Chapter 26

Chapter 26: The Dream Realm

In the dream, Dorothy sat at her desk and nodded in satisfaction as she looked at the spell she had written. Although the spell was pieced together from various parts, Dorothy thought that it might work.

Whatever, let’s give it a try. After all, it’s just a dream, right?

As she thought, Dorothy stood up in the room, cleared her throat, and began to recite:

“In the name of Akatosh, I grow wings, my strength surges into the high heavens, and my balance can traverse storms.”

After she finished speaking, a sudden change occurred.

Scorching orange-yellow gas appeared out of thin air around Dorothy, enveloping her entire body instantly, turning her into a blazing orange-yellow fireball.

From within this fireball, thick and massive bones emerged, extending in all directions, quickly filling and bursting the entire room with an explosion.

With a loud boom, the roof of the Nanyang Flower Path apartment building in the dream world exploded, sending debris scattering everywhere.

Then, on the broken rooftop, a massive skeletal dragon lay. The scorching orange-yellow flames spread across the skeletal dragon’s body, forming rough, hard scales like stone slabs.

Finally, a nearly ten-meter-long Western dragon with gray-black scales, strong wings, a long spiked tail, twisted horns, and a fierce and imposing presence appeared on top of the apartment building.

Dream manifestation – Dragon.

‘Wow! It actually worked!’

Twisting her long neck to observe her new body, Dorothy was both surprised and delighted, thinking that her pieced-together spell actually worked!

And instead of manifesting as a bird, she manifested as a dragon!

Being a dragon is way cooler than being a bird!

Dorothy thought excitedly, and then it was time for her to do her main task. Manifestation was just the first step; after successfully manifesting in her own dream, she could enter the Dream Realm.

That was a realm shared by all sentient beings.

As she thought this, Dorothy raised her head and roared towards the sky.

After the roar shook the heavens, the space in front of Dorothy rippled and finally split open like a large crack in glass. The dragon-manifested Dorothy spread her wings, soared into the air, and dove into the crack of the dream.

…

Here, it was a dark and vast space.

Giant trees hundreds of meters tall and dozens of meters wide sprouted from the ground, layer upon layer, stretching endlessly. Their dense canopies blocked out the sky, allowing only a few blue glows to shine through, illuminating the darkness with specks of light. Beneath these trees, there were vast expanses of blue-violet grasslands, dotted with flowers of blue, green, purple, and other colors, each emitting strange, glowing colors.

Various creatures, including deer, birds, lizards, and flying insects, roamed in the grass, their appearances seemingly no different from normal creatures except for their faint glow and peculiar patterns.

On the thick branches of the towering trees hung countless white cocoons. These cocoons extended to the end of the space, blending seamlessly with the trees and grasslands. In the gentle breeze, they swayed, releasing countless fine, sparkling light particles that scattered throughout the space.

This scene was like a dream… No, this was a dream.

Suddenly, one of the cocoons hanging from the giant trees began to tremble slightly. Then, a crack appeared on its surface, and a trembling roar came from inside.

Upon hearing this roar, all the creatures in the forest of giant trees panicked and fled in disarray. Meanwhile, the crack on the cocoon grew larger until a gray-black dragon flew out.

Spreading its wings, Dorothy soared through the forest of giant trees, curiously observing the fantastical surroundings. She couldn’t help but exclaim inwardly.

‘This is the Dream Realm? More specifically, it’s a layer within the Dream Realm called the Forestland…’

According to annotations in “The Dream Explorer’s Record,” the Dream Realm has multiple layers, but the most expansive is the ‘Forestland,’ which is the main part of the Dream Realm.

“The Dream Explorer’s Record” briefly introduces the Dream Realm, stating that essentially, all sentient beings’ dreams exist within the Dream Realm, but these dreams are protected by ‘Dream Cocoons.’ Each creature’s dream takes place within its own Dream Cocoon after they fall asleep.

‘So, these cocoons hanging on the trees are all Dream Cocoons, right?’

Dorothy looked at the white cocoons hanging on the trees, realizing that each cocoon represented someone’s dream. The dreams of the entire world could be found here, and some extraordinary beings could emerge from the Dream Cocoons in the form of manifestations, exploring the vast Dream Realm.

If she entered another cocoon, would she be entering someone else’s dream?

It seemed quite intriguing… the Dream Realm…

But now wasn’t the time to play. Her main task was urgent.

Dorothy came to the Dream Realm in search of a Secret Transmission. According to records in “The Dream Explorer’s Record,” countless information fragments drifted in the Dream Realm, possibly containing Secret Transmissions. According to the Gray Hill, this place held infinite threats and endless opportunities.

Thinking this, Dorothy continued to fly forward, clearly seeing small and large glowing spheres floating among the trees.

She casually flew toward one and dispersed it, causing the sphere to transform into a glow that attached itself to Dorothy.

Subsequently, a piece of information directly appeared in Dorothy’s mind.

‘I really want to confess to Domia… I really want to confess to Domia… I really want to confess to Domia…’

Reading this information, Dorothy felt embarrassed and turned to disperse another glow sphere.

‘William that b*stard actually dared to treat me like this. He’ll have a tough time tomorrow!’

Dorothy paused briefly, then turned to see that the glowing spheres around her were coming from various Dream Cocoons. This meant that most of the information contained in these spheres were useless dream fragments for ordinary people.

Finding a Secret Transmission in such a vast forest seemed like a needle in a haystack.

“Sigh… At least there’s a method. Let’s take it slow. If there’s no harvest tonight, I’ll continue tomorrow night.”

With that, Dorothy continued to fly through the dark forest.

…

In a certain part of the Forestland of the Dream Realm.

Among the forest of giant trees, a nimble figure dashed forward swiftly on the glowing grass.

It was a fox, a snow-white, fluorescent little fox sprinting rapidly across the grass, closely pursued by three or four ferocious black hyenas.

This seemed to be a hunt, a hunt by hyenas for the fox. However, it was not as simple as it appeared.

While running, one of the hyenas suddenly spoke in common language.

“She’s starting to falter, her speed is dropping. Speed up and catch her. She’s tonight’s prey…”

“No one can escape the hunting of the Black Dream Hunter Group in this forest…”