As soon as the idea hit him, he logged out. He needed inspiration on how to spread fear. He needed to be fast too, if there was one thing reading the works of the famous horror novelist had taught him, it was that dreams were great for what he was about to do. He had some hours till in-game nighttime, so he needed a plan by then. He spent time in his virtual lobby. Browsing and searching through mythologies and fiction, he realized, He had limited capabilities. He could not call forth earthquakes, storms, or diseases and he could not even summon a demonic being. He wished like Faust, he could summon Mephisto, a demon, and be done with it. Divine spirit my ass, they were simply pathetic. They had no right to be called divine. This was his conclusion after hours of reading. He should have tested if he could unlock any other skill instead of reading the game lore and the village chief's book.

  He did not regret it though, the mythology of the first and the heroic journey of the second were interesting. The latter was a heroic tale of someone said to have been born in this village. There was one chapter on the said hero stopping a group from summoning a beholder. A beholder was a creature made of a gigantic eye surrounded by numerous tentacles. If he remembered correctly there was a drawing of the hero standing on what appeared to be a magic circle although incomplete.

  He asked the home AI to buy him a short-term subscription to a good modeling AI. He could not believe the day would come when he was relying on a fictional drawing in a game for a plan. He had no choice though. If it did not work, he would go the boring faith route. How hard it is to create a cult, he always thought it was easy and lucrative. You just had to steal ideas from a historical philosopher no one knows, make it the doctrine of the cult, and then use influence tactics. He had many historical records of cults, religions, and beliefs at hand, he could not believe, that he was not capable of replicating the feat in a game. The AI work was done. A magic circle was complete if he did not make a mistake in remembering the art. Now he needed a plot to go with it. He finally decided on a classic.

  Witch Hunt.

  Elijah did not understand people's obsession with witches but a witch hunt involved more. It was a true piece of history involving religion. A dark event that had inspired thousands of fantasies. He thought with a modern twist it might be good. He logged in again and began putting the plan into motion.

  The time in the game was faster. Memory dungeons time was another thing altogether. He had about 30 minutes of real-time in the game before nightfall. He walked to the back of the medicine man's house where he herbs cultivated herbs. He used telekinesis to carve famous occult symbols in the field. The night came and with it a new face of the game where shown. Elijah saw the villagers mostly sleep, however a few different. In his opinion the game was too realistic, he considered whether he should activate the adult content filter but he needed to customize that blood and gore still was acceptable and he did not want to go through that hassle.

  Through the night time, he walked to the village chief's house and as many villagers as he could and made their dream of the village being destroyed by the summoning of the beholder. He made the dream of village chief special. He was the only one who saw the culprit, the medicine man. He was even shown the herb garden.

  Dream skill worked by imagining the scene he wanted them to see. He was sure it was not that effective with the 1 level in the skill. So he tried to keep it simple. Finally, before his divinity finished he made the girl dream of his father's death.

  His skill had leveled up. Lower levels of skills were easy to level up. He had whisper at 2, telekinesis at 3, and dream at the respectable level of 5. Because of that, they took the risk for the final dream to go all out. He had made the medicine man’s daughter. Elisa dreams of his father being burned in a stake on a nightmarish night with a blood moon hanging in the sky and hearing a whisper all through the dream “Only Nyarlathotep can save him”.

  Honestly giving the innocent-looking girl a nightmare had been a moral conundrum. Still, he could not let rationality go, these NPCs were AIs with no self-awareness if Philemon was as good as it was made. If not these NPCs were all kinda controlled by a single AI. No matter how much they simulate the behavior, in the end, they are not human intelligence.

  The morning was interesting to watch. He felt like he was a social scientist. He briefly considered changing majors. Villagers were hysteric. Despite everything the village chief did not begin the witch hunt or he guessed the warlock hunt. During the day the medicine man was busy treating a patient, and the village chief went to the back of his house. When he saw the carved occult symbols, he trembled.

  “Old friend, what have you done? Why? You had a good life, Do you miss the life you had in the city?” mumbled the elderly chief.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Elijah was beginning to wonder if he should choose another NPC for the witch hunt. Until he heard the next bit.

  “I will protect this village if it is the last thing I do”

  And here is how he got his hunter.

  The elderly man's determination became more and more, each time he heard the villagers’ dreams. He gathered the villagers and the villagers who had the dream and showed them the herb garden. Coincidentally, there were a lot of strong men and devout women among them.

  The little girl, Elisa watched powerlessly as his father was taken. The village chief, if for his old friend, had ensured the girl was not harmed in the fiasco and had given time to the medicine man. He was supposed to be burned at the stake by villagers tomorrow night.

  Elisa cried and cried. Elijah’s plan was failing, he had to use his whisper skill. He had to make the girl dream of the magic skill and draw it for him. Carving a few symbols had drawn out his divinity, he could not carve the magic circle himself.

  “Ask Nyarlathotep for help, He will help you. Your father and you will be safe. Everything will be okay. Sleep” using his skill he whispered.

  “Nyarlathotep please, I do not know who you are, but my father knows a lot. He has told me about the old gods, please help me, I will believe in you” saying that she calmed down and slept at last.

  Elijah's moral conundrum was beginning to relapse.

  There was no progression towards the next level. He used his dream skill to make the girl dream of the magic circle. He told her to carve the magic circle outside of the village with blood. He hoped the inspiration for this game had included the use of blood otherwise he was screwed. If this was not a game he would not have gone through with a plan this flawed.

  He went to the house where the medicine man was held. He had not bothered to learn his name. His first plan was for Elisa’s father to die, then the wrathful witch most of the villagers, and testing if he could level up using fear. Now though he was considering that as the backup plan. The NPC’s value had increased, he was from the city and he also knew about the old gods. He had no idea if the memory dungeon was a one-time thing. If the next event was related to this, it would be good for the medicine man to live. He passed through the guards and found him. His dream skill had reached level 6, it brought him a pleasant surprise.

  He made the man dream of a cathedral. A dark one, with a blood moon shining and a book worshiped. He entered the dream himself.

  He was standing beside the stand holding the book. The man seemed scared then regained composure.

  “I am Ka. An elderly man was wrongfully accused. How may I refer to you, your holiness?”

  This character was good. He decided to role-play a little bit.

  “I am Nyarlathotep. I am not sure you are wrongfully accused. You will destroy this village. The dreams here are a result of my presence. They are in a sense prophetic”

  “They are Prophetic?!! But how I would never summon a demon. I did not learn alchemy to end up summoning a beholder”

  “They are prophetic but this one is a prophecy which I will make true. You will destroy this village and the demonic circle in an innocent heroic story that I made complete and bestowed upon your daughter”

  “You completed that forgotten demonic magic circle and bestowed it upon my daughter. Why? Are you an Evil God?” He said the last parts trembling.

  “Simple, She prayed to save her father. She believed in me and I want her to be saved too. I am not evil nor good. Dreams are a result of my presence, however I did not make the villagers believe them. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They believed in their dream, they came for you. Your daughter prayed to me. I gave her the magic circle and finally, you will find out a truth you ignored in your suicidal tendency and will destroy the village”

  “You mean that their actions will make me destroy the village? Why? If you are not an evil god why did you not rescue me alone”

  At this point, the role-playing was too much to stop. Ka was entirely right, He was the mastermind behind everything. The dreams were cast one by one, not as a result of his presence.

  “Do you know what the blood moon means? It means the omen of calamity. I am capable of predicting calamities do you want to know what would happen if I did not intervene and give the magic circle to your daughter.”

  He controlled the dream and made the book fly to Ka. It was not perfect but he managed to remember a witch hunt video he had seen and replaced the burnt witch with his daughter.

  “Villagers are angry and afraid. They will not stop at you. Your friend can not stop them for long and is it friendship if he puts his friend on trial without giving him enough chance to defend himself? He simply did not believe in you. You are not as wise as you claim to be if you truly believed your daughter would be saved because of his mercy”