The Deceitful One

Bryan turned to look at Benny who was busy licking his paws and stated excitedly, "Benny! Now witness my last innate ability and also my most favorite!"

Benny ran towards Bryan and sat down in front of him, waiting for the latter to display his ability.

Bryan chuckled and instructed, "Stay right here and watch me!"

He then entered the bathroom and shut the door behind him. Bryan turned around and stared at the tiny gap between the wall and the door. The next moment, his body turned incorporeal and blended into the shadow within that tiny gap!

Benny who was staring intently at the bathroom door, all of a sudden saw a shadow enlarge from the crack between the door and the wooden frame on the wall. The shadow then turned corporeal and the next moment it turned into Bryan!

Benny's eyes widened as he stood on all fours, 'Bryan! How did you do that!?'

Bryan looked at Benny with a smug expression, "That was pretty good, eh?"

Benny nodded his head vigorously and ran around Bryan excitedly as he kept repeating, 'Do it again! Do it again!'

Bryan chuckled as he slipped in and out of the shadow between the door and the wall a few more times. Causing Benny to be even more flabbergasted the more he looked at it.

On the other hand, Bryan suddenly had the impulse to rob someone's house as he wondered, 'This is the perfect ability for a thief!'

However, he controlled this urge and went back to his bed to take a nap. It was already close to midnight. And there was still one more thing left for him to check out.

It was the dream he was pulled inside of every time he advanced! Bryan was pulled into the same dream when he advanced to Rank 2 and Rank 3 Apprentice.

Now that he had finally advanced to a Transcendent, he believed that he would be definitely pulled inside that dream! And this time, it would be much different than the previous two times.

Bryan had a few snacks before going to sleep. As soon as he touched the bed, he instantly fell asleep within minutes. After all, he was really exhausted mentally from his earlier advancement.

Benny got on the bed and took a comfortable seating position beside Bryan. He then stared at Bryan excitedly as he thought inwardly, 'Finally, the day has come!'

…

Bryan opened his eyes in a daze, his vision was initially blurry but gradually gained focus. He looked around at the familiar yet foreign street he was standing on and smirked, "As I thought!"

He was pulled into that recurring dream after all! Bryan then turned around and looked at his apartment building as he observed the saturated colors, "Just what is this place?"

He wandered the area around his apartment and looked curiously at the different things laying around. Everywhere he looked, the colors appeared saturated to the extreme.

And if he stared at one place for too long, kaleidoscopic patterns would begin to form in that area. Bryan would be instantly dazed if he stared at one point for too long.

He then looked up to see the magnificent display of stars and the nebulas up in the sky like he had seen the last time when he came here.

However, when he did look up, he was taken aback. For he couldn't see the cosmos that he was expecting. Instead, all he saw was a night sky that was dyed a shade of purple.

And the color of the night sky, for some reason, felt extremely intimate to Bryan. He stared at it for a long time as he wondered, 'How peculiar! It feels like it's almost the same color as my soul and spiritual force…'

The moment Bryan had this thought, there was a response from the night sky!

BOOM!!!

Thunder danced ferociously across the night sky as purple lightning streaked across the horizon, brightly illuminating the entire world in a purple hue.

Bryan stumbled on his feet and fell on his butt as he stared at the night sky with a dumbfounded expression.

His heart began to beat faster and faster and soon, much to his astonishment, he found that the night sky was also pulsating at the same frequency as his heartbeat.

"W-What the fuck is happening!?" Bryan began to stutter as he stared at the purple night sky with wide eyes.

The next moment, an extremely familiar voice echoed in his mind, 'The motherland has acknowledged your existence!'

Bryan turned around in shock to look at the person that had spoken. He didn't even realize when this person had sneaked up beside him.

Due to his shock, he was still under the impression that someone had spoken to him directly instead of speaking in his mind.

Moreover, this was also the first time he had found someone else other than himself in this dream!

When Bryan's gaze fell on the figure beside him, he was shocked out of his wits as his jaw dropped. He was so flabbergasted that it took him a very long time to even speak, "B-Benny!? What the hell are you doing here!?"

Benny circled around Bryan excitedly and then pounced into his arms as he mentally replied, 'This is my home!'

Bryan's eyes glazed over as he replied in a daze, "This…this is your home? I've been able to visit this place ever since I became an Apprentice…

And later I got to meet you, who is also from this place… Is this all a coincidence? I don't know what is happening anymore!"

Bryan truly didn't know how to respond to a situation like this. He couldn't make heads or tails of it.

First, he was able to find the Theft Path meditation technique and the potion recipe on Anthony's corpse. And now, Benny claimed that this place was his home, the very place he visited after every time he advanced.

All of this was too good to be a coincidence and he truly didn't know what to believe anymore!