Chapter 269 – Divine Seas

*Crack!*

As Dream read one of the monoliths, his mind space suddenly cracked again. He was still on a clock, and if he took too long, his mind space would shatter. 

Yet, the Keeper was baffled as he saw Dream casually read the monoliths, completely disregarding his very psyche that was breaking down every moment. It was like it had nothing to do with him. 

Across the span of a few minutes, Dream bounced between each of the 14 monoliths, merely reading their introductions. When he was done, he took a step back. 

"So, correct me if I'm wrong because my mental faculties are not at their peak. Or maybe too far beyond their peak?"

Dream turned to the Keeper.

"From each of these 14 monoliths come the greatest formations for Divine Seas, and each of these Seas have a certain domain."

{Correct.}

The Keeper nodded. 

{Like the prophets whose monoliths you comprehended prior, these 14 silver monoliths carry the inheritances of the greatest 14 Emperors under the Archons. Each monolith details the formation of what's called the Prime 14 Seas, the most powerful Divine Seas any single person could form. They are:

1st Divine Sea: Mana

2nd Divine Sea: Flux

3rd Divine Sea: Aether

4th Divine Sea: Runa

5th Divine Sea: Magic

6th Divine Sea: Bodily Existence

7th Divine Sea: Will

8th Divine Sea: Mind

9th Divine Sea: Intelligence

10th Divine Sea: Wisdom

11th Divine Sea: Dust

12th Divine Sea: Ash

13th Divine Sea: Gray Mist

14th Divine Sea: Skills

{Each of these Prime 14 Seas constitutes the entirety of a person's existence. However, there are some Seas that are mutually exclusive such as Mana and Runa, along with Dust and Ash, pairs that represent extreme opposites. This means that any single soul can't contain both. Then, there are the extreme Seas that are too difficult to form, such as Gray Mist which requires fusing Mana and Runa. Seas of Dust and Ash are also extremely difficult to form since many don't realize contact with either energy until they bring together their soul, what you would know as becoming a class 6. Thus, it is impossible to construct all of the Prime 14 Seas. One must pick and choose according to their alignment.}

"I see..."

Dream looked down as he pondered. After a few seconds, he nodded. 

"Very well. I will call down my Divine Light and form my Divine Seas from my divided existence."

{You shall. But with the way you are, your mind will be destroyed before you are able to solve your problem. I shouldn't be providing you assistance, but...}

The Keeper frowned as Dream listened. As if deliberating, he took a few seconds before raising his hand.

{Seal.}

From his hand came a silver wisp of light, shooting into Dream's head before sinking into his mind space. Then, Dream went limp as if collapsing, only to upright himself before hitting the floor. 

After the momentary lapse in consciousness, Dream looked into his mind space and found a white ring that encased the white cracks around the concept marks. With that ring, he no longer felt the vast pressure of conceptual power. 

{That seal is not a solution. It will wear down over time. Before it does, you must construct a soul powerful enough to bear conceptual power. I cannot do more for you than this, even if I wished to.}

"Oh. Thank you, Keeper."

Dream was surprised as he analyzed the seal. It isolated the concepts in his mind space, blocking their power. The only downside to this was that Dream could no longer feel the majesty of the concepts and the inspiration he gained from them. At least it kept him alive, though. 

"Anyway, I have another request. Let Sophia in."

{Sophia, that artificial soul? Why should I allow another being to bear witness to this place, one who is unqualified and hails from questionable origins?}

"For three reasons."

Dream held up three fingers.

"First, caring about someone else 'bearing witness' to this place is rather idiotic. Second, she is a part of me and is thus qualified because I am. Third, you say questionable origins, but let's not act like you haven't spoken with the one who arranged all these things. I was allowed into this legacy space because I was put under the Wanderer System who is run by you know who. That means he knows of your existence, has facilitated your finding of a suitable candidate, and that you have agreed to this."

Dream's cosmic gaze bore into the Keeper, and the Keeper could tell that he was smiling inwardly. He frowned, thinking of the things Dream said. 

{...It is true, that I have agreed to that one's assistance. But I do not take pleasure in it. That man is a... devious character, and if this Legacy had not been washed away by certain powers, then I would not have agreed to his interference.}

"Believe me, I get it. You think I like having my path determined for me? When I get powerful enough, I plan on having a constructive conversation with that man. But right now, Sophia is a part of me and is involved with this advancement. I need you to understand my position and let her in."

{...}

The Keeper was quiet for a second. After the two stared at each other for a few seconds, the Keeper sighed. Dream felt another consciousness make contact with him afterward.

[Woah! Hey, you know what I don't like? Waiting around in limbo while you have fun without me! So this must be the Keeper, huh?]

After scolding Dream, Sophia quickly turned her attention to the Keeper. She hadn't actually met him, but she had seen Dream's memories of him so she could easily recognize him. 

[Hello Keeper. Thank you for giving Dream that silver infinity ring back then. This idiot would've been killed without it.]

{I figured.}

The Keeper smiled slightly. He had already noticed the consumption of the silver ring he had engraved in Dream's mind space, so he already knew that he had done something he probably shouldn't have. Plus there was the whole situation with his cracking mind space. Dream just loved to walk the line of life and death with his experiments. Truly a mad scientist. 

"Hey, you two can bond another time. I've got an advancement to do and not a lot of time to do it in."

[Well maybe if you didn't just shove things into your mind space, you wouldn't be on a death clock!]

"It was the only way to verify my theory!"

[It was so not the only way! Literally anything else would have been a better option!]

"You know what? Let's agree that you're partially correct and that my method was the fastest way to verify."

[Uh, I'm completely correct and you are diagnosably insane.]

The Keeper watched as the two bickered. It was only several minutes later that Dream turned and absorbed an entire monolith's script with his Will, still bickering all the while. 

He stood there watching, a small smirk on his face.

............

.......

Dream didn't take long to go through most of the monoliths. There were many of them that he was already very familiar with, so he was able to comprehend the profound silver script rather easily. 

The First Divine Sea: Mana. This Sea was a vessel that would contain mana. More than that, the monolith detailed knowledge about the nature of mana at its deepest levels. It actually talked of the relationship between mana and material, and within the silver script was basically an entire skill that's entire purpose was to control mana. By itself the skill wasn't as advanced as Dream's Arcana skill, its complexity about half of that of the Arcana skill. But this was just a skill detailing the usage and manipulation of mana. It gave Dream several more insights, solidifying certain theories about mana that he had known but hadn't absolutely proven. 

The Second Divine Sea: Flux. Like mana, this sea would contain flux. Also like mana, it had a skill that was entirely devoted toward controlling flux, a skill even more dynamic and complex than the mana skill. Dream was engrossed with this monolith for a quite while, gleaning many more secrets about the energy and its relationship to the physical fundamental forces. As he read more and more, Dream began to realize what flux was at its deeper levels. It was the property of a thing's existence, an energetic state that could affect things like mana. It was like atoms having energetic values, something Dream knew, but didn't quite totally grasp. He began to see it as information states. 

The Third Divine Sea: Aether. This Sea was a vessel for Aether, and was the same as the previous two in that it also had something of a skill. The shallow knowledge of the monolith were things Dream already understood, like Aether's ability to bend space, destroy it, and even tamper with dimensions. But digging deeper, the monolith spoke of aether and its most core function, that of being the fluid by which all things existed upon. Even the chaotic void, which the monolith mentioned, wasn't without aether. In fact, the monolith said that the chaotic void wasn't actually a lack of existence or place beyond dimensions, instead being the most primordial dimensional form. 

The Fourth Divine Sea: Runa. Runa was the opposite to Mana, similar to matter and antimatter, and Dream had previously named it Ruinous Mana. The two opposites annihilated each other upon collision. Dream knew that Iris utilized this type of energy. It was inherently more chaotic, and unlike mana that was structural, Runa destroyed structure. Mana built, and Runa destroyed. 

The Fifth Divine Sea: Magic. It was this Sea that Dream was more attentive with. According to the monolith, this sea was supposed to be constructed of a person's ability to move magical energy like mana, flux, or aether. It was something similar to Dream's [Arcana] skill. Alongside increasing their sheer magical power, this Sea would increase their ability to bend and manifest it, enabling them to use it in skills. The monolith detailed the workings of a skill that Dream was able to determine was only a bit worse than his own [Arcana] skill. Dream analyzed the monolith's skill and compared it to his own. After a while, he determined that he wouldn't form this layer how the monolith wanted. He had his own way of doing things when it came to magic, so he intended to take what he could and create a Sea dedicated to his unique magic. 

The Sixth Divine Sea: Bodily Existence. This layer, surprisingly, was all about the material. It dove into physics and science, describing the physical universe along with the nature of the third dimension. It was here that Dream encountered one of his own questions. Why was the 3rd dimension the dimension that everything chose to manifest in? Why weren't there purely 4 dimensional beings? All energies gathered in the 3rd dimension, and it had baffled Dream for a while. And while the monolith didn't answer this question, it did explore it, and the conclusion it came to was that the third dimension was the anchor by which all beings and things tied themselves to. Without the anchor of the 3rd dimension, souls would float away and disperse while energies would cease to mean anything. Surprisingly, this monolith also touched upon information states and dimensions. Not much was beyond Dream though, and he decided that this Sea would be where his material skills would go.

The Seventh Divine Sea: Will. This monolith spoke of Will and what exactly it was. Will was the seemingly invisible force that existed within every soul, able to extend one's range of influence across a distance and control things. Dream had done some study on Will, but he wasn't able to determine what it came from or what it was. Now, he was told that Will was generated from Dust. Dust gave energy to the soul and created Will. And the way the monolith described it was a 'tool of change'. Basically, Will imparted change unto things. It changed the energy of things, changed the informational state of things. This Sea was dedicated entirely toward strengthening Will and thus, strengthening one's ability to change the things around them. It was no different from power. 

The Eighth Divine Sea: Mind. This monolith talked about the mind space. Dream was very interested in this due to the fact that his own mind space was half shattered at the moment. And while he wasn't told the solution to his problem, he was told about how the mind space facilitated all mental faculties. It was the foundation which all knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom were built upon. It was like the pot of the mind that took in ingredients of knowledge and spit out answers. And thus, the Sea was dedicated to strengthening the mind space, facilitating greater mental cognition. 

The Ninth Divine Sea: Intelligence. This sea, while heavily related to the eighth sea, was independent. The job of this sea was to store information, process information, and generate information. It was all about thinking. Dream learned a bit more about the nature of information on this monolith. In the end, this Sea would facilitate greater thinking abilities while also being able to store greater and more complex knowledge. 

The Tenth Divine Sea: Wisdom. This Sea wasn't one that made someone into a philosopher. Instead, this sea was all about Divine Light, otherwise known as Experience. This Sea would be built from and then filled with pure Divine Light. Using this, Dream would be able to expand his ability to grasp higher forms of knowledge and power, such as concepts. Divine Light was all about expanding the vessel that was the soul, allowing it to grasp greater power. 

The Eleventh Divine Sea: Dust. Finally, this sea was what interested Dream the most. As he had found, Dust was something that bridged concepts and the soul, allowing a person to tap into the power of concepts. But when Dream read the monolith, he realized that Dust was also what provided energy to someone's Will, thereby powering their soul and all of its functions. Dream had long wondered where the infinite energy source that went into Will went, and this was it. Dust drew energy from the concepts themselves, and since the concepts were infinite, so was the energy one gained from Dust. The only limiter was the rate of energy gain, or throughput. 

When Dream looked to the next Divine Sea though, he was able to learn another interesting detail about the nature of Dust. 

The Twelfth Divine Sea: Ash. Like Dust, this was an intangible energy that bridged the soul to concepts and provided energy to Will. However, similar to how Mana was orderly and Runa was chaotic, Dust was orderly and Ash was chaotic. Dust was incredibly structural, seeking to reinforce things. Ash was the opposite, seeking to change things. These two things influenced Will in opposite ways. The monolith talked about souls and how each one had a dominant type. One could either be dominated by Dust or by Ash. The power of the dominant side would influence everything the soul did, from their thought processes to their skills and power. Dream spent a long time studying this monolith before moving on to the next. 

The Thirteenth Divine Sea: Gray Mist. Dream was somewhat familiar with Gray Mist. It was the fusion of Mana and Runa, and in a universe that was divided down the middle by mana and runa, gray mist was the minority. At least, that's how it was during the time of the Archons. Nowadays, gray mist and a person who utilized it didn't exist, Dream being the only exception. It was an energy long forgotten. The monolith talked about the nature of gray mist, how it could become either mana or runa, and facilitate the use of both. With gray mist, one could bounce between both sides. On top of that, their soul wouldn't be dominated or bound by either order or chaos. And then, digging deeper, there was the intangible energy on the same level as Dust and Ash, called Khroia. Only, there wasn't much information on Khroia because it was an apparently extremely difficult thing to even make contact with. 

The Fourteenth Divine Sea: Skills. Dream was already very familiar with this. This Sea would be comprised of a skill or multiple skills, forming the dynamic power of a person. The only thing that was on this monolith that surprised Dream was a detail about souls, which was that souls were actually codified Divine Light. Basically, one enchanted data to Divine Light, forming the souls and skills. After that, one just ran their Will through the soul and it would modify the Will, giving it instructions. After that, one interacted their instructed Will with something like mana, thus imparting the instructions to mana. By this logic, the soul could be thought of as information given substance. This connected several dots in Dream's mind, giving him countless ideas as to how to manipulate Divine Light in the future. The applications for such a technique were numerous. It was enchanting on steroids. 

With that, Dream finished the last of the monoliths. He stood in silence for a very long time, processing all of the data he received and making his own conclusions. The intelligence of the Emperors who wrote these monoliths was vast, and if it weren't for Dream's already obscene intelligence and accomplishments, he wouldn't be able to understand everything. 

But after enough time, he was able to begin formulating ways as to how he would construct his Divine Seas. Only, his list was rather different from the Prime 14 Seas. In fact, it had more than 14 Seas. If the Keeper knew that Dream was planning on not just creating his own list derived from the Prime 14 seas, but expand on it, he would be baffled. 

After an unknown amount of time, Dream became lucid. His hand retrieved his pocket watch from his inventory, clicking it open. Although no time had passed on the outside, time did still technically pass within the legacy space. Dream wondered how long he took to process everything. It had been a blur, his pondering of the monoliths. 

And the number surprised him. 

"2 years and 5 months? Wow. That's a lot of free time.