Origin Seeker

Over the next several days, Dream and the family spent their time training and developing their magic.

Iris especially. Her power was unique, versatile, and strong. And while her training consisted of draining her energy, she had the overpowered ability to eat and recover that energy. 

This was exactly what happened after their first training session when she massacred that bear den. After coming out, not only had she recovered her mana but her soul had also regained its lost energy, bringing it back up to its peak state. Dream found this absolutely baffling. If he had that ability, would he not have to pass out for days at a time to recover his soul's energy?

Knowing she had this ability though, Dream decided to work Iris to the bone. Since all he had to do was find her food, there was no reason she couldn't be constantly improving. So he began a schedule of constant combat with her. They would fight all day and night, only stopping to go find food, but even this would only take an hour. 

During combat, Iris would be spending and controlling mana constantly while attempting to destroy Dream's body. If one were to just look at them from a distance, all they would see was an ever-raging dome of fire. 

Luna, on the other hand, was mostly a spectator in this constant battle. Though despite her seemingly relaxed atmosphere, she was by no means idle.

In order to improve her skills, Dream was always actively finding different ways to use their connection, as was she. As Dream fought Iris, they would be exchanging abilities and even try to pass energy through the connection. And according to many experiments, they found that they were able to pass mana and even objects in their inventory across the connection. And the distance that they were able to do so had increased drastically.

Before, they weren't able to maintain a solid connection past a mile. They had to be rather close to use it effectively. But now, they could maintain a strong connection over a few dozen miles. Not only that, but Luna figured out how to strengthen the connection between Dream and Iris. This triangle connection between the three allowed all of them to share their abilities between each other, at least to a certain extent.

While Dream couldn't fully utilize Iris' devour skill, he was able to enhance her own usage of it with his own magic Arcana skill. And by doing this, he would enable her to collect more mana or eat energy faster, which he could then receive from her over the connection. This would allow him to actually recover some of his own soul's energy like she did. Unfortunately, he couldn't even compare to Iris in soul recovery despite that.

So while Luna had created this familiar connection with him, it was probably the two girls that benefitted the most. Not only did they have full access to Sophia, but she was able to enhance their magical abilities with Dream's own skills. Though they didn't understand it, they were able to handle and even level their own skills faster using her assistance. 

Another benefit this connection had was information processing. Since their minds were connected, they were able to transfer information to each other using Sophia's help. This feature was used heavily when Dream wanted to teach the two certain scientific or magical concepts. All he had to do was send them the necessary data and they would process it as normal, greatly speeding up their learning speeds.

Overall, this trio was beginning to become extremely synergized. It was similar to Dream and Sophia's connection, even going so far as to approach similar depths. The three were even getting to the point where they could read each other's minds, and it was all thanks to Sophia and Luna.

.........

.....

Over the next several days, the trio worked on their connections and combat abilities. That was until they received some news.

As Dream had spoken about before, there were massive armies of demons coming into the continent and one portion of the army was heading towards two of the three kingdoms around the Mercenary Empire. And the armies had reached the kingdoms, though not before Dream enacted his alert system. 

Since this world had no electronics, Dream had to send out some robots that had been recently constructed to manually alert the people in these kingdoms. These robots had arrived two days before the demons were estimated to attack and they had been constantly broadcasting alerts to all the people. 

And not only did they broadcast to the people, but bots were even sent to the kings and administrators of the kingdoms to alert them formally. 

Upon receiving these alerts, one of the kingdoms had taken it very seriously. The king of this one kingdom was one of the class 4's at the meeting. And while this class 4 hadn't been totally with Dream and his plans, he still acknowledged the validity of his intelligence. So upon hearing that a massive demon army was going to attack, he immediately began evacuating everyone to the Empire.

The other kingdom though wasn't as responsive. While a majority of the citizens took the alert seriously and evacuated, the administration did nothing to assist this. This led to the kingdom not being completely deserted unlike the other one. The people who didn't leave were the skeptics and those who didn't want to leave their business and such. 

And so, the demon armies finally arrived. As Dream had predicted, both kingdoms were attacked at the same time, and it was only the kingdom that had been evacuated completely that didn't suffer any deaths. The other kingdom though suffered many, and the death count was estimated to be around 30,000. This included the class 4 who was helming the kingdom. 

But this class 4 dying was actually surprising to Dream. He figured that he would just be able to escape. But upon seeing the combat power of the demon army, he understood. 

This demon army had held 4 class 4's within. And if the class 4 king had run at the first sight of the army, he may have survived. But he didn't and the class 4 demons got a hold of him. One of the main reasons was because one of the demons was an archer, and this king had been a fighter. The two didn't mix correctly, especially since the fighter tried to run, putting distance between them.

Upon getting accurate reads of this army, Dream sent a bot with the information to the Mercenary Empire. This included video, and all the higher ups were able to see the utterly monumental size of the army. But one thing was odd, and that was the data on the second army that sieged the evacuated kingdom.

As Dream learned more about class 4's, he found that they had the incredible ability to retract all traces of themselves. Upon going to Riddick with this inquiry, he confirmed it. It was a part of the class 4 advancement and an unintended benefit to all class 4's. Basically, if they didn't want someone to sense them, they wouldn't. Only by a class 4 searching with their aura would they be able to find a hidden class 4.

This also meant that without them exposing themselves, Dream by himself wouldn't be able to get an accurate count of the number of class 4's in the demon armies, or anywhere for that matter. While he could try to pick them out visually, all the demons varied wildly in looks and it wasn't a viable option.

This missing data was presented in the intelligence to the Empires, but Dream still made sure to throw in predictions. If one army had 4, then the other would also have at least that number. This wasn't taking into account if there were more hidden. But either way, there was at least 8 class 4's that were marching straight to them now. 

Seeing this, many started to panic. The demon army's scale was just too massive, numbering over three million. And this army was closing in on the last kingdom between them. 

After receiving this intelligence, the Empire began moving. Not only did they begin recruitments and moving their army, but they called upon the alliance for reinforcements. While they might be able to cover 3 million combatants themselves, it would only match the number of demons. They wanted more to be sure. 

This request was sent and immediately accepted. Not only did the Spire send reinforcements but so did the Sword School. Even the Enchanted Mountain sent weapon supplies. 

But one problem became apparent, and that was moving these men and supplies. According to Dream's estimates, the army wouldn't take more than 6 days to reach the kingdom. And it would take much longer to move everything they wanted to that kingdom, meaning they couldn't respond in time. 

So they came up with a new plan, and that was to pull everything back and fortify. They evacuated the kingdom, and all supplies and armies were brought to the capital city. After pulling everything back, huge defensive walls were erected outside of the original walls. 

Dream actually praised the move to pull everything back. If they had tried to hold the kingdom, they would have lost many more men and the capital city might've been put at risk. So fortifying, at least in this situation, was the best move. 

There was one more interesting thing that happened though, and it happened two days before the demons were estimated to reach the capital city.

"We would like to employ your services in this upcoming battle."

Currently, Dream was sitting in an office in the Mercenary Empire. One of the two men in front of him was Ciroc, and through Idona, he had requested an audience with Dream. Well, the Empire had requested an audience, it was just Ciroc who was chosen to negotiate. That and one of his friends who specialized in this stuff.

"What kind of services are you looking to employ?"

"We've guessed that it was you who cleared the demons in that one kingdom before the raid. The one where all the demons were mysteriously killed only the night before. It was a nice gesture even though your recruitment was rejected. Anyway, since we have a grasp on your capabilities through that raid and those who have witnessed the power of your golems on the expedition, we would like to employ you."

Ciroc's friend spoke, laying out the basis for their employment. Hearing this, Dream was a bit happy to be recognized.

"I see. But unlike last time, the army coming to you is many times larger. To employ my full capabilities will require a higher price."

"We've prepared for that. Luckily we're not the ones footing the bill, the alliance is. And everyone is aware of how you wish to be paid in materials rather than money. So if it's anything like your previous request, compensating you should be no problem."

"Sweet. Then I'll keep it simple. I've got another list of expended materials, of which I want 20%. And there's also the 100% recuperation for materials destroyed in the battle. Here's that list."

Dream handed them a tablet that held the total amount of materials spent on his current army. Seeing the numbers, Ciroc's friend couldn't help but widen his eyes.

"You've spent all these materials on your army?"

"Yes. Though that's better news for you because my army is indeed many times larger and stronger."

"How much larger? If I remember correctly, many of your bots were destroyed during the expedition."

Ciroc spoke up after taking a look at the same list. 

"Let's see... As for humanoid soldiers, the count for upper class 2 is around 80,000 and the count for mid class 3 is about 1,000."

"1,000 class 3's?"

"That is correct. And this doesn't count my aircraft or bombardment weaponry."

"...I see. And how much damage do you think your soldiers can do before they die?"

"Well, as long as the class 4's are diverted away from them during the battle, they shouldn't be destroyed at all. Give them the proper protection from everything much higher level than them and I can almost promise you that the demon horde will be taken care of entirely by them."

"Almost?"

"Well, depending on their formations, some may slip through the cracks. We're talking about millions here. Though they may not die, there's only so much ground 80,000 soldiers can cover."

"Right..."

The man went quiet, contemplating. Looking at the list, this employment was a very large investment. And being completely honest, what Dream was promising was rather outrageous. 80,000 soldiers that could take care of the horde by themselves? Were these soldiers immortal?

Seeing his hesitation, Dream made it simple for him.

"Look, this payment doesn't have to be done before the battle, regardless of whether it's possible or not. You can tell them to prepare the payment and you'll do an assessment during the battle. If I deliver as promised, then I get paid. If not, then you either deduct payment or cancel it altogether."

"You're willing to place that much trust in us?"

"It's not that I have trust in the alliance themselves, it's that I have trust in the panic and urgency caused by the demons. Let's say for some reason that you guys decide to renege on your agreement after the battle. In that situation, I would just make sure not to assist you again. And I'm almost certain that the dread you guys will feel after having your armies slaughtered and your cities burned will make you heavily regret having not just given up the small amount of materials."

"...Is that a threat?"

The man narrowed his eyes after hearing Dream's dismal statement. Dream just sat back.

"No, just a hypothetical. I understand the service I can provide and its value. I only expect that the people employing me pay accordingly. I don't want any underhanded tricks coming from the alliance who can easily afford this payment. And I'm letting you know now that should anything dirty happen, it'll take you paying me with the total amount on this list to get me to accept more requests."

"Those are bold words. Are you sure you can live up to them?"

"I'm sure. And should I fail to, I'm not afraid of admitting my incompetence. Either way, I hope it doesn't come down to any of that. I'm a big fan of simple trades between two honest partners. I'll make sure as many people survive as possible, and you make sure to give me what I ask for. And knowing this situation will happen again, a good trade this time will ensure smoother trades in the future."

"..."

The man sat back and both of them looked each other in the eyes for a bit. Seeing his attitude, the man couldn't help but smile.

"Heh, you may not be the best at subtle negotiations, but I admire your straight forward attitude. You remind me of this guy."

He pointed to Ciroc, who snorted.

"Hmph. You know I hate politics. Why do you think I brought you along."

"I swear, sometimes I feel used."

"We're friends, so it's okay."

"Uh-huh. Sure. Anyway, I haven't properly introduced myself. The name is Derrin, class 3 [Sword Meister]. I'm often regarded as this muscle head's assistant."

"Dream. Class 3 [Arcanist]."

They reached between the couches they were sitting on and shook hands. The mood greatly relaxed.

"Arcanist. I've never heard of that before. Must be unique. No wonder you're so powerful."

"I try my best."

"I'm sure. Now Dream, are there any other conditions you would like to stipulate before the contract is settled?"

"Hmm... Not really. I'm not familiar with how you guys build contracts, so I'll leave it up to you."

"Right. So in exchange for these materials and compensation you will provide the full support of your golem army in the upcoming battle. It will be in cooperation with our own armies. Payment will be processed after the battle."

"I see nothing wrong with that."

"Great. Then on behalf of the Alliance, I am officially recruiting your services. I hope we can ride this storm as smoothly as possible."

"As do I."

Standing up, Both men shook hands once more, finalizing the deal. At the same time, Dream, who was prepared for this, began mobilizing his armies.