That afternoon, after returning from the cafeteria, I did not waste any time playing with my grim cypher or gioncore abilities. Instead, I used my Grim Web card to attend several of the institute's free online classes and workshops for beginner card crafters, all while mirroring the Dream Engine grim cypher to use its abilities to learn.
[ — Fate Index —
Grim Cypher: Dream Engine
You can enter and exit sleep whenever you wish. Your control over your dreams is omnipotent.
i) Dream Domain: You can instantly partition your consciousness into a hyper-realistic, time-dilated dreamscape in your mind and mentally enter it. Within it, you're omnipotent, allowing you to simulate infinite scenarios, learn things, or construct complex designs using your existing knowledge and memories in a fraction of a real-world second.
ii) Dream Conjuring: You can materialize thought-forms into physical reality. By using energy, you can pull weapons, tools, or autonomous entities out of the dream and into the waking world.
iii) Dream Warping: You can project the laws of your dreamscape outward, overlaying them onto the physical world within the limits of your energy. This allows you to temporarily edit the rules of reality with your dreams to suit your needs.
Note:
i) Dream domain can be used when asleep or awake. But if you want to enter it, you have to be asleep.
ii) Dream Conjuring and DreamWarping cause high mental strain. Overuse causes Reality Bleed, where the user begins to hallucinate damage that isn't there.]
I mirrored the grim cipher 'Dream Engine' from the Fate Index using Fateless. Thanks to the crown's claim, my mastery of it was flawless, for me to activate it immediately. I entered its Dream Domain, the simplest and fastest way possible: by falling asleep on command.
Once inside the Dream Domain, I attempted to access my Grim Web card to gather information and test its connectivity. Only then did I realize the flaw in my plan. The time differential between the Dream Domain and reality was so distorted that Grim Web cards could not function properly within it. The connection simply could not synchronize.
So I tried to slow the time within the Dream Domain to match that of reality, and I could now use the grim web card in dream domain. This meant I couldn't take advantage of its time differential, but as long as it allowed me to memorize and process large amounts of data, the compromise was worth it.
So, I began by watching recorded online classes, seminars, and workshop videos at 5x speed and read all the recommended reference material by reading the entire page at a mere glance, instantly memorizing all the information using my dream domain.
Afterwards, I would take a three-minute break to let the Dream Domain help me process what I had memorized and reinforce it within the time-dilated dream domain, which simulated what I had recorded from the videos or study materials. I would also use pattern recognition on it to ace the mock tests after every online class.
I kept switching the time rate within my Dream Domain at my convenience to make the most of my time. I spent the entire afternoon and evening repeating this in my sleep to learn from the free online classes, workshops, and reference materials, gradually building my knowledge of card crafting.
By the time Mary Lou knocked on my door to go for dinner together, I had already mastered the theoretical foundations of basic card crafting and was planning to attempt the creation of a few basic card recipes.
"What took you so long?" Mary complained as I opened the door and let her in. However, when she noticed my drained expression, she misread the situation and rolled her eyes. "Never mind," she said dismissively.
"Mary, can you help me get beginner card-crafting kits?" I asked, ignoring her habit of jumping to conclusions and misunderstanding things.
"Card crafting? Are you sure about this? It's a very expensive profession to learn," Mary replied, using a cleansing card to tidy the dorm before sitting at the edge of my bed.
"I've already completed and mastered the basic card-crafting courses offered by the institute. Now I want to practice what I've learned," I explained, hoping she could guide me on how to practice economically, since card-crafting materials were far from cheap.
"You completed six months' worth of crash courses in a single evening?" Mary squinted at me skeptically. Her doubt was understandable.
"I used Director Hawthorne's grim cypher," I answered. "It was tedious to memorize and process such a massive amount of data, but learning everything that fast was exhilarating."
After experiencing this grim cypher firsthand, I gained a newfound respect for Chief Research Director Hawthorne. In my mind, I quietly designated him as the hidden boss of Skyox City. It was no surprise that City Commander Dia Loas valued his opinion above those of the other chief directors during the meeting.
"No wonder you're so confident," Mary quickly accepted that I could have mastered the basics of card creation in a single afternoon if I were using the Director's grim cypher.
It surprised me as it suggested that she knew his grim cypher. That was not something a regular junior researcher would know. My surprise only deepened when she added with a thoughtful expression, "You copying the director's grim cypher explains why he made such generous exceptions for you."
Noticing the growing astonishment on my face, Mary continued, "Director Hawthorne is actually my uncle. He used to head the Starox Research Institute in Starox Province, but after overusing his grim cypher, he began suffering from its drawbacks. It eventually got him demoted and moved close to family. If I'm not mistaken, you're now one of his disciple candidates."
"I have to say, your luck is on a completely different level," Mary sighed, unable to hide her envy. "Many researchers, myself included, would give an arm or a leg to be in the running to become my uncle's disciple. Yet you, a high school dropout, made the list without even knowing it. It seems your legend won't end here. If I don't buckle up, not only will you overtake me, but it will be hard for me to even keep up."