The Dreamer's POV

[Time Left: 30 Days, 3 Hours]

<Current Number of Participants: 5,299>

'I should just rest up a little…'

Placing my back on the cool surface of the earth, I closed my eyes for a minute,, inhaling the fresh early morning breeze that circulated in the air.

'I completed the mission quicker than I expected. Got a lot more unexpected rewards too…' My thoughts trailed as my lips curled up into a smile.

And then it struck me.

"Ah… the rewards!"

I had to check them out, at least in greater detail.

There were still a few I didn't know about, or what do with.

'I could probably just check them after resting up, but now that they're in my head, I can't stop thinking about them.'

As a result, I ended up looking through everything I got as a result of completing the Hidden Quest and clearing this Floor.

The first thing I did was start with the familiar aspects of my new abilities; that is, <Demonification>.

It was probably the Skill that had evolved the most, yet still felt natural to me. With the new upgrades it had, I could finally utilize it for what I had always wanted.

Still lying on the floor and relaxing my body, I stared at the System Window reflecting the nature of the Skill, as well as the icons representing the number of minions I had collected, and felt a surge of excitement within me.

'Let us begin…'

The first thing I did was to merge my currently unused Essences. I merged all the Shadow Essences, and the Elite Shadow Essences together, finally combining both to form just one Shadow Essence.

The name changed into <Great Elite Shadow>, and from that alone, I knew it had evolved greatly from the weak Elite Shadow Minion I previously had.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

It probably had more abilities as well.

The next Essences I merged were the Earth Survivors I killed during the destruction of the Lyma Capital. I combined all their Essences to form just one Essence, and then combined it to Andrew Alden, that swindler who led the bandits back then.

With all of them combined, I had the Essence change name to <Great Human Survivor>.

The problem with the Survivors I killed was the fact that they couldn't grow any further. That meant their Levels, Skills, Titles, etc. would remain stagnant. My hopes with this merging was that they would be much stronger and useful as a collective.

'If I add their Levels and their Skills, then as a single unit, that'll be incredibly powerful.'

Exclusive Skills were usually quite powerful, so having a single Minion with the Exclusive Skills of so many Survivors could end up being much more powerful than I could imagine.

After finalizing the merge between all the Survivors, I focused on the Rankers.

I initially wanted to merge all three Rankers to give me one 'Super Ranker', but I eventually thought against it.

'I need more hands on deck. Sure, all three combined as one would be stronger, but I'm not sure by how much. They're already strong enough at this point, and having three distinct minions who have specific abilities would be more advantageous.'

The more the merrier, especially in the case of subordinates.

With that in mind, I left the three Rankers intact, though I changed the names they possessed.

<Alpha> for the strongest in combat, <Beta> for the best in defense and crowd control, and <Gamma> for the tamer. For the <Great Human Survivor>, I changed its name to <Omega>, giving me a total of four human-based Minions in my possession.

When I had more, I would name them in a similar fashion.

'Hold on… when? Why am I thinking like this?'

It almost felt like I was looking forward to having more Survivors as my minions. When I considered the unique applications of their Exclusive Skills, the prospect of having a bunch of them was very mouth watering.

'I won't actively hunt them down or anything, but the moment they pose a threat and an opportunity comes… I suppose there's nothing wrong in killing them and making them my minions.'

No, it would be stupid of me to do anything apart from that.

Back to my merging game, I focused on the three Dark Demon Trees. They were pretty useful in a fight, but their abilities could also be used by the Whispering Treant. Plus, their stats weren't particularly as big as I would want.

'The major function I can give them is the Tank Role, and I don't need more than one Tank, to be honest.'

It was better to have one impregnable fortress than a couple of weak ones.

After considering it for some time, I decided to merge all of them with the Whispering Treant's Essence, causing its name to change to <Great Treant>.

I changed its name to <Tank>, making it much easier to call. Its function was also properly established in the name, making it easier to organize.

The results of my merging were as such:

Three Rankers, <Alpha>, <Beta>, and <Gamma>.

One Great Survivor, <Omega>.

One Great Elite Shadow, <Black>

Twelve Wyverns, labeled from <Number 1> to <Number 12>

One Common Dragon, <Number 0>

And finally, one Great Treant, <Tank>

That made nineteen Minions in total.

"Not bad, not bad…" I still had eleven more slots for Minions to summon, so the number was bound to grow eventually.

'Plus, it's possible that I can evolve <Demonification> to an even stronger Skill. I can't wait to see what more I'll get.'

The next thing I looked at were the rewards I recieved from defeating the Whispering Treant.

'I got a bunch of good items. Wooden weapons…'

I went through their Stats, and while they were impressive, I currently had much better weapons at my disposal.

I considered using a <Merger> to combine them in order to get a better Item, but I thought about it a little more and decided to do something else instead.

"I'll just give Drius and Theo. Having Special Items like these should help improve their abilities a little…'

Theo needed to learn how to defend himself, and I was sure Drius would soon begin to feel useless if I let him take the sidelines for too long.

'He's grateful now, but there will come a time when he's frustrated with his weakness. It's better he is given a sense of progress so he doesn't get bitter.'

I also critically examined the two Skills I managed to get as a result of defeating the Whispering treant—<Rapid Rgeneration> and <Maddening Whispers>—the latter being an upgrade on a Skill I previously had.

<Rapid Regeneration> operated just like the name sounded. It gave me quick regenerative speed, much faster than <Healing>. It also allowed me to regenerate lost limbs, something <Healing> would never allow.

It was an amazing step up. The only downside was the Energy Consumption it had.

'It's a good thing I can afford it.' Relief coursed through me as I smiled.

Then there was the second Skill <Maddening Whispers>. It seemed like this was the same Skill the Whispering Treant was using on me.

Apparently, it sent your thoughts to another person's mind, like a whisper. I could choose how intense I wanted to make it, so it could be useful as a mind attack, as well as a somewhat useful form of Telepathy.

'I can talk to someone through the mind. That's something I can see helping out a lot.'

Once I was finally done analyzing those rewards, it was finally time to move on to the others.

'Time for the big guns.'

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[A/N]

You love to see his growth...

Thanks for reading.

Cheers!