Steampunk: Sixth Era Epic-Chapter 489: Dream of Fire

"Doctor, are you using hypnosis smoke?"

As Shard pushed the door and entered the bedroom, he asked out of curiosity, in fact even more curious about how the doctor who emitted the smoke was unaffected.

"No, this is my ’Mist of the Sleeping Dragon’, a spell from my Arcane Technique. Sometimes, I use it to assist in patients’ hypnosis for therapy. Don’t worry, he is just an ordinary person; unless we make a lot of noise next to his ear, he is not going to wake up tonight."

The doctor confidently stated.

Although Dr. Schneider’s luck was not great, his professional skills were still trustworthy.

After entering the somewhat cramped bedroom, the two of them checked the room to ensure there were no other dangers before they would enter the dream. During this time, Luther Kinwis, who lay on the bed, showed no signs of awakening, even as the two men who had finished checking the room placed their hands onto his head one after another in the dark— the sleeping man did not stir.

With his eyes closed, under the light of Silvermoon, he wore a somewhat grim expression on his face. Combined with the swollen, horrific burn scars on his face and the large shadows formed by his head on the pillow, the scene was indeed somewhat terrifying.

Dr. Schneider thought that the man was having a nightmare and it was a good opportunity to enter the dream.

"These burn scars are really severe."

The doctor whispered. He and Shard each brought a chair and sat down on either side of the single bed.

Shard extinguished the glimmer on his fingertip and drank the Magic Potion Dr. Schneider handed him, which was meant to assist in entering the dream. The doctor then used a silver Rune Chain that looked like a lady’s bracelet to bind Shard’s right hand with his left. The rune chain displayed three Runes— "Slumber," "Sound Sleep," and "Dream"— in sequence, over and over. This was an Alchemical Item.

It would not be this troublesome for the doctor to enter the dream alone, but to bring Shard along into the dream, these additional preparations were necessary.

After making all these preparations, the two men sitting on either side of the bed in the dark room placed their free hands on Luther Kinwis’s forehead.

"Doctor, why does it feel like we are conducting some sort of evil ritual?"

Shard whispered, worried that Luther Kinwis would suddenly open his eyes and be scared to death by the scene.

"Detective, don’t talk nonsense. Now relax your mind; I’m about to start entering the dream. If nothing untoward happens, we should be able to wake up in about ten to fifteen minutes of real-time."

"And if something does happen?"

Shard asked again, and the doctor looked at him. In the nearly pitch-dark environment with the curtains drawn, he seemed to see a silver light in Shard’s eyes:

"Hmm... How worried are you exactly about encountering an accident? However, if something unfortunate really does happen, it’s hard to predict the specific time. But trust me, Detective, I am a professional. Now lie down on the bed, close your eyes, keep your body in a comfortable position. Good, one, two, three!"

His consciousness gradually became diffuse, and an almost imperceptible tugging sensation seemed to be pulling Shard towards a certain place. Shard did not resist this pull, allowing his awareness to grow increasingly blurry.

In a daze, it seemed he was standing again on the ridge of a field under Silvermoon, gazing up at the vast night sky and the Star Ocean. However, as the temperature grew around him, the huge silver disk overhead gradually vanished, with the red glow of fire slowly encroaching and replacing the peaceful countryside scenery under the moon.

The crackling sound of burning and the flickering flames grew clearer and clearer.

Shard, regaining consciousness, shivered as if he had burst from underwater to the surface.

He gasped for air and looked around, realizing that he was standing on a deserted nighttime street, in front of a house engulfed by roaring flames, as if devoured by a fire demon. The entire three-story building was ablaze, and the oncoming heat wave mixed with the terrible crackling noises seemed to signal the imminent collapse of the place.

In the darkness, the brightness of the flames was nearly blinding.

Dr. Schneider stood in front of Shard, raising his palm in front of his eyes, squinting towards the flames, which cast a red glow on half of the doctor’s face:

"As expected, it’s a nightmare, a fire scene? This matches our expectations."

Shard, meanwhile, looked down at his hands but did not see the golden cracks:

"I remember you mentioning that as long as I’m in a dream, I should..."

"[Only in deep dreams will the ’Divine Afterglow’ marks be exposed. This dream isn’t yours, you can only interfere to a limited extent, so you can’t reveal the essence of your soul.]

It seemed that even in someone else’s dream, she was still with him.

"Understood."

Thinking to himself, he continued to survey the fiery scene that seemed ready to consume everything. It was easy to determine this place was a dream; such a large-scale fire didn’t alert the neighboring houses, and upon closer scrutiny of the burning building, the flames weren’t really destroying the building, just burning in place.

"Doctor, what do we do now?"

Shard asked quietly. As he looked up toward the higher floors of the building, he saw a black figure flash past a burning window:

"What was that?"

He thought to himself, but the special environment of the dream greatly diminished the perception of outsiders, so the voice in his mind did not respond.

"I’ll go find the master of the dream. Detective, wait here a moment."

The doctor stood still with his eyes shut, while Shard continued to watch the flames ahead. Although this was his first time entering a dream, the dream always gave him a strange feeling.

"Found him, upstairs... But this dream feels a bit odd, why do I get the sense that apart from us there’s something else here?"

The blue-eyed doctor said with some surprise. He didn’t lead Shard straight into the fire but instead summoned the Ring of Fate, and the Core Spirit Rune "Dream" and the Spirit Rune "False Reality" both emitted a faint glimmer.

The use of Arcane Technique caused a strange halo to spread from the Brass Ring, and in the air, which already seemed somewhat distorted from the heat, black filaments began to appear.

Those black substances looked extremely filthy and bizarre, moving through material and air like phantoms, passing through one’s fingers when touched.

"What is this?"

Shard wondered silently, but she still did not answer because she had not touched these things.

"Doctor, things look a bit strange here. Are we going to find the Dream Master, or should we exit now and give up?"

Shard asked Dr. Schneider for his opinion. The doctor frowned and pondered, even sniffing at the burning building in front of him as if he were capturing scents:

"There’s no need to exit. Different people’s dreams indeed harbor different strange phenomena, especially since the subject is a Gifted One during the awakening phase. Moreover, if it were real enemies we encountered, I might worry about accidents, but here in the world of dreams, I am a professional."

His strong self-confidence also affected Shard, who didn’t really want to give up:

"So how do we break into the fire scene?"

The dangers within the dream could affect them as well.

"Leave it to me."

Spirit Runes of the [Dream] flickered with Spiritual Light, and as the doctor recited a cumbersome string of Spell Words, a layer of water membrane enveloped Shard. The heat was insulated from the outside, and he felt as though his strength had increased.

"Arcane Technique [Blessing of the Dream Sprite]. Within the one-hour perceived time in the dreamscape, damage from the scene is greatly reduced, and at the same time, the recipient’s strength is enhanced. Additionally, as outsiders in such dreams, to avoid waking the Dream Master, even if there is a way to control the dream, it would be better not to do so. We can leverage our Circle Sorcerer powers, but do not try to use a Relic. Even if your spirit is strong enough to simulate a Relic, do not use it in the dream, or it could skew the dreamscape towards an even more bizarre direction."

As the doctor explained the basic rules of dream exploration, he walked up the steps of the house. He grabbed the searing hot doorknob with his hand, rattling it several times, then turned to Shard and said:

"Detective, you open the door. The locks in dreams are even more difficult to open than the ones in reality. If you weren’t here, I would likely need to look around for clues, understand the theme and background story of the dream, in order to unlock the first barrier."

"Doctor, each foray into a dream sounds like a role-playing game with predetermined rules."

Shard commented as he walked up the steps and touched the door lock. He only felt a warm heat, and after a slight resistance, the lock turned, and the door opened. According to Shard’s understanding of dream theory, locks in dreams are actually "Locks of the Heart," and thus fall within the effect of the Key of the Door.

The doctor smiled:

"Role Playing? That’s an interesting phrase. But indeed, it is like a very real game. Psychiatrists actually count as detectives in dreams. Though, compared to detectives like you who have gone into the past for investigations, detectives in dreams are slightly safer."

Seeing that Shard had successfully opened the lock, the doctor took a deep breath and his expression turned serious:

"Prepare for battle now, even if there are no intruders other than us in the dream, this nightmare will certainly generate some strange entities to resist us."

"What happens if you get injured in a dream?"

Shard looked at the firelight inside the door and stepped inside, with the doctor following him. The flames licked at them:

"Spiritual power loss."

The foyer was blocked by a collapsed, burning shoe cabinet and coat rack. The doctor had Shard, who was walking in front, cut through the obstacles.

"And what if you die in a dream? Do you die in reality as well?"

After passing through the foyer, the living room was next with the upstairs staircase on the other side of it. The crackling flames seemed particularly terrifying, surrounded by glimmers, flames, and heat waves, which twisted the air and made everything seem extremely strange.

This was Shard’s first deep dive into a fire scene, and even though it was the fire scene of a dream, it was quite an eye-opening experience for him.

"No, no, detective, don’t underestimate me so. Dying in a dream will force an exit from the dream, followed by headaches for several days, during which Psychic Resistance will be significantly weakened and the risk of losing control will increase, but you definitely won’t die directly."

The doctor said, then pressed on Shard’s shoulder to slow him down:

"Look ahead."

In the roaring flames, something that looked like a charred corpse was crawling on the floor. But on closer inspection, it wasn’t crawling; its body was facing up while its hands and feet were bent downward touching the ground. As Shard looked at it, the monster lashed out with its limbs, carrying flames as it rushed toward Shard and the doctor.

"Monsters in dreams reflect the fears and thoughts of the Dream Master. It seems that Luther Kinwis did witness these people being burned to death in the fire years ago."

The doctor motioned for Shard to step back as he approached the burning mummified corpse. When there were about three steps between them, the lanky blackened body suddenly leaped through the flames, lunging for the doctor’s face.

But the doctor casually raised his left hand, and as a transparent circular shield appeared in it, he tossed it upward—

Boom!

The flailing corpse was forcefully knocked flying by the shield, hitting an outcropping of brick in a collapsed corner of the living room and dissipating into a cloud of black ash.

"That weak?"

"This is the dream of a Gifted One, not that of a Circle Sorcerer."

This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.

The doctor’s shield dissipated, and he shrugged:

"However, the closer we get to the Dream Master, the stronger the backlash we will encounter. So don’t think we’re absolutely safe here."