Transcending Dreams

William stared at the headless body of the Pyralisk while scratching his chin in confusion. There must be a reason it had been preserved, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why.

Like the foodie he had become by necessity, his first thought was to how he should go about eating it. The problem was that he would literally burn his mouth if he tried, which would be the best situation.

It was more likely that he would be lit on fire from the inside out. So obviously, doing something as stupid as taking a bite into the rocky, flamey body was not an option.

William waffled for a few more seconds before resorting to an option he didn’t want to take.

Storing the body in his spatial stone.

Since it couldn’t handle the preservation of high-quality spiritual fruits, he certainly expected the same issue with a spirit beast. However, something barely above the level of trash was better than abandoning the body.

William placed his palm on the dead Pyralisk and surrounded it in his Qi before pulling the body into his spatial stone.

With that taken care of, he needed to figure out what to do next. William looked around the heaven on earth that sprouted from the giant’s blood and saw far too many areas to explore, the massive tree being the largest target.

As crazy as it sounded, he didn’t think he had unlimited time to do so. The Pyralisk that broke through the wall will not be the only beast that would intrude the paradise. And the more beasts that do, the faster this place will deteriorate.

William moved to where the Pyralisk broke through the wall and frowned when the heat he felt on his skin increased exponentially. Not quite at the level he experienced when he was dropped into this level, but far closer to it than he would like.

A look out the hole confirmed what he suspected. This place was an oasis from the hell that was out there.

And the way the red fog seemed in and seemed to reclaim the land taken by the paradise meant he shouldn’t try to explore for pleasure.

William’s goal on this level was to destroy the contaminated spirit beasts. The only focus he should have was on acquiring things that would let him last in the hellish environment without the need to pop Vitality Restoration Pills constantly.

He didn’t believe it would be possible to find the contaminated beasts quickly with the vast size of this level. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this was a direct comparison to finding a needle in a haystack.

With a firm goal in his mind, he decided to ignore most of this place and put all his attention on the tree. It was likely where the most incredible finds were located anyway.

Of course, when he moved a little closer, William saw something that made him abandon his firm goal almost immediately.

Water.

Well, it's a waterfall, but same thing, really.

William hadn’t been able to see it previously since it had been hidden by an outgrown part of the tree that hid it away perfectly. But now that he had, all he could think of was if this would have the same effect as the water in the oasis.

Since Sophia had made this entire dimension, it wouldn’t be a stretch for this to be possible. Maybe she got the idea to base the oasis water on something that could be extracted from the creatures she placed here.

William honestly had no idea, but he was creating every possible excuse and reasoning in his mind on why it wasn’t a gigantic gamble to waste his time visiting a waterfall on the other side of this place instead of going right to the tree.

At the very least, it would waste a few hours if nothing unexpected slowed him down, and at the worst, an entire day or two could easily pass with nothing gained from it.

He already knew his mind had been made up. It was to the water he goes. He prayed to Sophia that it would answer his ridiculously high Impurity problem.

Even though his new destination was on the other side of the tree, William didn’t take a direct path to it. It might be the shortest distance to the waterfall, but it certainly wouldn’t be the fastest time-wise.

There were far too many obstacles if he traveled in a straight line in the form of increasingly thick vegetation the closer one got to the tree. It was also likely that there were unknown dangers, but that was just a guess at the moment.

On the other hand, if William stayed near the wall, there was nothing to be worried about. Unless the grass here suddenly gained the ability to fight him.

… William slowly looked down and stared at the grass before pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

He had forgotten the entire reason that he had decided to fight the Pyralisk.

It was to eat grass without being disturbed.

William squatted, gently rubbing his hand on the soft grass and wondering if he would really do this. Did he really fall to the level of eating grass in case it might help it?

Of course, he was. That was never in doubt, especially since he had already done so before in The Garden. Since the grass here looked to be of much higher quality, he even considered it as a delicacy.

William ripped some of the grass, only a pinch, before putting it in his mouth. He had expected the refreshing feeling that came with eating high-quality spirit plants, but all that he could actually taste was grass.

The extremely strong taste of the most grassy grass that existed.

It suddenly brought back memories of him as a child in his old world, when he had to eat grass because he had lost a dumb schoolyard bet.

However, William didn’t care about the taste. All he wanted to know was if it would help him increase his stats.

Of course, the moment he thought about his stats, he immediately started to spit out the half-chewed grass like it would kill him.

William even went as far as to rub his tongue to get all the traces of grass out of his mouth. Thankfully, it seemed like it didn’t have any effect on him. Either because he didn’t eat enough of it or the grass was utterly useless to him.

“I’m such a fucking idiot,” William muttered as he shook his head after the fright.

If eating the grass had raised his stats, the Impurity would have jumped to Stage 2. William was disgusted at his own carelessness.

He stood back up and decided to ignore everything he was tempted to eat and started to make his way to the waterfall by circling around the edge. It was possible to use his full speed and quickly cover the distance since the only thing he really had to be wary of was more break-ins by the spirit beasts that lived outside of this wall.

William was almost halfway to the destination after around thirty minutes of full-on sprinting. He was able to see the waterfall much more clearly from here.

The water seemed to originate from the tree itself before it fell off the edge that appeared to be made of pitch-black rock. He couldn’t see the bottom of the waterfall since it was blocked by vegetation, but he questioned if there was one at all.

There should have been some sort of river or lake that had formed due to the sheer amount of water the waterfall contained, but there were no signs of that.

[Lord Paddlington: Did you come here with some friends?]

William halted in his tracks from his surprise at the system alert. He looked around to see where the turtle was, but it seemed to be nowhere in sight.

[Lord Paddlington: This girl seems to know how to use the Oasis of Respite. She will be heading to your level soon. Do you want me to send her to you?]

His eyes brightened, realizing that this was Princess Jin. William had tried to keep the thoughts of the other two that came here to a minimum since he honestly thought they were goners. Everything he had met seemed to be so far above their level that thinking otherwise was pure ridiculousness.

William wanted to tell the turtle to send Princess Jin here but had no way to send a message back. It made a sick feeling form in his stomach, thinking of the girl dying in the fiery hell outside this wall.

[Lord Paddlington: Right, you cannot reply. This girl seems to be too weak to survive on her own. I will send her to you.]

William let out a sigh of relief and mentally thanked Sophia for not making the turtle unnecessarily sadistic. He waited for a few seconds for another message, but instead of that, the air above him darkened to reveal a void.

Lord Paddlington appeared near the edge of the void, giving him a small wave with its flipper before throwing a shocked Princess Jin down at him.