The worst was the humidity.
"Come and sit there." Maxim pointed at the giant magical circle in the middle of the room, where Adam can see two different places of sitting.
"As I have said before, your job is to act as my eyes," Maxim said while sitting in the middle of the bigger circle while pointing toward the smaller one and gesturing to him to sit down. As he said. "But not in reading, it's while dreaming."
In this world, there are many things that remain unknown even after all of the lands have already been explored.
The secret realms are hidden between the dimensions away from the influence of the main material plane, the world hidden in the oceans ruled by merfolks, the lands hidden in the land below, home to monsters of unknown origin.
And then there was the land of dreams, a world created by the collective consciousness of humanity.
It was the world to which I belong. And the world which was considered the most bizarre and unknown among others.
It was the land where dreams come true and the might of a person is not affected by their physical strength, but by the might and strength of their soul.
The dreams of the individuals are also the reason why the land of dreams keeps changing all the time and things never remain constant. It was why before the enlightenment era, the land of dreams was also called The Land of Chaos.
Some even say that the main material plane is the dream of a greater being and when that being wakes up, this dream will end.
Many have felt a greater consciousness permeating the dream world.
Which according to Lakyus, was complete horseshit.
To him, this huge consciousness was nothing more than the collective consciousness of all the living beings that exist in this world. And the dream world is the focal point of it all. Making many mages mistake it for one, instead of many.
But it's not their fault, for they think that one only dreams while sleeping and the small dream worlds that are born out of it are just like bubbles that pop when the individual wakes up.
Though one shouldn't blame them for their ignorance. They can't match the understanding of dreams as much as Lakyus did while being the Prime Daemon of Nightmares.
In Lakyu's notes, he had divided the dream into two parts.
The active one, which many considered to be all and end all for all dreaming. And then, there is the passive dreaming that one does while being awake.
It was the passive dreaming that is responsible for that greater consciousness. It's what dictates the fate of this world and drives the countless coincidences that one experiences in their life.
So if Lakyus words have to be believed, then one's strong will can truly change reality. But it only works on theory, because to me, all of this is bullshit.
There might be a greater consciousness that exists in the dream world, I know it because I have lived in that place for a long time.
But I am also aware that the greater will has no actual will of its own, it's just an existence without any rhyme or purpose.
"But how… how can I do that?" The young enchantment apprentice asked, his eyes clouded with worry for his own life.
The engrams and runes drawn extensively on the floor tiles were somewhat familiar. But the most he could understand were the most basic ones among them. The rest were too advanced and the longer he looked at them the more he felt sleepy. It was as if even looking at these runes was forbidden.
"Focus, close your eyes, and sit in your designated place. After which, you don't have much to do."
Hearing those words, Adam hurried to his place and then sat on the ground while keeping his eyes closed.
He feared the danger this magic circle posed to him, but he dreaded a magistar like Maxim even more.
So with that fear in his mind, Adam didn't even notice when he fell to sleep. Much to Maxim's chargin.
This showed that the child might have a stronger soul, but his will was not strong. Which would make this small experiment of Maxim pretty dangerous for him.
If possible, Maxim didn't wish to include a child as young as this in this experiment. But time was limited, he could feel that with each passing night, something was closing in on him.
Otherwise, nothing else would explain why Maxim was always in a hurry, even ignoring the safety of his own companion for this.
"Now to see what this dream has to offer." Looking at the sleeping figure of Adam, Maxim tapped his cane on the rune two times, activating it while he too sat down on the floor.
And then, before long, he too succumbed to my dream.
*****
Opening his eyes again, Maxim found himself surrounded by the mist. A mist with some yellow hue to it.
But he was not surprised by the situation, he knew that he had finally entered the place.
"Success on the first try?" He wondered while looking at his young and soft hands. The body he currently possessed was that of Adam, it was this reason that he was able to see after a long time.
But there was no joy on his face. Instead, it remained constrained as he wondered just where he was.
'Those that can recall the dream said something about forest… but I see none of it here.'
As Maxim used Adam's soul as a proxy to see into this dream, so did I do the same for Maxim's own thoughts.
It was for this reason, that after so long. I can hear the thoughts of this man at last.
And from this small comment of his, I was also made aware that the homework Maxim did before coming here might be a lot more extensive than I have previously expected it to be.
Then, if that was the case. Let's give him what he wishes.
Though changing and manipulating the natural progression would drain some of my energy, I still chose to do it as I didn't wish for my protagonist to be stuck in this quagmire for longer than it needed to be.
The other reason was my desire for this man to witness what I have witnessed.
So with the twist of my finger, which sadly burned off under this manipulation. The mist around Maxim who was in Adam's body started to drift apart, exposing a small forest.
And in that forest, there were lots of corpses strewn all over the place. Corpses of all ages and sizes.
There were young, there were old and there were some even inhuman. But the only thing that made them all equal was the state of their body and the color of their uniform.
All of them died a horrible death, none of their body was intact. Maxim can even see the tears that still haven't died up on a boy that barely looked 14.
This looked to be a war site. But what happened here might not have been the result of an equal war.
It was a one-sided massacre.
'There was no mention of this in any report.' he wondered while finding this scene a bit familiar.
'The Daela Tree, it only blossoms during the 2nd month of summer and is only found in Jeagral forest which lies between Wortham and Yethel.' Ignoring the smell of rotten flesh that assaulted his nostrils, Maxim went forward and started to assess the area and started to think about where he was.
Which was made easier with the broken bits of uniform he found during all this massacre.
"Yethel."
The army of Yethel was properly established just two decades ago and as it was for most young countries, their army is not as strong or properly trained.
This would explain why this ragtag group of soldiers was so diverse in their age.
"This is Jaegral war… the war in which Yethel was defeated one-sidedly by the Wortham forces."
"So this is how it looked?"
Dreams can be false and most of the time, they are. But considering how special this dream was. Maxim was sure that what he was witnessing had actually happened.
'No wonder there is no peace between Yethel and Wortham.'
Any leader would be angry when its soldiers have been treated brutally by an enemy nation. The hate of this kind can't be forgotten or forgiven. Unless the offender chooses to compensate the other side appropriately, there is no way for this war to end.
But this was not time to fall into the past.
He needs to understand why he was witnessing this scene in this dream.
'Wait… didn't the dream also appear a few years after the Jaegral war?'
Maxim had fallen into his thoughts when suddenly, he felt something move past his feet.