Chapter 165: Ma city got smoked too

Then, Night entered his Inner Universe and formed a body.

​Standing inside his Inner Universe, he immediately noticed the difference.

​He felt System Girl’s presence everywhere; it felt like he was sitting in her lap.

​Just like he had, System Girl also formed a body and stood before him. She stood beside him admiring the Inner Universe that was now connected to her.

​[Dream] appeared a moment later.

​System Girl said, "I think I can use the Dream System now, but it will only work inside the Inner Universe."

​"As expected," [Dream] nodded.

​"What can the Dream System do?" Night asked.

​System Girl explained, "Previously, I could only merge skills because of your low level, but now I can do a lot more."

​"Really?" Night’s eyes lit up.

​System Girl nodded. "Yes. Previously, the Dream System was supposed to unlock features in stages as you leveled up, but now those restrictions are gone. All the System features are available to you right now."

​[Dream] raised an eyebrow. "All of them?"

​"Yes," System Girl confirmed. "Even all the techniques, skills, artifacts, and resources are unlocked. But Night will have to pay for them with his own energy if he wishes to get them."

​[Dream] asked carefully, "Even Immortal Rank items are available?"

​"Yes." System Girl then realized exactly why [Dream] was asking and added, "Yes, if Night wants to, he can purchase a Dream Flower."

​"What is a Dream Flower?" Night asked.

​[Dream] and System Girl looked at each other.

​[Dream] answered, "It’s an Immortal Grade flower that can forge a body."

​Night finally understood the reason for the question and excitedly asked, "Can I purchase it?"

​System Girl hesitated. "You can, but..."

​Night blinked and waited for her to continue, but she didn’t.

​They stood in awkward silence until [Dream] finally spoke. "The resources in the Dream System can only be used by you. I purposefully made it like that."

"So, if I have to use it, you would have to bond with me first. That is impossible because you cannot degrade me to the Mortal Rank even if I didn’t resist. I am a Goddess; my soul is far too strong to bond with you like that."

​"Tsk," Night clicked his tongue in frustration.

​"Then I need to level up," Night said. "First we have to do the tutorial then, right?"

​"Yes," [Dream] said. "Send some of your clones to me. They can be weak, but the more, the better. I’ll train you myself."

​Night nodded, and immediately, all his clones appeared inside the Nightmare World in a place they had specifically reserved for training.

​He started creating Level 1 clones. He created hundreds of them, and by the time he was done, the others had also returned to the Inner Universe to train.

​Since he would be controlling so many clones, he made three of his main clones rest, and his main body meditate, while one main clone would head out with Minerva.

​...

​Minerva was waiting for him on her personal mountain. "So, are you done?"

​She had chosen the mountain closest to the main one.

​"Sorry, I was doing something important..." Night said.

​Minerva looked him up and down. "You became stronger."

​Night smirked. "Yes. It will make our hunt a lot easier."

​Night then pulled out his blade and cut through space. He jumped through it, turned back, and said, "Let’s go."

​Minerva jumped through as well.

​They were now standing in a forest five hundred kilometers away from his city. His clone had managed to cross this incredible distance in just two days. He had prioritized covering as much ground as possible in preparation for today.

​Minerva looked around, and then, as if sensing something, she pointed in a specific direction and started running.

Night followed her.

​Minerva was running slowly so Night could keep up. As they ran, she asked, "Why is your level not increasing even though you killed five Werewolves?"

​"I can’t," Night replied.

​Minerva was silent for some time and then asked, "You can’t?"

​"It’s not a big secret," Night explained. "I need to complete a quest before I am allowed to level up."

​"Quest?" Minerva muttered. "This is my first time hearing about a quest..."

​"Yes, I was surprised as well," Night said.

​Minerva wanted to ask more, but she stopped because they had reached their destination.

​Minerva and Night hid behind a tree and observed the scene ahead.

​Minerva said telepathically, ’Dungeon Outbreak. And I sense Demigods.’

​Night replied, ’Demigods!? How many?’

​Minerva pouted slightly. ’At least twenty.’

​Night gulped. ’Twenty?’ This was far too close to his city, and even the Dream City wasn’t that far away.

​...

​Zora and Arthur stood in a room together. They were talking to the other City Rulers telepathically.

​[The Sleepless Sword] had finally managed to create a technique focused on detecting [Zethe-thoth], and the first thing Arthur did was connect with the other City Rulers who were members of the World Council.

​[The Sleepless Sword] then executed the technique using her link with Arthur. It was taxing, so for this, she had requested help from [Blaze] and the [Soulless] Primordial God.

​[Blaze] helped for free since this also concerned Night, but [Soulless] asked for a price that made her feel as if he had literally asked for her soul.

Fortunately, [Blaze] had mediated and managed to make the price manageable, though it was still enough to make her lose sleep.

​[The Sleepless Sword] then used the technique. It turned out that Vikram and Diana were the only ones related to [Zethe-thoth]; the others were unaffected, at least for now.

​"Arthur, where did you disappear to?" Haruka demanded. "What’s the point of electing you as our leader if you just disappear when you are needed?"

​Arthur calmly replied, "I was busy dealing with other things. Also, I was injured, and it was only today that I finally recovered from it."

​"I understand, but you could have asked Zora to let us meet in the Dream Realm," Jingyi pointed out.

​"Boss, this is totally unfair," Rik complained. "Do you know we got hit by a Demigod monster out of nowhere? My city is almost in ruins! If not for the array, most of my citizens would have died."

​"Same happened here," Haruka said.

​"My city faced the same thing, though one of the elders broke through in the middle of the fight and protected us," Jingyi added.

​"You are so lucky," Haruka sighed. "None of the senseis in my city are close to breaking through. Our sea city is probably going to fall in two or three days. Too many sea monsters are gathering around the city, and I think some intelligent monster is after the City Core."

​Arthur finally understood why he was getting so much heat. He then noticed some of the others were awfully quiet and asked, "Ivan, Min-Jun, Amélie, Steven, Kwame... what about you guys?"

​Before they could speak, Rik interjected, "Hmm? Boss, why didn’t you mention Vikram?"

​"Because he is dead," Arthur said bluntly.

​"How do you know, boss?" Rik asked. "Is that why you were injured?"

​"It’s related," Arthur said. "About his death, my Patron God informed me."

​"This..." Rik trailed off.

​But Arthur cut him off. "Enough about me. Let the others speak first."

​"Ok..." Rik said.

​"You can speak, guys," Arthur asked again noticing their hesitation.

​After a moment of silence, Ivan dropped a bomb. "My city is gone..."

​Arthur: "..."

Zora: "..."

Haruka: "..."

Jingyi: "..."

Rik "_"

​Min-Jun dropped another one: "Mine is gone too."

​Everyone: "..."

​"Same," Amélie added quietly.

"Ma city got smoked too," Kwame said.

"Ditto," Steven sighed.

​One by one, they shared the grim fate of their cities.

​"Damn," Arthur muttered.

​...

Night looked at the monster, they humanoids with green skin each held a weapon. Their green eyes were filled with greed and malice as they moved in teams, ruthlessly killing the other nearby monsters.

​From his Domain, Night could see a lot more than just that.

He saw various camps, makeshift tents, and fires used to grill meat. There were furnaces being used to create potions and pills, and smithies being used to forge and sharpen crude weapons but these monsters.

​Some of the Goblins were resting, some were cultivating, and others were busy fighting each other. A few were even betting money, stones, and goods on the fights.

​It looked like a ragtag army, but there were a ridiculous number of them.

​However, all he saw were Mortal Realm monsters, which meant the Demigods Minerva sensed were much further away from their current position.

​Night thought, ’I can sense a lot of Mortal Realm monsters.’

​Yes, Minerva replied. ’Do you want to fight them while I take care of the closest Demigod?’

​Night asked, ’Will you be okay?’ He was not worried about himself at all; their huge numbers meant nothing to him.

​Minerva rolled her eyes. ’They are weak. I was more worried you would run away looking at their numbers.’

​Night ignored the obvious taunt. ’Worried about me?’ he smirked.

​Minerva snapped, ’Who is worried about you!’ And without another word, she disappeared.

​Night looked at the empty tree branch and muttered, ’Tsundere.’

​Night then stopped hiding and stepped out into the open.

​The nearby Goblins saw him and immediately picked up their weapons. Most of them started running straight toward him, while some yelled loudly to gather more reinforcements.

​Looking at the incoming horde, Night sent a telepathic message to all his friends, asking if they wished to join in.

​Lucy was the first to answer. A blackish-purple portal appeared, and Lucy jumped out.

​She looked at the horde of Goblins, her eyes literally turning into hearts.

​"Raw meat, finally!!!!!!" Lucy howled.