The Sleeper part of the compound was relatively small and situated in the southern part of the Academy, surrounded on all sides by training fields and parks.
It was a low, modern building constructed with reinforced materials. Like the majority of buildings in the Academy, most of it was hidden below the ground, leaving only a couple of floors above it. With its white, pristine alloy walls and wide windows, it must have looked beautiful in the summer, contrasted against all the greenery around.
Inside, the building was spacious and well-lit. Sunny, Fang Yuan and the silver-haired girl were taken to a large hall where a hundred or so of young men and women — Sleepers of the same unfortunate timing as the two of them — were already waiting for the beginning of the induction ceremony. Most of them were nervous, tense and excited.
Logistics of the Academy were a constant headache for the administrators since the rate at which the Spell infected people was always chaotic. There was no way to orderly structure for batches of Sleepers to undergo any type of standardized education on a shared schedule:
some of them had a full year to prepare for the Dream Realm, some only months, some even mere days.
That's why these induction ceremonies were held each month at the beginning of the year and then every week once the winter solstice began to loom near. Some of the Sleepers in the hall had to wait days to be inducted, while Sunny and Fang Yuan had lucked out and was delivered to the Academy just hours before the scheduled event.
Once inside the hall, they understood two things.
Firstly, everyone was well-dressed and in possession of a suitcase, a duffel bag, or at least a backpack carrying their personal belongings. They were obviously coming prepared, most likely from home, sent off by their families. So Sunny, Fang Yuan and the silver-haired girl, who came empty-handed and wearing simple police-issued clothes, were not a norm like Sunny had assumed, but actually an eye-catching anomaly.
'Right. That makes sense.'
Secondly, Master Jet was not being overly humble when she called herself below average by Awakened standards. Even though these young people were just starting their paths as Awakened, their looks were dazzling. Everyone was handsome, beautiful and radiated health.
Sunny swallowed.
'Still, I feel like none of them compare. She might not be as perfectly shaped, but… I don't know… she has a presence. It's like shadows become deeper and the temperature drops by a couple of degrees when she's in a room.'
Was this the difference between a Sleeper and a Master?
But all of these thoughts were just him trying to postpone the inevitable. Sunny already knew that he was in for a wild ride.
Because he could not lie, and all of these excited youths, regardless of their clothes, gender and looks, wanted to do one thing.
Talk.
Every one of them wanted to talk with fellow Sleepers. They wanted to discuss their Nightmares, their future journey into the Dream Realm, and everything in between. They wanted to ask questions. They wanted to be asked questions. They wanted to discuss something important or just chit-chat about stupid things.
Everyone wanted to share.
'It's a nightmare!' Sunny moaned, disturbed and fearful. Fang Yuan just spared him a glance.
'I'm doomed!' Sunny thought.
Then, with a bit of grim determination, he gritted his teeth and slowly exhaled.
'Just think about it as a continuation of your trial. You survived the black mountain, so you can survive this, too.'
He had faced heroes, villains, monsters and even gods. Was he going to be afraid of a bunch of teenagers?
…He might have underestimated how scary teenagers can be.
In half an hour, pretty much everyone in the room hated his guts.
After a short series of conversations, Sunny had acquired a reputation of an obnoxious, foul-mouthed pervert. This reputation was quickly solidified. He was slapped a few times and even punched once.
He also discovered a couple of new things about his true self — namely, that deep down inside he was apparently rude, arrogant, and more than a little bit lustful.
The conversations went something like this:
"Look at all these young people. How many do you think will return from the Dream Realm? How many will perish? What do you think our own chances of survival are?"
"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that a pompous fool like you will die first!"
Or:
"I even received an armor-type Memory in my Nightmare. It's an enchanted robe. Would you like to see?"
"Actually, I would prefer to see you without a robe…"
Or:
"Then those lowlifes began to rob the bodies. It was disgusting! They even took their shoes! What kind of degenerate would take a dead man's shoes?"
"I once killed a man and took his boots. They were nice boots."
"... What? You killed someone just for a pair of boots?"
"Of course not! There were other reasons. I also took his cloak."
Once again an outcast, Sunny was eventually left alone. Well, Fang Yuan still accompanied him
People seemed to be avoiding him. Unperturbed, he found a quiet corner and stood there, glad that no one wanted to talk to him anymore. His face hurt, and there was blood dripping from his nose. Being ostracised from a group was nothing new, but it still stung.
However, he was smiling.
Fang Yuan just looked at him with a calm gaze. Sensing the gaze Sunny quickly wiped his face of that smile.
Sunny kept looking arond.
His eyes fell on a particular group of Sleepers. There were five or six of them, gathered around a tall, confident young man.
The young man had brown hair and a gentle, handsome face. His eyes were green, with a hint of friendly humor. His posture, figure and attentive gaze betrayed someone who went through extensive training. Everything about the young man screamed of nobility and strength.
Just at that moment, one of his companions was saying with a tone of amazement:
"Ascended? You have received an Ascended Aspect? What… what was your Appraisal?!"
The young man smiled humbly.
"Oh. It was "excellent."
Sunny stopped in front of the group, as though by accident. After hearing the young man's answer, he frowned and looked at him with disdain.
Then, with a voice full of utter bewilderment, Sunny said:
"Ascended, excellent? That's it? What's the big deal?"
His words hung in silence.
The Sleepers looked at Sunny with a hilarious assortment of emotions, ranging from bewilderment to shock. The young man with humorous eyes just smiled politely.
To be honest, getting an Ascended Aspect during the First Nightmare was extremely rare. He was certainly someone special, maybe even outstanding.
Actually, despite their apparent differences, the young man somehow reminded Sunny of Hero… Auro of the Nine.
After a few seconds, one of the young man's companions finally blinked and said:
"Uh… friend, you must not know a lot about the Spell. Caster's results are truly remarkable."
Then, with a furtive glance at the remarkable Caster, he added:
"He is a Legacy, after all."
An actual, living and breathing descendent of an Awakened clan? Sunny reevaluated his opinion of the humorous young man.
Legacies were known to be trained for their eventual entrance into the Spell from the moment they could walk. For them, being infected was a certainty instead of a possibility.
They were extremely formidable people.
He made his frown deepen.
"Are you trying to pull a prank on me? You call this remarkable?!"
The bewilderment in the eyes of these Sleepers was slowly being replaced by hostility.
"Listen, friend. If you don't think that an Ascended Aspect is remarkable, then please share with us your own amazing results! What, pray tell, was your Appraisal?"
Caster himself was still keeping quiet and smiling. However, his defenders were growing restless.
This was exactly what Sunny wanted to happen. He smiled with utter contempt.
"I would let you know… my Appraisal was, uh, it was "glorious"! Yes, glorious. And the Aspect I acquired was of the Divine rank."
After that, he received a number of strange looks. No one had ever received a Divine Aspect before; so, of course, they were starting to think that he was a lunatic.
But there was still a sliver of doubt… maybe that strange guy was a descendant of a powerful clan? A peerless prodigy? Maybe his Appraisal was, indeed, glorious…
Sunny had to dispel that tiny bit of doubt.
"Mind you, I'm not some lofty Legacy. Pfft! I'm from the outskirts. I've never even received combat training. All that training and he only got an "excellent"? What did he do during the Nightmare, pick his nose the whole time?"
The expressions of all the Sleepers that were listening to his bragging instantly changed. An outskirt rat with no training… yeah, sure. Who was he trying to fool?
Finally, with the same polite smile, Caster spoke:
"Glorious? That is interesting. Would you mind telling us what were your achievements in the Nightmare?"
Sunny grinned.
"Sure, no problem! First of all, I killed an… uh… an awakened tyrant."
Every "uh" cost him a couple of moments of intense pain, but he didn't let it show on his face. His expression was nothing but smug and confrontational.
The mere mention of a tyrant, let alone an awakened one, made a couple of Sleepers smile with ridicule.
"Oh, really? How did you kill it?"
An arrogant look appeared on Sunny's face.
"How? Let me tell you, I didn't even have to lift a finger. I just spat, and it was torn to pieces!"
Which was true. Sunny had spat a mouthful of blood on the altar, and as the result, Mountain King was ruthlessly dismembered by Shadow God.
Someone openly laughed.
"This guy is either insane or purposefully messing with us. Listen here, shorty. Have some decency, okay? Who would believe such a lie?"
Sunny was genuinely angry. He wanted to retort, saying that he wasn't short. But he couldn't.
Because that would be a lie, damn it!
So, instead, he just gritted his teeth and said with a voice full of outrage:
"I can't answer that, because it's not a lie!"
"Are you really insisting that you had killed an awakened tyrant — a tyrant! — and with a bit of spit no less?"
Sunny knitted his brows.
"That's the truth!"
More laughter followed.
"Crazy bastard!"
"He actually believes in his own crap!"
"Insane, he's insane…"
Unexpectedly, Caster stopped his companions.
"Guys."
After the laughter quieted down, he asked in a friendly manner:
"What else did you achieve?"
What? That wasn't enough? Sunny raised his chin.
"Let me think… Oh! I also killed an awakened swordsman."
"Really? How did you do that
Acting as though he was a little bit embarrassed, Sunny looked down.
"That… actually, that time I had to lift a finger. I even had to shake it a couple of times. That was enough to kill him, though."
He was holding the Silver Bell between his fingers, which led to Hero being attacked and eventually killed by the tyrant. So, technically, all his statements were true.
"What a crackpot!"
"Ha! Can you believe this idiot?!"
"Poor bastard. Not only is he weak, he's also lost it…"
Caster gave his companions a long look and then turned to Sunny.
"Anything else?"
Sunny blinked. Time for the finishing touch…
"Something else? Uh… Well. Oh, right! I communicated with a bunch of gods, even though they were all dead. I made one of them wake up. He gave me a blessing! I was blessed by a god, do you all understand?!"
The Sleepers were silently shaking their heads or looking at him with pity. Caster sighed.
"I see. Well, in comparison to your achievements, mine do look rather average. Thank you for sharing with us. I hope you'll be as successful once we enter the Dream Realm."
Sunny smiled with a look of smug superiority on his face.
"You better believe it!"
With that, he turned around and walked away.
'Ah. That's a job well done.'
He was pretty sure that after this performance, no one would ever believe that he actually had some kind of a powerful Aspect or did anything worthy of notice during the Nightmare. He only told them the truth, and yet managed to make everyone believe in the opposite of the truth.
Such an incredible feeling.
What did they think of him now? They thought that he was weak, grew up without any education in the outskirts, and had no training. More than that, he was apparently either insane or incredibly stupid. His temper was terrible.
Truly pathetic and pitiful fellow.
Now, whenever he was asked about his Aspect, he could just honestly say that it was of the Divine rank, and be laughed at. People would rather believe that the Spell had ceased to exist than that he was someone noteworthy. He could even scream about his accomplishments from the roof, and no one would believe him.
Subsequently, no one would ever suspect that he had a True Name.
'Just you wait, fools. One day I'll be the one laughing.'
After returning to the corner, Fang Yuan asked,
"All that you have said to the legacies were all true, weren't they?"
"...Yeah!... Ha...ha! Those were true." Sunny tried to laugh it off.
But Fang Yuan's eyes were smiling.
"You're really scary, Sunless. Lets become friends in the dream realm." Fang Yuan said.
Sunny was inwardly horrified. All that he did became pointless. His secrets were out of the bag. He is freaking out. But he outwardly said,
"Yeah! Lets become friends."