Online Game: I Started with Max Charisma and Caught the Goddess's Eye

In the whispering forest, Luca had already followed that nameless river for more than ten kilometers.

He still hadn’t found anything unusual.

A few minutes earlier, he had, by chance, sensed a surge of powerful primal power, but the force had vanished almost instantly.

In the end, he wasn’t able to find any useful clues.

At this point, his condition was starting to deteriorate.

Beads of cold sweat continued to drip down his forehead, and all sorts of blood-sucking insects kept landing on his body from time to time.

“Have you discovered anything?” Luca took the initiative to ask Sophia. “I’m worried we might get lost in the whispering forest.”

“I haven’t found anything either. I think we should turn back,” Sophia replied, her tone slightly gloomy.

“We’re too far from the node now. If we keep going, we might not be able to return to the original world.”

She, too, seemed to feel that this operation was likely going to fail.

Luca frowned and thought for a moment.

Even though this was a rare opportunity—

Even though he did need to complete his second awakening and profession change as soon as possible—

The current situation had already become extremely dangerous.

Continuing to go deeper into the whispering forest without a single clue was no different from walking into destruction.

“You’re right,” he said, swatting away a bloodworm that had just landed on his skin and wiping the sweat from his forehead.

“It looks like we should turn back the way we came.”

Luca finally decided to retrace their steps.

But that didn’t mean he had given up on this operation.

He figured he should explore the area around the node, rather than blindly following a river deeper and deeper into the forest like before.

Sophia didn’t say anything more.

She had silently accepted Luca’s plan.

And so, Luca turned around and began following the same river back.

After walking for just a few minutes, he suddenly came to a halt.

“We didn’t pass through this area earlier!” Luca said, warily scanning the surroundings.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal. Maybe you’re just misremembering,” Sophia replied casually, not seeming concerned at all.

She kept urging Luca to hurry and return to the node.

“The longer we stay here, the more danger we might run into. So let’s get out of here already!”

Her words left Luca a bit confused.

To him, Sophia’s behavior had started to seem… strange.

“Can you still cast frost spells? It’s so hot I can barely stand it. I was hoping you could help lower the temperature around us.”

Luca wiped the sweat from his forehead as he spoke to Sophia.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t cast frost spells anymore.”

Sophia replied without a hint of hesitation.

“Is that so? Because from what I remember, you were never such a fragile person.”

Luca’s tone had noticeably cooled.

At that moment, he finally realized—

The Sophia who had been speaking with him all this time… wasn’t the real Sophia at all.

Starting from about ten minutes ago, this “Sophia” had been repeatedly urging him to return to the node.

And her unwillingness to use frost spells to help cool him down was likely because she was afraid he’d continue exploring the forest once he felt better.

“I’m not fragile. I’m just… worried about you.”

Sophia’s voice shifted again—this time with a clear change in tone from the sentences she had spoken just moments earlier.

That was all Luca needed to be sure.

“Stop pretending! You’re not Sophia at all. Who the hell are you?!”

He roared in anger.

At the same time, he activated his dream magic runes.

The runes surged into his mind, and in the next instant, Luca’s entire body was enveloped by the Dreamweaving Mist.

He did this for one reason—

To make sure that whatever had been impersonating Sophia couldn’t escape.

The real Sophia was hiding somewhere inside Luca’s consciousness, and that meant the imposter had to be there too.

And once the Dreamweaving Mist surrounded that space—there would be absolutely no escape.

“Well, it seems your vigilance is still as sharp as ever. I really can’t fool you that easily, can I?”

Sophia’s voice suddenly turned twisted and icy cold.

“But my plan is already halfway complete! I now know the location of the node, and very soon… I’ll be able to take control of your body!”

The raspy, terrifying voice finally revealed its true purpose.

It wanted to reach the node.

Its ultimate goal was to pass through it and enter the real world where Luca resided.

“You’re so unbelievably arrogant! Do you really think you have the upper hand right now?”

Luca was tense, but far from panicked.

He didn’t believe he would lose.

Because inside the dreamworld, he possessed a unique ability—

And with it, he could trap this enemy in an endless, inescapable nightmare.

As the Dreamweaving Mist grew thicker and thicker, Luca, Sophia, and their enemy were completely pulled into the dream.

At that moment, the dream world was a place shrouded entirely in dense white fog.

Luca, thanks to his unique dream-based abilities, quickly regained clarity within the dream.

Sophia was lying not far from him.

Luca rushed over immediately.

At that moment, Sophia’s eyes were tightly shut and her brow deeply furrowed.

She seemed to be in tremendous pain.

Her eyeballs were darting rapidly beneath her closed eyelids.

“Wake up, quickly! Staying unconscious in the dream world is incredibly dangerous!”

Luca hurriedly used his dream powers in an attempt to wake her.

But his efforts proved futile in the end.

No matter what methods he tried, Sophia remained in the same state.

A few minutes later, a deep thudding sound echoed from somewhere within the fog.

It was as if some massive monster was slowly making its way toward them, one thunderous step at a time.

At that same moment, Sophia suddenly opened her mouth, even though her eyes remained shut.

She let out a sharp, piercing scream:

“Stop resisting! Give me your body! Once my plan succeeds, I’ll make sure your death is quick and painless!”

While using his dream abilities to lock down Sophia’s consciousness, Luca replied coldly:

“If you want to control my body, you’ll have to defeat me first! Hiding in the shadows like a coward—how could you possibly beat me?!”

“Then let me show you just how powerful I am in the dream world! You have no idea—you’re fighting against a divine being!”

Sophia howled again, her voice shrill and distorted.

At the same time, her limbs began to twitch uncontrollably.

Sophia’s condition deeply worried Luca.

But no matter how concerned he was, he had no choice but to leave her to face this on her own—for now.

Because he was about to confront the real threat himself.

A massive shadow emerged from the mist not far away.

It was clearly the presence that had taken control of Sophia—

The being that claimed to be a god.

The heavy, ominous footsteps drew closer and closer.

But Luca didn’t move a muscle.

He stood his ground, completely still.

Right now, he was focused on gathering back the full power of his dream magic runes.

In the dream world, only by wielding overwhelming dream-manipulation abilities could one gain the upper hand in battle.

And Luca—

He had fought more than a few battles inside dreams before.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

As the sound of the approaching footsteps grew louder, the enormous shadow rapidly became more and more distinct.

Eventually, what appeared before Luca was a massive, rotting body—pieced together from the corpses of countless insects.

The full height of the creature was roughly thirty meters.

Atop the body sat a cephalopod-like head, shaped like an octopus.

Numerous writhing tentacles sprouted from it, along with disturbingly scattered, asymmetrical eyes.

Beneath its torso were dozens of enormous, razor-sharp insect limbs.

The heavy, thudding footsteps came from the stabbing and scraping of those limbs against the dreamscape floor.

The very moment Luca laid eyes on this grotesque abomination, he immediately realized what it was.

The creature did indeed have the right to call itself a god—

Because it was one of the Ancient Gods.

“So… it seems you’ve figured out who I am,”

the voice echoed inside Luca’s mind, dripping with disdain.

“Then let’s not waste any more time.

A mortal, no matter how strong, is still just a mortal.

You can never defeat one of the Ancient Gods.”

The agonizing voice reverberated endlessly inside Luca’s skull.

Now that he was standing face-to-face with an Ancient God,

the being’s voice could bypass normal hearing—

and transmit itself directly into his consciousness.

Luca’s face twisted in agony.

He was forced to activate his defensive magic runes, hoping they would protect him from the influence of the Ancient God’s voice.

“Why do you still resist?

Just surrender control of your body to me.

Once your body and soul become part of mine,

you will have fulfilled your destiny—your glorious ascension.”

The voice of the Ancient God kept echoing, again and again, inside Luca’s mind.

It tempted him.

It lured him.

It tried to convince him to offer up his body and consciousness willingly.

And all the while Luca endured this unbearable pain,

he also had to focus every fiber of his mind on resisting the hypnotic pull of the Ancient God’s voice.

At that moment, Luca felt like he was on the verge of collapse.

He was starting to believe he could no longer withstand the psychic assault.

This was his first time confronting an Ancient God directly in the dream world.

And he had never imagined that even in dreams, the power of an Ancient God could be this overwhelming.

Luca felt… small.

Insignificant.

But in truth, he was wrong to belittle himself.

Because no one—no one—could withstand the mental assault of an Ancient God for long.

Only Luca had the willpower to endure it and still find a chance to strike back.

While bombarding him with psychic attacks,

the Ancient God’s massive, rotting body continued lumbering forward—closing the distance between them.

If its psychic assault failed to take effect,

then the Ancient God would simply choose to kill Luca directly within the dream.

By doing so, it could completely destroy Luca’s consciousness.

And once that happened—

It would, of course, be free to claim the unconscious body as its own.

“Mortals are always so pitifully small. Even a genius like you… in the end, you’re nothing more than a tool for me to use!”

The Ancient God raised its razor-sharp limb high into the air.

At that moment, Luca was on his knees before it, eyes tightly shut, consumed by pain.

From the Ancient God’s perspective,

victory was already within reach.

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