The Wizard's Pursuit of Truth

「A month and a half later.」

「Inside the Illusory Dream Garden.」

This land was suffused with the fragrance of flowers, a scent so thick it seemed to have a tangible color. Fences lined both sides of the path, and as far as the eye could see was a dazzling array of flowers—vibrant roses, rich peonies, dewy tulips... Similar versions of any flower found in the real world could be seen here.

From Wang Ya’s perspective, however, these flowers had some subtle differences.

The roses had the general shape of their real-world counterparts, but their stems were covered in black fuzz—some strands thick, some thin—resembling the fur of a bear.

A foul-smelling mucus dripped from their vibrant petals and buds. Tiny maws hid in the crevices between the petals. The flower heads hung limply, their full buds swaying in the gentle breeze.

As Wang Ya walked along the path, the flowers seemed to turn and follow his movements, whether intentionally or not.

Wang Ya smiled, and a sickle appeared in his hand.

[Target: Evil Heart Rose]

[Details: Recorded in the Dream Realm Creatures Atlas. A seemingly unremarkable rose that poses a lethal danger. Anyone who gets too close will be bitten by its sharp maw, which injects a deadly venom like a snake. Once it bites, it never lets go. In an instant, the venom dissolves a creature’s flesh and blood into absorbable nutrients.]

Without a doubt, this beautiful rose was extremely dangerous.

The only thing Wang Ya’s Wizard Experiment needed to complete its preparations was this creature’s venom.

The experiment’s specific goal was to use the unique traits of the Evil Heart Rose’s venom to melt down certain special materials from the Dream Realm that were difficult to process by other means.

HISS!

A sound like a snake’s hiss emanated from the buds of the Evil Heart Roses, warning the approaching Wang Ya.

They had clearly sensed that the figure in the black Wizard Robe before them was not to be trifled with.

Wang Ya snapped his fingers. A stir of his Spiritual Power guided a fluctuation of Dream Power, and an invisible pressure descended upon the flower bed. The many hissing flowers were instantly frozen in place, unable to move an inch.

Dream Witchcraft: [Exorcism]

This was one of the three Low-tier Dream Witchcraft spells Wang Ya had developed over the past month and a half.

It channeled one’s Dream Power through a Spiritual Power shock to precisely strike a single target. It could also be used as an area-of-effect attack with a maximum range of ten meters.

Its specific effect was just as he had demonstrated: complete suppression, rendering the target unable to move at all.

Of course, this was a form of suppression through raw power. If an enemy’s Dream Power was stronger than Wang Ya’s, the spell would have no effect.

[Current Dream Power Units: 9.3]

Wang Ya’s rate of increasing his Dream Power was not slow, as he already had a substantial foundation in Spiritual Power.

Dream Power is the ultimate extension of an individual’s consciousness and is directly related to Spiritual Power.

In about another month, his Dream Power would likely reach the same level as his Particle Energy.

He easily harvested three stalks of the Evil Heart Rose with his sickle. A faint blue light flashed in his pupils; the amount of venom in the buds was sufficient.

Dream Power once again suffused the area around Wang Ya. This time, the fluctuation was pronounced. A silvery-white luster enveloped his body, and his form gradually faded into the Void.

When he reappeared, he was already at the entrance to the manor.

Dream Witchcraft: [Dream Body]

It was a unique form of Witchcraft. To create it, Wang Ya had referenced many aspects of Elemental Witchcraft. For example, he recalled the method the Sul Chief had used to descend at the end of the Secret Realm competition—constructing a physical form through light refraction and temperature conduction to achieve an effect similar to teleportation.

As long as he marked a location in advance by leaving behind a Dream Seed, Dream Body allowed him to selectively swap places with it.

It was extremely useful for both mobility and dodging attacks in combat, creating an element of surprise.

But that wasn’t the most important aspect. In Wang Ya’s design, the three Witchcraft spells he had created could be combined to form a single Middle-tier Witchcraft.

All three Low-tier spells had now been created; the next step was to create the Middle-tier Witchcraft.

Wang Ya’s progress on this front was not as swift as his work on the Low-tier Witchcraft. This was a Middle-tier Witchcraft, after all, and a powerful one could achieve effects comparable to those of a High-tier Witchcraft.

Take, for example, the Inheritance Witchcraft of the Rhine Lineage that Wang Ya had mastered, such as the Flame Demon Fear Witchcraft.

Furthermore, Wang Ya had to consider how the Dream Witchcraft he was creating could complement the combat abilities of the Elemental Mage System.

His focus was leaning more toward a support role.

The third Low-tier Witchcraft he created was named [Dream-Entering Technique].

As the name implied, it allowed one to enter the dreams of others. In Wang Ya’s design, when combined with the other two spells, the resulting Middle-tier Witchcraft would allow him to traverse different Dream Realms, attack from within a dream, suppress an enemy’s consciousness, and even steal certain information.

When faced with unavoidable danger, he could even use it to enter another’s dream and escape.

His vision for an even more advanced High-tier Witchcraft involved the ability to attach to another’s Spiritual Power, or even their consciousness, completely undetected.

However, that was still a distant goal for Wang Ya—merely a theoretical milestone on the path of Dream Witchcraft.

He also had ideas for offensive Witchcraft, but that would be a separate Middle-tier Witchcraft created from the same three Low-tier Dream Witchcraft spells.

’The inheritance of the Rhine Lineage is actually quite sophisticated,’ he mused. ’Its brilliance lies in the connectivity of its Witchcraft inheritance, the seamless progression from lower to higher tiers. The entire system is perfectly complete.’