I, a Slime, have also dreamed of becoming a great Demon King!

Half-awake, half-asleep, Karlo had once again come before that pure radiance.

...Wait a second, why say "again"?

Karlo vaguely felt that this scene seemed familiar, but she really couldn't remember why and for some reason, her head even ached a bit.

The ethereal voice continued, "Karlo, I will bestow wisdom upon you, I will guide you in mastering meditation, and set foot on the path into the Dream Realm..."

—This was a new tactic dreamt up by Ybur, which was to offer benefits first without mentioning anything else. It's just the method of meditation, right? I'll teach you! Ybur's current idea was to not bring up "who it is" on its own accord, instead letting Karlo become curious and explore the answer herself, as long as it could show its friendliness and great strength.

"Teach me... meditation?"

Karlo was momentarily stunned, half delighted, half skeptical.

Ybur didn't care what she was actually thinking and simply went on to narrate comprehensively about the knowledge of meditation.

The two sisters, Karlo was utterly illiterate, Cherie slightly better as a semi-illiterate, and together their cultural level was even lower than that of the newly born Ybur. Plus, with Ruby's memories, Ybur possessed a solid understanding of transcendent knowledge such as meditation, which she explained in a simple yet profound manner.

Karlo listened intently. Although she couldn't completely understand, she strove to absorb the knowledge. Still in a state of semi-consciousness, her mind wasn't fully aware, but instinctively, she realized that this information would have a tremendous impact on her.

Yet after a while, Ybur began to feel a sense of fatigue.

Its spiritual power was still not strong enough.

During advancement, the three mysterious sources offered to the Dream Realm would enhance the dimensions corresponding to the vocational practitioner, of which the heart and the spirit, though both related to the mind, the heart concerns passion and imagination, while the spirit corresponds to energy, memory, and rationality. In the Fallen Beast Pathway, the spirit has the smallest proportion, hence Ybur's spiritual power was over-abundant in aggression but obviously lacking in endurance.

Thus, it said, "Let's stop here for today."

"Wait a minute!"

Karlo's thoughts suddenly surged violently, "I still have so many things I don't understand! Your, Your Excellency, what exactly are you?"

Good question, I'm also pondering this matter... Ybur thought subtly to itself, yet outwardly it maintained an enigmatic demeanor. It did not answer Karlo's question, simply stating, "We will meet again."

The spiritual communication broke off abruptly, and Ybur's consciousness withdrew.

Karlo shifted on the bed, as if she was about to wake up.

Ybur hurriedly left with Sherry.

Having visited the city this time, it had already memorized the layout and routes, and would be able to return in the future.

It climbed onto the table, flipped itself outside, and once again plummeted onto the street. With a splat, like a massive water balloon hitting the ground, Ybur's body wobbled but quickly steadied itself.

Looking into the distance, the huge body of the tower, made of heavy iron blocks and gears, stood like a column extending from earth to heaven in the center of the city—it was the Steam Tower. Rugged pipes, serpent-like, intertwisted; through the gaps of the gears, a faint red light was intermittently released.

At the middle section of the Steam Tower, a ring made of metal was slowly rotating driven by the gears, with a giant clock face on it. Every time the metal ring made a full rotation, the minute hand of the clock would jump exactly once. Ybur glanced at the time; it was almost six in the morning. It was uncertain when the city's "daytime" would arrive, but it was best to leave before then.

Sherry couldn't transform to pass through the manhole cover grates like it could, but fortunately, the cover itself was metal. Ybur emitted acid, effortlessly corroding a piece of the cover, and then wobbled into the sewer below.

...

The curfew had not yet ended, but the city was already gradually coming to life, like a giant beast sluggishly awakening from a long hibernation. The first to stir was the Gravel Area, enveloped in a persistent mist year-round. Sparks of welding illuminated a corner of the massive factory, hill-like in the fog.

Chimneys were everywhere, with smoke curling around them; giant mechanical pendulums cast dark silhouettes in the faint light. The boiler rooms steamed, the wave of heat rising.

Intricate mechanical gears turned, driving the machines; the steam clock rotated at a fixed rate, and when it reached the hour, the hidden bell inside was struck by the mechanism, its sound waves rippling through the mist, traveling far and wide.

Clang—

Daylight descended in an instant, and the giant beast known as the city awoke.

Karlo opened her eyes.

It was still dark outside, and she'd slept for too short a time; an intense drowsiness made her almost not want to move. On the other hand, the extreme excitement in her mind made it really hard for her to fall back asleep. She repeatedly thought over the previous events in her mind, the Transcendent secrets, and meditation knowledge, worried that these contents would slip away from her mind. Karlo even wished that she could write them down with a pen, but since she didn't know how to write, she could only repeatedly think them through in her head.

Right, and also that sphere of light—

What kind of existence was that, really?

A sense of indescribable awe emerged in Karlo's heart, of course, along with fear of the unknown. But soon after, the fear was immediately replaced by excitement. Whatever that existence was... No, He! At least He was truly teaching her meditation!

She wondered if that knowledge of meditation was of any use...

But at that moment, Karlo suddenly realized something was not quite right—why was the room so cold, as if the window had been left open... Huh? Karlo turned her head and, rolling out of bed, walked over to the window, immediately spotting the small patch of the window frame that had been corroded.

What was going on?

Her expression grew stern, and her first thought was, surprisingly: Oh no, now I'll have to pay Mrs. Landlord...

"Ka, Karlo?"

Cherie had been woken by the noise, her eyes drowsily opening: "Why are you up? What's wrong?"

"There seems to be something odd going on in the house. I think... I also had a strange dream." Karlo didn't quite know how to explain it. Her mouth opened and closed before she finally asked Cherie: "Did you have any strange dreams?"

"I..."

Cherie's cheeks flushed red, she somewhat embarrassedly pressed down on the blanket, not letting Karlo see the wet patch beneath it: "I also seem to have had a strange dream..."

She immediately denied it: "No! That's not it!"

"Huh? So did you or didn't you?" Karlo asked, confused.

"No..." Cherie said, blushing, too shy to lift her head. Then, she reached towards her pillow and her body suddenly stiffened.

"Where's the book?!"

Cherie sprang up from the bed, letting out an uncontrollable shriek. Karlo got a bit frightened by her reaction and quickly asked, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"The book, the book, the book!"

Cherie, shocked, pointed to the bedside and exclaimed, "The book is gone! I clearly put it beside the pillow before I went to sleep, and now it's suddenly disappeared!"

"What?!" Karlo responded, as sweat broke out on her forehead: "How could it disappear? It couldn't have been carried off by a rat, could it?"

"Let's search for it!"

Both of them immediately sprang into action, turning the room inside out, even searching under the bed, incidentally killing a bunch of cockroaches and a few mice, and sweeping up some trash. Karlo even found a sock of hers that had gone missing.

But they couldn't find the book.

The sisters exchanged glances, each seeing the terror in the other's eyes.

Karlo looked toward the mysteriously opened window, her expression slowly solidifying.

"Could it be—"

Karlo mused, Cherie watched her nervously, expecting Karlo to make some astonishing conclusion when she heard Karlo say, "Could it be that our book just ran off on its own?"

Cherie rolled her eyes: "Karlo, you must be out of your mind!"