Vertok had a dream.
At first, the dream was chaotic. As consciousness awakened, a ball of light first appeared. It flows with rays of light, twists and turns, and quickly outlines a huge oval platform.
This platform materialized out of thin air is suspended in the endless darkness and chaos. Towers of flames stood on the edge of the platform, and the blazing flames illuminated the platform clearly and brightly. Wiltok was at the edge of the platform. He touched the smooth-surfaced flame tower curiously, feeling the texture of hard and cold rock in his palm. He knew he was dreaming, but it all seemed so real. He feels pain when he pinches his face, has a heartbeat in his chest, and breathes air into his lungs.
However, Vertok soon became panicked, and he found that he had no way to escape from this dream that seemed like a real thing.
Vertok ran back and forth on the floating platform, trying to find an exit. But apart from the flame tower for lighting, there are no other special things visible on the empty platform. Vertok tried to climb the stone tower, but the slippery surface made him unable; he walked to the edge of the floating platform and wanted to jump off.
Outside the platform, the deep and boundless darkness seemed to be connected to the deepest fear in his heart. Wiltok couldn't help but take a few steps back, and immediately gave up the idea of jumping off the platform.
The frightened Wiltok began to worry about whether the oval platform would collapse, so he turned around and ran towards the center of the platform.
If this platform collapses, you should start from the edge. Standing in the middle, you may be able to hold on until you finally fall into the terrifying dark abyss.
"I heard that dragons can gain strength while sleeping. Do you really think they are just sleeping in?"
When Wiltok approached the center of the stage, a cloud of white mist rose from the hexagonal floor tile in the center. The thick mist turned into a monster with three heads. Its image is of three giant pythons growing on the body of a lizard. It is composed of dense fog. The lines are hazy and no details can be seen. However, the eyes of the three snake heads are impressive, like flames solidified into crystals. They are emerald green, amber. color and ice blue.
"...Welcome to the Dream Arena, are you ready to take the test?"
The three-headed snake uttered human words, which scared Vertok to a halt. He carefully observed it for a while and found that the monster that suddenly appeared was not only harmless, but felt very kind and familiar.
"Who are you?" Wiltok walked over slowly and curiously looked at the three-headed smoke snake that was about the same height as himself.
"I am the mythical three-headed lizard Portanos, the guide of the Dream Arena...I am you." The three-headed snake replied.
Wiltok felt inexplicably happy and asked eagerly: "Are you me? I am the mythical three-headed lizard? But why did I become like this?"
The three-headed lizard Portanos did not respond to this question, and his six crystal eyes sparkled. Wiltok couldn't see any spiritual brilliance in its eyes. He couldn't help frowning and asked: "Where is this?"
Portanos replied: "The Dream Arena is a reflection of the power of your mind."
"What is that darkness outside the arena?"
"It is the embodiment of your spiritual barrier, a boundary, and a barrier that can protect your spiritual will from being assimilated by the pan-consciousness outside the boundary."
"Pan consciousness beyond the boundaries? What is that?"
"I can't answer that, you have to find out for yourself."
Wiltok was thoughtful, thought for a while, and then asked: "Why do I appear here?"
"You synchronized the 'Puzzle of Knowledge', mobilized unusable mental power, and your mental will was seriously damaged. The Dream Arena came into being, and it will repair your damage."
"I just want to get out of here, how do I get out?"
“Join the challenge, recuperate, and get out when you want.”
Wiltok pondered for a moment and tried to ask many questions from various angles. The mythical three-headed lizard will answer some questions, but most of the time, it doesn't respond, like a puppet without self-will.
In short, Wiltok figured out one thing, he could not leave the Dream Arena without participating in the challenge.
The rules of the competitive challenge are simple. The guide Portanos draws samples from the ocean of pan-consciousness and then materializes them as contestants in the arena.
The individual strength of the contestants is basically the same as that of the challengers. Vertok is the only challenger in the arena, and every time he defeats a competitor, his mental damage is repaired. If he completes five rounds of challenges in a row, he can open the arena treasure chest and take away the prize and the "key" to leave the dreamland.
The specific rules of the arena are as follows:
First, neither the challenger Vertok nor the contestants will actually die, but will experience pain and disability effects.
Second, the difficulty of each round increases by 20%, and five rounds constitute one stage. The difficulty of each stage remains within the challenger's current capabilities.
Third, challengers can reset the game, but cannot receive stage rewards repeatedly.
Fourth, the time flow rate in the dream arena is ten times that of the real world, and ten days in the arena are equal to one day in the outside world.
Fifth, every victory of the challenger will increase the mental attributes slightly, and the dream arena will also grow. Guide Portanos can extract more samples, provide richer rewards, increase the flow of time, and evolve various complex scenarios and environments.
When the matter reached this point, Wiltok had no choice but nodded and said: "I will participate in the competition."
"Challenger Vertok has decided to participate in the competition. His opponent is the goblin king Wovo from the unknown!"
The loud voice echoed passionately in the empty arena. A translucent figure appeared opposite Vertok and was gradually materializing.
"The goblin king Wovo established a vast orc kingdom, with a sphere of influence spanning two rivers. Ogres, gnolls, centaurs, and goatheads all obeyed the will of this goblin king. Today, Wovo's reputation is gone. People know that only the ocean of pan-consciousness records its legendary life. However, no matter how great the king is, there are still moments of weakness. Wowo was once expelled from the tribe and wandered alone in the wild. Hunger and cold almost killed it."
"'Wowo the Dying Goblin' versus 'Toddler Wiltok' is just right."
"Who will be the real winner? Let's wait and see, I believe this will be a wonderful game!" The mythical three-headed lizard turned into a puff of smoke and disappeared without a trace. The translucent figure of the goblin has transformed into an entity.
Vertok looked at his opponent, his face full of surprise and contempt, and couldn't help but said to himself: "Is my opponent this little guy?"
Goblin, the most common monster in the world. They are widely distributed around the world and have incredible adaptability. They can be seen on plateaus, mountains, swamps, grasslands, and forests. Most goblins are small and have little need for food. In addition, goblins have good intelligence and dexterous hands. They are often accepted by powerful races and serve as slave craftsmen and reserve rations.
However, almost all monster groups that enslave goblins will eventually be counterattacked by goblins and become slaves of goblins. Because goblins are among the few orcs who can awaken their bloodline memories on their own. When food is abundant, they will evolve into smart hobgoblins, strong and tough bugbears, and other types of strange goblins, such as goblin cavalry, claw goblins, dog goblins, etc., according to the environment and actual needs. .
Wowo, the goblin embodied by the guided person, is just an ordinary goblin. It is less than 1.2 meters tall, with sparse hair and pale green skin that highlights the shape of its bones. Because it was short and thin, it had a big head, and its thin neck seemed unable to support the weight of its head, so it lowered its head, stuck out its butt, and knelt on the ground.
Suddenly coming to a strange environment, the goblin Wowo, who was about to starve to death, tried to raise his head and open his eyes, trying to see the surrounding scene clearly. Its eyeballs were cloudy and it was difficult to focus its gaze. All that was left in its mouth were a few thin and yellow teeth.
Vertok was confident that he could strangle the skinny little monster with one hand, but he forgot one thing.
The rules of the Dream Arena are that in the first round, challengers and contestants are of equal strength.
Just when Vertok was about to take action, the Dream Arena stopped supporting him and knocked him back to his original form.
With a "thud", Wiltok fell onto the smooth rock floor. His mental body curled up into the state of a two or three-year-old child. Due to insufficient mental strength, he was unable to effectively coordinate his body, his vision became blurred, and his brain's ability to judge various sensory information plummeted. In order to prevent him from hurting himself clumsily, the mental body triggered a self-protection mechanism and blocked part of the muscle ability, making Vertok's strength much smaller.
Goblin Wovo was startled by the movement, and then found Vertok struggling to stand up on the stone floor. Although Wowo's mind is not very clear, his desire for food can overcome everything. In its eyes, the clumsy Vertok was like a piece of meat.
A large amount of saliva was secreted from the mouth, dripping down the toothless mouth. Wowo's eyes glowed with green light, he stood up with all his strength, and rushed towards Wiltok.
"Meat, meat...Wowo, you want to eat meat!"
Wiltok's intelligence level has regressed to the early childhood stage, and his body is obviously much larger than the thin and frail goblin. At this time, he only has fear in his heart, crying and crawling in the opposite direction, leaving his butt and back opponent.
This was an excellent attack position. Wovo jumped on Wiltok's back and bit the back of his neck with his toothless mouth. Wiltok wanted to grab it with his backhand, but he couldn't do such a simple movement and could only spin in circles.
In its current state, Goblin Wowo should eat food including worms, grass seeds, and mushrooms. Vertok's "giant" prey is clearly beyond its hunting capabilities. The goblin's toothless mouth was unable to tear open Vertok's neck. Wiltok couldn't catch the little monster on his back.
So, in the dream arena that transcends time and space, the legendary Goblin King and the Stormrage Sword Master were entangled and fighting, and the scene was extremely ugly.
The two sides fought for a long time with no outcome. The dying goblin Wovo changed tactics and tried to gouge out the eyes of the young child Vertok, but it failed and was choked by Vertok instead.
Young children cannot yet effectively control their hands and feet, so they use their greatest strength to grab things.
For Goblin Wowo, this is a terrifying "brute force" that it cannot resist. In the end, challenger Wiltok choked contestant Vovo and won the first game.
With the death of "Dying Goblin Wowo", its body turned into mist, most of which was absorbed into the Dream Arena, and a small part merged into Vertok's body.
A piece of information about the goblin Wovo flooded into Wiltok's mind, including its growth process and emotional memories, up to the time of its dying experience. Vertok's mental body grew with the enhancement of his mental attributes, and Portanos' voice sounded again in the sky above the arena:
"Challenger Vertok defeated his opponent. It was a great match. So, the next contestant is Vovo, the healthy goblin from nowhere!"
The time flow rate in the arena is ten times that of the outside world. Wiltok spent dozens of days and played more than two hundred games. His opponents were "Dying Goblin Wowo", "Healthy Goblin Wowo", and "Strong Goblin Wowo". "Wowo", "Wowo the hobgoblin and his six wives", "Wowo the hobgoblin and his bugbear bodyguards".
The difficulty of each round will be increased by 20% compared to the previous round, and Wiltok played very hard. Especially in the last round, the opponents were the big goblin Wowo and two bear-headed goblins, causing Wiltok to lose more than 130 games in a row.
Fortunately, Wiltok can come back if he loses the game, but the contestants will not get any enhancements from winning the game. But Vertok was also aware of a dangerous possibility.
Arena competitions are a cycle every five rounds. Once started, it cannot be terminated. You must win five rounds. If Wiltok fails to pass the final round of tests, he will be trapped in this infinite loop.
Wiltok tried every means and adopted various tactics to win the final round. It must be said that the memory of the goblin Wowo he had previously gained was of great help. Wiltok may know Wowo better than Wowo, and Wiltok himself has also summed up experience from failure after failure and constantly understood his own abilities.
This is how fighting is, first fully understand what you can and cannot do; then try to understand your opponent's abilities. Then, according to your own abilities and firmly controlling the rhythm of the battle, you can often win.
In the last round, the 235th game, Wiltok rushed over at the beginning and used the stone ax captured in the previous game to kill Wowo, the hobgoblin. He got the hobgoblin's whip, threw it directly to a smaller bugbear, screamed again, pointed at the bugbear, fell to the ground and pretended to be dead, as if he was killed by it.
Bugbears have low intelligence and are stupid. The little bugbear happily ran to Wiltok, ready to enjoy his prey, but was beaten up by the big bugbear.
The two bugbears started fighting. They didn't attack their companions lightly or harshly, and no hobgoblin told them to stop fighting. As a result, one died and the other was seriously injured. Vertok easily won the game.
"Challenger Vertok has completed the fifth round and can now claim rewards." The mythical three-headed snake Portanos reappeared in the center of the arena, with a treasure chest appearing in front of him.
Vertok's whole body exudes a fierce murderous aura. He played over 200 games and killed hundreds of goblins. Although this all happened in a dream, the feelings are very real and the mind and body will inevitably be affected. In the final game, the hobgoblin Wovo and his bugbear bodyguards were visibly shocked for a second when they saw Vertok. Vertok charged towards the big goblin Wowo, but the bugbear bodyguards actually retreated to both sides. Vertok killed the hobgoblin Wovo on the spot with an ax before he could summon his bodyguards.
Wiltok approached the treasure box, and the lid automatically slid open. There was a dark golden light ball inside, which flew into his body.
He understood many things instantly.
Victor Wimbledon Randall, a powerful man in the holy realm of the human kingdom, can also be called a demigod with a life level of nine. He is the master of the mind and controls the bloodline power of the Emperor of the Elf Empire. Because of certain things, he was blocked by the Demon Lord Spider Lady, and his soul was exiled to the ocean of pan-consciousness, becoming a god in the true sense.
Of course, becoming a god is not a good thing. The laws of the world do not allow powers above the ninth level to interfere with the main material plane. The dark side of the fire elemental sea - the ocean of pan-consciousness is wiping out his soul will.
Before slipping into the ocean of pan-consciousness, Victor created a secondary personality and took control of his body as a mark of returning to the main material plane.
He is Wiltok.
However, Vertok is not the first sub-personality created by the Master of Mind. The mythical three-headed lizard Portanos is.
Since the laws of the world do not accommodate extraordinary lives above the ninth level, the hydra lizard living in the swamp divided its soul into nine parts, thus gaining the right to survive and reproduce in the main material plane. Each of their nine heads has a soul. When the nine heads merge into one, the Hydra's life level reaches the peak of the ninth level and is promoted to the mythical Hydra, but only has a few decades of life left.
Victor, the master of the mind, drew on the characteristics of the split soul of the Hydra lizard to create the secret method of Portanos and create three virtual personalities with only instincts and no consciousness. They help Victor gain affinity with the elements and increase his mental strength.
Portanos actually has four heads, corresponding to the four attributes of earth, fire, wind, and water. The head with the fire attribute is the deputy personality Vertok himself, and the other three heads are the embodiment of elemental attributes. When Vertok merges with any head, his eyes will change. Amber eyes represent the affinity of the earth element; blue eyes represent the affinity of the wind element; green eyes represent the affinity of the water element.
Elemental attributes have an impact on character. Previously, Vertok had been integrating the most stable earth element attribute of Portanos. His eyes were amber, and his personality became stubborn and tough, which led him to desperately synchronize the "knowledge puzzle" in exchange for the power of a demigod. Just to kill some weak orcs.
This behavior is equivalent to the nine heads of the hydra lizard, and will cause unimaginable consequences.
Fortunately, Victor's wife Sylvia intervened in time to give him a hand, otherwise Victor would have completely slipped into the ocean of pan-consciousness.
The fatal loophole must be closed, but Victor cannot transfer his memories directly to the secondary personality.
Because this is still the unity of nine heads.
The secondary personality Vertok can only retrieve the lost memory by himself, become the main personality, and then give up the excess spiritual power. This may cause some cognitive bias, but at least he can survive.
As long as you can survive, as the master of the mind, cognitive biases can be corrected, it's just a different path to the same end.
Victor can no longer let his sub-personality continue to use the "Knowledge Puzzle", which is the foundation of mind dominance. He evolved the "knowledge puzzle" into a "dream arena", extracting samples from the ocean of pan-consciousness to help the sub-personality improve its strength.
These samples were selected by Victor, and they are all fragments of consciousness that really existed. For example, the goblin Wowo was the king of the orcs who was active in the Southern Continent 900 years ago. His experiences, experiences, and memories will become the material for the growth of deputy Gvirtok.
Every time Vertok wins a game, it is equivalent to directly drawing spiritual power from the dark side of the Fire Elemental Sea. Part of these spiritual powers belong to the sub-personality, and part belongs to the main personality. However, Victor's problem is that his mental power is too high. If he continues to enhance his mental attributes, he will become closer to the ocean of pan-consciousness.
But he has no better way. He can only hope that the mental attribute of the sub-personality will be increased to 55 points, which can accommodate the complete soul and will side, and then transform into the main personality, and the excess mental power can be discarded.
The sub-personality completes five rounds and receives the prize, and Victor will stay awake for a period of time. He reads the experience of the sub-personality and makes some necessary adjustments to his mental body, thus affecting the direction of reality. But the secondary character Gvertok will not remember what the main character did specifically.
A split is a split, and Victor must never communicate directly with his sub-personality.
Five days ago, Victor summoned his two most powerful subordinates through the ocean of pan-consciousness. His shouts alerted some powerful supernatural beings. For example, the inner dream of Dragon King Philumat was torn apart by his screams. The Dragon King originally wanted to come over to check, but was met with Sylvia's death stare and was too frightened to move. But the dragon will come sooner or later, not necessarily by herself, but by sending powerful servants.
Victor's body is very powerful, but his deputy, Vertok, is very weak and cannot exert much power. Facing the eighth-level Dragon King Philumat, he had no room for resistance.
However, the weak and weak have a way to survive. Before the sub-personality was effectively protected, Victor decided to adopt the strategy of being in harmony with the light and dust, temporarily suppressing the strength of the sub-personality to avoid encountering a powerful opponent in advance.
He made the following adjustments to his mental body:
"Vertok, 13 points in spirit, 14 points in body, 14 points in perception, and 15 points in life."
"The prize for winning the first round of the arena: the primary all-powerful method, the title of Goblin Slayer (Touch of the Soul)."
"Fusing the head of the water element of Portanos, the life attribute is increased to 20 points, water element affinity, extraordinary vitality, gain the gluttony talent; gain the self-healing talent; unlock the surge talent (part)..."
