Transcending Dreams

Thinking of this beautiful underwater paradise and the hellish desert that he had experienced as one and the same was unfair, but that was what William’s mind was starting to conclude.

After a certain point, wandering around the beautiful sights was getting equally repetitive as seeing sand as far as the eyes could see. There was only so much that stunning corals and carelessly swimming fish could make him stop and look for more than a glance.

What made William even less interested was that there seemed to be nothing important to his cultivation on this level. That could have been considered a given since one of the few things that the Sophia-doll mentioned, at least indirectly.

Besides being a place to get accustomed to the Qi, this level wasn’t meant to be anything else. Of course, he didn’t believe that and wasted his time swimming around accomplishing nothing.

William stopped near the very edge, where it changed from containing aquatic life to complete emptiness. He pushed out a hand and wasn’t surprised to feel some sort of barrier stopping him from going further. This was one of the first things he tested.

He was locked in here until he was able to kill those contaminated beasts.

William turned to glance at the nearly invisible safe zone in the distance. Even though he could sustain his body underwater for a length that likely reached days, it was comforting that he had a vague idea of how long it would take to reach the only place with oxygen.

Since sight no longer was of any help, William had been straining his senses to try and feel the barest hint of the Qi in the water increasing in density. Thus far, it had been equally as useless as his sight.

A stray thought passed in his mind that he was going around in circles under an illusion, just like in the forest. However, since he was using the distant bubble as a marker to keep track of his general location, that was very unlikely.

William shook his head to get his wandering mind back into focus. This level might have been Sophia’s personal fish tank for all he knew. It wasn’t even that much of a stretch since he was explicitly warned not to bother any of the aquatic life here, though calling it aquatic life was very much a stretch.

Other than the eerily similar schools of blue and green fish abundantly available, nothing else existed. Of course, Lord Paddlington of the Deepwater Abyss didn’t count since that turtle, by its own admission, was created by Sophia.

… Didn’t that mean it was possible that Fatty Xu was also a created life? William tilted his head as he considered that scary theory. It certainly explained why the system didn’t give the standard information it offered with everyone he met. Sophia must have designed the system to discover the name and level of natural life, and it might not work on things created artificially.

Perhaps they were some sort of constructs? Golems? Alchemic creations?

William honestly didn’t know much about things like this. From what he remembered, they weren’t common in cultivation worlds. However, the existence of Sophia must have caused changes that he still hadn’t discovered. After all, it would be strange if all she had changed in this world’s culture was how hotel rooms were designed.

He blinked, realizing that his thoughts had once again gone off track. The effect Sophia had on the culture of this world was something that he could wonder about all he wanted once he was free from this dimension.

William slapped his face to snap himself out of it, but it didn’t have the same effect since he was currently underwater. What was supposed to be solid contact turned out weak and disappointing instead.

He kept himself high above the floor to have a decent vantage of everything around him and tried to see if something looked out of place.

The saving grace of the desert compared to this was that the only thing that existed there was sand. Finding the tiny blip that ended up being the oasis was an easy task. It stuck out like a sore thumb.

Such a find was not possible here.

Not only were there colorful corals dotting the underwater landscape, the damned fish seemed to want to get his attention by merrily swimming through the area he was focused on. And they were always in massive schools, never solitary.

William spent far too long floating in the same spot, trying to discover a clue of where to go next. He only stopped when a truly enormous school of fish was coming right at him, as if there wasn’t nearly endless empty space around him. With a roll of his eyes, he kept the warning he received in his heart and avoided any contact by swimming away.

Around another hour passed, and William was starting to understand how vast this place was. He had lost sight of the safe zone since he had been swimming at a brisk pace in the opposite direction, but he still couldn’t see any end in front of him. It seemed that he was hopelessly lost on what to do and where to go. The best choice might be to return to the safe zone and try to find the smug turtle, Lord Paddlington.

“You have been accustomed to the Qi by lasting three hours without detriment. Prepare to be transported to the next level.”

William instantly recognized Sophia’s voice. He looked around frantically to see where she was, but it seemed it was just her disembodied voice. It took him a second after that to realize what she had said.

He had been searching endlessly for nothing. All he had to do was sit next to the bubble for three hours before the same thing happened.

William didn’t fight the sudden suction he felt pulling him down to the floor, nor did he panic at the sudden appearance of a brightly shining array.

… That wasn’t the complete truth. He panicked just a little, but that was to be expected since he was terrified of death. He would soon fight against spirit beasts far above his level, and there would be no running away this time.

As William was steadily getting pulled down, almost at a snail’s pace, the only thing he could talk to in this horrible place reappeared.

Lord Paddlington of Deepwater Abyss was a few arm lengths away, a gummy smile proudly displayed on its face. It's tiny, smug, stupidly infuriating face.

He knew the turtle had likely watched him bumble around with that same smile. Why could he not meet someone, or something, helpful for once?

[Lord Paddlington: Do try to return without losing a limb. My Lady has chosen you for a reason, and it’s certainly not strength. Having that many digits must be the key to your luck.]

William saw it wave its flipper at him before the world flashed a blinding white. He was familiar with this. He experienced the same process when a teleportation array was activated.

Where he landed, though, was not familiar. Not at all.

William was deep under a lake in an oasis, not to mention that he was inside an endlessly deep trench that was mindbogglingly vast, so he thought it wasn’t too farfetched to expect that he would still be surrounded by water.

Of course, the one thing that William kept forgetting was that things wouldn’t go the way he thought.

“Fuck!” William cursed as he dodged the burst of fire that shot toward him from an actual lava pit. He quickly turned his head to follow the fire, and his eyes widened at seeing it land into another lava pit far too close behind him.

It was telling that he could barely feel the heat emanating from it due to the scorching temperature everywhere. William was honestly surprised that he didn’t combust from what he could feel.

He hoped to any higher power, or in this case, Dread Empress Sophia, that this ability to not get damaged by the heat wasn’t some weird temporary effect of being completely surrounded by water a few seconds ago. If it was, that wouldn’t surprise him at all.

Going from an underwater environment to its opposite in every way was jarring. Still, William already knew what he had to do. If the desert caused him constant health loss due to being an inhospitable environment, then this would certainly do the same.

He wanted to take his time while trying to take down these contaminated beasts, but that no longer seemed to be an option. Risks would need to be taken before the only way to survive would be by popping an endless amount of Vitality Restoration pills.