Talent Awakening! Every Legendary Summon Grants Me Assassin Attributes-Chapter 27: Dreamless Spawn
Oliver stood frozen in the depths of the bizarre, mind-devouring walls, his body stiff and unmoving as though seized by some unseen supernatural force.
His last attempt to defile the mind shackle seemed to have failed him, and regrettably, his life would soon end...
However—
By some miracle, his thoughts began to return to him gradually. From the moment he had jumped into the acid river... up till now.
He blinked a few times, stumbling back until he almost collided with the fleshy wall behind him. The surface pulsed faintly warm and alive.
Then he paused.
’Oh shit... I’m still alive,’ he thought, gripping his chest tightly as his heartbeat thudded wildly beneath his palm. It was a gamble and he had chosen well.
He turned to the system notification still floating before him and felt the absurd urge to jump and hug it in relief...
Well, he didn’t.
Instead, he chuckled under his breath.
[Stealth has been activated]
He lingered for a moment, letting his nerves calm, forcing his breathing into a steady rhythm before he began to study once again the place he was in.
Doing the most logical thing he could, Oliver used his system Identify to scan the place.
[Race: Dreamless Spawn]
[Threat: A-Rank]
[Description: A cursed entity that devours the minds of its victims, seizing control of their will and consuming them slowly. The Dreamless Spawn can only ’dream’ through the minds it steals... a pitiful existence, yet far from harmless.]
’Of course the bastard isn’t harmless,’ Oliver grunted inwardly.
Everything made sense now.
Every Single Thing!
The red sand.
The acid river.
That eerily beautiful, but fundamentally wrong landscape.
A river... inside ruins?
It was Illogical.
Yet convincing enough to deceive the mind.
It had all been a trap.
A carefully constructed illusion woven by the Dreamless Spawn.
"...We’ve been controlled from the start."
The realization settled heavily in his chest. To think a creature was alone powerful enough to manipulate not just movement—but perception... thought... reality itself.
For how long had they been controlled?
Oliver had no idea.
But he remembered something.
Back when he passed the soul-devouring wall—
That strange feeling. At the time, he had dismissed it as an error.
Now?
He knew better.
The two humanoid monsters that walked willingly to their deaths...
There was no way any sane being, monster or not, would look at that wall and see beauty.
They had been controlled.
Just as he and his team were with the Dreamless spawn.
Slowly, he turned toward Hera.
The young woman’s face twisted briefly, desperately into realization...
Before collapsing once again into that empty, absent-minded state.
The same thing he had gone through.
The Dreamless Spawn was dragging her mind back into oblivion again and again.
’So that’s how it works...’ He stepped closer. ’You resist... you lose life points. I lost five to break free...’
He raised his gaze upward to where he recalled he had fallen from.
Several meters above, embedded within the fleshy wall, were two human-sized holes. From their hollow emptiness, he could tell—
That was where he and Hera had been dropped from.
Like some kind of human cocoon.
A grim understanding began forming in his mind.
’I don’t like this...’ Oliver could already Tell, they had been eaten, and were currently in the Grim stomach of the monster, awaiting digestion.
He tried using [Eye of Another], but it failed.
Apparently, he had not summoned the Dark Crow earlier.
He had only done so within the Dreamless Spawn’s illusion—mentally.
His gaze shifted upward again, toward the pinnacle of the fleshy enclosure.
Nothing.
Just a ceiling of thick, veined flesh that pulsed faintly, as though breathing.
Not useful.
But Oliver persevered.
This was his only chance to escape.
If the Dreamless Spawn found a way to grasp him even in stealth, he would die here, before this life even truly began.
He lingered for a moment longer... then slowly sat down on the tough, parchment-like flesh beneath him.
"If I’m inside you..."
His grip tightened, the two blood-sucking daggers materializing in his hands.
"...then I don’t need to escape."
He raised both blades—
And drove them down with brutal force.
SPLURT!
[Blood effect has taken place]
[-1 HP per second]
The walls quivered, just slightly. But for Oliver, it was enough.
A grin spread across Oliver’s face.
"...Good."
He wasn’t done yet.
He summoned the silver blades of Racell into his grasp and hurled each one into opposite sides of the fleshy wall, surrounding himself.
Clutch!
The walls tightened instinctively around the blades.
Then it began.
A black corruption spread rapidly across the flesh—like rot crawling through living meat.
The walls trembled violently.
Then—
An earthquake struck.
The entire area shook and twisted, the fleshy chamber jerking erratically like a dying organism.
VIOLENTLY.
Oliver staggered, barely keeping his footing as the chamber lurched threatening to throw him into the air..
’Just as I thought...’
His grin widened, feral now.
’We were eaten.’
GURRRRKKK!!!
A deafening shriek erupted from all directions at once. The Dreamless Spawn thrashed wildly, its insides convulsing in agony..
But Oliver only laughed, A low, unhinged sound. "You picked the wrong prey."
It wasn’t going down without a fight.
However...
A fight where?
A fight with who exactly?
The Dreamless Spawn was a devourer of minds—not bodies.
It consumed will, drained life, and cast its victims into oblivion.
It was never meant to fight something like this.
Surely...
It had not expected this.
It had not expected a madman among the fools it consumed.
One who would choose—
To kill it from within.
"Shut the hell up and die, you bloody spawn!"
The thrashing continued for several more seconds—
Before it suddenly weakened.
Then stopped.
The entire fleshy corridor collapsed, slumping to one side. Throwing Oliver harshly against the decaying wall, Hera crashing beside him.
"Gurrgh! Bastard..." Oliver muttered in a strained complaint.
[You have killed A-Rank Dreamless Spawn]
[500 EXP gained]
[You have leveled up]
[You have reached Level 9]
[Karma Points increased: 589]
[Evolution Karma Points: 256]
[You have received a weapon: Dreamless Dart]
[You have received new gear: Dreamless Cloak]
[You are the first to kill a Dreamless Spawn]
[You have gained a new title: Dream Hunter]
Oliver winced at the barrage of notifications flooding his vision.
"Never again will I come down here in any life..."
He summoned the Dark Crow.
The massive dark summon appeared—noticeably bulkier, its presence heavier, more oppressive.
Without a doubt, this was the effect of reaching Level 9—the final stage before evolution.
He could only imagine what Level 10 would bring.
But before that—
He gave his command.
The Crow screeched and shot off instantly, tearing into the fleshy walls, clawing through them in search of the others—if they were still alive.
"It’s a shame I poisoned the body of the monster... I would’ve loved to see the effects of the Crow eating an A-Rank creature."
Then Oliver let himself fall back onto the dried, dark flesh of the dead Dreamless Spawn.
Exhaustion crept in.
But his thoughts lingered.
On the others.
On survival.
And most especially—
Yuki.
’She better be alive...’
A faint smirk formed despite everything.
’I want my one life point back.’
