It was barely afternoon when Father Jacob decided it was a good day to get drunk.

  Ray had taken the kids and his darlings一the baby Spirits Ryu and Yuna一on a trip to the nearby Dungeons.

  With no one left to take care of, he decided to spend the rest of the time indulging himself.

  After all, Ray had given him a pretty hefty allowance.

  The Den, the first pce Jacob and his team had visited when they arrived on the isnd, was still pretty empty this early in the day.

  Right now, most of the mercenaries would either be doing jobs around the Isnd or exploring the Dungeons nearby, hoping to get lucky and run into a rare Artifact.

  Walking past the ownerless chairs, Jacob sat right at the bar.

  Only the bartender was there in this huge restaurant to give him company.

  “A gss of chilled beer, please!” He ordered, as the bartender looked up surprised to see guests.

  “Pretty early in the day to be drinking, is it not?” Lucius asked him, as he took out a newly cleaned gss from under the counter.

  “When you get to my age, you don’t know when your health will fail you. Any drink can be your st, so why not just enjoy it all the time.” Jacob proudly replied.

  His excuse was foolproof.

  “Drinking all day because your health can fail you? Seems counterproductive but hey, who am I to compin about a paying customer.” Lucius just ughed, as he pced the crystal clear gss full of liquid gold in front of the thirty Jacob. “Here’s a gss of the best brew we have in stock.”

  “Ohh!” A satisfying shout of pleasure escaped his lips, as the drink slid down his throat, like a river waiting for no man.

  “You are one of the guys who came with Laxon’s kid, right?” Lucius asked as he refilled Jacob’s css.

  The old priest nodded his head. “Yeah…I came here with Ray.”

  “I’ve been curious about something since I saw you…may I know how old you are?” Lucius asked, curiously staring at the man sitting at his bar.

  “My age? Well, I am a spry 90 years old.” Jacob answered with a grin.

  “Wow, 90. That means we are the same age.” Lucius' youthful face quickly brightened up. “It’s amazing to see what I would have looked like had I not Awakened during the Catastrophe. ”

  “I agree. It's amazing to see what mana can achieve even if one hadn’t Awakened.” Jacob nodded, understandably. “Most people during our time couldn’t make it past the age of 50.”

  “Yes, it’s very hard to see anyone from our generation even if they have Awakened. But seeing an Unawakened survive for this long, you guys are practically an endangered species.”

  On the surface, anyone would think the two men were reminiscing together about an age long gone.

  But Jacob understood the veiled words behind what this 'young' man was speaking. He was trying to probe if, by chance, Jacob was able to survive because he had made a deal with a Demon, or at least been the subordinate of a Fallen.

  “What can I say, I am a very lucky person.” He answered innocently with a smile.

  “Luck, huh? I suppose everyone, whether Awakened or not, needs some luck to survive, do they not?” Lucius asked, pouring himself a drink beside the priest. “I guess I am sort of a lucky person too, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “We are all lucky in our own ways.” Jacob answered, his tone subconsciously shifting to his old preaching ways.

  “So, what kind of a priest are you?”

  “I am…no, was a priest of the Church of Christianity at Venezia Isnd.”

  “A Christian! Hard to see a believer of the Old Religions these days, after all the mana-following cults popped up during the Catastrophe.”

  “We are few, but we are still there.” Jacob answered.

  “Hmm…You know, when I first saw you, I felt I had seen you somewhere before.” Lucius took a sip from his gss, as his sharp gaze carefully observed the man in front of me.

  “The Age we lived in was one of survival and fighting. Even for those who hadn’t had the opportunity to partake in the Awakening that came with the arrival of mana and the monsters. Who knows, maybe we fought some monsters together long ago?”

  Lucius just scratched his chin at the response. “I don’t know…In the battles I fought, no normal human ever came out of it alive.”

  Jacob just smiled in response. “Like I said, I am a very lucky person.”

  “Wanna wager on it?” He asked, intrigued by the challenge.

  “Sure, why not?

  Taking out a set of cards from under the counter, the two old-timers began.

  "Since it's luck we are evaluating, how about Gin Rummy?" Jacob offered.

  "Fitting choice. Though you should know when it comes to luck, I have never been defeated either.

  “Where are we?” Rohan looked around to see miles of unending, dim, grey fog一obscuring everything in their way.

  “It looks like the dream is still going on.” Alexa commented. “Rohan, did anyone enter this Dungeon with you?”

  “Ryder was standing beside me when that creepy golden rose shot out its pollen bomb.”

  “So, he must still be stuck in his dream. We need to find him if we want to get out of here.”

  “But how do we find him? I can barely even see my own hand in front of me with all this fog.” Rohan asked worriedly.

  “Are you forgetting who helped you and your friends find that Fayde when your Academy was attacked during the Midterm Exams?”

  “Right…Lead the way, Ms. Tracking Expert.”

  Following Alexa’s direction, Rohan walked through the thick grey fog with no problems. However, the pce where she led him to…

  “Is that…The Star Academy?” Rohan stared in wonder at the buildings that felt so familiar and yet all so foreign, in front of him.

  “I guess this pce must be the embodiment of Ryder’s deepest desires.” Alexa shrugged, floating toward the gate.

  “Hey, wait! We can’t just waltz inside the Academy grounds. I am no longer a student there, remember? The Professors will kick me out.”

  “With what powers? That rose monster may be able to create perfect replicas of pces and people from your memories, but a D-Rank monster is not capable of replicating the powers of the A-Rank professors here. On the contrary, you are probably stronger than these fakes.” Alexa expined. “Right now, we just need to find Ryder, destroy the monster, and get out of this dream. With any luck, the monster will be somewhere near Ryder, like it was in your case.”

  Having expined the general limitations of the rose monster’s powers, Alexa moved on forward. Rohan had no choice but to reluctantly follow her in.

  Looking around, the atmosphere of the Academy was quite celebratory.

  “Hmm…It looks like they are celebrating the First-year students' orientation.” Alexa noted, pointing at a banner dispyed on one of the buildings.

  “Orientation? But we are still in the middle of the Academic year.”

  “I don’t think the timeline should be your concern when one is trying to bring someone’s desires to life.” Alexa commented, looking around for any signs of monsters.

  Suddenly, Rohan noticed a Professor rushing towards the cssroom building.

  “Excuse me!” Rohan called out to him, hoping he could help them.

  As the Professor turned around to check who had called him, Rohan’s eyes widened in shock as he saw the Professor’s face.

  Or the ck of it.

  The Professor had two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, like any normal human being. But, it looked like someone had photoshopped his face, like a real-life photograph, blurring it, making his features illegible一 With a big, blue question mark at the center.

  The professor quickly moved in front of him. “Are you a first-year student?”

  “Um…um…yeah.” Rohan blurted out, momentarily forgetting he had dropped out of the Academy a few weeks ago.

  “Then why are you not in your css?” The professor questioned him.

  “Um, I don’t know…” Rohan replied without thinking, still in shock from seeing the Professor’s blurred-out face.

  “You don’t know where your css is?” The professor asked, unsurprised. It was a common thing for first-years to not know where their csses were. “What css were you assigned?”

  “Alpha Css, sir!” Not wanting to look suspicious, Rohan named his old css.

  “Ah, Alpha Css! You are in Ryder’s css! You will be studying with some wonderful cssmates.” The Professor praised him.

  “Ryder? He’s in the Alpha Css?” Rohan asked in shock, not expecting it to be this easy to find him.

  “Yes. Anyway, your css will be beginning soon. Follow that way, and you will reach your cssroom.” Giving him the general directions, the Professor quickly left for his own cssroom.

  “That…was weird. Did you see that guy’s face?” Rohan whispered as he saw the Professor’s back disappear into the building.

  “Interesting…” Alexa analyzed the situation, as the Professor disappeared. “The monster can read your memories, but it can’t create someone the person doesn’t know. Ryder never actually came to Star Academy, so he has no way of knowing what the Professors and students here looked like. Hence, the monster can’t replicate them.”

  “Do you think he will turn into a monster like my father did and attack us?” Rohan asked.

  “I think you should be more worried it didn’t attack you right now.” Alexa observed.

  “Why be worried about that?” Rohan didn’t understand why she was more worried about that.

  “We destroyed your part of the dreamscape not even an hour ago. The monster should have attacked you before you could do more harm. But it did not.” Alexa expined. “That means, for some reason, it is confident you won’t be able to do anything to this dreamscape.”

  Rohan had spent a long time with the ghost of this experienced Hero, so he knew better than to brush aside her warnings.

  “Let’s go and find Ryder first. Then we can look for a way to get out of this dream.” Rohan said, walking towards his old css.

  All of the students had already taken their seats and were chatting with their friend groups.

  Unsurprisingly, all of their faces were blurred out with question marks, just like the Professor.

  All except for three students, who were sitting on the first bench.

  Ryder. Lizzy. And Mike.

  All three of them were chatting in the front like childhood friends, waiting for the homeroom professor to enter.

  As Rohan opened the cssroom door, all the students turned to look at the person who had arrived so te. As his and Ryder’s eyes met, Ryder clutched his forehead, as if he had gotten a sudden headache.

  The pain was all too familiar to Rohan, who also had a headache whenever he almost remembered something outside of the dreamscape.

  Not even a moment ter, a bright smile appeared on Ryder's face.

  “Rohan, you are finally here! Come. Sit.” He waved at him, pointing to the seat beside the three of them.

  “Ryder, what are you doing here?” Rohan asked, hoping that seeing him would have made him remember something.

  “What are you talking about? I am a student here.” Ryder proudly answered. "I am Rank #1!"

  “No, I meant-” But before Rohan could continue, the door opened behind him, and Professor Misa entered the cssroom.

  “Everybody take your seats. I will be taking your roll calls now.” She announced, taking her pce at the podium.

  Rohan frantically took his seat, as Professor Misa gave a brief introduction about herself before beginning the roll call.

  “It's different from your orientation at the Star Academy. Guess the monster couldn’t find memories to replicate that either.” Alexa noted.

  “Mike and Izzy. They weren’t near us when the monster dragged us inside the dream.” Rohan telepathically whispered to her.

  “They must have been manifested from Ryder’s memories, just like your parents.” Alexa expined as she analyzed the two.

  Professor Misa started taking the roll call.

  “Rank 1 - Ryder Briar!”

  “Present.”

  “Rank 2 - Mikael Harpoon!”

  Surprisingly, his name was on the list too, though his Rank was a lot higher than it was back at the Academy.

  Weirdly, whenever Misa called out the names of the blurred-out students, all he could hear was muffled static, like a broken radio.

  He gnced at Ryder every time it happened, but he didn’t seem to notice this anomaly.

  “He didn’t notice the fact that none of his cssmates had actual faces, either.” Alexa commented, floating above them. "He must be more affected by this dream than us."

  After a brief introduction of their csses for the year, Professor Misa dismissed herself so they could move on to their next css.

  “So, what were you saying before?” Ryder asked once Misa had left the room.

  “Ryder, don’t you remember where we were?” Rohan asked once again.

  “Where we were…” As he pondered over the question, Ryder clutched his forehead, before the smile on his face. “Yeah, we are the Academy. I’m the Rank #1 student!”

  "No, not that-"

  Alexa nudged him, impatiently. “Just tell him the truth. It will hurt for a bit, but that should jog up the memories as it did for you.”

  Rohan agreed with what she said. “Ryder, we were attacked by a Rose monster inside a Dungeon on Wolfsbane. None of this is real. Don’t you remember?”

  As Rohan expined to him that this p

  ce was a dream, Ryder clutched his forehead in pain, as if memories were being forced where they weren't any before.

  But what made Alexa uneasy was the fact that the fake Izzy and fake Mike beside Ryder were just smiling at them, unworried.

  Just as the hidden pieces of memories completely came to the surface, Ryder stopped clutching at his head.

  He smiled awkwardly and asked. “Um, what were we talking about again?”

  “Huh?” Rohan looked at him, unsure of what happened.

  This should have worked. There’s no reason it shouldn’t have.

  The monster’s powers were too weak, so once the gaps in the memories were filled, it was easy to separate reality from dreams.

  Before Rohan could try again, Izzy and Mike grabbed Ryder. “Ryder, Let’s go now, or we will be te for weapons training css.”

  "Okay! Rohan, we are going forward, but don't be te for css." Ryder waved him goodbye as the three of them left.

  As all the students left for the training grounds, Rohan was alone in the cssroom.

  “I just realized why that monster wasn’t worried about us.” Alexa revealed, taking a seat beside Rohan.

  “Why’s that?” Rohan was still not sure about why Ryder’s memories didn’t return.

  “It’s because that boy has no intention of leaving his dream.”