Adam stood before the large pod, he stretched his hand out, paused for a few seconds and subconsciously retracted his arm a bit, before he managed to open the capsule and clamber inside.
he closed his eyes, and didn't open them until he heard the strangely familiar voice whisper into his mind
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Adam!]
Adam opened his eyes to the sound of... chains creaking?
He looked around and realised he was on a small island, above him was a bright blue sky, it was all around him as well, running to the edge of the island, he saw the same thing. This was an island suspended in the sky.
Adam would have simply stood there in his stupor, if it weren't for the sound of breathing behind him, of course no ordinary person would have heard breathing behind them, Adam only heard due to his spectator attribute.
Turning around, Adam saw two wolf-like awakened beasts, the one on the left pounced forwards, sinking its teeth into Adam's fragile skin, tearing him to pieces.
or at least, that's what it saw, Adam had used a type of combat hypnotism to change the wolf's target, causing it to tear into the mottled grey fur of the other wolf, of course, it was able to break out of the hypnotisation after biting its friend causing it to let go. but all its friend cared about was the injury it had received.
the wolf on the right quickly pounced on the wolf on the left, the two tore at each other until one died and the other was mortally wounded, Adam did not spare this opportunity, he quickly grabbed a near by stick and plunged it into the left eye of the pitiful wolf.
the sound of the spell whispered in his ears
[you have slain an awakened beast: gluttonous lupine]
[you have received a memory: lupine hide]
it was only after Adam summoned the armour type memory that he realised he had not been wearing clothes the entire time.
the lupine hide offered little protection, it was closer to clothing than armour.
Adam recognised this place, he had learned it from teacher Julius.
first things first, I need to find the gateway of the chained isles
searching the perimeter of the island, Adam finally found the giant chain connecting this island to another, but hanging from the chain was something Adam did not expect, it was a giant metal statue.
well, only one way to go.
Adam slowly walked along the ancient chain, one link at a time.
He didn't particularly fear looking down, after all, there was no ground to see just how far up he was.
He was almost at the end of the chain, he was actually standing on the one remaining hand of the statue.
The chain beneath him began to creak and tilt.
Turning around, he saw the floating island he had previously left beginning to rise, the chain slowly swung from side to side, knocking Adam off, as he fell, he desperately clung to the forearm of the giant metal statue.
don't fall, don't fall, don't fall.
Adam repeated that mantra in his head, until the islands stabilized yet again, and when they did, he seized that opportunity to clamber up the forearm of the titanium titan.
setting his feet on land again, Adam let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.
he then looked around him, at the island he was now stood on.
The grass was a lush green, trees young and old whispered amongst one another as the wind carried their words and leaves across the land mass, the pure blue sky seemed to passively gaze down at Adam; the deep black sky beneath greedily devoured the light unfortunate enough to meet it.
most interesting however, wasn't the trees or the grass or sky above or void below, no, it was the abandoned shipwreck that had somehow appeared on a floating island.
however, before Adam could investigate, he came to a sudden, unwelcome realisation.
'crap, I left the soul shards behind.'
Adam pondered whether it was worth it to head back for those 4 soul fragments.
thinking about it, he decided it was best to explore the island he was on first, if anything on the island posed a threat to him, he would use his skills as a sleeper to escape as fast as he could.
Adam began to walk around the shipwreck, deciding to find a proper entrance instead of breaking into the potential lair of fallen or even corrupted abominations.
The truth was, without a scouting aspect, he wasn't able to plan before he encountered nightmare creatures, and he had no idea what abominations lay around the corner when he walked, he might be safe, but he could also walk right into an unholy titan, such a thought made Adam shudder involuntarily.
Adam finally crept all the way to the bow of the boat, what was left of it at least.
what Adam saw at the hull of the boat, made him wish he had just gone back, or walked away from the boat, instead of giving in to such curiosity and exploring the boat.
on the boat, there were dozens upon dozens of featureless wooden humans, and he didn't just see them, even without eyes, they still seemed to be able to gaze directly at him.
Adam tried to use combat hypnotism again, in order to make them instead focus their attention on one of their own, but his hypnotism would not work, it seemed the wooden statues were one of the main weaknesses of a hypnotist, they were mindless.
in the few seconds Adam took to realise this, the featureless dolls had gotten disturbingly close.
Adam turned tail and ran, sprinting in the opposite direction of the dolls.
racing around the perimeter of the island, Adam found a second chain, connecting this island to another one.
turning around, Adam noticed that nothing had followed him this far, so he took a moment to breath before braving the horrifying metal chain.
sorry I was gone so long, I had a lot of end of year tests, they're all over now so I should be writing chapters more frequently