Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 207 Start making

Richard frowned, lost in thought.

There was only one clue, which clearly indicated that it wasn't one of the monsters I killed in the nightmare.

Otherwise, it would be a waterfall of messages, at least hundreds, totaling more than 80,000 energy points.

So, the source of this energy point is...

It could only have been provided by the so-called priest of the Nightmare Church after his death!

It's that man in the black robe!

But why would the other party provide energy points to the inspiration panel?

I've always believed that I could only gain energy points by killing monsters.

It has been proven before that killing night elves does not grant energy points.

Why is it that this time, after this strange Nightmare Church priest was killed, I was able to obtain energy points?

Richard couldn't quite figure out the reason for it.

After carrying Stephanie back to the room, Richard noticed that Stephanie was breathing evenly, but her once fair forehead was now a little red and swollen, probably due to the severe blow to her head that caused dizziness.

After letting her rest in bed alone, Richard began to ponder a question: the witchcraft performed by the man in black robes was still fresh in his memory.

Although I don't know the name of the strange witchcraft the other party is using, I can still summarize its effects.

It seems that anyone who gets touched by that dark green mist will be instantly dragged into a nightmare.

Nightmares are not dreams.

All the damage suffered in a nightmare will eventually manifest in reality.

Therefore, I must have accidentally used the correct approach, killing all the monsters in the nightmare and successfully escaping the nightmare to return to reality.

No, not necessarily, Richard shook his head.

It's also possible that the dark green mist ran out of energy, which is why I was able to return to reality from the nightmare. If the energy hadn't run out, I might still be in the nightmare, constantly fighting monsters.

Regardless of the interpretation.

The gray dwarf city guards clearly couldn't hold out in the nightmare and succumbed.

Or perhaps they were killed by a monster in a nightmare, and thus died instantly in reality as well.

A mere wisp of dark green mist could easily take away more than ten patrolling wizard apprentices, and nearly killed him, a first-level, formal wizard.

This witchcraft is truly bizarre!

From this perspective, the human wave tactic should be meaningless to the Nightmare Church. It would only allow them to easily sweep people away, dragging them all into the nightmare, resulting in the deaths of a large number of people who would then become offerings to the evil god.

Of course, all of the above are just my own speculations, although Richard believes they are quite close to the truth.

But speculation is still speculation; it would be best to have something to corroborate it.

Richard decided that once Stephena woke up, he would immediately go to the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood to check the records about the Nightmare Church.

"Knock knock knock!"

A rapid knocking sounded on the door.

"Master, I heard you were attacked by the Nightmare Church. Are you alright?" It was Gorkan's voice.

Richard felt relieved and went to open the door.

Seeing that Richard was unharmed, Gorkan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Master, it's good that you're alright."

Richard waved his hand and said, "It's good that you're here. I'll need to trouble you to look after Stephanie. I'm going to the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood headquarters to find out what's going on."

"Yes, my master!"

After saying that, Richard turned and left the room.

At that moment, Stephania suddenly let out a soft moan, her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she slowly opened her eyes.

However, when she saw Richard, her face showed a slight look of fear, and she said, "Master...you...you've recovered?"

Richard raised an eyebrow, and asked with a slightly surprised tone, "Huh! Stephania, did I just attack you?"

Richard immediately realized from Stephanie's tone that the problem lay with him, given the strange expression she was giving him.

Given their previous relationship, Stephena always looked at him with affection, never with fear.

Stephania let out a long sigh, her expression one of relief, and smiled as she said, "Master, you were absolutely terrifying just now! You were attacking the flowers and trees in the garden like crazy, and I was knocked unconscious by you in just two moves as soon as I arrived!"

Richard also realized that his condition was clearly caused by that strange witchcraft.

Without wasting any more time, Richard comforted him:

"Stephena, you get some rest. I'm going to the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood headquarters and I'll be right back."

-

Headquarters of the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood.

Richard entered the hall and saw that the wizards and apprentices, who usually had mostly smiling faces, now had serious expressions on their faces.

Many people were whispering in the lobby, seemingly discussing words like "nightmare" and "death toll."

It seems they also know about the battle that just took place in Tug City. It appears the death toll was quite high and the impact was widespread, which is why the news spread so quickly.

Indeed, such information involving cults might be blocked from the general public.

However, this happened right under the wizards' noses, and as members of the ruling class, it was impossible to keep such news from them.

It's estimated that within a day, most of the wizards in Tug City will know about this sudden event.

Richard didn't linger; he went straight to the archives on the second floor and began looking up information about the Nightmare Church.

Information about the Nightmare Church is scarce; most of it consists of extremely old books, each thicker than a modern Chinese dictionary, with covers made of unknown animal hides and decorated with copper plates.

Richard picked up the thickest book and quickly flipped through it.

"The Nightmare Church is a widespread cult that worships Ignus, the god of nightmares."

"The entire organization was divided into bishops, priests, deacons, and ordinary followers. After committing many horrific atrocities, it was designated as a cult by the various intelligent races of the Underdark more than two thousand years ago and was subsequently eradicated."

"."

After closing the thick book, I flipped through several other books, all of which had similar content.

This made Richard slowly fall into thought. Basically, the Nightmare Church had disappeared since it was listed as a cult and was being cracked down on. Unexpectedly, it is now starting to reappear.

This is not a good sign!

The archives contain many books that provide general introductions to the Nightmare Church, but they are vague about the specific witchcraft performed by its members. Moreover, most of the content is geared towards ordinary members and is not very valuable for reference.

The priesthood of the Nightmare Church is described in only one or two books.

One of the books mentions that the witchcraft the other party used, the dark green mist, seems to be called Nightmare Descent.

It can target individuals, like the dark green fog that attacked him, or it can target groups, like the large patch of dark green fog that the city guards encountered.

The ancient grey dwarf wizards categorized the opponent's witchcraft as fel magic or magical magic.

Of course, the translations differ slightly depending on the language of the different races. In Huttite it is called magic magic, while in Akkadian it is called evil magic. The meanings are basically the same: the energy source of these magic spells comes from the power of evil gods from another world.

For cult members, this is what is called a gift or reward from an evil god.

Clearly, only cult members who deeply believe in their opponent can perform this!

This completely dashed Richard's hopes of learning this witchcraft.

but

Similar spells exist in the realm of spiritual magic, such as sleep spells, dream spells, and illusion spells.

The ancient book also contained a sentence that Richard remembered particularly well: the Nightmare Descends witchcraft, as long as the cultist's mental strength is higher than the enemy's, can forcibly pull his own side into the nightmare.

It can be described as a prime example of using superior strength to defeat inferior strength.

Those whose mental strength is inferior to that of the Nightmare Church priests are easily wiped out in one fell swoop.

This gave Richard a deep sense of crisis.

"It seems I need to speed things up again."

"Fortunately, I've now gained over 8 energy points."

"Moreover, I will soon have a large amount of magic stones coming in."

"Then many things can be done now."

An hour later, Richard arrived on the first floor.

In addition to the reception hall, a large portion of the first floor is also designated as the mission hall.

Therefore, the lobby on the first floor of the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood is also the most bustling lobby.

"Master Li Wei, hello. Do you wish to issue a hope Yao quest?" A young gray dwarf maidservant greeted him with a sweet smile after swiping Li Wei's mithril insignia with a "beep".

"I would like to post a quest regarding the repair of a low-level magical artifact."

"It's about which type of magical artifact. For example, if it's made of metal, the restorer is generally required to have the qualifications of a rune blacksmith, while if it's made of animal fur, the restorer is generally required to have the qualifications of an elemental leatherworker."

"A rattan cane."

"A vine cane, is it? Are there any qualification requirements for those who accept this quest? If it's a plant-based cane, it generally requires an inscriptionist with an advanced or master-level title. Also, what is your reward?"

"Master level, I suppose. The reward is 20,000 magic stones." Richard pondered for a few seconds.

Although I want to find someone to fix it as soon as possible, I can't lower my quality standards.

Richard himself is a master alchemist, so he naturally knows the difference between a senior title and a master title.

Especially for a relatively honest race like the Grey Dwarves, there is very little cheating in their skills; they basically hone their skills step by step.

"Alright, Master Li Wei, I have issued your task. Just a friendly reminder, if you need an Inscription Master to help you repair it, it may take quite a while."

"I understand." Richard nodded; he was aware of this as well.

But there are currently no other good solutions.

Among the Grey Dwarves, there are ten times as many master runesmiths as inscriptionists.

He had already considered it. If the task remained unfinished for a while, and if it still didn't work out, he might have to trouble Vice President Hawkins to introduce him to an Inscription Master.

After a while, compared to the assets I have, I will have enough money to hire a master inscription specialist at a high price.

After the task is posted.

Richard, holding a crooked vine staff, walked slowly back to his villa, his expression calm.

The staff was about 1.4 meters long, with a winding shaft that resembled a rather thick vine.

The top end is thicker, resembling a tuberous rhizome, while the other end is relatively thinner.

This is the Mutant Summoning Staff!

Given the recent unstable situation, Richard did not choose to store the quest item in the quest lobby. Instead, he opted for the second option: the quest lobby staff would come to Richard to retrieve it once someone accepted the repair quest.

Before Richard became a formal wizard, the role of the Mutant Summoning Staff was self-evident; it allowed Richard to summon the Abomination, a creature that only a formal necromancer could summon, despite being a level above his own.

However, since Richard's promotion, he has already learned the first-level sorcery of summoning abominations. Apart from slightly increasing the success rate of summoning, this low-level sorcery artifact no longer has any special effect on Richard.

Richard originally intended to discard the Staff of Mutant Summoning.

But one day, Richard, on a whim, studied the runes on the damaged part of this low-level magical artifact and discovered that the damaged part might be quite crucial.

Even when damaged, this low-level magical artifact is still quite effective: if the wielder uses the staff to communicate with the Netherworld, the success rate of summoning increases, and the summoned undead creatures will be forcibly transformed into an Abomination.

If it can be repaired, the mutated summoning staff in its intact state might bring him some unexpected surprises.

Richard already had a vague premonition about this.

After returning to the villa, Richard visited Stephanie and confirmed that she was alright.

Richard then went alone to the alchemy room on the second basement level.

Originally, he planned to sell a portion of his shares in Rye Beer and then purchase monsters at the wizard level to kill, thus accumulating a large number of energy points.

But now it seems I can start making the Bloodbone Golem ahead of schedule.

No more hesitation!

[Host detected learning to create Bloodbone Golems. Do/Do you want to consume energy to gain inspiration for creating Bloodbone Golems?]

For advanced puppet creation, which involves extremely high difficulty, a large amount of energy points must be consumed to make any progress.

So Richard didn't hesitate to drag the slider to 30000 and select "Yes!"

After a dizzying spin, Richard's soul arrived in the dream space, which was still similar to the alchemy room. In the center of the room, on the floor, was a large, white skeleton, the skeleton of an ogre.

There was also a blurry figure, who was bending over and examining something beside the skeleton.

In an instant, Richard possessed the figure.

After several upgrades, Richard looked at the [Skill] on the Inspiration Panel: Bloodbone Puppet Making (Limit), and smiled with satisfaction.

However, when Richard saw that there were only a little over 5,000 energy points left at the bottom of the panel, he gave another wry smile.

I thought that 80,000 energy points would be enough for me to use for a while.

But I never expected that making Bloodbone Golems would be such a huge drain on energy points!

The energy points required to upgrade it to its limit are no less than those required for a typical level one spell.

Thinking about it, Richard could understand; after all, the Blood Bone Puppet was a high-level puppet, and the difficulty of its production was evident.

Moreover, he had just upgraded the two witchcraft spells that came with the Blood Bone Puppet—the Soul Summoning Spell and the Bone Demon Reincarnation Ritual—to their maximum level.

That's why so many energy points are consumed at once.

With his experience in creating Bloodbone Puppets at the highest level, Richard was confident that he could make near-perfect use of the ogre skeleton at hand to create a Bloodbone Puppets with combat power at least equivalent to a high-level Tier 1.

It should be noted that Richard's current mental strength is only at the initial stage of level one (27% mistification). The fact that the puppets he creates can fight against a high-level level one wizard is already extremely rare.

Generally speaking, this situation only exists among hundreds of-year-old gray dwarf puppeteers.

They were busy studying puppetry, and their own cultivation level was only at the mid-level or high-level of the first level. However, the advanced combat puppets they created were one or two levels higher than themselves. They could even create second-tier combat puppets, such as giant war golems.

If the crafting experience is only at the proficiency level, the finished product will likely only be a Tier 1, early stage bloodbone puppet, which is comparable to the crafter's own strength.

In addition, unlike other advanced combat puppets, the Blood Bone Puppet's combat power is partly linked to the strength of its creator.

As Richard's strength increases, the Bloodbone Puppet will also improve accordingly.

Moreover, once the Bloodbone Golem is successfully created, it can be sent back to the Netherworld to await its master's next summons, just like the Wraith Abomination.

(End of this chapter)