By using “Gatekeeper”, Angor changed his point of view so that he could look at the entire territory from above.
He saw the land floating quietly in a dark and endless space. Further ahead, a single gigantic and glittering eyeball, which seemed to be hiding a small universe in it, was giving the piece of land a cold gaze.
It reminded Angor of the previous dream wasteland. He used to see a gigantic creature coveting his newly-claimed territory back then. But a stranger with blond hair—Shava, as he suspected—helped him chase the monster away for some reason, thus allowing Foundation City to be built.
This time, however, he did not see anyone who could assist him.
Beyond the boundary of the wasteland was complete darkness, in which the glowing eyeball was the only thing visible. Angor wondered if this thing had a body hidden farther away. If so, that body must be as large as the wasteland itself.
He saw the eyeball releasing rays of light that were attempting to reach the wasteland by poking at a faint barrier protecting the land. The barrier was the work of his “Gatekeeper”. Though he wasn’t sure it was enough to stop such a terrifying intruder.
For now, the barrier managed to block off all the tentacle-like energy rays, which didn’t look easy. Angor was sure that the unknown monster could breach the barrier pretty easily if it used more direct means.
As if to answer his question, a black hand slowly pressed against the barrier.
It looked like a human hand, but was insanely big, as it almost covered up the entire barrier.
Almost instantly, Angor felt Gatekeeper breaking down.
“This is bad...” Angor immediately canceled his ability and opened his eyes.
“What’s the matter?” Sunders frowned upon seeing his strange reaction.
Sunders was waiting for Angor’s further explanations regarding the dream wasteland. But all of a sudden, Angor stopped moving as if his soul wandered off.
“Professor, a terrible monster is attacking this place. We need to wake up, now!”
Crack!
The sky above them shattered like glass. From the rupture, countless rays of light reached in, after which a golden eye appeared right outside the opening to peek inside.
As soon as it did, Angor and Sunders’ bodies vanished.
After waking up from the “dream wasteland 2”, Angor kept an eye on Gatekeeper so that he could still tell what was happening there.
But the “connection” didn’t last very long. Like peeling an onion, the unknown monster destroyed the barrier bit by bit, after which Angor’s “monitor” was completely shut off.
Angor moaned in frustration. He already made plans to exploit his new territory and get some use out of it. He didn’t see this coming.
Sunders gave him a questioning look.
“It’s gone.” Angor shook his head. “My Gatekeeper is turned off. I think the new dream wasteland is no more.”
Sunders shivered a little when he thought about the horrific eyeball he just saw. Every nerve in his body told him that it was hopeless to resist. It was like meeting with the gods as a mortal. He had not gone through such an experience in centuries.
“You told me that your previous territory was attacked by something similar, right?”
“Yeah, just after I removed the nightmare tunnel and secured it. But ‘he’ did something to persuade the monster into leaving. I’m not sure whether the two attackers are the same one though. I can’t see their entire body at all.”
Angor wondered what these things were. Perhaps they were native monsters from the Dream Realm, and they were supposed to be so big?
Freud once told him that, even though it was difficult to find creatures in the Dream Realm, it was still possible. As just like monsters people made up in their dreams, creatures living in the Dream Realm tended to be deadly.
But since these things were rare, why would they come and bother his dream wasteland every time he built one? This didn’t seem coincidental.
“Perhaps they’re like the Supreme Cult,” said Sunders, after hearing Angor’s suspicion. “A ‘dream wasteland’ is a foreign, unexpected existence that falls out of their control, so they will come and eliminate it. Like different planes, the Dream Realm could have its own ‘consciousness’ that seeks to repel invaders.”
“Is it dangerous to stay in a dream wasteland then?”
“It’s hard to tell yet. In my opinion, your previous turf should be safe for now since someone powerful was there to help you. But this might not last forever. This leaves you with our good old problem; if you get strong enough to fend off either people or monsters with bad intentions, you’ll no longer have to worry about these matters.
“You know how the Supreme Cult is annoying? Yet they will never bother Monkey or Rein Mute because they cannot. Having enough strength will help you solve most problems in the world. Remember that.”
Sunders sincerely hoped that Angor could reach that kind of level so that he wouldn’t get hurt by possessing so many interesting secrets like manifestations of Mystery and dream wastelands. Angor didn’t need to become the strongest wizard in the world. Becoming a truth-finder was enough to keep nine out of ten scheming troublemakers away.
Now, however... Angor was the biggest “troublemaker” who tended to cause too many problems that could attract much unwanted attention from people should anything go wrong. And Sunders had to constantly clean up his mess.
“You should leave it be since it is already lost. Do not do such experiments again while you’re here. It’s a promising project, but the first thing you should do is to improve the safety of these private lands.”
Sunders palmed his forehead. “Get to it as soon as you return to the wizarding world. Such a useful tool will be acknowledged by treasure hunters who have the help of prophets. You don’t have much time.”
“But even if they know about these places, they can’t get inside without using ‘Nightmare Enkindle’. Besides, my Gatekeeper can prevent them from coming in.”
“That may be true. But what if they target you, not the dream wasteland?”
Angor frowned.
He wanted to explain that his Crimson Aegis could block off prophecy spells. But on second thought, it was not so reliable. He had no way of protecting the others in Foundation City from being detected by prophecy. The city was constantly growing. If someday, a prophet found a citizen, then they would figure out who built the city sooner or later.
At least Crimson Aegis could prevent prophets from locating him directly. Using the available time, he had to claim the powers contained in the dream sphere and gain full control of the dream wasteland.
Besides, he was not alone in this world. Apart from Sunders to protect him, Brute Cavern wouldn’t want random prophets to peek their noses inside and annoy one of their members.
Sunders continued, “The Dream Whelk is no longer a ‘useless item’, I’m afraid. Keep it safe. And... Please, hold yourself down and don’t make any more surprises.”
For now, Sunders would not ask Angor to hand over the whelk even though he discovered the true value of it. The whelk would display its full potential in Angor’s hand. And above everything, Angor was the biggest treasure he could hope for.
By keeping Angor as his student, Sunders would be the first one to enjoy whatever profit Angor came up with. Harming Angor would be counterproductive.
Besides, even if Sunders did not see problems as an egoist, he was beginning to like Angor.