Dream

Achilles scrutinized the orb for a while, then slowly walked towards it. He remained silent for a whole minute before his brows furrowed a little:

'Something's wrong...'

His soul, although looked nothing out of the ordinary at first glance, there were still some intricate differences about it.

It became stronger that was an undeniable fact, but at the same time... it had grown much weaker than when he originally first saw it.

'I do not like where this is going...' His face turned serious as he examined the white orb.

Ten seconds later, he extended his left hand to touch the orb, then closed his eyes as he started concentrating. Information regarding his two skills soon poured into his mind, he took a look at them before his mouth widened dumbfoundedly:

'What the hell??!'

The thing that made him scream in his mind was the information about his first skill, it relatively remained the same except for...

'Consume a great amount of mental energy and essences upon activation and now requires an overwhelming amount of killing intent as an addition in order to control a target who is near death.'

'...Did my ability just get...downgraded?'

Not only was his ability just got downgraded, but he had also lost the ability to teleport to one of his minions' positions.

He read the lines again three times just to ensure what he saw was indeed the truth. And no matter how much he read again, the lines remained where they were as if mocking at him.

'This is bad, this is really, really bad.' He thought while feeling his heart throbbing in his mouth.

Achilles' plan to go hunt Corrupted greatly depended on his first ability, he intended to apply fear onto his enemies, then strike them from the shadows.

But now...with a crap load of restrictions and a ridiculous amount of essences required to activate the skill for just one time...his plan just got crumbled into dust.

He decided to check to see whether his second ability got any problem, and to his luck, the ability had changed as well.

From now on, his target absolutely needs to be either unconscious or die not too long ago in order to invade their mind.

Although this was an unfortunate turn of events, it didn't affect him as much as the changes in his first skill. After all, he only planned to devour the soul once his target had been killed.

Achilles opened his eyes and removed his left hand from his soul, he turned his head to the sky while muttering to himself in a tense voice:

"This is wonderful...why is fate always like toying with me?"

He had just lost a major advantage that would decrease his chance of survival out there in the wild. This made him truly agitated and tired, he had no idea why troubles kept finding their way to him.

But he was not an individual who was easily discouraged by simply an obstacle that stood in his way. This was the core reason why he had managed to survive all by himself for ten gruesome years in this cruel world.

If fate tries to stop him, he will shred it into pieces until there's nothing left of it.

Achilles looked at the orb for one last time, then glanced at the two skeletons who were still staring at him with dark resentments. He closed his eyes and exited the Mindscape.

He opened his eyes again and found himself in his room, even though it felt like an eternity in the Mindscape, the outside world barely changed a bit.

Achilles couldn't help but felt as if everything that just occurred was simply a dream and only now did he wakes up. A sigh escaped his lips as he stood up and called for a small meal.

A while later, the food arrived and he ate it on the bed with his eyes gazing emptily out into the void. After that, he closed his eyes and drifted off into the dreamland.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Achilles had a strange dream, it was a dream about a distant past, something he had almost forgotten by now.

He looked at his small hands in a daze, it was filled with mud and some small wounds in it.

He then looked up around him, he saw himself in a small garden filled with all kinds of delicate and beautiful flowers. Each of them radiated a soothing fragrance that calmed his mind down.

Just as he was about to get lost in the scent, he spotted a figure wearing a long, white dress who was watering a group of particular flowers.

The woman seemed to have noticed his gaze as she turned around and smiled at him, she beckoned him over with her fingers while her auburn hair swayed slightly in the air.

Achilles swiftly moved to her out of instinct and arrived by the woman's side. She crouched down while touching his small head as she asked in a gentle tone:

"What's wrong, Mark? You look sad."

"...I'm tired, mother." Achilles....no, Mark said fleetingly.

"Can you tell why's that the case?" She said while still maintaining that gentleness.

"I have nobody by my side, I'm always lonely and have to suffer everything by myself."

The woman's eyes flickered for a moment before she pulled Mark into her embrace as she said in a loving tone:

"You're not lonely Mark, your father and I will always be by your side."

"But...you two would be gone one day as well."

"...That's indeed true, but even then, we will keep watching you and follow your every step." She paused for a moment, then added: "And don't worry, someday, the woman who will love you and you will love will appear. And she would accompany you even beyond the graves."

"...Why do you think so?" Mark asked while sniffling a little.

The auburn hair woman pulled Mark out and looked directly into his eyes as she said:

"I know so."

Mark felt he might have hallucinated because when she said those words, he could see a myriad of ethereal strings floating within her eyes, creating a beautiful tapestry.

After that, the woman said something else he couldn't hear clearly before his vision was suddenly shrouded with darkness.