Layers Of Nightmare

6 p.m.

The sun was about to set. A young man was breathing heavily with his back on the ground outside the old mansion.

"Good job." Lorian was beaming with a smile. "Not as hard as you imagined isn't it?"

"Huff… yea..." To be honest, William did not expect himself to last for so long either.

One time, he watched a doc.u.mentary about how professional bodybuilder trained, and the training regime that Lorian gave was more or less the same as the one he saw. And yet he did not even feel the urge to vomit!

"This is one of the reasons why Dream Treaders are banned in the Olympics," Lorian said. "How does it feel becoming a superhuman?"

"Extraordinary… marvelous…" Although it was only a couple of minutes after he finished his training, William had regained his breathing.

Throughout the progress, William discovered that his body capabilities had exceeded his expectations time and time again. Not only his stamina becoming better at noticeable height, his raw strength, reaction speed, perception, and concentrations seemed to evolve over the hours!

If not for the sun beginning to set, William would never have thought that he had trained for almost half a day.

'From power comes great responsibility; no risk is without reward.' William pondered as he raised his palm against the sun. 'Dream Treaders…'

"Need a hand?" The voice of a lady entered his ears, followed by a light-hearted laugher.

William saw a fair hand by the corner of his eye.

"Thanks, Lina." William took the hand, then Madeline managed to pull him up single-handedly.

If a normal person saw the scene, they would have gasped at the sight of slim woman pulling a man bigger than her in that position. But the sight was nothing strange for Dream Treaders like them.

Since Madeline will accompany him tonight, she came to the university to meet up with William. Coincidentally, they met up in the cafeteria during lunch time.

"That's it then, I will be off now!" Lorian picked up his duffel bag, then took something out of his pocket. "Here, for you."

"What is it?" William looked confusely at Lorian's hand, it was an elegant black card with a name of a famous hotel nearby. "What's this for?"

"Hm? Don't you need to sleep with Madeline tonight?"

"WHAT?!" William shook as he look at Madeline in panic.

As soon as their eyes met, Madeline averted her gaze, slightly blushing.

"Oh, no one told you yet? Ha!" For several seconds, only Lorian's hearty laughter could be heard. "Let me tell you, this is a common way for Dream Treaders to complete Nightmare instances together. In order to minimize unexpected situations in the other realm, either due to terrain changes or differing scenario, it's suggested to share a room so that you can wake up close to each other without any problem."

Lorian shoved the card to William and assured him once more. "This hotel was owned by a Dream Treader, and has been our official place to engage group instances for years. You will get used to it. But of course…"

He sneered before giving his final remarks, "We don't prohibit private activities, just don't overdo it. Hahahaha!"

"Hngrh…" William scratched his head, not knowing if he should be angry.

It was awkward from the start already; Lorian's unnecessary remark made it even more awkward! Now, he did not even know how to face Madeline.

William sneaked a glance at Madeline again. Her face no longer carrying the initial blush, but a hint of timidity could not be hidden from her stiff smile.

William sighed and took a deep breath, he faced Madeline and said, "Sorry, I just knew about this. I'm thankful that you can help me later."

"I don't mind…" Madeline replied with a voice that was as loud as mosquito buzz.

"Sorry?"

"N- nothing!"

Thinking that Madeline felt insecure, he quickly added, "I promise I won't touch a single hair of you!"

Madeline gave him a look of amus.e.m.e.nt. "And how can you guarantee that?"

"Uh…" Thinking about it again, his words were baseless!

Seeing that William thinking hard for several seconds in silence, Madeline could not hold back her laugh anymore. "Don't mind it, I trust you!"

"Ah…? Oh..." William had a blank expression on his face, not knowing how to react.

"What? Cat got your tongue?" Madeline grinned. "Go and wash up, I will wait in the lounge."

"Sure…"

When he saw Madeline skedaddled into the mansion, he sighed in relief and thanked the girl's open-mindedness. After that, he went in and walked onto the shower room on the second floor.

He was amazed that the shower room was actually a lot cleaner and more complete than he thought. It looked like those in elite clubhouse that his friends had invited him to in the past. Of course it included jacuzzi, sauna, soaps, and reusable towels.

'Wow!' William exclaimed silently.

Minutes later, William had changed into white shirt and jeans, looking all fresh. He then returned to the first floor to fetch Madeline.

Opening the door to the longue, an astounding sight instantly pleased his view.

Rays from the sunset peered into the window at the other end of the wall of the longue, giving the room a warm pristine atmosphere. Madeline sat on the sofa, not letting the orange sunlight from her right bothering her attention to the phone in her hand. Occasionally, dust particles will flew right across his eyes, creating a beautiful diffraction on the light.

William was dumbfounded by the sight, that was until Madeline took notice of his arrival.

"Oh, you're done?"

"Yep, shall we go?" William forced himself to calm down.

"Sure, let's go." Madeline put her phone in her jean's pocket and slung her backpack.

"Is that your spatial bag?"

"Uh-hm. Since we will go to the hotel, I made sure to bring everything I need for tonight and the instance."

"Oh, right!" William got reminded that he would not return home overnight. "I need to go get several things from home. Will you wait at the hotel or something?"

"No problem, I can wait there." Madeline waved the same black key card in her hand. "But before that…"

Her cheek slightly reddens like a ripe cherry. She braved herself before saying, "Shall we have dinner first?"

William was stumped at first, but slowly, his heart began to beat faster. He knew that Madeline was a shy girl from their short interaction, as such, he was sure that she would not utter such words carelessly. At least not before the fact that they will sleep together tonight—to avoid misunderstandings.

'Does she took a liking of me?' William asked himself. However, he quickly denied the thought. 'Nah, I'm nobody. It might be a common occurrence among them…'

After all, Dream Treaders often slept together anyway!

"Alright, where do you want to eat?" William asked with a smile.

"Hmm… how about that hotpot in B street?"

"Sounds good!"

The restaurant they talked about served their food in variety of portions. Usually, William could only finish their smallest portion. Now that his appetite grew after becoming a Dream Treader, he felt that even the large portion was not enough!

"Did your appetite also increase after you become a Dream Treader?" William asked.

"Mm! That's obvious," Madeline said as a matter-of-fact.

"Did you actually gain weight?" William teased.

"T- that's not for you to know!"

"How about…"

…

8.32 p.m.

William finally returned to his apartment. Although talking to Madeline was fun and relaxing, it would be a lie to say that he was not worried about the upcoming Nightmare instance.

Once he got into his room, he first took a small laundry bag out of the sling bag and threw it into the laundry basket. After that, he took two pairs of clean change of clothes from the wardrobe.

He was about to put them into the sling bag, however…

"Damn..." Because normal items could not enter the dimensional space, the sling bag was too small for the two sets of clothes.

"Oh well."

William decided to take his school handbag, and put everything including the spatial sling bag in it.

"Alright." Somehow, he felt like he forgot something—something he wanted to ask Alex about.

'Oh, forget it!' William walked to the front door then change his shoes for a more casual one.

"Oh, you're going out again?" Marvin suddenly walked out of his room.

"Yea, I got another project to assist at the lab, so I might not go home later." Obviously, William had prepared the excuse some time ago.

"Again?" Marvin chuckled. "You probably should take a break when your exam is close. You don't want to get sick!"

"Thanks man, I'll consider it." William smiled.

Marvin sighed as he went back to his room. "Go and take some of the bananas if you want. Good luck and see you tomorrow!"

"Thanks and see you!" William opened the door and locked it.

He decided not to take any of the banana since he had no more appetite to eat.

The black key card in his hand was engraved with an elegant white text, "The Grand Sublime Hotel". On the other side was a number, "109"—meaning—first floor, room nine.

This 5-star hotel was not that far from his apartment, only about ten minutes of walk away; hence, William arrived there real quick.

Upon arrival, he immediately went to the front desk, which was relatively busy with tourists.

Even so, a female receptionist came up to attend him without any delay. "Good evening, sir. How can I help you?"

"Room 109," William said.

Hearing thus, the receptionist's face turned serious and said, "Please wait here. I will get someone who can help."