Neo held Gabriel close in the middle of her office, her body warm against his. She suddenly laughed, the sound light and sharp.

"It looked like I’m paying for your service."

Neo laughed with her, the tension in his shoulders easing for a moment. He nodded.

"I would go now toward my place."

Gabriel nodded back. Then she snapped her fingers. The world twisted. Neo’s vision went black, and the next second he was standing in the familiar air of his tribe.

He opened his eyes and moved at once. He rushed through the halls, asking every member of his harem he passed about Martha. No one had seen her until he found Luna walking down the hallway.

"Martha is washing clothes outside," Luna said.

Neo felt a flicker of confusion. They had dozens of maids. There was no reason for Martha to be out there doing laundry. Then his eyes widened. He knew her habits better than that. The only time Martha washed clothes herself was when something heavy sat on her mind and she needed the quiet work to think.

He stepped outside and saw her by the tubs, sleeves rolled up, hands moving through the wet fabric. He sat down near her and gently poked her shoulder.

"Martha, is everything alright with you?"

She nodded at first. Then she hesitated, her hands slowing in the water.

"There was indeed some problems," she said quietly.

"What is it?"

Martha’s voice stayed low. "I was recently having nightmares about my death... and yours."

Neo’s eyes widened. The pale look on her face, the tired lines around her eyes, the way her shoulders stayed tight even while she worked—it all clicked into place. She looked sick with it.

A system window opened in front of him without warning.

**Quest: Find the demon who is playing with Martha’s mind and kill him before he kills her and you.**

**Demon’s name: Altaris**

**Strength: Star 15**

**Type: Dream-based demon**

**Note: Because of his ability to manipulate dreams and non-physical elements, the demon will not appear normally in the physical world. He appears for only one hour each day at 7 p.m. in an area named the Dreamland, deep in the forest. That is the host’s only chance to kill him. Be alerted—the Dreamland is a special place where the demon has lived for thousands of years. That place is dangerous.**

Neo nodded once, the words burning into his mind. He looked at Martha again—pale, sick, holding herself together by force of will. He did not have time to waste. He pulled up the system map. His eyes widened further. The Dreamland sat all the way on the other side of the forest, almost next to the Valley of Death.

He cursed under his breath. Reaching that distance before 7 p.m. would be tight even at full speed.

He put two fingers to his lips and whistled. Pinky came at once. She landed lightly beside him, metal joints soft and precise.

"Master, finally we have another journey," she said, bright and ready.

Neo did not call for Tara. She would tire on a run this long, and more importantly she carried childhood trauma. A dream demon would zero in on the deepest fears it could find. Pinky was the perfect counter—she was a robot. She could not dream. For himself, Neo opened his inventory and stared at the 25 million mana stones he still held. He scrolled fast through the mental defense skills in the shop, buying every attack and barrier skill he could find that targeted the mind. One after another the purchases stacked until the list hit one hundred different ranks.

Then he used the fusion skill. The system churned the entire set together and produced a single result:

**SS-rank skill: Shield of the Mind**

**Effect: When activated, any type of mental attack below Star 50 becomes useless against the user.**

Neo checked the shop price for the finished skill out of habit. His eyes widened again—40 million mana stones. For a second the old merchant instinct kicked in: buy cheap skills, fuse them, sell the result for profit. He shut the thought down hard. Fusion was never guaranteed to produce something stronger, and he did not have the minutes to gamble. Martha’s face was still in his head, pale and strained.

He activated Torch Man mode. Heat and light flared around his body until he looked like a living sun. He shot straight into the sky, air screaming past him, and shouted for Pinky to follow. She rocketed up beside him without hesitation. Together they cut through the upper air, racing toward the far side of the forest.

The wind hammered Neo’s face as he pushed past the sound barrier. He glanced sideways at Pinky.

"Are you charged and ready enough for the fight ahead?"

Pinky closed her eyes for a brief system check. "I am charged now at 87 percent. I can perform almost all my functions perfectly."

Neo nodded. He looked down. They had already passed over the Valley of Death. Ahead stretched a huge stretch of forest sealed under a thick purple barrier. That had to be the Dreamland.

"We stop down there and make a plan, okay?"

Pinky nodded. They slowed and dropped, landing just outside the barrier. Neo led them into a thick bush. They crouched low, shoulders almost touching.

"The plan is simple," Neo said. "We enter from different directions and meet at the center. Each of us inspects for traps along the way. I put my faith in the inspection functions of my system status."

Pinky jumped in place, metal feet soft on the dirt. "I can scan a massive area thanks to my recognize-and-attack system."

Neo nodded. "I’ll take the left side. You take the right. We meet in the center. If you see the enemy already there, find something solid to hide behind and wait for me."

Pinky nodded again. Neo grinned once, sharp and focused. The real reason he wanted the scan was the fighting ground itself. A dream demon would lean on mental attacks, not pure physical power. If either of them stepped into a trap while under that kind of pressure, the result could be worse than death.

They both stood. Neo flared Torch Man mode again and lifted into the air along his chosen path. Pinky took the opposite arc. The moment they crossed the purple barrier the air changed. A torrent of mental pressure slammed into Neo’s mind like a wave of knives. He gritted his teeth and activated Shield of the Mind every few seconds, forcing the skill to cycle again and again. He thanked whatever luck he still had that he had left Tara behind. Without the shield firing constantly he would have lost his grip on reality within minutes. The only real drawback was that the skill was not passive. He had to keep triggering it by hand. If it had been passive he would have been able to fight the demon in a far more relaxed way.

They finished the scan and met in the middle of the zone. The number of traps Neo had marked could only be called countless. Every one of them was creative and unique, combining different approaches and targeting different weaknesses.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!

Report chapter

Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter