"What is this?" In front of Luvi, in his mind. Luvi saw something else enter his library of memories beside the faint river that originally flowed below him.
A white stream of light that spreads to the surrounding and get absorbed by the walls of this space, which further improves their state.
It was even be wrong to call them dark anymore, for one can see them turn somewhat transparent, like a crystal.
"I feel warm… but I don't believe this is due to the technique." At Luvi's prompt, the book shook once again and then turned over to introduce the page with a certain potion.
"Spirit enhancement potion?"
It was a potion made for mages, but considering the exercise he was practicing currently, the potion actually helped him in his practice as well.
The nightmare avatar is a being made out of pure energy and only given physical form when the practitioner sacrifices part of their own vitality.
WIthout it, it remains virtual, only able to jump from dream to dream to find secrets of the target or feed on their dream for practice.
"I wonder if you truly are sentient, or just acting like some search engine." Luvi ignored the book on his side and focused on the practice once again. Causing the river below him to become thinner with time.
"Guess, FIX hasn't forgotten about me."
While the vitality in his body got stronger and stronger. Though the most he could feel currently was the energy circulation, that followed the same pathways as his blood. Which made him somewhat understand the state of his body a bit.
"This place is wonderful. Even without eyes, I can feel each part of my body as well as the hidden injuries that still remain at present. Even the control over the energy is over five times stronger than before."
The Dream Demon body could only be practiced when one is in state of sleeping. Which is much harder than it sounds.
Because few were ever actually able to lucid dream and practicing such a complicated technique during that state was much harder as well for they lacked true control over their body functions during that state.
But Luvi's situation was oddly enough, perfect for practicing the technique.
"I am close to digesting it." Luvi thought that the closer he got to the digestion process, the more he could feel a change taking place in the mana flowing in his body as well.
Soon enough, the stable and inert mana of foundational body training would be converted to the mana of Dream Demon body. A natural reaction which happens when one changes their body training methods.
'Though, others outside might find something odd with my change in energy and may get suspicious.'
Luvi thought, but he understood one fact living in this mind space.
He would not be able to escape this world unless he succeeds at converting to Dream Demon Body. Even his sentience was just a gift of the book in his hand. He understood that originally, he should have been in a coma and unable to even think.
It's only due to the book that he was so clear of his situation and what to do.
'A proper cheat…'
Then, as Luvi's practicing intensity increased, the last bit of the cloudy stream below him disappeared and the giant bulb that grew over his head finally reached its maturation state.
"I wonder how it would look like."
Luvi said, as the whole mind space brightened up in a flash. And when he opened his eyes, he found himself in a glass room.
"Am I seeing things?"
Luvi wondered as his eyes slowly acclimated to the surroundings.
There was his health monitor setup, the IVs that were injected in his body constantly as well as certain holes in the room, obviously made for air circulation or something much more sinister.
'Did I fuck up.'
"Are you Kuluvi Prathan?"
A voice called out from below his bed, making Luvi a bit surprised. But then looking around, he asked. "You kidnapped me and you don't even know this?"
"..."
"Seems like that kid to me."
******
"Words can't define how happy I am to be alive, in truth, I really thought I was going to die."
"Well I did die, but their own trap to kill me, ended up killing them instead." With his scarred face which didn't even look human, Luvi talked with a bright smile, which was unbecoming of him to the reporter that came for an interview.
"I am surprised Mister Kuluvi, I thought you would be shaken due to the incident. Did you not feel fear at that time? Or even now when you think about it?"
"Ma;am, truth be told. I was scared and still am. But I consider myself lucky."
"But I also feel bad to have these kinds of feelings, I know for a fact that 12 people died due to me. Twelve people who had nothing to do with this and only became collateral. They were someone's fathers, mothers, or even children. And sadly, they would never come back."
"Please don't blame yourself, there was nothing you could do. Also, Mister Kuluvi shouldn't forget, your actions still saved the life of your friend."
"Of course, but its harder for me to not blame myself… If I didn't participate in the tournament, those people would have never died."
Luvi's remorse appeared real, his face which was going to go through some plastic surgery, along with most of his skin didn't look threatening at all.
Most of the fat in his body was gone, he appeared malnourished as well as weak on the surface. His muscles have shriveled up, his bones were more pronounced from the shoulder. Making him look like a harmless lamb.
Which was unlike his image of a monster that robbed a man apart, live on a stream.
"I wonder, Mister Kuluvi. What do you intend to do now, after such a grueling experience?"
The question came, the one Luvi was waiting for a long time.
"... its hard to say actually. Even though I did nothing besides asking this same question to myself when alone in this room."
"I believe, you should already know, I have been kicked out of my family. And it is for a just reason."
"Yes, it was why the terrorists were so confident over their success. But didn't your older brother came to your rescue? I believe Sir Pragati still cares for you."
"Well, I can't deny that. My older brother had always been someone hard to understand."
"But back to the topic, I meant to say, That even if I wasn't kicked out of my family, I would have left it eventually on my own."
"What do you mean, Mister Kuluvi?" The woman wondered, thinking that Luvi was going to speak of something juicy about the Prathan family.
Hopes that were dashed soon after.
"You see, my brother only came here, because he might still treat me as a family. But if it was someone else in my position, he wouldn't have cared."
"And who knows, how many others like me have suffered, but never get a chance to tell the tale."
"I want to be someone who can save people like me."
"I want to be a superhero."
"?" Though surprised for a bit, the reporter calmed down. "It's a noble reason to have. And with the heroism you showed during the tragedy, I can already look forward to you receiving a medal from the Hero League."
"But I do wonder, why not be a Hunter, like your family?"
"It's one of the reasons I would have eventually left my family."
"Hunters are slaves to money, just like my own family and countless others who couldn't pass the audit of the Hero Association."
"People who have power, but no control or any honor. I have lived with people like that for most of my life and it is why I don't want to become like them."
"I want to be a hero, someone people can look up to."
"Someone that people can depend on."
*****
Looking at the news article about himself on the tablet, Luvi felt a hint of embarrassment.
Currently he remains in a high security hospital, as the doctors as well as PPA were suspicious about the change in his blood and fear that his dream demon still existed inside Luvi's body and might be the cause of all the mutations in Luvi's blood.
And they were not wrong.
But this tight security also made it impossible for FIX to approach him. Even the tablet in his hand was heavily monitored and Luvi didn't intend to leave any clues.
But it didn't mean he was all alone and bored.
There would always be people coming to meet him in batches and he had met someone for two hours every single day of the week he has been awake.
People that included some school staff like teacher Daarun, his friend Andy and even Idhant, who tried his best to hold back his guilt and not give away anything while talking.
Though, among all of these random people, some who Luvi didn't even know. There was also Miriam.
'I wanted to ask her about the delay over the marketplace. But I can't give away my identity.'
Luvi didn't know how long PPA was going to keep him. Though considering the nature of his body, it might take a while.
So Luvi understood that it was better to utilize this time perfectly.
'Three people sleeping in the vicinity ... .sadly, I can't practice dream walking abilities.'
Due to the room he was in it was impossible for Luvi to actually release his dream avatar out of his body.
Not to mention that this room somewhat made it impossible for the spiritual bodies to escape from its confines.
But with the amount of detection measures set up in this room. It won't take long before the PPA considers him dangerous.
Which meant the only thing Luvi could do was simple.
"Practice on control, like usual."
Entering the world of his dreams, Luvi found himself in a white room training room made out of his own thoughts.
A place, where he was virtually a god, using one of the basic abilities one gain after starting the practice of Dream Demon body.
It was written in the text.
"Control your own dream, before devouring others."
So Luvi did just that, the requirement for control over this technique was much harsher.
"Let's start from small."
With a thought, Luvi summoned a chair, then the walls then the carpet and slowly a pseudo room came into reality around him.
Then with a thought, this room started to grow in size and then shrink.
Then with a pop, it disappeared.
"Now all at once."
It was a practice he developed on his own.
Then after he was done and tired.
A figure slowly broke the very walls of this white reality and crawled into Luvi's training area.
A being with a thin body and giant mouth that covers Luvi's from head to his stomach. While its skin seemed burned, with a fleshy sarcoma that grew out of its head like a horn.
Going to its side, one would even see bizarre hands, with thin limbs but giant palms. Making it look like a cryptid right out of nightmares.
And that was just it.
The nightmare avatar of Luvi.
"This fucking ugly thing… " Luvi laughed, looking at the bizarre cryptid, he can't help but look forward to the day he is released from this small prison.