Wizards begin by accessing the Inspiration panel.

Chapter 236 Preparations Before Departure

But those scenes just now seemed to tell a very important story, which is about the path to breakthrough after reaching level three.

Although it's a bit far off for Richard.

But one should always plan ahead.

Perhaps because Richard had seen many scenes with her, the pale red light on the surface of the Nightmare Stone dimmed instantly, just like when it was sealed before, turning black and unremarkable.

Richard sensed it and realized that although he had just been distracted, only a few seconds had actually passed.

At that moment, the familiar figure in black robes slowly retreated into the shadows.

"Trying to escape again? You got away last time, but this time you caused me a lot of trouble and almost caused a major accident!" Richard glanced at the octopus giant on the ground, who was almost dead, and thought to himself.

"This time, I'm determined to keep you here!"

Suddenly, at Richard's command, the three thick iron hooks that the vengeful spirit hated suddenly slammed down on the man in black robes with a loud crash.

Mattis had long been wary of Richard's side.

He stretched out his right hand, palm perpendicular to the ground, fingertips pointing upwards. As a rapid incantation rang out, a powerful, transparent wave suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Clang clang clang!"

The three sharp iron hooks seemed to have encountered an invisible wall, and were blocked by Mattis without harming him in the slightest.

By this time, Richard had already placed Stephanie, Fana, and Angelis in a safe rear area to prevent the upcoming battle from affecting the enemy.

Just as Richard was about to join the vengeful spirits in attacking the man in black, suddenly, Richard was jolted!

Because he was surprised to find a notification in the inspiration panel:

[Gained 95677 energy points.]

Richard glanced at the octopus-headed swamp giant who had been clutching its head and struggling in pain. Now, it lay motionless on the ground, its body still emitting a burnt smell.

Clearly, it was Richard who contributed so many energy points.

Richard pondered for a moment, "So it seems, if my guess is correct, this guy should also be a cultist."

"Based on my previous experience, only cultists who believe in evil gods will provide me with energy points."

At that moment, the situation on the field changed dramatically.

The man in the black robe pulled a white glass bottle from his pocket and smashed it on the ground with a "crack!"

Suddenly, a pool of transparent liquid, emitting wisps of mist, appeared on the ground.

The vengeful spirit rushing towards the other side sensed something was wrong and was about to step over the strange liquid when it stumbled a second later.

Two large, white, icy hands suddenly emerged from the liquid and grabbed the vengeful spirit's calf.

Instantly, wisps of ice crystals began to spread from the calf that the vengeful spirit had grabbed.

The icy hand pushed hard against the edge of the liquid, and soon an elemental creature, over three meters tall and with a humanoid appearance, made entirely of ice crystals, appeared before the vengeful spirit and confronted it.

"roar!!"

The vengeful spirit was clearly furious at the monster that had suddenly blocked its attack. It roared at the monster and charged forward, brandishing its giant iron axe.

The ice crystal giant roared and unleashed an ice storm at the vengeful spirit.

In an instant, frost mixed with a strong wind blew towards the vengeful spirit, greatly slowing it down.

Watching the two monsters locked in combat, the man in black robes smiled with a hint of relief, but the smile quickly froze.

Because Richard had already pulled out several bombs from his pocket and thrown them at the ice crystal giant.

Having already received Richard's orders, the vengeful spirit had already bound the ice crystal giant with iron chains. It retreated several steps, its narrowed eyes revealing a smug smile as it leisurely watched the ice crystal giant.

"BOOM BOOM BOOM!!"

The continuous explosions, mixed with the roar of the ice crystal giant, instantly drowned it out!

When the smoke and dust cleared up again, the ice crystal giant was seen struggling in place with only its upper body and one right hand remaining.

At this moment, Mattis looked astonished, and at the same time, he immediately realized why the other party was able to defeat Lord Mobutu. Perhaps the opponent's sharp alchemical bomb attack was a key factor.

Seeing his opponent in such a miserable state, the vengeful spirit grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, and laughed happily. At the same time, his hands moved quickly, swinging the hammer to smash the opponent's remains to pieces!

But the situation changed drastically in the next second!

The ice giant uttered a short syllable and suddenly exploded, creating a large cloud of mist and ice crystals that impacted in all directions. Richard and the vengeful spirit immediately dodged the massive shockwave.

After the shockwave subsided, the entire area was in a state of utter chaos, and the figure of the man in black robes could no longer be seen.

Richard couldn't help but feel a little regretful; he still couldn't keep the other party this time.

After confirming that the other party had indeed escaped, Richard provided medical treatment to Stephena and the other two.

Fortunately, all three seemed to have fallen into a coma after suffering psychological trauma, but they soon woke up one after another.

The first to wake up was Fana. She groaned and then rubbed her head while looking around.

"Richard, you're the one who saved us, aren't you?"

"I didn't expect their attack to be so bizarre, managing to pull us into a dream space. This method seems to be from the Nightmare Cult; I've only ever heard of it before, this is the first time I've encountered it."

"I was lucky, otherwise, we would all have been in trouble this time."

Then Stephena and Angelis also woke up.

When Angelis awoke, he rubbed his temples in pain and looked around. When he saw the tall, octopus-headed swamp giant lying to the side, his eyes widened in surprise, and he exclaimed:

"Mobuto, the priest of the Nightmare Cult!"

"So it was him who ambushed us. No wonder we were pulled into the dream space even though we were prepared."

"Richard, you are truly amazing. Mobutu was once a top-tier level one wizard and a priest of the Nightmare Cult. He was killed by a level two archmage and escaped, and there was no news of him since. I never expected that you would actually kill him this time."

Richard immediately raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected the other party to have such a background. He had thought the other party was a master in the organization of the Night Elf assassins, but he didn't expect that the other party was actually a priest of the Nightmare Cult.

However, this only made Richard more wary.

Could it be that the Night Elf assassin organization is colluding with cults?

It seems I should return to the surface as soon as possible and take cover.

After all, the night elves are ubiquitous in the Underdark, whether in the Grey Dwarf Territory or elsewhere, and this time they seem to have even allied themselves with a cult.

For him, the risks were getting higher and higher, and he didn't want to drag Fana into this again.

"By the way, it seems the Tug City authorities have a bounty on Mobutu, and the reward is quite substantial," Angelis added after slapping his forehead.

"Huh, is there such a good thing?" This was something Richard hadn't expected.

At least the Fana Guards won't have to pay their own compensation!

After discussing the matter, the group quickly got up and returned to Tug City to avoid any unforeseen complications.

Before long, a large number of Tug City guards surrounded the farm.

As Angelis had predicted, the bounty offered by the Tug City Lord's Mansion to Mobutu was exceptionally generous. Even after offsetting the compensation for the fallen Fana guards, a considerable amount of magic stones remained.

Richard used these magic stones to purchase materials unique to the Grey Dwarf region.

For two consecutive days, Richard was actively preparing for his departure.

The original villa had been renovated, and after thinking about it, Richard decided to sell it.

After he and Stephana left, Fingart would remain in Fana's area of ​​Tug City. At the same time, he left Fingart a sum of magic stones so that Fingart could use them to settle his people who were originally in Darkwater Lake.

Richard used most of the remaining magic stones to set up teleportation arrays.

Richard had already copied the teleportation array before, so setting it up again wasn't too difficult; he just needed to prepare a few high-level magic stones.

Because Tug City is farther from the teleportation point on the surface than the original Darkwater Lake Blind Merfolk tribe, the energy consumed by the teleportation array increases exponentially.

Richard only briefly mentioned his upcoming departure from Tug City and return to the surface to Fana; he didn't tell anyone else.

As for the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood, Richard left a letter that Fana would pass on to Hawkins, the vice president of the Grey Dwarf Brotherhood, after he left.

-

The last night before leaving.

Inside Richard's bedroom at the Fana Villa in Tug City.

As Richard fell into a deep sleep, a moment later, a strange faint red light flashed across his body, and he became eerily transparent, gradually disappearing from the bed into thin air.

Ugh... my head hurts so much!

Richard suddenly felt a dry mouth and thirst in his sleep.

But when he opened his eyes, he keenly noticed that his surroundings seemed a little different from before.

Although I was still in my bedroom, the scene was clearly different from the one before I fell asleep.

A thin layer of dust had already formed on the coffee table not far from me, and further away, a large amount of cobwebs had formed in the corner of the room.

"How could that be! My room is cleaned by a maid every day, and I walked around in the room before I went to sleep, so I have a deep impression of it. There is absolutely no way there could be so many cobwebs."

"Does that mean I slept for a very, very long time?"

That's even more impossible. If I'd slept for days, there's no way Stephanie and the others wouldn't have come to wake me up!

This strange change immediately made Richard's pupils shrink, and he was wide awake.

However, Richard did not get up immediately. Instead, he sat on the bed and looked around the room carefully again, then touched the blankets on his own bed.

Strangely, his blanket was very clean. He looked down at his fingers, which had been rubbing against the blanket a couple of times, and there wasn't a speck of dust on them. How strange! There was a thin layer of dust on the coffee table a few meters away from the bed, and on the chair too!

But my own bed is so clean.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Richard's mind. It seemed that the farther away from his bed he was, the more ancient and uninhabited the place became.

Having confirmed this, Richard slowly got up, put on his clothes and equipment, and began to pace around the room to further observe his surroundings.

Several potted plants in the room had turned black and withered, looking as if they had been dead for several years.

There was a thick layer of dust on the bookshelf.

Suddenly, Richard frowned, as if he had discovered something.

He casually pulled a hardcover book from the bookshelf and dusted off the cover.

The next second, Richard was struck dumb, frozen on the spot.

What was extremely strange was that he had never seen the cover of this book in his study before, and the characters on the surface were all twisted and intertwined lines, which were not any kind of script he recognized.

Richard suddenly felt a pang of fear!

After putting the book back, Richard quickly took out a second and a third book from the shelf.

But there wasn't a single book he could understand.

The cover and contents of each book are composed of these irregular lines.

This filled Richard with a strange sense of unease.

Things seemed to be beyond his expectations.

If this is an illusion, then it is definitely not an ordinary illusion.

Could it be that I've been targeted by that cult again, and this time I've been pulled into that mysterious dream space again?

If that's the case, then I need to find the core of the illusion and break it like last time in order to leave the illusion; otherwise, I will be trapped and die within the illusion.

After a moment's thought, Richard made his decision.

Clearly, there's nothing left to see in the room; the only option now is to open the door and go outside.

"Creak!"

Richard unlocked the slightly rusted door lock and stepped out of the room. He saw a milky white mist all around him, and various trees and flowers in the distance were indistinct and not very clear, but he could roughly tell that there should be a garden in front of him.

Richard took two steps forward and then suddenly stopped.

He discovered that although this was also a garden, strangely, its design was completely different from that of the garden at Fana's villa.

Faced with the unknown environment, Richard dared not be careless and immediately used the Demon Armor Technique. Instantly, a black, ferocious bone armor covered Richard's entire body, which reassured him considerably.

It seemed that Richard was the only person in the entire garden.

Richard walked slowly, the soft grass absorbing the sound of his footsteps, and the surrounding environment was so quiet that Richard could almost hear his own heartbeat.

Suddenly, a faint sound came from ahead.

The soft sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet environment, and it seemed to come from the left side of the garden.

Richard narrowed his eyes, and the mimicry bracer on his left hand transformed into an arm shield, while the one on his right hand turned into a knight's longsword.

At the same time, remaining vigilant, Richard raised his arm shield to his chest and slowly walked forward.

(End of this chapter)