Chapter 1084: Fool's Dream Eggs
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1084: Fool's Dream Eggs
Day One.
I shaped the Seed of Wisdom for the Fool's Dream, gathering their dream-state consciousness and the memories converged within the Land of Fool's Dream, transforming them into a complete, independent self.
The knowledge they acquired within the Tree of Great Knowledge became the foundation of their cognition. The teachings they heard became a pure heart capable of discerning the beauty, good, and evil of the world.
Day Two.
Using Dream State Soul Essence, I molded the essence of their souls. I planted the Seed of Wisdom into the soil of the soul, waiting for life to bloom.
Day Three.
In the Land of Fool's Dream, the power of bloodlines mirrored the essence of the Fool's Dream, sketching their forms and inscribing their origins, giving birth to their bloodline talents.
Day Four.
I guided them out of the Land of Fool's Dream. At the place where reality and dream overlap, I taught them how to cross the boundary between the two.
Day Five.
I attempted to understand the true meaning of gestation, embarking on a new derivation of the reincarnation spell. The birth of life stems from gestation, and the crossing of a dream-state soul is no different. A physical body becomes the foundation for carrying a dream life; I used gestation to harmonize the fit between the essence of life and the physical shell.
Day Six.
Following "Incubation Rebirth," "Reshaping Metamorphosis," and "Evolutionary Creation," the reincarnation spell birthed a brand-new effect specifically for the Fool's Dream: "Dream-Nurturing Derivation."
Based on Dream-Nurturing Derivation, I shaped a physical womb of life—a "Reality Anchor" prepared for the Fool's Dream spirits attempting to cross from dream to reality.
Once they successfully crossed the boundary, they would merge with the unformed womb. Under the derivative effect of reincarnation, they would gradually intertwine with the dream-state soul. The body would help the soul adapt to reality, while the soul would lead the development of the womb.
The final result manifested in this form:
Because the womb of a Fool's Dream spirit requires an outer shell for protection, their birth into this world took the form of "oviparous birth."
Fool's Dream Eggs.
Transcendent Witches are oviparous beings under the subject of reproduction anyway, and the Fool's Dream spirits are hatched from eggs... so it’s not that weird, right?
Looking at the pile of exactly one hundred Fool's Dream Eggs before me, a sense of accomplishment welled up in my heart.
If everything prior to their birth was considered "prenatal education," then the Fool's Dream spirits were surely the best students of it.
"Whoa~ so many eggs! What kind of eggs are these?" At that moment, Ling Yi, who was in the dungeon world, flew over excitedly after seeing the spectacular sight. "What are these exactly? Are they edible?"
"Fool's Dream Eggs. If you dare eat one, I'll eat you," I said, turning my head toward Ling Yi with a dangerous smile.
"S-Sorry! I... I was joking! Don't eat me!" Ling Yi instinctively sensed a surge of danger and immediately tried to bolt.
"Don't run." I reached out and used a spell to pull her back.
"Waaaaah! Don't eat me! I really don't taste good! Noooo!"
"I can't be bothered to eat you. You're so small, there's hardly any meat. Tell me, why did you come here? Didn't I assign a living area for the wood spirits? The island in the center of the lake is my private zone now."
"Eh? Uh... well... um..." Ling Yi awkwardly pursed her lips. "I... I noticed you were here, Sister Xiao Han, so I thought I'd come say hello... Plus, the Heya Tree is here, and this was my original home... right? Ha... haha... ha?"
Hearing her mention the Heya Tree, I looked at the massive tree I had planted myself—the largest in the entire dungeon world.
This tree was originally an Omni-Link Main Network Tree, but fearing it would damage the fragile Ley Lines of the dungeon world, I had stripped away the traces of its special racial techniques, allowing it to become a completely natural, giant tree.
Even so, its size far exceeded any native species in the dungeon world.
On the island where I now stood, this great tree had become the most iconic landmark.
"Ling Yi, you must understand that this dungeon world is my private territory. I need a space that belongs absolutely to me. If people can just drop by whenever they want, there is no privacy to speak of. I allowed the birth of the wood spirits and I allow you to live here freely, but you cannot cross my bottom line. Do you understand?" I spoke to her with total seriousness.
Regarding the wood spirits, I never had the absolute trust I felt for the Fool's Dream spirits.
Ling Yi might act simple, but having survived until now under the oppression of wizards, no matter how simple a life form is, they learn a few things about survival.
The older a human gets, the craftier they become—how much more so for an elf with a vast lifespan?
My Heart Sense ensured I wouldn't be deceived by the "art of language." Facing Ling Yi, I had always worn a mask, but now, I was gradually revealing my true self.
Being a "child of nature" didn't automatically mean one was pure and innocent; that was just a naive fabrication of storybooks.
Since I had agreed on a boundary with Ling Yi, her failure to observe it meant she either didn't respect it or was testing my limits and our relationship.
Unfortunately for her... she wasn't a Fool's Dream spirit.
Even if a Fool's Dream spirit made a mistake, I would discipline them. Ling Yi didn't have the privilege of crossing a line and not repenting.
"I... I understand!" Ling Yi shivered. She might lack certain knowledge, but she wasn't stupid; she could hear the gravity in my voice.
"Go on then. Go play with Linger. When I have time, I'll nurture a few more sisters to keep you company."
With a flick of my hand, I let Ling Yi go, though I didn't warn her again about crossing the boundary.
That was because I intended to implement a method of restraint more effective than verbal agreements.
Before long, a light mist began to rise over the surface of the lake surrounding the island.
From one shore, you couldn't even see the other, though the silhouette of the island and the massive canopy of the Heya Tree were faintly visible through the haze.
This was the Mist Labyrinth I had set up around the island's edge. It wasn't a simple spell—after all, unless it's a Great Spell, magical effects eventually dissipate. This was a "Mist Labyrinth Array" constructed with ritual runes and a spell framework.
Any being entering it would lose their sense of direction and, without realizing it, find themselves back at the start or at another point outside the mist.
Such an array-based effect only worked against ordinary people or weak transcendents.
But here, it was perfect.
This way, nothing else would disturb me.
I wasn't entirely sure how long it would take for the Fool's Dream Eggs to hatch, but I could feel their longing for "life." The Dream State Soul Essence I had molded hadn't taken many days to complete the crossing from dream to reality, officially reaching the stage of physical gestation.
While I was immersed in the Fool's Dream experiments, major events were unfolding in the academy outside.
The United Club had abandoned its previous confrontational stance and begun consolidating the newly acquired territories, while actively cooperating with the academy to organize the annual college entrance exams.
Although the Witch Academy couldn't dictate which schools a person applied to, the missions they dispatched could "snatch" students the academy favored.
Aside from the exams, the people in places like Sun Rock Territory and the Blood Slave Peninsula still had to live their lives, but getting them to accept witch concepts overnight was difficult.
In Sun Rock Territory, for instance, under the previous rule of the transcendent academies, food was scarce. Only by sending one's children to the academy would a family receive subsidies.
This method prevented student loss and pressured families to have more children to increase the population.
After the Witch Academy intervened, the wastelands of Sun Rock were transformed into areas suitable for living, habitation, and farming.
As the saying goes, "harsh lands breed unruly people." The students who came to help the locals thought it would be an easy task, but reality gave both the students and the families a harsh lesson.
When survival instincts are bred into someone's bones and their minds remain unawakened, there is no way to reason with them.
You can only communicate in the only way they understand, attempting to change the highly malleable next generation to lead them out of their current state.
It must be said that the degree of "domestication" the small transcendent academies inflicted on the people of the Main World was atrocious. Even if they were elves, they treated those not of their kind with malice.
They left gracefully, but they left behind a complete mess.
Sun Rock Territory was just a small patch of land, but the Blood Slave Peninsula and the lands ceded by the Vampire Affiliated Academy were similarly "domesticated."
The only difference between those ordinary people and blood slaves was the "conversion ritual."
One could say the problems in these territories were driving the United Club and the families involved in these massive interests to their wits' end.
The only good news was perhaps... showing the people living in such misery to the ordinary people already living in witch territories.
After all, their logic was: only through extreme contrast can people feel the happiness of their current situation.
Though I despised such tactics, I didn't stop them, but I noted it in my heart.
The way to feel happiness isn't by looking at those living worse lives to highlight your own; the correct path is to work hard to pursue and seize the happiness that belongs to you!
Once the order and structure of the Main World are reorganized, everything will change. Using transcendent power to liberate productivity and entering a communal order under the aegis of absolute power... I believe that day is not far off.
Though I understood that a communal order maintained by absolute power was only a pseudo-communal system, as long as the transcendent path remained a fair channel for upward mobility for everyone, individual transcendence could move beyond collective mutual aid.
Treating the Main World as a cradle for transcendence, the witch race naturally had the ability to ensure the people in that cradle lived peaceful lives.
You could choose to stay in the cradle forever; the Main World wouldn't mind supporting such giant infants until death.
But those who were driven would leave the cradle of their own accord to face unknown challenges.
However, all of this was still difficult to achieve at the current stage.
Days slipped away, and the semester quietly came to an end.
For ordinary people, the most important event—the college entrance exams—had concluded. Countless students waited for their future lives with either anticipation or trepidation.
As the Witch Academy promoted transcendent power in its territories and updated industries led by that power, it sparked a greater longing for transcendence among ordinary people.
Currently, the transcendent-led industries in the witch territories were essentially slowly replacing old industries. Because they involved Knowledge Seeds, the threshold for these positions was quite high.
Consequently, these jobs were jokingly referred to as "iron rice bowls."
But the Main World currently faced a problem that had to be addressed: the quality of education for ordinary people versus family members. Most of these positions were monopolized by family members.
This wasn't a fact that could be changed on a whim. Excellence is excellence, and that cannot be denied. In this regard, even the academy could only encourage and promote change; it couldn't forcibly intervene.
After all, once you start intervening, you're looking at endless trouble!
Furthermore, to be more realistic, Transcendent Witches value ability. They won't favor you just because you come from an ordinary family.
The so-called encouragement and promotion meant favoring students from ordinary families when they were at the same level as others. If they were at different levels and the academy still favored the less excellent ordinary person, it would be unfair to those who were truly talented.
Not long after the holidays began and the results were released, the new round of the New Student Snatching Contest began!
The Witch Academy once again displayed its traditional talent, issuing bounties for "escorting" (kidnapping) excellent students.
But this year's "kidnapping" featured a strange phenomenon never seen before: the other academies showed much less interest in competing with the Witch Academy.
Many senior sisters involved in the recruitment noted that the thrill of snatching someone out of another's hands was gone.
In fact, many senior sisters felt this wasn't nearly as exciting as the war merit missions issued by the United Club.
It had to be said that after the Academy War, the overall atmosphere of the Witch Academy had undergone a metamorphosis.
What used to be the most anticipated event had become dull.
However, for the students being "kidnapped"... it felt like the sky was falling!
After the Witch Academy launched the Academy War, it had been painted by the outside world as an evil place—an executioner that sent its own students to the battlefield.
It truly terrified many "uninformed," naive students.
The residents of the witch territories, however, didn't feel much of that. Because the Witch Academy was currently the only one promoting transcendent power to the outside world, it actually attracted many students to apply.
For this new year, the Witch Academy was no longer as rudimentary as it once was. The enrollment process had become much clearer. The miraculous utility of the Knowledge Seeds quickly opened the doors to a new world for the "kidnapped" students.
The curtain walls that crossed space, the academy that spanned two worlds, the novel rumors, the bustling transcendent markets, the wonderful new life, and... the legendary Teaching Assistant whispered about in rumors—Yang Yuehan.