[ti]solo[/ti]A Nostalgic Dream

Set before the meeting with Shalin Nariya ...

He had a peculiar dream.

Where he was walking in a street of an unknown city. Most of the buildings were too old for his taste. It's as if they were made in the Victorian era of his world.

He didn't know how or why he was here. But something at the back of his mind made him wonder if someone was calling out to him. As if they were asking him for help.

He tried to reach out to the source of the plea. He ran around to see if anyone was nearby.

He tried to turn left in the alley. He found a faint light at the end of it.

Then...

---

PING!

"ARGH!!!" Morpheus gasped as he suddenly got up from the ground. "God... That better not be their version of an alarm clock..." He closed his eyes and took a few breaths for a while. "Right... Let's see what it is." He opened his eyes to see a new window pop up.

You saw an interesting dream within the Dream Kingdom.

"Huh? I was expecting some kind of urgent notice or something." He hummed for a while until he realized something. "But hang on, I shouldn't get anything Dream World-related unless I get a public invitation like with that banquet. Unless..." Taking a closer look, Morpheus noticed another window hiding behind the first. He closed it to see what the second prompt contained.

You unlocked a new subclass: DREAMER

He couldn't believe his eyes. He rubbed them just in case. Yet he could see those same words. He knew what this meant.

"I-I'm...a Dreamer..." Morpheus chuckled. "Finally, I got the subclass I wanted when I first logged in here." He chuckled as he lay on the ground. "It's a small step, but I'm now ready for those quests he mentioned."

After a few seconds of ecstatic laughing, Morpheus took a few deep breaths before he stood up from the ground. "Right. I'm done napping. I should start playing for real and..."

"No... I'm not guilty... I'm telling the truth..."

He flinched when he heard a voice behind him. Morpheus turned around as he was about to pull out one of his Poke Balls. But he stopped to see a man wandering around the woods alone. Looking closely, he looked like one of the minor NPCs. Yet he wondered how in the world did he find himself in the Misty Timberlands in the first place. Worried, he ran to the NPC and tried to help him before he tripped from his stumbling.

"Hey, what's the matter, sir?" He asked in concern. "Did something happen?"

But the NPC simply laughed in a maddened state and raised his head. "What... happened? That... damned noble accused me of murdering his servants and guests! I did nothing, but he didn't believe me! Now, I need to run away before the bobbies could get me!" He then grabbed Morpheus's collar and pulled him closer to his face. "You believe me, right?! I killed nobody in my life and he only said nothing but bollocks! Tell me you believe me!"

Morpheus was briefly speechless. He didn't know how to respond to the NPC's mad ramblings. Not to mention he saw nothing but woods around him lately. However, he did recall dreaming of a Victorian-styled city. "Um... Sir... Maybe..."

Suddenly, the NPC screamed and pushed Morpheus away from him. "They're here! They're gonna arrest me! I'm telling you, I'm innocent!" He screamed before he started running deeper into the woods. "INNOCENT!!!"

Morpheus didn't know how to respond as he watched him disappear into the mist. He sighed as he put his hand down, wondering what he could do next. Then, a new notification appeared in his HUD.

You have received (1) new Quest!

At least that answered his mental question. He knew that dream must be a trigger, but he didn't expect it to get from a delusional NPC. Which begged the question: What made him lose his sanity like that? Either way, he got his first clue and he decided to head back to the settlement to get some answers with his new subclass in tow.

Route Exploration Objective: Find someone who is experiencing hallucinations