It took Andius quite a while to actually fall asleep, The reality that he had just stabbed two people, real people, was still eating away at him. Sure, they weren’t really dead and were just sent to respawn, but the sight of a man passing away beneath Andius’ blade bothered him. When sleep finally did take him, Andius didn’t even realize it, he was standing inside of a vortex of swirling colors and images, things he had seen and done floating around him in ways that completely defied reality.

Despite his strange surroundings, Andius could still tell he was asleep in the room, he could somehow feel the room around him, and even a bit into the hall. This was the affects of the hidden skill he had gained, Dreamer. Despite everything that had happened today, Andius couldn’t help but smile at the world inside of his mind, it was so chaotic and disorganized, but it felt comfortable and inviting.

With a thought, the world around him shifted and he suddenly found himself standing in the clearing where he first spawned into the game, crater and all. “Oh, this is too weird!” His voice echoed out unnaturally in the dream, proving without a doubt that this was all in his mind. “So… I can control my dreams completely then?” He wondered aloud, looking about the place he had taken from his memories. There were some parts that were blurry or undefined, places he hadn’t taken all that close of a look at when he was awake, but they quickly fixed themselves with little more than a little bit of mental effort.

An idea came to Andius, and his new obsidian daggers came into existence in his hands, an archery target appearing not far away, “So… if this is a dream then I probably can’t gain skills right, that would be way too broken.” Before just shrugging and stepping back a few paces. He reared back his hand and threw the dagger at the target. It was sloppy, given his skill was low and he hadn’t ever thrown a dagger in real life, and so the blade simply bounced off the target. Sure, he could have dreamed it hitting the target dead on, but he was more interested in a realistic simulation. What he didn’t understand was why he wasn’t able to hit the target, even having the first level in the skill gave him a massive boost to his accuracy, so why?… Was it because he didn’t actually know the proper technique?

Andius tried again with another failed throw, but decided he didn’t have much else to do and kept throwing daggers. After a couple dozen attempts, one of the blades finally stuck in, and he jumped in place, a big grin on his face. This proved that while skills were good, actual practice was still incredibly important in the development of his abilities. Then a notification popped up in his dreamscape, so massive he fell onto his rear with a yelp of surprise!

——————

Throwing level: 2

——————

His jaw hit the floor, literally since dreams didn’t need to follow the laws of reality. “That’s…. oh my god I’m so going to abuse the heck out of this!” He cried out in his dreams, a happy gleam in his eyes as he realized he could simply train in his sleep! This would be a huge advantage that he had over other players, because it meant that he wouldn’t need to devote any of his time to training while he was awake, and could instead focus on questing or tracking the blades!

Andius picked himself up off the ground and looked around for a moment before trying something else. He imagined all of his stats were set at 100, and he felt his body change, his perspective shifting a little bit as height was added to his body. A mirror materialized and he looked his fake body over in it. He looked ridiculous, like some over the top Anime mad-scientist that was secretly ripped. Andius shook his head a few times and let himself return to normal before he decided he wanted to see something else.

Suddenly he was standing in the middle of Woodsdale, people mulling around him as they went about their day like they always did. This was especially strange since he could see the window of the room he was currently asleep in. This was a replay of his memory of just before the two men attacked him. He followed along as memory-Andius walked into the tavern to ask for information, and he looked down at the man who had ratted him out to the bloody blades.

He was an older man and didn’t have all that much of a unique face, but hidden away under his shirt was a metal button of a red dagger. Sure enough this guy was a member just like the two who had attacked him, it seemed that the group had members everywhere, just how big was this guild? While he was watching the man inform his other members, Andius noticed something. He wasn’t even sure how he had missed it the first time, maybe he was too focused on watching the spy, but in this sort of replay, it was painfully obvious how uncomfortable Andius had made the barkeep when he asked about the bloody blades.

For a moment Andius marveled at how useful this skill would be for reviewing information in the future, he could go to sleep and re-watch anything he had experienced and notice thing she had missed in the moment! He watched the barkeep for as long as he was able to, but eventually he moved out of frame, and he lost sight of him in a blur. What he didn’t expect was his ability to pick apart his memory even further. Andius focused on listening as closely as he could, and even though the sight of the barkeep would stay blurry unless he filled in the blanks, the words came through almost crystal clear.

“I gave him room six, please just… just don’t make a mess…” The barkeep whispered, fear and guilt laced his voice so thickly that Andius could only imagine the expression on his face. The man clearly didn’t want to let these people come after Andius, but he didn’t have much of a choice when a bunch of armed thugs were pulling the strings. Just how had the Bloody blades gotten so much power already?

One of the two men scoffed, Andius assumed it was the level 10 player, “Yeah yeah, we’ll make sure it’s niiiiice and clean old man. Just shut up and don’t talk to anyone about this.” He replied, making Andius glad he had been killed already, even if he would respawn. These were the kinds of people who liked to flaunt their power and walk all over people, whether they were an NPC or not.

Andius let the memory fade from there, he didn’t want to relive himself stabbing the two players again, even if they definitely deserved it, he just wasn’t that kind of person. He let his mind wander for a moment, the uncontrolled currents of his thoughts carrying the scene away to nothing but colorful smoke, leaving him once again in the swirling ocean of raw thought. He had learned a lot in his short time in his own dreamscape, and he knew now that it would be a massive asset from this moment forward.

Through his connection with his body, Andius felt the first rays of the sun leak into the room through the window. It had felt like only a few short hours, but apparently he had slept through most of the night already. Andius figured it wouldn’t hurt to wait around a little while longer, he knew quite well that the respawn timer was always twelve hours, and he was in no rush to leave the comfort and relative safety of this room, not while there were other members of the Bloody Blades running rampant in this town.

As he was thinking that, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, a black silhouette against the colorful streams of thought floating around his mental landscape. It looked like a person hunched down and eating something, and the swirls of color seemed to be moving towards the thing. Andius noted that the brighter colors flowed away from the creature after a moment, whereas the dark swirls seemed to vanish entirely. What was this thing doing?

Andius got closer even as ever fiber of his being screamed at him to run, his curiosity winning out in leagues compared to fear. His consciousness floated closer and closer to the thing, and as he got nearly two arm lengths away from it, it suddenly turned it’s head around and stared directly at him. This thing was horrifying to look at, and immediately dread filled Andius like ice in his veins! It’s body looked like burned and emaciated, skin clinging to bone everywhere he looked. It’s arms were impossibly long, like thin twigs tied together with long, sharp fingers at the end. Most horrifying of all was it’s face; it didn’t have one. Where it’s face should have been was only tight, charred skin with two indents where it’s eyes should have been, white hot globes of light burning with madness floating mere inches away.

The creature screamed a blood curdling scream despite having no mouth, and Andius screamed in return, waking from his dream and bolting straight up in his bed. He gasped for air and clutched at his heart, it was beating so fast that it was painful, and he could hear his blood rushing behind his ears. It took some time for Andius to calm down after that, he wasn’t sure why, but that thing scared him far more than anything he had ever seen in his life, it seemed like it was something primal in himself, something he should have known to stay far, far away from.

After his heart settled down, Andius knew he couldn’t wait around for much longer, either someone would come and check the room he had rented, or one of the other players would come to this room to collect the gear they had stashed away. With that thought in mind, he got up and checked the stash himself, the results were less than ideal. Inside of the chest at the foot of the bed were some basic sets of leather gear, a couple of cheap looking daggers, and a backpack. “These guys really do just kill newbies and take all of their stuff huh?…” An idea came to Andius, and he took the backpack and stuffed all of the gear inside he could, the rest of his he would have to carry, but that was fine with him.

Once that was sorted, he decided it was time to spend the points he had gained from his most recent level up; he would need to be as strong as he could be until he was away from the enemy players. He thought for a moment about where he should put his new points, He knew already that he could kill most of his enemies if he got a sneak attack off, but that was only useful against the first enemy, anything in a group would have him dead in seconds after that. More dexterity could increase his damage output and make him better at dodging sure, but he still had the issue of taking only a few hits to take down. Constitution was a definite need, so he put three points into that, and put one point into wisdom, another into dexterity. The dexterity buy in was an obvious choice, but he also had to remember the fact that he didn’t have a whole lot of mana yet, and raising his wisdom would let it regenerate faster.

Next up was his choice of skills. He still wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to level up his climbing skill. It seemed useless in most regards, since it was really only good for traveling or for getting a vantage point, but something inside of him was screaming to steer away from the norm and get this skill as high as possible! Against his better judgment he put a point into climbing, then looked over the other skills he had on offer. He didn’t really need more damage right now, he just wasn’t built for head on confrontation with a dagger build and he knew it, he would have to either reply on subterfuge or find a new weapon for that kind of fight.

Acrobatics was nice, but it made him wide open for attacks, and that would be really bad since he was still really squishy. Since being easy to kill was the issue, he decided to devote his remaining two skill points into dodging, being harder to hit was going to come in handy for sure, plus that coveted auto dodge was so alluring, even if it was such a rare chance until he got his dexterity to 100.

With all of that set, he took a look at all of his gains in the past night, checking a blinking notification in the process.

——————

Dreamer level: 4

——————

Name:Andius

Title: Reborn

Level: 5

EXP:100/500

Specialization: N/A

HP:160/160

Stamina:260/260

Mana:112/112

Strength:10

Dexterity:27

Constitution:16

Intelligence:12

Charisma:23

Wisdom:11

——————

Climbing level: 7

——————

Dagger level: 8

——————

Light armor Level: 5

——————

Stealth Level: 6

——————

Dodge Level: 8

——————

Acrobatics Level: 2

——————

Throwing Level: 2

——————

Hidden Skill: Dreamer Level :4

——————

Magic Resistance Level: 25

——————

Pain resistance Level 13

——————

Spell Darkvision: Level 1

——————

Spell Manipulate shadows: Level 3

——————

Dark Leather Cuirass

Durability: 50/50

Rarity: Rare

Leather armor made from black leather of unknown origin.

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

——————

Dark Leather Greaves

Durability: 20/20

Rarity: Rare

Armor made from black leather of unknown origin that protects one’s legs from attacks.

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

——————

Shadowheart Bracer

Durability: 100/100

Rarity: Unique

A regular bracer that has been enhanced with raw shadow mana. A black amethyst has been placed in it’s center which beats like a heart

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

The gem in this bracer acts as a focus for dark magic. While wearing this item, a sorcerer or warlock may cast shadow magic through it. Contains basic spell ‘Shadow Manipulation’

——————

Dark Leather Boots

Durability: 30/30

Rarity: Rare

Armor made from black leather of unknown origin that protects one’s feet from debris and attacks.

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

——————

Obsidian Dagger(x2)

Durability: 50/50

Rarity: Common

Cruel instruments of death carved from one of the sharpest mundane materials. Very brittle.

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

——————

Midnight Cloak

Durability: 50/50

Rarity: Unique

A hooded cloak made of pure shadow, which hides it’s wearer from the light!

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

While the hood is drawn and the user is not moving, it is nearly impossible to see the wearer so long as they are completely covered in shadow.

——————

Ash Bow

Durability: 43/50

Rarity: common

A simple bow designed for hunting.

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

——————

Quiver of Arrows(13 arrows)

Durability: 28/30

Rarity: Very Common

A quiver full of arrows designed for hunting.

Value: ???(Object is not appraised)

——————

10 Gold Coins.

56 Silver Coins.

4 Copper Coins.

——————