Chapter 4 – Person

After sitting around for a while, Dream started thinking to himself. 

"It'd be really nice to set up a place here. I really only needed a water source, and here I have one."

He had been thinking of a time to settle, and although he wouldn't stop now, he would at some point. He had already given himself a month, and if nothing happened then, he would stop searching. And this place seemed like an ideal spot to settle. 

However, he also now had better chances of finding civilization. People founded cities and towns around water sources, so if there was any more of a direct way to find a town, then travelling up or down stream would be it. This was what he was planning on doing now. He couldn't think of a better way to advance. 

"Welp, I guess that's the way I'm going then. I'm gonna hang out here for a while though. I can head out tomorrow."

Dream spoke as he looked at the sun. It was already getting late into the afternoon, and the sun would be setting in a few hours. There was no use in heading out now, so he decided to relax a prepare a spot to stay the night. 

After digging out a fox hole, Dream decided to wash some of his clothes off. The ones he usually worse were dirty, so a rinse would do them good. He didn't need his odor radiating out for all the animals to smell and track. 

After doing that, he set them to dry and sat himself against a rock, falling into contemplation. 

"What else should I summon? I've already gotten a few attachments for my guns. I got plenty of ammo. I'm fine with the clothes I have. I got plenty of gear for other things. I would get better tech and things like that, but they cost too much mana. I have to stay basic for now. But what else can I do with my mana? Magic?"

Dream tilted his head and brought up his hand, looking at it. He knew mana was supposed to be some godly energy that let people defy physics, or at least that's what he learned from fiction. And it was turning out to be that way, but other than the catalog skill, there was nothing else he used mana for. 

He wanted to find a way to use mana, preferably for combat. It would be cool if he could cast spells and thinks of that sort. So he got to experimenting. 

"First thing I would need to do is control it. Let's try that."

Closing his eyes, Dream focused his senses on his body. He definitely felt mana. He felt it whenever it would be drained and regenerate from using the catalog. That was the first step. Now he just needed to somehow make contact with it. 

And luckily, it turned out not to be too difficult. While he could only focus on the feeling for a while, after blindly giving an order to it, the mana budged, and he could feel it stream toward his hand where he ordered it to go. 

"Oh! So I just need to tell it what to do? Well that's simple enough. But does it make me stronger? Let's see."

As the mana filled his hand, Dream decided to test out what effects it had. Looking down at the rock he was sitting on, he threw a punch.

*Bump!*

"...Hmm."

Dream's forehead creased at the pain from punching a rock. However, it wasn't for nothing as he definitely noticed a difference. 

"My hand is tougher, and the pain was dampened, albeit only a bit. But it definitely did something. Now what if I pile in more mana? Maybe I can give it an order to protect my hand too."

Saying that, Dream pushed more mana into his hand. As he did, he could feel it strengthening, and even just flexing his grip showed him how much different it was. It was stronger. Mana seemed to enhance the base functions of whatever part of the body you moved it to. 

With that, he threw out another punch to the rock. After feeling nothing, he threw out another, then another, each one slowly getting stronger than before to test his limit. 

Soon, he was throwing out punches with 3 quarters of his strength, and only then did it start to hurt. It was a significant improvement. He would never even dream of punching a solid rock with this much strength and not getting hurt. All he could feel were dull impacts on his knuckles. Not even his skin showed any signs of getting hurt. 

"Well that's really cool! But I don't plan on becoming a boxer. I would never fight a boar like that. I should see if I can do anything else with it."

Dream stopped punching rocks as he said that. Instead, as he gathered the mana on his hand, he attempted to direct it outside of his body. 

This was met with limited success. While he was able to get it outside the body, as soon as it reached the air, it dissipated rather easily. He wasn't able to retain much control. 

"Hmm... What if I direct it into an object? Like my gun! I can strengthen my hand, maybe I can strengthen a bullet!"

Feeling a light bulb going off, Dream immediately grabbed his pistol. He quickly directed mana outside his body and into the pistol, and as he thought, when the mana reached the plastic and metal, it smoothly flowed into it, retaining much more control than before. 

Then, he directed the mana toward the bullet, telling it to pile inside the bullet. This worked as he expected, but surprisingly, he felt some energy drain out of him as he did this. It was only a little, but he still noticed it. 

Disregarding that though, after piling the mana into the bullet, he aimed the pistol at another rock nearby. Then, he fired. 

*Bang!*

*Crack!*

With a loud sound, the bullet tore into the rock. Dream got up and ran over to the rock, and upon examining it, he found that the bullet went straight through. 

"Hmm, I'm not sure if it would normally do that. I'm not even sure if it worked. Let's see..."

Aiming the gun once more, Dream shot the rock. Another explosion rang out, and the bullet tore into the rock. However, unlike the last bullet, this one didn't go all the way through. 

"So it did work!"

<Congragulations! You have earned a skill through your own effort.>

<You have earned the Active Skill: [Shooting]>

With the revelation, Dream suddenly saw two notifications pop up in his face. His eyes went wide for a second before he smiled widely.

"Hell yea! A new skill! Apparently you can earn them. To think this counts as a skill though. Although... It feels a bit different, controlling my mana."

As Dream directed mana into his gun once more, the skill activated, and it made his mana control a bit easier and more efficient. Before, lots of the mana would scatter as he moved it into the bullet. Now it was more skillful. 

"So the skill just makes my directions more clear to the mana or something. That's nice. Hehe, this will definitely be useful. Though it still consumes mana. I shouldn't use it all the time and save it for dire situations. Besides, the rifle packs a punch. Nothing's been able to survive it so far. Sigh."

Letting out a satisfied breath, Dream went back and sat down. By now, the sun was setting. 

"Let's rest. Tomorrow I can head out again."

Saying that, Dream went over and prepared for bed inside the fox hole. He had a peaceful sleep that night. 

...........

The next day, Dream was yet again out hiking. 

As he planned, he followed the river upstream. However, he didn't walk right next to it. Instead, he walked a mile or so away from it. He wanted to catch some animals while he walked and test out his new shooting skill. 

Through the day, he learned some new things. One, he could apparently employ Savant to control his mana. He hadn't thought of this, but since Savant could consume mana with the catalog, he could do the same with the shooting skill. Plus, it led to better results. 

Savant could somehow use mana much more efficiently. While Dream still had to use a bit of energy, Savant was able to give precise directions to his mana, unlike Dream's which was more vague. 

Another thing he learned about was his energy. Moving mana required him to draw on some energy from within him. It wasn't physical energy, and while it wasn't mental energy either, that's what it was closest to. He felt mentally tired if he went overboard. 

However, after practicing a bit, he was able to level the shooting skill more. He got it all the way up to level 12 by the end of the day. It seemed to be easier to level than his other skills. It was also simpler though, so it made sense. 

Like that, Dream continued to hike while keeping an eye out for anything else. However, like all the other days, he didn't discover anything noteworthy, so he went to sleep early that night. 

This was also the case for the next 3 days after that. Those three days, he just kept on hiking a mile beside the stream, hunting any animals he came across. 

However, on the 4th day, almost two weeks since he'd been dropped into this new land, he discovered something. 

As he went out to hike in the morning, he came across a fog. It was an odd fog that didn't move anywhere and just eerily stayed put. 

Normally, upon seeing a fog like this Dream wouldn't decide to go into it. He would just go around it. Especially since the fog was in the direction opposite to the stream. But Dream had been starved of anything interesting for a while, so he decided to bravely investigate this weird fog. 

After taking out his sniper, he activated the thermal option on the scope and scanned around. After finding no heat signatures, he walked into the fog, constantly scanning around with the scope. 

When he entered the fog, he could feel a weird pressure descend around him. It was as if the fog was heavy, not on his body, but on his mind. That feeling went away after a bit though, and Dream just kept marching through. 

Eventually, Dream walked out of the fog. At first he was confused since he expected it to keep going. The area he saw covered by fog was definitely large, so for it to end so quickly was surprising. However, as he walked out, he saw something even more out of the ordinary. 

In front of him was a large wall. It wasn't a normal wall though. This one was made up of wood. On the left and right were two absolutely massive tree trunks that rose into the sky, and the roots between them had grown into each other, creating a natural, living wall. 

"...What the hell? How tall are those trees?"

[Minimum estimated height from limited viewpoint is 480 meters.]

"...Wow."

Dream's jaw dropped as he got an answer from Savant. The wall itself was easily 30 feet high, but compared to the trees to the sides, that was nothing.

After standing around staring for a bit, his curiousness about the place instantly skyrocketed, and he quickly ran over to climb the wall. Since it was made of roots, Dream was able to quickly plot a way to climb it using the many ridges and footholds. It wasn't at all smooth. 

This didn't take long, and he was soon at the top of the wall. However, as he went to go jump over to the other side, he lifted his head and looked off into the distance. 

"..."

Dream was silent as he was greeted with one of the most magnificent views he had ever laid eyes on. 

In front of him was a huge expanse of land. It was a valley that extended out for miles. The valley was covered in tall green grass, he could see animals roaming and grazing, birds flew through the skies, and small trees dotted the landscape. There was even a lake in this valley, and several animals stood on its edges, drinking its water. 

What stunned Dream more though was what he saw across the valley. Several miles away he could actually see massive trees similar to the ones he was next to. Dozens of these trees created a wall that went in a circle around the valley, isolating it from the outside world. Furthermore, when he looked up, he found that the branches of all the trees extended out over the sky, creating a roof of leaves. 

This place was a massive tree dome!

It was basically its own greenhouse. The animals inside definitely didn't come from the outside, even though he didn't know how they got here. Maybe someone put them here. Either way, the whole place was mystical, and Dream likened it to a paradise he wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life in. 

"This is amazing."

Dream climbed over the rest of the wall and took a seat on a ridge. For a few minutes, he just enjoyed the magnificent view. 

As he sat there though, he suddenly saw something. Off in the distance, Dream could see a small wave of fire explode out from a patch of grass. 

"Fire? Where did that come from?"

The appearance of the fire was definitely odd. It didn't look natural, and the fire moved to attack a bull that was standing right next to it. 

Taking out his sniper, Dream switched to optical view and focused in on the fire. When he did, he could see a bull being burned alive. Not only that, but he could see another figure. It was a wolf, and that wolf was the one spewing out the flames to attack the bull. It also jumped on the bull and attacked with its claws and teeth. 

"A wolf? Since when can wolves breathe fire? Unless... could that be magic?"

Dream was suddenly very curious about this wolf. It was definitely magic. There was no other explanation for why that wolf could spew out flames like that. Plus, it didn't seem to be hurt by its flames at all. Definitely not ordinary. 

However, it wasn't like Dream could just go up to the wolf. It wasn't intelligent, so he couldn't have it teach him magic. Plus, it looked strong and deadly. That fire definitely posed a threat to him, and getting close would be dangerous. 

For now, he just decided to watch it from afar. After finding a spot to lay down on the wide wall, he continued to look through his scope at the fight. 

As expected, the bull quickly fell under the attacks of the wolf. When that happened, the fire around the wolf stopped burning, and it went up to the bull and looked at it. 

When it stopped moving around, Dream was able to get a good look at the wolf. Actually, calling it a wolf wasn't accurate. This animal was much smaller than the wolves he had seen. It had a skinnier snout and a very fluffy tail. This animal's fur was also pitch black, very different from the wolves he fought. 

"Could it be a fox?"

Dream had seen foxes before, and this one looked like it. There was such thing as gray foxes, and while they didn't have totally pitch black fur like this one, some of them did have a bit. In this magical world, such a thing wouldn't be impossible. Either way, this definitely wasn't a wolf. Too small. 

As Dream observed and made his speculations, suddenly, another animals came over to the black fox. This animal looked totally opposite. It had white fur, but was similarly shaped to the other fox. 

"A white fox? Maybe an arctic fox or something?"

Dream was surprised and looked at the white fox. Its pearl white fur was especially beautiful to look at. 

Interestingly, when the white fox approached the black one, they didn't fight. The white fox just went up to the bull and inspected it for a bit before turning to the black fox. Their mouths opened, and Dream assumed they were communicating. 

After a bit though, the two turned to look behind them. Dream also looked behind them, and he was shocked to see that there was actually a person.

"A human! So there is life in this damned place!"

Dream's heart beat faster as he saw the man walk up to the dead bull. Out of nowhere though, the bull mysteriously disappeared. After that, the man turned and walked off, and both the black and white fox followed. 

"So he's the foxes owner? Who is that guy? And how did the bull disappear? Was that another magic?"

Dream mind ran as he watched the man and foxes trot off toward the tree wall. They were around two miles away, so they wouldn't see him. However, he was thinking about going over to them. 

"That's a person. Maybe he knows where I can find a town or something. Or maybe... I could learn magic from him. At least the basics. That would be nice. But I gotta talk to him first. And I don't know if I can trust him. This is a different world after all."

Dream contemplated over the matter for a bit. But when he saw the man and foxes jump over the wall, he decided to put those questions behind him. 

"First, let's follow this guy. Maybe he lives at a town I haven't seen."

Saying that, Dream went back over the wall and ran over toward the direction they left in.