When he opened his eyes, he was in a different space.
Unlike his empty mind space with only a book and a moon, this one was extremely vast and full of things.
Stars, meteorites, planets, all flying in this space.
But he saw that these were rather grey, as if only an illusion without any life.
Paying no more attention, he looked towards the centre of the mind space.
Although it was difficult orienting in this large space, in the centre, like his book, there was something that shined brightly all over!
He flew over and arrived in front of a map.
It was purple-gold, extremely large, covering several metres.
On the map, various lights glowed, but most were dim.
And right above the map, he saw a dark shadowy figure!
This figure moved around and tried to escape the map's reach, but no matter where it went, it seemed trapped.
But with each movement, another star on the map dimmed!
Nye observed this for some time until he understood "This is a dream demon! As for this map… wow, Isabel really deserves to be Number 1!
She's so fortunate. Not only did she have the Grimoire but even a proper Star Map!"
What he was talking about before was just a constructed star map, but there are innate star maps, like Grimoires, that function as an inheritance.
But unlike Grimoires, Star Maps don't have as much of an inheritance. They're like the moon in his mind, just ten times more potent.
With a Star Map, any Astrologer could quickly become extremely strong as long as they had guidance. But without guidance, like this case, they would bait various bad things into their mind.
Although he knew the issue was a dream demon, he was still surprised when he saw it in reality.
Nye flew around the map and wanted to do something. Though with each observation, he more so realised that this dream demon wasn't easy at all.
Each star was basically a power-container, and the dimming showed that the whole power was emptied!
He now also understood why Isabel was so weak later on.
With the passage of time, this dream demon would wreak havoc and destroy her whole mind space!
He couldn't allow this and had to do something, but in his current state, he was extremely weak.
Suddenly, he thought of something.
"I might not be able to kill it… but if I simply strengthen the Star Map, won't I also help?
Isabel… I hope this is the proper step.
In the book, it's said that Astrologers form celestial bodies in the centre of their mind space to strengthen their Star Map.
The Celestial Body and the Star Map synergize, strengthening each other.
As a Star Map, its best feature is to strengthen all Celestial Bodies and provide near endless magic power, while the Celestial Body mainly strengthens the protective and offensive ability of the Astrologer…
If I put my moon into this, will it work?
Although my moon is a Mirror, who said mirrors can't be strong?
Just reflect anything anyone sends your way!"
He didn't know the specifics but he hoped it worked.
With a deep will, he focused his mind and tried to call the Moon in his mind to this space.
Although he knew there was time, he didn't want to bet on finding a solution.
As for the protagonist? His solution was just to supress it with an item he got. At this moment, he probably already got the item. But not knowing its function, he was still randomly journeying around in a nearby kingdom.
Rather than waiting and hoping for a solution, he wanted to take things into his own hands!
A moment later, with his will, a Moon Disc flew out of his own head.
Instantly it grew larger to its original size, which was just a bit larger, around fifty metres in diameter.
But the Star Map, sensing its existence, suddenly shined brightly.
Starlight emerged from the map and was projected on the disc!
The disc absorbed some of it and sent the rest back…
Nye understood that his mirror moon couldn't fully reflect the magic, but this time, there was no damage but instead a help. This made him worried, wouldn't the power be wasted?
But it wasn't an attack so the star power returned peacefully…
Until he suddenly realised and asked – why was the star power more than before?!
Technically, there should've been less since some was absorbed, but somehow, the same amount was returned!
The Star Map seemed to instinctively send the same star power back, thinking it hadn't expended any power whatsoever.
His mirror once again absorbed a little then send back this power…
Nye, looking at this, was baffled. He wanted to absorb everything, but his moon had just formed and he hadn't even checked the new pages in his book, so how could he control it so much?
But, with each exchange, his moon grew a few centimetres!
More importantly, he saw that the dream demon was actually slowed, although only a little, it was still slower!
But as time passed, Nye felt a deep connection to the Star Map.
He didn't claim it, but he felt like this Star Map was an acquaintance…
It was a weird feeling, but he didn't feel any hostility so he allowed this state to continue.
…
Time passed and at one point, Nye left Isabel's mind.
Putting his moon into her mind was taxing on his own mind, constantly expending mental power.
After an hour, he couldn't do it anymore.
But when in that time, his moon grew 1cm in diameter!
Outside, he lay down on the pillow next to Isabel, calculating.
"It would take… around three hundred hours to fully expand the moon until it has the same size as the Star Map?!"
He became a bit unsure. Would it take him 300 days then?
But then he thought… with every improvement, he would likely become faster.
The final time it would take wasn't something he could calculate.
"It's fine, Isabel, only a few more days and it'll be fine.
At least this method is a lot faster than waiting. And, it seems that you can sleep better…"
During this hour, her sleep was very relaxed. Now that he left her mind, she became more irritated.
Now that he thought about it… the initial calmness she carried was probably only an act he couldn't see through because he was far away from her.
This little girl had simply learned how to act well, but she was, in fact, very tired the whole day.
He patted her face with his tail as he fell asleep.
His mind was tired and sleeping was the easiest recovery.