After 10 minutes of meditation, Aldric's thoughts went back to the first nightmare. In these 4 years of being in the world, Aldric prepared many weapons to fight and protect himself. His swordsmanship. His survival skills. His highly conditioned body. However, it would be ignorant of him to ignore his strongest weapon.
Without a shadow of a doubt, his strongest weapon would be his knowledge. Knowledge of what has happened and what will happen. From the outside in, everything looks perfect. It would be like playing an adventure game for the first time knowing where all the rare drops are and knowing the best build to run.
Reality is not that kind.
Aldric considered the actual value of his memories. The issue was that the story didn't have amazing legacies lying around in wait. Ninety-nine percent of resources were in the form of memories. Memories that had a probability to drop. Memories that were not guaranteed. Aldric knew that the power of what he knew lay in the history of the dream realm that was unveiled.
The existence of places like the Forgotten Shore. What lies in the Hollow Mountains. The tomb of Ariel and its surrounding desert. The history of the Gods and Daemons. Other major events like the Antarctica gate outbreak. Also, he had to factor in where his knowledge ended. He reached the introduction of Lord of Shadows. Sunless's alter ego.
The other way this valuable knowledge could be used was by having a good idea of major characters' personality traits. Revealed backgrounds. Motives. As well as their aspects and attributes. Aldric immediately recognised the flaw in his thinking. The story is told from the perspective of Sunless. We only see the version of these characters that Sunless meets. His impressions and experiences. These are real people and have more depth to them than the novel ever explored. "I am not omniscient" Aldric reminded himself.
Aldric realised that he could not plan 30 steps ahead. If the moment arises when his knowledge is applicable, he will use it to gain as much as he can. His greater worry was his first nightmare. Having learned that the nightmare spell generally infects those between 16 and 18 years old.
Aldric was worried about not entering his first nightmare in a timely manner. Knowing that those younger than 16 could be infected, Aldric set a limit for how late he wanted to be infected naturally. He often entertained the thought of self-inducing the infection through extreme stress or desire. Perhaps being around an area with high infection rates like a hospital or somewhere near a gate outbreak.
His limit was fast approaching.
With his birthday being in the spring, His 16th birthday had just passed. Those who pass the first nightmare become sleepers. A dormant rank human. To move forward, they are sent to the dream realm on the night of the winter solstice. They must find a citadel which is a stronghold that humanity has etched into the dream realm. Once there, they can use a gateway to return to the waking world. One may be sent to the front gates of a citadel ready to return home. Others may be sent into a deathzone or an uncharted area of the dream realm.
This unreliable journey offers the dormant human a breakthrough to becoming an awakened. Fitted with a secondary ability for their aspect as well as the ability to now perceive and interact with soul essence.
Aldric knew that his deadline was the winter solstice or else he would have to wait for another year. His hurry seemed a bit out of character but it was well placed. One thing that his knowledge lacked was a timeline. He only knew when things happened when related to a prior event. At most, he knew the age of characters at certain points but did not know what year they occurred in. His only guide to knowing when he is was remembering that Nightingale took a hiatus due to the lead singer Kai being stuck in the forgotten shore. He could not remember how long Kai was stuck in the Forgotten Shore before he met his cohort. He concluded that time was waiting for nobody.
One last boon to completing his first nightmare would be having more time at the Academy City. The Awakened Academy is a city within the city of NQSC. It is built like a fortress, with a high wall made of hard alloy, a deep moat, and numerous large-caliber turrets which were placed in certain positions to create a deadly air-suppression dome. No Nightmare Creature, not even colossal titans, are supposed to be able to break through its defenses.
It is the only government-funded educational facility on Earth for the Awakened. The existence of this Academy highlighted the shortfalls of the G-14 Academy that he currently attends. His instructors were mundane humans. Skilled in their own fields but lacking in real experience. He had the occasional special lecture from an Awakened but those were far and between.
The Awakened Academy had Awakened instructors, lecturers, and researchers at the beck and call of the students. You would also be surrounded by a thousand or more other sleepers with varying flaws and aspects. Aldric wanted to be there as soon as possible. To experience as much as he can.
Speaking of aspects and flaws, these are the categorisation for the powers and stigma that the nightmare spells rewards a successful aspirant with. The aspect is a confluence of one's innate affinities and choices manifested as a magical specialization. In short, it is the power that the nightmare spell saw fit to give you. These are ranked from Dormant to Divine.
The flaw is a stigma given to you in the same manner. It is often said that through knowing one's flaw, you are that much closer to being able to kill them. Attributes were characteristics of the aspirant recognised by the nightmare spell. Always being flexible could possibly be translated into an attribute.
Although this is conjecture. Aldric often thought about what his aspect might be but gave up due to how esoteric it seemed. However, he did try to emulate the characteristics he wanted to be reflected as attributes. As attributes like aspects can be evolved.
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"Tap."
"Tap"
Aldric was brought out of his musing by a rhythmic tapping sound. He looked up and noticed an old lady in a large blue dress with a grey knitted cardigan. She had greying long hair and thick rimmed glasses. He recognised her as Madam Locke. The Head Librarian at the Academy.
"Head to class young man. The bell has already rung". She exclaimed with a stern look on her face.
"Okay Miss. I'll head straight there," responded Aldric amicably.
He retrieved his belongings and left the library in a timely manner.
"Bang".
The door shut.