Chapter 2374 Soul Burning Black Fire <TOC> Chapter 2376 Number
Translator: SumTLMan
Wilderness of Dreams.
Nausica found herself once again in the city of fantasy that felt both familiar and strange, still unable to fully grasp her surroundings.
“It’s not your first time here, why do you still look so unworldly?” Nisi’s voice, tinged with jest, echoed from behind.
Nausica was not the kind of girl to blush at risqué jokes. Her past as a pirate had exposed her to many such scenarios. She wouldn’t mind trading barbs if it were someone else, but facing Nisi… Nausica could only offer a slight smile, pretending not to have heard.
“Ignore his nonsense,” Angel advised from the side.
Nausica gave Angel a deep look, filled with emotion. The boy who used to blush at a few teasing words had truly grown up, now even standing up for a lady.
Nausica wanted to praise Angel, but decided against it. After all, Angel had become a formal wizard, putting a significant distance between them. Even if their interactions could be casual, Nausica adhered to certain boundaries, choosing not to say anything that might overstep.
“Have you forgotten what I used to do for a living? I don’t mind these jokes,” Nausica said with a blink and a smile. “I was just thinking, it turns out you don’t necessarily need a login device to enter this world.”
Her login device was single-use and no longer functional. This time, her entry into the Wilderness of Dreams was facilitated by Angel.
Angel didn’t delve into the details, as it involved the complex Dream Entry spell, and simply chose to respond with a smile.
Nausica didn’t press further, continuing, “The Wilderness of Dreams is truly magical. I never imagined it was possible to find a wizard here.”
“As long as there are wizards in the Wilderness of Dreams, it’s naturally possible to seek their guidance,” Angel explained. “However, the Wilderness of Dreams isn’t open to the public yet. Those who can enter are mostly wizards from the Savage Grottoes. As you know, there aren’t many formal wizards in the Savage Grottoes, and at this moment, there’s not a single one online.”
Online? Nausica was quick on the uptake and immediately grasped the unusual terminology.
“Do we have to wait for them to log in?” Nausica asked.
“No need, just sending someone to notify them will do,” Angel replied.
As they spoke, Nisi had already intercepted a bald apprentice, instructing him to go to Star Island to find Totoro.
Nausica was initially confused until the apprentice hurriedly logged off, and then she realized. The apprentice was clearly in the Savage Grottoes, and after logging off, he could directly inform those who were offline to log on for clarification.
Such a simple interaction and search for someone spanned miles.
Expanding on this scenario…
Nausica pondered, “Then, if Lord Cochlea were also here, could I not directly seek guidance from him on the practice of bloodline outside of the Wilderness of Dreams?”
“Indeed, but the Wilderness of Dreams only encompasses the Wizarding World of the Southern Region. If someone leaves the Southern Region, they can no longer log in,” Angel knew that “Cochlea” Van Tesser was Nausica’s mentor. Wizard Cochlea was a typical battle maniac, either fighting on the front lines of the Abyss or participating in pioneering teams to open new battlefields in other worlds. Since joining the Savage Grottoes, Angel had seen him only a handful of times.
Despite the distance limitation, the Southern Region itself is vast, and wizards who leave the Southern Region are ultimately a minority.
“If that’s the case, the growth and education of future talents can completely enter a new norm. Even if they are not in the Savage Grottoes, they can still enjoy the same level of teaching,” Nausica said with a face full of emotion. She had never thought of the situation where one could listen to a mentor’s teaching outside.
“The situation you mentioned is mostly feasible, and it is already in trial operation. However, the power level of the Wilderness of Dreams is limited. To fully realize it, there is still a long way to go. Moreover, the magic power here is virtual magic power. If mentors always uses virtual magic power as a guide during teaching, the talents will definitely go astray,” Angel said.
The Wilderness of Dreams can provide relevant theoretical knowledge, but it’s best to first familiarize oneself with practical applications in the outside world.
“I see,” Nausica nodded in enlightenment. “Even so, it’s still very powerful. When I was undergoing training, if I encountered a problem in my practice, I often dared not touch it lightly, only waiting to return to the Savage Grottoes to ask my mentor. If it could be achieved through the Wilderness of Dreams, it would save a lot of effort.”
“By the way, if you encounter an unknown puzzle or danger during ruin exploration, can you seek help in the Wilderness of Dreams?”
“You can. I remember Liana seemed to have set up a mission hall branch in the suburbs of the New City, right? There are similar services?” Angel looked at Nisi, who didn’t pay much attention to these minor details but vaguely remembered something like this.
Nisi nodded, “Yes, but it wasn’t Liana who did it; it was under the instruction of Rhine. Lord Rhine originally planned to build a place similar to a mission hall in the New City. Because the location and specific architecture had not been finalized, a simplified version was designed outside the city first. Indeed, limited help can be sought there.”
Nausica nodded repeatedly. For someone with a spirit of adventure, being able to seek limited help undoubtedly adds a nice backup guarantee to the exploration.
Even Reynolds listened with envy. Unfortunately, these are currently only open to the internal members of the Savage Grottoes, and he could only listen eagerly.
Next, while waiting for Totoro to log on, Angel continued to explain the situation of the Wilderness of Dreams.
He especially introduced the Mother Tree Interconnector.
Because this would be of the greatest help to Nausica at this stage.
After several version updates, the functionality of the Tree Group has become more diverse, and the data in the Tree Group forum has become increasingly rich. If Nausica has questions, she can ask in the Tree Group, and if she wants to look up some basic information, she can also find it in the forum.
Nausica absorbed the new knowledge while marveling at the novel content.
In the end, Nausica looked at Angel with curiosity: “I feel like you are quite familiar with the Wilderness of Dreams.”
Nisi thought to himself: Naturally, after all, the Wilderness of Dreams is Angel’s own creation, a backyard of sorts.
Angel smiled and said, “You’ll understand too if you come here a few more times.”
After a brief pause, Angel continued, “Once we’re out, I’ll give you a login device, so you can go online anytime. If you need to find me, you can leave a message through the Tree Group.”
Nausica didn’t refuse; at that moment, she didn’t realize the value of the login device, thinking it was something everyone had after seeing Miru go online.
They waited in the Rosewater Pavilion for about fifteen minutes before finally hearing footsteps outside.
However, the person who pushed open the door and entered was not Totoro, but a hunched-over Witch Maya, leaning on a cane, dressed in a black classical witch’s robe.
Witch Maya walked in slowly, and everyone quickly stood up.
Although Witch Maya’s strength was not among the strongest in the wizard community, her status in the Savage Grottoes was quite high, so much so that even Nisi stood up to greet her.
Witch Maya looked around at everyone and finally stopped on Angel, “Totoro has entered Star Tower not long ago, bathing in the starlight to seek the future star maps. He won’t be able to come out for a while.”
Star Tower, Angel remembered, was a structure on Star Island, but he wasn’t clear on its specific purpose. From Witch Maya’s words, it seemed to be a tower for seclusion? Totoro was in seclusion?
With Totoro unable to log in, finding Reynolds’ location would be difficult, unless… Angel couldn’t help but glance at Witch Maya.
“If you need divination, I can help,” Witch Maya said.
Angel’s face turned red, feeling the embarrassment of having his thoughts caught.
He could speak to Totoro without any pressure, but he dared not be presumptuous with Witch Maya. So, he hadn’t dared to speak up before. Now that Witch Maya had offered her help, Angel felt a bit relieved despite the awkwardness.
“Then I’ll have to trouble Witch Maya,” Angel said gratefully.
Witch Maya replied, “I’ve never performed divination in the Wilderness of Dreams before, so whether it will succeed is still unknown. So, don’t get too excited just yet.”
Witch Maya was well aware of her situation; her divination method differed from Totoro’s, who relied on visions of the future glimpsed in spiritual light, often providing guidance without needing to use divination. However, she needed to use divination to locate variables and calculate the highest probabilities. In reality, this was easy, but in the Wilderness of Dreams, she could only use virtual magic power, and it was uncertain whether divination based on virtual magic power would vary.
“It’s okay, even if it’s wrong, it doesn’t matter,” Angel said.
Reynolds: …It doesn’t matter to you, but it matters a lot to me.
Witch Maya looked at Reynolds, who had a gloomy face, “It seems to be related to him, right?”
Angel nodded, “His name is Reynolds. He entered the Wilderness of Dreams in the form of a soul. According to Nisi, he is still a living soul.”
“Reynolds has lost part of his memory; he doesn’t remember when he separated from his body, nor does he know where his body is now. So, I was hoping to see if divination could give him some hints.”
Witch Maya nodded in understanding, ready to locate the soul’s physical body, a task she had performed many times in reality. Although Reynolds’ situation was slightly different, the essence was the same, only shifting from locating a corpse to locating a living body.
In reality, she could solve the problem using the Mind’s Eye spell, a spell that was half deduction, half creation. However, given the energy levels in the Wilderness of Dreams, this spell was not feasible.
After pondering for a moment, Witch Maya decided to use a spell that all apprentices learn but few master: Associative Divination.
Associative divination, a kind of magic trick, involves performing a vague divination by calculating and analyzing gathered information.
The reason few master it is due to the high difficulty of the trick, requiring exceptional associative and computational abilities, and an unattainable condition: inspiration.
Inspiration refers to the interpretation of the divination results. The stronger the inspiration, the truer the interpretation; the weaker the inspiration, the more fragmented the content.
To gain high inspiration, there are currently two paths: some are born with high inspiration, like Totoro; others cultivate it through a wealth of knowledge and experience, nurturing inspiration through a deep foundation.
Those who can truly “cultivate” inspiration have already surpassed formal wizards and would certainly have better spells for divination. Thus, learning associative divination is not necessary, which is why few master it.
“I will ask you some questions next. This is a necessary prerequisite for associative divination. I need to understand your mind better to integrate the information for the divination,” Witch Maya said to Reynolds.
Reynolds hesitantly nodded.
“The first question is simple. If these three colors represented the future, which color would you choose to interpret your future?” Witch Maya presented three colors before Reynolds: white, gray, and black.
Reynolds pondered for a moment, just as he was about to answer, Witch Maya posed the second question: “If you encountered an enemy and needed to change your appearance to hide, how would you choose?”
Witch Maya materialized several options before him, including different age groups of men and women, as well as non-human choices.
While Reynolds was still thinking, Witch Maya moved on to the third question…
Reynolds was confused: “I haven’t even answered the first two questions yet.”
Witch Maya lifted her sagging skin, her eyelids barely visible, and said, “Did I ever say I wanted you to answer my questions?”
Reynolds recalled that Witch Maya hadn’t actually asked him to answer, only stating she needed to ask some things to understand his mind and integrate the information for divination.
But without answers, how could she gather information? And how could she integrate it?
As if reading Reynolds’ thoughts before he even spoke, Witch Maya calmly said, “The choices you verbalize may not necessarily reflect your true thoughts. Like the first question, tell me now, which do you lean towards?”
Reynolds thought for a moment: “White?”
Witch Maya, with a glance that carried the chill of detachment, looked at Reynolds and stated, “Now, do you understand?”
“Ah?” Reynolds was visibly confused, his face a map of incomprehension.
Seeing that Reynolds had not grasped her point, Witch Maya’s brow furrowed as if she were looking at a simpleton. After a long pause, she finally said, “When humanity begins to think, truth laughs.”
Shaking her head, Witch Maya chose not to say more.
Nisi, following suit, shook his head and said to Reynolds, “Think about it carefully. If you were truly certain in your heart that it was white, would you say ‘It is white’ in such a manner?”
Nisi’s words seemed to shed some light for Reynolds, giving him a glimpse of understanding, yet he remained confused. Perhaps his response was uncertain, but isn’t not responding also an answer in itself?
Nisi couldn’t be bothered to explain further: “Trust me, Witch Maya surely sees the answer in your heart clearer than you do.”
Reynolds, feeling somewhat embarrassed, could only silently look towards Witch Maya.
“Moving on, the third question. When you wake up from unconsciousness, the first thing you wish to touch, what temperature and texture would it be?” she asked.
“The fourth question…”
Witch Maya asked many questions in succession, with Reynolds not uttering a single word throughout the entire inquiry, thus bringing the session to a close.
“I’ve gathered nearly the same amount of information as before. Next, I will integrate this information to perform associative divination based on the questions,” Witch Maya said, and without waiting for a response, she closed her eyes.
To not disturb Witch Maya’s divination, everyone remained silent.
Time passed quietly.
Around Witch Maya, strange fluctuations began to emanate, not on an energy level, hence imperceptible to others, but Angel caught them.
However, even with Angel’s level of understanding, the core of these fluctuations remained a mystery. He could only speculate that this was the essence of a certain magic.
Approximately five minutes later, Witch Maya opened her eyes.
“The divination is complete, and I have found an answer.”
Chapter 2374 Soul Burning Black Fire <TOC> Chapter 2376 Number