Combat in the Dream World

Thinking of Hopp, who was still unconscious, Karl's confidence increased slightly.

Barbarians on the Giant Path were quite formidable in combat.

Once they reached level 6, they would even gain the Elemental Blade trait.

With this trait, they could unleash an effect similar to the third-circle spell [Elemental Weapon] during their Rage, and the weapons they wielded would also gain a function similar to a Returning Weapon during that time.

Although Rage had a limited duration, the thought of a three to four meter tall giant throwing two two-meter long axes imbued with flame made Karl shudder.

Gradually, the water temperature began to drop. Karl threw his clothes in to continue soaking, then got out of the bathtub, changed into dry clothes, and started drinking the meat broth.

After eating and drinking his fill, Karl went to Hopp's room to check on her condition.

Hopp's body temperature was still high, but it seemed to have become her normal temperature.

An orange-red light emanated from her chest, and even with her incredibly thick forefront armor, it couldn't conceal the glow.

"This is probably the change brought about by the Hellfire trait."

Karl poked the spot where the firelight was showing, studying it with a scientific gaze.

Naturally, he didn't discover anything, as biology wasn't his specialty.

Karl splashed some clean water on Hopp, then brewed more meat broth to feed her.

Afterward, Karl returned to his own room and entered the Dream World.

Habitually, he glanced at his attribute panel. The stats, unchanged from level 2, made Karl feel a bit disheartened.

In this world, attribute values didn't increase automatically with level progression; practitioners had to train themselves.

Many practitioners remained stuck at level 4 because they couldn't improve their attribute values.

Fortunately, each class core provided an augmentation to a practitioner's specific attribute growth, otherwise, even fewer people would reach level 5.

As an Artificer whose primary attribute was Intelligence, Karl's Intelligence attribute was sufficient for him to progress smoothly until level 8.

However, the Artificer's combat effectiveness didn't increase much between levels 4 and 8, so Karl planned to level up his Warrior class during this time.

"Alright, battle commence!"

With Karl's self-muttering, two Hopps with glowing chests appeared in the Dream Space.

Their builds and appearances were identical to the Hopp outside, and even their current body temperatures were higher than normal.

Taking a deep breath, Karl conjured armor onto his hands and legs, then charged toward the two Hopps.

As quick as lightning, the moment Karl made a move, the two Hopps drew hand axes from their waists and hurled them at him.

Their speed and force were so great that they directly severed Karl's raised vambrace meant for defense.

A jolt of intense pain made Karl twitch, but the Armorer's level 3 trait activated. The armor automatically reconnected itself to his severed arm, turning it into a steel prosthetic for him to use.

Dropping low, Karl rolled on the ground, closing the distance with one of the Hopps.

Using his core strength, Karl flipped his body as his arms made contact with the ground, launching himself forward in a somersault.

With their axes still out, the two Hopps closed in. One of them even struck a pose as if preparing to unleash a Kamehameha, seemingly intending to hit Karl hard with Burning Hands.

The Tiefling racial trait of Hellfire allowed them to use Burning Hands with 2nd-circle power even at level 3. If Karl took that hit head-on, he might just wake up from the dream in pain.

But fortunately, Tieflings could only use such an ability once a day.

"Whoosh!"

Taking advantage of the opponent's posing, Karl tripped them with a sweeping kick.

Then, Karl quickly lunged at the other Hopp, attempting to use wrestling techniques to grapple with them.

The axes, also possessing the Returning Weapon trait, had already returned. With two thuds, they struck both Hopps before falling to the ground.

The Hopp phantom, which was preparing to unleash Burning Hands, had completed its charge-up. Disregarding the safety of its companion, it unleashed the spell directly at its entangled comrade and Karl.

"Ow..."

After a brief moment of pain, Karl looked at himself, now returned to the first layer of the dream world, and his body trembled for a moment.

"Fighting two level 3 Giant Path Tiefling barbarians while only using some of my Artificer abilities is still quite difficult."

Holding his face, Karl gritted his teeth, allowing the phantom pain of being burned to death to dissipate in his consciousness.

Conjuring an assault rifle beside him, Karl applied the Rapid Fire Weapon Spell Infusion to it, preparing to return to the second layer of the dream to fight again.

"Bang bang bang!"

As soon as he appeared in the second layer of the dream, Karl fired his weapon towards the location where he remembered the two Hopps to be.

As the bullets flew, the phantoms of the two Hopps materialized in the air and hurled flying axes at Karl.

"Clang! Clang!"

Leveraging his "shooting sense" honed from his past life delivering packages, Karl raised his hands and shot down the flying axes with two bullets. He then aimed at the two Hopps and switched to burst fire mode.

Relying on the agility and intuition of their unarmored defense, the two Hopps managed to advance a short distance amidst the hail of bullets.

As the saying goes: Beyond seven steps, the gun is faster; within seven steps, the gun is both accurate and fast.

Even without aiming deliberately, Karl's gun still hit two Hopp illusions as he rapidly swung the muzzle around.

Watching them dissipate, Karl didn't feel happy about winning. Instead, an indescribable sense of emptiness washed over him.

"As expected, a game loses a lot of its fun if you cheat."

"But then again, these are abilities I can actually use, so it's not entirely cheating, is it?"

Scratching his hair, Karl dismissed the weapon in his hand and then reconstructed Hopp's illusions.

It wasn't that Karl didn't want to create other illusions; it was just that he knew too little about others, making the combat power of the illusions unstable.

Karl could also conjure Giant Lizards and Grotesque Aberrations, but those creatures had Challenge Ratings of one-quarter and one-half to three, respectively.

They held little training value.

"When I have the chance, I'll go find some goblins to practice with. I just don't know what their levels are... To be safe, I should probably raise my Warrior level to 3 first!"

In the real world, Hopp slowly opened her eyes.

Sensing that her body temperature was much higher than usual and that she was filled with strength, she raised her hand, clenched it, and then relaxed it.

Looking at the ceramic bowl that still contained a bit of broth, she blinked and got out of bed.

She opened her pocket watch. The hands pointed to the 2 o'clock mark and were colored blue.

"Is it 2 AM? I slept for almost a whole day?"

Rubbing her stomach, Hopp opened the door and glanced into the hall.

On the shelf next to the bathtub, a pot of broth, kept warm by a rune stone over a small fire, was still emitting a faint warmth. Karl had deliberately illuminated the spot with a shiny rivet, as if afraid Hopp wouldn't notice.