Ugly Bastard

“What happened?” Questioned Noah rushing into the house as soon as he returned to his own mind realm, where Ugy and Yuko sat in the living room gazing at the TV.

“They met an opponent that was too strong for them. I had to take drastic measures, and where the hell were you?” Said Ugy.

“I…private business. Forget it. What do you mean drastic measures? How are the girls?” Asked Noah with a worry in his voice, watching the TV screen intently, where several separate parts showed different perspectives of the same room.

“They are safe now, and will be back in a few moments. However, Lily would need healing. She has multiple internal wounds and internal bleeding. We would have to transfer and wake her up quickly to let her heal herself before she gets into critical condition.” Said Ugy.

“How the hell did that happen?” Asked Noah surprised.

“It was a side effect of Amateratsu.” Answered Yuko in excitement

“The what?” Asked Noah gazing intently at the plush bear. “Amateratsu as in Uchiha’s black flame? How did…? What did you do?”

“Used our degenerative aura skill in combination with her systems’s skills. But the consequences are severe. This energy is not hers and harms her as much as it harms anyone you touch with it. I did my best to protect her from its effect and lessen the damage but…it was a spontaneous decision. I improvised. The result was subpar at most.” Said Ugy with an uncomfortable expression. He did not like to admit that he could do faulty work.

“How bad is it?” Asked Noah with a serious face. He did not blame Ugy. His system was a calculative and scheming bastard. But if it had to go on an unexpected risk the situation must have really been very dire.

“Nothing permanent. She can heal herself easily. A day or two of rest after that to complete recovery and she will be as good as new.” Said Ugy, with a sigh.

“And others?” Asked Noah.

“Minor injuries. Scratches here and there. Samantha had it worse but Lily and I did our best to keep her in good shape. She is more tired than injured.” Said Ugy.

Noah sighed in relief. But his expression was troubled. He was careless. While he went to meet Lina, girls almost died there.

“How were they found? I already thought it was a done job. It all went perfectly according to plan until the end. How did we fuck up?” Asked Noah, guilt could be heard in his tone.

“It wasn’t our fault to be honest. Nothing goes perfectly according to plan. Lily had to stay there longer than we planned. The safety magic set in the armory was more complicated than we predicted and it took Kate longer to open the lock without sounding an alarm than we planned. Worst of all we could not predict that such a heavy lifter would be among guards today. There’s a limit to how much we can plan. Something always would go wrong.”

“I should have been there to help.” Said Noah.

“It would not change much, if it did not make situation even worse. This opponent was out of even their league. You wouldn't stand a chance and would just drag them down. My ability to slow time is nothing if your body can’t keep up with enemies' attack. And this guy…Well, it was a close call even for Samantha.” Said Ugy with a serious face. 

“Fuck.” Said Noah. Lately he became quite confident in his abilities, but this situation was like a cold water poured on his head. There were countless opponents that would not even hold him in the eye as an enemy. He was just a bug for them to squish. He could not relax still and had to get stronger and stronger.

“They are back.” Said Ugy, pulling Noah out of his thoughts. “Oh…” He added with a strange face a second later. “That was unexpected.”

“What?” Asked Noah.

“You gotta see this.” Said Ugy, jumping off his armchair and rushing out of the house, with Yuko jumping up and following after him. Noah followed after them a second later as the surprise of seeing his System this surprised passed.

Outside the house near the fenced off area of the garden, right in front of the main door, Noah saw the battered-looking girls, who had just been through a hard battle. Samantha laying on the soft grass deep in sleep, was looking the worst of the bunch, with long tears and smudges of blood all across her dress. The others were slightly better off, but still looked quite battered.

As Noah looked at the bunch, he stopped cold, with eyes going wide.

His skill could allow others to enter this place only if they were unconscious, so the only ones conscious of the team were Aster and Brianna. Or that was supposed to be the case!

Dryads, as creatures that had similar dream abilities to his, could come here naturally and be conscious. His mates from the Threadweaver family could do the same thanks to the use of their True mate connection and Ugy’s meddling with the skills. 

What was unexpected, however, was that besides unconscious Kate and Samantha, was sitting Lilly. Battered, exhausted, pale-looking from her wound, but absolutely conscious, with her tired gaze pointed right at him. She sat there with a wary look seeing as everyone around her, just stood there silently watching her with bewildered expressions.

“Where the hell are we? This is not the Threadweaver mansion, right?” She asked as she looked at Noah questinengy with a suspicious tone.

“Ugy? What the…? Why is she conscious?” Asked Noah in surprise.

The plush bear stood on the porch beside him, gazing at Lily with a contemplating look for a few seconds before answering.

“If that’s what bothers you, then the answer would be because of Special Medallion.” Said plush bear, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I think it’s not just granting ability to access your active skills. But somehow spreading the effect of your passive skills too. She resisted Aster’s power of dreams with it. While she has a medallion she can stay lucid in dreams just like you, and be immune to sleep magic.”

“Passive skills? ‘He who lives in dreams’ and ‘He who lives on the precipice of delusion’. Those are the skills that allow me to do that. These skills’ effects spreading on her?”

“Most likely.” Said Ugy. “I am not sure why though. It was not supposed to happen. But it does.”

“Why not? If active skills can be lent, why not passive?”

“Too long to explain. They have different principles. That’s why there are skills that need to be activated and those that are not. They have different concepts behind them. In short, it should not be possible to lend the passive skill. But…hmmm. Maybe we did not send it. What if only the effect is spreading from you to her through the medallion… Hmmmm…” Though Ugy analyzed the situation as he muttered.

“Well, it turned out good. Now we know they can be conscious here with…” Noah stopped as he saw Ugy, Aster and Brianna gazing at him with a strange looks.

“What?” Asked Noah sensing he did not understand something crucial.

“You are this dumb, user? Don’t you get it? Passive skill helped her resist the dream, but being unconscious is a must have prerequisite for her to be here. Special medallion does not explain why she is here. She should have been left behind…” Said Ugy

“Or die…” muttered Aster something scary. 

“Or that.” Said Ugy nodding.

“Woah! What?” Said Noah, throwing a surprised gaze at them, before looking back at Lily in worry, but she seemed to be perfectly fine.

“Relax. If she is alive at this point, we avoided the worst outcome.” Said Ugy.

“That’s it! This voice!” Exclaimed Lily jumping up to her feet. “You’re the one that spoke to me through the medallion? A plush bear toy? In a clown costume… I’ve been talking to this plush bear?” She asked, surprised, pointing at Ugy. “What are you? And what is this…” She stopped speaking as a coughing fit suddenly took over her.

Pain spread through her body as she bent forward, coughing heavily.

After several bad coughs, Lily looked at her hand, with which she closed her mouth and saw spots of blood on it. Several similar red splotches were on the ground at her feet, where her spit dropped when she was coughing. 

It was not spit as she now realized. She had an internal bleeding. Her lung must have been damaged.

“Ha!” Laughed out loud, Ugy in delight. “Now THAT explains it!” Exclaimed Ugy, his eyes suddenly burning with excitement.

“Questions later, Lily. You need to heal yourself first quickly. The black flame magic you used, damaged your internals.” Said Noah. “If it’s not taken care of quickly, you might die.”

Hearing this Aster opened her mouth to say something, but Ugy quickly stopped her, raising his hand, with ‘A, a,’ sound and a shake of his head.

“Umm” Said Lily not understanding why everyone gazed at her with such interest and decided to follow Noah’s advice and heal herself first. 

Seeing her weakness Brianna and Aster quickly held her from the sides to help her sit down gently to the ground.

“So, what kind of magic is that black flame? Never seen anything like it.” Asked Lily while calling up mana and sending it all around her body, scanning it for wounds before starting to heal the most problematic spots first.

“Amateratsu. The flame that can consume anything. Well a close reproduction of it, actually. Not the best version and it was hastily activated, so the side effects were a lot more severe than I originally expected. But it was a raw prototype and first trial at that, so it’s not my fault.” Said plush bear watching her intently as if waiting for something.

Lily nodded silently, if not that magic they may have even died there, she wasn’t going to blame him. Satisfied with an answer she decided to fully concentrate on the healing. She closed her eyes sitting in a lotus pose beside her unconcious sister. Dim light of healing spread around her body, which made the excited shine in Ugy’s eyes even more pronounced.

“What did you mean by ‘that explains it’? You understood how she could get here while conscious?” Asked Noah, seeing how Ugy stood watching Lily with his mouth agape. If he could drool, Noah was sure there would be spit flowing out of his wide opened plush mouth.

“Look! Don’t you see it? She is wounded and healing herself!” Said Ugy with excitement pointing at Lily with both hands.

“Yes. We knew that already. What about it?” Asked Noah.

“Noah, she entered your mind's realm.” Said Brianna with a bewildered voice. “Didn’t you listen when mother explained the concept of us getting here?”

“Umm. It was a long, nerdy speech I did not understand.” Said Noah rubbing his temple in embarrassment. “But I transferred them several times already, so what’s the deal? They’ve been here several times already.” Said Noah.

“No, they were not.” Said Aster, “They've been here but never entered here like us Dryads do.”

“Sorry, you are confusing me. They came here but did not?” Asked Noah. “How can this be?”

*Sigh. Ugy Breathed out a loud sigh.

“You explain it to him. You are a spiritual creature, you can explain it better.” Said Ugy looking at Aster as if he could not bother explaining it to dimwits, so he delegated the task to her.

“This mind realm is a part of the dream world. So just like the rest of the dream world it exists deep in the Border world where all spirit creatures live. Spirit creatures can reach here if they have enough spirituality but those who don’t, will dissipate half way through unable to resist the force of dissipation. Those who have no spirit power at all, like your friends over there, should not be able to even enter the border world at all. At least not on their own. That’s why you pull them in forcefully. Usually that would kill then but as you anchoring them…”

“Hold it, hold it, hold it!” Said Noah raising hands to stop her explanation. “There’s a bunch of terms I don’t understand.”

“Border world? Force of dissipation? Anchoring? Can you begin from lesson one? There should be a newbie guide somewhere, right? Start with that.”

“See. That’s what I have to deal with here on daily basis.” Said Ugy.

“Oh shut up smart ass.” Said Yuko. “You have access to this info but never shared it with him.”

“Border world is where spirit creatures, like your Dryad maids, live in. The nerd in our team is Kate, but even I know this and I never had your noble education. Don’t they teach the basic spirit creatures course in magic Academy? How can you not know it?” Asked Lily.

“Right. Academy. The one I could not go to, because my defective system could not be activated until recently.” Said Noah glancing at Ugy with an accusation.

“Who do you call defective I…mufuphfufu.” Started to shout Ugy but was silenced by Yuko who took him in the hands and closed his mouth with her hand with a smile.

“Thanks Yuko.”

“Wait. That thing is your system?” Asked Lily. “Where the hell are we? How can we see your system? ”

“Yeah. Long story. Tell you later.” He said to Lily, before turning to Aster. “So, anyway... Short beginner course.”

“In short, there is Material or tangible world and there is Spirit or intangible world. Material and Spiritual. One consists of matter, the other consists of spirit energy. And two worlds can’t interact with each other. However, worlds are not suddenly divided into material and immaterial as if by a wall. There exists a wide plane-like border area in between them. Well, a whole world to be precise. A world where spiritual and material worlds are mixed together and matter is in between states, partly material partly spiritual. We call that world, ‘Border World’.”

“This border world is where spiritual creatures live. The Dream world is also a part of the border world, only a lot further away from the material world and closer to the spiritual world.”

“Further away? How does that work? Like you can travel through it until you get into someone's dream?” Asked Noah.

“No. Sorry, I tried to explain it from a spiritual creature perspective. The concept of traveling through the border world is different from the material world.”

“Spirit world doesn’t have space. Space is a thing of a material world. Spirit world doesn’t have it. It has levels of spirituality. Or better said Quality and consistency of spirit energy. You move from one constitency to another. But this is another lesson. What’s important is that the concept of space ceases to exist when you move out of the material world, and becomes another concept altogether.”

“When we talk of the Border world, traveling through it has a mix of two concepts, from Material and Spiritual worlds. For easy understanding you can perceive as diving into the sea. Just like in the sea, in the border world there is also depth. Different depths of the spirit world are called layers.”

“So in the Border World you can travel in two ways. You can move through the same layer or you can go to another layer. In other words, dive to the deeper or come up to the shallower layers.”

“When you travel within a layer it is similar to traveling to different places in the material world. Only these places in the dream realm do not correspond with places in the real world. So in some cases passing through the border world allows you to shorten travel time or pass through walls for example. That’s how we traveled through wooden materials or get through the Dream realm from our core forest to the Threadweaver mansion in one day, when it takes weeks of travel by carriage in the material world.”

“Oh. I see.” Said Noah nodding.

“But when you travel from layer to layer, it has another meaning altogether.”

“As I said, the Border world is in between the material or tangible world and the intangible Spirit world. From the perspective of the material world, the spirit world does not exist. There is no way to prove its existence with any method from the material world as they simply can’t interact with spiritual things. These two worlds may exist in the same place and not influence each other in any way.”

“Nothing belonging to the material world can normally interact with pure spiritual things. Just as spiritual things, for example ghosts, would not be able to interact with the material world.”

“Only spiritual things can interact with spirit energy. And only material things can interact with the material world.”

“But the deeper you dive into the Border world and the further away from the material world you get and closer to the Spiritual world you travel, the more spiritual and less tangible the things get. So when you travel to a deeper layer you have to be more spiritual and less material to be able to interact with that layer.”

“But how to do it? How do you get more spiritual and less tangible?” Asked Noah.

“You lose your body matter. Become intangible.” Answered Aster. “You dissipate.”

“Dissipate? Like your body becomes…vapor?” Asked Noah.

“Similar but not exactly. Going from material world toward Spiritual world means you mix in with the energy that the spirit world consists of while dissipating your material body. Exchange one for another. You don’t change form. Don’t become vapor or liquid. You just become…less tangible.”

“Hold on. What happens to my material body when I do that? And how can I survive when I lose it?” Asked once again, Noah.

“Well that’s where the fun part begins. As a material being you ofcourse can’t survive without a body in the material world. But in the border world, spirit parts serve the same function. Even though part of you consists of spirit energy you don’t feel the difference much. You slowly exchange material body for a spirit body as you travel deep into the Border world.”

“That’s what we have when we come here. Spirit bodies. Although they feel material for us now, that is only because we are in the spiritual layer with which we can interact. If you get any more spiritual while in this layer, you would look like people in the material world perceive ghosts. Intangible and barely discernible. But if you get more tangible, you will get too much mass to be here and will fall out of this layer. Leave the dream world and get back to either material world or a layer closer to it.”

“Ok. So I dissipate my body then recreate it when I go back?” Asked Noah.

“Well the topic of dissipated material is also where all the complications begin.” Said Aster

“If you look at spirit energy as very thin material then the real material world is very highly concentrated spiritual energy. Like a thickly compressed multilayered brick of spirit energy. When you dissolve into the spirit world, you lose that spirit energy layer by layer, become less and less concentrated, with your body dispersing into the spirit world, becoming part of it and dissolving in it.”

“I lose parts of my body?”

“No. Their mass. Brick stays the brick but it’s thinner, weight less. The particles are in place but their consistency changes.”

“Where do the masses I lose go?” Asked Noah.

“It dissolves into an ocean of spirit energy of every Border World layer that you pass while diving. There it becomes a drop in the ocean of energy, indiscernible from all other spirit energy. Never to be found again.”

“Wait, what do you do when you go back to shalower level or want to return to the material world?”

“Rematerialize. Gather that spirit energy from your body and will it to compress. As it is yours, it will easily comply. Then you become more tangible once again.”

“Hold on. I need my energy to become material? Othe spirit energy don’t suit?”

“No.” Said Aster shaking hands.

“But you said it will get lost in general mass. What happens if I don’t find all the pieces belonging to me?”

“What happens when you are a ghost and can’t have your body back?” Asked Aster.

“Well, if I became a spirit and can’t go back, I am basically dead.” Said Noah. “But, can’t I gather random spirit energy and create a body out of it?”

“It is possible, but only if you have a deity like will power that can contest with force of dissipation.” Said Aster.

“Force of dissipation?” Asked Noah, hearing an unknown term.

“Yes.” She said Nodding. “As I explained, to ‘travel down the border world from material world toward the spirit world’, means to disperse yourself and mix with the spirit energy. And vice-versa. Going from the spirit world toward the material world means getting more and more tangible.”

“But there’s a catch. The more you dissipate as you travel deeper and deeper into the layers closer to Spirit World, you lose more and more of yourself. At some point your mind loses all rationality. You lose the ability to control your spirit power and maintain your spirit body. You dissipate, dissolving into an ocean of spirit power and cease to exist. Getting your body back has the same principle. When you compress matter it becomes harder and harder the more tangible it becomes.”

“And how deep can I dive toward the Spirit world?” Asked Noah.

“That depends on the power of will and your spirituality to contest with the force of dissipation. It’s a force that pulls the spirit power out of your control. Like ocean pressure that squeezes you harder the deeper you go, the force of dissipation similarly pulls at spirit energy harder and harder, the deeper you dive toward the spirit world. At some point it is so hard no creature is able to withstand it. Most spirit creatures can only actually travel slightly on the edge of the material world, that is considered barely a step into the border area.”

“We, Dryads, are more spiritual than most creatures, so we can reach The Dream layer of Border World. Hardly anyone can do the same or more. Fairies could go deeper…” Said Aster muttering the end of her word barely audibly.

“So you can’t go to the actual Spirit World?” Asked Noah.

“In the spiritual world, only pure spiritual beings live. Those that have not a spec of materialism. And they either have no mind and any form of individuality, existing only as a general concept, such as pure souls, or pure elementals, or they are beings that have unimaginable will that transcends the concept of life, death and existence itself. We call them - Gods.” Said Aster, shivering slightly as if goosebumps spread on her back.

“Traveling there in the end means being consumed by them or consuming them to replace them if you are strong enough. But to understand the scale of the task, imagine an ocean that has a mind of its own. You would be just a drop of water in it. How much of an impact can you make? So my answer is, No. No one can go there. At most you can barely skimp on the precipice of the spirit world, never really leaving the border world. Otherwise you’ll be facing the Gods. But before then you will have to pass layers with no less dangerous beings of deepest layers. Believe me, that would not be a pleasing meeting. Some of them you can’t imagine in your worst nightmares.”

“Damn so that’s how it is. So we need to dissipate our matter but the more we do the less we become. At some point we will simply disperse ourselves completely. But with the power of will we can overcome it and keep on going until we reach Godhood? Theoretically. Right?” Said Noah, rubbing his chin in contemplation.

“Exactly. But it’s only if you look at it as a path in one direction. However, you want this process to be reversible, right? In that case you can’t allow your body mass to simply drift away and dissipate into the ocean of spirit energy as you dive. So to keep it safe, you anchor it to yourself and drag it around.”

“Imagine going for a swim with a weight. It will make all your efforts harder. The power to drag that weight is what we call spirituality. Having spirit power or spirituality allows you to hold the mass which belongs to you and drag it around through Border World or Spirit world.”

“I see. If I have spirit power, I can dissolve myself safely. But if I don’t have it I will lose my mass forever and die.”

“Well yes, only, usually, you can’t go toward the spirit world at all if you have no spirit power. Like those girls over there.” Said Aster pointing at unconscious Kate and Samantha.

“But they are here.” Said Noah.

“Yes, even if you can’t go there yourself, someone else can force you to go there if the conditions are right.” Explained Aster.

“What condition?”

“Overpower their minds’ control over their body. As the body belongs to them, their mind would interfere with your attempt to drag them into the spirit world. You can’t force someone to dissipate their body against their will while in the material world. Commanding someone else's body is way harder than your own. You need a tremendous amount of power to wriggle the control away from the owner's mind. At least when it’s active. When the mind is unconscious it can’t interfere.”

“Oh. So that’s why they have to be unconscious when I drag them here.” Said Noah, nodding. “To lessen the interference of their mind?”

“Yes. That’s why this condition is a ‘must have’ when people you try to drag here have no spirit power to cross into the border world on their own.”

“However, spirit power is commanded with will and to utilize your will you have to be conscious. Without consciousness you can’t keep your mass together, and would immediately dissolve entirely in the ocean of spirit power. So if you drag someone into Border World while they are unconscious, they would lose their body mass immediately and would not be able to return back. Which is no different from plain murder. To prevent that, someone else has to anchor them instead. In this case, that someone is you.”

“I am keeping their bodies from dissipating?”

“….basically yes.” Said Aster in a strange voice, glancing at Ugy.

“What was that hesitation?” Asked Noah looking between Ugy and Aster with suspicion.

“Well, you see…It’s not entirely true.” Said Aster struggling with an answer as if searching for the right words.

“What she wants to say is that you are too weak to travel through the Border world deep enough to reach the Dream world layer and keep even yourself alive, not to mention others. If not for me you wouldn’t be able to do it. It is great me, that lets you do it, because I am just this awesome kind of system, not defective.” Said Ugy as he jumped out of Yuko’s hands, landing on the ground and gazing at Noah with a smug face.

“If I can't, why am I here safe and sound?” Said Noah annoyed 

“Umm. Master he is right, you know? You don’t have spirituality to be here. Neither have you strength to anchor others to be here.” Said Aster with an apologetic voice.

“As I said. I am here. Safe and sound.” Said Noah raising an eyebrow. Even Lily opened her mind after hearing this, looking at everyone with suspicion. This made no sense. They were here yet should not be as he couldn’t help them get here. What kind of nonsense was it?

“Noah, your case is very special.” Said Brianna. 

“Unique how?” Asked Noah.

“Master beside you, in my whole life I have heard only once that a person was capable of reaching deep into the Dream World and surviving. And it was when you told me how Saintess barged into your mind realm. And even then from what you told me, she could do that only because she used Divine power. If the Saintess is not capable, you are nowhere near strong enough to do it.”

Noah opened his mouth raising an index finger but no words came out. He closed his mouth thinking for a few seconds before turning to Ugy.

“Why do you have such overpowered skill? What devine rules did you break?

*Hmph. Voiced Ugy rolling his eyes as if in disgust.

“I could do that from the get go. That’s how awesome I am.” Said Ugy outstretching his plush chest forward in a proud pose, which made it look hilarious in his current clown costume.

Noah wanted to say something about it, but then it dawned on him that Ugy could not lie. If he thought of it carefully, then he indeed gained this skill from his system right from the beginning. All other skills Ugy struggled to construct himself. But this skill. He just had it. 

“Ok. Why did you have something like that from the start?” He finally said with suspicion in his voice.

“There are special cases when systems have an unrivaled set of skills, making people who possess them astonishingly strong.” Said Aster looking at Noah. “That’s because the skills they have are imbued into them by the Gods. Such systems don’t appear often. Only in the times of great peril through Divine intervention. When the world is in danger, Gods send them to our world to save it. These systems are called ‘Heroic Systems’. Master, you have a heroic system in you.” She added.

“THE WHAT?” Exclaimed Lily with her eyes bulging out from shock. Her healing magic stopped as she lost concentration from surprise. “Bullshit! These are systems from the legends. There’s always a set number of these systems in the world. And there are…oh my God! He is Sage! I read it from the newspaper! All heroic systems including the Great Hero were accounted for, except for one! It was huge news! Heroes appearing. Newspapers are still buzzing about it. But they wrote that The church could not find the possessor of the Sage system in any of the countries! So Noah is the possessor of the Sage system?”

Noah rolled his eyes from seeing the plush bear that had such a smug face his nose was pointed straight to the sky. Ugy stood so proud of himself as if it was somehow his own achievement that he was created as a Heroic System.

“Okay. I guess it’s the right time to question this. How does this Mind Realm skill work?” Asked Noah looking at Ugy with a raised eyebrow.

“Skill gives you a small space that is under your rule. Within the limits of this skill, you are protected from dissipation by divine power. It’s like a bubble of air surrounding you, that helps you survive in the depth of the spirit energy ocean, without being crushed by it. This second condition was necessary to be able to survive at the Dream world layer of the Border world as it is where the mind realm is situated.”

“Hold on.” Said Noah sensing something strange in Ugy’s explanation. “This protection bubble was given to survive in the mind realm only? So what would happen if I try to enter other layers of the Border World?”

“The protection would not work. It has a specific set of conditions that even I can’t change. This power is beyond me…for now.” Said Ugy.

“But Dream world layer is deep in the Border World. Shouldn’t I pass through different layers to get there?” Said Noah.

“Usually yes. But not with this skill. This Divine skill Gifted by a God can let us skip directly into this layer. Well, I guess it was harder for them to make a protection that would protect you on all layers up to here, than add an ability to skip around all other layers. This skill was gifted for one specific use and whoever gifted it to you did not bother making it harder when they could make it simpler. So we don’t pass all layers, but get transferred into the Dream layer directly from the material world. Like a space magic, that only works in Border World. To tell you the truth, I don’t understand its principle…yet.” Said Ugy shrugging. “

“For one specific use…” Said Noah finding Ugy’s words a bit strange. “But I can travel through Dream Realm…oh. As long as I stay in the same layer the power works. That’s why I can travel through the dream realm…Wait a minute…Don’t tell me! This power was not meant to be used like that, right?! Whoever gave me this protection only gave it to me so that I could get to the mind realm, not to travel through the Dream realm as I please!”

“Their loss for not considering we could use it this way.” Said Ugy with a cheeky grin on his face.

Noah squinted his eyes looking at Ugy with suspicion creeping into his mind.

“And the ‘Lock on screen view’ that allows me to peek at people even though they are far away. It uses Dream World doesn't it?” He asked as an idea came to his mind.

“Yep. Same cock just from a different perspective as people say.” Said Ugy smugly. “If you send a smallest spec of your spirit body through the dream world, it’s still a part of you and within the rules of that divine protection. So that spec gets protected by a bubble and can exist in the dream world without problem.”

“If you remember, you can also enter the dream world of a person that you see or somehow connect with? That’s how you went to the Dryad Core forest that first time. You entered the dream realm of Dryads that were nearby.”

“So when you use that skill on someone, you basically send a spec of your spirit body into their dream realm and attach it there. Wherever they are you always get to peek at them from Dream World through that connection. And voila. Sneaky peeking wireless spy camera done. Well, normally such spec of spirit power separated from you would get dissolved quickly so it should not be possible to do. But with that protective bubble it’s no trouble at all. It does all the job for us.” Said Ugy proudly spreading his hand as if waiting for an ovation in his praise.

“Unlimited item space?” Said Noah.

“Oh, this one is a masterpiece. Stretch out a spec of our spirit body into a thin film. Cover it around an object in a tight, water-proof like layer. Drag the object covered in that layer into a dream world where it loses mass as it dissolves into spirit energy. That energy is contained within the bubble of our spirit energy, while that bubble is protected by a bubble of that divine protection. So the spirit energy of dissolved objects does not get lost.”

“When we need it back in the material world, it gets back to its previous state as all its parts are in place. As Aster said, you have to drag that mass around resisting the force of dissipation. But we don’t have to. The Divine Protective bubble does it for us. Boom, weightless bag with unlimited space - done.” Said Ugy, rubbing his nose in a self-satisfied manner.

Noah smacked his face in exasperation. This system does whatever he wishes. Taking a gift of a God that was given to them for a specific use and using it to cheat around several other rules of the world with a straight face. The gall of that bastard!

“Ok. Assuming you are a system with a fucking devine skill that cheated God who gifted us this power. Why can we drag others here? You said protection only works on us.”

“It’s just a higher level of unlimited space actually. Instead of anchoring their bodies we cover them with protective layer just like we do with items and let them fully dissipate. But as their spirit energy is contained within our tight bubble the mass of their body that got dissolved did not get lost. So once we send them back, not a single part of them is lost and they can get rematerialized safely into their previous state. The only problem is the mind. It’s one thing to dissolve and then rematerialize an object, however people have minds. Mind needs body to survive, but we dissolve it entirely as we don’t have enough juice to anchor someone’s body here. So basically those who come here die.”

“What?” Exclaimed Lily gazing at her sister in worry.

“But…!” Said Ugy stopping Lily’s and Noah’s next outcry that was about to follow. “There’s another solution for preserving the mind without a body.” Said Ugy and spread his hands around as if pointing at the surroundings.

“This mind realm. A wondrous place made for your training, user. It is made through divine skill of God but belongs to you as it’s within your Dream World. Although the Dream world is so deep in the Border World that we can’t even use the spirit power within this layer, this mind realm world is made for us in such a way that everything within it can be commanded. Of course it is made so in order to create all kinds of training methods, where we should have been practicing martial arts, fencing, magic, blah blah, etcetera, etcetera.” Said Ugy waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. 

“Boring crap like that. It even had some pre-installed functions in it for that. What really fun about this world is that we are like mini Gods within this world and can do serious wonders within it. But these wonders stay within this world and theoretically should not have been able to interfere with the real world. They are Dream thingys after all. For example, one of the pre-installed functions of this world allows us to create a strong sentient opponent that would develop with us and make us struggle in training no matter how strong we become. But that sentience would not be able to ever leave this world and would cease to exist at our wish as well. It would be just a part of the dream world. Just a tool.” Explained Ugy.

Once Noah heard it, he immediately realized what Ugy meant by ‘theoretically should not have been able to influence real world.” It meant he found a way to do just that, by using skill the way it should not have been used. And one skill in particular now made sense. 

Stronger companion! 

Son of a bitch. He made a sentience that should not have been able to leave the boundary of this world and stuffed it into the dead body of a Monster Wolf, succeeding in sending it to the real world where it wasn’t supposed to be. That sentience now stayed within the Puppet that got damaged protecting Noah from a Space mage. Brianna and Tessa were working on remodeling its body, so Noah left it in Threadweaver mansion when he went to train in Dryads Core forest. 

“Fucking hell.” Thought Noah. “Another skill that’s used the way it wasn’t meant to be. Won’t we anger God and get some devine punishment for it?”

Another smug smile appeared on Ugy’s face as he saw Noah put one and one together and understand what Ugy did. 

“Well there are other effects that ability has.” Said Ugy, continuing his explanation. “For example, beings like this can appear.” He pointed at Yuko without a care. She was a side effect, not his achievement so he disregarded her with a wave of a hand. 

“Asshole. So that’s how it was.” Thought Noah. “Back when I just awakened my system and opened a few stories it already created a nightmare from one of them. Once Ugy saw it, he instantly sealed it. But this gave him an idea of what he could do with power like that. That’s how a Stronger Companion skill came to be.” Contemplated Noah in silence. “He stole the idea from accidental side effects of Nightmare creation. Well nightmares seems to have stolen an idea of possessing a body from him in return, as two of them escaped his mind realm by possessing Shadow warriors that attacked Noah in Greenville town.” 

“All in all this world is so wondrous that within it we can let someone else’s mind survive without their original body.” Kept explaining Ugy. “So when we rematerialize them, they will connect their mind with their reappearing body and live.”

“Hold on. But they have a body.” Said Noah pointing at Samantha mad Kate that lay near Lily.

“I said without the original body. Not without a body at all.”

“Then where did this body come from?” Asked Noah confused.

“That is an illusional body, created by you with the power if this Mind Realm to maintain their minds alive, Master. A virtual body.” Said Aster excited. “It is similar to our Core Forest...” She started to say but then stalled as an expression saying ‘oops’ appeared on her face. “I mean….Sorry, I…am not allowed to speak about the working of our Core Forest.” She said with a dispirited expression

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Ugy actually figured absolutely everything about it.” Said Noah

“What?! Don’t mention this to our mother, she’ll kill you just to keep the secret safe!” Said Aster terrified, as Noah and Ugy glanced at each other in silent-like conversation.

“Yeah…about that. We already discussed it with her and came to an understanding of sorts.” Said Noah, making Aster's eye bulge in surprise. But then she breathed out in relief.

“Alright then. I guess I can explain it then. Well…This world is similar to our Labyrinth Core Forest. There’s two ways to be here. In real body or Virtual representations of it. That virtual representation is needed as a minimum for the mind to be anchored and not die.”

“How do people come to the Dream world when they sleep?” Asked Noah.

“That’s different. They are attached to a real body that stays safe in the real world. Only the mind wanders around. They don’t really come into the dream world, it’s like they take a peek into it through a window. That’s why dreams are usually blurry and quickly forgotten. It’s like the mind peeks at it through blurry glass of sorts.”

“So to sum it all up…These girls are in the Border World for real, with their bodies. But bodies dissipated into particles. We keep these particles safe so they could reattach them later back to how it was. But brains die without any body, so Ugy creates a fake body made up from special power of this mind realm. But why do we keep them unconscious? Bri, Cill and Tess can stay conscious here.

“The body you give them is fake. Unnatural. A conscious mind would reject it because of not believing in it. Once it happens they will stay without a body and die instantly. Dryad Queen knows how to overcome this. I suppose she does it with spirit magic. But we don’t. As for your mates…They have that wondrous thing - True mate bite, connecting you all on soul level. With a few tweaks here and there it allows me to let their mind not reject the fake body. So they can stay conscious. As a bonus side effect you also can talk to them in your mind across the country. That happens because, here in Dream World you are connected as if you are all in the same room.” Explained Ugy.

“Interesting. So there’s such a complicated thing behind this skill. Who knew?” Said Noah nodding.

“Ummm.” Voiced Brianna quietly while hiding her eyes.

Noah rolled his eyes as realization dawned on him that in this company, he was the only one who didn’t know. After all Dryads, Ugy and Tessa created a way for them to come here. Obviously Brianna and Priscilla were aware of the concept as well. Except Lily who did not even know what this place was, thus could not be taken into account, he was the only one, who didn’t know the concept of it until now.

“It was a rhetorical question! Ok?” Said Noah, annoyed.

“Mother, did explain some of it to you, you just didn’t listen.” Said Brianna with a smile.

“I barely understood it now, how was I to understand all the nerdy explanations of it back then? I am a man of practical experience. Now that I see how it works, I understand it.” Said Noah.

“As you say.” Said Brianna snickering into her hand

“Ok.” Said Noah rolling his eyes once again. “When you said that ‘girls were here but never entered this world’, you mean their bodies never existed here, only minds within a fake body. But Lily is different. She has a body. Have wounds and can use magic to heal herself.” Said Noah. “How is that possible? I get why she is conscious. She successfully resisted sleep magic. But how did she come here without her body dissolving into spirit energy?”

Lily perked up as the conversation now concerned her.

“Well it means her body did not dissipate entirely and she is successfully maintaining a spirit body within this layer. Just like Aster.” Said Ugy. 

“You just said no human was ever able to do it.” Said Noah turning to Aster with a raised eyebrow. “If even the Saintess made a barely passable attempt with the help of divine magic, how does Lily do that?”

“And now you understand our main concern.” Said Aster. “That’s a question from an advanced course. But it is taught by professor plush. So my basic course on the spirit world ends here.” She added with a shrug. Making Brianna snicker once again.

“So, professor plush ass, what’s your thoughts?” Said Noah.

“Well, one theory is that she could have gained spirituality equal to Dryads for some reason. And can resist the force of dissipation. To check if it is the case, we would need to try giving special medallions to someone else.” Said Ugy. 

“Luckily we have enough test subjects here. If they die as soon as they regain consciousness with the help of a medallion, it would mean the theory is true.” Said Ugy thoughtfully.

“Hey!” Said Lily, gazing at him with a displeased expression. Brianna and Aster looked at him with squinted eyes as they crossed their hands in front of themselves, accusation could clearly be read from their expression. Yuko and Noah simply gazed at him with disgust as if he was a piece of garbage. 

“What?” Asked Ugy. “Destructive methods are also a scientific approach. The result is quicker and more understandable.”

….

…..

……

“Riiight.” Said Ugy as an uncomfortable silence hung over the group with everyone still gazing at him with the same expressions. “I guess it's NDT then.” He muttered, throwing in several incomprehensible words, like ultrasound, and aviation. In the end Noah only understood the ’unpraised genius’ and ‘fucking amateurs’ from his long winded speach.

“If I can create anything it this world. Maybe I should make a pile of shit to stick you in it?” Said Noah.

*Tsk. Voiced Ugy stopping his explanation of how advantageous it would be to kill Samantha and Kate to check his theory compared to other methods.

“The non lethal method would be to go in reverse order. Send them back to the real world, put medallions on them to keep an established connection with Noah and then try to pull them back in here.” Said Ugy. 

“If Lily is indeed a special case then they would simply stay in the real world and you will not be able to pull them here as their minds would interfere.” Explained Ugy.

“Could have just said that from begining, bastard. It wasn’t so hard right?....Wait. And if it’s not Lily that is special?” Said Noah, sensing there were a lot deeper things to Ugy’s words.

“Let’s worry about it once we’re sure…” Said Ugy with a dark tone that Noah did not like at all avoiding a direct answer.