"Legend has it that Eberron was invaded by the 'Dream World' in ancient times. Later, the Giant King, who controlled the world, severed Eberron's connection to the Dream World. Could my cheat ability have something to do with the Dream World?"
Sensing his connection with the second layer of the Dream World, Carl made this guess inwardly.
After resisting the adult Hopp's temptation of the land of tenderness, Carl could clearly feel his psychic power growing.
This allowed him to maintain control of his thoughts in the second layer of the Dream World without interfering with it.
However, Carl's psychic power was not yet abundant enough for him to remain in the second layer of the Dream World indefinitely, so the time he could stably use the second layer was limited.
"Ah~, let me think. What's the most urgent thing I need to do right now? Oh, right—training! I need to try taking up the Warrior class."
With a thought, Hopp's illusion appeared in front of Carl.
Compared with before, however, Hopp was now wearing clothes.
"All right, training starts now. Hopefully, I'll gain something from it."
Taking up a defensive stance, a struggle of will and skill began.
"Splash—"
After an unknown amount of time had passed, Carl awoke from his dream.
His consciousness had spent a great deal of time training in the second layer of the Dream World and simulating models in the first layer, giving him a sense of having been "away from" reality for a long time.
The rain outside was still falling. It seemed that the influence brought by the Plane of Water would last for quite some time.
Just as Carl was about to change positions, he discovered that his lower body had been covered with dry clothes.
"Hopp?"
"I'm here. What's wrong?"
Hopp's voice came from a corner on the other side of the room. Although it sounded more or less normal, Carl felt that her voice was trembling slightly.
"It's nothing. Are the clothes dry already? Then pass me the Rivet. I'll light it up again."
Judging from the location of the voice, Carl reached out toward where he thought Hopp was.
Soon, a Rivet was placed in Carl's hand.
Casting Prestidigitation again, a soft light spread from the Rivet in all directions.
Setting the Rivet aside, Carl used the reflected light to put on his clothes.
However, when he was putting on his trousers, Carl suddenly felt a pain in his back.
He merely assumed that it was a muscle strain caused by the intense labor the previous day, so he did not pay much attention to it.
"It looks like this rain may last for a long time."
Walking over to the stone slab, Carl once again infused it with psychic power.
The Flame Rune made the stone slab hot again. Hopp took out the remaining Giant Lizard meat from the Bag of Holding and placed it on the slab to roast.
Thanks to the Bag of Holding's inability to store living things, the Giant Lizard meat's shelf life had been extended considerably.
"What are you planning to do later?"
Turning the steaks with chopsticks Carl had carved, Hopp asked Carl while her eyes wandered.
"Next, I'll use the remaining timber in the Bag of Holding to make some furniture and utensils."
At the mention of this, Carl's face revealed an expression of complete confidence.
In last night's dream, he had modeled nearly all the furniture the two of them might need later in the Dream World.
If he had suitable tools at hand, he might even have been able to carve a rocking chair on the spot.
Hopp nodded, changed the liquid in the Alchemy Jug to salt water, and then poured a little over the stone slab and the steaks.
The sizzling sounds of "sizzle, sizzle" scattered through the room along with rising steam. Hopp picked up one of the pieces and tasted it before saying to Carl:
"It's ready to eat."
People said that "saltiness" was the chief of the five flavors, and that was no exaggeration.
Food with salt and food without it tasted worlds apart.
Roasting and eating at the same time, Carl and Hopp quickly finished breakfast.
"If we get the chance, we can try building a brick kiln. I remember that the hilly area we visited before looked like it might have an ore vein. Maybe we could make some metal utensils. If that doesn't work, we could reforge my armor or fire some pottery."
After helping Hopp clean up the tableware, Carl looked at the wind and rain outside and quietly made the suggestion to her.
"You also know how to make pottery and smelt metal?"
Hearing Carl's suggestion, Hopp took half a step back and looked over her companion again.
"What do you mean by that? Although I don't have any practical experience, I know the principles."
Seeing that Hopp still wore an expression of disbelief, Carl simply explained everything he knew.
"You people from the Eldeen Reaches really know a lot."
Hopp sighed in a tone like that of someone from a primitive tribe envying the residents of a great city.
"It's not quite like that. Apart from teaching people to read and covering basic mathematics, physics, and chemistry, the basic education in the Eldeen Reaches mainly teaches agriculture and animal husbandry. I learned all this miscellaneous knowledge at the Arcanix School of Magic."
Explaining the concept of a transmigrator to a native of this world was far too complicated, so Carl had no choice but to claim that he had learned this knowledge from his previous life at a Magic Academy.
However, when Hopp heard the name of the academy Carl had attended, her expression suddenly turned blank.
"Where?"
"Arcanix? Why?"
"Arcanix... The one with nine floating Mage Towers, the gathering place of the eight schools of magic, and the most famous Magic Academy on the entire Continent of Khorvaire—Arcanix?"
"Unless there's another academy like that, then it should be the one you mean."
Hopp quickly backed away several steps and looked Carl over again.
This time, however, she looked at him as if he were a rare animal.
It was no wonder she was so shocked.
If their backgrounds were compared, Hopp was like an Indigenous girl who had grown up in a Mexican slum, while Carl was like an international student from a great eastern nation who had gone to Harvard.
"Wait! Isn't Arcanix the Magic Academy of the Kingdom of Aundair? You're from the Eldeen Reaches—how did you get into an academy like that?"
Seeing Hopp's widened eyes, Carl felt as if he were being questioned.
Although he had indeed been lucky enough to enter the famous Magic Academy because it had expanded its admissions, he had still passed the entrance exams!
"Huh? Why couldn't someone from the Eldeen Reaches get into Arcanix? Wait! Could it be that you..."
Carl was just about to argue with her when he suddenly realized that Hopp had lived her entire life in Zhuomu.
That place did not even have basic education. Apart from training themselves into formidable warriors and going abroad to become mercenaries for various countries, the people of Zhuomu had almost no way of learning about the outside world.
Thinking of this, Carl's expression suddenly became sympathetic.
"Come on, the tension between the Kingdom of Aundair and the Eldeen Reaches was more than twenty years ago. The two countries signed an alliance treaty ages ago. My mother is from Aundair."