Angor felt the nightmare energy growing richer and richer until he finally saw something that was usually invisible to ordinary people—a plane barrier that was about to break by all the nightmare energy leaking through it.
The barrier meant there was a tunnel that connected with the Nightmare Realm. He knew this because he saw the same thing happening back at Twilight Auction.
This “dream wasteland” should be a special zone that existed between the Nightmare Realm and the Dream Realm. If he could somehow sever the connection like how Sunders did before, he could turn the dream wasteland into another Nightmare Domain.
He felt his heart racing faster as he recalled all the powerful monsters that escaped through such a barrier last time, such as Froggy, Fox, and the rainbow dragonflies. These monsters didn’t do him harm because they saw him as “Shava”. But this didn’t mean he should allow more of them to roam around the Fey Continent freely and bring terror and disasters, which was already happening.
Sunders mentioned that there were a ton of deadly monsters in the Nightmare Realm that could murder legendary wizards with ease. If any of them noticed this tunnel and came...
Angor simply couldn’t imagine what would happen next.
“But how do I deal with this barrier? I can’t just abandon everything I’ve worked on... If something came through the barrier, it would be arriving at the Dream Realm, but not the reality. Since I can bring things in here using nightmare energy, I can probably do the opposite, and I definitely won’t do such a thing. And I’m the only one who can use nightmare energy to enter dreams...”
He calmed down as he believed that the tunnel might not affect the wizarding world after all.
He carefully controlled his vision to approach the barrier so that he could see whether there were monster armies waiting at the other side like the last time. If so, he would immediately call off his research and never to come here again.
He failed to see or sense anything. The area beyond the barrier was completely black.
“This whole place is empty and useless. Maybe they didn’t want to come.”
Since there were no monsters watching the entrance nearby, he would have enough time to destroy the tunnel and make this place into an independent nightmare domain. Or even better, if he could take full control of it.
He moved his vision away from the barrier to check the other places nearby, just to make sure that nothing had slipped through before he came.
As soon as he looked away, a pair of crimson, glowing eyes appeared behind the barrier and stared at his back.
...
Angor woke up and saw Toby greeting him with a kiss.
“Tweet ta tweet!”—That Freud guy went away for a while and took somebody here. He’s waiting for you outside.
“Freud brought another visitor?”
Confused, Angor left the room and saw Freud doing some notes in the living room, while another unconscious man in prisoner rags and heavy shackles lay nearby.
“You came out!” Freud saw him coming and quickly asked, “Did you use Dream Enkindle to check the wasteland too? What did you find?”
“It’s a little complicated.” Angor shook his head and decided to divert the subject. “Who’s this guy?”
“A prisoner I took from the dungeon under Freighting Town. Since you know how to use Dream Enkindle now, I thought you need a test subject and see whether killing the dreamer will affect the result.”
Angor did plan to do such an experiment, but now was not the time for it.
“No. Before I remove a certain threat from the dream wasteland, I can’t allow any individual to go inside.”
“Wait. So I can’t go there either?” Freud frowned.
“That’s correct.”
“But why? A threat? Did you run into powerful monsters native to the Dream Realm?”
“It’s not that. I just know that the dream wasteland is too dangerous.”
“How so? Isn’t that place a small fraction of the Dream Realm? I’ve been to a lot of similar places before. You discovered something special?”
“In fact, yes. But I’m afraid I can’t tell you.”
Freud took a moment to struggle with a decision.
“What if... I take the Follower’s Oath?”
“If that’s what you will do, I can tell you what I just found. But I still won’t allow you to enter the wasteland again before dealing with the risk.”
“But I’m not afraid of danger!” Freud grew obviously disturbed. “I can die in the Dream Realm for the sake of knowledge. It will not trouble you in any way, Mister Padt.”
“Just no. By ‘danger’, I’m referring to something no less treacherous than the demon invasion. I absolutely can’t take any chances.”
“I know you’re telling the truth. But something worse than the demon invasion? Inside the Dream Realm?!”
For a moment, Freud thought Angor was baiting him to accept the Follower’s Oath. But on second thought, he didn’t believe Angor needed to do such a thing.
He very much wished to know the new secret, yet he just couldn’t make up his mind to become Angor’s servant.
“Just be patient. As soon as I settle the problem, we can resume and work together again.”
Angor went back into his private room without minding Freud’s attitude. He urgently needed to find out how to secure a nightmare domain.
He took out The Mystery of Nightmare Domain and browsed it carefully. The book contained relevant knowledge, but he didn’t pay attention before because he never thought he’d be dealing with a new nightmare domain so soon.
[Accepting a nightmare domain is extremely risky even for skilled wizards.]
Sunders mentioned this before, that when taking control of a Nightmare Domain, there would be bewitching illusions that reflected one’s biggest wishes and desires. If Angor allowed himself to get allured, he’d never wake up again.
However, the “bewitching illusions” never happened to Angor. Later, Sunders assumed that this was because Angor’s Nightmare Form was rather competent.
Putting the risk aside, Angor had another concern.
After he obtained the nightmare domain that looked like a castle hall, Sunders warned him that he should not accept a second domain before reaching the level of a wizard.
According to the book, this was because the owner of the nightmare domains had to sustain them by providing enough nightmare energy, either by spending nightmare stones or going to the Nightmare Realm.
However, when Sunders made this warning, Angor had not grown his “battery hand” yet. Now he wondered if he could satisfy the restriction.
Otherwise, he could simply buy some nightmare stones as an energy reserve. He had enough money to afford them.