Pantos swung his arm.

With each swing, an irresistible massive force erupted consecutively at its end.

Every time his fist became blurry, space distorted and the sound of breaking air resonated.

Alex whistled.

"You said you were going home for a while, did you eat something good there?"

Pantos, who was already strong, had now improved remarkably.

Even without properly equipping weapons, he had already surpassed the master level.

What would happen if he were to wield his beloved Anchor Chain here?

-Pop pop bang!

The golden powder that hadn't yielded even to wind burst helplessly at Pantos' fist.

However, that condensed form of powder wasn't something that could be eliminated by mere force.

Rather, the more it was hit, the stronger its resistance became, gradually pressuring Owens.

"W-what should we do?"

Bellaruna was at a loss, not knowing what to do.

It wasn't a living thing, and there was nothing she could do against such a bizarre phenomenon.

Moreover, they were already surrounded on all sides.

Even if they bought time here, there was nowhere to escape to.

They considered flying through the sky with Violetta's wind magic, but the sky was already full of powder.

"If not up, then we go down."

Alex gripped his sword and spun once in place.

-Slash!

Following the sword's trajectory, the ground was cut and sank down in a circle.

The Owens group, having fallen into the underground waterway, quickly ran along the waterway without panic.

"For now, let's escape through the emergency exit!"

They had created an escape route in preparation for attacks from someone or large-scale search operations if their identity was exposed.

Moving through the escape route would take them outside Leathervelk, so they planned to retreat and regroup.

"We're here!"

A large steel door appeared at the end of the waterway, a sturdy door reminiscent of a vault.

It was the entrance to the emergency passage leading outside Leathervelk.

"What about that golden smoke?"

"It's not following us yet. Seems like we've lost it."

"Safe for now?"

Still unable to lower their guard, Alex quickly pulled the door's lever.

-Kagagang!

The door opened with the sound of gears meshing together.

Beyond the open door was a long straight corridor.

And.

"...Ha. This is hopeless."

Golden smoke was filling the entire corridor.

-Puhwak!

The golden smoke that had already invaded underground engulfed the Owens members.

* * *

“Wake up.”

A voice came from the darkness.

“I said wake up.”

The echoing voice came like waves and struck Rudger's mind.

"I said wake up already!"

Rudger opened his eyes.

The pitch-black night sky stretched above and below it was the face of Julia Plumhart looking down at him.

"Finally awake."

"..."

Rudger got up.

After reflexively scanning his surroundings, Rudger couldn't help but give a hollow laugh.

The sky was adorned with stars twinkling with all sorts of light and where Rudger stood was a forest full of trees of unknown origin.

"Where is this?"

Rudger asked Julia while checking his physical condition.

Fortunately, there were no injuries, nor had any of his possessions gone missing.

"Don't you know? This is Dreamland."

"This is?"

"I'd rather ask you. Why exactly are we here? Surely this isn't related to the current situation?"

"Do you remember what happened last?"

"I remember. A golden cloud came from far away, and as soon as we touched it, we fell here."

"Same with me and the Chancellor. We almost reached the core to find the source, but we were too late."

Rudger thought about mentioning Nirva but decided against it.

There was no need to lower morale by saying they had to face a demon.

"More importantly, this Dreamland is a bit different from what I've seen."

The Dreamland Rudger had visited had a shallow water surface for its floor.

It was filled with mist like an early dawn lake, and underneath the water were submerged starlight.

"This is the upper layer of Dreamland. What you saw was probably the surface layer."

"So we've come deeper?"

Come to think of it, the stars in the sky were proof of that.

In the surface layer, starlight was spread beneath the floor but now with stars above in the sky, it meant Rudger had fallen to a deeper place.

"Then many others must have fallen here too."

"Just from what I remember, all the students were swept up here."

Julia's expression became serious.

"That's why it's not good."

"Is there a problem?"

"How much do you know about Dreamland? You know what's here and what not to do, right?"

"I don't know in detail. I've only heard what's generally known."

"That's exactly the point. Even the great Rudger doesn't know much, so how about others?"

Rudger didn't understand Julia's seriously warning attitude.

Even if Dreamland wasn't well known, wasn't it just a dream world except for its deep layers?

Such thoughts changed the moment he saw the massive shadow that suddenly rose beyond the trees of unknown origin.

"An elephant?"

The first impression of the massive creature was that of an elephant.

Indeed, its long trunk, flapping large ears, and huge body reminded one of an elephant.

The difference was that its trunk tip was sharp, it had 4 tusks, and its head was pointed like a crown.

The elephant wasn't alone.

With slight time differences, massive silhouettes increased one by one above the trees.

There are such creatures?

As Rudger wondered, Julia grabbed his hand and pulled.

"We need to get out of here!"

Rudger ran through the forest following Julia.

"What is that?"

"Dream Predators."

Dream Predators?

Rudger glanced back while running.

The massive elephants were raising their long trunks toward the sky.

Their elastic trunks extended far longer than their original length, reaching the stars densely dotting the sky.

If their trunks could reach the stars in the sky despite how long they stretched, perhaps the sky that appeared wasn't as high as it seemed.

But such observations weren't important right now.

The Dream Predators sucked in the stars with their sharp trunk tips.

Thinking that those starlights were people's dreams, it was easy to understand why those elephants were named as such.

"Do they attack people?"

"Dream Predators only eat dreams unconditionally."

"Then aren't they herbivores?"

"It's kind of funny to divide dream-eating into herbivorous or carnivorous, but there's a reason I said we should run."

That reason could be known soon.

-Flap!

The ears of the Dream Predators who had eaten dreams flapped widely.

As tiny golden powder scattered from their flapping ears, small shadows sprung from the forest almost simultaneously.

Birds with sharp beaks began flying around the Dream Predators, cleaning up the powder.

"Those are Predator Birds. They clean up the residue left by Dream Predators. This is what I warned was dangerous."

No sooner had Julia finished speaking than the Predator Birds moving in flocks flew toward Rudger and Julia.

"We've been spotted!"

"What happens if they catch us?"

"What do you think happens when your mind gets eaten in a dream? Want to hear about it?"

"Not particularly."

The Predator Birds were fast.

Their appearance as they flew in flocks was like watching a school of piranhas floating in the sky.

Judging that they couldn't escape like this, Rudger stopped in place and raised his magical power.

"What are you going to do!"

"If we can't shake them off, we have to fight."

"This is inside a dream! In dreams, you can't easily use magic as you want like outside...!"

Before Julia could finish speaking, Rudger drew his spell formula.

Julia's eyes widened at the sight.

The spell formula Rudger implemented flowed without any hindrance, too naturally.

The implemented formula soon activated as magic as purple electricity spread in all directions, sending out intense sparks that became a widely cast net, swallowing up the incoming flock of Predator Birds.

-Screech!

The Predator Birds that had been targeting their prey screamed as they were instead fried by electricity.

Charred black Predator Birds fell one after another, and the other Predator Birds following behind hurriedly turned and fled.

"For something you said was dangerous, they weren't that strong."

Rudger made a simple comment while watching the fleeing flock of Predator Birds.

Julia stared at Rudger with disbelieving eyes.

'Even skilled Dream Walkers need considerable time to use magic at their normal level in Dreamland.'

Dreamland is a world where the physical laws of reality don't apply, even things done as naturally as breathing in reality weren't easy in dreams.

When even walking or running couldn't be done well, how much more difficult would magic be?

Yet Rudger used magic so naturally.

Just looking at the power, it seemed about 4th tier, but it was so natural it was hard to believe it was his first time.

"Teacher. How many times have you been here?"

"I've only been to the surface layer, this is my first time in the upper layer."

"Then how..."

Even if one could use magic, its power would significantly decrease as a basic principle.

'Yet that level of power to sweep away a flock of Predator Birds at once. Is he using magic naturally despite it being his first time, or is this level despite the restrictions?'

Either way, it didn't change the fact that Rudger was a master beyond common sense.

"Is there a problem?"

"Phew. No. I just thought it might be for the better."

"From the looks of it, this forest seems quite dangerous."

Rudger spoke while gazing into the distance.

"The forest is starting to get noisy from the recent commotion."

"...Indeed. Predator Birds aren't the only dangerous creatures in this forest. We should move as far as possible while we have the chance."

"Are there other people in this forest?"

"I looked but found none. Usually, people who come down to the upper layer tend to gather in specific spaces."

"Is that so?"

"This forest is a dangerous zone located relatively on the outskirts of the upper layer. Mr. Rudger falling directly here means you had pretty bad luck."

The two kept moving.

Eventually leaving the forest, a large lake spread before them, where huge fluorescent glowing carp were swimming.

"Those are Glow Carps."

"That's a straightforward name."

"You've visited our school, so you know. Everyone's terrible at naming things."

Rudger nodded, thinking of Dream Mist and Weather Clouds.

It was natural since only Dream Walkers would name creatures living in Dreamland.

"But they're safe. They won't harm us unless we bother them first."

"What do they eat?"

The large lake where the carp were submerged was also full of twinkling starlight.

"Those are also people's dreams."

"Dreams? Weren't they only in the stars in that sky?"

"Even when people sleep the same amount, their sleep depth differs, right? People who sleep so deeply they won't wake up no matter who tries, their dreams come down lower even in this upper layer. Glow Carps grow by eating those."

"What an interesting place."

While he had been amazed at how the Kasar Basin maintained its own unique ecosystem Dreamland was on a different level.

To begin with, it was a world with different physical laws.

Trying to approach it with basic common sense would rather lead to trouble.

"Alright. We've come far enough to be safe now."

Julia let out a sigh of relief seeing the open plains and her gaze turned to Rudger.

"So what should we do now?"

"We'll have to think about that gradually."

"As you know, the situation isn't good. Everyone from Theon has fallen into Dreamland. Look there."

Julia raised her finger pointing to the sky.

The starlight embedded in the beautiful night sky rarely seen outside shook, and then began falling one by one.

They were shooting stars.

The lines of light crossing the black sky were beautiful at first glance, but Julia's expression wasn't very good.

What this meant was too clear.

"Stars are falling. That means people are still falling into Dreamland even now."

"Not just Theon, but it's affecting the outside as well."

"It might be fine now, but if we don't get out of here quickly, it won't be good for those people either."

"Is there another problem?"

"Think about a whirlpool. Once you get caught in the outer edge, you gradually get sucked into the central core."

Julia said Dreamland was the same.

"You can stay in the surface layer as long as you want. But from the upper layer, you've stepped into the flow of this vast world. Even if you want to stay here, you can't. Once you fall to the upper layer, you're bound to head downward as time passes."

"Like quicksand."

"Quicksand. That's exactly right. You sink even when staying still, and sink faster if you struggle. It might be fine now, but will it be fine going forward?"

It doesn't end just by flowing to the middle layer, Julia said.

Like a whirlpool sucking everything to its center.

The whirlpool never stops until it reaches the deepest point.

At that end probably...

Rudger's gaze turned downward.

Now that they had fallen into Dreamland, everyone here was destined to fall to the deep layer.