Dungeon Prowler : One Man Army

Chapter 438: DREAM CITY

Tasha steeled her heart and then placed her palm on Yunan's forehead, her sweaty palms and short breaths did nothing to comfort her, but she activated her divinity none-the-less.

Soon her vision darkened and she entered a dream-like state, she had lost all her powers here, all she could do was chose when to end the dream.

In the dream world, she saw Yunan sitting and conversing with a copy of himself, both noticed her and then returned to their conversation, she could not hear anything no matter how she focused her hearing, even their lips did not conform to any language she knew.

She was startled from her focus by a tug at her sleeve, a ten-year-old, naive looking child was tugging on her shirt when she looked down she immediately recognized the child as the young Yunan.

"You should not disturb them", said youngster Yunan, pointing at a city that was behind her, "all you need to find is in there", the youngster then started walking before turning around and hurrying Tasha "come, I will be your guide, just this once" and then continued to step into the city.

Tasha almost followed the boy with instinct, she did not even realise there was a city behind her, let alone understand what was going on, usually, she would watch something like a replay of the secret incident in the dream-like state, never has she been in interaction with the consciousness of her target, not until today.

The city was full of Yunan, versions of him were everywhere, from the soldier guarding the gate to the kids playing around, the females in this city were all versions of his wives at various ages, from old and wrinkled to young and enchanting, there were some of those who made impressions on him among the passers-by or the shop keepers, she wondered if she would see herself, she did not like the idea of having an entire life inside someone's brain.

The boy Yunan was slowly walking through the streets, he was letting Tasha take in the scenery, everything here came from Yunan's memory and recognition of the world, it was how he viewed the world compressed in the form of a city.

Eventually, they arrived near a theatre, it was not labelled, like the other shops and there was no one coming or leaving.

"This is the library, here you can find everything, feel free to browse around, once you are done just leave, that is all, bye-bye" the boy waved at Tasha and was about to dash into a group of children playing around, Tasha almost screamed at him to stop.

"Ask him if you have any question, I am only a guide" Tasha watched the child sprint around with his friends and turn unaware of her like the rest of the residents of the city.

Looking behind her, she saw someone standing at the door and waiting for her so she entered the theatre, the one keeping the theatre was an adult Yunan, she did not dare to be careless but could not help ogle at the man, the relaxed look on his face was very recognizable, his lazy smile was very comforting, somehow.

"I am the archive master, please direct all inquiries to me, touche nothing, change nothing and leave when satisfied, those are the rules". The archive master gave her the feeling she would do better to follow the rules or else.

" I am not sure what to ask for, I only wanted to glean some secrets, this is too much for me to take in at once" the archive master conjured a chair and sat on it, allowing Tasha time to think.

Not a moment later she asked, "what is this place, I have never seen anything like this". That question has been bothering her and she could not help but ask after failing to understand anything.

"This city is Yunan's subconscious, everything you see is a figment of it, including myself, it was created with the help of the dream divinity. It allows the main consciousness to interact with us on a more intimate level, and allow us to express ourselves, and this building is related to memories and experiences, it is made the culmination of all the information that is Yunan".

"Then, that mirror image was how Yunan sees himself subconsciously? But if that exists, why the redundancy of building this city, it seems to be a very unusual way of expressing the subconsciousness". Tasha murmured to herself as she took in the information but then looked at the archive master, he should have the answer.

He shook his head as if expressing disagreement, "that one is not part of us, he is Effort, the divinity Yunan chose to ascend with, they don't usually talk in here, that one is not allowed inside the city, Yunan usually visits him when there is a need to communicate, oh for the sake of your well being, try not to get in touch with Effort, he only recognises Yunan as master".

Tasha was dumbfounded once more. since when did divinity get the capability to achieve sentience. She did not dare think of the implications of sentient divinity, what was more disturbing to her was that she was directly interacting with Yunan's subconscious, any god who was fluent in mental domains would know not to do that.

She was fine, she guessed that Yunan himself does not see her act as aggressive, not even remotely, otherwise the entire city would be trying to destroy her, subconsciousness did not like intruders. She was now very happy that Yunan did not deem her to be threatening, not at all, if he did, she would not have made it so far.

"Say, What kind of secrets does Yunan not mind sharing " she was interrupted by the archive master, raising his hand and looking at something beyond walls.

"Don't linger too much, you do not have enough power to stay here any longer, short visits, today, I will send you out, just this once".

The archive master waved goodbye and Tasha opened her eyes, she was drenched in sweat, running empty on both mana and Faith, and starving, no more than an hour inside the city was capable of draining her, too short, the time frame was too short.