Treasure Hunting System： The Ocean Conquerer

Chapter 353: Chapter 201: Stranger’s Dream Bubbles

After pondering the possibilities, Alka refocused. He continued exploring ahead; the earlier interlude didn’t hinder him from his tasks.

”Might as well try out the new functionality,” Alka murmured, his gaze fixed on his chest. Pink mist began to spread from the crystal protruding from the Dream Catcher there. The mist surrounded Alka, forming a gently floating ring. Palm-sized Mirrors, each engraved with strange, translucent Spells, lined up around the outer edge of the misty ring. The ring-shaped mist enveloped these Mirrors.

Invisible, transparent waves began to spread outwards. Alka’s forward speed started to slow; if he moved too quickly, the surrounding Mirrors and mist would scatter. This was something he had recently developed, specifically designed for this desolate Dream Realm. By utilizing the versatile functionality of the pink mist combined with the Spell Mirror Surface, he had created a wide-range detection method for the Dream World. However, it could only detect specific things. He knew better than to try this technique outside the Dream Realm, as only within it could the pink mist achieve its versatile effect.

Alka configured the detection to target the Dream Bubbles of land-dwelling creatures. Simply put, this allowed the detection waves to spread out without bouncing back from Dream Bubbles filled with seawater. It would only bounce back upon encountering Dream Bubbles not filled with seawater, thereby facilitating identification. The method was simple and direct, mainly because Alka hadn’t found any Dream Bubbles of land-dwelling creatures when he initially designed it. Using *their* specific Dream Bubbles as an indicator might cause him to miss the dreams of many ordinary terrestrial creatures, like rabbits. Therefore, he configured it to ignore all Dream Bubbles filled with seawater; any Dream Bubble not belonging to a marine creature would trigger a return signal.

As the waves pulsed, Alka slowly made adjustments, continuously receiving detection data while gradually floating forward. However, even after advancing for a long time, Alka still hadn’t detected any return signals. This indicated that his detection waves hadn’t encountered any Dream Bubbles belonging to non-marine creatures. He sensed the distance to his own Dream Bubble and realized he had ventured quite far.

I’ll explore a little longer before heading back, he decided. He couldn’t instantly return to his own Dream Bubble; he had to retrace his path. If he were to awaken in the outside world, Alka would jolt awake as if from a Nightmare. Upon re-entering the Dream Realm, he would find himself back within his own Dream Bubble. However, this would leave him exhausted during the day, as if he hadn’t slept at all. To explore the Dream Realm effectively while still getting proper rest, he needed to return to his own Dream Bubble and awaken there once his reconnaissance was complete. Besides, this was just a routine outward probe. He still needed to return to Lucilia’s Dream Bubble to read and study. He hadn’t even finished reading all those books that Lucilia had marked as important. Daily study can’t be neglected, he reminded himself.

As he was thinking this, Alka suddenly stopped.

”Is this... a returning wave?” Alka muttered, uncertain. After all, this was his first attempt at this kind of Dream Realm detection, and the first time he had ever received a return wave. But he quickly confirmed it: it was indeed a return signal, indicating a Dream Bubble from a non-marine creature.

A smile spread across his face.

He flew quickly in the direction of the returning wave, retracting the Mirrors and pink mist that were slowing him down. He then deactivated the detection device he had just assembled. Even flying rapidly for some time, Alka still hadn’t reached the source of the detection.

Can the detection waves really reach this far? he wondered. When Alka initially designed and tested this device, he had only discovered that the range of its detection waves was extremely far. However, he had never tested its maximum effective distance. The range of this detection wave was somewhat beyond his expectations.

Time is a factor, he thought. Pink mist surged, enveloping his legs, then spurted out like a jet thruster. Alka’s speed increased instantly, shooting out like a rocket, leaving a long trail of pink mist behind. The light and shadow around him flashed by. Even when colorful Dream Clouds appeared ahead, he didn’t hesitate and flew straight through. For true denizens of the Dream Realm, these Dream Clouds were like solid earth and stone, but for beings from reality, they remained mere mist.

Even at this speed, Alka flew for quite some time, finally spotting a Dream Bubble in the distance.

Alka came to a halt, observing the size of the distant Dream Bubble. The Dream Bubble’s membrane was faint and indistinct, its luster dim, and several cracks marred its surface. Yet, its volume was greater than Julia’s Dream Bubble, nearly rivaling his own.

Having mastered the Dream Catcher for a long time, Alka had, back in the Homeland Sea, already researched the correlation between the state of Dream Bubbles and the condition of the corresponding entities in reality. The condition of a Dream Bubble essentially reflected the state of the dreaming individual in reality. The size of a Dream Bubble primarily depended on the individual’s power and soul strength in reality.