“Dura?” Kanter raised an eyebrow. “What, you want to help Madelyne and deal with her?”
Everyone knew why Madelyne came when they saw her name on the list. It was Dura who slaughtered her clan, which was a rather famous tragedy in the wizarding world.
Madelyne was the only survivor of the incident. When she chose to come to the Abyss and find Dura, what she wanted was plain to see.
“Hey, listen. At this rate, Madelyne might see the futility of her impossible plan and quit. But if you join them, you’ll only worsen the problem.”
Dura was stronger than Madelyne in terms of strength. She had been a truth-finder for quite a while. Even Kanter wasn’t sure he could defeat Dura in a fight. This was why Kanter wanted to prevent Sunders from assisting Madelyne, so Madelyne would give up on herself.
“I will not join their fight for real,” said Sunders. “However, Madelyne is a member of Brute Cavern. I should at least make sure she gets back alive.”
Apart from this, Sunders also needed to make sure Dura did not bump into Angor.
Becoming a level-2 truth-finder did not help Dura develop a prudent state of mind at all. She would envy absolutely anyone who had something she wanted, be it mortals, wizards, or even demons. People even believed that she was using her mad character as a disguise so that she could kill people however she liked, using her desire as an excuse.
Sunders surely didn’t want to see Angor have one of his body parts taken away by “The Grafter” Dura, only to receive a random part of an animal as a replacement.
“I see. That’s fine,” said Kanter. “As for Dura’s whereabouts... At least she’s not in the base right now. I think she went to deeper levels looking for demons to kill.”
“Fine. Let’s go talk to Sennefer.”
...
An hour later, Sunders left the conference room with a serious look.
Sennefer did not make it clear, but she was almost sure that their major target was going to show up at the Demon Castle. Moreover, the demons expanded their patrol range all the way to the other side of the Prominent Forest, bringing a large number of demons of different levels dangerously close to the Overwatch Base. Apart from keeping an eye on the castle, Samantha also went to rescue a group of wizards who got caught by the demons.
“Guess we hit the jackpot.” Kanter shook his head. “Of all eight front line bases, the demons chose here.”
Sunders frowned. “I don’t think this is certain. There’s still the possibility that our target will choose another route.”
“Care to tell me why?”
The clue Sunders bought from Balalaika told him that their target was the sneaky type who wouldn’t make a big fuss when they showed up. He doubted that the ruckus at the Demon Castle had anything to do with their prey. Though he wasn’t going to tell this to anyone. It was only an assumption anyway.
They were about to part ways when Kanter suddenly looked at a certain direction with a strange look.
“What is it?” asked Sunders.
“Something’s not right...”
Sunders followed Kanter’s line of sight and noticed Kanter was looking toward where his temporary residence was.
There was nothing in particular in sight, except for some decorative plants nearby whose leaves were slightly twitching.
A small breeze was blowing over.
...
A while ago.
Angor was left with nothing to do in Sunders’ room, so he decided to walk around just a little and see how this part of the base looked like.
He did not find a single soul nearby, which was expected, since almost all apprentices were busy building barricades outside, while wizards all had their personal territories. As one of the strongest wizards in the base, a big area around Sunders’ room was flagged as private, so no one could get close.
Since he had sufficient space and time, Angor suddenly wanted to test something.
He couldn’t reach the dream wasteland from the Abyss, but he had yet to find out whether the Dream Whelk still worked. If he used the whelk to pull items into “sleep”, where would they go? The dream wasteland, or somewhere he didn’t know?
According to Freud, items that were put to sleep this way should randomly enter the Dream Realm, where the general dreams of both people and objects appeared. But as far as Angor remembered, everything he tested with the whelk all showed up at the dream wasteland instead.
He had a hunch that the dream wasteland came into existence thanks to a number of elements combined together, including the whelk, his nightmare energy, and perhaps some luck. It was an exception, sandwiched between the Dream Realm and the Nightmare Realm.
Now that he was unable to sense the dream wasteland in the Abyss Plane, he found this to be a perfect chance to test another matter.
Everything was ideal right now. For one, no one would carelessly wander into Sunders’ turf. Also, he had the Geometric Lock to cover up the Mystery energy of the whelk. And if something went wrong and allowed the signature to be detected, nobody would care because Sunders also possessed Mystery items.
He looked around and chose his test subject, which was a large bookshelf in Sunders’ room.
After expanding the protective effect of the Geometric Lock, he activated the Dream Whelk and put the bookshelf to sleep.
He thought he was careful enough with his actions. Unfortunately, Kanter easily sensed the abnormal energy signature from afar.
Kanter was not the only one alerted. In the deepest part of the Abyss, a powerful presence also felt the signature and opened its eyes.
“The smell of dreams... But it is hidden by another peculiar energy. Fine. The Dream Realm has nothing to do with the Abyss.”
The area around returned to be complete darkness as the presence closed its glowing eyes.
...
Angor’s next step was to cast Dream Enkindle. But he was interrupted by a series of footsteps coming from outside the door. Startled, he quickly took out his notebook and pretended that he was studying.
Sunders and Kanter entered the room and immediately felt something wrong in the air.
Angor looked up from his “study” with an innocuous look. “Professor, you’re back! And good afternoon, Mister Kanter.”
Sunders checked Angor’s harmless look, looked around his room again, and felt something in his mind snap.
I was only away for an hour... Don’t tell me this kid caused more trouble.
“What did you just do?”
Angor shook his head. “Nothing, sir. I’m finishing up a research report I have been working on.”
Sunders didn’t look convinced.
Meanwhile, Kanter walked around the room curiously. He trusted his instinct and believed there was something in the room he overlooked.
His eyes began to glow as he cast a level-1 spell, Remove Delirium. Using small traces and insignificant details, he recreated recent scenes that took place around him.
“Weird. Is that Mystery energy? But how?”
Sunders gazed at Angor.
Angor felt the mental pressure and quickly admitted, “I was testing a Mystery item a moment ago.”
He showed the Dream Whelk to the wizards.
Kanter didn’t seem to mind the item because it was just right for Angor to use the whelk to study Mystery energy as someone who “almost created a Mystery item before”. Since the Dream Whelk was universally believed to be useless, it was perfect for Angor, because no one would come and take it by force.
Kanter put a hand on Angor’s shoulder. “Keep this up. If one day, you successfully figured out how to craft Mystery items, I can even consider entrusting Keely to you.”
Angor’s eyebrows twitched. Whatever was that about?
Kanter walked away. “I’ll not take any more of your time, Sunders. I’m in charge of watching the apprentices today.”
Sunders waited for Kanter to leave the room before he smirked at Angor.
“Now spill it. What were you doing? Forget about using the stupid whelk to cover up your lie. That won’t work with me.”