Chapter 696 – Dreamweaver World 34

“Then what if I told you I discovered that as long as it’s a skill you’ve completely mastered yourself, you can use it in the real world without the Fruit of Materialization—no extra conversion required?” Mo Lan said.

“N-no… no extra conversion?” Downs’ voice even went a bit out of tune. As a seasoned adventurer, he understood far too well what Mo Lan’s words were worth.

If adventurers wanted to use dream-realm abilities in the real world, they had to go through a cumbersome conversion process.

First, they used the Fruit of Materialization to convert their racial core, then converted their class template, then their class level and mana—after all of that was converted into the real world, every single skill still had to be converted separately.

That was why, in reality, adventurers’ strength was often reduced to a fraction of what it was, and they rarely dared to use magical skills from the dream realm—not only because the cost of casting each time was extremely high, but also because it was hard to scrape together enough Fruit of Materialization to convert powerful magical skills into reality.

Among these, converting the racial core and class template required high-quality Fruits of Materialization, but each person could only convert one of each, so the quantity needed wasn’t large; mana had to be replenished after being consumed, so although the demand for conversion was large, only low-quality Fruits of Materialization were needed; only skill conversion both required high-quality Fruits of Materialization and couldn’t be limited to converting just one skill per person—so the demand was high as well.

“If skills don’t require extra conversion…” Downs’ brain calculated at high speed, and his breathing unconsciously quickened.

This meant that in the future, the conversion pressure on all adventurers could be greatly reduced, and more magical skills from the dream realm could be brought into reality!

Even if completely mastering a skill required an enormous amount of time and energy, compared to the rarity of Fruits of Materialization—especially high-quality ones—time and energy were, on the contrary, the cheapest costs of all.

Seeing Downs’ expression, Mo Lan knew he understood the value of this method, and decided to add another chip to the pile:

“Also, any skill you truly learn yourself… can keep improving without being limited by skill books. The reason my Transfiguration gets such strong praise from the dream citizens, far surpassing the effects of skill-book Transfiguration, is because my grasp of the skill has already exceeded the skill book.

Maybe it was never that skill books can’t be upgraded. Maybe everyone just got used to taking shortcuts—using skill books only as convenient ‘skill’ tools, while overlooking the knowledge they carry as ‘books.’

A tool’s effect is fixed the moment it’s made, but knowledge has no end.”

Only then did Downs finally understand why the forums all said Mo Lan’s Transfiguration performed better than most people’s—so she’d already broken through the skill limits through learning.

Their people had already looked into it: Mo Lan had first set foot in Greenwood Village and converted into a Dryad only a little over a year ago. From the pictures, in such a short time she had at least completely mastered three skills: Dream Language, Trailing Orchid Transformation, and Ghost Cat Transfiguration. Perhaps “completely mastering” a skill wasn’t that difficult after all.

More importantly, when these three points were added together—additional skill point acquisition, exemption from conversion costs, and breaking through the skill cap—the temptation was strong enough.

Even he was moved.

“Now, do you think our deal can be completed?” Mo Lan felt she had already proven the value of her information. It was time for the Federation’s people to withdraw from this warehouse and let her handle the things inside as she pleased.

Although the warehouse was rented by her in the first place, and the spare key she had given out could have its permissions revoked at any time, with their people here it was still inconvenient for her to take out the Book of Cards and collect these things.

Downs nodded sensibly and left with the guard at the door.

He was also eager to go report the news he had gotten today, and then test it personally.

“Finally, they’re all gone…” Mo Lan locked the warehouse door from the inside, released her Transfiguration, summoned the Book of Cards, gathered everything in the warehouse as card-making materials, and then designed and produced the corresponding cards.

That way, in the future, she could take them out whenever she wanted, in whatever quantities she wanted.

But her plant transformation magic still lacked a bit of refinement, so she wasn’t in a hurry to learn these newly acquired magical skills. After finishing all this, she continued to find her Instructor for class.

From that day on, Mo Lan never again had any dealings with the Federation’s people.

She continued traveling daily between the dream realm and the real world, devoting herself wholeheartedly to the plant transformation course.

By the time the last plant transformation skill was completely mastered by Mo Lan, a full year had passed in the real world.

That day, she opened the Dream Forum on her communication watch, and an announcement published by the Federation’s official account was strikingly pinned at the top: 《A New Way to Use Skill Books: The Benefits of “Completely Mastering” Skills》.

It elaborated in detail on the benefits of “completely mastering a skill”—from skill point rewards, to being able to use it in the real world without conversion, to casting effects slightly stronger than what skill books provided—all with image comparisons and even video demonstrations.

The Dreamweaver Federation even said in the announcement that they would recruit, at high salaries, teachers who had completely mastered knowledge-based universal skills like Dream Language, and incorporate instruction of such skills into the Federation’s basic education system for youth, so that children could accumulate a few skill points before entering the dream realm.

This belated “post” was precisely the intelligence she had sold to Downs back then. Now it had been released by the Federation as a major research result—presumably they had tested it personally and confirmed it worked.

Dusk was falling. Pale pink moonlight spilled in through the window outside. Mo Lan chuckled softly, closed the page, lay down on the bed, and let her consciousness sink into her mental sea.

At this moment, the Key of Dreams had already transformed into the Gate of Dreams.

All the skill books that had been floating around the Gate of Dreams were now gone, leaving only two streams of dream energy: one connected to the racial crystal of the Dryad, and one connected to the class template of the Forest Warden.

Passing through the Gate of Dreams, outside the window in the Dreamweaver World, it was exactly the moment the morning sun was rising.

For once, Mo Lan did not immediately go out to attend class, but instead began packing up the things in the inn room.

She had already mastered all the animal and plant transfiguration magic that could be learned in Greenwood Village, and on that basis had organized and distilled the essence of Natural Shapeshifting magic.

The transfiguration Instructors in Greenwood Village had nothing more to teach her.

She knew it was time to leave this beautiful village.

Yesterday she had already said her goodbyes one by one to the dream citizen Instructors, her classmates, and the village chief, and the inn room was only rented until noon today.

After restoring the inn room to the way it had looked when she first moved in, Mo Lan gave it one last look around and pushed open the window.

The next second, her body began to change. Her arms turned into broad wings, her torso became covered in iron-gray feathers, and in the blink of an eye, a majestic clear-sky hawk stood on the Windowsill, beating its wings and flying up into the sky.

As she swept over the flowerbeds in the center of the village, Mo Lan saw the Trailing Silk Orchid that Sula had become gently swaying its petals; the colorful patterned swallowtail that Vixi had become fluttering and dancing among the blossoms; in the tree-hollow classroom, Instructor Gniewen was demonstrating basic orchid transfiguration techniques to the new students; and there was Old Groot at the treehouse entrance, waving his hat at her.

Riding the wind onward, Greenwood Village gradually grew smaller beneath her. (End of this chapter)