Chapter 378 "Dream Weaver, Welcome!"

After landing, Xia Nan paid no attention to the familiar mechanical voice chiming in his head.

His first move was to draw the [Azure Pine] wooden sword from his back to use as a makeshift weapon, taking a few quick steps to reach the cleric's corpse.

His focus was razor-sharp, his vigilance unwavering. His keen Perception swept over the body again and again until he confirmed that the man was completely dead.

Only then did he finally let out a sigh of relief.

Sheathing the wooden sword, he picked up the [Ember Fall] straight sword from the ground. He wiped the residual blood from its surface, carefully checking the blade for any scratches or nicks as he approached the Church entrance.

He checked on Margaret and Thordin. Seeing the rhythmic rise and fall of their chests and their steady, even breathing, he concluded they had merely passed out and were in no serious danger.

He then conducted a detailed sweep of the Church, confirming there were no additional enemies and that the area was temporarily safe.

Xia Nan finally spared some attention to review the flood of information that had appeared in his mind following the successful entry of the Dynamic Password:

"Password verification successful!"

"Dream Weaver, welcome!"

"Checking Memory Archive Repository—"

"Warning! Storage unit damaged. Please contact the equipment manufacturer for maintenance and repair!"

"Connecting to Online Memory Cloud—"

"Failed to detect network!"

"Attempting localized connection—"

"Attempting to search for Neural Source Trajectory. Subjective Experience Log generating—"

Xia Nan had seen these exact same words once before, back when he successfully used the [Fate Coin] to input the key and unlock the [Dream Weaving Corridor].

Because they contained too much specialized terminology, he hadn't fully understood what these prompts meant at the time.

But now, having gone through a dream experience once, he had formed a few guesses about some of them.

This so-called damaged "Memory Archive Repository" was likely the dream archive stored by the company or institution that manufactured the [Dream Weaving Corridor] in its original world.

He didn't know the exact contents of those archives, but they had likely been lost and damaged when the device traveled through space and time to the Aifala Continent, making them impossible to recover.

As for the subsequent "localized connection," this occurred after the repository was damaged. The [Dream Weaving Corridor] actively generated a dream by searching through the memories of the Aifala Continent it currently resided in.

His mind drifted back to that immersive experience—the entire process of the [Fang Hunt] combat technique's creation and refinement, the half-blood Barbarian, and the Winter Wolf with fur as black as night.

A thoughtful expression appeared on Xia Nan's face.

He had no idea how the [Dream Weaving Corridor] managed to gather these stories, long buried in the river of time, or how it made every detail of the dream feel so real, as if he were recalling it firsthand.

But there was no doubt that for him, the one activating the dream, this was a great thing.

Setting aside the absurdly large amounts of combat technique proficiency gained afterward, everything he experienced within the dream itself went a long way toward helping him better understand the world he was now in.

It even allowed him to pick up some minor tricks from the dreams along the way, such as the bit of stealth experience he currently possessed courtesy of the Barbarian from the [Fang Hunt] dream.

The stream of information flashed through his mind, replaced by icons representing the several combat techniques he currently possessed:

A wooden sword leaving a perfect, sweeping afterimage—[Spinning Slash];

A pitch-black Winter Wolf crouching deep within the shadows—[Fang Hunt];

A minimalist design of pure dots and lines, resembling the orbital trajectories of celestial bodies—[Gravity Control];

A scattering cluster of ochre-red light bursting like a firework—[Gravity Etching];

And finally, a small, solitary wisp of weak flame swaying on its own, carrying an inexplicable sense of desolation and sorrow—[Ember Echoes].

Among them, both [Spinning Slash] and [Fang Hunt] were already at max level, leaving the remaining three combat techniques with plenty of room for improvement.

The [Dream Weaving Corridor] currently had 9.27% energy remaining. This was over three times the 3% that had directly pushed his [Fang Hunt] proficiency from past the halfway point of Level 4 straight to max level.

Xia Nan initially thought he had plenty of options.

For example, he could raise [Gravity Control], which had a hellish difficulty for gaining proficiency, by one level. Or, as he had previously speculated, he could advance a max-level technique like [Spinning Slash] into a higher-tier combat technique.

But after trying them one by one, he discovered that only [Gravity Etching] and [Ember Echoes] met the conditions to activate a dream.

In terms of proficiency, the former was already at Level 3, while the latter hadn't even reached the halfway mark of Level 1.

Considering a combat technique of [Fang Hunt]'s caliber, 3% energy could provide 48 proficiency points—though there might have been some overflow, since it had directly jumped to max Level 5.

Therefore, for [Gravity Etching], which Xia Nan considered to be of the same tier, this current 9% energy had a very high chance of pushing it straight from Level 3 to the Mastery rank of Level 5.

This was an incredibly tempting prospect for him.

After all, according to this world's professional advancement system, raising a combat technique to the Mastery rank also meant an increase in Class Level.

Currently, Xia Nan's class, [Meteor Blade Hunter], was at the Level 2 tier.

For such a niche and unpopular class that only maxed out at Level 5, Level 3 was a highly critical milestone.

Based on the advancement information he had previously gathered at the Association regarding other classes with a Level 5 cap, reaching Level 3 meant he had a high probability of acquiring a specialized Feat unique to the [Meteor Blade Hunter] class.

He might even go a step further and directly reach the Novice tier of another powerful combat technique within his class system, just as he had with his class-innate [Gravity Etching].

For Xia Nan, who was currently agonizing over how niche his class was and how difficult it was to find related combat techniques, this was exactly what he desired most.

In comparison, the otherworldly [Ember Echoes] was perhaps much higher in quality than [Gravity Etching]. Its special ability—the Stage 2 explosive burst—functioned almost like a second life, proving highly effective in actual combat as a powerful trump card capable of turning the tide.

But with only 9% energy, Xia Nan didn't think the [Dream Weaving Corridor] could raise the proficiency level of [Ember Echoes] straight from Level 1 to Level 5. Pushing it to Level 3 might even be a struggle.

Taking all of this into consideration, his choice was very clear.

Without any further hesitation, Xia Nan's consciousness gently tapped on the icon in his mind—the scattering cluster of ochre-red light bursting like a firework.

With a hum, the once-static, intricate icon suddenly sprang to life. The ochre-red forcefield energy bloomed with a faint light. The cluster first contracted inward, then violently expanded outward, simulating the visual of [Gravity Etching] detonating.

"Activate Experience Log?"

Xia Nan confirmed.

"Activation successful!"

"Localized connection relevance is poor. Attempting deep retrieval—"

"Retrieval failed!"

"Dream Weaver associated entity detected. Attempting to connect to the Dream Weaving Network—"

"Connection successful!"

"Proceeding with substitution simulation—"