A long, long time later, Ryan's consciousness was drawn out of the painting.
The chaotic emotions from before were like receding tides, having already left his mind.
Now, he only felt that everything in the world was unremarkable, unable to stir even a tiny bit of his interest.
For his young self, achieving such a state was difficult.
Maintaining this state was also difficult.
Therefore, he had to seize the right moment.
After meticulous and cautious calculation, Syndra's dream would arrive approximately one hour after he achieved a breakthrough.
Which was... now.
Ryan looked up, and only in a place visible to him, black soul power surged skyward.
And when he relaxed his body, an invisible force pulled his soul to another 'world'...
......
......
A hazy mist was like the veil of the world.
Ryan looked at the familiar forest scene before him, half-closed his eyes, and walked to the entrance of a cave.
Syndra's dream was a chaotic and disordered intertwining of countless things, but the dream's setting was similar.
Humans cannot fantasize about existences beyond their own cognition.
Syndra's experience was not complex; she awakened her abilities at a young age, was ostracized by her family, by villagers, and then was deceived by monks...
Therefore, in her memory, the element of 'people' was not abundant.
The dream's composition was more often those strange, anthropomorphic beings.
For example...
Ryan leaned back, just dodging a wisp of mist 'splashing' his face.
"Don't be too enthusiastic, Kalvi."
He wasn't annoyed but greeted Kalvi warmly.
'Buzz'
The mist gathered into a chubby figure.
It beckoned a wisp of mist, as if responding to Ryan's words.
With its movement, the mist of the entire world began to vibrate, emitting an ear-piercing scream loud enough to shatter eardrums.
But this kind of torment could affect Ryan when he first, second, or seventeenth encountered this scene, but it couldn't bother him now.
Dreams originate from imagination.
When Ryan imagined that he had no eardrums and couldn't hear sounds, the noise suddenly became quiet.
"I'm here for serious business this time; I'll play with you next time."
Ryan bid farewell to the mist.
He turned and entered the cave ahead.
Inside the cave was not a narrow passage but a much broader expanse.
Lush green grasslands connected to a clear blue sky; this was almost everyone's idea of a fairy tale world, but...
Ryan took a step back.
Almost simultaneously, a withered branch crashed down on the spot where he had just been.
In this fairy tale world, there was a dead willow tree, its branches gnarled like a demon's tentacles, and viscous liquid resembling blood churned within its cracked bark.
"Carlos, I don't want to fight you today."
Ryan looked up at the willow tree.
And his response was another falling willow branch.
"Bang!"
Cracks appeared in the verdant ground, revealing the deep red magma churning within.
Ryan, who had his face covered in grass clippings, glared at the unyielding willow tree, and spoke a harsh warning, "You just wait, next time I come, you'll get what's coming to you!"
Having said that.
He crashed into the mountain wall behind him.
Even the most difficult dungeon becomes effortless after grinding it a few hundred times.
To save time, Ryan skipped the usual process.
He bypassed the man covering his nose with his fingers, the rapping pheasant, and the monkey yelling about splitting the sky...
The moment his head was crushed by the mountain rock, his consciousness arrived in another place.
Unlike other places, this one lacked 'diversity'; there was only a small wooden hut.
The gentle patter of rain fell quietly, and the sky was covered by thick, dark clouds that seemed eternally impossible to tear apart, a suffocating atmosphere permeating every inch of the air.
Ryan walked to the wooden hut.
At the entrance of the wooden hut was a mushroom, and on its cap, it wore a red helmet.
Looking at the helmet, Ryan smiled.
The first time he came here, the mushroom stood alone in the rain.
It wasn't as noisy as the other beings, nor was it aggressive.
One could say it was Ryan's first friend in the dream.
As a welcoming gift.
Ryan gave the mushroom a helmet and gently patted it, saying, "What kind of mushroom goes out without a helmet?"
And the mushroom responded to his kindness.
From then on, it always wore this helmet.
"I'm going in."
Ryan said to the mushroom.
The mushroom swayed, blocking the way in.
"Don't worry, this time I've once again made the First Land look upon me favorably. Logically, she should give me some sweetness in return; that's how friends interact."
"......"
The mushroom's cap floated, slowly moving aside to clear the path.
Ryan observed the mushroom's reaction, then pushed open the wooden door.
There wasn't much inside the wooden hut.
Only a bed placed in the corner and...
Dark Magic, compressed to its extreme, was like a cocoon, enveloping the person on the bed.
Ryan couldn't discern her posture, nor could he see her face.
The only thing he could clearly see were ten fair toes peeking out from the black cocoon...
Why did Ryan define the amount of magic he possessed as ten toes?
Because he saw it with his own eyes!
Initially, he couldn't even see a single toe.
But as his own Dark Magic slowly grew stronger, he began to see the toes one by one.
As the only visible part.
Ryan examined each one very carefully.
Fair;
Round;
......
In another world, perhaps they could be foot models.
On the desks of some perverted readers, they might even be considered a feast.
But for his upright self, he would politely maintain a certain distance, lest he be beaten up by the rampaging Dark Magic.
"Now you can give me some sweetness!"
Ryan spoke.
But not to the cocoon on the bed, but to the mushroom outside the hut.
After becoming familiar with the dream, Ryan had a guess about the mushroom's identity.
Although it looked like a mushroom, it occasionally spoke.
And those chaotic words slowly became Ryan's only channel for obtaining information.
So, was it possible that...
Inside the cocoon was Syndra's body.
And the mushroom was the materialized consciousness of Syndra?
No one could confirm Ryan's guess.
But what he could confirm was that every time he spoke to the mushroom, there would be a response.
Just like now...
After Ryan spoke, there was movement on the bed.
The dark purple cocoon emitted a crisp cracking sound, and then the massive darkness slowly pulled upwards like a blanket.
The fair toes were like the artist's first brushstroke.
The fairness extending from them seemed to shimmer against the backdrop of the Dark Magic.
Instep;
Arch;
It finally stopped at the ankle.
Ryan looked at the exquisite work of art that appeared before him, but three thoughts suddenly popped into his mind.
The first thought was, how beautiful.
The second thought was, no walking really means no wrinkles...
The third thought was, not getting sun exposure really does make you whiter...
At the same time.
Ryan sensed the changes in his body.
—
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