Annan felt something was wrong at first.
The difficulty of this nightmare was ridiculously high. The dungeon challenger would die upon any mishaps that came without warning.
While the dungeon was filled with complex “lethal traps”, the dungeon challenger still had to go through a long walking simulator, as if it was designed to burn some calories. Every time the dungeon challenger died, it would increase minimal erosion rate.
This system was seemingly calculated.
It appeared like it wanted to slowly kill the person who entered the nightmare.
On the flip side, the part closer to the fairy tale element was screaming desperately to force the dungeon challenger to leave.
It died frequently and could not be kicked out after dying.
The essence of this contradiction was that the [Compassionate] part and the [Malicious] part were under the control of two people!
Nightmares were attributed as distorted because of “unique property”.
Examples included [Reenactment], [Memory], [Fantasy], and [Spider Web].
As we all know, elemental power was the transcended power from the immaterial world. Nightmare’s unique property worked the same, but its origin was the dream world.
The typical nightmares absorbed curses by killing mortals, and they would gradually evolve into higher-level difficulties. Even if left alone, they would expand progressively to hard difficulty.
However, the difficult nightmare had to devour large quantities and mighty transcenders to become a distorted class.
That was because it lacked the [unique property], and the unique property could only be evoked through the power of the deceased’s elements.
Nightmare’s unique property was its mysterious power to invade and transform the world. Thus, only nightmares with unique properties could become powerful after being purified by the Gold Rank Transcenders.
For the hard nightmare to advance, the unique property was a prerequisite. Despite that, having it alone was not enough.
That was because the concentration of the curse power was insufficient.
Why was the durability of man-made nightmares so low while the durability of nightmares born through natural death was higher?
The reason was that the “durability” was the “material” that created nightmares!
The experience needed for level-ups was not conjured out of thin air. The nightmare of the deceased had high durability because the host was dead. Most of the soul’s curses would turn into nightmares.
On the contrary, the “craftsman” had to supply the curse needed for artificial nightmares.
The higher the durability, the more curses would be spent. For nightmares with little durability, it was basically an empty shell with a concentrated curse inside. This phenomenon illustrated the exquisite quality of this craftsmanship.
There was no doubt that Alice did not have elemental power.
Her mother was just a typical Silver Rank.
At the beginning of the birth of this nightmare, it only had the characteristic of the [Spider Web].
Those who entered the nightmare would come straight to the Sporeggar Mill.
Inside the mill, there was an infinite cycle of death. The dungeon challenger would die if he were to touch anything and even stand idly. There was no safe place. Each death would raise not just a 1% erosion rate but the maximum rate.
The dungeon was like the malicious Cat Mario designer. Grover’s sole purpose was to kill.
His goal was to “hunt”.
The ritual that constituted “Nightmare: Sporeggar Mill” was also the spore poison Black Widow bestowed.
What the perpetrator wanted to sacrifice was not the lumberjacks nor the Alice family.
Instead, the prey was the transcenders who tried to purify this nightmare!
They died from too much erosion. If the transcender died in this nightmare, it would not generate a new nightmare. Instead, the nightmare that killed them would devour it. It was just like “Nightmare: Gallery”.
This soul was the “proof of murder through poison” and the trophy he dedicated to Black Widow!
Who would have thought this nightmare was under someone’s manipulation and hunted people to acquire the curse—or rather “experience”?
It was a hard difficulty-level nightmare on the surface, but it had unique properties that only difficult “distorted level” nightmares had!
Moreover, it was the toughest one!
After murdering many transcenders, he obtained ample curse power from the transcender’s soul. Just the share that Alice received as the core of the nightmare made it advance to a distorted nightmare.
That was certainly not what Grover wanted.
Since it had become a distorted-level nightmare, the number of Silver Rank Transcenders who would challenge this nightmare had significantly reduced. At the same time, the chances of an elite conquering this nightmare rose.
Also, the nightmare gave birth to its unique property when it advanced—[Fantasy] belonging to Alice.
According to Nefertari’s records, this nightmare had already killed many people when it was at the hard level. There were also high-level transcenders among them. At that time, every death would increase the erosion rate by 10% or more.
Thus, the nightmare was sealed after it became distorted. No one dared to challenge it again.
But if a survivor entered the nightmare again, he would be surprised to find out that the content of the nightmare had undergone earth-shaking changes.
Alice put the people who entered the nightmare into the dense forest, lengthened the route, and delayed the progression through death time to prevent the dungeon challengers from entering the mill before dawn.
Her purpose was to stall for time.
After turning into a distorted class nightmare, Alice and Grover had part of the control over the nightmare. Of course, Alice’s authority was lower than that of Grover.
However, she put in all her efforts to intercept those challenging the nightmare within the scope of her ability!
Her goal was to keep the dungeon challenger from reaching the mill!
As Alice said, [Bystanders are no different from perpetrators. Both should be scorned.]
In the very beginning, she was not pointing to anyone else but herself.
She would never allow herself to stand idly while others committed evil deeds!
The land beneath Annan’s feet, which was this narrow land of less than ten square meters, was the isolated island that Alice could protect with all her strength.
“Hey.” Annan raised his head and looked at the spider that was blatantly poisoning the land under his feet.
Hearing Annan’s call, Grover took a look at him and then resumed his work at hand.
It was the manifestation of the [Spider Web], so naturally, it could not enter the realm of [Fantasy].
The moment the onslaught of webs came, it would become a harmless fairy tale creature.
However, Alice was not a transcender.
The strength she held was frail.
She was still a living person before being made into a nightmare, just like Little Bear’s suggestion.
She had severed limbs and hollowed-out bellies. Then, she was stuffed with spores to create nightmares with the deepest grievances.
Naturally, she could not last long.
Shortly after creating the nightmare, she died.
As an ordinary person, she could not stay awake in a nightmare, even in her nightmare.
However, even the subconscious had an instinct to “must not sit idly by”.
The will was like a candle in the wind.
A clumsy, tiny, pitiful flame that could die at any moment.
Grover did not bother to pay attention to her because even the person Alice killed would become his power. As long as Alice drove people away unscrupulously, it was only a matter of efficiency for him.
There was no need to kill “Alice”.
His hunting ground was more than this one.
It was a trap tricking transcenders who did not know the truth to die, an automatic killing mechanism that continuously generated “food”. As long as the nightmare was purified once, it would end naturally. No traces or evidence would be left behind.
However, things had changed.
[Do you want to protect him?]
The spider rustled and laughed.
The earth was already oozing dark green light.
However, Annan could hear it clearly. There was a disguised fear in that ridicule.
He knew this feeling all too well.
It was just like a murderer longing for peace, the feeling when his identity was about to be revealed.
Grover was scared.
Under Annan’s piercing eyes, Grover was terrified.
[Die.]
The spider yelled.
The spider web’s edge had begun to melt and collapse.
[You will never wake up.]
[What a good ending!]
[What a gentle and happy death!]
What spread under Annan’s feet was a poison that could kill even illusory concepts like “Earth” and “Dream”.
Click.
Annan unhurriedly opened the safety lock.
If a spider could laugh, it would laugh out loud.
[What can your poor pistol do?]
[You have neither silver coins nor gold dust.]
[There is nothing with a quantity of 7 here and no other people in this place.]
[No burning coals, no cups, and no moths.]
[You don’t have any ritual or divine art to use.]
[You might as well come out, I don’t want to destroy “Alice” if possible.]
[You should jump into the abyss and die in your ignorance.]
“You’re too noisy.” Annan raised his head slowly.
He stared at the spider that had regained its eight eyes.
The corner of his mouth raised, “What are you afraid of?
“Are you afraid of me?” Annan pulled out his left hand.
It was indeed empty, holding nothing.
All he had in his pocket was a poor knife.
“If I die here, I really die…
“—If you die here, will you die too?” The corners of Annan’s mouth raised.
He had an irresistible urge to laugh out loud.
However, there was no hint of a smile in his eyes.
What is this…?
Am I angry?
Did I get mad?
So Annan spoke.
He uttered words that human beings could not verbalize and comprehend.
“The word ‘Austere-Winter’ was born before the birth of the four seasons and before the birth of light and fire.”
As soon as these words were uttered, the process of “poison” eroding the “earth” was terminated.
Because at this moment—
The earth, spider, and spider web—everything was covered in silent snow in the blink of an eye.