Warlock Apprentice

After handing the deck of cards to Sharley, Angel finally fulfilled the promise he made back then. Leaving the hall space for Sharley to study alone, he returned to the study.

The next day, after resting for a night, Toby entered the House of the Heart once again to conduct experiments. However, following the previous success, entering the House of the Heart now was no longer a challenge for Toby; it was more about refining the details and accumulating experience.

Though Sharley had spent the entire night studying the ’Grotesque Playing Cards’—a name she came up with herself—she was not too fatigued. Her spirits were still high, and she had no issues maintaining control over the Magical Energy Array.

As for the challenges coming up, which to Toby were like a warm-up before the ordeal, both Angel and Greya put aside their tasks to seriously accompany him. However, while Greya stayed in the Reality Realm, Angel went to the Wilderness of Dreams to observe Toby’s condition at any time.

During his first day in the Wilderness of Dreams, besides staying by Toby’s side, Angel also took the opportunity to overlook the entire Wilderness of Dreams from a God’s View and addressed the critical piece for planning the New City—choosing its location.

If it were in the Reality Realm, choosing a site for city-building would involve many considerations, such as factors of war, environmental impacts, the presence of water, soil fertility, risks of hidden natural disasters, etc. But in the Wilderness of Dreams, these conditions temporarily didn’t need to be considered. Angel’s requirements for location were few: First, it needed to be as far away from Originheart City as possible.

Originheart City was the city of the Dream Realm’s indigenous residents. Over 99% of the people there had essentially become full-fledged indigenous people of the Dream Realm. Moreover, even within the Dream Realm, they belonged to the lowest tier, entirely powerless.

In essence, Originheart City consisted entirely of ordinary mortals.

Meanwhile, the New City Angel was constructing was prepared as a future residence for Transcendents. However, Transcendents often had complex temperaments that wouldn’t withstand scrutiny. To avoid conflicts harming the mortals, he intended to position the New City far from Originheart City.

In the future, once the Wilderness of Dreams was fully developed and its rules more complete, a balance could be established between the Indigenous People and the outsiders. By then, even building a Teleportation Array between the New City and Originheart City wouldn’t matter. But in the initial period, such conflicts were best avoided.

Aside from ensuring distance from Originheart City, the second requirement for selecting the site was to avoid areas saturated with Nightmare Realm energy.

Though the Wilderness of Dreams was an extension of the Dream Realm, it was also a special form of a Nightmare Realm.

It existed as an intermediary zone bridging the Nightmare Realm, the Dream Realm, and the Reality Realm.

Back then, Angel had managed to sever the Wilderness of Dreams’ ties to the Dream Realm and the Nightmare Realm using a method that cut off the Nightmare Domain, which was why this was achievable.

However, because this Nightmare Domain was too vast, Angel’s current abilities couldn’t fully merge the Principal Body of the Nightmare Domain. He could only chip away at the Wilderness of Dreams over time using the method of Authority reduction. Also, due to not merging the Principal Body of the Nightmare Domain, Angel could only borrow the Nightmare Realm energy within the Wilderness of Dreams and couldn’t fully mobilize it.

To prevent the Nightmare Realm energy from affecting the outsiders, Angel’s second requirement for the site was that it be located in an area with sparse Nightmare Realm energy.

Considering these two conditions, Angel began searching for a suitable location within the Wilderness of Dreams using God’s Eye.

In the end, he was satisfied with the result, having determined the site for the New City. Without Teleportation, it would take at least half a month of flying to travel from the New City to Originheart City—assuming no one got lost. For now, this distance seemed sufficient.

As night fell, Angel’s first day accompanying Toby came to a satisfactory close. He had found the location for the New City, and Toby had entered and exited the House of the Heart eight times.

Among those attempts, Toby triumphed over the Extreme Resentment Thoughts three times but failed five times. In those three victories, there were still some unresolved details, but compared to the ’lucky’ success of the previous day, these three wins showed signs that Toby was beginning to prevail over the Extreme Resentment Thoughts.

On the second day in the Wilderness of Dreams, Toby once again stepped confidently into the House of the Heart beneath the bright morning sun.

Angel didn’t have any major plans for this day. Instead, he accompanied Toby at the top of the Sky Tower while casually chatting with Frode about his research topics on the Wilderness of Dreams.

In the afternoon, Angel had a separate conversation with Jon about recent events. Jon had been living quite comfortably lately, both indulging in teaching and creating the blueprints for the New City in his spare time. Occasionally, he would organize books with some scholars and exchange knowledge, discussing mythology, history, culture, human geography, and language. His days were busy yet fulfilling.

Jon had even moved back into Pat Manor within Originheart City, living alongside Head Maid Mana, Ollie, and the others, which gave him a sense of familiarity from the past.

Additionally, Jon had plenty of private time to study the peculiar items Angel had brought to him.

For instance, documents and publications from the Wizards’ Realm and some magical artifacts.

Jon would occasionally comment on the artistry of Angel’s Alchemy Works, but he didn’t show much interest in them. Instead, he displayed considerable enthusiasm for the Alchemical Potions that Angel had brought.

He even asked Angel to bring in some specialized experimental tools to analyze the potions.

Whether or not Jon had any breakthroughs remained unknown. However, judging from Jon’s enigmatic smile, it seemed he might’ve gained some insights—or perhaps he was just putting on airs. After all, when Angel was young, Jon often teased him this way.

Regardless of Jon’s progress, Angel felt deeply gratified as he listened to him talk. The joy Jon exuded was genuine, and for a moment, it felt to Angel as though he’d returned to the time when Jon was still in good health...

Thus, the day slowly gave way to night amidst their conversations.

Though it seemed like Angel hadn’t gained much that day, seeing Jon regain his former vitality left him feeling more fulfilled than ever.

As for Toby, he continued his eight attempts at the House of the Heart. His performance had slightly improved compared to the previous day, managing four wins and four losses.

The third day arrived.

In the morning, Angel had initially planned to discuss the progress of the Demonic Fiend experiments with Frode. However, when Angel entered the Wilderness of Dreams, he didn’t sense Frode’s presence; it seemed he had returned to the Reality Realm.

Angel decided to examine the Demonic Fiend laboratory on his own using God’s Eye. After secretly observing for a while, Angel felt reassured. Even without Frode overseeing operations, the researchers in the lab still carried out their tasks methodically and professionally.

After confirming that there were no mishaps, Angel shifted his full attention to Labu.

Labu was currently the only individual in the Wilderness of Dreams with the potential to inherit the Authority of the Mist of Sin. Since Angel previously hadn’t had time to observe, he now took this rare opportunity to assess Labu’s condition.