Kobold Wizard's Journal

Chapter 265 Bitter Tea and Upside Down

Ruger picked up a few more books from the bookshelf, but eventually stopped.

The two met up.

“If we can’t leave here, I think we should study this thing first,” Ruger said, taking out the notes the old woman had thrown to him from his storage pocket. “At least we should learn about it in case that person calls out suddenly.”

Upon hearing this, Leiden also took out the notebook he had received.

The two sat under the bookshelf and started flipping through the books.

The notebook in Luger's hand contained some of the old woman's ramblings. Luger patiently read through it. He had always thought that the old woman was not a rambling person. Just like her muttering to herself behind the stone door, this notebook must have been written when she was in a near-unconscious state. The so-called ramblings were just some incomplete, leaps in her thought process, which explained some of the old woman's ideas and her sorting out of her own ideas.

Of course, this mainly only involves Ruger's side, things that he needs to try and understand in his experiments.

When they move to the next step, the old woman will change the nature of their nightmare organs. Based on this, the path of the nightmare wizard will be used as a reference. The Supreme Council will develop nightmare organs to help people explore and integrate into this world. She will also use her own modified sublimation rituals and auxiliary spells, such as the Dream Enlightenment spell. These are just the things that Luger knows. For example, the things they were busy with in the mountains before are not mentioned here. And this wrinkled, short figure is still busy down there.

Ruger flipped through the pages.

He soon came across an ascension ritual that he found unacceptable. This ascension ritual, aside from granting the user the ability to become a formal wizard, seemed to offer no benefit whatsoever.

Of course, in the old woman's eyes, he was just an experiment. All she wanted was his reaction when he was promoted. Whether he succeeded or failed, all she recorded was data, not his future.

He watched as Leiden's brow furrowed, clearly indicating that their reading speeds were roughly the same.

Leiden, who had been working hard for a long time, was even more unable to accept this hasty promotion. Although he had a much higher chance of success than Ruger, his final fate might not be as good as Muriel's.

Even after becoming a formal wizard, for a long time, they will be among the weakest of the first-ring wizards.

Ruger flipped back to the beginning of the notebook, rereading the old woman's absent-minded words, and then looked at the sublimation ritual, hoping to find something praiseworthy in this rubbish.

Firstly, this ascension ritual can only be performed in the Nightmare World, which is probably inspired by Nightmare Wizards, as many Nightmare Wizards must ascend to the Nightmare World.

The old woman named the object in Luger's hand the Dream's Pendant.

During the Ascension Ritual of the Dream's Descent, dreams are mentioned multiple times. Ruger gradually understands by comparing the context: this dream is not the sleep that people know, but rather sleep within a dream world. That probably refers to falling asleep in a magical dream world created by the Clear Dream Art. Ordinary people sleep in reality and project their consciousness into the dream world. The old woman's idea is the opposite: falling asleep in the dream world and letting one's thoughts descend into the world outside the dream world. With the help of the power of the Nightmare World and some other means, she uses this reverse dreaming to construct a body.

Of course, this is Luger's speculation based on comparisons before and after. It is part of the old woman's idea. What he really needs to do is naturally not so difficult, and the old woman probably wouldn't spend so much effort and resources to assist him.

Ruger also thought of the birth of the black and white giant python.

If the old woman really has a way to utilize some of the power of the nightmare world, perhaps this outrageous reverse dreaming might actually succeed.

Moreover, judging from the old woman's rambling, dreamlike words, what she had accomplished might only be the beginning; she had further plans, though Ruger's notes didn't mention much. It did mention the Dream Tree, which he had planted. The Dream Tree would make the latter part of the Dreamfall Ascension Ritual easier, allowing the inverted dream to descend more smoothly through the tree's roots, especially in this environment—a nightmare world. The Dream Tree's roots would more easily send the bizarre, inverted dream out. At the same time, the Dream Tree's presence also made the entire magical dream more stable, making it easier to accept this whimsical ascension ritual.

Ruger leaned against the bookshelf, scratching his chin, pondering what benefits this sublimation ritual would bring him.

These are also things to consider. Even if the probability of him advancing in this experiment is not high, he will most likely choose to take a gamble when the time comes, but there is still a chance of failure. If he fails, he will still have to accept the experiment in order to survive.

But it's hard to see any benefit in this sublimation ceremony.

He originally had a real body, not some inexplicable and strange old woman.

Moreover, the so-called descent, which Ruger called an inverted dream, was not recorded in the notes as to what would be generated or how a body would be generated after it descended outside the magical dream. It was like a crude and incomplete sublimation ritual.

Are experimental subjects only entitled to half a sublimation ceremony?

Ruger scratched his head, feeling like he was being forced into a dead end.

He glanced at Leiden, who was still intently studying the notes in his hands, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

Ruger felt that what Mutric was going through might be more plausible than what they were going through, and it was most likely that she was experimenting with something in the direction of nightmare wizards.

“It seems like this is an incomplete ascension ritual…” Ruger murmured.

Raiden, who was holding the notebook, paused for a moment and looked away.

"It depends. Mine is the same."

As Leiden spoke in a deep voice, he actually raised his hand and started a campfire, brewing tea in the gaps between the bookshelves.

Ruger glanced at it; that small, dark piece was the bitterest kind of tea in Leiden's hands, which was quite effective at stimulating the mind.

The two fell silent, with only the bubbling sound of the pot breaking the silence.

Ruger continued reading his notes.

If Leiden followed the old woman's instructions, whether he succeeded or failed in his advancement, it could be considered a loss, or even an injury. But his situation was different. His mental strength hadn't yet reached the apprentice's limit. According to what he had read in those books, putting aside the probability of failure, if he failed, he could very well lose his life. In that case, there was no right to talk about loss. Even though he was quite confident in his stable mental energy space, he wouldn't use it for this kind of thing.

The contents of the notes, as he turned the pages, appeared before Ruger's eyes.

The so-called Clarity Dreaming Technique is quite ingeniously designed. A consciousness in a dream is asleep in a magical dream, and the Clarity Dreaming Technique can ensure that the consciousness outside is also awake, so it can be guided. It can also serve as a marker to guide the object hanging down in the dream to descend smoothly from the dream.

(End of this chapter)