Chapter 57: Waking up
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The stone plate soon raised us through the holes in the ceiling. Wind blew through the new tunnel that we arrived in. Unlike the stagnant tunnels we were in before, there seemed to be a steady and cool breeze flowing through this tunnel.

Potentially, a sign of an exit.

Looking over the remaining warriors, there were only thirty five left… and only thirty four in fighting condition, considering the poisoned spear warrior.

“We won’t be able to use the levitating plate for another week. We can only hope we don’t need it in the future.” Liam stated plainly as the stone plate shrunk back into a palm-sized disk.

Staring in both directions, I realized that after overcoming such a dangerous situation, we’ve been provided with a choice.

If we head toward the wind source, it would lead out of this mountain.

Meanwhile, following the wind’s direction would lead us directly toward the queen… (as I can convince myself it does.)

Liam assessed the status of his tribesmen and directly asked, “What direction should we head?”

Gesturing up toward the direction the wind is arriving from, I stated, “Heading in that direction would lead us directly out of the tunnels.”

Liam nodded in response, at this point he seemed ready to abandon this quest. I watched him reach down and pulled up a tribesmen who was resting on the floor.

Staring in the other direction, I pondered my options.

Should I continue on this quest to kill the Queen Terror Ant?

Although leaving would provide temporary safety, that would allow the Terror Ants to grow unhindered.

This is the same world I found myself in the first time I arrived in the Dream Realm. If I’m surviving in the same world each time, leaving a disaster like this alone could cause countless problems in the future.

The Dream Realm would only need to expand the range of the disaster to cause countless dangerous situations.

I’m not sure that I want to leave that kind of influential capital alone if I have the chance to get rid of it.

Otherwise, in the future, I will have to deal with an endless stream of Terror Ants whether I’m in this realm.

A perfect trap. One that I would choose to step in regardless of whether I knew it was a trap.

Gesturing in the direction that led deeper into the mountain, “If we head in that direction, it would lead us directly into the Queen’s lair. This hidden passageway is an emergency escape route created for the Queen. Due to that, it’s not frequently used, but it leads directly from the queen lair to a hidden exit outside the mountain.“

Honestly, I completely made that up… but it’s plausible and, now that I’ve said it, I believe it.

Truth is irrelevant… because, in this place, belief is the only thing that matters.

Liam glanced over his remaining tribesmen, before turning back toward me. “We continue the mission. However…” Individually gesturing toward several injured warriors and finally toward me, “Each of you will be leaving. We don’t need to bring injured or powerless people to their deaths.”

“You expect me to stay behind?” I inquired in disbelief.

The tunnel suddenly became loud with chatter, as each of the injured warriors protested his decision.

“Enough. This isn’t up for debate.” Liam silenced their protests, turned toward me, reached out his hand and stated, “Thank you for the guidance.”

I don’t understand, nor do I wish to leave… but I also cannot protest. The main reason I was allowed to join is because I could provide guidance through the tunnels and various dangerous situations.

With a straight path to the queen’s lair and the exit, from his perspective, taking someone powerless would only be a liability that he cannot allow.

Even though Liam stated early on that they wouldn’t be able to protect me in dangerous situations, they have been doing exactly that. The majority of these injured warriors are only injured because they were protecting me in dangerous situations.

Shaking his hand, I found that Liam had forced the palm-sized stone plate he used earlier into my hand.

I gave him a puzzled look, but he merely winked back toward me and indicated with a hush symbol that I should keep it a secret.

Pocketing the stone plate, I watch him descend deeper into the mountain toward the Queen’s lair.

Although I wasn’t expecting it, in a way, this is the best option. I won’t be in danger and the Queen still has the possibility of being subdued.

The only thing I can do for him is believe he’s powerful enough to solve this.

I wasn’t expecting him to be this stubborn.

Although the warriors he’s forcing to leave are injured, they are by no means weak. They definitely wouldn’t be the liability he’s making them out to be.

Scratching the back of my head. Maybe I shouldn’t have exposed that there was an exit to begin with.

Tapping the back of my wristband, the countdown screen popped up.

<Welcome back to the Dream Realm>

<Expedition time left: 19 hours: 43 minutes >

<Notice: Nightmare occurs after 5 more explorations>

This countdown doesn’t seem very accurate… I spent at least 8 hours here. Assuming it began at 24 hours like last time, it has only counted around 4 of those hours.

Looking over the screen, I noticed a small alert bubble.

Tapping on it caused another screen to pop up.

<Quest ‘Guide the Warriors’ Complete>

<Quest Reward: Levitating Stone Plate>

<Description: Utilizing unknown principles, this stone plate expands to several meters in size and levitates for up to an hour per week.>

<If creating a paradise was a simple as creating numerous artifacts, the suffering of man wouldn’t be as prominent and extensive as it is today.>

Okay… weird quote.

I guess that guiding the warriors could be considered a quest…

The quest reward is the most interesting thing though.

While it’s laughably weak compared to the artifacts I’m used to, the interesting thing is that I received this artifact as a reward to begin with.

From what I can tell, my belief that the warriors had some way to levitate created this artifact. Receiving this as a quest reward means that I could create any artifacts that I want and potentially receive those artifacts as a reward later.

Sending one last glance down the tunnel, I began heading out to leave with the wounded warriors.

The world flashed with a white light and I jolted awake in my sleeping bag.

Damn, I cannot get used to that.

Folding up my sleep bag, it was already dawn. That countdown clock is clearly wrong.

Looking around, I noticed Rin was resting against a tree with her sleeping bag covering her legs.

Approaching her, I realized Rin slightly awake but had a cute sleepy expression.

Taking advantage of this rare opportunity where I was more awake than Rin, I unfolded my sleeping bag so it rested comfortably on her chest and rested beside her.

Around thirty minutes later, Rin began stirring and nuzzled into me.

Stroking her soft head, I whispered. “You can sleep for awhile longer.”

She didn’t respond, so I took that as an affirmative and simply continued sitting beside her.

Meanwhile I continued thinking about the Dream Realm.

It seemed to be far more dangerous than I initially comprehended. Even now going over my fake memories of spending years as a wanderer I cannot find anything too odd.

They manage to tell a narrative that flawlessly explains every skill and ability I have.

If it wasn’t for the fact they were somewhat hazy and lacking in concrete detail I’m not sure I’d be able to tell the difference between my real memories and those fake memories.

Utterly terrifying that something like that managed to be created without me even being aware of it.

Although I managed to break free this time, if it manages to get access to any more of my soul, I’m not sure I’d be able to break free.

Simply put, I cannot allow myself to die any more times in that place.

The consequences are too terrifying.

Cannot the Mad Craftsman make anything safe?

Would it kill him just to make a useful artifact that won’t try to kill the wearer?

What benefit does it even bring? Although his other artifacts are dangerous, they are at least useful.

Far as I can tell, this one is only dangerous.

Realizing I hadn’t actually attempted to utilize the wristband in the real world, I tapped on it.

<Inventory:>

<Levitating Stone Plate>

<T-Shirt>

<Wooden Spear>

<Notice: Only one item may be summoned into the real world at a time.>

Well, that’s interesting… the list contains everything I had on me when I left the Dream Realm.

It states that only one can be summoned at a time, but that isn’t much of a limitation. I can always desummon and resummons it as necessary.

I almost instinctively chose the Levitating Stone Plate due to the others being relatively useless… however, I soon remembered that Rin said to ‘choose the spear’.

Although I have no clue if this is the choice that she was warning me about, there’s no harm if I’m wrong.

As I choose it, the spear appeared on the floor beside me. I decided not to get up and practice with it because I didn’t want to wake Rin, but I inspected it at close range.

Visually, it didn’t seem to be different from a regular wooden spear.

For the next test, I tried to break the spear in half.

Utilizing as a decent portion of my strength, I noted the spear was far tougher than regular wood before it snapped in half.

Although I’m entirely sure that I understand what regular wood’s strength is as it seems to be dependent on the planet in some fashion, the wood was far tougher to break than ordinary wood.

Which is completely illogical actually.

After all, I managed to break this branch off a tree in the forest and create it into a spear without having the strength beyond an ordinary person.

Theoretically, it should either powerful enough that I cannot break it no matter how I try to break it as it would be similar to an immortal object or conversely it should break extremely easily due to it only have the density of regular wood.

Immediately, I realized what I had forgotten. It possible the power of objects from the Dream Realm depends on belief.

My faith in physical strength is stronger than my belief in the strength of the wooden spear.

Even though I considered the spear extraordinary because it came partly from the Mad Craftsman, I still have a stronger belief in my own power.

The snapping from the spear seemed to have woken Rin up.

I took the opportunity to slowly stand up, as she stopped resting on my chest.

I suppose we should get going anyway. We still have awhile to go before we reach the beacon.

“Sidney, time to get up.” I called, walking over toward her sleeping bag, only to find it empty.

Son of a…

She's run off.

I completely forgot to set up a defensive ward preventing her from leaving last night.

I got distracted worrying about the Dream Realm and other problems going on with Rin…

Lowering my head in an exhausted motion, I began packing up her sleep bag as well.

Of course she would run away with such a perfect opportunity.

While I normally don’t mind, I’m sick of it at this point.

I’ll have to find a random excuse when she makes a mistake to revoke her running away privileges.

I have too many other things to worry about to deal with her constantly running away with every opportunity.

I figured letting her run away would let her quickly discover how pointless it is… but if anything she’s only gotten smarter in escaping.

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