Opening his eyes for the first time, the child saw a vast tapestry of stars before him. Wind rushed past his ears as his body fell. There was water below him, which was approaching fast.
'Where am I?' the boy thought, but even that fleeting idea exhausted him as a dreary tiredness seeped so deep it ran through his very bones.
His body collided with the water, but he felt no pain. There was no panic as he sank further into its depths. Opening his eyes once more, he called forth what little strength he had to reach upward. He stared through the water toward the tapestry of lights that formed the night sky.
'So beautiful,' he thought. And sleep took him.
When next he awoke, the child sat on a large pane of iridescent glass. Before him, there was a statue of a creature he didn't recognize. Perhaps there were some who would recognize the mighty figure of Arceus, but to this child, he only saw a strange animal.
Confused, the boy drew his gaze up to the statue, and slowly, his vision fell to a line of text etched using the letters of the unknown alphabet across its base. The boy took a moment before reading.
"Kaizul," he said.
That was his name. He knew it as surely as he recognized his own hand and body. And in response to his vocalizing of the word, a hovering panel of neon blue light appeared, hovering in the air before him.
Written in the unknown dialect, Kaizul read the message displayed there.
Congratulations!
• You have awakened from your slumber and taken your first steps in your new life.
• Welcome, Kaizul.
Status screen online.
Quest system online.
Shop system online [unavailable].
Inventory online.
The Nightmare System has successfully bonded.
Stay strong, and one day, victory shall be yours.
The boy, now known as Kaizul, stared at the panel that hovered before his eyes. His reading was slow, painfully slow, but after reaching the end, he spoke.
"Stay strong? What do I need to stay strong for? And where am I?" he asked.
As if in response to his query, another screen displayed in front of him.
Alert!
• You are now bonded to the Nightmare System. Every time you fall asleep, the realm of dreams will pull you into it.
• Complete the tasks created by the system. When you complete a task successfully, the system will issue a new one. This will repeat itself until the following morning, when you wake up.
• You must sleep for at least six hours per night; failure to do so will cause nightmares to break through into reality.
Please rest well, Master Kaizul.
• You have a short waiting period to adjust before the first dream begins.
• In thirty minutes, you will enter the dream with only one objective.
Good luck, sir.
New Quest Uploaded
Quest: Survival of the Fittest
• Survive for 24 hours in the endless treetops without dying.
Perhaps if Kaizul had any experiences to pull from, such strange things happening to him would have been cause for panic. But as a boy with no prior experience, he nodded to himself.
Now that he knew what he needed to do and where he was, he began investigating the surrounding area. After taking in the statue and glass, quickly discovering there was nowhere else to go or anything else to investigate, he activated his power.
He could feel it — this so-called Nightmare System. Like one might feel their own heartbeat, it was there resting at the back of his soul, completely autonomous, but with a small tug, he felt it bend to his will.
Status
Name: Kaizul [Lord of Dreams]
Abilities: N/A
Skills: N/A
Body: 12
Mind: 16
Spirit: 3
Description:
A human child of five years. Kaizul is frail and small. Incredibly weak by most standards. However, still, only a fool would underestimate the Lord of Dreams.
It took only a moment and a light prod. Kaizul found further information on the stats.
The body referred to the strength of your physical form and averaged it across the person.
The same applied to mind, but it instead referred to your mental prowess. How fast you can learn, how good your memory is, and how fast you can react.
Finally, there was spirit, a stat used for aura, and something about psychic abilities. Kaizul didn't know what either of those meant and had no real reference to how good or bad his stats were.
It didn't matter, though, as he moved on to his inventory.
Inventory
• This system allows Kaizul to store any object obtained through the Nightmare System. Kaizul can seal these items away through time, and he can change them using Nightmare Points.
• You obtain Nightmare points by completing quests issued in the dreamscape.
• When you view the crafting panel for an item, it lists the changes the item can have.
Current Inventory Items
• Basic Robe [White] [Equipped]
After viewing his inventory, Kaizul glanced down at himself. For the first time, he was taking in everything about himself. His skin was white. And draped over him was a white robe. It fits him perfectly. He was barefoot, and aside from this single robe, he wore nothing else.
Curious, he checked the crafting panel of his inventory for his robe.
Crafting Options [Basic Robe]
Repair [1 Nightmare Point]
Shift Style [10 Nightmare Points]
Color Change [10 Nightmare Points]
Enchant (Auto-Repair) [25 Nightmare Points]
Transmute [100 Nightmare Points]
Curious about what each option did, Kaizul tried to open anything on them, but came up with nothing. So instead, he opened his quest panel.
He dismissed the panel quickly since nothing else grabbed his attention, and with fifteen minutes still left to kill, he sat at the base of the statue of Arceus.
As the child stared out into the dark abyss surrounding the glass platform on which he sat, he wondered. Why did this quest need to get done? What did it mean to be a 'Lord of Dreams'? Was there anyone else like him out there? Was he to do this alone?
But perhaps the question that plagued his mind the most was, 'If this is a realm of dreams, then I wonder, what will the real world look like?' But no matter how much he pondered the subject, there would be no answer.
The time passed, and Kaizul's vision faded into black.