Chương 372: Into Reality

I manifested inside a rusty space, which was par for the course when it came to the regular trials. Though for once, it wasn't a steel platform, ship, or something similar in the middle of the sea. I was in some sort of rectangular box that had seemingly been beached. I stepped onto the sand and looked around for a few moments. I was currently appearing as my human self, and there was no sign of life anywhere.

The ocean behind me was calm, the sand was soft, and it seemed like the setting of this trial was a small island. I don't think I've ever seen any with this setting until now, and from what I could glean, since this nightmare was my own creation, Lopst had been given the simplistic task of surviving for a certain amount of time. The threat supposed to make this objective difficult to accomplish wasn't the usual mindless Cauchemar Beast of the early trials.

It was instead a sneaky and stealthy humanoid that somewhat looked like some sort of houndfolk, but was very obviously monstrous. One just needed to see it in action to know that it was not the sort of thing people wanted to encounter at night. It didn't seem that strong, but it could imitate voices and project its vocalisations to make it sound like these voices or its howls were coming from completely different places than where it actually was.

Obviously, Lopst wasn't falling for it and had gone ahead to do the most logical thing… There were a few structures dispersed throughout the island, but Lopst had picked the tower to wait things out, climbing onto its roof and simply waiting while completely ignoring the monster. It wasn't like the nightmare fiend was strong enough to actually kill the lanky rabbitfolk in a direct confrontation, and it couldn't get onto the roof of the tower without being noticed, so Lopst was guaranteed to win this trial.

He's definitely the kind who can win every trial and thus never have to actually face the pre-final and final trials… And with him being a cleric of the Deep Dream, I bet he knows how to get restful sleep even with the nightmares keeping his brain active. Anyway, I felt myself to be quite powerful at the moment. I suppose that using the 'Nightmare Form' to invade one of my own trials comes with perks.

I could manipulate this place to a much greater extent and with far greater ease compared to when I had invaded regular dreams. After a few tries, I even managed to make myself float above the ground with an imitation of 'Surface Hovering', but cranked it up a bit… It looks like a good way to kill someone who's strong would be to infect them with nightmares and then invade them whilst they are stuck in a trial. Though it is quite common for the early trials not to do much in the way of limiting a person's strength…

Maybe I could interfere with the trial and make it impossible or at least much more tedious to complete the objective? So as to force the target to remain stuck asleep for longer than normal. I could see how I might be able to force an annoying opponent into a state of sleep deprivation in this manner…

I could try to just attack them in their sleep, but from what I gathered, if too much damage is inflicted on someone lost in a trial, they will still wake up, and the trial will just be paused until they fall asleep again and start back right where they were. I made my way toward the monster of the trial.

The poor guy was struggling quite dearly–It has become clear that a lot of the nightmare spawns are genuine beings, and that they even seem to have the capability to escape into the real world under some conditions I am not yet aware of. I assume that if they 'win' in a trial, they get a chance to leave, or perhaps if they win enough times, but I honestly don't know.

It might be possible that only nightmare spawns that appear in the trials of people who interact with 'anomalous mechanistry' count, as I wouldn't be surprised if those cursed devices were the medium that allowed these monsters to crawl into the real world. Alas, I get the strong feeling that there are several methods in which a creature born to haunt the trials can be transported into reality…

"Hey, can you communicate, hound boy?"

"G-G-G-Goddess Nebulo! Are you real? Are you really here? Oh… Oh… I'm a huge fan! Can I shake your hand? Can I have an autograph? You cut it into my flesh, if you want!"

"I see that you are well-versed in speech""Thank you. It was part of the package deal when I was created. I knew how to speak several languages already!"

"That's… That's quite interesting to know, actually" I don't even speak several languages. Where the hell did he get that from? Probably from me, I would guess? As a system, I can access any language for the purpose of communication. That's part of the basic kit in case a sapient system is assigned to someone who speaks an unusual language, or to a creature that doesn't even use a language to communicate Right… You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Anyway, I appreciate that you call me Goddess Nebulo, but my divine powers are mostly instinctual at the moment. Would you happen to know how you could leave the nightmare trials and appear in the real world?"

"I have no idea, Goddess Nebulo! But I am sure that your will to do something would be more than enough!" Mmh… I suppose that as the master of the nightmare trials, I should indeed be able to control whether a nightmare spawn gets to manifest in the real world or not… Let me give it a try. I placed one hand on the surprisingly fluffy head of the monstrous houndman. Your powers are much more adapted to spread terror in the real world than inside a nightmare trial.

After all, the most frightening of monsters aren't the ones who can raze a village with a gaze or uproot mountains–This is a crazy world, but such creatures are rare, and when they do exist, they are typically smart as well, so they don't actually make waves. The creatures that invite themselves into scary campfire stories and cautionary tales are actually often not that strong, but they are cunning and target village folks who can't defend themselves and will have a hard time getting proper assistance.

They are the monsters who learn to imitate a cry for help, to summon mirages of people their would-be victims know, or even transform into the appropriate sapient species to trick people. They aren't strong. They are merely strong enough to overpower their targets and use a copious amount of deception to ensure that they have the easiest time possible. Nowadays, I know a fair bit about negative energy and the effects perception can have on something or someone.

These monsters are surely risen to a higher pedestal precisely because they become feared, and as time passes, they are attributed traits and powers they didn't actually have, but it might just be possible that these incorrect descriptions shaped these monsters into what people believed them to be. Well, that's just a little theory of mine. What I want is for my creations to follow this path.

Some of them might be strong, but ultimately, the nightmare spawns are better suited for hunting down people without much means to defend themselves. People with training often only fail the early trials due to sheer fatigue, or–More likely nowadays–They fail on purpose because they are well aware that the only escape lies in the final trial most of the time. Few people have access to or can afford to get a skilled curse slinger to remove the nightmare curse.

As such, most have to grit their teeth and allow themselves to be 'killed' over and over again until they have to face the pre-final and final trials. I guess it really is a Nightmare Plague. The unwashed masses are far more susceptible to its effects than smooth-skinned aristocrats. Mmh…? Before I knew it, my hand wasn't resting on anything anymore. It would seem like he was correct. I can indeed just decide to let nightmare spawns out into the wild, but where did he appear? Inside the Cave of Somn?

Somewhere completely random? Or did he use an anomalous piece of mechanistry as an anchor to manifest? I'll be able to eliminate one option soon enough… Since he had been the only creature of this trial, I made my way toward Lopst, who was very casually lying on top of the rusted tower's roof, having to bend his knees as he was just too tall to lie completely flat without having either his legs or head dangling down. I casually landed on the roof with him.

"It's been a while, Lopst""You've been saying a lot of stuff like thi–Wait a minute" He realised that it wasn't the monster trying to beckon him somewhere, and that there was indeed a woman–Myself–Now standing on the roof with him, and he was thankfully smart enough to realise that I wasn't just a regular creature of this nightmarish plane. He tilted his eyes to the side, his nearly entirely black eyes narrowing as the white dots in their center grew a bit wider.

"Miss Nebulo? You look less mechanical than I remember… Did you change your hairstyle?"

"Only when I am in a nightmare. Before you celebrate succeeding in your endeavour, I must inform you that I am actually already at the Cave of Somn and heard about your silly exploit, hence why I am now here–Have you been enjoying touring the lesser trials?" Lopst blinked a few times.

"Ah… Well, that's awkward…" He scratched his face.

"... I have, in fact, been enjoying my visit to the trials, however. As a cleric of the Deep Dream, this place is simply… It is magnificent. I don't know how to properly describe it. We have been trying and failing to create realms of dreams or nightmares for so long, and the few 'successes' are unstable and unpredictable""This place is simply beyond anything else I've ever witnessed. It is perfect, it is self-sustaining, and it can even create life!

There is no doubt that the creatures I have encountered are living and thinking… And if they can truly cross into reality as I have heard, then they aren't even bound to the nightmare that manifested them in the first place!"

"The realm, the creatures, the crossing into reality… All of them melded together… That is simply unprecedented. I doubt there is anyone or anything else with as much influence on dreams as you, Miss Nebulo""Not even your prophet?"

"Prophet Irjalumn has been in seclusion for a very long time, so I wouldn't know for certain… Frankly, we don't even know if he's still alive. He could have died long ago and remained sealed in the deep chambers. No one can open these doors, and no one dares to try""Is that so? Well, sorry to cut your adventures off, Lopst, but it would be a bad look if a cleric of the Deep Dream eventually came to get himself killed in one of my trials. It wouldn't be very conducive to business, you know?

So, you won't be coming back here" Before the rabbitfolk could try to argue that it was too much of an opportunity or whatever, I reappeared back in the real world in my 'Gynoid Form', and Lopst woke up with a sudden motion and gasp, falling off the side of his comically long bed. The one-eyed priestess was still here.

"You wouldn't happen to have seen a dog-like beastfolk, did you?"

"I didn't see anyone…" They don't appear where I was when I let them out. Good to know… But then, I have no idea where those guys will be ending up. Well, it doesn't matter much, does it?