The three options for dealing with my sleeping prisoners hovered in my consciousness. Outside, the adventurers were cautiously poking one of the snoozing goblins with the handle of an axe.
"So, ’Mochi’ is a type of mushroom dumpling?" Pip whispered to Zazu, clearly not buying the excuse.
"The fairy seemed quite insistent," Zazu replied, though his eyes, filled with thoughtful curiosity, were fixed on my core.
FaeLina, still flustered from her lie being relayed by me, zipped over. "Just absorb them, Mochi!" she whispered, her voice a frantic buzz only I could hear. "It’s what normal dungeons do! It’s quick, clean, and you get some free points. Let’s just put this whole embarrassing incident behind us!"
I considered her advice, then looked at the third option, the one the system itself recommended. This was the moment to fully commit to my philosophy.
[Option 3: Initiate Dream Therapy selected.]
FaeLina groaned psychically. ’Oh, not this again.’
’Everyone, please stand back,’ I projected to the adventurers in the room. ’I am going to try something new.’
Gilda looked wary but motioned for the others to step away from the sleeping goblins. I focused my will, extending a thread of my consciousness not to a willing student, but to a hostile mind. I entered the dream of the lead goblin, Gor.
The world I found myself in was the complete opposite of my calm, twilight beach.
Gor’s Dreamscape was a nightmare version of the Blood Pit. The ground was made of jagged, sharp rocks, and rivers of what looked like bubbling lava cut through the landscape. The sky was a bruised, angry red. In the distance, a massive, shadowy figure with glowing red eyes—a dream-version of the Blood Pit’s master—was yelling at Gor, calling him weak and pathetic for failing. Gor’s aggression, I realized, was born from a deep-seated fear of his own master.
My peaceful presence was immediately unwelcome. The jagged rocks crumbled under my non-existent feet, and shadowy, snarling creatures turned to glare at me.
I didn’t try to fight them. I simply began to project my dungeon’s ambient magic into this hostile world.
The gentle, humming lullaby from my Hibernation Hollows began to echo through the nightmare. The angry red sky slowly softened, the color bleeding out until it was replaced by the glittering, peaceful starfield of my enchanted ceiling. The lava rivers cooled and thickened, their threatening bubble replaced by the comforting aroma of warm stew.
Dream-Gor, who had been cowering before the giant shadow-figure, looked around in complete confusion. The scary voice of his master was suddenly replaced by the booming, friendly voice of Sir Crumplebuns, who was now standing where the shadow had been.
"FEAR NOT, SMALL FRIEND! A HUG OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL BANISH YOUR FEARS!" the plush knight declared.
Gor looked like his brain was about to melt. He had never experienced safety or kindness, not even in his own dreams.
I decided to press my advantage. I conjured a single item in front of the stunned goblin: a perfect, warm ’Cheer-Up Cherry Tart’.
Dream-Gor, whose entire life had been about fighting for scraps and moldy black bread, was hesitant. He had never been given something so nice. But the smell was too good. He reached out, grabbed the tart, and devoured it in two bites.
The effect was profound. The last of the nightmare landscape dissolved away, replaced by the calm, twilight beach. For the first time, Gor’s dream was peaceful.
In the real world, the angry scowl on the sleeping goblin’s face relaxed, replaced by a look of profound, blissful calm.
I withdrew from his mind, feeling a little tired but satisfied.
[Dream Therapy on ’Gor the Raider’ complete!]
[Subject’s ’Hostility’ level has been temporarily, but significantly, reduced.]
[Subject has gained a temporary ’Confused but Calm’ status effect.]
[Bonus DP Awarded for ’Hostile Mind Pacification’: +75 DP!]
I quickly repeated the process for the other two goblins, turning their nightmares of pain and violence into calm dreams of warm soup and fluffy pillows.
When I was done, I selected the second option from the original menu.
[Eject from Dungeon.]
In a soft swirl of purple light, the three sleeping goblins vanished from my floor, reappearing as a neat, snoring pile a hundred meters outside my dungeon entrance.
The adventurers and FaeLina had just watched three unconscious goblins suddenly start to smile in their sleep before being gently teleported away.
Gilda stared at the empty spot on the floor, her mind struggling to comprehend what she had just witnessed. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveI★Fire.net
"What... in the world... did you just do to them?" she asked, her voice filled with pure, unadulterated bafflement.
FaeLina just shook her tiny head. "I have absolutely no idea," she said. "But I think our Core just invented a new non-lethal brainwashing method."