Chapter 1067: The Shock of Dreamification
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1067: The Shock of Dreamification
"I am certain that the Fool's Dream, this miraculous lifeform, will be a massive boon to the Witch race in the fields of Life and Primitive Dream Realm exploration. It shall become one of the greatest treasures in the history of our kind."
After the initial shock subsided, the First Generation Elder offered this profound sentiment and evaluation.
It was an incredibly high appraisal!
"If such a lifeform could become a branch of the Witch race..." The First Generation Elder paused, looking at me again. She took a deep breath and asked, "Xiao Han, would you be willing to allow that?"
"What if I said... the Fool's Dream cannot be witchified?" I replied after a few seconds of silence.
"Are you planning to apply Reverse Witchification Race Engineering to them?" The First Generation Elder didn't seem overly confused; she simply followed up with another question.
"Reverse Witchification Race Engineering?" I looked at her. This was the first time I had heard the term, though I could guess its meaning from the name.
"Xiao Han, you didn't even know the concept, yet you dared to claim they couldn't be witchified?" The First Casting Elder laughed from the side. My ignorance was clearly written all over my face.
"I truly didn't know the term. However, after gaining an understanding of Life and Race, I felt I could achieve it. I led the Self-Generated Mana Experiment, after all, and I understand the general process of witchification..."
"Is the new generation of little witches really this formidable?" the First Casting Elder asked, smiling as she looked at Yi Shi.
The First Generation Elder didn't respond directly. Instead, she stayed on the topic and addressed me. "Let me explain it to you, Xiao Han. Reverse Witchification Race Engineering is essentially a technique that almost every other race develops after coming into contact with the Witch race."
"But don't worry. For now, the Fool's Dream belongs to you, and you have every right to do this. In fact, many witches who experiment with life creation perform this engineering on their own creations. A witch's mana can accidentally witchify their creations if they aren't careful. Of course... some do it purely because they want a servant army and wish to cut off any possibility of them witchifying into fellow kin. After all, there can be no substantive enslavement between Transcendent Witches."
"Thank you for your understanding, First Generation Elder!" Once she finished, I knew the goal of my visit had been completely achieved.
The First Generation Elder had accurately seen through my intentions and used this opportunity to dispel my concerns.
"Why thank me? I am merely telling you things you ought to have known already. You looked like you had something on your mind earlier, but you seem better now. I take it your doubts have been resolved?" she asked with a smile.
"Yes. The Fool's Dream is very important to me."
"Very well, let's move on. Since your mind is at ease, I'll continue where I left off."
"Regarding Reverse Witchification Race Engineering—essentially every Transcendent race that has dealt with us has researched it. Their goal is to curb the spread of witchification."
"Of course, the threshold for this engineering is high and the cost is exorbitant. Generally, only individuals at or above the Transcendent level are eligible to be covered by such engineering. Thus, in most cases, witchification still targets lifeforms below the Transcendent level."
"Does... the First Generation Elder have research data on this engineering?" I asked curiously.
Since this method was so "common," it meant I might be able to request the technique from her.
"You want it? Unfortunately..." The First Generation Elder smiled and shook her head. "That brings us to another characteristic of this engineering: it is not cross-compatible between races."
"If you asked me for the versions used by Wizards, Holy Angels, or Elves, I could give them to you. But for the Fool's Dream race? I have nothing. Not only do I not have it, but I am waiting for you to perfect it so I can ask if you'll let me take a look. You know I'm interested in novel knowledge. I promise not to leak it."
"Uh... I misunderstood." I scratched my cheek awkwardly. Since it was race-specific engineering, it made sense that it wasn't interchangeable. It wasn't like a plug-and-play module.
"Don't be like that. Where did that 'I feel I can achieve it' momentum go?" the First Generation Elder teased.
"Hey, hey, hey! Am I, the First Casting Elder, not worthy of seeing such a special technique?" the First Casting Elder added with a mock-resentful tone.
"Don't show her. I was joking earlier, but you really should try not to leak this. Not to me, and certainly not to Yi Zhu. Especially her—if she finds out, her hands will start itching to crack your reverse engineering just to see if she can churn out a few Fool's Dream Witches."
"Slander! Yi Shi! You're slandering me!"
Unknowingly, as the two elders conversed, the gap in seniority seemed to fade, and their tone became more lively.
Of course, the First Casting Elder was always like this.
I felt very relaxed. It wasn't that I was prone to trusting others easily, but rather that my Heart-Sensing Body Cultivation gave me an instinctive ability to distinguish between good and ill intent.
It was for this very reason that I hated dealing with the people in the United Club, leaving Cleveland to act as my sole proxy.
For the next period of time, I engaged in an academic discussion with the two elders regarding the "Dreamification" ability.
In my plan, I intended to use Dreamification and the Dream Domain as the framework for the Fool's Dream bloodline, but that wasn't the only path.
My own perspective was limited, but the same couldn't be said when multiple witches were involved.
For instance, the First Casting Elder suggested whether the Dreamification ability could be implemented at the level of a "Sharing" concept to benefit others.
The First Generation Elder thought even further, wondering if the Fool's Dream could open up an entirely new spell system.
"Dream Spells!"
This wasn't something that spells like Sleep, Sweet Dream, or Dream Fabrication could even compare to. Those spells merely touched upon dreams; they were essentially influences on individual memory or other levels to achieve an effect similar to a dream.
Pure Dream Spells should be built upon the foundation of dreams themselves, much like how Evocative Magic is built upon the foundation of energy manipulation and shaping.
Unfortunately, the First Generation Elder didn't know much about the Primitive Dream Realm. Or rather, in the entire Void, the Witch race had explored the Primal Dream the most due to their advantage in the Great Soul Subject, yet even that progress was insufficient to establish the foundation for a Dream Spell system.
Perhaps the "Primal Dream" of the Primal Witch fell under the category of Dream Spells, but such a method clearly couldn't be popularized. It might not even be a structured spell architecture.
In the end, these ideas remained just that—ideas. The First Generation Elder didn't push the topic further.
Speculation without a practical foundation was nothing more than idle dreaming.
"Xiao Han, is someone contacting you?"
A notification prompt suddenly appeared before me, and the First Generation Elder caught my reaction.
The person contacting me was Cleveland. Her communications were among the few I had specially tagged.
"Yes. It seems to be something regarding the United Club. It shouldn't be too urgent." I tapped the message from Cleveland. After confirming it wasn't an emergency, I decided to reply later.
The message was just her proactively reporting on recent developments.
"Ah, the United Club."
"The First Generation Elder even knows about that?" I was surprised. I hadn't expected her to pay attention to the student body.
She usually didn't even interfere with Dean Mei's affairs.
"I keep up with the times. Ever since your Great Knowledge Seed spread, my communication with the outside world has become quite frequent. I occasionally check on what's happening in the academy. Naturally, something like an Academy War catches my eye."
"Uh... I see."
"Of course. But if you ask me, your United Club and this so-called Academy War are a bit too much like child's play. You lack the bloodthirst of a true witch. I'm not just talking about the scale of the war, but your courage. As long as we are here, the Transcendents can't cause any real trouble. You should have the courage to declare war directly on those three Transcendent race academies."
"You are right, First Generation Elder." I nodded quickly, offering no rebuttal.
I was a member of the United Club, after all. The fact that the club had ended up in its current state after the Battle of Sun Rock Elf Academy was partly due to my lack of responsibility.
If I were to raise a call to arms, with my strength as a guarantee, plenty of people would probably follow me to storm the Wizard Academy.
But there were no "ifs" in reality.
"Since someone from the United Club is looking for you, you should go. Our chat today was quite enjoyable. Come visit us again when you have time." The First Generation Elder didn't dwell on the topic and used it as a cue for me to leave.
"Alright." Since she had put it that way, I could only take my leave for now.
I stood up and gave a formal farewell. My gaze swept across the empty flower sea before I finally waved and vanished from the World-Casting Courtyard.
The First Casting Elder, who had been smiling as she saw me off, let her smile fade once I was gone.
"Phew... she's finally gone. Little witches these days are truly terrifying. Does she even know what she's doing?"
"Perhaps... she doesn't. But that mindset is excellent—neither arrogant nor impetuous," the First Generation Elder evaluated. She then turned toward a section of the flower sea.
"Are you all still hiding? Xiao Han already saw you. She's leaving, and you didn't even come out to say goodbye. Even if her Spirit Vision talent can't rival True Vision, a Floating World Level isn't something to be trifled with."
As soon as she spoke, over a dozen figures emerged from the flower sea.
The World-Casting Courtyard suddenly became quite crowded.
* * *
After leaving the World-Casting Courtyard.
With this trip, I had completely eliminated my lingering concerns.
Though the process had been a bit awkward and tedious, and I might have left the elders with some strange impressions, none of that mattered to me.
I don't live my life for the sake of others' opinions.
I looked at the message Cleveland had sent. This seemed to be the first time she had proactively sought me out to report on recent events.
After telling Cleveland to wait for me in the meeting room of the Baking House Club, I made my way there at a leisurely pace.
Along the way, I caught up on recent events on the Academy Network. Aside from some videos of friction with the Hundred Academy Alliance, there wasn't much news.
The only thing that piqued my interest was something called "Magic-Draining Armament."
This was the name many students on the network had given to certain specific weapons and equipment.
Protective gear that could drain mana... In the past, I wouldn't have bothered with such a thing.
It was just armor. I would show them that their armor was just as fragile as their flesh!
However, after Sister Bai's deliberate "teaching by example," I couldn't help but take a second look whenever I saw the word "equipment," no matter how little I usually cared.
Could this be the problem Cleveland encountered?
Sister Bai had told me a lot about equipment. Its significance—providing protection or attack power—was only the basic effect. Its more important purpose was to counter specific abilities.
In the Void, there are countless bizarre abilities, and the same goes for equipment. The mutual suppression between Transcendent powers can allow the weak to defeat the strong through the power of weapons.
After all, a person's energy is limited. Even if one has an eternal lifespan, one has to survive long enough to enjoy it. No matter how long you live, those of your own generation will always be thorns in your side.
Thus, equipment is an excellent means to compensate for one's shortcomings and target an enemy's weaknesses.
To put it another way, what is a genius?
Someone who becomes powerful in a short time or does what others cannot—that's roughly a genius.
But no growth in power is faster than that provided by equipment!
And no power is better at supplementing one's deficiencies to achieve the impossible than equipment.
Take this Magic-Draining Armament the Witch Academy was currently facing.
The support provided by these weapons allowed people who should have been insta-killed by witch students to stubbornly resist their offensive! That was its significance.
Don't say that those who rely on equipment have no future. Even if they have no future at all, they have achieved their current goal.
The goal is the most important thing.
I arrived at the Baking House Club's meeting room.
Cleveland was already there waiting for me. Just by meeting her eyes, I knew this wasn't a simple progress report.
I closed the meeting room door and walked straight to a chair, pulling it out to sit down.
"Cleveland, reporting on recent affairs isn't that important to me. You can skip the trivialities and get straight to the point. In the future, if there's something, just say it. There's no need to find an excuse or a lead-in."
As I spoke, I reached out and picked up an object lying on the table.
A quick use of Appraisal revealed it to be the so-called "Magic-Drawing Metal" I had seen on the way here.