His eyelids felt dry.
Xia Lun slowly opened his eyes. Bright sunlight streamed through the window and fell warmly across his forehead.
The sheer curtain swayed soundlessly before the window. Outside came the clang of metal striking metal. White Line was practicing swordsmanship again, no doubt. Xia Lun rubbed his head and glanced at the wall clock. It was ten in the morning; this Special Dream Entry had taken five hours. The dream itself had not been long, but the disreputable old knight, the power-hungry Grand Inquisitor, the pair who had thrown the match, and the deranged Loni Vika had all left a deep impression on him.
Loni Vika had left the strongest impression of all. Sadism and masochism really were two sides of the same coin. She had never hesitated to torment others, as her treatment of the Green-Haired Girl made clear.
Yet the moment she realized she had no hope of resisting Xia Lun, she had turned into a masochist on the spot.
She kept saying she admired people with guts, people willing to resist, precisely because she lacked that spirit herself. "Psychopaths are terrifying." Xia Lun shook his head.
He slowly sat up, intending to have some coffee to clear his head. Then a thought struck him, and he looked at the Information Panel in the corner of his vision. [You have comprehended a memory fragment that unlocks the special sword skill "Tough It Out."]
[Relevant memory count has increased.]
[Current Melee Weapon Use—General (swords—two-handed greatswords, polearms, hammers, axes, flails, shields, armor) (Mastery 30%). Remaining memory count: 38.]
After that dream, which had been remarkably like a Special Memory, his remaining memory count had plummeted from nearly two hundred to thirty-eight. In another week, Xia Lun would finish the Specialization Memory Afdan had provided.
*Dream entries reflect