Chapter 68 - Lory (Patreon)

"So if we're going to do this, we need a super-safe safe house. I'm immediately thinking of just digging like 300 feet underground and sealing myself in a steel box. Thoughts?"

Dream, who was very paranoid about being vulnerable during the surgery, went to Sophia for her input. 

[Well, I guess I agree with going underground. Though we'll still need things like air, you know, to live. As for the steel box, it's not a bad idea. Though it'll need to be big. Why don't we try it?]

"Alright."

Dream got out of bed and went to his workshop. When he entered, Sophia began digging a hole.

The hole went straight down and was a very deep hole. And it only took moments to form. Huge amounts of dirt and rock were pulled out and throw aside. Eventually, Dream had a hole about 100 meters deep.

"Great. That was very easy."

[A result of the class advancement. Now jump inside.]

"Huh?"

[Just go.]

"Alright."

Dream didn't fight her and jumped down the hole. He immediately regretted it.

"Ahh! I'm gonna die! Grab wall!"

*Thunk*

Dream panicked and threw his arm into the wall, burying it to the elbow. He immediately stopped.

[You were going to be fine! You understand that you can basically fly now right?]

"No, I did not understand that. That was never established."

[Well get used to it. Take your arm out.]

"..."

Dream hesitated again before removing his arm. He let go of the ledge...but didn't fall.

"...Whoah."

[See?]

Dream felt his heart rate rise as he looked beneath him. He was standing on air. It was a scary and surreal feeling. 

He took a step and planted it in front of him like he was on some invisible platform. 

[That's not how it works. Remember how your body is solid? Well, gravity is being resisted by your body using material magic. As long as there is matter around you, you can travel anywhere you want.]

"So it's reliant on matter?"

[For now, yes.]

"Interesting."

Dream used his material magic and moved himself downward. Slowly, he floated down until he hit the bottom of the hole.

"..Fun."

[Right? Now let get this room made.]

*Rumble*

Sounds were made as Sophia dug out a square room. The walls were compacted outward so they didn't need to move dirt. This only took a few seconds.

[Done. Now, for the surfacing.]

Chunks of iron were brought out of his inventory and formed to make plates. They were placed on the walls and enchanted for reinforcement and isolation.

[And now the table.]

Titanium was brought out and formed to make a simple table the size of Dream's body.

[And we're done!]

"That's it?"

[Yup. Any materials we need will be put in the inventory or out on the ground. The extra space is also for the mana cubes in case we need more mana. But otherwise, that's about it.]

"Oh. Alright. Now, you said something earlier about the bones?"

[Yes. We have two options. We can use Earth materials or Kaban's materials. I'm thinking Kaban's materials will be better, so I was going to suggest you look into getting Mithril.]

"Mithril? Isn't that silver?"

[It is. I don't expect to be able to get top quality Mithril, but using the money you still have, we should be able to get good quality stuff. Depending on the strength, it may be better than steel or titanium.]

"Hmm..."

[We'll also be able to enchant it. I read in that book that it facilitates the use of mana much better than other materials.]

"...Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to look. That store that Graff told me about for materials should have some, or at least know where to find it."

[That works. Maybe we could stock up some more materials as well. The inventory expanded a good chunk after the class advancement.]

"Nice. Then we have no time to lose."

Dream stepped to the hole and began flying up. Depending on how fast he could go, he wouldn't mind flying to the Mountain.

After he rose to the top, he walked out of the workshop. And after stepping outside, he began raising himself into the air. 

"Hahaha! I'm flying!"

Dream shouted in excitement after he had risen to nearly 100 meters high. He could see above the trees. And there was nothing under him!

[Remember, flying only takes your will. You think it, it'll happen.]

"Alright. Let's see..."

Dream began experimenting. The first thing he did was turn himself upside down. It was very disorienting, to say the least, but he noticed something peculiar. 

"It feels like there's no gravity."

[The magic lets you resist the force of gravity. Doesn't mean it's getting rid of it, just that you won't feel it.]

"Very cool. It's kind of scary though, when I have my feet towards the sky. It's like if I stop flying, I'll fall into it. Swallowed by the vast darkness..."

[Well lucky for you, if you stop flying you'll land on your head. Now start heading to the Mountain.]

Dream turned himself downside up and began moving forward. 

First, he went rather slow, not more than running speed. But he kept speeding up. 50mph, 75mph.

Eventually, he hit 100mph. And because of the fact that he could control air, there was no wind resistance which was a huge plus.

Dream smiled widely as he soared through the sky. Mind you, it wasn't in a superman pose. He was standing normally, as if he were going on a stroll. It was like if you no-clipped as a character in a game and went flying around. It looked funny and cool at the same time.

"Hey Sophia, how fast can I go?"

[Depends on how much mana you want to consume. Right now, you consume next to nothing. A realistic speed with sustainable mana consumption would be around 230 mph.]

"As fast as a helicopter?!" 

[Well for one, no wind resistance. Two, you've moves objects pretty fast already. Remember those bullets you used as weapons? Those easily approached 600mph. Though it was only extremely short bursts, but still.]

"...I guess. Well if I get out of control, take over."

[Sure.]

Saying that, Dream began accelerating even further. 150, 190, 230.

He stopped where Sophia told him was the best place and glided. 

"...I still can't believe I'm doing this. It feels so easy."

[That's because you're controlling it with your will. You can't confuse yourself.]

Dream nodded. It was exactly like that. If he wanted to slow down, he did. If he wanted to go up, he did. He could also imagine himself doing something and he would do it. 

As he glided, he watched the sea of green trees fly past him. He could see all the little details even from a hundred meters in the air. It almost felt foreign, the way he was experiencing these things. But it still felt good.

Going over 200 mph, it took less than half an hour to approach the Mountain. And since it wasn't like he was coming by helicopter, there was no need to stop a distance away. 

Dream flew straight up to one of the gates. This caught much attention as this wasn't the 'Class 3 only' gate that Riddick used, so there were many people trying to get in and out. 

"Who's that?"

"He looks so young, and he's flying?"

"Must be from one of the families."

"Maybe he's a mage from the Spire."

Dream heard many people talking about him as he flew up to the guard at the gate.

"Title plate, please."

"Sure."

Dream walked over and handed the guard his title plate, who put a device over the plate. Information began lighting up.

"Let's see... Dream. This is good, go ahead."

"Thanks."

The guard gave him back the plate and Dream walked in. 

'Nice. Didn't have to worry about explaining my class.'

[They probably only do that at the other gates.]

'Probably. Alright, now for that sho- Wait...'

Dream turned back around and approached the guard at the gate. 

"Excuse me, sir. Is flying inside okay?"

"Flying? No, you cannot fly inside the Mountain. It's only allowed when scaling up certain buildings and in certain areas. So don't just go flying around everywhere."

"Oh, gotcha. No problem."

Dream nodded to the guard and walked back off. 

'That's such a stupid rule. But I guess it explains nobody else flying.'

[It might be a superiority thing. But we don't need to be put in jail, so don't go breaking any laws.]

'Fine. Right when I get the ability too.'

Dream huffed as he walked down the street among all the other mortals. 

As he walked though, he played with his ability and kept his feet an inch above the ground. It definitely wasn't him being petty. 

He walked down many streets before he reached where the guild was. He stopped and looked at the building.

'Maybe they know where some monsters are out in the fields. Or I could just head to a high-level dungeon. They have those, right?'

[Probably. I believe we saw some quests for high-level dungeons last time we were here with that group. Oh, speak of the devil.]

'Speak of what devil?'

"Dream?!"

"Huh?"

Dream turned his head toward the person calling his name. 

"Oh, that one..."

"It is you!"

"Oh, hi Lory. Long time no see."

The person who called Dream was indeed the blonde girl from the twins' party, Lory. She was the healer with the cool staff that had a hidden blade.

Lory ran up to Dream who sheepishly scratched his head. This would probably be a bit awkward.

"Hey! How are you? How have things been?" (Lory)

Lory smiled brightly as she brought herself in front of Dream. 

"Oh, it's been alright. Nothing crazy. What about you? How have things been with the party?" (Dream)

"Oh, I actually got switched to a different party."

"Something happen?"

Dream tilted his head. Did the party have a conflict or something?

"Ya! I got my second class! And an inventory! Look!"

Lory excitedly announced her news as she brought out something from her inventory. It was a staff. But this looked different than her old one.

"Is it new? It looks nice."

"Ya! My temple gives us one for each class advancement."

"Oh, that's pretty nice. But, temple?"

"Ya. The Christian temple. I'm part of the religion."

"Christian temple? They have that here?"

"Of course. They're in every Empire and lots of the kingdoms."

"...Very interesting."

Dream went a bit quiet as he thought about what that fact represented. It was either a huge coincidence, or everything Dream knew about his religion would be overturned. He had been raised Catholic, after all.

"Dream?"

"Oh, sorry. So they had you move parties after you got your second class?"

"Ya, I got moved to a stronger one. Healers aren't common, after all."

"Nice. I'm sure you're making more money."

"I am. But I'm also leveling up faster. And I hate to bring it up, but what happened to you? You came for one raid and I never saw you again!"

"Oh, sorry about that. It might sound insulting, but I guess the party moved too slow for us. We actually went back to the same dungeon and cleared it."

"You cleared the rat dungeon? That's impressive, I can see why you left. What about those girls?"

"Oh, they had to leave. Something came up."

"I see... So what're you doing now?"

"Umm, I guess I've just been doing my own thing."

"Your own thing huh? I can see that."

"See what?"

"Your mana. It's higher than before. Let me guess, you got your second class as well?"

"Oh..."

Dream remembered that he had set his mana to leak out. The mana levels he let out were C-, about an average level for a class 2. Guess that gave him away.

"Ya, I also advanced." (Dream)

"That's cool. So hey, since you're by yourself and all, why don't you come raid with my party? We can definitely fit another person."

"How do you know my skills are up to par? I only just advanced you know."

"Please, you already told me that you were holding back with the other group, and you cleared the rat dungeon as a first-class since you only just recently advanced. How could your skills not be good?"

"..."

Dream realized how much information he gave away and cursed himself. It would be more difficult to get out of this situation without being an asshole.

"Uhh..." (Dream)

"Look, I can tell you're uncomfortable with it, so I won't force you. Trust can be a hard thing to develop. There's only one thing I'm going to insist you on though."

"...What's that?"

"Well... You still owe me a fun night out after ditching me last time. I wasn't happy you know, when you never showed back up with those twins."

"..."

Dream went silent as Lory put on a pouty face. Was it cute? Hell yea. But he really couldn't get himself into this. It was a bomb just waiting to go off. 

"*sigh* Look, Lory, I appreciate it, but I've got something going on right now that requires my full attention. So I'm sorry, but I can't."

"...Oh. That's alright. I get it. Well, hey if you ever need help, you can come find me."

"Thanks."

"Sure. I'll see you later."

"See ya."

Waving each other goodbye, they both went their separate ways. Dream continued heading to the shop.

[She was so horny for you.]

'W-What the hell? I was just about to say how heartbreaking it was to make her sad like that, and here you come with that curveball.'

[Well she was! Her hormones spiked and it was like a slipping slide for a solid minute.]

'Thanks for those details. Really makes you rethink what she meant by a fun night out. I wonder how many dudes she's slept with.'

[Hard to tell. She's far from a virgin though.]

'Fantastic. Anyway, let's just get to the shop. I want to be done here.'

Dream kept walking as he played with his ability more. 

Soon, he reached the area where the shop was. It was actually close to the enchanter and monster tamer.

'Maybe I could visit the tamer once I'm done.'

Dream thought as he approached the material shop. It was time to get some Mithril.