The first thing he did was tuck his tail and raise his guard.
First, he could be sure this was a dream.
Second, ever since he'd retired from the guild ten years ago after getting injured, he hadn't dreamed at all. The very night he finally started thinking about "making a comeback," he somehow got dragged into this strange dream space.
With Old Koller's knowledge of Nen and "unnatural phenomena," there was only one conclusion:
If something this weird was happening, there was definitely something behind it.
"Your Excellency… what do you want from me?"
Old Koller watched Roy without a hint of relaxation, and every so often his eyes flicked sideways, subconsciously keeping some distance from the "snake-person monster" nearby.
Vanessa coiled her serpentine tail, propping up her body, that motion making the full curves of her chest even more prominent. Just like Old Koller, she silently observed Roy and the youth beside him, her wariness rising higher and higher.
"Woof, woof…"
Roy's face was veiled in mist, his expression unreadable. As Old Koller and Vanessa appeared, a series of prompts floated through Roy's mind.
[Notice: "Monster Encyclopedia" expanded…]
[1. Kobold — D-rank sapient beast.
(Note: "Sapient" = non-human beings—beasts, magical creatures, rare species—who possess human-level intelligence or higher.)]
[Rating: D]
[Current Nen Output: D (5415/10000)]
[Potential Nen Output: C- (5470/100000)]
[Status: Elderly; body worn down by age; carries chronic internal injuries. Current strength is less than one-tenth of former peak.]
…
[2. Siren Naga — D-rank sapient "rare beast."]
[Rating: C → D]
[Current Nen Output: D (1415/10000)]
[Potential Nen Output: C (84211/100000)]
[Status: Ailing; accumulated "pollution" not timely cleansed; heavily eroded by Nature; one foot already stepping over the edge of losing control…]
So, one old, one half-broken.
Roy's eyes flickered thoughtfully.
The so-called [Broad Dream Gate] might be "random" in a broad sense, but it still had to follow the law of equivalent exchange. The people it pulled into his dream were limited by his own current strength and "rank"—they wouldn't be too high up the food chain.
"Your Excellency?"
Old Koller frowned as the silence dragged on.
Vanessa's tail tipped back and forth, her anxiety mounting.
Roy glanced at them once, expression unreadable, then thought: Taiichi, out.
In the blank whiteness of the dream, another figure stepped forward out of the mist.
His face was gentle, lips tilted in a faint smile.
The moment he came to stand before Roy, he bowed his head and dropped to his knees, prostrating himself.
"My Lord," Taiichi said, voice shaking as if with emotion, "you are finally awake."
And in that moment of "emotion," he accidentally released his [Ren].
A thunderous boom followed.
Nen—thick, blazing Nen laced with the [True Meaning of Sun]—exploded outward from him. With Roy's absolute control over his own dream realm, that burst was amplified; in an instant, the white world was consumed in flame, transformed into a burning inferno.
Woof, woof— What a powerful Ren!
What did he just call that guy? "My Lord"?
Old Koller's heart slammed wildly; he practically jumped three feet into the air. As the flames roared toward him, he snapped on [Ten] to protect his body and scrambled away from the licking fire.
Vanessa likewise activated her [Ten]—but hers shimmered like water, rippling over her skin. Against "fire," water-like Ten made it far easier for her to endure.
Before this, she'd already been turning something over in her mind.
She was remembering the first time she'd entered the Tidal Cathedral as a child, and had stood beneath the towering statue of the Great Siren. The inscription carved below it had read:
Behind every unknown stands a God watching.
The thought clicked into place.
Maybe we're seeing a real God.
Her tail curled tighter as she lowered herself, and like Taiichi she prostrated fully, pressing her forehead to the ground.
"I, Vanessa Siren of the Pure City," she said reverently, "pay homage to the Great Existence."
Instantly, the flames sweeping toward her shifted direction, sweeping past her as if she weren't even there.
"Woof?"
Old Koller's jaws sagged open. He stared, then hurriedly copied her, dropping flat on his face. He pressed his forehead to the ground and intoned as she had, naming himself and praising the "Great One."
Right then, two new prompts surfaced in Roy's mind.
[Notice: Potential followers detected — Vanessa Siren, Koller Spencer. Development recommended…]
[Note: "Potential followers" — have not yet witnessed true miracles; faith still wavers. The host may increase their loyalty by bestowing "boons."]
"Boons," huh.
If you want to harvest, you gotta plant first.
Roy immediately thought of alms: ladling porridge for the poor, medicine and healing for the sick, eggs and rice distributed to village elders.
It made sense: if he wanted to borrow others' Nen through faith, he'd need to give something in return—and the more he poured out, the more he'd stand to gain.
"Taiichi," he said calmly, his voice echoing through the blazing world, "that's enough. Don't overdo it."
His words rang through the dream like a bell.
The flames died. The heat faded. Vanessa and Old Koller stayed prostrate on the ground, both letting out a breath they hadn't realized they were holding.
Then they looked up—and froze.
Roy let out a small, self-mocking laugh.
"Seems I just lay down for a nap," he said lightly, "and by the time I woke up, the world had changed."
He looked like someone who had seen too much—weathered by storms, tired and dry-eyed as he watched his divine realm collapse and re-form.
He slowly raised his right hand.
"Return."
Rumble—
The white void shook violently.
At his word…
Wind rose. Clouds swirled. A blazing sun climbed slowly into the sky.
Below it, colossal trees burst forth from the ground—each trunk impossibly thick, their crowns disappearing far overhead. Dozens, hundreds of these "world trees" braided together into soaring columns, and atop them a vast cathedral took shape, its weight pressing down on the horizon.
The temple felt ancient, as though it had already stood for ages untold before appearing here. It seemed less created than… remembered.
Old Koller, who'd lived a good long life, had never seen anything like it. He craned his dog head back so far it almost tipped off his neck, stupefied.
Beside him, Vanessa forced herself to keep the expression of a devout believer, even as shock quaked through her.
She couldn't help comparing this temple—crowned with a burning sun high in its vault—to the Tidal Cathedral the Great Siren had once built.
By sheer presence alone, this one dwarfed the other.
The temple is the god's power, she thought. The grander the temple, the greater the god.
She remembered a group of Toadfolk she'd served recently bragging to her. Their clan worshiped the[Marsh God], they'd said, and its temple sprawled across ten thousand li of swamp. They'd been smug and proud, as if they were partners of that great being.
Now, beneath this sunlit vault, that seemed laughable.
At the very top of the temple, just below the burning sun, a throne descended slowly from the light.
The veiled youth took one step and was seated upon it.
Clouds billowed upward, bearing Vanessa and Old Koller as if they weighed nothing. When they looked up again, they were directly beneath that throne, and beneath the gentle smile of the one seated there.
"You're fortunate," said Taiichi, standing below and to the side of the throne like an attendant saint. He looked down at the two prone figures, his tone warm.
"His Lordship says that since you've come all this way, each of you may receive one boon. Are you not going to give thanks?"
Vanessa and Old Koller exchanged a quick sideways glance, then bowed even lower, foreheads pressed to cloud.
"Thank you for your Grace, my Lord!" they cried.
Their hearts were pounding.
And with those hearts laid completely bare, Roy's [En] swept cleanly through their thoughts.
In both cases, what lay at the core was… family.
Old Koller, old and battered, wanted only to regain a fraction of his former strength, to take up work again and earn something—anything—before more children came.
Vanessa wanted Kin-maru. Wanted to purify her own body of the built-up pollution so she could keep working, keep the bathhouse from being downgraded.
Roy lingered on Vanessa a bit longer, amused and intrigued.
So this "Kin-maru" was, in essence, a kind of anchor—a crystallization of "song and love."
The story in her heart unfolded before him:
Once upon a time, a poet and composer had fallen in love with the Great Siren, the origin of Vanessa's bloodline. In order to escape Nature's erosion, that Siren's love had taken form as melodic crystals—"Kin-maru."
A Kin-maru could be a piece of music, a simple melody or a full composition. As long as it touched the Great Siren's heart, that "love anchor" could recall a Siren on the brink of losing themselves, and pull them back from the edge.
No wonder the Dark Continent's full of strange things, he thought. It was fascinating.
A plan took shape.
He could imitate Muzan, feeding his followers "god-blood" and pushing their growth…
Or he could pull masterpieces from his previous world—Chopin, Beethoven, Liszt—and give them to Vanessa, bolstering her ability to wash away her own taint.
He chose the latter.
Until Muzan fell, Roy wasn't inclined to spread "blood" casually. Instead—
He reached out mentally, pulling from his cognitive sea scores of piano works he remembered: nocturnes and polonaises, sonatas and études.
Then he wrapped them in Nen, compressing the knowledge into twin motes of light.
One drifted down into Old Koller's brow. The other descended into Vanessa's.
As the motes sank into them, Roy felt his dream begin to unravel—the cost of sustaining such a show.
He cut the links connecting his dream to theirs, and gently pushed both back out through the [Broad Dream Gate]—back to their own worlds.
Creaaak—
The dream gate closed.
…
Northern Dark Continent.
Kobold settlements. The Howling Wolf King's domain. Bonebreaker Gorge.
Huang Village.
Deep in the night, Old Koller jolted awake, clutching his pregnant wife. His back was clammy—cold sweat soaking through his fur.
His wife was still sleeping soundly beside him. On her other side lay their three-year-old son, sprawled like a pup.
Old Koller stared blankly at the rafters, replaying his dream: the youth, the snake-woman, the temple, the throne, the boon.
He swallowed.
"Some dream…" he muttered.
It had been too vivid. Too real.
He could still feel the "light" lodged in his mind—the boon from that god on the throne—like a seed waiting to sprout.
After a long pause, he exhaled, easing himself out of bed as quietly as he could.
He tucked the blanket more firmly around his wife and son, then padded out to the yard and down into the cellar.
There, in the dark, he pulled out the old spiked mace he hadn't touched in nearly ten years.
Under the moon, he stepped into the cold air outside, lifted his dog muzzle toward the sky—
And cracked open the light inside his mind.
Information surged through him.
Water Breathing.
First Form: Water Surface Slash…
Second Form: Water Wheel…
Third Form: Flowing Dance…
His body moved almost on its own.
The mace whirled and swept, each swing falling perfectly into place with the patterns engraved in his consciousness.
From suspicion, to shock, to elation—by the time he reached…
Tenth Form: Constant Flux,
…it was all he could do to keep standing.
He leaned heavily on the mace, panting, heart pounding like a drum, but his mind was blazing.
In those few brief forms, he'd felt it:
A combat method that could let him explode with short bursts of speed and power—to deliver a devastating surprise blow even in his aging state.
So the boon was real. The dream was real. Which meant…
Old Koller thought of the youth on the throne, of the blazing sun above him.
His knees buckled.
He dropped to the ground again, forehead pressed to the dirt, and shouted hoarsely:
"Thank you for your boon, my Lord!"
A breeze rose faintly, carrying away a shred of light and a thin thread of new-formed faith… floating upward into the sky.
…
Far to the south, in the land of baths—Valentia, the Pure City.
Mizuran Alley No. 7, Bathhouse 54-09.
In the dim upstairs room, two intertwined tails—one white, one green—lay tangled on a wide bed.
Laura had once again drooled all over her sister in her sleep.
Vanessa woke with a start and slowly opened her golden, slit-pupiled eyes. She stared at the ceiling for a long time.
Then she plucked a tissue from the bedside, wiped her face dry, and slipped out from under the covers.
Her tail slid along the floor as she moved to the window, gaze turning upward to the night sky.
She replayed the dream: the veiled god, the temple of sun and trees, the promise of a boon.
With a mix of anxiety, hope, and the fear of disappointment, she gently touched the "light" in her mind.
It blossomed.
A wave of piano music exploded through her consciousness—melodies she'd never heard before. Majestic. Gentle. Tragic. Tender.
The notes flowed through her like water.
Down through her mind, into her soul, into her beating heart. Her entire body stiffened under the weight of it—
Then relaxed.
All the fatigue in her bones, all the sluggish "pollution" clogging her channels… dissolved.
She felt light. Clear.
Like waking from a fever and realizing she could breathe easy again.
"What beautiful music… what powerful music… what soothing music…" she whispered.
One piece after another unfolded inside her.
She had no way to judge how they compared to the hymns once written for the Great Siren. That wasn't the point.
Hands clutching the hem of her nightgown, Vanessa dipped into a small, graceful curtsey toward the moonlit sky.
"Thank you for your Grace," she said softly.
Her thoughts, and her thanks, drifted up with the moonlight.
…
Not long after, in the quiet of Kukuroo Mountain—
Roy could no longer sustain the [Broad Dream Gate].
The corner clock chimed as he opened his eyes, returning fully to his body—
And the system chimed right with it.
[Notice: Faith +1 — from "potential follower" Koller Spencer.
Please perform a "knighting" ceremony soon to officially induct him.]
[Notice: Faith +1 — from "potential follower" Vanessa Siren.
Please perform a "knighting" ceremony soon to officially induct her.]
~~~
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