Chapter 183
Chapter 183
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: How to Wake from a Nightmare
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Tried Bondalles base once, it's impossible fr
Events pop non-stop, characters die, can't level base
Lol bro your IQ too high so had to go quantity
If you got resources for speedy 7th circle, why not 10 5th circles? Lol
Lv60 vs Lv40x10
Can't do this basic math? Lol
Your IQ too high for this game, always picking optimal lol;;
Pls escape
No wake them up ffs
Base is fucked
Hugging nightmare = bloated detection event basically
Triggers when base stats too high vs low level chars getting nightmares
Fucking devs
[Recruit as many companions as possible to develop your base!]
"For now, is this everyone?"
Rishir, having heard the situation from Duke Pallag.
He immediately sprang into action with Klana and Pallag.
They had gathered Halona and the others experiencing these anomalies in one place.
It was to assess their conditions at a glance and take measures.
Rishir examined each of them.
Halona, Dray and his secretary Meishi were familiar faces—
The rest were guests staying at Gus's mansion.
"Whether fortunate or not... it seems this phenomenon only affects those meeting specific conditions."
Pallag said after inspecting them.
"Specific conditions... for example?"
"Hm..."
As Pallag pondered his words.
Klana spoke up.
"Seems like it's targeting the ones in good condition."
"Good condition...?"
Klana approached the unconscious Halona and placed a hand on her.
"Their energies are weakening by the moment. Judging by the situation, it's reasonable to assume they're being drained by whatever caused this. Like this."
Klana continued, looking into Rishir's eyes.
"This isn't indiscriminate—it's a ritual or hunt to gain power."
"Hunt..."
Pallag nodded in agreement with Klana's words.
"I concur. Out of all the people in the mansion, only these specific ones are targeted. Consistent criteria. Feels like deliberate intent."
"What intent?"
"How to explain this..."
As Pallag carefully chose his words, Klana boldly stepped in again.
"Not too weak, not too tough—prime game."
"Hm... a bit crude, but apt."
"Not too tough... so is that why you and Duke Pallag weren't targeted? Too tough for hunting?"
"Indeed. For now, that's the best guess. Including you."
Thus, as they pooled their thoughts and methodically sorted the situation.
"Ugh...!"
"Halona!?"
Pallag rushed to her in alarm.
Her eyes rolled upward, triggering a mild convulsion.
"Halona! Snap out of it!"
Pallag urgently tapped her cheeks to rouse her, but she showed no reaction to external stimuli.
Rishir recalled Pallag's earlier description of her state.
"Awake but unable to escape sleep..."
An apt expression indeed.
Their eyes were open and awake, yet consciousness absent—as if dreaming while fully conscious.
"Hold on, mind if I try?"
Pallag brightened, as if awaiting those words.
"Yes! Rishir! Please do!"
Rishir moved among them, carefully checking their states.
Despite the gravity—
Pallag and Klana's faces held a subtle ease.
Won't they just bolt up the moment he touches them?
That rational(?) expectation.
Just then, the complexions of Halona and two others brightened markedly.
The moment Rishir touched them.
"As expected."
Pallag and Klana nodded in satisfaction.
But only briefly.
"Miss Halona? Sir Dray? Miss Meishi?"
"...Wait, Rishir, what's going on."
Rishir waved, but no response.
"The negative force draining their power seems gone... but they're still trapped in the dream."
"...!"
Even that power can't wake them!?
Pallag and Klana's expressions finally turned grave.
"Missed. Can't wake with your power. Best to let them go."
"K-Klana. What do you mean."
Rishir was appalled.
Klana didn't seem to be joking.
Of course, Rishir partly understood her reaction.
How could it not work...
He'd vaguely hoped his purification would resolve it.
In that case—
Rishir began considering his other options.
"Duke Pallag!"
"Gus?"
Suddenly, the room door burst open.
"S-Sorry for the abruptness...! With the situation, I had to report ASAP! Someone requests an audience with Duke Pallag! Said you'd know them upon hearing the name, regarding the events in Bondalles now—"
Pallag's eyes widened upon hearing the visitor's name from Gus.
"Pilgrim Chender!"
"You know them?"
"Of course! Carved his own path with divine power, a wanderer yet respected by church holy knights and inquisitors alike!"
"Divine power...!"
"Yes! His power might wake them! Gus! Bring him at once!"
"Duke Pallag."
As Rishir's group arrived in the drawing room following Gus, a middle-aged man greeted them.
A man whose kindly expression evoked a stone statue come to life.
"Apologies for the sudden visit."
"Nonsense! Don't say that, Chender! You know how glad I am to see you!"
"..."
Chender's joy at the welcome was fleeting.
"Not unfounded then. Trouble on your end too?"
"Yes! Mastien's talent collector is lost in a dream!"
"Mastien's—..."
"How about your side?"
"..."
Chender's gaze shifted.
There, a woman sat demurely.
"Her?"
"My companion."
"Wait. Is she—"
"Yes. Appears awake, but no consciousness."
"..."
Pallag's face darkened amid conversation with Chender.
"Tried waking her?"
"Of course."
"Results... not good, I take it."
"...Yes."
Chender gazed at the woman with deep concern.
"Tried everything I could."
"Everything...?"
Clink.
Chender placed an empty vial on the table.
"That vial...!"
"Holy elixir from the church."
The potion crafted with clerics' divine power—
Famed for efficacy surpassing spirit medicines in healing.
That vial was now empty.
"You already gave her the holy elixir?"
"..."
Instead of answering, Chender placed another item on the table.
A simple yet mysteriously ornate silver ring.
"Church relic. Infuses immense divine power into the wearer's mind."
Chender slipped the silver ring onto the woman's finger as he explained.
"..."
The woman stared blankly into space, unchanged.
"And—"
Chender touched her forehead.
A soft glow emanated from his fingertip, gently enveloping her.
"Oh..."
Rishir involuntarily exclaimed at the sight.
The divine power from Chender rivaled—or perhaps surpassed—that of the high priest he'd met before.
"Hah...!"
Soon, Chender panted, having expended all his power.
His face showed clear fatigue.
The look of one anticipating grim results.
He checked her condition just in case.
"..."
No change.
Her gaze remained fixed on nothing.
"Duke Pallag."
Chender said gravely.
"I request your aid."
"..."
My god.
Pallag swallowed a silent sigh.
To think he'd end up requesting help from the very person he'd sought aid from.
"For now, let's move."
Chender's companion.
The woman was laid beside Dray.
Now four victims slumbered with eyes open.
Despair rose on Rishir's group's faces overlooking the scene.
No leads on the incident yet, and victims kept increasing.
"Hoo... please wake up, Sir Dray..."
Rishir murmured with a frustrated sigh.
"R-Rishir—"
A response came.
Everyone's eyes widened.
Dray stirred, calling Rishir's name.
The first vivid reaction from any victim.
"Is that it! Rishir! You entered his consciousness and woke him!?"
"...Doubt it."
Rishir approached Dray uncertainly.
"Sir Dray! Sir Dray!!!"
Did his calls reach?
With each shout, light slowly returned to Dray's eyes.
"Ri...shir?"
"Sir Dray! Are you with us...!?"
Dray's still hazy eyes scanned Rishir up and down.
Then nodded contentedly.
"As expected. You're alive."
"Pardon?"
"M-Mastien!? You're lucid!?"
Chender gawked, alternating between Dray and Rishir.
"H-How—"
One lost in inescapable dream awoke.
Chender felt more bewilderment than hope.
Despite exhausting every means, unable to shatter the dream—how?
"Sir Dray! Can you talk now?"
"...Rishir?"
"How did you escape that dream!?"
"...Ah, so it was a dream?"
"Yes?"
"Never... realized till the end. Too real—no... what to call it..."
He still seemed unsure if here was dream or reality.
Chender's confusion deepened at Dray's state.
"Didn't know it was a dream, yet escaped? How—"
"...No idea. Just... a sense of wrongness."
"Wrongness...?"
"Rishir died..."
"Rishir...?"
Chender's gaze shifted.
This man?
In the dream—
In nightmare, his death wouldn't seem odd. Ordinary-looking fellow.
"Weird... Rishir dying... so I thought... how? Why? Why did Rishir die?"
Dray continued in a dazed tone.
"The moment doubt hit, a demon appeared..."
"Demon!? The demon's doing!?"
"Yes... demon... horrific bastard... it killed Rishir..."
"Then!? Demon killed this man, and after!?"
Surely, this tale held the key to escaping the dream.
Chender gently pressed Dray.
Dray nodded and said,
"That's how it happened."
"?"
What?
How did what happen?
Still not fully lucid?
Chender concluded thus.
Dray, not yet recovered, spouting nonsense—sleep talk.
Chender closed his eyes in dejection.
Thought they'd grasped it at last.
Pallag must feel the same.
Chender looked to Pallag for shared solace.
"So that's what happened."
The grand magus nodding as if comprehending all.
"...?"
Tension creased Chender's eyes.
What.
Did I miss something in that story?
Chender brightened hopefully.
"Duke Pallag, any insights from the tale?"
"Yes."
"Oh...!"
"From Dray's story, the dream dominates via fear and despair. Free from those, one awakes."
"Meaning—Sir Mastien fully overcame the dream?"
"Yes."
"Ooh...!"
Demon.
That transcendent, malevolent being instills profound despair in mortals.
To overcome such terror.
"Worthy talent collector..."
Chender showed deep respect to the still groggy Dray.
"...Hm?"
And a simultaneous doubt.
That story...
No matter how he thought, Dray's words held no overcoming of demonic fear.
"Duke Pallag. Do you know how Sir Dray overcame the demon's fear?"
"Of course! Dray just said—the demon killed Rishir in the dream!"
"Yes...! Witnessing a friend's death in a dream indistinguishable from reality! Normally heart-shattering!"
"Exactly! That's how Dray overcame the fear!"
Witnessed friend brutally slain by demon.
Pallag claimed that enabled overcoming the terror.
Am I dense?
Chender's head began to ache.