Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

Chapter 662 Are you playing games alone too?

The young elves ran and leaped across the meadow, a refreshing breeze caressing their faces. Without the shade of tall trees, the sun cast their long shadows across the vast plain. Above their heads, a white border was visible to each other, within which their names were written: [Luke] and [Aidan].

Luke planted his beginner's longsword in the ground like a cane, stood on the mound, and gazed into the distance, watching the ripples created by the wind on the grass.

The two newcomers to the dream world were too conservative; they used their original names and appearances. Perhaps they made minor adjustments to their faces according to their own aesthetics, but such changes could only offer some psychological comfort at best.

Ondream, the land of dreams.

Such a sign is hidden in the clouds, and can be easily seen by simply looking up.

"This place is so beautiful."

"A different kind of beauty from the Dream Forest."

The young elves hadn't forgotten their mission; they conjured a small slip of paper out of thin air, detailing their agreement with Claudia. A simple memo instruction, which Christo added to the tutorial to help every player understand the world. This also served as the prototype for the quest list and chat system.

"After completing the tutorial, leave the starting village, travel twenty miles north to the plains, and wait... for Aidan. Lord Claudia's arrangements, have I remembered something wrong?"

Aidan held the same white slip of paper as his companion, carefully examined its contents, and then took Luke's slip to compare them. "If I remember correctly, we have indeed arrived at the place. Lady Claudia should be nearby. Strange, we should be able to see her around here."

The two continued to scan their surroundings, but the unchanging grassland no longer seemed so appealing, and they found nothing.

"Perhaps Lady Claudia will suddenly appear before us. I've heard that the most skilled shapeshifting druids can transform themselves into small animals like raccoons or muskrats. My mentor always mentions her amazing druidic talent."

"But even the most skilled druid cannot transform himself into a mosquito or a bee. On grass like this, I think I could see the wings of a mosquito. She's not here, or at least, according to common sense, she couldn't possibly be."

Right under their noses, a ripple appeared in the air a meter above the ground. The warm sunlight and the blowing wind were like a curtain being lifted, and Claudia, wearing a brown belted leather coat, peeked out from the gap and greeted the two of them.

And above her head was a name box that read, "The administrator must die."

"Come here quickly, let's leave the safe zone and hunt some wild boars to level up yourselves to level five."

Luke and Aidan passed through the curtain and were instantly transported from the grassland to a completely different area. The curtain was like a teleportation portal, but without the usual dizziness.

Claudia lowered the curtain, closing the space completely. Looking from this side, the grassland with white-walled villages resembled an oil painting.

"The current Dreamland is still in beta. The connection between maps is not very good, and there are still a lot of details that have not been filled in. Just treat it as a technical mistake or bug and don't worry about it too much."

Luke and Aidan didn't understand, but they knew how to nod.

The forest before him felt welcoming to the elf; straight pines pierced the sky, brown moss and dark blue lichen gathered on the rocks, and clumps of alfalfa and nettles were almost indistinguishable. With a few more vines, a few more out-of-season plants, Luke could even pinpoint the exact location of his treehouse in the forest.

But no, this grove actually frightened the elves. Rotting roots were exposed to the air, the uprooted soil was a deathly black, and deformed branches were tangled like ropes around the holly trunks. Mold-like, pale green clumps replaced the berries. This grove was sick, and with a frightening, incurable disease.

Claudia was used to these scenes, but seeing the two elves' distressed expressions, she still recited the opening remarks Lyle had requested, as if singing a hymn.

"This is a world ravaged by nightmares, children of the forest. In the name of Claudia, the dragon of dreams, I need the help of you young and kind dream elves to help this kingdom rid itself of nightmares. Join me in fighting for the future of this world."

"I wish to become the power of nature, my lord!" Luke roared as he wildly swung his longsword, while Aidan began using the sword as a shovel to scrape away at a piece of dead, rotten bark.

Claudia covered her face, unsure whether the dream elves' intense engagement was a good thing or a bad thing.

"That's not the real enemy. Our real enemy is..."

Just then, a sound came from the bushes, and a strong little wild boar appeared.

"It's refreshed. Go forth, warriors who wish to purify the dream!"

"Ow ooh..."

Luke and Aidan charged forward, engaging the boar in a fierce battle. Fortunately, it was just an ordinary monster; after five or six sword strikes, the boar fell to the ground, dying and turning into fragments, leaving behind only three gold coins and a pair of tusks as loot.

Claudia led the two to continue fighting monsters, and they finally mastered some of the essentials of sword fighting. In this way, they leveled up to level five by killing wild boars.

Claudia showed off her skills along the way, instantly killing a level 3 wild boar with a single sword strike.

"Wow, Claudia! You defeated Nightmare Pig in a single blow!"

Claudia was somewhat helpless upon hearing such praise. "I only swung my sword once; it was mainly the weapon that made the difference." As she spoke, she showed the two of them the gleaming sword in her hand.

One of the best swords in the whole village

Attack power +10

Administrator's comment: This is pretty good for a cheap 100GB item.

"As mentioned above, you can buy them at the blacksmith in the village for 100 gold coins. They are the shiny gold coins that drop from killing wild boars. You can save up enough money by leveling up to level 7 normally."

Claudia led the two deeper into the woods, where a stone altar stood.

A heptagonal star pattern in relief contains nested triangles, each with a metal staff at one of its three apexes, each topped with a crystal ball. Claudia directs the two to stand at the three corners, each gripping a staff.

"This is a small altar that requires a team of three to challenge. When I give you my command, we will all draw our staffs at the same time. The two of you will immediately run to the center of the altar to resist the monster horde, or you can just lie there and die. I can take care of them in three minutes."

"Three, two, one!"

The staffs clashed with a loud metallic clang as they left the stone platform. The three staffs flew into the air, transforming into a swirling, purplish-black mist that slowly spread outwards, forming a protective veil that enveloped the entire altar. The surrounding forest gradually blurred, and pairs of blood-red eyes lit up one by one within the mist.

Feeling the pressure, Luke and Aidan stood back to back, warily glancing around.

Amidst a continuous chorus of moans, Claudia revealed a bloodthirsty smile.

"You all must die."

Chapter 663 MMO

As the mist dissipated, Claudia plucked a small flower from one of the two tombstones, picked up her sword, and walked to the center of the altar. The waist-high platform, adorned with golden inscriptions, gradually began to glow, the blinding light eventually rendering them unable to see. Claudia clasped her hands together, offering the most sincere prayers before the two young elves. Her movements were so elegant, a stark contrast to her earlier frenzied sword-wielding.

"God" responded to the devout girl.

With a thud, a wooden treasure chest entwined with vines fell from the sky onto the altar. It had no clasp, and a dreamlike light shone through its slightly ajar opening. Like Claudia's sparkling eyes, she immediately pounced on it. Such a description might seem unladylike, but Claudia opened the chest with a graceful and swift movement, letting the rainbow-colored light of the treasures illuminate her rosy cheeks.

"Tch, it's crooked again."

The expectant child, who had been lying obediently in bed on Christmas Eve, immediately changed his expression, his lips turning down and his arched eyebrows resembling an angry owl. Claudia held a green ball of light in her hand and stuffed it into the treasure chest. Holding the chest as if it were a junk box tidied up after cleaning a room, she walked up to Luke and Aidan and threw the rewards at them all at once.

Thirty gold coins, two white orbs of light, and one green orb of light.

The white drops are a hunter's leather coat and boots, while the green drops are slightly better quality items and a long staff.

The Staff of a Beginner (Excellent)

Attack power +8

Magic +8

The manager's message: This is compensation for being taken advantage of by a pig.

"You guys can divide it up; I don't need any of these things."

Luke and Aidan quickly divided up the white equipment, noticing that two pieces were the same style as Claudia's. However, they hesitated over who would receive the weapon.

“Lady Claudia, do you really not need this staff? You were the one fighting the whole time; these should rightfully be your spoils. Besides, this staff looks superior to your weapon.”

Claudia shook her head and pushed the cane that Aidan had offered back to her.

“This isn’t what I wanted. I prefer wielding a sword, and magic is a useless attribute now. This excellent piece of equipment is actually not as good as my sword. Whoever wants it can take it, or sell it to a shop for money. You need it more than I do.”

"Alright." Claudia put her hands on her hips, pretending to be angry. "If you want to express your gratitude, why don't you accompany me to run the altar a few more times and help me get the Sword of the Beginner?"

……

In the cracks of the map, lifeless monster dolls float, and spell models of various colors and intricacies float in the air. The overlapping spell models are connected and arranged in chains of commands in Christo's hands, forming the rules of the dream world.

Lyle stood behind the blue dragon, extracting the inspirations and ideas from his mind and handing them over to the blue dragon to become dreams.

"Claudia and the others should be getting tired of farming the altars by now. Let's open the Nightmare Cavern dungeon tomorrow."

Christo continued to carve magical runes in his hands.

"The difficulty of the dungeon... is it a bit too high for them now? Even though it's a weakened version of the Martial God Pig, it's still not something that ordinary Dream Elves can easily handle."

"There will definitely be some difficulty, but we can overcome it..." Lyle waved his hand to indicate that he was relaxed. "As long as we have a certain number of players, this little trouble can definitely be overcome."

"Where did you get the player base? Claudia only brought in a handful of people, and even with the five Witherer testers you recruited before, that's only eight people..."

“As I said, they are just testers, checking how well the dream sprites accept this kind of virtual reality game. So far, they don’t seem to have any resistance. The next step is, of course, to test it on a large scale. We have publicity methods, though. Claudia and I don’t have many connections in this dream forest.”

“But they aren’t, Christopher. You’d better be prepared, the main force is coming.”

……

Hines, with dark circles under his eyes, sat upright in his sleeping chamber, staring at the letter in his hand. It was the official stationery of the Mystic Tower of the Wandering City, with a dragon inscription in the lower right corner, representing the most noble mage of the Wandering City. Then there was the faint scent of lilac. The two blended together, and Hines understood: Lord Irasorn had once again stolen the Blue Dragon Priest's official correspondence for his own use.

Such personal keepsakes cannot be faked.

Hines could only resign himself to obeying the orders, or rather, the advice, of his leader, but the thought that this so-called dream game was a project spearheaded by Mr. Lyle made Hines' eyelids twitch uncontrollably, given his allergy to Andre. He looked up at the young elf Ivy before him and spoke cautiously.

"Ivy".

"Lord Hines."

"...Is there really nothing wrong with that dream world? You haven't been brainwashed or left with any psychological trauma..."

“Lord Hines, that’s very rude of you. The Dream Kingdom is very interesting! Dick and the others think similarly to me, so could you please stop being prejudiced against Lord Lyle?”

"You don't understand... You're all too young..." Hines didn't say these words aloud, but sighed.

"I will recommend one hundred Withered Druids to experience the Dreamland. Does Lord Irason have any other requests?"

Ivy pointed at Hines, "The master specifically requested that you, Lord Hines, lead the team."

Hines's hand trembled slightly. "No, I still have to command the three-way battle. Our soldiers need me."

“No need.” Ivy’s sweet smile looked particularly sinister to Hines. “Because Lord Kylo of the Queen’s faction and Lord Charles of the Senate’s faction have also received the same instructions as you.”

"You guys should go back to the Dream Kingdom and continue fighting."

……

Charis placed the Blackthorn Command before Dordo. The real Charis did not have the exaggeratedly broad and powerful physique of a bear, and was nothing like his transformed form. Dream elves are generally slender and tall, but Charis lacked that agility. His brown eyes were hidden behind the wild battle markings covering most of his face, and his silent gaze gave off an imposing aura of authority.

His longtime friend, Dordo, was used to this war druid and didn't feel any distance from him. He smiled and handed him a glass of Moonlight Juice. "The governor's orders are quite unusual; it's not like you're being sent to chase earth dragons or fight forest spirit bandits."

Charles, whose expression was as stiff as a stone, grinned. "Don't tease me. This isn't wartime; my job is practically a sinecure. Dorodo, what do you know about this special dream zone, this dream realm?"

Yes, I happen to know a little about it.

"Really?"

"That was a game developed by two ladies and a dragon, played in a dream. It's not much different from the war games you've been playing, maybe even a little more interesting. These are my apprentice's exact words."

“My military exercises are not a game,” Charles said, his face hardening again.