Dreamland: Freedom (Terror Infinity, Ultimate Evolution)

Eden woke up in a strange place. It was strangely similar to the room he had first appeared in when he was accepted into Dreamland, except that instead of the immaculate white, his surroundings were now completely dark.

However, the darkness did not impede Eden's ability to see in the slightest as he spotted an old woman not far from him, and she was looking at him with intense hatred.

As their eyes met, she snarled, "You've hurt my baby a lot, even forcing me to use the book's power to revive him. For that, you shall suffer untold atrocities! I will tear your soul into a thousand pieces and make you watch as I consume it!"

Eden barely gave her any attention as he felt an unprecedented sensation in this strange space, and something within him shifted. Smiling slightly as he felt his condition, he focused back on the woman and asked confidently, "Pamela Voorhees, I presume? Weren't you supposed to be dead?"

Pamela cackled, madness mixing into her hatred as she screamed, "You understand nothing of the book's powers! What could a mere mortal like you understand?"

Eden looked around at the overwhelming darkness, which would no doubt cause any normal person to panic, and only felt amused. Tilting his head, he teased Pamela, "You are nothing more than a cursed remnant; there are no mortals in here."

Even in her hatred, Pamela felt the absolute confidence Eden exuded, though she missed the meaning behind his words. Still, a part of her felt uneasy as Eden's soul should have already started eroding.

But this unease was quickly trumped by her hatred, the core of her being, as she screamed, "You fool, you stand within the domain of my master, of he who gave me my powers!"

She wildly swung her hands, causing multiple chains to materialize from the darkness, entangling and binding Eden. Yet, Eden remained unmoved, the same teasing little smile stuck on his face.

Pamela's hatred was once more mixed in with trepidation, and several more chains appeared, their grip tightening around Eden as she growled like an animal, "Die!"

Her words had no power, though, and neither did the soul-consuming chains. However, she did not believe that there was a problem with the book due to her deep fanaticism towards it. Instead, she reasoned that the multiple resurrections of her son had taken a toll on her, causing the chains she had conjured to lose their effects.

Snarling, she manifested dozens of blades in the sky, all about to rain down on Eden. Before doing so, she asked, "Any last words, Monster Hunter?"

Eden scoffed and lightly shrugged his shoulders, causing all the chains binding him to burst, returning to mere shadows. Pamela's eyes widened as her hatred started being subsumed by panic. The blades in the sky fell, but Eden merely looked up and spoke a single word, "Stop."

Suddenly, the whole dark world stopped as time stood still, as if too scared to dare continue its course. Pamela herself found herself frozen. She tried to move, to escape from the dark world, but she had been rendered powerless.

Dispelling the frozen blades with a thought, Eden raised his hand and, without another word, extinguished her soul.

The whole scene felt anticlimactic as Pamela's soul suddenly vanished, all traces of her disappearing from this world. Keeping the dark world afloat through sheer will for a moment longer, Eden enjoyed the feeling of absolute power he had felt ever since he entered this black world, before returning to his body.

As he did, Eden was greeted by several system notifications.

[Congratulations on fully awakening your Talent, Soul Overlord!]

[Intelligence Attribute Unlocked!]

[Wisdom Attribute Unlocked!]

[Main Mission (Survive) Completed!]

[Mission Content: Survive your stay in this dangerous new world.]

[Bonus Objective 1: Kill Jason Voorhees.]

[Bonus Objective 2: Kill Pamela Voorhees.]

[Bonus Objective 3: Save the entire cast.]

[Main Reward: 5000 Points]

[Bonus Reward 1: All Attributes +1, Title 'Monster Hunter']

[Bonus Reward 2: Intelligence +3, Wisdom +3, Title 'Monster Hunter' upgraded to 'Monster Hunter II']

[Bonus Reward 3: +3000 Points]

[Main Mission finished, Return planned in 2 minutes.]

Eden felt like a completely new man. Part of it was because of the overwhelming rewards from the Main Mission, but the biggest change was the awakening of his Talent. He felt… freer, in a way. As if he had broken away from chains he did not even know were there in the first place.

It was a feeling that was hard to put into words, but Eden felt so liberated that he forgot about all his pain for a moment.

His talent was quite mysterious, even to him, but in that space, which had been Pamela's mindscape held within the book, Eden had felt like the entire world was within his control. And it had been.

Interestingly, what he had thought would be side missions ended up being bonus objectives, which only appeared once he finished his main mission. Did that mean that killing Jason's zombie forms had not counted toward his missions?

Although curious, Eden would have acted the same anyway. He had not just been killing him for his missions, but it was to ensure his survival first and foremost.

Ironically, one of his rewards was the title of 'Monster Hunter', turning his convenient lie into reality. Intrigued, Eden took a closer look at his new title.

[Monster Hunter II: Reputation gain increased by 20% with any faction enemies with monsters, and reputation gain lowered by 20% with monsters.]

The title was quite neat. He did not feel any different from having it, but its usefulness would certainly reveal itself later on. It might look like a double-edged sword, but it was really not.

First off, most factions should be enemies with monsters because of their nature, so while Eden did not know what use reputation had, it could only be positive. As for monsters, if they were beings like Jason, then they would already be trying to kill him even without the title, so it was of no real consequence.

Satisfied with what his new title offered him, Eden shifted his attention to his Talent, eager to find out more about it.

[Talent- Soul Overlord]

Unfortunately, the system did not give him any additional information about his Talent. It was quite vexing, but there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, it was not like he was completely clueless about it either. But he also definitely did not know all of its functions.

Next was Eden's status, and it, too, had gone through major changes.

[Name: Eden Fraser]

[Title: Monster Hunter II, STD Free]

[Talent: Soul Overlord]

[HP: 45/80]

[MP: 160/160]

[Strength: 6 (9)]

[Agility: 7 (8)]

[Physique: 8]

[Intelligence: 16]

[Wisdom: 11]

[Skills: N/A]

[Currency: 10000 Dream Points]

Eden's attributes had all improved by at least 1, and his Intelligence and Wisdom by 4 each, meaning they had originally been at 12 and 7, which was surprisingly high. Of course, what was even more important was that they had been unlocked. It appeared they had been unlocked with the awakening of his talent, seeing the order of the system notifications.

That also activated his MP bar, which was even bigger than his HP, despite his Physique reaching a pure 8.

Although in comparison to his Intelligence and Wisdom, that 8 may not seem like much, it was still well above the human average. Moreover, Eden had the feeling that Attributes did not increase linearly, but exponentially instead. Of course, Eden was nowhere near strong enough to know that for sure.

Eden also now had 10000 Dream Points. He did not know what their value was, but he was sure that compared to other newbies, he should have many more points, since he had not only completed his Tutorial on Nightmare, but also did enough Bonus Objectives and Side Quests to double his original reward of 5000 Dream Points.

Now done checking out his mission's rewards, Eden's eyes turned to the last interesting thing in the room to Eden, the book.

It had not disappeared or burst into flames when Pamela died, but simply closed itself. Moreover, its front page was no longer blurred out, and Eden felt nothing looking at it, compared to his earlier dizziness.

After a moment of hesitation, Eden figured that he had enough HP to try to grab it again.

[Intelligence Check…]

[Intelligence Check overruled by 'Soul Overlord'!]

Eden grinned at the result as he felt something he could not quite name happen in his mind. If he had to guess, it was the book trying to harm him, only for the attempt to get destroyed by his Talent.

Eden had a hunch this would happen and was glad he had been right. Now free from any debuffs or attacks, Eden got to read the description of the ominous book.

[Necronomicon (Copy)]

[Rank: Rare]

[Magical Attack: +35%]

[Intelligence: +3]

[Wisdom: +2]

[Summon Lesser Demon: Summon a random lesser demon from the realms of Hell to do your bidding. If the demon has a stronger will than the caster, it will free itself from its bindings. Cost: 300 MP.]

[Dark Bolt: Conjure a bolt of dark energy to deal 100 necrotic damage, and weaken the physical attributes of those hit by 5 for ten seconds. Cost: 200 MP.]

[Cursed: The foul magic contained within this book confuses any who gaze upon it, and contaminates those who try to use it.]