Origin Seeker

Chapter 275: Deal

Dream stood there as the System did a one over on his Profile. When it was done, he opened it. 

|Profile|

Name: Sylus Dreamer

Species: [Metacosmic Psykhe]

Class: [Emperor]

Level: 404

Title: [Origin Seeker], [Husband]

Concepts: {Physical Reality - Lesser Dominion}, {Ethereal Force - Lesser Dominion}

Skills: [Sophia - Queen of Logic], [Adeptus Physikas], [Sovereign Force]

"A queen huh?"

Dream smiled a bit as he saw the skill names. 

[Hehe, I like it! I really am a queen. Even the System deems it so! Go ahead, call me queen.]

"Call you queen? I think you forget what I am now."

Dream smirked as his eyes drifted to his new class. He was an Emperor! He was above even a king!

"More than that though, what's up with my level?"

[Level 404. That is really low. Aren't class 6's in the 500's?]

"I don't think they actually go by levels. But class 5's do. You know what? I think my levels are relative now. Think about it. Level 500 gets me to class 6. Well, I'm nowhere close to filling my Divine Seas. As I gain more experience or Divine Light, I'll be able to fill the Seas more. My level is representative of how much I've filled my Seas. If I fill half my Seas, then I'll probably reach level 450."

[...I guess.]

"Either way, who cares about level? I've gone far beyond it at this point."

Dream waved the problem off his mind as he looked at his Profile again. As Sophia shrugged inwardly, he looked at his skills. 

"Anyway, you're a queen now. Then there's [Adeptus Physikas]. That's my material control skill. And [Sovereign Force] is my magic skill."

[Interesting names. It's making you out to be the ruler of all magic and material.]

"Well, with my powers, I might as well be."

Dream spoke a little haughtily. He wasn't going to be overly humble and say that he wasn't extremely skilled. He was starting to reach some pretty extreme levels, pioneering his own path to power sourced from the concepts themselves. Even now he was blessed by a concept that only 7 other people in the universe were blessed with. If that wasn't enough for bragging rights, what was?

"Anyway, I no longer have stats. And my skills don't have levels either. I guess everything comes down to my conceptual comprehension now. Speaking of, it also lists my concepts. What's that Lesser Dominion part of it?"

[Must be your level in the concept.]

"Not the level of the concept itself?"

[Well the people in that conceptual world said that it's one of the highest concepts, so I wouldn't think so. It's definitely not a low one.]

"Good point. Well, no reason to worry about it anyway. Everything else seems right. It looks like my advancement is concluded."

Saying that, Dream waved his profile away. His thoughts and conversation with Sophia only took moments. 

Afterward, he looked between Tersa and Melody. 

"...So did you guys have fun?"

"Quite the opposite!"

Melody quickly retorted. 

"I've been bored! The only thing I did was get into sculpting because there's nothing on this planet other than rocks! I wanna go back to the asura planet."

"Alright, alright. Let's go now then."

"Yes!"

Melody cheered as Dream opened up a portal. She jumped through while Tersa followed behind. Dream was the last to step through. 

After going through, the three appeared in the Red Eye asura clan. They were right outside the hall of elders, and all around them were crowds of busy asuras that ran and flew everywhere. 

"Well isn't this place lively?"

"Ah! Actual people! I don't think I've ever been isolated from civilization for so long."

Melody was happy as she observed the busy clan. She only had Tersa with her during the past 6 months, and while Tersa was fine company, it was only one person. Melody got way too familiar with her and wanted to talk to literally anyone else. 

"Where's Vela? Let's go find her."

Melody ran off into the hall of elders with those words. Dream chuckled as he followed. 

The two were quick to walk into the building that was just as busy as outside. After walking down some hallways, people began to freeze when they saw Dream and Melody, their eyes bulging. The two disregarded this as they arrived at Vela's office.

Melody knocked. 

"Come in!"

"Vela!"

"What?!"

Vela was startled as Melody burst through the door. When she lifted her head and saw Dream though, she felt a wave of chills.

"D-Dream!"

"Hello Vela."

"Oh my god! W-what are you doing here?"

Vela stuttered as she shot out of her seat. Dream had disappeared after wiping out several class 6's and harvesting their souls. In his disappearance, she and the rest of her clan had been incredibly busy assimilating their conquered enemies. Even after 6 months, the clan was still lively. 

Above all, there wasn't anyone who didn't know Dream's name, the mysterious outsider who orchestrated the death of a clan. His sudden appearance now was definitely shocking. 

"I've come to collect my debt."

"Debt? Oh! That's right. You're still trying to go north to the branch clan. We definitely didn't forget about that."

Vela bobbed her head as she organized some papers on her desk. After glancing around, she took a deep breath before straightening her back. 

"Alright. Let's go talk to Patriarch Star. We have indeed been planning for this trip. If anything, we've been delaying it in case of your return. If you were gone any longer, we probably would've left already."

"Well thank you. I'm flattered that you waited for me."

"It's the least we can do. Literally."

Vela chuckled as she led Dream through a few halls, arriving outside another room. The group quickly entered, greeted with an intense voice. 

"Patriarch! This encroachment is nothing short of a declaration of war! You only just ended a war of your own, the news of which is still yet to spread, and you think fighting another so soon is a good idea? We will not be pushed around so easily, so do be careful not to bite off more than you can chew!"

"..."

Dream's eyebrow raised as he walked into an argument. It was an unknown man who was currently yelling at Patriarch Star. Patriarch Star was merely relaxed into his seat though, not losing his composure at the threatening aura in the room. 

Dream quickly saw through the power of the man. He was a class 6, albeit not a powerful one. After Dream entered the room, the man turned his head, as did the patriarch who smiled. 

"Dream! It's good to see you."

"You too. What's going on?"

"Oh, just some small diplomatic matters. Let me introduce you."

Patriarch Star stood, motioning to the slender man. 

"This is one of the elders of the Flying Sword Clan, Elder Basilisk, and he's angry that we took over two of his mana crystal mines only a week ago. Elder Basilisk, this is Dream, the one who singlehandedly wiped out 4 class 6's of the Blue Blood clan and assisted us in our recent conquering. He's also the one who killed three of your class 6's who dared to help our enemy."

"..."

Elder Basilisk went silent as he gazed warily at Dream. When he looked at him though, he was surprised. He couldn't sense the slightest thing from Dream. He couldn't sense mana, aura, nothing. He seemed as ordinary as the dirt beneath his feet. 

But that didn't make him confident. If anything, this elder became wary. He felt something was off about Dream. Something about his body. Despite not being filled with a powerful aura, it was filled with another kind of energy. He felt like Dream was just a bundle of absolute power just waiting to burst. 

Dream tilted his head, observing the elder before glancing at the patriarch. 

"He's from the clan that supplied those three class 6's to Mountain Blade?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Well in that case, I'd like to express my displeasure."

Dream turned to Elder Basilisk.

"Your clan helped my enemy. I happen to be in need of more souls. So I'll be taking yours as compensation and killing you as my expression of displeasure."

*Splat!*

Suddenly, Dream took a step, launching his arm out. The next moment, his hand was buried in the elder's chest. The elder couldn't even react, only panicking when he felt Dream's fingers wrap around his soul core. 

"Ahh!!! Get off of me!"

"Just one more second... There."

*Rip!*

After digging around a bit more, Dream suddenly pulled out his arm. The Elder instantly turned to dust as Dream held his soul core in his hands. 

"..."

Patriarch Star was stunned silent. Even before when Dream had prepared for his class 6 battle, he hadn't killed a class 6 so easily. Now, that class 6 elder couldn't resist his power. Patriarch Star couldn't even keep up with what happened. 

Hadn't he gone into seclusion for an advancement? Patriarch Star wondered what kind of an advancement Dream underwent. He had heard from Vela that he was only a class 4 and left to become a class 5. But he definitely didn't believe that. He wouldn't believe it even if Dream smacked him with his profile. Either way, whatever he did made him even more powerful. 

After extracting the soul, Dream instantly wiped the consciousness. At the same time, he channeled the Divine Light from the soul into his Divine Sea, storing it for later. 

"And like that, another experiment can be carried out. Very nice."

"...You've become more powerful, Dream."

"Thanks! I put in a lot of effort."

Dream smiled as the soul disappeared into his inventory. He now had another chunk of Dust that he could use. He had a few plans for it. 

As for how he so easily killed that class 6, that was all due to his arcane transmutation. His body now wielded the power of the neutron star that was enchanted with arcane transmutation and Dust. Thus, his purely physical body could use the strength of a star to kill magical beings. He had merely wrapped his hand around the soul, preventing any power from escaping it. The elder couldn't even fight back as Dream used his tyrannical strength to rip his soul out. 

Other than that, the only thing special about what Dream did was the speed he did it at. The surprise factor also helped. That elder just couldn't imagine someone so powerful would be so blatantly kill-happy.

Dream turned to the patriarch. 

"Anyway, how about we head up north? I've heard some great things about the place, like how it's where I've wanted to be for months now."

"Of course. We'll depart right away. Vela, go prepare the ships."

"Yes, sir."

Vela hastily ran off at the command. Dream smiled, happy to finally be moving on.

...........

Not even an hour later, Dream was seated on the largest flagship of the clan, barreling through the skies toward the tip of the planet. 

The trip wouldn't take long, so he just got comfortable and waited. He also fiddled around with his ring.

During the advancement, Dream had hoped that because his soul was becoming more powerful, he'd be able to communicate with any of his wives. Unfortunately, after coming out, he found that it did nothing to help. He was still too far. Plus, just because his personal soul became stronger didn't mean his soul bond did. The slice of his soul with his wives was still the same small cluster of soul strings, so it wouldn't suddenly become more capable. 

And even if his advancement did alert the girls, he wouldn't know about it. As far as he was concerned, nothing was sent or received, so they still had no clue as to where the other was. It troubled him greatly, but there was nothing he could do at the moment except move forward with his plans. 

Only, it seemed like his recent war caused some waves to be kicked up. It wasn't long after the flagship approached the city at the north pole that Dream felt an aura wash over them.

Dream was startled when he felt an aura far beyond a class 6. Thankfully, Dream could still sense the limit of its power, but it was still amazing. He had yet to meet anybody so strong besides Corvatsch. 

The flagship was slowed to a halt by this aura. The next moment, Dream teleported out of the ship and into the sky. 

In the distance was the city, the branch clan of the Blood Drop clan. And in front of the city was a single man. He looked old, with a long white beard and eyebrows. 

"You're that class 7?"

"..."

The old man was silent, just staring at Dream. 

Then, he suddenly raised his hand. In it appeared a rusty old sword. He raised this sword above his head, and power burst forth. 

Everyone in the flagship was horrified as a beam of light shot upward, reaching nearly 2 miles high. It was filled with blinding power, making the class 6's inside the flagship tremble in awe. 

Dream was also surprised. He could feel the power within that blade of light. If it were used on Earth, it would slice the planet in half. 

"I can do that too though."

Suddenly, Dream reached his hand up. Then, thousands of ships appeared, beamed over from Tersa's planet. They all opened their hatches, and material flooded out. 

The sky was covered in roads of black metal, all of them coagulating above Dream's hand. It formed a sword that was just as tall at the old man's. The two stood opposing each other. 

And their hands fell. The two swords screamed as they were swung and collided. An explosion of light exploded outward, sending a beam down toward the floor. 

Before this beam could tear open the floor though, a figure appeared. It was a young man, and he put out his hands with an enraged face. The beam was dispersed by his power. 

After the two swords collided, Dream's black sword quickly lost power. The sword of light dimmed as it obliterated his material. 

Dream looked up as the sword of light came crashing through his blade and down on top of his head. When it was about to hit though, his body suddenly changed. 

*Freeze!*

His cosmic form appeared, replacing his physical form. When it did, the sword of light froze above his head, unable to slash down any more. Not only that, but everyone in the flagship felt themselves unable to move. All mana, all air, and all of space became loyal to Dream's Will. Nothing would move without his express permission. 

It was same with the blade of light, though it resisted through sheer power. Before it could break out of his control, he touched it, and the sword evaporated into motes of light. It was like millions of fireflies drifting away. 

With the sword dissipated, Dream returned to his physical form. He looked back at the old man. 

And the old man clapped, a weird but happy smile on his face. 

"Mm, that was fun! You really are skilled! You recently had an advancement, because you weren't that powerful when killing those class 6's."

"I did just have an advancement. And it seems news travels fast."

"Not really. You've just been gone for so long."

"Hey!"

Suddenly, there was a shout from below. Dream and the old man turned to see an angry young teenager on the ground. He was glaring at them. 

"Are you trying to tear my world in half?! Old fart, we had a deal!"

"Oh, my bad. I got too excited."

"You always get too excited! I was already injured by that snobby guy's lasers, and now you have an apocalyptic battle right on the surface! I'm going to die at this rate!"

"So you're the Terra Core?"

Dream asked curiously, and the teenager responded with a growl.

"Yea I'm the Terra Core! You think we don't have lives as well?!"

"Hey! Don't speak to my master in such a manner, you child!"

Suddenly, a woman shot out of the flagship. It was Tersa, and she snarled at the teenager on the ground. 

The teenager looked at her with an odd gaze. 

"An avatar? Are you..."

"Yea, I'm a Terra Core as well! And if you don't fix your manners, I'll have to fix them for you!"

"...Since when is there another Terra Core in this planetary system?"

"Since my Master found me! I'm a world of unfathomable industry and magical production! And I'm also bigger than you."

Tersa ended with a smug face as she landed in front of the teenager. Hearing that she was bigger than him, he got angry. 

"Hey! Don't think that size is everything!"

"Says the smaller one!"

"You're just a child who only recently gained wisdom!"

"And I'm already better than you!"

When Tersa haughtily smiled, the teenager growled in rage. Dream just looked at the two with odd eyes, as did the old man. 

"...Anyway."

Shrugging, Dream looked at the class 7. He was what they called a demigod, someone who comprehended and wielded the power of concepts. 

A class 6 was only someone who could begin to realize and touch upon concepts. It took being blessed by a concept to actually comprehend it and use its power. When someone was blessed, they became a class 7, or a demigod. Technically, Dream was a demigod since he could comprehend and draw upon conceptual power. 

But there were large differences between demigods. First, not all concepts were equal. Some were higher than others. But then there was the amount of comprehension one gleaned into their concept. Dream had two of the highest concepts, but his comprehension was barely scratching the surface. Thus, even if the old man didn't have profound concepts, he still beat him due to the power he could draw from comprehension. 

The old man looked back a Dream, a smile on his face. 

"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the head of the Blood Drop Branch Clan and overseer of this world. You can call me Cavra, otherwise known as Light's Edge."

"Mm. I'm Dream. I don't really have any affiliations."

"What about that clan down there?"

"I was their defense contractor. In exchange for training my sister, I gave them weapons. Things escalated though, so it ended in a war of conquest."

"I see."

Cavra nodded in understanding. Then, Dream smiled. 

"And I've come to offer the same thing to you."

"You wish to be our defense contractor?"

"Correct. I'll make weapons, and I can help fight in your wars. In exchange, my sister gets training."

"...What kind of firepower can you give?"

Cavra asked curiously, to which Dream rubbed his chin.

"Given enough time, I can give you a force of class 4 fighters that number in the billions. Class 5's, perhaps millions. Of course, I need access to my new factory, but that isn't an issue I also can't solve."

"Billions..."

Cavra was a bit dazed. 

In the universe, absolute power wasn't uncommon. There was always someone who had atrocious personal power and could become a pillar of any major superpower. When looking at the wider universe, a person with power like Cavra and even Dream wasn't exactly rare. 

But to be capable of building an army that could replace a superpower's armies? Building millions and billions of soldiers at the level of a class 5? That was truly rare. In the Red Eye clan, there were only a couple hundred class 5's. Dream could produce class 5 soldiers that outnumbered the total class 5 population of this planet, and then multiply it. 

Wars weren't usually fought between the highest powers of a clan. They were fought with their soldiers. A select few people couldn't be everywhere. But millions of soldiers could. 

Dream could bring astronomical military power to the clan. And all he wanted in exchange was training for his sister. 

There was only one way for Cavra to respond. He didn't even seem to doubt Dream.

"Let's do it! I shall take you to my superior on the Blood Drop Planet. Before then though, you need to show proof of your ability. Once you'll do, we can both go to the primary world."

"Deal. Give me some time, and I'll return with some soldiers. I also have matters to take care of before I leave this planetary system."

"Of course. I've already waited here for a few thousand years, there's no reason I can't wait a bit longer."

"...Right."

Dream smiled weirdly. Even with his unfathomable power, he still didn't understand what it was like to live thousands of years.