Chapter 204 – Reconstruction
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With the classification of his species, the experience that was flowing into him dwindled, and no more notifications appeared in his vision. 

"..."

Dream was silent as he went over the changes to his body once more. The girls stared at him as he relaxed on the couch. 

"...Is that it?"

Iris eventually spoke up, curious. On the outside, they hadn't noticed much happen. This was because Dream had full control over the power flowing into him. Nothing really leaked out, and the only reason they knew something happened was because the mana in the surroundings surged to him momentarily. Other than that, everything was normal.

"That's it. I've officially completed my class advancement."

Dream smiled and stood up from the couch. Iris frowned though.

"It didn't seem like much happened. Was that prophet class a bad one? Oh! What level are you?"

Iris suddenly remembered the cause for her excitement and asked. 

"I'm level 388 now."

"Wow. That's high. We're only level 376, and that was with the constant killing and hunting. But I guess when you have nukes, leveling is easy. Plus you have that experience multiplier from your class."

"Yes and no. You only really get meaningful experience from enemies who have a higher level. Anything below your level gives negligible experience."

"Really? That kind of sucks."

"I don't think so. It keeps high level people from carrying out mass killings since it gives very little reward."

Dream spoke as he recalled some information from the monoliths. Some of them had touched on the concept of experience, but only basic knowledge that could be found by experimenting a bit. 

Luna and Iris nodded at his thinking, though Iris snickered not long after. 

"You've killed plenty of low level demons and such yourself though. What's your kill count at? A billion? Two?"

"...I'm not entirely sure actually. I would say at least one and a half billion, possibly two."

Dream pondered the demon populations that he had gone through so far. There were the 600 or so million in the first wave, then around 2 billion in the second. He had killed off the entirety of the first after the battle at the landbridge, and then felled around half of the population of the second. Right now, there were a bit over a billion demons on the planet.

Since it was difficult to count absolutely every demon though, there was no way he was going to get an exact number, at least not by himself. There was also the uncertain amount of humans and animals he had razed at the Empires. After thinking about it for a bit, he just shrugged. 

"Still, I've killed so many, but I'm not much higher level than you guys. Necessary experience rises somewhat exponentially, and people below you give next to nothing. If that weren't the case, I'd be a class 5 already."

"You say that as if a billion isn't a high number."

Luna slightly smiled at him after seeing his casual attitude about it. She didn't think that it was bad. If anything, she thought it was impressive that he could keep a cool head.

"Why would I let the kill count of demons bear weight on my conscience? Although there were the few hundred million innocents I killed, I believe I did the right thing, so I've made my peace with it."

"That's good... So, what else did you get with your class advancement?"

Luna changed the subject, still curious about what exactly Dream's gains were.

Hearing her question, he smiled.

"I got a pretty awesome gain actually. It was mostly in the form of knowledge. I'll go into detail later, but long story short, I have an awesome new body now."

"A body?"

"Yea. Wanna see? It's just like your spirit body."

"Really? Sure!"

"Hehe, alright. Watch this."

Grinning broadly, Dream activated his transformation. 

The next moment, the skin all over his body had black cracks appear on its surface. It and his clothes then started to sink down into a dark void underneath, and his cosmic figure soon appeared in its full glory. 

Luna and Iris's eyes went wide as they saw his new form. It was like his body was a window to the universe. The figure contained many stars and nebulae and galaxies, and they could see each one in perfect detail. It was beautiful and mesmerizing. 

"...What is this?"

Both girls stood up and walked over to him. Luna reached out her hand and put it on his chest, and after Iris transformed, she went around to his side and poked at his arm. 

When they touched him, they found that his body was almost formless, just like a ghost. Their hands just went through his body like it was a fog, and there was nothing to even indicate that he was there except for his magical signature. 

"Is this body really formless? Can you not interact with matter?"

Luna asked curiously as she tried to prod his body with magic. When she poked him with a mana needle, it surprisingly couldn't pierce through at all, like his body was steel. 

"I can choose to make it rigid or not. This body is technically pure energy. All of it can be controlled at will. My interactions with matter are also unhindered. In fact, my manipulation skill has gotten stronger. I'll be able to go farther with my creations."

"...So what about before when you were a human? What was that?"

"That's a shell. It's also a form of mine, but since it's a physical body, it limits my power."

"Why does it limit your power?"

"Because it's a physical body."

"...I don't get it."

"It's complicated."

"Alright. So... this is your new body now, huh?"

Luna stepped back and observed him. Through him she could see the stars, and when she circled around him, the view changed. It was surreal, and it was hard to believe that this was a body. If she moved to the right spot, she could even see an image of the sun as if it weren't millions of miles away.

"Hey, why does the view change? And these are stars right?"

Iris suddenly spoke. She had circled him a few times already and was confused about what the hell his body was doing.

"The view changes depending on the angle you look from. This image is a reflection of the universe around us, so you'll obviously see a different part of it when looking in different areas. Think of it like a telescope."

"But why? How does that work?"

"It works according to the concepts my image was formed around."

"...What do you mean image?"

"That's what this body is. It's an image. Here, sit down and I'll tell you about it. I guess now's a good time to explain everything. It'll benefit you guys too."

Putting his arms out, Dream moved the girls to the couch where they sat down. He then formed a chair out of some gas in the air that he instantly froze, sitting in front of the two like a teacher about to give a lecture.

"At the moment that I accepted my class advancement, my soul was sucked off into a mysterious place..."

..............

"...and then after he tried to kill me for touching the star in his chest, I woke back up here. And the rest is as you know."

Stopping there, Dream finished his recollection of the time in the legacy space. The girls remained silent, as they had been for the past three hours. 

He didn't only go over what happened in the space, but also a lot of the knowledge he had gained. Of course it wasn't like he could go over every single bit, so it was only general knowledge, a summary of what he learned. Despite that though, it was a lot for the girls to take in, and while they had asked a few questions, they were mostly silent, listening intently to the awe-inspiring summary of erudition.

"...You said you were there for a long time. How long exactly?"

Luna asked another question after some silence, but Dream just shrugged his arms. 

"No idea. There was nothing to indicate the flow of time, and I couldn't even feel it. But... now that I feel the flow of time again, I would have to say at least several months. That's just a guess though."

Dream recalled his time spent in the legacy space and made a guess as to how long he was in there. He could somewhat guess based off his memory, but he wasn't sure if it was accurate. All he knew was that it definitely wasn't a short stay. 

Luna nodded before asking another question.

"Interesting... So what's this new language you spoke of?"

"Oh, I actually got a skill for it. It's called a universal language."

"Are we able to speak it?"

"I'm not sure. I could probably teach you how. Well, I guess it isn't more like teaching as it is training a technique. It's a language of the soul, so naturally you have to learn how to wield your soul correctly in order to transmit information. Here, let me just speak to you with it."

Saying that, Dream stopped making sounds and spoke in the language.

{Can you understand me?}

"Whoah... Yes I can."

The girls' eyes went wide after they heard his 'voice' enter their minds. It was like it bypassed all barriers and laid its information directly into their soul, enabling them to feel it. More than that, Dream felt ethereal for a moment there, like he was a higher being. 

"You guys are strong and have tough souls and minds, so I'm not worried about my words hurting you. So I guess if you want to learn the language, I'll just have to keep speaking in that language to you guys. Maybe you'll pick it up. Or..."

Dream spoke again, both by word and soul. However, he drifted off at the end, suddenly thinking of something.

"Maybe I can engrave some script for you guys."

"Script? Like the stuff on the monoliths that you extracted?"

"Yea. It's now in my mind, and I can think and speak using its language. I'm pretty sure I know how to write in it, so maybe I could write some, insert some knowledge, and give it to you guys."

"Give us script? But... didn't your mind collapse from that?"

Iris asked, a little timid. From the way he described the script and it reforming his mind, it wasn't a nice process. Although he got through it, it was still a little mental collapse, and not a pain that everyone could easily take. Iris wasn't too keen on going through the same thing just for a language.

"Mine did, but I think that was intentional. The script I give you obviously wouldn't do that, and you would be able to more easily wield the language with some rather than not."

"Alright. If you can write some, we'll take it."

Luna spoke, a bit eager to learn a language like that. She remembered how many of the politicians at the animal districts within the Haven spoke in languages she didn't know. She had been working on learning them, but if she learned this language, she wouldn't have to worry about anything. All of her communication problems would be solved.

"I'll work on it then. Give me a day or so and I should have some. I wanna make sure I write it correctly."

"Sure."

"Now, I think it's about time I get to business."

Saying that, the frozen chair of gas underneath him dispersed back into the atmosphere, and Dream's cosmic figure stood up. Iris tilted her head though.

"What business?"

"I've gotta revamp all the machines in the factory. I also need to get used to my new power and make some new tech. I've been itching to build something for a long time now."

"Huh? The entire factory? But you spent a long time building what you have now! The entire damn cube is filled with your assembly machines, and you want to revamp them all?"

"Yes. It's gonna be really fun."

"...I still don't get you."

Iris sighed as she felt Dream's excitement. She didn't understand how building things were so enjoyable for him nor how he felt so strongly about experimenting and study. She would be bored out of her mind. 

"You go off and work. Iris and I will get back to our things."

"Okay! Oh, before that."

Suddenly, Dream turned to them and transformed back into his human form. He then quickly strode over and gave them each a nice long kiss.

"Mmmwah!"

"..."

"I missed you guys."

He smiled and hugged them. They also returned the love, and after separating, Dream took off into the jungle of machines that was his factory. 

When Dream disappeared, Luna and Iris also left the factory, returning to the Haven. When they were flying down, Iris spoke.

"It's weird."

"What?"

"He told us all these things and was apparently gone for so long, but it's hard to believe. I mean, he was only out for a few minutes. He takes a short nap and changes so much. It's hard to wrap my head around."

"So?"

"So it's confusing!"

"Not really."

"What, so you're able to accept it that easily? Nothing about it is out of the ordinary?"

"I mean, it's not normal, but what's normal about any of us? Or did you just not understand him?"

"I understood! But... Ugh! Nevermind. I'm gonna go find a volcano."

Saying that, Iris sped off in a different direction. Luna just smiled and chuckled, continuing on her way to meet with Vythica and go back to the business she was attending to before Dream's class advancement. 

...........

After flying off into the factory, Dream started conversing with Sophia. As he explained everything to the girls, he was also bringing Sophia through everything, just much more in-depth.

"So what do you think about the knowledge I got? Pretty awesome huh?"

He smiled as Sophia continued to process everything. She had already gone on to use the universal language, and for a while, she was integrating it with her own skill, changing the format in which she processed data. In fact, she had gone up a few levels from it.

<[Sophia] has leveled up!>

<[Sophia has leveled up!>

[This is good stuff! How come we didn't think of this kind of language before? Although it's complex in the usage of the soul, it's nothing we couldn't have figured out. We had already kind of done it with the strings we use for enchanting.]

Sophia spoke excitedly as her level was raised to 32 all the way from 14. Her skill was aimed toward processing data, so a more efficient 'programming language' would bring significant improvement. Already she was speaking to Dream using the language.

[Although I'm not exactly pleased by the fact that I couldn't be there with you, it's not like you didn't bring all the good stuff back.]

"That's good. Have you gone through all the script in my mind space?"

[Of course. It's very thorough, and these guys were definitely geniuses. But...]

"I know, it's missing pieces."

Dream nodded as he guessed what she was thinking. 

The monoliths covered magic and physics on a deep, fundamental level. And on several of them, the prophets had begun to touch on deeper secrets like what experience was and the fundamental correlation between magical energies and matter. However, they only touched on it, and it left many unanswered questions. Not intentionally, but because they hadn't been able to reach that high. They were geniuses, but only at the level of a prophet. 

Dream had actually already understood much of what was on the monoliths, but they were still really good for clearing the fog on some things and showing a path towards a deeper level. Now, he was truly on their level, the level of a prophet, but he would now have to discover and comprehend what they couldn't. These were the missing pieces that they saw, and it was also why Dream wanted to touch the sun in the Keeper's chest, so he could hopefully learn something new. 

"Even with the missing pieces though, we still gained a lot. Now since we're both on the same page, it's time we get to work. We've got a lot to do with the new knowledge we have."

[Yes! I'm excited. What do you think we'll be able to increase the efficiency of the assembly lines by? 50%? 100%? Maybe even 200%? And then there's Aegis that we might be able to modify, and new weapons we can create, and now we'll be able to scan atoms with even greater precision!]

"Hehe, I know. Believe me. I thought all the same things in the legacy space. So let's get to it."

With that, Dream swapped to his cosmic body. The next moment, it began to seethe with unprecedented power. His influence extended out to about 2 kilometers, which was nearly triple the 700 meters from before the class advancement, but still small compared to the girls or even Riddick. 

Within that space though, he was the overlord. It was a far greater control than what the girls had, and anybody who entered it would essentially be placing their lives in his hands. Nothing could hide from him. 

Dream then looked around at his surroundings that were filled with machines that operated ceaselessly. And with a thought, many of them started to transform. His reconstruction had begun.

 

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