A Sorcerer’s Journey

Chapter 516: The Dreadlord II

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

From the moment Horrifying Creatures of the Nightmare World decided to step on a journey to become a Dreadlord by absorbing Fright Energy, they had started to forget their own immortality.

This was because to these Horrifying Creatures, the dissipation of Fright Energy was equal to death!

There was this vast city within the range of the Holy Tower of Four Rings. Grimm did not know its name, history, background or even relevance. He knew nothing about it.

But looking from the distorted state of the Nightmare World, this was a supercity with a living population of over ten million people. It was far beyond comparison to the normal cities in the center area of the Holy Tower of Seven Rings.

High up in the air, thousands of Tricolor Fairies of the fairytale law flew across the sky, coming and going as they flew.

Some of these Tricolor Fairies of the fairytale law belonged to the guardian law of having to stay in the city permanently. They represented the wonderful fantasy in the dreamscape of the children living in the city. Other Tricolor Fairies most probably belonged to the fluidity law of the Nightmare World, with Adjudication Staff Stigmata Sorcerer as the center, where the whole Nightmare World flowed in a cycle.

What caught Grimm’s attention the most was the giant floating ball on top of the tallest building in the center of the city.

Who knew what special laws this giant ball belonged to in the Holy Tower of Four Rings in the Sorcerers World. Yet the present giant ball in the Nightmare World was exuding an indescribably odd magnetic field fluctuation.

It was as if the closer he got to this giant ball, the smaller Grimm felt, or, the greater the gradual increase in the average level of life around him?

Of course, there were not many so-called creatures in the Nightmare World. The reason Grimm had this feeling was because of the breath that was constantly dissipated into the Nightmare World from the top of the building.

Only when Grimm saw a World Aperture that was several meters long after walking into a building that was thousands of meters close to the floating ball, then was he sure that his speculations were right.

From what it seemed, the floating ball in the city center was probably some unique law system of the Holy Tower of Four Rings.

Gradually, as the blood crescent fell and the black sun rose, the corrupted, oppressed and ominous melody of the Nightmare World turned into a Spectral World of distortion. It was like a lonely world where only Grimm was present.

“Let’s try and test if the Fright Energy in the Nightmare World has provided me with advancements in any way.”

Grimm could feel that his body had an increase of about 2,000 points of Fright Energy. This was a part of the Fright Energy dispelled by the Dream Watcher King after he had respawned again and again from the attacks of the Tricolor Fairies.

What changes had this 2,000 points of Fright Energy brought to Grimm in the Nightmare World?

As he settled down, Grimm experimented through his every movement. Grimm’s strength was significantly enhanced in every move.

Gradually, Grimm had some simple data.

These 2,000 points of Fright Energy were equivalent to an increase of 100 points of constitution in Grimm. At the same time, the most obvious qualitative change was Grimm’s ability to slightly change a little bit of the Nightmare World.

Of course, the changing ability of Grimm’s was certainly not like the Dream Watcher King’s, being able to create a castle in the Nightmare World that was non-existent in the Sorcerers World, the change was referred to the fact that Grimm could now cause some meaningless damage to the buildings of the Nightmare World.

A point of Fright Energy referred to an intangible loss caused by a human who was in fright after experiencing an effective nightmare as collected by the Horrifying Creatures in the Nightmare World.

“So approximately, collecting 20 points of Fright Energy in the Nightmare World equals an increase of 1 point in constitution?”

Grimm muttered as he wandered into deep thought.

“Well then, let’s test it out tonight and see how many Nightmare Phantoms I can control to help me collect Fright Energy.”

To Grimm, destroying the dreamscape of humans in the Sorcerers World for Nightmare Phantoms to collect Fright Energy was an act of morally violating rights in the Sorcerers World.

Yet these were not within the rule scope established by the Holy Tower, and on top of that, Grimm had a change of mindset. The Nightmare World was a part of the Sorcerers World. Besides, letting Nightmare Phantoms collect Fright Energy would not cause any actual losses to the Sorcerers World. Therefore, Grimm was not too concerned.

As he was pondering upon this, Grimm sat on a wooden chair he found in a distorted room on the side of the road. He took out the Book of Truth, his quill pen and magical ink as he recalled his failures once again.

Grimm wanted to record in great detail, every failure in the Book of Truth.

With the theme song of Grimm’s Book of Truth established, the Book of Truth seemed to have opened and created the door to a world, a world known as ‘the forgotten world’.

Failure would never be remembered by others because others were not able to see the failures of the successful. Whereas only the successful, alone, would recall the multiple valuable experiences of failing on the path to their success.

If the day came where Grimm were to succeed in opening the door of this world, he would be able to be like Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer. He would be able to lead others into his own Spectral World!

It could even be said that this was the ‘spacetime vessel’ process of creating a Spacetime Seal.

***

The blood crescent rose.

The crescent moon was like the evil smile of a humongous monster. The creatures of the Nightmare World were gathered from a lonely world to the same world once again.

Grimm put away the Book of Truth and stood up, soon reaching the streets of the city with the Lamp of Awakening in his hand.

The Tricolor Fairies of the fairytale law were fluttering their wings in the sky. After thinking for a moment, while maintaining his low-key ‘stealth’ ability, Grimm arrived at the edge of the city like a lonely traveler of the night. The edge of the city was relatively further away from the floating ball in the sky.

“Creak!” Grimm pushed open a wooden door.

Looking at the room based on its layout, this should be a wealthy family. There were six rooms, three beds and every bed had at least one or two World Apertures that had sounds of breathing or snoring coming from within.

“Creating Nightmare Phantoms…”

The main requirement for creating a Nightmare Phantom was a Nightmare Draw. A Nightmare Draw was created when a strong obsession of a human in reality was brought into the human’s dreamscape in an attempt to make up for some desired experiences in the Spectral World.

It was like when Grimm had just fallen into the Nightmare World. The obsession or the Nightmare Draw of the Sorceress-Apprentice was the child in her womb that she aborted.

If there were no obsessions, there would be no dreams. Thus, there would be no entering a dreamscape.

If this were the case, even a Dreadlord would not be able to create a so-called Nightmare Phantom for no reason to interrupt a human’s sleep.

Luckily, Grimm had found a Nightmare Draw in this room.

A Nightmare Draw was an illusive spot of light. Yet when Grimm looked through this illusive light spot, he saw a boy named Loki who was jealous of his brother’s boots and created a glittering one for himself in his dreamscape.

“Hmm? Dreams are quite interesting… or should I say that the numerous unique humans of all ages in the Sorcerers World are all interesting? Did I have a dream like that when I was a kid?”

After being fascinated for some time, Grimm started to try and create his own Nightmare Phantom.

Normally speaking, if Grimm were to stay here for some time, Nightmare Phantoms would appear where strong Nightmare Draws were within a huge area. This was something that goes without saying.

But then it would be too inefficient.

For now, actively creating Nightmare Phantoms would require Grimm to use some of his wisdom to think of a nightmare design disguise and invest some of his Fright Energy.

First, the nightmare design.

Grimm took the light spot of the Nightmare Draw that belonged to this little boy called Loki and swallowed it as he put it in his mouth.

Grimm closed his eyes as he coated the light spot in his mouth with a layer of Fright Energy which were the black ashes. “Blurgh!” Grimm spat out the light spot once again.

“Who knows how well this nightmare design of a pair of intachable, golden boots would do?”

At the moment, only 1500 points of Fright Energy were left in Grimm from his initial 2,000 points. These 500 points of Fright Energy were Grimm’s Fright Energy investment.

If the nightmare Grimm had designed for Loki was successful, then after tomorrow, this Fright Energy would become 501 points.

Just a moment later.

A hasty breathing sound could be heard from the other side of the World Aperture. This six-year-old boy seemed to be struggling as he kept kicking away his blanket, crying out sobs of fear and impetuousness.

After a couple of minutes, Grimm found a second Nightmare Draw in another family.

The light spot of the Nightmare Draw was a beautiful woman.

This was a merchant called Centor who admired a woman called Caprinauli. Yet this woman admired vanity and materialism, not paying heed to Centor at all. She married the sheriff of the city.

The sheriff was addicted to gambling, often abusing and hurting Caprinauli when he was drunk. Yet Caprinauli still looked down on Centor who admired her.

In her eyes, Centor was just a toad that wanted to eat swan meat, someone who wanted something he did not deserve.

Even though her life was in shambles, Caprinauli was still proud of being married to the city sheriff. It was as if this title had given her life meaning, and that it was some kind of great achievement in her life.

“Hmm? Is there such love in this world? That fella…”

Grimm’s indifference towards Centor’s love made it hard for him to understand his love. If it were not for the Nightmare Draw, Grimm would not even believe that such a ‘foolish’ man existed.

“I should give him an actual fear to help him give up. These two are just not meant to be.”

After thinking for some time, Caprinauli’s image in the Nightmare Draw Grimm had swallowed gradually changed its form. Turning her image of a beautiful woman into… a man.

Just like that, Grimm made four Nightmare Phantoms in a night, investing all 2,000 points of his Fright Energy.

If all four of them were successful then Grimm’s profit for the night would be four points of Fright Energy. It would also be one fifth of Grimm’s constitution in the Nightmare World.

It seemed kind of slow….