Chapter 81: Dreamscape

That night, Xia Duo went to bed early to rest. With only one final mission remaining, he dared not relax in the slightest; it would be too foolish to lose his life due to a moment of laxity at the very end.

Yet, Xia Duo seemed different tonight than usual. After falling asleep, he did not drift into a thoughtless, dreamless slumber until the next day as he normally did.

Xia Duo had a strange dream.

In the dream, he would at times transform into a long river, surging forth from snow-capped mountains; at other times, he became lightning, stretching from the clouds to the earth; and at other times, he turned into a gale, whipping up wisps of blue smoke above an altar.

As the dream neared its end, Xia Duo had transformed into a formless existence, anchored within the spirit of a civilization, growing ever stronger alongside the civilization's development.

The next day, Xia Duo woke from his sleep. Upon waking, he fell into deep thought; although that dream was fantastical and magnificent, it gave him a feeling of being extremely real.

Even after waking, the memories of the dream remained very clear, which was completely different from the past, when memories would quickly blur after waking.

For a moment, Xia Duo could not determine the cause of the dream, but he could be almost certain that this dream was not harmful to him, and might even have significant benefits.

Xia Duo had realized it as soon as he woke up: he had been in this other world for nearly a year, and he had been in a state of repression the entire time.

Even though he had joined the Mage Tower, and even though he was only one step away from becoming an Official Mage, he had always felt out of place in this world, which had, to a certain extent, even affected his temperament.

Back on Earth, he had never been as calculating or as fearful as he was now.

But after the dream, Xia Duo felt his entire body and mind were much more relaxed.

Besides this, he also discovered a very subtle change—his strength had increased. If he hadn't habitually picked up his Hand Crossbow, he would not have been able to notice it on his own.

The Hand Crossbow, which had felt slightly heavy in his hand before, had now become very light.

Of course, these changes alone were not enough for Xia Duo to conclude that the dream was entirely beneficial and harmless to him; what truly convinced him was the content of the dream.

The long river, the lightning, the gale, and even the later formless spirit—in the dream, Xia Duo had experienced the evolutionary history of the Yanhuang Dragon, something that could absolutely never appear in Netheril.

Not to mention, in the dream, he had also seen a microcosm of the Huaxia civilization from ancient times to the modern era; this was the true reason he was certain the dream was harmless.

Furthermore, Xia Duo was incredibly curious about this dream. A single dream had already brought him an increase in strength; if there were a few more, would there be other changes?

However, for the moment, he had no clue as to why this dream appeared, and for now, he could only treat it as a belated benefit of his transmigration.

After having breakfast at the camp, Xia Duo took his team members and set out from the town together with Sami's squad.

At this time, although the heavy snow had not yet arrived, extremely fine snowflakes had not stopped falling, though they melted into water before they could even hit the ground.

Xia Duo and the others set out amidst this occasional light drizzle.

Before heading to the Green Pearl Forest, Xia Duo and the others stopped by those few inhabited villages along the way. Only after confirming that they had not discovered any Orcs did they continue into the forest.

As Xia Duo had expected, such weather was quite difficult for the Orcs as well. It wasn't until they had penetrated seven or eight miles into the forest that they encountered a single Orc that was nearly starving to death.

During this time, they hadn't even encountered many Goblins.

However, just as Xia Duo thought the Orcs would not appear again, Aiwa, who was scouting ahead, suddenly returned. "Mage Xia Duo, there is a problem that requires your immediate decision."

"What is it?"

"There are many Orc voices coming from the southwest, and they seem to be rushing this way. Should we engage, or temporarily evade?"

Xia Duo's first reaction upon hearing this news was to evade, but the problem was that the Orcs were moving faster than them. If the distance was too short, wouldn't running away just cause them to lose their formation?

"How far do you think they are?"

"Less than 300 meters."

"So close?!"

Xia Duo was greatly shocked. Fortunately, they were in the forest, where distance was not the only criterion for vision—the gaps between the trees were. Without being certain how many "many" was, he decisively gave the order.

"Everyone, move east to temporarily evade."

Having gone through previous coordination, the twenty-plus people on Xia Duo's side were already accustomed to his orders and acted the moment they heard the command.

At the same time, for the sake of Insurance, Xia Duo sent a Sending to Sami, asking him to provide support.

At this moment, Sami's squad was roughly the same distance into the forest as Xia Duo and the others, with a straight-line distance of perhaps less than 200 meters.

While maneuvering, Xia Duo asked Aiwa to keep an eye on the Orcs' position. At such a distance, among all of them, only Aiwa likely had such keen judgment.

And when Xia Duo had maneuvered east to the point where he could see Sami and the others, Aiwa came over to report, "The Orcs' direction of travel has changed; they are coming toward us, and it looks like they are chasing someone."

"Chasing someone? Coming toward us?"

Xia Duo seemed to understand something. How could there be such a coincidence? He immediately sent a Sending to Sami, "Someone is leading the Orcs toward us. You guys hurry and set up a temporary position; we will be there immediately."

Afterward, he called Aiwa to the side and whispered, "Can you get closer to see who exactly is leading the Orcs? If it's convenient—"

Xia Duo made a throat-slitting gesture. Leading monsters around so recklessly was simply too hateful; if he could kill the person leading the monsters, it might cause the Orcs to retreat.

Of course, it was also possible that it would make the Orcs continue to chase them. Although Orcs were relatively stupid compared to humans, they were, after all, creatures with Wisdom.

Aiwa hesitated for a moment, but still agreed.

Green Pearl Forest, 12th Area.

Apprentice Boer was riding a Forest Horse with a slightly stiff hind leg, running for his life in the 12th Area. Just moments ago in the 11th Area, his squad had been ambushed by a team of elite Orc Warriors.

After determining that the squad had not a shred of chance of winning, Boer decisively activated a 1st Circle Summon Mount Scroll and fled before his team members were all dead.

At the time, he was closer to the 12th Area, so he subconsciously headed this way. He needed someone to help him hold off the Orcs so he could successfully escape.

It was just that he didn't know exactly where the person responsible for the 12th Area was located. For this, he had consumed a precious Guidance Amulet. This type of Amulet could not precisely search for targets, but it could roughly indicate the location of living things.

Aside from the Orcs that were following him closely, the nearest location of living things should be the people in the 12th Area, he guessed.

And when he discovered that the location of those living things suddenly moved toward the east, Boer immediately confirmed that it was the target he was looking for.