Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 2305: Chapter 2306: Membrane of Rhythm

As the light and shadow solidified, the outline’s subtle lines appeared before their eyes.

A demon with spiraling horns on its head, surrounded by abyssal black mist, appeared before them.

Standing four meters tall, with purple skin, robust muscles, bat-like wings with skeletal structures, and glowing scarlet eyes, it exuded the darkness and horror of an abyssal demon.

Roar—

A terrifying howl accompanied by an overwhelming aura surged forward.

Frode, who had never faced such an abyssal demon before, grew pale even though he knew it wasn’t real, and couldn’t help but take a few steps back.

”It’s a horned demon.” Rhein stroked his chin, observing: ”Looks decent, but there’s not a trace of energy fluctuation. It looks like... an illusion.”

Sumishe chuckled, ”Lord Rhein, this isn’t an illusion, it’s something I spawned using the Membrane of Rhythm...”

Before Sumishe finished speaking, he saw Rhein walk up to the horned demon and lightly poke it with his index finger. The seemingly formidable horned demon deflated like a balloon losing air.

The horned demon bent over with a constipated expression, then vanished amidst shimmering lights.

Rhein clicked his tongue twice.

The words Sumishe was about to say froze on his lips.

Sanders said, ”Any touch from non-energy material can cause it devastating damage, your illusion technique is subpar.”

Sanders’ comment dealt another blow to Sumishe, who already felt dejected.

Sumishe said, ”How could it be an illusion? I clearly activated the Membrane of Rhythm, it can’t be. Let me take another look...”

Frowning, Sumishe stood rooted in place, studying the situation.

Minutes later, Sumishe attempted to create life through the Membrane of Rhythm again; familiar colored lights poured and expanded into a massive form.

When the light faded, a young lava troll, standing ten meters tall and gushing magma, loomed before everyone.

The aura was still powerful, with its glowing red eyes flashing with brutal intent.

However, before the lava troll could exhibit its brutal traits, Rhein stepped forward again.

This time, Rhein didn’t touch the lava troll or examine it closely, but instead looked down at the ground under the lava troll’s feet.

Although no Dream Plant Fairies had scattered plants here, the ground naturally had a thin layer of wild grass.

The lava troll’s massive, orange-red magma-covered foot stood on the grass without causing any damage. It didn’t ignite the grass, and the grass didn’t even bend under its pressure.

Rhein said nothing, but his gaze spoke volumes.

Sumishe naturally noticed Rhein’s gaze and felt slightly embarrassed: ”I, I... I don’t know what’s happening. Let me try again.”

Sumishe intended to use his authority to retract the lava troll, but a gust of wind caused the troll to shiver and crumble.

”Ha.” Sanders’ cold laugh rang out.

This time, it wasn’t even the Material Realm’s touch, a breeze could dismantle it; such an illusion wouldn’t even qualify as a junior apprentice’s work.

Feeling exposed, Sumishe pondered for a moment.

”Maybe the previous two were too big?” Frode whispered, ”In the Dream Realm, Dream Sorcerers start creating life from small creatures—the larger, the more complex.”

That made some sense. Sumishe took Frode’s words to heart.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he summoned another streak of light.

The light transformed into a little demon, a common Bone Wing Demon from the abyss’s surface, lean in build, standing just over a meter, looking like a newborn in contrast to the previous demons. It appeared rather shabby.

Rhein glanced at the Bone Wing Demon, saying nothing.

Because the Bone Wing Demon floated mid-air, amidst the still ongoing gentle breeze.

Despite the soft breeze, the Bone Wing Demon showed no change, still appearing as normal.

Sumishe’s eyes lit up. Did he succeed this time?

”Your standard is now that a Bone Wing Demon withstands a gentle breeze?” Sanders mocked.

After speaking, without any visible action on Sanders’ part, the Bone Wing Demon quietly vanished from the sky.

The others might not understand, but Angel knew well: Sanders had slightly adjusted the surrounding Lus energy—less than a tenth of a Lus—and it was enough to cause the Bone Wing Demon to disappear.

Sumishe muttered in a daze, ”Where did it go wrong?”

Sanders: ”Don’t bring out the demons from your Abyssal Nightmare Realm here; this is the Wilderness of Dreams, not an extension of the Abyss. Plus, you’re like an ordinary person with some abilities here, no different from dream residents, even inferior to some Demon Hunters. Your foundation isn’t laid, don’t imagine building a Sky Garden right away.”

Although Sanders didn’t understand the principles of the Membrane of Rhythm, he had inherited two energy abilities himself and knew that achieving success in one leap was impossible. One must start from the most basic rules and grow step by step.

Granting the authority of the Membrane of Rhythm to develop within the Wilderness of Dreams would be different.

After all, humans are limited by their vision and understanding,

Facing Sanders’ guidance, Sumishe lowered his head, obediently agreeing.

Next, Sumishe decided to start over, setting aside his obsession with the demons from the Abyssal Nightmare Realm and began thinking from basic rules.

Only, after pondering for nearly half an hour, Sumishe had nothing to show for it.

At that moment, Angel, who had been silently immersed in the Ability Tree, suddenly had an epiphany.

A grayish mushroom appeared in his palm.

With the mushroom’s appearance, as if something clicked in Angel, an array of mushrooms sprang up rapidly around him, covering the ground in various colors.

Unlike real-world mushrooms, these mushrooms were restless at their very appearance, sprinting around Angel on legs made of mycelium.

The characteristic scent of mushrooms drew others’ attention.

”Huh, is this a mushroom?” Rhein curiously picked up a moving mushroom from the ground. At first, he thought it was an illusion, but when he held it in his palm, he realized these mushrooms not only had a solid body but also an instinctual urge to escape when caught, struggling to jump back to the ground.

Rhein rubbed the mushroom in his palm and occasionally sniffed it. The wonderful smell made his mouth water.

The mushroom looked at Rhein swallowing his saliva and trembled, not daring to move at all.

”Interesting.” Rhein felt the rhythm in his palm, and a glint of curiosity flashed in his eyes.

Sanders and Frode also picked up a brightly colored mushroom each and began to observe them with curiosity. Even Sumishe on the other side was drawn to the mushrooms.

After observing for a while, they couldn’t find any signs of ”illusion technique.”

These were completely real mushrooms. — A comment made by Rhein after tearing off a piece of the mycelium and roasting it to eat.

”How did you do it?” Rhein asked while chewing slowly.

Sanders was also curious about how Angel had done it. In his view, to give birth to Dream Realm life in the Wilderness of Dreams, one must at least understand related information about Dream Realm life. Only by understanding it, deciphering it, and then resetting and mastering it, could one possess it.

Could Angel create such bizarre mushroom creatures so quickly because Angel had long known mushrooms well...?

Thinking of several types of mushrooms Angel brought from Xinnai Land, Sanders felt this answer might indeed be possible.

However, the answer was not so.

”I just tried by adding information to the Membrane of Rhythm based on the underlying logic collected by the Tree Civilization.”

In fact, Angel didn’t understand the internal information either. He just used the Tree Civilization’s information collection from the Wilderness of Dreams to push the Membrane of Rhythm through this layer of logic.

That is to say, the mushroom creatures were not created by Angel. They were born due to the vast amounts of information stored in the Tree Civilization.

In short, it was the native will of the Wilderness of Dreams borrowing Angel’s hand to promote the creation of the Membrane of Rhythm.

Angel, possessing the Ability Tree, served as the intermediate mediator.

”I see,” Sanders nodded in understanding. If an individual were to create life, even illogical and fantastical Dream Realm life, it would be challenging for just one person. But if left to the world itself, it becomes much simpler.

Just like the ’Celestial Alternation’ authority—if Frode had truly inherited it back then, he might have needed years of research to make it rain in a small area. Without profound research, there would be no way to achieve celestial alternation across the entire world.

Now, the day and night, warmth and coolness, summer and winter of the Wilderness of Dreams all feel very real, with no deliberate marks, full of natural beauty. This is because Celestial Alternation is controlled by the native will, not artificially.

Angel’s operation was not allowing the native will to directly control the Membrane of Rhythm but was a form of indirect control.

This effect naturally surpasses ordinary human manipulation.

”This is like putting the authority on autopilot with the native will,” Frode marveled.

Angel glanced at Frode, not too surprised by the term ”autopilot.” Jon occasionally introduced new terms in the tree group, some of which could be understood and accepted, some even spread. However, due to differing civilizational natures, the spread was limited. Nonetheless, terms like ”online, offline, login, autopilot,” which revolve around the functions of the Wilderness of Dreams or the tree group, have relatively higher acceptance and usage.

”You could understand it that way,” Angel replied.

”Given that, can’t we hand everything over to the native will to quickly make the Wilderness of Dreams full of life?” Frode asked curiously.

Rhein nodded, agreeing with Frode: ”Anyway, Sumishe is not of much use. He profited by just repairing his Nightmare Realm.”

Sumishe: ”...”

But Angel shook his head, ”At present, it’s not possible.”

The creation of life is tethered to native will, but Angel, as the intermediary, must be involved throughout the entire process. That is to say, to continuously create life, Angel cannot go offline.

Also, it is restricted by the energy region.

In addition, the Tree Civilization must provide underlying logic, meaning the information is supplied by the Tree Civilization, but its current information reserves are insufficient to create more diverse Dream Realm life.

Finally, what these created creatures specifically are, their functions, and whether they are harmful or beneficial to humans—Angel doesn’t know. Just as with these mushrooms, their appearance was unknown to Angel beforehand.

Of course, the above limitations can be gradually lifted by controlling the Membrane of Rhythm’s information. But this is not what Angel should do now; it should be undertaken by the real controller of authority, Sumishe.

Upon hearing Angel’s explanation, everyone felt a bit disappointed, except for Sumishe... who felt both regret and inexplicably relieved at the same time.

Sanders thought of many things. If the Membrane of Rhythm could be linked to the Tree Civilization, allowing native will to participate in the construction, perhaps other authorities could too? For instance, the ’Energy Selection’ and ’Energy Level Limitation’ he currently holds.

At present, Sanders has constructed the overall energy nature of the Wilderness of Dreams—virtual magic power.

So even if native will participates, it will definitely develop based on this virtual magic power.

After constructing the underlying logic, the only flaw has been the slow construction of the energy framework because Sanders has been the sole participant in the construction.

Sanders secretly decided to try it with Angel later. If it indeed works, having native will participate could greatly enhance the potential of the energy framework of the Wilderness of Dreams.

In the meantime, Sumishe still made no progress, so everyone had to gather insights about the Membrane of Rhythm’s effects from Angel’s perspective.

However, Angel himself was also in the dark. The only thing he could do was serve as an excellent intermediary, continually tapping into the native will to bring forth more Dream Realm life from the Membrane of Rhythm.

In just half an hour, a large number of Dream Realm life forms had appeared.

Most of them were mobile fungi, while there were a few other creatures. It is worth mentioning that all the newly created Dream Realm life forms were mostly ordinary, bearing a birth-decay cycle seemingly induced by the Tree Civilization’s stored information, primarily focusing on supporting plants.

Even the herbivorous beast species, including insects, in the process of consuming plants, engage in a different form of plant propagation.

On the whole, the Tree Civilization’s underlying logic primarily serves to benefit itself.

Everyone observed the process of life’s emergence, but apart from Sumishe, others had little to show for it. Ultimately, these Dream Realm life forms remain illusory, not real life.

In the end, they had to leave it at that.

When they decided to leave, Sumishe suddenly said, ”Right, ever since I carried the authority, I’ve felt something in that direction calling me.”

Sumishe paused, ”No, it’s not calling me, but calling the Membrane of Rhythm.”

Sumishe’s expression was confused, not knowing what was amiss.

However, Angel and Frode exchanged glances, each reading the same answer in the other’s eyes.

”That indicates a high degree of compatibility with the Membrane of Rhythm.”