Alka surveyed the scene before him. The densely packed dream bubbles of intelligent creatures piled together and spread outward, resulting in far more dream creatures here than elsewhere.
A casual glance revealed numerous monsters resembling the Dream Grim Reaper and the shadow giant from before.
Virtually all the seemingly powerful monsters in the surrounding area had gathered in this area.
Clearly, the dream bubbles of intelligent life held a much stronger allure for these stronger dream creatures.
This place was practically their hunting ground.
Looking around, it was almost certain that a kind of dream ecosystem had formed here, fueled by the dreams of these intelligent creatures.
Surrounding these intelligent creatures' dream bubbles were also numerous dream bubbles of animals.
They seemed to be feeding these intelligent creatures.
Alka observed, drawing conclusions.
First, the size of these dream bubbles. He had observed everyone's dream bubbles, as well as others', during his time in the Home Sea.
He clearly understood the differences between ordinary people's dream bubbles and those of those who touched them, as well as the changes that occurred depending on the strength of each individual.
The vast majority of the dream bubbles before him had already reached the stage of one or two spirals, accounting for approximately 95% of all dream bubbles.
In other words, there were thousands of dream bubbles, and not a single one was ordinary.
These people all possessed some strength.
A small number of dream bubbles had reached the second stage.
And this so-called small number, Alka simply counted, numbered thirty or forty.
And these were still sleeping; perhaps there were many more awake out there.
Isn't it true that this is the Infinite Sea?
A random island with a colony of intelligent life could harbor so many powerful beings.
You know, in the Infinite Ocean, those who survive naturally become Touchers through growth.
As for the difference between naturally growing Touchers and those who become Touchers through touching treasures, Alka didn't know.
We'd have to wait and see.
Also, during this time, Alka saw several enormous dream bubbles.
These dream bubbles were even larger than his own.
Alka didn't know the specific power these dream bubbles represented.
But they were at least above the second stage.
On the ship, besides himself and Julia, the two newest arrivals had reached the second stage.
Simon's power was at the seventh spiral.
Mattha's power, like Julia's, was at the sixth spiral.
The next person to reach the second stage would likely be Pororo. The Storm Trial had significantly enhanced his strength.
Though his current strength seemed somewhat unstable, it was steadily climbing.
Recovering from his thoughts, Alka selected a dream bubble.
Judging from the size of the dream bubble, its owner's strength was approximately three spirals.
He casually eliminated the creatures outside the dream bubble, considering it his reward for entering and exploring it.
He quietly peeked inside.
A dense forest.
Alka took a quick look around. Besides the dense forest, all that remained was a pointed-roofed wooden house in the center of the dream.
It was more like a triangular tent, not the four-sided roofed structure Alka had always seen.
Instead, it was a triangular tent.
This structure seemed more solid and conserved wood.
The house was decorated with wild animal bones.
It gave it a savage feel.
Outside the house, a humanoid creature was whittling wood with a stick.
Arka quietly drifted over.
The humanoid creature looked up at Arka, then lowered its head and continued with its own business.
Just like all dreamers.
Arka looked at the man before him. It was obvious he was also from a unique race, as his skin was pale gray, and his eyes were completely red.
Not the scarlet of blood, but a blazing orange-red, as if his eyes were perpetually blazing with anger.
Additionally, his body bore some unknown totemic markings.
He looked like an uncivilized savage dwelling deep in the jungle.
But judging by his clothing, it was clear he was not. Although his upper body was bare, his lower body was covered in leather-like shorts.
He also wore a pair of hunting boots, perfect for maneuvering in the woods.
All this indicated he wasn't some wild man.
A wild man wouldn't have such excellent sewing skills.
Watching the man's movements, Alka considered his question.
Thankfully, the only thing he didn't have to worry about was whether the person before him could understand him.
In dreams, there were no distinctions between languages.
In dreams, language was simply a means of expression. No matter what language you spoke, the other person would understand, and vice versa.
After a moment's thought, Alka asked, "Are you going hunting?"
This question was based on the person's current behavior.
Alka could also gain some potentially useful information through this question.
The key was analyzing the range of questions the person in the dream could accept.
Upon hearing this question, the man raised his head and looked at Alka, a smile breaking out on his face.
"Hunting? No, I've already hunted successfully."
He stood up and entered the house, where a massive object was pulled out.
Alka looked at the triangular wooden house.
According to his theory, the interior of such a house was clearly not large enough to accommodate such a massive prey.
This was just a means of expression.
It was a dream, understandable.
Alka then looked at the massive creature being dragged out.
It resembled a deer, its horns intertwined and collided. The left horn extended to meet the right, then extended upwards from the right, while the right horn extended in the opposite direction.
The middle of the upper horn formed an X.
Its fur was pure black, and it had a long, slender, pointed tail like a demon.
Alka calculated the length of the creature, which was about six meters, and nearly two meters tall.
For humans, it was a true giant.
The man before him, inspired by Alka's words, launched into a torrent of descriptions.
"Thundercaller, see the length of its horns? It must be a warrior of its tribe. With its horns and tail, I can receive another totem."
"Then, he thought, he could imagine something strange.
Alka was silent for a moment.
This was the first time he had encountered such a proactive dream master.
Thinking about it, he could probably understand.
It was like catching a giant fish, the kind that slithered through the streets.
He couldn't wait to let everyone know he had landed a giant fish.
Alka had seen Jason behave this way many times, so it was familiar.
In other words, he had actually hunted such a prey in reality, and it had manifested in his dream.
This was perfectly normal.
Alka then followed up the question, asking, "With his horns and tail, can you?"
"I can receive the Thundermarks. Then, perhaps I can become a warrior of my tribe and master the power of lightning."
He returned it to Alka, and she looked at the totem patterns on his arms.
The totem patterns stretched from the upper arms all the way to the backs of the shoulders, with different patterns on each side.
The totem on one side looked like a cat, while the totem on the other resembled a boar.
Hearing the man's words, Alka narrowed his eyes in thought.
Then he asked, "Did they transform the two materials you mentioned into something and engrave it on your body?"
The man before him nodded.
As expected.
Then Alka asked what kind of creatures he had hunted with the two totems he already had.
Whenever the question turned to the creatures he had hunted, he would begin to describe them to Alka endlessly.
From his description, Alka learned that the two creatures he had hunted had reached the power of one and two spirals, respectively.
The deer he had hunted had reached three spirals.
Gradual progress, huh?
And the patterns on his body were carved from the materials of these creatures, to harness their power.
Aren't these the materials for spells?
Isn't it too hasty to forcibly engrave materials on his body to harness the power of a spell without having learned the spell?
Looking at the person before him, it was clear that their tribe all did this.
This was a method used by carvers.
And they carve people like objects.
From what Alka knew, it wasn't unheard of in the Al Home Sea, but ordinary people simply weren't strong enough to withstand such pressure.
Not to mention, ordinary people simply didn't possess any magical power, so even if they were engraved, it wouldn't activate.
And using this method on the person touched was useless. Those who could withstand and use it would naturally learn it, and then use it with greater ease.
So was it a method unique to the Infinite Sea?
Or was it a method that this race before him could use?
Alka didn't know. He asked a few more questions, but the person before him stopped answering.
He only cared about his prey and the issues surrounding it.
Alka left his dream. There were plenty of dream bubbles around, and as long as he found the right dream owner to question, Alka would be able to obtain sufficient information and intelligence.
He randomly chose a nearby dream bubble and entered it again, helping him clear out the dream creatures surrounding it.
After much questioning,
Alka finally obtained some of the information he sought.
First, they knew that the place they lived on was indeed an island, just a very large one.
Alka inquired and learned that they were the only intelligent creatures on the island.
These people called themselves the Broken Islanders, still considering themselves human because the island was called the Broken Isle.
However, Alka didn't ask why the island was called that, as most people didn't know the reason themselves.
Second, Alka roughly understood the composition of the power on their island.
First, the island was home to many powerful beasts. No, they couldn't even be called beasts anymore.
They could simply be called Warcraft instead.
Based on the information Alka had gathered, he speculated that some had reached the second stage of strength.
He had entered the dream of a person at the second stage and asked some related questions.
Furthermore, this island was extremely dangerous, referring to the island's environment.
Also, it was best to keep quiet and refrain from talking nonsense outside.
In addition to these questions, Alka also deduced from some people's dreams that some had sailed the sea.
And these people who had sailed the sea were generally among the best in the entire settlement.
Now, almost all of them were at or above the second stage of strength.
However, Alka did not inquire about any information related to treasures.
Because no one's dreams had yet related to this.
As for the several enormous dream bubbles, Alka did not venture to explore them.
He had never seen the dream bubbles of those at the third stage or above, and had no idea of the extent to which they controlled their own dream bubbles.
What if they were discovered?
So, out of caution, Alka didn't enter.
Instead, he asked countless people around him if they were hostile to outsiders.
The final conclusion was no.
Outsiders often visited this island, so this wasn't surprising. Some islanders even followed them out.
Many of the island's items were traded with these outsiders.
Almost every once in a while, outsiders would trade with them, and some strangers they had never seen would explore the island.
They didn't claim to own the island; they simply considered themselves its inhabitants.
Strangers were nothing strange to them.
Alka asked this question to at least a dozen different people.
He felt slightly relieved when he received the same answer from each person.
At least the islanders weren't xenophobic and were happy to trade or communicate with strangers.
This would make his future actions much easier.
The main thing was the strength of this group; just looking at their bubbles revealed just how powerful they were.
Alka didn't want to clash with them.
Then, the surrounding dream bubbles began to decrease one by one.
This indicated they were beginning to awaken.
At the same time, some new bubbles appeared.
Alka calculated the time and began to return.
When he returned, he saw those ungrateful dream creatures around everyone's dream bubbles.
He simply eliminated them, decomposing the spoils into dream energy, and then returned to his own dream bubble.
Too much noise wasn't a good thing.
After resting for a while in his dream bubble, Alka awoke.
When he opened his eyes in his room,
It was still dark outside, with no sign of dawn approaching.
He checked the time beside him.
The clocks he had brought from the sea of home were completely meaningless.
Instead, the hourglasses kept a precise count of time.
Alka had a habit of turning over after he went to bed.
He had rested for about six hours, at least four of which he had spent exploring in his dreams.
That meant about nine or ten hours of darkness had passed.
When Alka arrived on deck, he found Juanlu already busy in the kitchen.
Looking at the awakened Alka, he smiled and greeted him.
"Good morning...if it's morning."
He shrugged and grumbled slightly.
To be honest, they were not used to the different day and night here even on the first day.
Perhaps they could no longer rely on the weather to estimate time as they had in the past; time confusion was inevitable.
Thinking of this, Alka couldn't help but think of "Dreamland."
He often found the time records there somewhat confusing, with phrases like "maybe a few days, maybe a few months."
Very vague.
There was never an exact time.
The only thing accurately recorded was the year.
Now it seemed it wasn't that they didn't want to keep track, but that they simply didn't know how to calculate.
If there were a pattern, this problem wouldn't have occurred.
It seemed they had to prepare for the constant confusion between day and night.
After Juanlu prepared breakfast and gently rang the bell, everyone woke up one after another.
Although the time of day and night had changed, everyone's biological clocks weren't easily disrupted.
"I wonder how long this darkness will last," Sofia said helplessly as he ate breakfast, gazing at the deep darkness outside.
It looked like the darkness wouldn't fade anytime soon.
"By the way, how's Alka's dream world? Has anything changed?" Lucilia suddenly asked.
She remembered Alka saying before that upon reaching the Infinite Sea, the dream world might change somewhat, no longer being as desolate as before.
Hearing this, Alka nodded.
"It's become much more lively, with so many more dream bubbles and dream creatures."
Having reached this point, Alka casually began to recount the results of his exploration of the dream world last night.
"There should be a community of intelligent life on this island. There are many powerful individuals there, but fortunately, they don't seem to be xenophobic."
Everyone knew that Alka could explore other people's bubbles in dreams and gain some knowledge. "Really? What do they look like?" Jason, who had just woken up, asked curiously.
After briefly chatting with everyone,
Sofia asked, "So, are we going to the island?"
Arka shook his head at this question.
"Don't rush to the island yet. It's very dangerous at night. Let's go during the day, when it's safer."
This information was obtained by Arka from the dreams of those intelligent creatures last night.
But no one had given a specific explanation of the specific dangers of the nighttime environment.
Everyone nodded in agreement after hearing Arka's words.
Since that was the case, they could only continue to wait on the boat.
"So how long will this night last? How long has it been going on now?" Jason suddenly turned and asked Simon.
Hearing this, Simon produced a spiraling sphere, which seemed to be some kind of object used to calculate time.
"It's been twelve hours since the night began."
"Has half a day already passed? It seems night and day aren't even half and half," Julia said, looking at the darkness.
Against the curtain of darkness, the densely packed Milky Way and those starry spheres hung in the sky.
It felt as if they were so close to the universe.