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Two days after the new ingots and Ervas coronation into a Gazer Emperor, the dreams of a few creatures in the Kingdom of Igni were filled with strange sights.
?
Kyuu, one of Veronica's Tamed Monsters and originally a Rank 1 Demon Rat that ranked through trials and fights up to a Rank 6 Sparking Giant Thunder Rat was having a strange dream as it slept below Veronica's bed.
Kyuu's consciousness drifted away from his dreams of eating seeds while being caressed by Veronica as he walked through a path of darkness in a world filled with forests made out of metallic trees and a dark sun atop the phantasmal and cloudy sky.
Kyuu, however, did not felt afraid, as he sensed a slight familiarity with it. It was as if he was being embraced by the cold and hard hands of his beloved master, Veronica.
"Chuuu…" he muttered, as he walked through the dark road until he came across a strange monolith, a large totem that erected all the way to the top of this dark landscape.
The totem seemed to resemble several pieces of armors stuck together one after another, covered in dark scales and pulsating flesh.
"Chuu?"
Kyu moved towards it and touched it, caressing its fur with it as it would often do when it asked for pettings to his master Veronica.
"Chuuu…"
Suddenly, the totem moved on its own, creating sharp and long claws, intimidating and menacing… however, instead of damaging Kyuu, it carefully caressed its fluffy fur.
The totem then gave Kyuu a large furball covered in blood, which Kyuu seemed to not understand what it was, but ultimately ate. Kyuu was still a rat, and it always liked to munch on things and eat new things whenever it had the opportunity. Although fur was not its forte, the blood smelt strangely sweet and intoxicating.
Kyuu ate the entire furball as it felt its entire existence acquire some kind of essence within.
"Chuu?!"
Kyuu then glanced at its big body as it glowed in bright yellow light, and then the dream ended as it woke up.
Suddenly, the strange voice on its head that would often tell Kyuu about his strength raising resonated again, notifying him about having acquired a 'the Divine Protection of Ratatoskr'.
"Chu?"
Kyuu sensed that its body did not change at all, and that aside from that, there was not anything new, so he went back to sleep without much thought put into the situation.
Alongside Kyuu, many other citizens or creatures would receive similar dreams, waking up to the notification of having acquired a Divine Protection of a certain God.
The morning came and a few of Veronica and Ervas monsters alerted them about such changes, Veronica being the first one to notice Kyuu getting the Divine Protection of Ratatoskr despite not being a squirrel nor a squirrel-kin beast-person, he was simply a monster, and monsters acquiring Divine Protections was an incredibly rare occurrence.
Alongside Nidhogg, Kyuu, Gaius, Goliath, Ozgeth, Legion, Aqua, and Charlotte acquired Divine Protections as well.
"It is quite strange, especially because I am not even a Raccoon-kin…" muttered Gaius while rubbing his chin with his metallic claws. Gaius was nonetheless slightly connected with the goddess as he was still a pure beast-men like her and her children, being of the same family still counted… incredibly slightly though.
"Guuu… I am not even a beast-person, gubooo!" said Aqua in disbelief, she was blessed by Ophelia, the Moon Rabbit Heroic Goddess. But in a way, Aqua had a certain affinity with her through the Moon concept, as Aqua had evolved recently into an Ocean Water Slime, and the Ocean Waves were related directly with the Moon.
"Its weird, but I appreciate the powerup! If this can help me grow faster, I will make good use of it!" said Goliath. He was simply completely unrelated to the goddesses, he was a Goblin-type monster and an Undead, not related note even by concept…
"I remember possessing the Divine Protection of Oggoth before I died, but having one from a God that supports Veronica-sama fills me with happiness" said Ozgeth.
"Indeed… To think that I would get three Divine Protections!" said Legion, who had gotten the 'jackpot' within all the people that received Divine Protections.
"Maybe you got a lot because you're many beings into one?" asked Ozgeth.
"It could beee… How about you become one with me, Ozgeth? Your power will increase exponentially!" said Legion.
"…Not interested. Thanks nonetheless…" said Ozgeth, waving his head. He did not want to become one with Legion as he would quickly lose the sense of self if he were to do so, becoming one with the hive mind of Legion's existence.
"It seems that it ended well, although we didn't really plan it as much, it all ended fine" said Ervas.
"Yeah, I guess we did not tell you guys, but after killing Oggoth, the Gods called us again through the dreams, and gave us their body- well, soul parts. We used our souls and mind abilities to distribute them through your dreams. It seems that all ended well" said Veronica.
"What?! So that's what it was… I guess such a conversation with the gods didn't needed to be shared…?" muttered Ismene.
"No, no, we wanted it to be a surprise, a gift. So we kept it a secret up until now" said Ervas.
For them, it seemed incredibly rare as they did not possess any affinity with the god that gave them their Divine Protection… however, that necessity was made not required when Ervas and Veronica visited their dreams and personally gave them pieces of the gods souls, which immediately gave the ones they shared them with their Divine Protections…
"Oh? I-I see… Well, I would had liked a Divine Protection as well… There weren't enough, my son?" asked Jason.
"Sorry, father… I honestly don't know, we did it almost unconsciously so we couldn't really choose who to give it to, it just happened" said Ervas.
"I see… well, maybe some God will see me as a good Hero material in the future?" asked Jason with a mild smile.
"Indeed! Any God intelligent enough would see great potential in you, King" said Goliath.
"Yes, I still can't win in a fist fight against King Jason" said Gaius.
"Me neither! He's insane for being so tiny" said Goliath while laughing.
"He has actually beaten me in every fight we have… I want to know the secret of such strength" said Leonidas.
"Well, father is just incredibly talented. He also has the 'Iron-like Resiliency' Unique Skill, which he seems to have recently noticed to have when I appraised him and told him about it… But that skill multiplies the resiliency of his body with each level" said Ervas.
"Oh?! So that's why I have a strength that I often don't even recognize?" asked Jason.
"It's more like you have an almost unlimited Stamina, your muscles never tense and are always relaxed due to this… well, it is almost unlimited, whenever you burn out of calories, you eat like crazy" said Ervas.
"I see… Yeah, I've begun to eat up to four times what I used to eat before…" muttered Jason as he grabbed on a large piece of roasted meat and ate it leisurely with a bit of tea.
"Anyways, it still quite amusing that you can appear in dreams… is it a new power of yours now?" asked Anna.
"Well, we have no idea" said Ervas.
"No idea either…" said Veronica.
However, both Ervas and Veronica began to consider if it was even possible for any other person to just appear in the dreams of people and gift them Divine Protections from other gods.
Or was it because they were unique enough? They could not truly get to the gist of it, but as they distributed these Divine Protections to their allies, they felt as if their ability to dive into dreams became stronger.
"Perhaps we got something from eating Oggoth?" asked Ervas.
"Was your father good at dreams, Krakenusa?" asked Veronica.
"Fweh? My father? I do not know, he simply was good at manipulating minds" said Krakenusa.
"Manipulating Minds… Could it be? Perhaps that's it?" asked Anna.
"Is the mind related with dreams?" asked Amelia.
"Well, of course, my daughter. The mind is what pretty much can lead you to dreams to begin with, if Ervas and Veronica acquired a big boost in their mind power, it might be possible for them to do more than simply reading minds or something… Perhaps the connection with the manipulation of dreams was created through that boost in their mind power" said Ismene.
"That is insane, pekooo! But do not dive into my dreams, Ervas, that would be very rude, peko!" said Pekorina with a bit of a flush… she seemed to have dreams that she didn't wanted to show Ervas. Perhaps, romantic dreams with him?
"I always dream about eating honey, so you can enter mine and we can eat honey together" said Acathea.
"That's a date then" said Ervas.
"Eh?! Wait! I want to date with Ervas too, peko!" said Pekorina.
"How about a triple date in dreams then? Though I don't know when it will be because I have no control over my Dream-diving capabilities…" said Ervas.
"Dating in dreams? How about doing that, Shade, Anna?" asked Veronica.
"I-I don't think I would be ready for such a thing…" muttered Shade.
"Sure, why not?" said Anna.
"Wait! Okay, I am ready, I am ready!" said Shade.
"Wait, my son, no dating! You're only two years old!" said Jason.
"It's a friendly date, father, nothing romantic" said Ervas.
"W-Well… Okay, if it is just to do friend things…" said Jason.
"I feel like this conversation has shifted a lot from what it originally was…" muttered Ismene.
"Gubo…" said Aqua.
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