Fire Mage

After an unknown amount of time, Charles opened his eyes in the gloomy room and sat up with a puzzled look on his face. Unlike the last time, he was in the wooden bed and appeared in the same cloth. He hurriedly shifted his gaze towards his right hand and smiled as he noticed that the void pouch was still in his hand.

Within a second, he peeked inside and soon breathed out a sigh of relief as he noticed that his Ember Pistol and other things were still present inside. He then checked his pocket and became relaxed as he saw that the 'Nightmare Stone' was also still there in his pocket.

Curling his lips upward, he walked out of bed and saw that everything around him looked gloomy as before.

'Gloomy house...' Eve's prophecy-like words appeared in his mind.

'Can I able to use my magic spells?' He creased his brows for a moment and soon cast 'Fire Wings' spell with a single thought.

In a second, two crimson wings appeared behind him and illuminated the gloomy bedroom.

Nodding his head with a pleasant smile on his face, Charles dismissed the 'Fire Wings' spell and then cautiously walked out of his bedroom.

He didn't go downstairs rashly, though; instead, he peeked outside through the window and noticed that no monstrous birds or any creatures were circling in the sky.

But he only saw some strange red clouds floating in the sky and grew solemn.

'Hmm, should I start searching for any clues about Eddie here? Or, should I search for the 'Snake'?' He furrowed his brows and then went to his study room first. He didn't make any unnecessary noise and started searching for clues in the Study.

Due to his worst luck, he couldn't found anything related to Eddie Nightwind or any snake and got disappointed.

'Eddie Nightwind is a dreamer, so there must be something hidden in this dream world.' He thought to himself and soon went to the storage room. He searched for clues on the second floor for an hour and soon shifted his attention to the first floor.

After gripping the dagger in his hand, he went downstairs cautiously and soon started scouting the first floor.

Soon, Charles frowned as he noticed that there was not even a single presence near the house.

'Should I go out and look outside?' A dangerous idea appeared in his mind. But he didn't act like an impatient kid. He first sat on the torn Ornate Sofa and looked around in puzzlement.

'From the outer appearance, this home seemed to be abandoned for years... But why didn't I see this sofa when I came here last time? Did someone come here and put the furniture? Even if they did, how did they get the Ornate sofa here?... Think... Think... What did I miss?...' Charles narrowed his eyes in suspicion and confusion and soon began to think from a different perspective.

'First, let's see what I know about this Dreamworld and Dream... First is [Dreamer] class members. They must have some connection with this strange world. The second one is the God of Dream, Ithos. He owns the domains of Dream, Illusion, and Imagination... Imagination...' He paused for a moment and soon widened his eyes as he thought of a possibility.

'Did the changes occur due to my imagination?... It's not entirely impossible... This Dreamworld can influence the reality itself, so why not it can also change on its own through one person's imagination? But, why did I appear in this house? Not the house in Earth...' He pondered for a moment and soon shook his head.

'Let's skip those high-level thoughts and come to the current situation. Can I able to use the spell model like Edhen World? Can the cooldown be the same or it varies?' He narrowed his eyes for a moment as he thought of a problem and checked the interface.

He soon focused his attention on the [Fire Wings] spell model in the status and soon saw the details.

'1 minute...' He stared at the cooldown time in shock for a moment and soon mumbled,

"It looks like this world has more mana than the Edhen World." After saying those words, he stood up from the torn sofa and got ready to go out.

He silently walked out of the reception room before looking warily at the empty yard and soon noticed a strange scene in the northern sky. He saw an enormous cone-like red tornado in the farther area, and it seemed to be moving in a particular direction while connecting its anvil with those ominous red clouds!

'It is farther away from the Riverdale City.' He gulped down his saliva as he stared at the monstrous natural disaster and soon glanced around his surroundings.

'Why there are no strange creatures in this city now?' He took a step forward towards the compound gate and soon noticed a strange black snake was slithering towards his direction from the right side yard!

It was the same black snake he saw when he came here last time! But this time, he noticed something unique about that snake. Instead of a strange diamond-like gem on its forehead area, he saw a blue-crystalline cone and got curious about its origin.

Before he could think further, he heard an alluring female voice in his head.

"Follow. Me."

Charles stared at the five-meter-long black snake in surprise for a second and soon frowned as he saw that the black snake had already changed its direction.

'It talked!' He muttered to himself in shock.

In the meantime, the snake slithered out of the compound gate and soon entered the mud street road.

He had vaguely guessed that there must be some intelligent lifeforms in this dream-like world and got confused by how it knew about the Blen language.

'Did this snake appeared through my imagination?... No... That's almost nonsensical...'

"Who are you? How did you speak Blen tongue?" He asked in a suppressing tone and followed after it.

The black snake raised its head for a moment and soon continued to slither towards the main street.

'Is it ignoring me? Or, is someone controlling this snake from afar?' He got puzzled inside and furrowed his brows.

Before he could ask further, the black snake muttered in a breaking female voice.

"Dream. Lord. is. waiting. for. you."

'Dream Lord? Is it a title? Or, a Class name?' He narrowed his eyes for a second and soon chose to stay silent.

'Looks like I need to be extra careful. Although Eve told me to follow after the snake, I don't want to bet my life on some strange fate.' He thought for a moment and soon halted his footsteps.

In the meantime, the black snake also stopped its movement and let out a loud hiss. After that, it turned around and said while flickering its tongue.

"Danger. Hide."

The snake slithered into the street corner and soon moved into the drainage passway after saying those words. In the meantime, Charles looked around in surprise and soon noticed a humanoid shadow was coming out from the nearby house.

He was about to go and hide in the nearby house but soon stopped his footsteps as he knew that it would be a futile effort.

In a second, he saw that the opposite party appeared 20 meters away from him and seemed to be holding black darts in its hands. No, the other party was also a male human!

He wore a black hooded top, black pants, and a pair of strange grey shoes. He looked around third-years old, with amber eyes, a rough face, and a lean body.

Before he could ask any question to the opposite party, Charles's [Sixth Sense] skill warned him about the impending danger as he bends down a bit and soon leaped towards the nearby compound wall.

In the meantime, three black darts flew towards the area where he stood before and soon stabbed onto the mud road. A second later, purple gas appeared from those darts and started spreading like wildfire!

On the other hand, Charles placed his hand on the compound wall and skillfully jumped towards the other side. After that, he didn't dare to face the other party without having any information and thought of escaping.

But before he could take a step forward, he saw that the compound wall started to turn minute glasses and soon disappeared!

'Dream-related abilities? He can manipulate this illusionary world?' Cold sweats dripped on Charles's forehead as he turned around with a stiff smile on his face and pointed his forefinger at the enemy.

A moment later, a ray of condensed red fire came out from his forefinger and moved towards the human at an unimaginable speed.

It was Charles's Rank-1 long-ranged offensive fire spell, Incinerate!

For a moment, surprise and shock appeared on the hooded human face, and soon it turned gloomy. The hooded human then removed his black hood while revealing his brown hair and whispered something in his mouth.

Like a ripple, the surroundings air vibrated for a moment and soon formed into a transparent spherical shield!

It looked more like a science fiction movie's force field ability.

A moment later, bang sound echoed as the fire ray collided against the sphere and the momentum threw the enemy off along with the forcefield-like sphere.

When the hooded human snapped out from the daze, he noticed that the transparent sphere began to break like glasses and widened his eyes!

Before he could think further, he heard a strange metal clicking sound from the front. Squinting his eyes, he stood up unsteadily and locked his gaze on Charles, who was holding an odd metal scrap in his hand.

A second later, the brown-haired male's instinct screamed all of a sudden to dodge the upcoming invisible attack!

Horrified, the brown-haired human took a step back and tried to dodge the unknown attack by jumping towards his right side.

But Charles didn't even give any time for the brown-haired human and squeezed the trigger. A moment later, a sharp metal bullet came out from the Ember Pistol's muzzle and soon collided on the strange human's head!

A millisecond later, another banging sound echoed as the strange human's head shattered like a watermelon!

[Target Eliminated! 170 Exp obtained!]

Charles breathed as he stared at the headless corpse for two long seconds and then walked near it.

'Who is this?' He raised his eyebrows in suspicion. Due to the sudden battle, he couldn't even have any time to use his [Inspect] skill on the enemy, so he didn't even have a single clue about why he attacked him earlier.

"He. Is. a. Dreamer." He heard a strange breaking voice of a female and soon turned around. A weird black snake slithered out of the drainage passway within a few seconds and soon appeared near him.

"Dreamer?" He stared at the weird snake for a second while tilting his head and asked in confusion.

"He. must. be. a. Rank-1. Dreamer. Class. Mystic." It replied while letting out a small hiss and then started slithering towards another direction.

Sighing heavily, Charles followed after the weird black snake and pondered about his previous battle.

'Rank-1 Dreamer Class Mystic. But why did he attack me? To rob me? If I didn't have the Ember Pistol, I would be the one lying over there. His weird dream abilities were also powerful.' He felt that he had to rank up quickly and increase his strength. Charles then turned his gaze towards the black snake and asked another question as he walked on the empty main road.

"Where did he come from?"

"I. don't. know." The snake spoke while slithering on the smooth mud road and soon added,

"Maybe. from. another. plane."

'Plane? Is it talking about another world?... That's interesting...' He arched his eyebrows a little and followed after it silently.

The duo walked out of Riverdale City through the eastern gate and soon moved into the woods.