Chapter 878 Conclusions of the Experiment <TOC> Chapter 880 Awakening to Dreams
Translator: SumTLMan
Truth be told, since acquiring the Dream Conch, he hadn’t really put it to much use. The primary reason was that each instance of utilizing the Dream Conch seemed to invariably result in some form of complication, such as attracting the unwanted attention of wizards who coveted the Mysterious Object.
Furthermore, he had yet to ascertain the proper method of employing the Dream Conch, and thus had simply set it aside.
However, now that an idea had sparked in his mind, it might not hurt to give it another try. Perhaps the Dream Conch could indeed yield a pleasant surprise.
Angel located the corpse of a convict who had experienced a complete lucid dream previously, intending to force his way into the dream.
However, he decided to exercise caution before venturing into the dream. The bustling city of Sea Moon was nearby, a place teeming with people, and it was possible that an extraordinary being might appear and sense the mysterious fluctuations emanating from the Dream Conch.
—It was at the Vichy Harbor of Sea Moon City that Angel had first met Suis.
Thus, to prevent any potential issues, Angel chose to fly off to a desolate wilderness with the corpse.
Only when he reached a barren wasteland devoid of human life within a radius of miles did Angel finally settle down.
After placing the convict’s corpse on the ground, Angel heaved a sigh of relief. He then began manipulating the Dream Conch, invoking a dream illusion and releasing a mysterious force that enveloped the corpse.
When the mysterious fluctuations on the corpse abruptly vanished, replaced by an aura that connected with the Dream Conch, Angel’s face lit up with delight.
It worked!
He had been worried that the Dream Conch might be unable to induce a dream in a corpse, but reality had proven his concerns to be unfounded.
Angel used the Dream Entry spell, and sure enough, a Dream Bridge appeared above the corpse in his vision!
This was his first time entering the dream of a non-living entity. Angel had Toby keep watch outside while he extended his Dream Tendril, reaching into the Dream Bridge.
The moment he entered the Dream Bridge, Angel immediately noticed something was off.
Each time he had previously entered a Dream Bridge, he would fleetingly see an image of a vast wilderness. This time, however, the image was nowhere to be seen.
Angel paused for a moment on the pitch-black Dream Bridge, but still, the image of the wilderness did not appear. He was somewhat puzzled. Could it be that his previous assumption was incorrect? Was the image of the wilderness not related to his Nightmare Power after all? Or did it only appear when he entered the dream of a living entity?
Temporarily suppressing his doubts, Angel continued his exploration. Soon, he reached the other side of the Dream Bridge.
As he traversed the entrance of the Dream Realm, Angel recalled the dream the convict had before he died.
At the time, the convict was at the summit of a colossal mountain, shaping his own dream world. A single glance revealed the undulating terrain, a wave of the hand bathed the world in sunshine, and a touch of his staff to the ground brought forth verdant trees and blooming flowers… When he was preparing to create humans, his physical body in reality was killed by Angel.
If the location of a prisoner in the Dream Realm could indeed be pinpointed through his corpse, then he should still be near that towering mountain peak at this moment.
However, reality often contradicts his expectations.
When the white light flickered, marking Angel’s official entry into the corpse’s dream, the sight that unfolded before him left him utterly dumbstruck.
…
The sky was hazy, its precise color indiscernible.
Below the sky stretched an endless wilderness, a thin carpet of grass swaying gently in the soft breeze.
A corpse lay in the middle of the wilderness, nothing else in sight.
At this moment, Angel’s dream tendrils were attached to the corpse, observing the surrounding scene with a sense of bewilderment.
While he was on the Dream Bridge earlier, Angel had been pondering why the image of the wilderness had disappeared. Now, he realized that the image of the wilderness hadn’t disappeared; he had simply found himself in the midst of it.
This flat, unchanging wilderness was exactly the same one he had seen every time he entered the dream state.
The corpse was unable to move or communicate. After a moment of stupefaction in the wilderness, Angel withdrew.
Upon returning to reality, Angel mused, “It seems that once a person dies, their consciousness in the dream severs its connection with the physical body. It’s impossible to locate their position in the dream through the body.”
Though the experiment wasn’t entirely successful, it wasn’t without its merits; the wilderness that had previously confounded him had finally materialized.
However, even after going to this wilderness, Angel was still clueless about it.
As Angel pondered, he glanced at the corpse beside him, and a thought suddenly occurred to him:
In the past, whenever he entered the dream, he had never gone into that wilderness. His sudden arrival in the wilderness was due to his use of the Dream Conch. Could it be that the Dream Conch was the key to accessing the wilderness?
With this thought, Angel decided to give it a try.
This time, Angel used the Dream Conch to transport a stone from the wasteland into the dream.
He chose to dream into the stone, and when he successfully entered its dream via the stone, he found himself in a pile of grass.
Angel silently exited the Dream Bridge and returned to reality. The primary reason was that the stone he chose was too small. When his perspective was attached to the stone, all he could see was grass. Although the grass looked similar to the grass in the previous wilderness, he couldn’t see the full picture and thus couldn’t confirm anything.
Once more, Angel selected a larger stone, embarking on a journey into its dream.
Upon reemergence within the Dream Realm, Angel found himself standing amidst an unbounded wilderness, a surge of realization welling up within him.
Indeed, this expansive wildland was accessed through the Dream Conch.
Yet, Angel recalled Freud mentioning that the Dream Realm he entered through the Dream Conch was random, not necessarily a wilderness.
Contemplating this, Angel chose to withdraw from the Dream Realm, bringing forth the Cathedral of the Dead.
During Freud’s time in the Cathedral of the Dead, he had written many research topics concerning the Dream Conch, which should contain his insights and experiences in using it.
Promptly, Angel located a neatly bound stack of research on the table titled: —Two or Three Things About the Dream Conch—.
Freud had documented everything he knew about the Dream Conch in this research. The methods of using the Dream Conch, its effects, his speculations about it, as well as its immense potential – all were detailed within.
Having skimmed through it, Angel’s expression grew increasingly perplexed.
Freud had used the Dream Conch numerous times, documenting each instance he entered the Dream Realm through it. He noted peculiar caves, floating mountains and rivers, deep seas filled with magma, within the clouds…and, of course, the wilderness. However, Freud’s record described a fluctuating wilderness, and that occurred only once.
The wilderness that Angel observed, on the other hand, was an unending plain.
“Could it be that my sample size is too small? The two experimental samples just happened to enter the wilderness?” Angel pondered, deciding to test it a few more times.
Angel spent the better part of the night testing virtually every non-living object within sight.
The result was clear: every non-living object that entered the dream appeared in that wilderness.
“It appears that the effect of my use of the Dream Conch differs from Freud’s.” As to why it differed, Angel’s thoughts drifted towards the power of nightmares.
He used the power of nightmares to enter dreams, and he also used it to activate the Dream Conch.
When he normally entered other people’s dreams, he would catch a fleeting glimpse of the wilderness. When he used the Dream Conch to enter dreams, he would directly arrive at that wilderness.
Arriving at this conclusion, Angel couldn’t help but form a hypothesis.
Could it be that this vast wilderness serves as a sort of ancillary world? A realm reliant on the Dream Realm, yet independently exists outside of it. Could its existence be the amalgamation of nightmares and dreams?
If his conjecture holds water, wouldn’t this wilderness be the very place esteemed in Freud’s research?
Angel felt a sense of bafflement. His understanding of the Dream Realm was rudimentary at best. While his supposition seemed plausible, it was ultimately a conjecture formed on his own.
After some thought, Angel decided to seek further insights from Freud.
However, before leaving, he felt the need to visit Pat Manor to inform his elder brother and Jon.
As Angel prepared to return to Pat Manor, he pulled out the Gondola. But his gaze paused as he beheld the Gondola, suspended in mid-air, its beauty paramount.
He recalled reading in the —Two or Three Things About the Dream Conch— about a conjecture of Freud’s: a flying vehicle that could be activated by magic crystals and brought into the dream through the Dream Conch. In the dream, it should remain in an activated state.
If the Gondola could fly and move, perhaps he could observe the specifics of the wilderness.
With this in mind, Angel decided to conduct an experiment.
However, the Gondola needed to be activated before it could be pulled into the dream. Otherwise, like other non-living entities, it would remain motionless. But if he activated the Gondola, he would need someone else to operate it while he entered the dream.
After some consideration, Angel turned his gaze to Toby.
…
After promising countless dried fish, Toby finally agreed to step up.
Angel’s demand from Toby was not high; he simply needed him to steer the Gondola to any direction as long as it did not crash into any mountainside.
Since the Gondola was already powered by magic crystals, Toby only needed to steer. After confirming that Toby had roughly got the hang of it, Angel took out the Dream Conch and pulled the fully activated Gondola into the dream.
Upon entering the dream, Angel discovered, just as Freud had conjectured, that the Gondola was indeed flying in the sky.
Nonetheless, lacking a helmsman, its flight path could only be set in one direction.
But that was more than enough. At the very least, through this medium, Angel was able to get a rough overview of the situation in the wilderness.
After an hour, the energy in the magic crystal was exhausted. The Gondola plummeted from the sky and was reduced to wreckage. When the Gondola became wreckage, Angel was automatically ejected from the dreamscape.
Upon returning to reality, Angel fell into deep contemplation. The duration of his flight in the dream wilderness might not have been long, but if converted into real-world distance, it would be enough to traverse from the northernmost to the southernmost part of the Goldfinch Empire.
However, throughout this considerable journey, the landscape remained unvaryingly the same: a flat, unending wilderness.
There were no distinctive landforms, no other entities, just the boundless plains of wilderness and sparse grasslands.
Could it be that this Wilderness of Dreams truly only contained a wilderness?
Chapter 878 Conclusions of the Experiment <TOC> Chapter 880 Awakening to Dreams