[Aspirant!
Welcome to the Nightmare Spell.
Prepare for your First Trial…] ‘Wow, I really need to slow down on reading so many novels.
Now I’m even dreaming about being inside one.
Hahaha.’ The thought amused him.
It was ridiculous, but not entirely surprising.
After spending so much time reading fantasy stories, perhaps his brain had finally decided to create one of its own.
However, the amusement quickly disappeared as the darkness surrounding his dream began to fade.
What appeared before his eyes was anything but beautiful.
A forest stretched out in front of him, but it was no longer a place full of life.
It looked as if an entire forest had been burned down by some unimaginable force.
The once-tall trees had been reduced to blackened remains, their trunks twisted and lifeless, while a thick layer of ash covered the ground.
As if that destruction was not enough, the forest was filled with corpses.
Humans and mutated animals alike were scattered across the ruined landscape.
Some creatures barely resembled animals anymore, their bodies distorted into monstrous forms, while the humans lay among them with their weapons still in their hands.
Every single corpse had been charred completely black.
Before he could understand what he was seeing, the scene suddenly began to change.
At first, he thought his vision was simply becoming distorted, but then he realized that the entire world around him was moving backward, like a video being reversed.
The explosion that had destroyed the forest appeared once more, but instead of expanding outward, the flames and destruction began to retract inward.
The fire returned to its source, the smoke vanished into the sky, and the devastation slowly began undoing itself.
That was when he finally saw the battle clearly.
Humans were fighting desperately against towering abominations that seemed impossible to exist.
The creatures were massive, far larger than any normal beast, and their terrifying forms made even looking at them feel unnatural.
Yet the humans continued fighting.
They fought with everything they had, desperately trying to resist the monsters that had descended upon them.
Time continued to flow backward.
Day turned into night, night turned into day, and the cycle repeated itself over and over again.
During the first three days, countless battles took place throughout the forest, but as the world continued rewinding, the frequency of those battles gradually decreased.
One battle became fewer.
Fewer became none.
Eventually, the forest returned to its original state, once again filled with tall trees and untouched by destruction.
From what he could tell, the forest was located between a large city and a smaller town.
The distant silhouette of the city could be seen beyond the trees, while the nearby town appeared much simpler and quieter.
However, the strange vision did not stop there.
The ‘video’ continued playing backward, moving away from the forest and toward the nearby town.
At first, the town was completely empty.
The streets were silent, and the buildings looked abandoned.
But as time continued reversing, the town slowly came back to life.
People began appearing.
The empty streets gradually filled with movement, houses became occupied again, and the quiet settlement transformed into a place full of life.
Despite that, an uneasy feeling continued growing inside him.
‘I don’t have a good feeling about this.’ He stared at the strange scene unfolding before him.
‘Why does my dream feel so real all of a sudden?
I haven’t even had a lucid dream before.’ The view continued moving until it finally focused on an old hut located at the edge of the town.
And that was where the boy woke up with a gasp.
“Huff… huff…” His breathing was heavy as he looked around in confusion.
The first thing he noticed was that the room was unfamiliar.
The wooden walls, the simple furniture, and the faint smell of old wood were nothing like his own surroundings.
“Now this is getting scary…” He rubbed his face, trying to calm himself down.
“I’ve heard about people being able to control themselves in lucid dreams, but does it really feel this real?” Then he suddenly noticed something strange.
“And why am I so small?” The boy looked down at himself, examining his body carefully.
He appeared to be around fourteen years old, with brown hair, fair skin, and a height of roughly 5’1 feet.
His body was much smaller and thinner than he was used to.
He was wearing a rough brown tunic and pants made from the same coarse material, along with a pair of simple leather boots that looked handmade.
Everything about his appearance felt unfamiliar.
“Let’s calm down and just try sleeping again.
Maybe I’ll wake up that way.” Trying to convince himself that this was nothing more than an extremely realistic dream, he lay back down on the bed and closed his eyes.
For several seconds, the only sound in the room was his own breathing.
Slowly, he began to relax.
Then suddenly, his eyes snapped open.
He jumped up from the bed and shouted.
“FUUUUUUCCCCK!
THAT WAS THE VOICE OF THE NIGHTMARE SPELL!” His expression was one of pure disbelief.
He looked around the room again, still struggling to accept what was happening.
“No way…” He tried to deny it.
Maybe it was just a coincidence.
Maybe his mind had created something similar because of all the stories he had read.
There was only one way to find out.
He focused on the runes he knew should exist.
He hoped nothing would happen.
He hoped this would prove that everything was just a dream.
But luck was not on his side.
The moment he thought of the word status, glowing runes appeared in the air directly in front of him.
And with that, his last hope of this being a dream disappeared.
Name: Orren Veil True Name: — Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: — Echoes: — Attributes: [Unanchored], [Mark of Divinity], [Mist-Touched].
Aspect: [Wayfarer].
Aspect Description: [You walk paths others fail to notice.
Where direction falters and certainty fades, your steps remain strangely correct.
The world does not guide you, yet it allows you to proceed where others would become lost.] “Huh???
What a shitty aspect is this?!” He cried out loud.
“I mean don’t get me wrong it is useful but only as a utility aspect.
It doesn’t help in a fight.
And what’s with the weird Attributes?” He looked at his at his Attribute descriptions.
[Unanchored] Attribute Description: “You do not properly belong to the current weave of existence.” [Mark of Divinity] Attribute Description: “You bear a faint scent of divinity, as though someone briefly touched by it once, a long time ago.” [Mist-Touched] Attribute Description: “The pale mist does not reject your presence.” ‘Well, [Unanchored] and [Mark of Divinity] make sense.
I didn’t end up here on my own, and whoever brought me here must be some kind of divine entity.’ Orren stared at the glowing runes floating before him, trying to process everything that had happened.
Even though the situation was absurd, some parts of his status were easier to understand than others.
‘But why am I [Mist-Touched]?’ His expression became more serious.
‘I’m pretty sure Mist is related to Nothingness.
Is it something innate to me?
Something I was born with?’ A chill ran down his spine.
‘That’s creepy.’ He continued staring at his status for a while, trying to find some hidden clue that could explain his circumstances.
Unfortunately, there were no answers waiting for him.
His gaze eventually moved away from the runes and toward the ceiling of the small hut.
‘The scene I saw at the beginning of the Nightmare was way too long.
It must have covered at least several months, maybe even a year.
And my trial is most likely related to those battles at the end.’ He paused.
‘Well… assuming I survive until then.’ The thought was unsettling.
Back in his previous life, he had always imagined what it would be like to suddenly find himself inside a fantasy world.
He had read countless novels where the protagonist received a second chance at life, gained incredible powers, and rose above everyone else.
He had always thought that if something like that happened to him, he would embrace it.
But now that it had actually happened, he found himself far less confident.
‘Reading about it from behind a screen and experiencing it firsthand are completely different things.’ The dangers that existed in those stories had always felt distant.
Monsters, death, and impossible situations were exciting when they were nothing more than words on a page.
Now they were real.
And he was the one who had to face them.
“I have to get a good appraisal.” Orren clenched his fist as determination replaced his uncertainty.
“This trial will be the foundation of my future.
I can’t screw this up.” With that resolve, he stood up from the bed and began inspecting the small hut.
If this really was his First Nightmare, then he needed to prepare as much as possible before anything happened.
The first thing he needed was some kind of weapon.
His eyes searched through the simple room until they landed on something placed on the counter beside his bed.
A kitchen knife.
It was small and clearly not designed for combat, but the edge was sharp enough.
‘Well, better than nothing.’ He picked it up and examined it for a moment before putting it away.
While searching the hut, he also found a small collection of berries.
He had no idea what kind they were, but hunger was not something he could ignore.
After making sure they did not appear poisonous, he ate them before finally stepping outside.
For now, his priority was figuring out his situation.
He needed information.
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