Chapter 52: The Abyss of Consciousness

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: The Abyss of Consciousness

Perhaps because Jeremy was not the true master of this body to begin with, even after inheriting all of its memories, he did not muster a single trace of empathy.

At this moment, his only prayer was that the upcoming New Year would not bring about any more blood-spitting incidents. According to annual custom, it was only when the royal family hosted the year-end banquet that the family members from the Ducal estate would travel all the way to the capital for a short stay.

Jeremy glanced at the magic calendar on the desk.

The school year began on July 25th, and it was currently early September. Although the calendar system of the Saint Franc Empire was not exactly identical to the modern world, it retained the fundamental rules: twelve months a year, seven days a week. The difference was that the Empire’s New Year was set right after Christmas Eve. The last day of December was New Year’s Eve, and January 1st officially marked the start of the New Year.

The six-year educational system was divided into six grades. Each grade consisted of two semesters. The first semester lasted five months, starting on July 25th; winter break began on December 25th and lasted for a full month. The second semester started on January 25th, and summer break began on June 25th, also lasting for a month.

With merely a few months left until the New Year, the moment of encountering the original owner’s family was unavoidable. Thinking of those parents in name only, Jeremy’s temples throbbed in spasms again. He let out a breath and decisively flipped the picture frame face down on the table, stuffing it into the deepest corner of his spatial ring.

He just hoped that when the time came, they would not fly into a rage upon learning he had bluntly canceled his engagement with Amber, or worse, arbitrarily force another trashy political marriage upon his head.

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After finishing the clean-up, boredom besieged him once again. Jeremy leaned his head back against the sofa, his bright golden eyes staring blankly at the teru teru bozu hanging on the wall.

The corner of his eye suddenly caught the image of the brocade box that had been pushed aside earlier. He stretched and stood up, opened the box to take out the pale yellow seed, then strode out to the balcony, carefully burying it in a terracotta pot. This was a gift Lucius had given him. He had curiously pressed Lucius about what kind of plant it was, but unfortunately, that big kid kept his mouth shut tight, refusing to speak even if beaten to death.

After watering it, the minute hand on the wall finally slowly ticked through a full circle. Jeremy returned to the living room, deciding not to let himself be idle and act foolishly any longer. He pulled out the massive magic dictionary Griffin had given him and began delving deeply into the restoration support magic system.

The first team battle ended in glory without anyone suffering fatal injuries, largely due to the opponent—the Light Wing Team—coordinating as loosely as a pile of loose sand. Although their formation was strong, it lacked polishing, revealing countless loopholes. However, that very battle had sounded an alarm for Jeremy.

His Eclipse Team completely lacked a proper main support mage!

Evelyn shouldered long-range damage and wide-area crowd control. Phoenix was in charge of offense and summoning. Leon and Lucius were two sweeping close-combat spearheads. Especially Lucius, even though he could utilize his skills to transform into a shadow assassin, looking from any angle, there was no way to force him to switch to being a blood-pumping nanny.

If someone truly had to be forced to retreat to the backline to take on the support role, he feared this heavy responsibility would have to fall on the shoulders of the captain—him. Although a bit forced, his second skill, "Domain of Light," still possessed a certain amount of healing effect. Personally, Jeremy was more passionate about crushing enemies with brute force, but in a tight spot, learning a few more restoration spells to save his teammates’ lives remained the best strategy.

Fortunately, the ability of his Spirit Covenant allowed him to flexibly switch the form of his Sacred Weapon, helping him easily adapt to any position on the battlefield.

Jeremy muttered as he read, while attempting to channel his magic power for practice. The second round of the tournament would definitely be a slaughterhouse multiplied in ferocity. He had to take advantage of these two free days to force himself to break through his magic bottleneck and charge into the six-star boundary. With his current low Spirit Covenant level, destiny had forced him to sweat and bleed ten times more than others just so he wouldn’t be left behind.

It was not until the thick darkness enveloped everything that Jeremy stopped practicing healing magic. His gaze was glued to the quill pen placed on the table. He lightly bit his inner lip, deciding to try drawing a magic matrix one more time.

Last night, despite failing continuously to the point of coughing up blood, it ultimately counted as a reluctant success. This time, he had to raise the difficulty to see how it went.

Since Griffin had currently only imparted the and the , Jeremy had to limit his targets to these two. After all, magic was not something you could just self-study whenever you wanted; he was not arrogant enough to proclaim himself an untaught genius.

Considering he had already successfully activated the Dream-Entering magic matrix, Jeremy changed direction, aiming for the Spirit-Diving magic. The only difference was that one entered the world of dreams, while the other directly invaded the core consciousness space.

Perhaps thanks to the foundation from the previous night, this time he only failed a mere five times. At the sixth stroke of the pen, the array lit up brightly.

Right before the moment the brilliant light erupted and his consciousness was swept away by a powerful suction force, Jeremy reflexively gripped the edge of the table tightly and leaned back entirely against the sofa. He absolutely did not want to repeat the scene of struggling and rolling under the table like an idiot from yesterday.

His consciousness instantly sank into an endless black void.

After a very long time, when the dizziness of the spinning world subsided, the scene before his eyes gradually became clear. Simultaneously, an icy, gloomy aura that felt as if it seeped straight into his spinal marrow instantly enveloped his entire body.

Thick darkness surrounded him on all sides. The scenery was so familiar it made Jeremy frown, feeling incredibly absurd...

He would bet his life that the place he was standing was exactly the abyss in his dream from early this morning!

So ultimately, was this a dream, or a consciousness space?

Even though the lines of the two magic matrices shared similarities, he had meticulously inspected every microscopic symbol; there was absolutely no chance of a mistake. The most logical explanation was that this person’s consciousness space and dream had undergone a fusion phenomenon—a place that was both a dreamscape and a true projection of their consciousness.

Since he had already taken the trouble to come here, he might as well decisively use this opportunity to uncover exactly what kind of deity this hidden person from yesterday was. Jeremy’s already dormant curiosity flared up fiercely due to this bizarre coincidence.

Jeremy took long strides, following the memory path from yesterday, decisively stepping through the door of light, charging straight into the demons’ lair that looked like hell on earth.

Last time, the demons treated him like thin air. But this time, perhaps because he had penetrated deep into the core consciousness zone, the very second the tip of his shoe touched the ground, countless grotesque demons, as if smelling fresh blood, screamed madly and lunged over to bite and tear.

Jeremy clicked his tongue, frowning as he mobilized his magic power.

Damn it! It was exactly the same as yesterday. The magic power in his body felt as if it was completely frozen by an invisible seal. He could not activate any magic skills; the only remaining limit was summoning his Sacred Weapon and changing the form of his Covenant.

Fighting like this was no different from telling him to use his fists to brawl with monsters. The Sacred Weapon in Jeremy’s hand instantly transformed into a pitch-black scythe. He swung his arm, the sharp blade tearing through the wind, slicing in half two demons that were lunging at him with their mouths full of sharp fangs wide open.

But what made one want to curse was that these monsters possessed immortal bodies. Even if chopped in half, they would only melt into puddles of thick black liquid mud, and after ten-odd minutes of self-recovery, they would solidify and regenerate into their original forms.

If initially Jeremy only had the mindset of a casual observer, wanting to admire the face of the person pierced by nails atop the mountain of dry bones.

Then, after fifteen minutes of being relentlessly dogged by the swarm of demons, his patience thoroughly snapped. The oppressive atmosphere caused him to swing his weapon purely out of a thirst to slaughter and vent his frustration.