Treasure Hunting System： The Ocean Conquerer

Chapter 609: Chapter 286: Sinking in Grief

Alka looked at the Mirror Surface in his hand and arrived at a conclusion: a [Holy Grail]-level Treasure could likely be completely mastered around the Fourth Stage. At that point, one would possess enough strength to fully develop its capabilities, achieving seamless mastery. Its use would no longer be as rigid as before.

Currently, Alka was within his own Dream World. He gazed at the Mirror Surface in his hand. For some time, he had been pondering his abilities, aiming to chart a logical path for their development. This is the only way I can go further and faster on this path, he thought. It was then that he discovered a peculiar issue.

In the Dream World, Alka’s strength far surpassed his strength in reality. According to his current speculation, this excess strength was at least one stage higher—a rather conservative estimate. This was because Alka couldn’t find a corresponding dream character in Mirmi’s memory fragments to compare with; the descriptions of strength within dreams in those fragments were exceptionally vague. However, Alka now speculated that the difference was about one stage, not much more. This was an issue he had discovered long ago.

”It seems I’ve discovered an incredible shortcut,” Alka couldn’t help but mutter.

Reality versus the Dream Realm. For Alka, the only factors creating a noticeable difference in strength were his physical constitution and Spells that relied on internal Magic Power rather than spirit and soul. Everything else, including Treasures and some Spells, seemed to function identically in both realms. This led to a very peculiar phenomenon: once his consciousness detached from his body, Alka could pre-experience in the Dream Realm the power he would acquire at his next stage of development. Consequently, when his physical body’s strength eventually reached that new stage in reality, he could quickly adapt to the changes in power.

This meant that while others needed to reach the Fourth Stage to understand its capabilities and then begin enhancing their abilities accordingly, Alka could start experiencing Fourth-Stage capabilities while still at the Third Stage. The only aspect requiring gradual adaptation would be the physical enhancements from his constitution. As long as his strength in the Dream Realm consistently exceeded his strength in reality, this advantageous effect would continue.

For instance, in the Dream Realm, he could now fully wield the abilities of two [Holy Grail]-level Treasures. He was no longer inhibited by various factors that had previously prevented complete mastery, allowing him to freely use their displayed abilities.

He hadn’t noticed this specific advantage until recently because the sheer volume of changes brought by the Dream Realm had been overwhelming. He had been using the [Dream Catcher] in his dreams and found its operation noticeably smoother and more unrestricted. For instance, he discovered he could now connect his own dream with others’ dreams through the [Dream Catcher]. However, at the time, he had attributed this to effects from his Royal Authority or Divine Descendant bloodline, not considering this alternative explanation.

It wasn’t until recently, while trying to clarify his future path and spending more time focused on the [Mirror Surface] in his dreams, that he finally realized this. He had inexplicably experienced a similar enhancement with the [Mirror Surface] itself. Logically, this shouldn’t be happening, he mused, as the Mirror Surface has no dream-related attributes. However, he couldn’t completely confirm his theory yet. It was still very possible that his Divine Descendant bloodline was causing this phenomenon.

Alka gazed at the Mirror Surface in his hand, upon which the image of a deer appeared. This deer was none other than the one he had projected using Mirmi’s memory fragments and Fantasma’s image as a reference. Isn’t the best simulation target Mirmi himself, who once reached the Sixth Stage, or perhaps even the Seventh Stage? he thought. His growing mastery of the Mirror Surface allowed him to perform such simulations based on his memories, as he was thoroughly acquainted with Mirmi. After all, he had obtained a vast number of Mirmi’s memory fragments. While termed ”fragments,” they collectively spanned over a century of experiences. Compared to Mirmi’s lifespan of millennia, a century of memories could indeed only be described as fragments. For Alka’s purposes, however, they were entirely sufficient for simulation.

Furthermore, he possessed Fantasma, a new being he had reconstructed based on Mirmi’s original form from its earliest origin. Drawing from the memory fragments, Alka concluded that Fantasma was equivalent to the original Mirmi in its childhood. The combination of these two resources—the memory fragments and Fantasma—brought Alka’s simulation capabilities to near-perfect effectiveness. His complete mastery of the Mirror Surface was also clearly demonstrated at this time.

The primary ability of the Mirror Surface was simulation. Previously, Alka could only simulate partially by wearing the Mirror Surface on his face. This meant he could only simulate parts of limbs or certain body organs to induce transformations. This was also why he had consistently chosen to simulate the Dream Death God. The core at the Dream Death God’s waist comprised almost all of its strength; once that core was simulated, its full power could be reproduced. This offered an incredibly significant advantage over simulating other beings. Consequently, the Dream Death God had become his default simulated form.

But now, things were different. With his complete mastery, Alka could simulate more than half of a target’s abilities. Although this simulation couldn’t yet achieve perfection, this significant portion could effectively merge with his own strength.