
"Cute..."
That's right, those creatures were pikachus, the worldwide known pokemon that made the Pokemon franchise popular. For Dante to be able to experience such a thing could only mean that he was no longer in the real world, right now, he was in his Dream World.
After they left the pikachus little settlement, Dante quickly gathered his friends and gave them their tasks for this week in the Dream World.
"Alright guys, now that we are here let's get to business."
Seeing that his friends were ready to listen, Dante continued.
"As we said earlier, you guys need to decide what you want your new quirks to be. I brought you here because there are plenty of people here with super strong powers. For the next week, I want you guys to either go and meet as many people as you can and pick the power of one of those guys as your new quirk, or you can design your quirk by taking inspiration from the powers you saw."
When they heard him, Ren and Hayato's smiles were so big that they reminded Dante of the Smiling Titan, scaring him a little.
'Do I look like that when I smile?'
And as if Kioko had heard his inner thoughts...
"Yes."
Making Dante sweat out of fear for his image.
Speaking of Kioko, she too was excited at the idea of choosing or designing her quirk, having such an opportunity was just unheard of. In the vast MHA world, humans had no say in the quirk they would have, the only people close to having that choice were AFO and OFA holders (in a way). Quirks were extremely important for people in MHA, they could be a blessing if you had luck, but they could also be a curse, some mutant quirks holders being the best example of that. With even the possibility of quirks altering their holder's personalities as it happened to some people, choosing your quirk could only be described as a gift from god himself.
"Dante-kun, you want us to choose a quirk or create our own... but what is the limit? According to what you told us, you need some energy to create things, so won't our quirks cost too much if we are not careful?"
When they heard Kioko, both Ren and Hayato became serious. They too wanted to know how powerful their quirk could be, it was too important for them to just mess it up, so they listened carefully. Seeing them looking at him with such intensity, Dante could only smile.
"Haha, that's a good question Kioko-chan. There is indeed a limit to the powers I can give you, but it's not as limited as you guys think. For the next ten years in reality and seventy years in the dream world, I will absorb a huge amount of dream energy, it will be enough for me to give you guys some pretty powerful quirks and some other additional skills, and still have a lot of energy to spare. As long as you don't ask me to give you reality-bending powers, planet-destroying powers, instant-kill powers, and a bunch of other op powers, then it should be fine."
That's right, the amount of energy Dante planned to absorb was that absurd.
'I should be able to create powers that can easily put AFO and OFA to shame.'
Before his friends could say anything, Dante continued with a statement that shocked the trio in front of him.
"Mm... I think you guys can pretty much choose any power strong enough to destroy an island."
When they heard him, his friends were left speechless. It had now been thirteen years that they were friends with Dante (seven years in the dream world, five years in the real world), and they had seen crazy things. Just in the Dream World, the number of beings capable of destroying entire universes was plenty, but that was that. As individuals, Ren and the rest were infinitely far from reaching such a level of power, so they could not imagine what such power meant. But now, they were told that in ten years, they would be strong enough to destroy entire islands, since islands were things easier for them to imagine, the shock they felt was just too big.
"Islands?! Damn..."
"Damn indeed..."
"Damn indeed."
Dante wasn't that surprised at their reaction, after all even he didn't know what to think of it. Until now, he had always considered himself a normal person. Although he had mastered the sun breathing technique, haki, rokushiki, and multiple hand-to-hand and swordsmanship styles, all of it was only in the Dream World. That's right, in the Dream World, Dante was quite strong, it's just that since he was still a weakling in the real world, he refused to consider himself strong, it was a way to protect himself, after all, he would die if he ever picked a fight with a dangerous individual thinking he could easily beat him only to remember too late that he was powerless in the real world.
"Haha, yeah, ISLANDS! Of course, you will need to train hard for that hehe.
Also, don't forget to pick other skills! Consider your quirk as your main weapon and your other skills as your secondary weapons, they will help you when you find yourself in a situation where your quirk can't work at full power, and they will also help you use your quirk more effectively.
You can see haki, rokushiki, and the breathing technique I asked you to learn as secondary skills, they allowed you to build a strong foundation on which you can build by adding a main power. You don't have to add new skills since you already have strong ones, but having more options is always good in a fight."
Dante already had a clear vision of how he would become stronger, all he needed now was to choose the powers he wanted, which by the way was one of his goals for this week in the Dream World.
"Roger that!"
"Mm, I already have some ideas."
"Me too..."
Seeing that his friends took his advice seriously, Dante smiled and sent his friends on their way.
"Alright, have fun, we will meet in seven days in Dream City!"
After he was done giving them bits of advice, Ren, Hayato, and Kioko left in the direction of a big city some kilometers away from their position.
Although only one year had passed in the real world since Dante got his quirk, a whole seven years had passed in the Dream World, during those seven years, this world full of wonders had greatly changed. The golden desert that was everywhere in the past was no more, it was now replaced by vast verdant green plains, mountain ranges, oceans, and a lot of other sceneries, and only the starry sky stayed the same.
From where he was, Dante could even see things that would shock the hell out of anybody. In the distance far way, Dante could see the silhouette of a tree so big that even though he was millions of kilometers away from it, he still could not see the top of it, the tree was so big that just its smallest leaves were the sizes of continents! The people of Dream World called this divine tree "Yggdrasil", Dante had created this tree himself because a lot of dream world inhabitants lived on top of a world tree in their respective previous worlds. Since he wanted everybody to feel at home, Dante had decided to just create a tree so big that anybody who wished could live on it.
In another direction, floating high in the sky, our hero could also spot a gigantic floating construct. The construct was an iron-and-stone made floating castle that had about a hundred floors stacking straight, each floor's diameter being smaller than the previous one. On each floor, there were a couple of large cities along with countless small-scale towns and villages, forests, plains, and even lakes. This fortress was one of the popular spots in the Dream World, strong fighters often went there to fight the powerful monsters that spawned inside its one hundred floors, the name of this fortress was... Aincrad, the mythical place where the plot of the first season of Sword Art Online happened.
Just from where he was, Dante could see many such mystical places, the flying city Columbia from Bioshock, the city built on water Altissia from Final Fantasy, and many more.
Other than buildings, a lot more living beings had appeared in the Dream World in the last seven years, the pikachus from earlier was a great example of that. In the Dream World, it was easy to see strange and glorious creatures just by looking up. From where he was, Dante could see all sorts of pokemon, creatures from the Monster Hunter world, and even some creatures from Yu-Gi-Oh monster cards roaming the vast plains he was treading on. Further away, he could see the vague silhouettes of dragons, divine birds, and many more creatures crowding the vast mountain ranges... One day, while he was exploring his world, he even had the chance to see a burning humanoid creature taller than a mountain, that day, Dante saw his very first titan from the God Of War universe.
After he was done taking in the glory of his world, Dante was finally ready to start working on his things. Just as he was about to teleport himself to his first destination, he suddenly had a change of heart.
"Well, what's the rush, I can just fly there, that way I can see what has changed from the last time I was here."
Just because he wasn't there did not mean that Dream World would stop working. Even when he was out in the real world, the events happening in the Dream World would continue to unfold just the same. The flow of time in the Dream World was 1:7, one day in the real world being seven in the dream world. Since Dante had given the ability to create things to the other inhabitants of the dream world, although at a lower scale, the inhabitants were able to quickly build giant structures like cities and other things, it was correct to say that Dream World was constantly changing.
Since he had decided to just fly to his destination, Dante looked up and spotted just the perfect creature for that... what? He never said he would fly there by himself.
WHISTLE!!
After he whistled, Dante jumped back from where he was standing just in time to let the creature he called land.
BOOM!!!
"Wow there big guy, be careful, there are little kids around haha!"
The creature that landed before Dante was a Flying Bison, a six-leg creature with a flat manatee-like tail, brown eyes, shaggy white fur, and a brown arrow that ran along its back, starting from the tip of its tail, all the way to its forehead. The flying bison was a creature that came from the Avatar world, a world in which some people were born with the ability to 'bend' the elements.
"Mm, even though you are not Appa you sure look reliable haha!"
"Mooo..."
After he got on the back of the bison, Dante explained to it where he wanted to go, after which the bison took off at high speed and flew towards the horizon, his direction being the non-transformed lands of the Dream World.
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While Dante was flying toward the golden desert of Dream World, Ren, Kioko, and Hayato finally reached the city they were heading to.
"Sheesh, Tempest City is way bigger than the last time we came here! I wonder if boss Rimuru is here!"
"Mm, Rimuru-sama is the type of person that likes to relax and do nothing, so I bet he fled the city to avoid his work."
"Rimuru-sama is cute..."
As you may have guessed, the city the trio was now in was the famous city of the manga That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, the city built by Rimuru Tempest and his family, the famous Tempest City!
Just after the trio passed the city's entrance, they soon were intercepted by someone they were familiar with.
"Ooh! Ren-kun! Hayato-kun! Kioko-chan! What are you guys doing here!"
The person that stopped them was a green humanoid creature with a big nose and a little bit of hair on his head, although he looked a bit like one, that person wasn't human.
"Oh! It's been a while Gobuta! How are you hahaha?!"
The name of that person was Gobuta, aka God Gobuta, a famous hobgoblin member of Rimuru Tempest's team and also a good friend of Hayato.
"I'm fine! Are you guys here to see Rimuru-sama?"
"Hi, Gobuta! Unfortunately, we don't have time to see Rimuru-sama, we just need to use the teleportation gate."
"The teleportation gate? Ah, I see. Well, let me escort you guys, I have nothing better to do anyways."
"Are you sure Gobuta-kun? Are you fleeing from Hakurou-sensei again?"
"Eh?! What are you saying Kioko-chan?! It's nothing like that! Plus, the old man is currently not in town, he went to Sword City for some personal business."
"Sword City..."
After they were done messing around, Gobuta quickly brought the trio to the center of Tempest City where the teleportation gate was. Along the way, Ren and his friends were able to see that the population of Tempest City was as bustling as always with street food stalls, clothing shops, weapons shops, and many more, all of them were managed by hobgoblins and many other different races like elves, beastkins, dragonoids, and even dwarves.
Although they were friends with the person who created the entire Dream World, Ren, and his friends did not act arrogant because of it, quite the opposite actually, they were very humble and respectful towards the locals. Since Dante himself did not use his status as the creator of the Dream World to live the life of a king, his friends were not stupid enough to do the opposite. Ren and the rest truly respected and loved the inhabitants of the Dream World, not because they were created by their friends, but because they recognized them as true living beings, just like them. Plus, they knew that there were some stupidly strong beings here that could make their lives a living hell even though everybody in Dream World was immortal. Dante had already warned them that he would not help them were they to offend the locals.
It took twenty minutes for the group to reach its destination, along the way they were greeted by people they knew, merchants that wanted to sell them things, and even kids that wanted to play.
"Alright, we are here!"
"Nn! Thanks, Gobuta, it was nice to see you again! Let's see each other later, we should bring Ussop and Kazuma too hehe!"
"Oh! That's a good idea Hayato-kun! Come pick me up when you guys are ready!
Until then, take care, see you another time!"
After Gobuta left, the trio finally approached the teleportation gate.
What were teleportation gates?
As it was described at its creation, Dream World was an infinite world without any limits to its size. The problem with such a thing was that the distances its inhabitants had to travel to get from one place to another were simply outrageous, sometimes they even had to cross millions of kilometers just to get to another city. To avoid such a thing, Dante had simply instructed his Dream World to install a teleportation gate in all the cities that were created and those that would be created in the future, their use being simply to reduce the travel time from one city to another.
Teleportation gates were enormous rectangular grey stone-like structures with golden runes flowing on them and a big swirling white portal at their center. If someone wanted to use the gates, they would simply have to go through the portal while thinking of their destination, and the next moment they would find themselves in front of the teleportation gate from the other city they were trying to get to.
Right now, Kioko and the other two were looking at the people going in and out of Tempest City's teleportation gate. The people that were coming out of the gate were coming from places all over the Dream World, some were just traveling, others came for business and some were just coming back from a trip. The different cities and places in the dream world were well connected and the relationship between the different races and cities was great, there were no conflicts of interest or wars in the dream world since nobody lacked anything.
"Alright, I plan to go to Dream City, Kioko, and Hayato, where are you guys going?"
Hearing Ren's question, Kioko and Hayato both took a second to think.
"Mm... I think I will also to Dream City. It's by far the biggest city and it's the best place to find strong people. If we want to find suitable powers for ourselves, Dream City is the place to go!"
"Hayato-Kun is right, the people I want to see are often in Dream City..."
Seeing that they all had the same destination, Ren then concluded.
"Yosh! Looks like we are all going in the same direction then."
Although they would all take different paths upon arriving at Dream City, somehow knowing that their friends were not that far from them was always reassuring. Choosing their new powers was extremely stressful for the three children, it was a decision that would affect them for the rest of their life, the pressure on their little shoulders was enormous, so just knowing that their friends were not far was a great relief for them.
"Alright guys, I wish you all good luck, and I hope that we will all find a new quirk we are happy with... Let's go!"
And just like that, Ren, Kioko, and Hayato stepped into the portal that would teleport them towards Dream City, the Capital of the Dream World, the city where their dream would become reality!
RUMBLE!!!!! (AN: That one was for my brother TheDeathGod hahaha! It was the last one don't worry hehe!)
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While his friends were preparing themselves for the week that would change their lives forever, Dante too was now ready to complete one of the goals he had for this trip to the Dream World.
"Mm, this place should do it. Thanks, big guy, you can go now."
"Moooo."
BOOM!!
After the flying bison left, its take-off generated a big shockwave, Dante turned around and looked at the infinite golden desert that stretched towards infinity in front of him.
"Alright, let's start!"
RUMBLE!!!
BOOM!!
At his command, the world around him started to tremble and the golden dunes exploded violently.
"Mm, I should start with the Dream Automatons."
BOOM!!!
As time passed, more and more golden dunes around him continued to explode, the scale of it being unheard of! Soon, millions of square kilometers were affected by Dante's actions.
CRACK!! CRACK!! CRACK!!
BOOM!!!
The scale of Dante's actions was so big that the world around him started to crack.
"Let's start with a hundred billion."
BOOM!!!
What followed Dante's world was a scene out of a fairy tale. At his command, the billions of tons of golden sand gathered at billions of different places into shining faceless golden humanoid-shaped beings with six pairs of wings each! The number of beings created was absurd, starting, from ten, then a hundred, a thousand, a million, all the way to a hundred billion humanoids.
BOOM!!
After everything calmed down, Dante took a minute to take in the scene in front of him, a hundred billion golden angel-like beings taking up the entirety of his vision.
"Perfect... but not enough."
As if he did not have enough, Dante lifted his two arms in front of him and placed his palms as if he was holding something preciously.
SHAA!! SHA!! SHAA!!
Again, an enormous quantity of sand started to gather in the middle of his palms.
The entire process took ten minutes, something quite surprising since the result was just a single white golden orb the size of a basketball.
"Perfect, this should save me a lot of time."
After he was done inspecting the orb, Dante looked back at the angel-like beings, before tossing the orb he had just created. Instead of falling, the orb started to float in front of Dante and the billions of angels. When he saw that everything was ready, Dante took a deep breath and first addressed the angel-like beings.
"Starting from today, you shall be known as Dream Automatons, the Builders of Dreams. You all only have a single simple task: Create."
FLASH!!
As if they understood the meaning of his words, the Dream Automatons all started to shine brightly, illuminating millions of kilometers around them. After that, Dante turned towards the orb and spoke seriously.
"From this day on, your name is Dream, you shall be the one in charge of controlling the Dream Automatons... And more importantly, you are now the consciousness of the Dream World, your task is to regulate everything that is happening in the dream world and work towards the expansion of this world... You shall be known as the Dream Records, the Architect of Dreams."
After he was done talking, Dante floated towards the orb and placed his right hand on it, causing the orb to shine gloriously.
FLASH!!!
After he was done, Dante returned to ground level and finally breathed out.
"With this, the quantity of dream energy I absorb should drastically increase."
That's right, everything Dante just did was part of his plan to increase his quantity of dream energy.
How?
For that, we have to re-explain how Dante's quirk worked.
Dante could bend reality, but to do it he needed to spend dream energy, energy generated by living beings while they sleep. Since the quantity of dream energy, he would have to "pay" depending on the complexity of the effect he was trying to create, having enough energy was primordial for him if he wanted to create strong enough effects.
Every night, Dante's quirk allowed him to absorb the dream energy of living beings, when he first got his quirk, he was able to absorb dream energy in an area of ten square kilometers. In the MHA world, quirks are like physical abilities, the more you use them, the stronger they would become, it was the same for Dante, the more he used his quirk, the bigger his area of energy absorption would become. When he first got his quirk, Dante could absorb dream energy in an area of ten square kilometers, but after spending seven years in the Dream World and after he created countless things, Dante's area of energy absorption had increased to eleven square kilometers!
That's right, by creating things in the dream world, which let's remind ourselves was cost-free, Dante was able to increase his area of energy absorption. Although the speed at which the area increased was slow, it was nonetheless a fraudulent loophole that Dante could exploit to become stronger extremely quickly.
"And that's where the Dream Automatons and Dream come into use."
To drastically increase his area of energy absorption, Dante needed to create things constantly in the Dream World, but that would simply take him too much time, so he thought of another way.
"I will share a big part of my authority with Dream, making it an extension of myself in the Dream World. Although we are two different beings, every action it will take will be the equivalent of me doing something."
But why do such a thing?
"Dream Automatons are like the hands of Dream, if a Dream Automaton creates something, it will be the same as Dream Creating something... Which is the same as me creating something.
By tasking the Dream Automatons to create things infinitely, it will be the same as billions of me creating things... infinitely.
Do you understand what I mean Dream?"
To Dante's question, the orb shined and actually... answered.
"I understand Master. You want me to continue the creation of Dream Automatons indefinitely and order them to create things infinitely, basically making the increase of your area of energy absorption faster as time pass."
That's right, Dante's plan was that simple, a perpetual increase in his speed of creation, which would lead to a perpetual increase in his area of energy absorption.
"Exactly. At the moment, my area of absorption is around eleven square kilometers, which means it took me seven years to just gain an increase of one square kilometer.
We have seventy years in Dream World before my fifteen birthday. With this new method, if everything goes as planned, my area of absorption should reach hundreds if not thousands of square kilometers by then!
At that point, dream energy will no longer be a problem for me as long as I'm not trying to do something like destroying the planet or things like that."
Dante's plan was simple but deadly.
"It is a good plan master, I shall work hard toward its completion."
Hearing Dream, Dante smiled with confidence.
"Yeah, I'm counting on you!"