Chapter 319: A Breakthrough Found Within the Nightmare
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 319: A Breakthrough Found Within the Nightmare
"Are you feeling any better?"
"Why isn't standard healing magic doing anything here?"
Inside the special infirmary, a group of students had gathered, anxiously attempting every method they knew.
This was the residence provided by Ninglan New City for the outsiders. As their numbers grew, the Ninglanxiang Hotel could no longer accommodate them all; even if it ceased normal operations, it simply couldn't handle the influx. Consequently, they had been moved elsewhere.
This particular room was the infirmary within the witches' designated living quarters.
Many people were gathered here—mostly friends or classmates of Tan Han, along with ordinary students they had found who were afflicted by the Sleeping Curse. Minian, Su Ningmu, and Hettie James were all there; they were comrades who had once participated in the exchange competition alongside Tan Han.
Not long ago, they had engaged in a battle. Their opponent hadn't been another person, but a Dream Demon. This was the first time Tan Han and the others had truly fought a Dream Demon; before this, they had only heard of them once.
After paying a heavy price, Tan Han had managed to extract information about the Dream Demons from the City Lord. However, she was clearly dissatisfied. The cost of obtaining this intelligence had been too high, and it had come far too late.
"Sister Tan Han, you're back?"
"Yes. How is Lan Baihui?" Tan Han nodded, her gaze shifting to Lan Baihui, who lay on the bed, her eyes filled with concern.
"Not good... healing spells don't seem to have much effect," Minian said, standing up. She took out several of Tan Han's healing spellbooks and returned them.
"I suppose that makes sense... the place we're in is clearly not reality. No... that's not the key issue. It's the Dream Demon. She drains a person's Soul Essence. That's beyond the scope of what general healing magic can treat," Tan Han said, shaking her head.
She recalled what Xiao Han had told her—that the Dream Demons were the culprits behind the deaths. Was this what she had meant?
Unfortunately, she had realized it too late. If only... if only she had made contact with the City Lord sooner to gather information, they wouldn't have been caught so off-guard by that Dream Demon. She could clearly feel that there had been significant resistance preventing her from meeting the City Lord earlier.
She felt a twinge of regret for not using force to get the information back then. After all, the City Guard couldn't have stopped her. But then again, if she had ignored the rules to hunt down the City Lord, he likely wouldn't have cooperated or told her anything.
To the City Lord, the outsiders were already a threat. If they acted with total impunity, why would he tell them anything?
The blame lay with that Dream Demon for appearing at such an inopportune time.
"What do we do now? Do we just let Lan Baihui lie here?"
"That's all we can do for now. That, and wiping out all the Nightmares so we can return to the Witch Academy and see if the teachers have a solution," Tan Han said in a heavy voice. Until she gathered more intelligence, she truly had no way to reverse the current situation.
"But those Nightmares are so hard to kill. They have no physical form. Even if a tiny fragment escapes, they can gather the power of emotions to grow strong again."
"And our greatest enemy isn't just the Nightmares."
"I know. This was a poor start for us. By the way, did you find any other academy students in the city?" Tan Han asked. After all, that was their primary reason for coming here.
"Sorry, Sister Tan Han. Ninglan New City is too big. We can't be sure if we've checked all the areas where outsiders are stationed. But the number of people we've accounted for doesn't match our previous count of those under the Sleeping Curse... there's still a significant gap."
"They must be in the ruins outside the city. They probably haven't found Ninglan New City yet. Maybe we should split up and send some people out to search."
"Yeah, the variant beasts outside aren't a threat to us."
"No... we can't afford to scatter our strength anymore. Besides, are the variant beasts the only threat outside? Not necessarily. There are Nightmares and Dream Demons out there too."
"But those people outside..."
"It might sound harsh, but we can't force ourselves to do the impossible. We have to get our priorities straight. If we can't even defeat the enemy, what good does finding those people do?" Tan Han said firmly. Her decision was met with silence. It wasn't that the girls couldn't understand her logic; they simply realized they no longer had a choice.
They were supposed to be people who had nothing to do with the Sleeping Curse. Most of them had gathered here for their own reasons or convictions, but that didn't mean they were all prepared to face the unknown.
They had experienced the trial of the unknown, traveled to a world they had never seen, witnessed a battlefield of ruins, felt the confusion of a brief separation, and then the joy of reuniting.
Finally, they had arrived at this city built upon the ruins, and the atmosphere within the city had instantly lowered their guard against the unknown.
Only when they encountered true danger—when they saw someone close to them lying before them, unable to wake—did they finally discard their frivolous mindsets.
"Wait... what about Sister Xiao Han? Sister Tan Han, didn't you say you were going to find her? What happened? Did you find her?"
In the face of such a predicament, they subconsciously looked for a strong leader to rely on.
"I found her. But unfortunately, she didn't agree to travel with us," Tan Han said with a sigh.
"Eh? Why? Sister Xiao Han entered this place voluntarily too, right? Wouldn't we be stronger if we united?"
"Exactly. Going solo at a time like this..."
The girls were instantly confused, voicing their doubts and lack of understanding.
"Enough. While I don't know exactly what Xiao Han is thinking, she is different from us. Right now, she is likely fighting these dangers in her own way."
"That... doesn't sound very reliable..."
"I don't expect you to understand Xiao Han, but I don't want you to misunderstand her either. Her abilities are beyond your imagination—and beyond your cognition." Tan Han's gaze swept over the group. These were her friends, partners, and classmates, and because of that, she felt it necessary to make this declaration.
"While we were wasting time pointlessly, she had already entered a full day ahead of us. Before we even discovered Ninglan New City, she had already teamed up with the City Guard to kill a Dream Demon. She gathered intelligence for us in advance, so we wouldn't be attacked by such an enemy without even knowing what kind of existence they were."
"Phew... sorry. I'm not saying you haven't worked hard. The fact that you were willing to ignore your own safety to walk with me is the greatest help I could ask for."
"At first, I didn't understand why Xiao Han acted so antisocially. It wasn't until she proved her decisions with facts time and time again that I could see the meaning behind her isolation."
Tan Han's words silenced the group once more. Perhaps she was being polite, but she had come very close to throwing their incompetence in their faces.
"Then... is the Witch Academy just going to leave us like this?"
Finally, one of the ordinary students who had been caught up in this mess spoke up.
They didn't care how powerful someone was or how capable Xiao Han might be. They just wanted to leave. To them, the Witch Academy was their final trump card; they didn't want their rescuers to be freshmen just like them.
Even if that freshman was one of the top-tier geniuses, it didn't provide them with any sense of security.
The question left the girls in silence. Although the Academy had said they were working on it, the girls had come here on their own initiative, even dragging Teacher Lina into it.
However, it was true that they hadn't seen any sign of the Transcendent Mentors yet. That really shouldn't be the case...
After a fruitless discussion, they could only maintain the status quo.
"Alright, in any case, we need to move. Discussing things here won't yield results. At the very least, if we move, we can gather intelligence within the city. Even if it's just talking to ordinary people who were attacked by Nightmares, we might learn something we don't know."
"As for me, I'll continue to make contact with the City Lord to see if I can get any other information. Also, if another Nightmare attack occurs in the city, don't act rashly. Notify the City Guard first, then wait for us to act together. And a few of you stay behind to look after the injured and those without combat capabilities."
Ultimately, as the backbone of the group, Tan Han brought the meeting to a close.
It was as she said: if they did nothing, they would gain nothing.
* * *
Meanwhile, at the Underground District Beyonder Research Base.
The research project regarding the Nightmares had officially begun. This time, however, I wasn't alone; I was surrounded by many other scholars researching alongside me.
I finally understood the difference between solo research and working with a team. Previously, it was just a one-sided process of teaching and answering questions about Runology. Now, the focus was on the allocation of work. I could no longer just focus on myself and ignore the contributions of others. Even if they didn't have the ability to research an existence like a Nightmare yet, they could at least handle the basic tasks.
I hadn't forgotten my original reason for capturing a Nightmare: I wanted to use its abilities to find a way back. At the very least, I needed to find the connection between my current consciousness and my main body. But the things I wanted to study were too abstract for the people in the base. Consciousness, dreams, the main body, information—there were too many domains here that they had never encountered. Yet, they worked tirelessly on the tasks I assigned them. Even if they didn't know the ultimate goal, they only needed to rely on their own knowledge to perform their specific duties.
By offloading the vast amount of trivial work, the problems left for me were the most critical and core elements. Specifically, using Spirit Vision to "cheat."
There was no helping it; Spirit Vision was my tool for perceiving the Transcendent, and currently my only means of touching the cutting edge of the Transcendent field. Why wouldn't I use it?
Time flew by, especially when one was focused. During this period, many scholars questioned what exactly we were researching for so long. After all, even though they were involved in the Nightmare research, finding out they had helped for so long without knowing what they were actually busy with felt terrible—as if they were being excluded.
But such voices were quickly suppressed. The exploration of the unknown was beyond reproach; for scholars pursuing Beyonder Truth, it was a sacred endeavor.
True scholars are good at asking questions and finding the known within the unknown. They glimpsed bits of the truth from the research I gave them, but because they understood it was a domain they couldn't yet step into, they didn't ask overambitious questions. They simply contributed their strength to this truth in silence, accumulating their own insights.
After a few days of adjustment, I began to get used to the techniques of collaborating with others, and our efficiency continued to grow.
Until... now.
"It seems... it's a success."
I slowly opened my eyes. The sight before me was a dense array of runes.
Rune rituals are the means of driving the Transcendent, the foundation for putting Transcendent theory into practice.
"Really? It's a success?"
The most prestigious scholars nearby asked with equal excitement.
"Yes. Record these Primitive Rune Rituals. We've found the breakthrough. Next, we'll use this as a foundation to develop it further," I said with a firm nod.
"Scholar Xiao Han, could you explain a bit about what exactly succeeded?" asked the scholars who had been responsible for the basic data trial-and-error.
Though they didn't know which stage the experiment had reached, they had participated throughout the entire process. Seeing it succeed naturally made them happy. This sense of accomplishment, though somewhat vague, would be a brilliant highlight on their resumes!
After all, even scholars are divided into different levels, and their pursuits differ accordingly.
"Using the Nightmare to achieve information exchange between the dream and reality. This means that once the technology matures, we can use these means to forcibly awaken the consciousness of someone dragged into a dream by a Nightmare, or force a Nightmare to manifest, and so on," I explained briefly. I didn't elaborate further because there was no need.
Right now, this was just a glimmer of a beginning—a breakthrough. That's why I said it would only be possible once the application technology matured.
Currently, this was still at the stage where only I could achieve one-way information exchange from the dream to reality. To truly have my consciousness return to my body, there were still many difficulties to overcome.
But for me, this was enough. Once the scholars got busy again, I began to make my own plans. As my Memory Bookshelf spellbook unfolded, it revealed many recorded things, including the breakdown of the magic rituals related to Sister Bai's spellbook that we had discussed.
In this special world, the power of spells is multiplied, and the gap between spellbooks and spells is infinitely narrowed.
This meant that even if I didn't have the spellbook for a particular spell, as long as I knew the magic ritual and the rune ritual combination, I could manually cast it from scratch. It was as simple as shaping a fireball by hand.
* * *
Meanwhile, in the infirmary of the Witch Academy in the real world.
The senior sisters taking care of those under the Sleeping Curse had rotated through several shifts. Although the Sleeping Curse looked terrifying, the nurses working part-time here were making good money, so senior sisters were practically fighting for the shifts.
"We're so lucky. Xiao Han is actually in the room assigned to us~"
In the infirmary, two senior sisters responsible for watching over the sleeping students began to chat out of boredom after checking that everything was normal.
"Ugh... so boring. How much longer do we have to stay here? I'm about had it with the smell of disinfectant."
"Put your mask on. You don't want to catch the Sleeping Curse, do you?"
"I wish. I hope this damn curse just takes me away too. I'd love to just sleep and never wake up."
"Hey... don't be so morbid. If you're bored, I could always play with you a bit~" This senior sister's tone shifted as she leaned in, resting a hand on the other's shoulder.
"Eh? Not here, surely?"
"Doesn't that make it more exciting? It's just the two of us awake, anyway~"
"True... honestly, I haven't had a relea—Wait! Wait!"
"What? What's wrong?" The senior sister was startled by the other's reaction and quickly looked in the direction she was pointing.
"That... that girl! Her hand! Her hand! It just moved!"
"Don't scare me. Who? Xiao Han? She... she hasn't woken up, has she? Don't be creepy!"
"But! But she really lifted her hand for a second, then put it back down!"
"You're seeing things. Forget it, honestly, you've totally killed the mood."