There was a moment of silence, then there was a gulp and then there were tears flowing down Cattolu's furry cheeks, then there was gentle sobbing before it turned into some hysterical crying, ending with Cattolu gently purring in Yunan's lap, curled into a ball around the box of sweets.
Both Tasha and Yunan felt very bad for the feline, Cattolu was already preparing to take Yunan as his sworn liege, or so they thought they heard between the sobs, even the crazy aura around the upright cat was gone.
At this moment Yunan was fighting the urge to pet this cute and cuddly ball of fur, the gentle and satisfied purring only made it harder to resist, and the well dressed Cattolu looked so adorable while hugging the box of baked goods.
Now that the host has stopped using the gentle force to keep the two restrained, they found that they had no ability to act on this universe, the laws were too different and mutated to support any action, even survival was purely thanks to the dream energy that Yunan cultivated and used to cultivate his followers.
Tasha was getting the worse of it, while Yunan was not bothered too much, he was used to the discomfort, his body seemed to be fated with having strange situations were discomfort was the main theme.
He could still grit his teeth as he slowly learned the laws of the place and got used to the pure dream energy.
After a while, the well-dressed cat saw it fit to leave Yunan's lap and slowly munch on the cookies and biscuits he was given, although he still wanted to save some, he dared not risk the ire of Yunan and send the man to the test while still being unforgiven.
"So, about the test, I am really sorry, one of you must take it, I can promise you that you would not waste time and the rate of death is less than 3%, so please remember to pass by another time after the test, I would love to have some more of these cookies" the cat was trying hard to not leave behind anything, even the crumbs.
"Can you at least tell us about what is in the test, anything that could help us out, we have more of these on hand, we can even bake fresh ones for you, this guy is good!" Tasha decided it was worth it if she sold Yunan's cooking for some pointer, especially when a death rate was mentioned.
"I am terribly sorry to both disappoint you and forfeit those fresh cookies, as the guardian of the test, I have no knowledge of it, all I know is that t changes with each challenge, I would also recommend that you do not seek death, else you will die, as for the wins, there are so far none, only failures, you can quit the test after finishing it, the result does not matter" the cat said, his words were shrowded by crunching sounds as he chewed and talked.
"Fine then", Yunan sighed as he stood up from his chair with a wince, reminding Cttolu to reestablish his gentle force, "lead me to the test, send Tasha and Dreamscape away afterwards, I would ask you to let them stay until Dreamscape has recharged". Yunan had made the decision.
Sacrificing Tasha would have been the wiser choice, that way, the weakest of the group would be left behind, allowing Yunan to resume his quest, unfortunately that was not how Yunan operated, he would rather flee from a battle than to refuse a challenge, losing his teammate while running from a fight with enemy was not as shameful as sacrificing them for a test, besides, this was just part of the excursion.
The cat in the gentry suit and hat led the two to a stone stele, it was engraved with senseless patterns and emitted dream energy, it was most likely a gravestone, but Yunan chose not to ask Cattolu, he had already been in touch with the will of a dying god once before.
"So, who will take the test? there are too many of 'you' in that body, only one could take the test". The cat found the look on Yunan and Tasha amusing, but with a wave of his paw, three more joined them.
"Oh, come on", said the three as they were ejected from Yunan's body, they shouted the same for two completely different reasons, one was that someone wanted to watch, and the other was for breaking apart the same body into three fragments.
Yunan could not help but sigh, he had forgotten that his body was full of others, he found it strange that Drogon and Ignis still held their consciousness, and did not even try to understand why Effort was ejected too.
"I'll go", sighed Tash as she tried to step forward but Yunan was already touching the stele. He activated the power inside and was teleported somewhere leaving behind only a thought, "you better wait for me, or else…". Although Cattolu was not the target of the thought, he shivered slightly.
"Your master is scary" commented the upright walking cat before taking the chance to bring out some chair and prop up a screen to watch how Yunan did in this test, he also sneakily read all he could from the four beings with him, even as unique as the feline thought he was, he was near as unique as the current batch of guests, worst part is that they seemed to like sharing the same body, the best part, they had cookies.
Tasha was persuaded to use her privileges as Yunan's companion to gain access to the private dimension, in order to bring out all types of sweet goods for the cat to taste, strangely it refused meats and vegetables, did not like them as much as cookies, even other types of drink and sweets, including the lava wine and lotus fruits, everything that did was not baked dough in different reincarnations was rejected.