Chapter 23: A Visit Within Dreams!
Chapter 23: A Visit Within Dreams!
As Frank fell asleep after such a long day where he pretty much lived two different lives in two different worlds, he was engulfed in strange dreams.
His consciousness drifted through a strange cloud of everlasting darkness, his body felt light and his senses dulled, it was soothing and relaxing.
“Why am I… is this a dream? Wait… I am conscious inside a dream…?” Frank wondered as he felt that his ethereal consciousness dived through the vast darkness.
A dot of light appeared within the darkness as Frank naturally moved towards that bright light, slowly approaching it as if he let himself be moved by the sea of shadows.
Suddenly, a warm sensation embraced his senses, as he entered through the small space that leaked the light within the shadows.
Flash!
The blinding light engulfed his senses of sight, despite not having a physical body in this dream, he felt that his eyes burned for a bit.
When the light began to dissipate, he found himself in vast and grassy plains. Such grass was green and fragrant, despite not having a physical body in such dreams, everything seemed overly realistic…
“Am I really in a dream, or was I suddenly teleported to a world without my permission?” asked Frank, glancing at the vast blue sky and the bright sun illuminating the calm and beautiful scenery.
Suddenly, the voice of what seemed to be a mature woman resonated within Frank’s hearing senses, “The first option” it said.
“So this is a dream after all- Huh? Who is there?” asked Frank, glancing at his surroundings to find the figure of what seemed to be a woman.
Her figure was slender and mature, with wide hips and chest, her skin was pale white, and her eyes shined brightly as if they were two golden suns. Her hair waved across the vast of the dream as if it had merged with the world, waving in different colors that made Frank dizzy for a few seconds.
“Hello, Frank. How was your first day?” asked the woman, she was wearing a simple white dress, seemingly made entirely out of one piece of semi-transparent clothing.
“My first day… It was… very tiring… But I managed somehow- Wait, can you tell me who are you? Maybe you’re just a projection inside of my dream?” Frank asked with intrigue.
“I’m glad you enjoyed your first day… And who am I? I do not think I need to tell you. It is quite obvious who I am just by looking at my grace, is it?” asked the woman.
“…No, I don’t know you at all, nee-chan,” said Frank.
The woman chuckled as she said: “What good jokes you like to tell… its impossible for you to not be able to recognize your benefactor- wait, are you serious?” asked the woman, her eyebrows showcasing an expression of disbelief.
“…Benefactor?” asked Frank.
“Sigh… You’re… You are really something, are you not, Frank James? Doesn’t the name Gaia resonate with you?” asked the woman.
“Gaia? Like the world of the Monster Tamer App?” Frank asked.
“No! Like the goddess! They called me Gaia, Terra, the mother of earth… Earth itself???” asked the woman.
“You’re earth itself? No way a woman like you would be such an important figure… I am really tripping in this dream, am I not? Maybe I should try to enjoy it?” said Frank as he glanced at the woman’s body, a few ideas popped up on his mind as the woman sensed them and blushed.
“Y-You indecent human! I give you a gift and this is the first thing you say to me?! Where is your gratitude?” asked the woman.
“Wait, you’re actually serious? No… No way, this is not real, right?” Frank asked.
“Y-You! Be more respectful!” said the woman, asking for respect like an immature girl.
“Okay, I believe you… There is not a thing I can do anyway, if it is just a dream, might as well go with it… I’m sorry, could you forgive me?” asked Frank, giving in to the dream and trying to apologize for his weird thoughts, which the woman managed to see somehow. He felt that she was being immature, so an apology often given to children without much thought should work.
The woman cleaned her face as she sighed.
“Sigh… Fine! A-Anyways, I am glad that you had a nice and productive day, world traveler. There are more adventures for you to come, so stay strong and endure them, I am sure that they will bring gratification to your journey and the experiences that you will have… I’ve actually wanted to take a peek at you because being the literal earth is actually quite boring,” said the woman.
“Is that so…? Have you not been for billions of years?” asked Frank.
“Hah! Kind of, at first I didn’t have much of consciousness, but as life developed… well, you begin to slowly develop just as to them… you could call it collective consciousness, perhaps my personality to you might seem immature, but it is the most suited to talking with you according to what I saw within your history” said the woman with a smile.
“Collective consciousness? Okay, this dream is getting weirder and weirder… And my history? Are you some kind of cop? The FBI?” asked Frank.
“The what? No! I am me, Gaia! Terra, Earth, or whatever name you prefer!” said the woman.
“I will call you onee-san, then,” said Frank.
“That’s very Japanese of you, Frank-kun,” said Gaia.
“Anyways, if this dream is actually real, the earth itself came to visit me… so what do you need? Did you just come here to tell me that and that is it? And is it true that you gave me my ability?” asked Frank.
“Kind of, there were many factors, the world is more complex than you think… Actually, it’s kind of a miracle that you survived… Hehe…”
“Is it?! So I could have died?!” asked Frank.
“A-Anyways, why don’t we change topics? And yeah, I was part of how your powers came to be, the other several clues will have to be discovered by you! Or it would not be fun, right? Oh right! I called you here to give you a mission! Do you want to guess what it is? Fufu” laughed Gaia.
“…No,” said Frank.
“Sheesh! Okay, I will tell you, grab this exposition because it is a big bomb! Here we go! One… two… three…!” Gaia said.
“Could you please just spit it out?” asked Frank.
“You’re so boring! Okay, it’s simple! Save the world! Hehe~ Am I not good at exposition?” asked Gaia.
“How is that exposition? Are you asking me to save you? Aren’t you something like a goddess? Can’t you save yourself?” asked Frank.
“If I could, would I be asking you that question, to begin with?! And yeah… big things had been going on and… I am on the border of dying. And no, it’s not because of pollution like you humans always think… there are other factors. I am actually spending a ton of energy on just this little dream, so I might not talk to you in a while… Okay, to the point! Frank James, by traveling to other worlds and changing them through your actions, I will be capable of recovering! You gotta travel a lot and do it a lot too! Change them as much as you can, and don’t dare to lay low!” said Gaia.
“What are you talking about? Do you want me to die that badly?” asked Frank.
“No! That would be quite terrible… but it’s not like I can do much to help you anymore, that thing was my limit and that of the other guys, so you better grow using that Ability because we don’t have more power to simply make you invincible!” said Gaia.
“I see… What?! So, I need to change the world for you to recover?! How that makes sense?” asked Frank.
“Err… well, have you heard of the theory of the echo? Any action that you do always leaves an echo across the world, changing the events of almost everything, even if it is the smallest of actions. Through your influence and abilities as the world traveler, you can create these echoes even more! The more echoes you create, the more you will connect those worlds with me, and through those worlds’ power, I can recover! Easy, right? I had to resume it for you a ton, so don’t ask me more questions, please!” asked Gaia.
“Okay, okay, I kind of get it now… am I pressured by time by any chance? I want to take my time to do this… is it fine?” asked Frank.
“I think you can take your time, humans live like one hundred years, right? I might be dying, but it will take a lot in human years, although it might seem like very little time to me,” said Gaia.
“Okay, that’s nice, I didn’t want to be forced by the plot to move faster, that’s reassuring,” said Frank.
“The plot?” asked Gaia.
“Nothing, never mind… Have I done the echo thing after spending just a day in Terra?” asked Frank.
“Yes, even if you only talked with three people in total, the enormous echo you created will go through the entire world in a few weeks! Good job! I feel like I am recovering a bit now,” said Gaia.
“Seriously? I just hunted down a few rabbits with Ruby… an otherworldly monster… I made Gwendolyn call her witch friend to teach me magic… wait, is that witch a big shot in that world? Then… I might have done a big echo” thought Frank, realizing that his actions were rather big, despite him thinking that he was ‘laying low’.
“Anyways, now that I got the message delivered, I will go to sleep! Make sure to no die, okay? There is no plot armor like the one you’ve seen in your web novels here~!” said Gaia, disappearing and slowly crumbling Frank’s dream.
The next moment he gained consciousness was by the sound of the alarm in his room.
Ring, ring! Ring, ring!
“Seven in the morning already… Was all of that real…? No way, the earth can’t be a weird and immature woman… can it?” wondered Frank as he glanced at the ceiling of his room.
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Author’s Note: If you like the story please give any powerstone you could spare, if we reach a nice number there will be bonus chapters at the end of the week, it all depends on you!
Thank you very much for reading!