Verbal Comfort.

"So lad, you have your traveller's card right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"lad, call me Elise."

"Okay Elise, how rude of me to not introduce myself, call me Fent"

"What a nice name for a young boy like you. Anyways, so for beginners.."

The old passenger lady thoroughly explained to him how the different transportations in this city worked. She explained with utmost sincerity not knowing that she got misled by Finsley devious misinformation about his name.

After a while Finsley was satisfied with the information he gained, and the lady was done explaining. But instead of cutting their conversation short, they kept on talking and sharing their life stories casually. Though sometimes Fin unashamedly made up stories, afraid to get noticed or rather afraid to get recognised..

"This old hag is actually an awakened sonny."

Startled Fin widened his eyes.

"Beg your pardon?"

"Yeah, I'm an awakened from the dark times. Us veterans from the dark times get a lot of goodies from the government. Especially us SS units. You may not believe but, I even became a master."

Finsley couldn't help but drop his jaw.

"I-I didn't expect that.."

'And in the SS category? Actually I don't even know what that means but it sounds very cool.'

He then let out sweat and an obvious gulp.

"Oh I bet you didn't lad.. Well anyhow you want to hear my stories or not?"

"Please do tell! And maybe you can even clear up somethings and give me tips."

"Tips? You want to be an awakened adventurer?"

"Yes please, Master Elise."

"Just Elise will do, Fent."

"Let's go back to the basics, to engage your mind. About 50 years ago something called the nightmare spell descended on our newly recovering world from the wars. This phenomenon made people in the first generation, ranging from all ages, face challenges that upon completion will make them awakened. Unlike today that most will awaken the fruitful age of 16 to 18 years. Anyhow, the completers are deemed as awakened which are the perfect weapons for protecting the mundanes by killing the nightmare abominations. Now where do these abominations come from?"

"The dream realm?"

"Correct. The dream realm as of now are governed by the vast legacy clans unlike in the waking world where the world government is still the powerhouse in terms of influence and authority. But I think that's gonna change soon so heads up for that lad.

The dream realm is a dangerous and unforgiving place, it's literally your nightmares incarnate and I mean literally.

It's unpredictable and merciless, much more than reality could ever be. Isn't that funny? Hahaha a more hellish place than this one.

Anyways, in the dream realm there are dungeons or structures by the dead inhabitants of the dream realm, that has these things called gateways, these gateways upon activating will transport you to the waking. But to reach it however is not so easy, there are usually harrowing abominations guarding it, sometimes they could even rival the gods themselves. That's why we parasites of worlds need to be careful and cunning, as the pests we are HAHAHA!. "

"Can you give emphasis on the nightmares please?"

"Why of course, i almost forgot. The first nightmare is the easiest challenge of them all, though the easiest doesn't mean it's a walk in the park, it's more like crawling to escape hell at least for people who have bad luck. I happen to be one of them HAHAHA, after that you'll still need to establish a gateway upon the winter solstice transportation to finally be a full fledge law abiding awakened."

She smiles and Fin shivered.

"Anyhow, the second nightmare is much similar but cranked up a notch actually several notches. HAHAHA. But jokes aside kid, to survive the land of the nightmare, you'll need assistance so make as much allies as possible and use eachother to utmost efficiency. Take it from me kid a child of war. HAHAHA"

Finsley lingered for a bit.

'Not much different from what Mother Teresa taught us, but the extra details give me more insight on the current situation, I'll need to train my social skills I suppose. Hehehe'

"Thank you Elise.."

She smiled with closed eyes.

Elise then started laughing suddenly. She thought of her last strange predicament that was setted in another bus.

"So get this yeah, a red haired bloke that was seated across my seat was sweating profusely and kept tapping his feet and hands, he kept on fidgeting and gritted his teeth in the procces. That was comical on itself really, and in fact it was quite a bother but what happens next is even more so HAHAHA. "

Finsley's senses turned to the maximum output since the lady's build up made him anticipate really hard in turn making him ask questions in his mind.

"Get this yeah, HAHAHA a splurting horrid sound accompanied an even more rancid smell became apparent throughout the bus. HAHAHA the brunette bloke then looked at me with a wide eyes as sweat kissed it. He wiped the sweat and jumped from the seat. HAHAHA the situation was already very weird for me to witness, an old lady like me shouldn't have that much amusement anyways. Even though it was very smelly in the bus I still found comedy in the dire situation. But then something even more amusing happened. The bloke then continued his futile escape towards the bus's exit, he ran as his shit trailed across the floor. HAHAHA then suddenly he slipped from his own waste, the slip then twisted his body and made him eat his own crap. HAHAHA!"

Finsley was already struggling to keep his laughter silent but he couldn't hold his mouth after the last part of her story.

His laugh was so loud that it woke up and disturbed the fellow passengers.

"Shhhhh, tsk."

The passengers started complaining but he couldn't stop, he was still laughing.

He laughed so hard that his fur hood came off his silver hair.

Finsley laughed unbeknownst of the old lady's startled expression..

As his laughter died down the lady quickly reverted to her smiling facade.

"That was too funny miss Elise."

"Very amusing innit."

The bus's bell rang alarming Fin that he's finally arrived at his destination.

With a sorrowful undertone he said to her seatmate.

"Oh.. This is my stop. I guess I'll be off now."

"Oh don't you worry son, go forth and be free like the innocent youth you are. But be careful though this city can be a little challenging sometimes."

"Thank you Elise. I've enjoyed my stay, I hope that we'll meet again"

He exited the bus waving his goodbye to Elise from the outside.

Elise waved back from the window smilingly.

'Huh.. I really needed that. Wait was my hood off during the ride. Oh well I doubt someone would recognize me, only a few we're close to my family. But I'd rather not risk it..'

He putted back his fur cloth and walked towards the apartments location. It was a few blocks away so he would walk for a while before he can finally relax and settle.

But along the way, while taking an efficient path. The alley that he tried to cut through was a very bad choice for a shortcut.

He met the thugs, of the city..