The Wizard's Pursuit of Truth

An hour later, Wang Ya had already filled his scratch paper with numerous notes on his understanding of the three Witchcrafts.

A strange look appeared on his face, because these three Witchcrafts had no destructive power whatsoever.

To be precise, they were three Witchcrafts that couldn't affect reality, but instead influenced the Dream Realm and the plane of consciousness.

[Eye of Dreams] [Heart of Dreams] [Dream Sword]

"See, hear, and swing the sword!" Wang Ya's eyebrow twitched; he was a bit unsure. These were the hints the Illusory Dream Wizard had left.

'The Dream Mage System is primarily concerned with consciousness and Spiritual Power. Could it be that it gives the eyes a special function, allowing one to see things on the level of consciousness and the Dream Realm?'

'And use the Heart of Dreams to listen to the sounds produced within the Dream Realm.'

'The Dream Sword is the most unique, and seems somewhat useful. It's a method of attack that gathers Extraordinary Spiritual Power and one's own consciousness.'

Wang Ya frowned, but in the end, he simply stopped dwelling on these miscellaneous thoughts and began trying to master the three Witchcrafts.

The result was rather surprising even to himself. His progress was extremely fast, with almost no bottlenecks or difficulties, as if everything was falling into place naturally.

The assistance of the Eye of Truth, one could say, played no role at all.

「Fifteen days later.」

In the study, Wang Ya was still sitting in his desk chair, his right hand covering his eye.

His pupil felt cold, a very peculiar sensation. Casting this Eye of Dreams Witchcraft had almost no effect on Particle Energy; only a continuous stream of Spiritual Power was maintained in his pupil.

When he removed his right hand and opened his eye, an extremely faint, soft fluorescent light flashed for a moment.

Wang Ya tried to observe the world. The desk was still a desk, the wall was still a wall, and he himself felt no different.

Even in the mirror, his pupil was still black, showing no signs of abnormality.

'The Witchcraft was definitely cast successfully,' Wang Ya was certain of it.

He was currently in the State of the Eye of Dreams, but why was there no difference...? Wang Ya began to cast the other two Witchcrafts.

After casting [Heart of Dreams], the consumption of his Spiritual Power continuously supported the two Witchcraft states.

His ears twitched slightly, and he could hear faint sounds: the wind outside the window, the roars of creatures in the forest, the vibrations of Harak flapping its wings around the Ancient Castle... But these were all things Wang Ya could already do.

Wang Ya was genuinely puzzled.

If the other function of his Eye of Truth wasn't already set on analyzing those six pieces of Extraordinary Knowledge, he probably couldn't have resisted using it to analyze the specific Effects of these Witchcrafts.

'It seems only the Illusory Dream Wizard can provide the answer.'

'As for the fact that he was given a month but I finished in only fifteen days... that shouldn't be a big deal, right?' Wang Ya thought. After all, among the three Witchcrafts, only the [Dream Sword] was slightly more difficult and took a bit more time.

Its application took time, as it required overcoming the difficulty of synchronizing the frequencies of Spiritual Power and consciousness.

...

「Maple Forest.」

The drifting maple leaves were still fluttering up and down as they always did. Autumn had almost passed, but this Maple Leaf Forest, where the Illusory Dream Wizard could appear, remained unchanged.

However, Wang Ya had not walked for long before his expression changed. He noticed some peculiarities he hadn't perceived before.

He even blinked instinctively. He wasn't mistaken. From his perspective, the scene of the Maple Leaf Forest, and the colors reflected by the light, had grown far more numerous.

They were not just colors in the conventional sense.

'What on earth are these things...?'

Wang Ya's steps faltered instinctively. His eyes flickered as a thought occurred to him.

He cast the [Eye of Dreams] Witchcraft again. As his Spiritual Power continuously drained, his pupil was veiled by a faint, fluorescent glow.

Finally, he discovered the anomaly.

The colorful scene created by the dancing maple leaves was irregular and distorted. Even the arc of their flight and the very structure of the leaves themselves were filled with an alternative, distorted color.

This carried a bizarre Mental Shock. Even with Wang Ya's Physique and Spiritual Power, he felt dizzy and disoriented. It was some kind of special spiritual contamination.

The stuffiness in his chest and his light-headedness made Wang Ya want to vomit.

Those distorted, maple leaf-like colors seemed to be stirred by Wang Ya's arrival, twisting toward his position. Everything in their path transformed into irregular, colorful images, distorted like a child's graffiti made with copious amounts of paint.

'You've got to be kidding me!!'

Wang Ya's scalp went numb. He had a premonition that if this stuff touched him, he would be in huge trouble.

Subconsciously, he cast another of the three Witchcrafts.

[Dream Sword]

Consciousness, wrapped in Spiritual Power, formed a unique frequency. A longsword that surprised even Wang Ya materialized out of thin air. Its size was constantly changing, growing larger one moment and smaller the next. This state was very strange.

A faint, silvery-white luster surrounded the sword's blade.

This seemed to provoke something. The distorted, maple leaf-like colors suddenly erupted, growing more numerous and surging toward Wang Ya like a Tide.

The surroundings, originally ordinary Maple Trees, began to come alive in Wang Ya's vision. Their trunks and branches were twisting. He was the sole center, a delectable meal. These seemingly living, yet seemingly dead distorted colors and bizarre trees turned into a swirling mass of distorted color that engulfed him.

Absolute terror exploded in Wang Ya's mind.

He clenched his jaw so hard that his gums bled. The Spiritual Power in his mind surged out frantically, gathering into the flickering, size-shifting longsword.

Swing the sword!

'I have to swing the sword!'

The hint left by the Illusory Dream Wizard within the Witchcraft Knowledge surfaced in his mind.

The silvery-white light flared brilliantly and slashed out in all directions.

The bizarre world, which had become a swirl of distorted colors, was split by this resplendent silver-white light, carving out a clear rift and creating an isolated safe zone in the middle.

Wang Ya collapsed to the ground. Blood trickled from his eyes, nostrils, and ears. His face was ghastly pale, a terrible sight to behold.

The Spiritual Power in his mind was almost completely depleted.

He was gasping for breath, his chest heaving.

'What on earth are these things...?' The distorted, colorful things did not leave. Instead, they continuously healed the rift, filling it in, and soon it was restored to its original, pristine state.

It was like a torn scroll that had been mended, with the repaired tear being indistinguishable from the undamaged parts.

Wang Ya now understood the meaning of "see, hear, and swing the sword."

The Eye of Dreams Witchcraft could provide a special, alternative perspective, allowing one to see things that were invisible in reality.

The Heart of Dreams, then, was for feeling, receiving, and hearing the essence of this information.

The condensed Dream Sword was a means to influence those special things and protect oneself. To see those things also meant being seen by them.

This special state was dangerous.

The ceaseless distorted colors were like an inscrutable, bizarre colony of fungi, devouring everything within its grasp.

In the next moment, Wang Ya was about to be consumed by these things, but a smile appeared on his face.

This was because a figure in a Yellow Wizard Robe was standing in front of him. The figure was not tall, but their shoulders and back exuded a sense of reliability.

"Go back!"

A cold, neutral voice echoed all around. As if the words were law, all the distorted colors began to recede. The colors gradually stabilized, returning to their original, real material state.

The Cold wind was still the same Cold wind!

The trees were still the same trees!

A few maple leaves landed on Wang Ya's forehead. He reached out and pinched one; it was absolutely real.

But his depleted Spiritual Power was also real.

Blood dripped from the corner of his jaw.

"You should be glad you only used the Eye of Dreams and not the Heart of Dreams. You also used the Dream Sword in time. Otherwise, by the time I arrived, you would have already been devoured by my Dream Territory."

The Illusory Dream Wizard's voice held a note of reproach, but was filled more with concern.

This time, the figure in the Yellow Wizard Robe was incredibly Solid, lacking the blurry, indistinct appearance from before. Wang Ya could even make out the fine texture of the robe's fabric.

He was still in the state of the Eye of Dreams and now understood what the Illusory Dream Wizard's state truly was.

'He's in a perpetual state of distorted dissociation within the Dream World. His real body isn't in the physical world.'

'He can only be seen through the Eye of Dreams.'

"I gave you a month to master three Witchcrafts, and you finished in only fifteen days..." The Illusory Dream Wizard's words paused, not continuing.

Because even the Illusory Dream Wizard himself was a bit stunned. In his prediction, the fastest would have been around twenty-five or twenty-six days.

Otherwise, something like this wouldn't have happened today.

He would have suppressed his Dream Power in advance, instead of releasing it so casually.

Dream Power has difficulty affecting the real world, especially without the participation of Dream Mage Particle Energy and Spiritual Power.

But for a Wizard who possesses the Eye of Dreams, the situation is different. Seeing is mutual, and Dream Power will be drawn in spontaneously.

To be precise, it was the Illusory Dream Wizard's devouring instinct, which consumes other things that possess Dream Power.

"That sword strike was quite good!" the Illusory Dream Wizard continued, finishing his broken sentence.

Wang Ya's face was deathly pale. He said weakly, "Teacher, do I look like I'm doing 'quite good'?"

"It was excellent. So good it even startled me. You managed to briefly resist my Dream Power's instinct after mastering only these three basic Witchcrafts. That's something Kelan couldn't manage in five years."

"Your Potential is even greater than my observations suggested."

At this moment, the Illusory Dream Wizard slowly turned around.

Wang Ya's eyes lit up. Now that he could see the Illusory Dream Wizard's true state, perhaps he could see his face.

The Illusory Dream Wizard always had his back to people, which was one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Dark Land.

Many Wizards were curious and wanted to know what the Illusory Dream Wizard looked like.

Wang Ya was no exception.