"Are you Professor Petania?" I asked carefully.

She glanced up from her papers, adjusting her glasses with a practiced motion. "Yes, my name is indeed Petania. But why are you looking for me?"

Without answering right away, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Dream Orb. Its faint, pulsing glow filled the space between us with a soft, bluish light.

"I was wondering," I said, holding it out slightly, "if I could get some help with this."

"This is…?"

The moment her eyes fell on it, Petania froze. The calm, composed researcher façade cracked in an instant. Her pupils dilated, and her voice trembled with barely contained excitement.

"W–wait. Where did you get that?!"

Before I could even answer, she grabbed my wrist. "Come with me. Now!"

"Uh—Professor?"

She didn't respond. I was half-dragged across the lab, past the cluttered tables and humming devices, until we reached a small, isolated room tucked in the corner.

The moment we stepped inside, she slammed the door shut—thud—and turned the lock with a sharp click.

I blinked. "…Did you just lock the door?"

"Quiet," she said quickly, waving her hand. "No distractions."

Right. No red flags there.

Petania moved to a chair by a narrow desk and gestured eagerly for me to sit across from her. Her excitement was practically radiating off her—like a child about to unwrap a long-awaited present.

"That thing from earlier," she said, eyes gleaming. "Show it to me properly. Quickly."

"…Here."

I placed the Dream Orb gently on the table.

The moment the blue light reflected in her glasses, Petania leaned forward, both hands braced on the desk. Her lips parted slightly in awe.

"Oh… Ohhh…" she breathed, voice trembling with fascination. "It's real."

Her expression was completely entranced—half scientist, half zealot—as if she were staring at the culmination of her life's work.

It was a little unnerving, to be honest.

Petania's face was flushed, her breathing uneven, and her hands trembled faintly as she stared at the glowing orb in front of her.

Her expression was eerily familiar.

'Wait... this is exactly the look of someone high on something.'

The glassy eyes, the shaky grin, the way her pupils seemed to dilate with every second—it was the same expression you'd see on drug addicts in movies.

And right now, she was wearing it perfectly.

Gulp.

I swallowed hard as she did the same, her throat bobbing, her gaze fixed entirely on the Dream Orb as if it were the most tempting thing in the world.

Her lips parted slightly, her tongue brushing against them as if she were savoring an imaginary taste.

"...Why are you looking at it like that?" I muttered under my breath, feeling a prickle of discomfort crawl down my neck.

When she leaned in closer, eyes shimmering with desire, I instinctively pulled the Dream Orb a little closer to me.

The faint glow faded from her face the moment the orb disappeared from her view. Her expression shifted—first to disappointment, then resignation—as she finally tore her gaze away from it and looked at me.

"Do you even know what that is?" she asked, her tone a mix of curiosity and restrained excitement.

"Yes," I said cautiously. "It's a Dream Orb, isn't it?"

Her eyes widened. "How on earth did you get something like that…?"

She stopped mid-sentence, probably realizing I wouldn't tell her. With a quiet sigh, she folded her arms and seemed to let it go.

"Fine," she said finally. "You're here because you want to fix it, right?"

"That's right."

"Alright. I'll help you—but only on one condition."

I tilted my head. "What condition?"

Her lips curved into a faint smile.

"If we manage to repair the Dream Orb, even for a moment… let me touch it."

That was it?

Considering how desperate she looked earlier, I half-expected something much worse.

"Sure," I said after a moment. "If you can fix it, I don't see a problem with that."

Her eyes lit up instantly, and she clapped her hands together. "Good. Then let's think about how to repair it. Dream fantasy, dream fantasy…"

She began pacing around the room, mumbling to herself, her mind already lost in a whirlwind of calculations and half-formed ideas.

I watched silently as she scribbled furiously in her notebook, pages flipping one after another until she suddenly stopped.

Her eyes gleamed with realization.

"Ah! If it's that…!"

She began sketching rapidly, lines and runes spilling across the page, connecting into complex diagrams that only she seemed to understand.

After a while, she pushed up her glasses with one finger and turned to me, a triumphant grin spreading across her face.

"Hehe. I've come up with a brilliant idea."

"What is it?" I asked, already half-dreading the answer.

Her smile deepened.

"From now on," she said, voice brimming with excitement, "we're going to enter someone else's dream."

*

Time passed, and night quietly settled over the Academy.

The corridors were silent, the usual chatter of students replaced by the faint hum of mana lamps. I followed Professor Petania back to her laboratory, the faint sound of our footsteps echoing off the cold floor.

"There," she said, adjusting her glasses as she examined the setup. "All preparations are complete."

I glanced around, taking in the strange sight before me.

"What… is all this?" I asked.

Petania smiled faintly, her eyes gleaming behind the glass. "This, well… is a kind of machine that allows you to travel through dreams."

A massive, intricate magic circle covered the floor, drawn in shimmering silver ink. Strange mechanical devices surrounded it, all interconnected by glowing mana cables. The air itself felt charged, humming with quiet energy.

"Place the Dream Orb here." She pointed to a small opening in one of the machines. "Once it's set, we'll be able to enter someone else's dream using its energy."

I nodded and carefully slid the Dream Orb into the slot. The moment it clicked into place, a soft light pulsed from within, and the runes across the circle began to flicker faintly.

The Dream Orb—an artifact capable of meddling with dreams. It seemed Petania intended to push that ability to its limits.

It was late—most of the Academy had already drifted into sleep. That meant countless dreams were unfolding all around us, scattered across the night like constellations in the sky.

My job was to randomly enter one of them and retrieve something she called a dream fragment.

I'd seen things like that before in Arcana. Shards of pure memory and emotion—fleeting, unstable, yet potent.

Dreams themselves are fragile things. They vanish the moment a person wakes, leaving no trace behind. So, theoretically, entering them shouldn't cause any real harm.

...Though, if I did take someone's dream fragment, there was a chance they might wake up instantly.

I pushed that thought aside.

This was about survival. Morality could wait.

"Now," Petania said, her voice steady but expectant, "focus your mind and slowly infuse your magic into the circle."

Sitting in the center of the glowing magic circle, I took a deep breath and began channeling my mana, just as Petania had instructed.

Woong—

A low hum filled the air as streams of light rippled outward from the runes beneath me. The symbols etched into the floor responded to my magic, flaring to life one by one like awakening stars.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.