Chapter 374: Shape Your Reality

Priam and Dandara left the cave in silence. Both of them wore completely relaxed expressions and auras. Priam slightly expanded his perception around them, noticing that the feeling of imminent danger was becoming weaker and weaker.

"Hmm... I think we can go back to looking for what we want, but we’ll have to be three times more careful," Priam murmured.

Dandara nodded in agreement. However, Priam caught a different gleam in her eyes—a glimpse that her plans went far beyond simply hunting for resources and allies. Still, he just smiled and shook his head.

With calm, cautious steps, the two began moving across the planet.

As expected, the Primordial Chaos Beasts had no intention of giving up the hunt. The reason? Priam thought about it and came to the obvious conclusion.

They knew perfectly well that humanoids appeared in that place from time to time and stayed for exactly thirty days.

To the natives, these visitors were nothing more than greedy invaders who came to plunder their resources—and, to be honest, they weren’t exactly wrong.

What Priam didn’t know was that the Chaos Beasts of this planet lived in a surprisingly organized society, divided into races that maintained non-aggression pacts and shared a vast information network.

When Priam tore off and stored the central branch of the Demon Tree, a planetary alarm was triggered, mobilizing entire armies.

In short: the natives wanted the invader’s head at all costs. They knew that any humanoid strong enough to come to this planet was a prominent figure in their sects, carrying spatial rings overflowing with treasures.

Capturing him meant recovering what had already been plundered, while also taking possession of his resources from another universe. The invader was literally a walking treasure chest.

Because of this, Priam was forced to adopt a strict routine: he would move forward and search for resources for about three hours; then, when the patrols approached to search the area, he and Dandara were forced to hide and wait another three hours until the patrols left.

At first, Priam thought this cycle of three hours of walking and three hours of waiting would be extremely exhausting and inconvenient.

Little did he know that those days would become some of the most intense and unforgettable days of his entire life.

That was because Dandara absolutely refused to spend three hours sitting around inside their hiding spots.

During the first break, they ate and talked normally... until, without giving Priam any time to react, she found a way to pounce on him.

Priam realized—perhaps a little too late—that this forced isolation would be the perfect opportunity for the newly formed couple, overflowing with energy, to make the most of their time together.

At first, Priam still tried to keep his self-control. Until her teasing voice reached his ears: Didn’t he want to live life to the fullest? Then he should enjoy himself and stop wasting time on useless thoughts.

At that moment, immersed in the warmth of Dandara’s body and her provocative whispers, he let his defenses down.

That was when he realized just how truly cunning Dandara could be.

Before he knew it, she had already led him far beyond simple kisses. The sensation brought back memories of the past, when she had been poisoned, and he had constantly needed to cover her with medicine... but now it was a thousand times better, more intense, and infinitely more provocative.

Free from any poison or pain, Dandara responded with breathless sighs and shivers at every touch. Priam began exploring her carefully, discovering her most sensitive spots. The way she slightly arched her back whenever his hands traced the curve of her waist, or how she dug her nails into his shoulders with every bolder caress, made the whole experience feel like pure gunpowder.

They were already standing in the rain; they might as well get thoroughly soaked.

But there came a point when Priam had to give himself a mental warning: he needed to calm down. They were going deeper and deeper, and the atmosphere between them was becoming increasingly intoxicating.

By the end of the first three-hour break, when the outside danger had finally passed, and they left their hiding place...

They both shared the same secret thought: they could hardly wait for the next three hours of rest.

Priam stared intently at Dandara’s radiant, slightly flushed smile, feeling something he had never thought possible. It was as if nothing else in the world mattered or held any greater value. Being there with her and keeping that beautiful smile on her face had become the greatest and best goal of his entire existence.

Unfortunately... life wasn’t easy. For him to achieve that, he had to become as powerful and invincible as possible, to the point where no Sovereign could ever harm him.

...

...

...

As they moved across the world, even though they were advancing at a much slower pace than usual, Priam managed to gather more than twenty extraordinary medicinal herbs, along with half a dozen peculiar metals that the System classified as extremely high-level. On top of that, he collected more than a hundred other valuable materials.

Unfortunately, Dandara didn’t find a suitable Mutant Beast. It was clear that their initial capture had been nothing more than a stroke of pure luck.

However, she didn’t seem worried about searching too thoroughly at all; her priority was simply to enjoy every second she could spend by Priam’s side.

Even Priam no longer cared that much about the hunt. But since the System automatically issued alerts whenever it detected something rare nearby, gathering resources had become a simple and almost secondary task.

Until, finally, the last of the thirty days arrived.

Both Dandara and Priam felt the weight of slight disappointment in their chests. That period of perfect peace, during which they had practically been glued to each other, was about to crumble with the imminent return to the chaotic and dangerous routine they had temporarily escaped from.

At the end of another three-hour period of hiding, the two were inside a discreet cave.

Priam was leaning against the stone wall, while Dandara sat comfortably on his lap, facing him.

Feeling that their time in hiding had come to an end, she reluctantly pulled her face away and began putting the upper part of her clothes back on.

Watching her reluctantly move away, Priam took a deep breath, using all his willpower to calm his heated body and restless mind.

It was in that exact moment, just after he had calmed down, that a feeling of absolute and unprecedented peace took hold of his entire being.

"!"

His eyes widened in surprise when he realized a crucial detail about his own mental and spiritual state.

Dandara noticed the change in his expression and realized that Priam had no intention of leaving immediately. An excited and curious smile appeared on her lips.

"I have a plan for this last day. Maybe it’ll work if I can finally break through the barrier..." he murmured, holding her gaze. "Thanks to you, I’m absolutely sure it’ll be easier now."

Dandara nodded, delighted by his determination.

Priam closed his eyes and began to focus.

Before he could completely sink into his mind, he felt Dandara gently settle down beside him. She firmly held his hand, lightly resting her head against his shoulder.

With her presence comforting him, it took only a few minutes for him to reach a state of deep spiritual relaxation.

He calmly breathed in and out, over and over, allowing his consciousness to sink into the deepest layers of his psyche.

Deep within, the old ghosts of the past emerged once again.

The memories of his former life on Earth returned like a distant echo—the good memories and the difficult moments flowed gently, like the current of a calm river...

Until, finally, the memory of his most painful trauma emerged from the shadows of his mind.

The old wound that had shattered his confidence and locked his heart inside an iron cell for years.

But... this time, Priam didn’t feel angry.

’Who cares?’ The thought appeared in his mind, clean, serene, and crystal clear.

’Why did I give that woman so much power and importance for all this time? I don’t even remember her name...’

Before Priam’s inner eye, the memory of that woman’s sullen, bitter face appeared, from a distant moment when she was breastfeeding him with obvious disgust.

She had never wanted to be a mother. She had been deprived of her dream of becoming a Mage, and when he thought about her situation, it was obvious that terrible things had happened to her.

Compared to his mother on Earth—who had abandoned him in a hospital bed and barely ever visited him because she was afraid of having to suffer through his death—that woman from his second life had at least been honest about her rejection.

Looking at that figure with the clarity of someone who had finally awakened, Priam understood the truth. She wasn’t an insurmountable monster, just a pitiful woman. If he looked at her with a little more compassion, there was no reason to hate her so deeply.

’I forgive you for everything...’ he murmured inwardly.

The pain didn’t come from the past itself, but from the prison he had built around it. Trapped inside his wounded mind after so much suffering, Priam had raised invisible walls that eventually cemented the illusion and blinded him to the truth.

The past had no power over him. *He* was the only master of his mind and his destiny.

With a deep breath that made his spirit vibrate, Priam’s soul pulsed with a new aura. Deep within his being, that Mind Demon that Priam had cultivated for so long was purified. (Chapter 75)

The mental chains shattered into a thousand pieces as a single certainty echoed through his being like thunder:

’Shape your reality.’

The dark and bitter image of that woman instantly dissolved into ashes in the wind. The walls of his mind collapsed, and from the pure light that emerged from the rubble came Dandara’s face—radiant, smiling, and illuminated by unparalleled beauty.

With a single, decisive mental step, Priam left his trauma behind once and for all.

The past that had once haunted him became something insignificant, ridiculous, and irrelevant—forgotten dust that no longer had a single atom of power over his destiny.

Without even realizing exactly when or how, all of his expanded consciousness touched the spiritual barrier that had been limiting him and passed straight through it without any resistance.

The state of Nirvana had finally been reached.

From the core of his being, a pure, subtle, whitish aura began to emanate, enveloping Priam’s entire body in a serene and divine light.

After an indeterminate amount of time, he slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was those sparkling emerald-green eyes, the wolf ears standing upright in anticipation, and that radiant smile that now filled his entire world.

"I did it..." Priam murmured.

He felt a new power flowing through every meridian, every cell, and every corner of his soul.

He was now officially a Philosopher Sage.