Chapter 24 Dream Request (3) Next time, please let my gaze fall upon you...

Xia Ying suddenly emerged from the sea, scrambled onto the shore on all fours, and collapsed face down on the ground like a salted fish.

After resting for a while, she finally felt a bit better, so she slowly rolled over, trying to change from lying face down to lying face up... As she rolled over, she felt her legs touch something cold and smooth. When she turned her head, she realized it was a long and strong fish tail.

Its flowing, dreamy tail fin swayed gently, affectionately covering her calves.

Xia Ying's gaze continued upwards, and then she saw a fair and translucent chest, where the sea monster that had brought her to the surface was leaning over.

The siren lowered her head, observing her intently from close range. Her long, light blue, seaweed-like hair cascaded over her snow-white skin, winding from her shoulders to her supple waist.

It seems this beautiful woman is the client this time.

Xia Ying cleared her throat, about to introduce herself, but the other person spoke first.

"Who are you?" The siren's voice was sweet and melodious, filled with curiosity and admiration. "I have never seen such a beautiful creature from the abyss as you."

"Huh? Really?!" Xia Ying was overjoyed, but then realized what she was getting into and decided to just go with the flow, saying, "Maybe all succubi are like this."

Her words did not surprise the other party; the siren simply looked at her innocently.

"My name is Xia Ying. The client asked me to carry out this dream-related request." Xia Ying suddenly hesitated for a moment, "This client... uh, Miss?"

“I am male.” The siren flicked her tail lightly and patted Xia Ying’s leg. “My name is Charybdis.”

"Are you leaving now?" He propped himself up with one hand, grasped Xia Ying's wrist with the other, and said reluctantly, "Stay with me a little longer, maybe the nightmare will come again?"

The siren tilted her head back, waiting for her response with expectant eyes, looking utterly pitiful.

Xia Ying thought to herself: Oh no.

Since arriving in Cocytus, she has been surrounded by warmongers who resort to violence at the slightest disagreement. She had never seen anything like this before.

Just as Xia Ying was about to agree, the "Dream Guide" that the drinker had given her suddenly rolled out of her arms.

She paused before she could speak, bent down to pick up the booklet, and as she did so, the pages automatically opened, revealing a slip of paper that stood up with a "whoosh."

Xia Ying picked up the note and read its contents.

"My dear Xia Ying, as compensation for your successful completion of your first dream mission, I will keep my promise and provide you with the following information..."

That was a long list of wilderness missions.

Xia Ying's gaze swept over each task one by one, memorizing each task number.

At the end of the note, the diner said to her:

Xia Ying immediately perked up, crumpled up the note, and stuffed it into her pocket.

Her figure began to blur, a sign that the dreamer was about to leave the dream.

Goodbye, and I hope we can meet again next time!

Xia Ying waved her hand forcefully at him, then turned into scattered points of light.

Charybdis listened intently, but could no longer detect the voice of the other soul, and he had to admit that the lovely visitor was indeed no longer there.

"We couldn't keep her..."

He looked at his reflection in the water, his gaze returning to calm and indifferent.

"What kind of appearance and voice would make her unable to let go?" the siren whispered. "If I became more beautiful, more delicate, more harmless..."

The seawater suddenly surged and churned, shattering the reflections within it.

The siren's sigh dissipated gently in the raging waves.

"Next time, please let your eyes linger on me a little longer."

The surging sea submerged the island, and dark clouds chased away the sunshine, but were soon swallowed up by the towering waves.

The sea and sky completely merged into one, returning together to the primordial egg before the creation of the world.

The giant whale sang a distant whale song, and Charybdis closed his eyes and fell into a dark vortex.

He was hoping that the girl who could stir his nightmares would once again awaken him from his deep sleep.

#######

Back in the dragon's nest, Xia Ying thought that the so-called dream missions didn't seem as dangerous and difficult as the guests had described.

Moreover, the client seemed very gentle and friendly!

Xia Ying stirred slightly, and the humanoid dragon beside her, still asleep, snorted in dissatisfaction, unconsciously flicking its tail to pull Xia Ying into its arms.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch... It's pressing down on my hair, you silly dragon!"

Xia Ying angrily and carefully pulled out her long hair, only to find that the ends of her hair were tangled with a strand of Fafnir's red hair.

To overcome this slight embarrassment, Xia Ying had no choice but to move closer to the other person, shifting her position from her elbow to her upper arm. She gently rubbed away the tangled knots, separating the intertwined strands of hair little by little. Just as she was about to untangle them, the dark red strand began to move and suddenly slipped from Xia Ying's hand.

Xia Ying followed the fleeing strands of hair with her gaze and accidentally met Fafnir's eyes.

He was twirling a strand of red hair between his fingertips, his golden dragon eyes bright and fierce.

Xia Ying remembered that she was lying on someone's arm and couldn't help but feel guilty, as if she had been caught red-handed. She quickly rolled in the opposite direction, like a sneaky ball of yarn.

"Why are you running?" Fafnir stretched out his long arms, easily scooped the ball of yarn into his arms, and naturally rested his chin on the top of her head.

Xia Ying turned her face away and pushed against the other person's chest with both hands: "Wait, isn't this a little strange?"

"What's so strange about that?" Fafnir asked, puzzled. "Hasn't it always been like this?"

before……

Xia Ying fell into thought.

Fafnir used to sleep in his dragon form, and he always liked to curl himself up to her with his tail. Sometimes he would even tuck himself under the gap in his belly like a hen incubating eggs. Xia Ying was once worried that she would be flattened by Fafnir when he turned over in his dream, but fortunately, this never happened, so she just let it be.

But from a visual perspective, this doesn't seem strange at all, does it? After all, it's a dragon!

Xia Ying couldn't help but glance at the handsome red-haired man beside her.

But if he turned into a human, he would inevitably look a bit... etc. But when he lived with Ker, didn't he often sleep in human form?

If it were Cerberus, touching each other would be perfectly normal, even hugging or kissing...

A kiss might not be a good idea, right?

Xia Ying thought about it seriously.

I always feel like I'm conjuring up an image of a dog licking my face all over.

But of course, if Cerberus were here, he would certainly protest that as a steady dog, he would never do something so rash.

But Cerberus is not here.

Xia Ying suddenly felt a void in her heart.

Where is Cerberus now?

"What are you thinking about?" The dragon keenly sensed Xia Ying's distraction, pulled her closer to his arms with one hand, and turned her face towards him with the other. "You're with me now, and you're not allowed to think about anyone else."

Xia Ying was startled to realize that the pair of bright eyes in front of her had seen through her sense of loss. She instinctively felt that this was a dangerous thing, so she temporarily put aside her longing for Cerberus and turned her attention back to the present.

"It's pressing down on my hair again!"

She irritably pushed Fafnir's arm away, turned her back to comb her hair, and the dragon stared at her disheveled black hair for a while before suddenly reaching out and grabbing a strand.

Xia Ying stopped what she was doing, turned around in confusion, and looked at Fafnir, who was making strange moves. She saw the giant take out a fine-toothed gold comb and a bunch of gorgeous hair ornaments inlaid with gems and gold and silver from the void.

The dragon revealed an eager expression: "Xia Ying, come here."

Xia Ying suddenly had a bad feeling.

...Excuse me, can I say no?

#####

"Listen up, everyone. To understand the so-called 'Basic Principles of Magic,' you must first understand how magic works on 'phenomena.'"

With a mountain of treasures on her head, Xia Ying banged hard on the large blackboard floating in the air above the teaching tower.

"So, can any smart student tell me what a phenomenon is?!"

The harpy enthusiastically raised one of her wings: "Teacher, teacher! I want to answer!"

"Please answer, Harpie."

She suddenly noticed her own wings and quickly replied, "For example, flying! Flying is a phenomenon!"

"Perfect answer! This is your reward!" Xia Ying plucked a pearl tassel from the treasure mountain above her head and handed it to the cheerful harpy, then continued to ask the others questions, "You, you, and you, please continue to answer."

The bear-man who was called out replied, "The enemy will die if their head is blown off?"

The manticore replied, "The enemy will die if poisoned?"

The clay colossus replied, "The enemy will die if parasitized by spores?"

"Very good, very good, very good. Although the enemy is somewhat pitiful, these are indeed all part of the phenomenon."

Summer fireflies swept past their desks one by one on the wind, leaving behind three sparkling gifts.

“Phenomena exist objectively, while will exists only within our bodies, and magic is the bridge connecting the two.”

Harpy raised her wings again and asked, "But teacher, why do the creatures of the abyss know these things? Me, my mother, my aunt, my great-great-grandmother, we knew how to use flight magic from the moment we hatched!"

Her doubts were widely shared by the new interns, and whispers filled the teaching tower.

However, Xia Ying had anticipated this situation.

“That’s right, just as you said.” She nodded. “The harpy’s flight magic, the bear-man’s enhancement magic, the scorpion lion’s poison magic, the earth colossus’s parasitic magic… these magical talents are basically innate.”

The noise grew louder, but Xia Ying continued calmly, "However, my teacher Jormungandr once told me that even the same magic can have very different effects when used by different abyssal creatures, or even by different individuals of the same species of abyssal creature."

“That does seem to be the case.” Harpy thought for a moment. “In my tribe, there is also a harpy who is most skilled at flying, but isn’t that also predetermined from birth?”

Xia Ying said, "I don't think so, Harpie."

Just as the harpy was about to continue arguing, Xia Ying suddenly raised a finger: "If words alone cannot convince you, perhaps we can verify it together."

As she spoke, she manipulated wind magic to send herself to the top of the teaching tower and waved to the harpy.

“Come, Harpie, try to fly to me as fast as you can.”

What's so difficult about that? Harpy tilted her head. For a harpy, flying was as easy as breathing.

Although she didn't understand the other party's intentions, she transformed into the form most suitable for flight as Xia Ying had said. Feathers covered her body, her bones became stronger and lighter, and her huge wings spread out and flapped powerfully.

The flight magic gathered the airflow under its wings, and Harpy took off, propelled by the wind, soaring upwards towards the summer fireflies.

In just a few seconds, the harpy had already crossed half the height of the tower, and the distance between her and Xia Ying was still rapidly closing. The gale whipped up by her wings lifted the hem of Xia Ying's clothes, making the ornaments in her hair jingle.

However, just when Harpie thought the other was within reach, an invisible wall suddenly blocked her way.

The barrier wasn't a tangible object, but rather a turbulent flow of air that forced Harpie to change course whenever she tried to cross it, lest she fall.

Thus, the abyssal creatures in the training tower witnessed a strange scene: the harpy hovered and lingered not far in front of the succubus, yet refused to fly forward for a long time.

The harpy couldn't understand what was happening. Her anxiety grew as her goal, so close yet unattainable, grew stronger. So she gritted her teeth, increased the frequency of her wingbeats, and charged straight upwards.

The moment she crossed the barrier, her prized flight magic betrayed Harpy for the first time. Her wings could no longer effectively gather strong winds, and the dissipating air currents could no longer support her body, leaving her helplessly plummeting downwards.

The harpy let out a shocked and bewildered cry, then the barrier was removed, and a fresh breeze lifted her up and pushed her in front of Xia Ying.

Harpie asked, puzzled, "Why couldn't I get close to you just now?"

Xia Ying replied, "Because I used the [Wind God Earrings]."

"Isn't this magical artifact supposed to only let you fly? But why..."

“Actually, the Wind God Earrings grant me the ability to control wind-attribute magic,” Xia Ying said. “Harpie, it and the flight magic you were born with originate from the same law.”

The harpy tried hard to understand what she was saying, so Xia Ying simply used a more direct way of expressing it: "Your wish is to fly faster, while my wish is exactly the opposite. Under these two conflicting intentions, the magic element obeyed my command."

Harpie's eyes widened.

“You see, I am not a harpy, I do not have a body suitable for flight, nor do I have innate magical talent... and the Wind God’s Earring is just an ordinary magical artifact. But even so, the wind still chose me.”

Xia Ying curled her lips into a highly provocative smile.

"Harpie, do you still insist that the strength of magic is predetermined at birth?"

####

After some time, Jormungandr entered the tower of teachers and began the day's formal lessons.

Abyssal creatures are always impatient; they tend to believe the known more than the unknown, experience more than theory, and the visible more than the invisible.

Jormungandr knew this all too well, and sometimes he even felt that this trait was one of the curses that the dying god had placed upon the creatures of the abyss.

There is really nothing less unsuitable for the concept of "school" than abyssal creatures. Apart from the great and terrifying Lord of Demons, there is probably no other being capable of accomplishing the feat of establishing a monster school.

However, today seems a little different.

Jormungandr noticed the change in atmosphere within the teaching tower. His gaze swept over Xia Ying, who was engrossed in writing, and he merely smiled faintly before calmly continuing the lesson.

Xia Ying was oblivious to Jormungandr's gaze; she was preoccupied with her worries while looking at her notebook.

The notebook contained a list of wilderness missions and related information provided to her by the Diner. After some consideration, Xia Ying circled one of the mission numbers.

Wilderness Quest #84: [The Goddess's Conflict]. Let's start with this one.

Based on the known information, Xia Ying wrote a note in small print next to it:

"Number of participants for the mission initiation >= 3"

In other words, we need to recruit at least two more members for the strategy. Should we post recruitment ads on the forum, or search directly in the Wilderness Hall...?

Xia Ying took out her phone, opened her friends list, opened each chat window one by one, and sent invitation messages.

Not long after, the phone vibrated slightly twice.

She responded to the invitation to pursue her.

Fenrir sent you a message: "Okay."

Qiongqi sent you a message: "When?"

Xia Ying quickly typed replies to the messages, and after finalizing the plan with both parties, her phone went silent again.

She hesitated for a moment, but couldn't resist opening Cerberus's chat interface.

He still hasn't replied to the message.

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Author's Note: I'm going to be featured in a magazine tomorrow, so I'm updating early today. The next update will be on Tuesday (September 16th) after 11 AM.