Build an ancient-level power in the nightmare world

Soon after.

Chris followed Benjamin back to the office where they had started.

At that moment, a young man in a black suit suddenly appeared in the office.

The other person had unusually dark red eyes, and short brown hair with slightly curled ends, the length of which just reached their collar.

Seeing Benjamin and Chris enter the room, he immediately stood up and greeted Benjamin, "Captain, good morning."

After greeting Benjamin, the young man immediately turned to look at Chris beside him, a hint of curiosity flashing in his eyes.

Good morning, Morphy.

Benjamin replied, then turned to Chris and introduced him, "This is Chris. He just joined the Torchbearers yesterday, and today is his first day on the job. For the next while, he'll be taking turns with you to guard this temporary outpost."

Upon hearing this, Morphy smiled and replied, "Welcome, welcome! It's been a long time since our team has had a new member."

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you," Benjamin said.

He turned to Chris and said, "For the next while, you'll be working with Morphy. You can ask him anything you don't understand."

He then turned to Morphy and said, "I'm leaving the man to you. I have some things to do, so I'll be going now."

"Don't worry, Captain, I'll definitely take good care of them," Morphy said with a smile, his face showing no sign of seriousness.

After Benjamin left.

Only Chris and Murphy remained in this temporary base.

"Hmm~" Morphy suddenly stretched and plopped down in a chair behind a nearby desk.

He looked at Chris, who was still standing there, and laughed, "What are you standing there for? Sit down."

As he spoke, Murphy gestured with his eyes for Chris to sit opposite him.

After Chris sat down, Morphy's curiosity about him didn't diminish at all. She stared straight at him and said softly, "I heard everything from Chase. They were able to complete this mission successfully thanks to you, hehe."

Chris did not respond immediately upon hearing this.

The task mentioned by the other party should be one of the preludes to this lucid dream.

Unfortunately, he knew nothing about this.

Seeing that Chris remained silent, Morphy didn't think anything was wrong and continued with a smile, "Don't be nervous, we're all colleagues, everyone has their little secrets..."

"You'll see once you stay longer. We Torchbearers aren't like what people outside say—cold-hearted and meddling in everything." Morphy leaned back, looking rather lazy.

"Morphy, may I call you that?" Chris asked suddenly, looking at Morphy.

"Of course, Chris," Murphy said with a smile, looking at Chris with sleepy eyes.

Chris noticed that he looked extremely sleepy and tentatively asked, "You seem very sleepy."

"Yeah, I've been working the night shift for several days in a row," Morphy replied casually.

"Do we often work night shifts?" Chris then asked.

"We usually take turns working the night shift," Morphy said, slowly straightening up and looking at Chris. "From now on, there will only be the two of us at this outpost. At least one of us will be on duty during the day and at night."

"And what about the other person?" Chris continued to ask.

"If you're not on duty, theoretically you can do whatever you want," Morphy said, then suddenly looked at Chris and suggested with a hint of anticipation, "How about you work the night shift for the next few days?"

Hearing this, Chris didn't hesitate much and replied with a smile, "No problem."

The countdown to the dream never came.

He wasn't sure how long he would stay in this dream.

Therefore, he needs more opportunities to explore this dream world.

In his simple understanding, daytime is always safer than nighttime.

Therefore, he readily agreed to Morphy's suggestion and took on the night shifts for the next few days.

This way, he can have enough time during the day.

Seeing Chris agree so readily, Morphy sat up straight, looked at Chris with a hint of gratitude in his eyes, and quickly said, "Good brother, if you don't understand anything in the future, feel free to ask me."

As he spoke, Morphy suddenly seemed to remember something. He looked at Chris with a meaningful look in his eyes and said, "You know about the Holy Path, right?"

Upon hearing Morphy suddenly mention the Holy Path, Chris's attention was immediately drawn. After a moment's thought, he slowly nodded.

He thought to himself that it shouldn't be surprising that this version of himself in the dream world knew about the Holy Path.

Seeing him nod, Morphy continued, "I heard from Chess that they had a very successful mission this time, and our team should receive a substantial bonus from above."

"Really?" Chris replied uncertainly.

He genuinely didn't know about these things.

Morphy leaned forward slightly, getting closer to Chris.

Even though there was no one else in the room, he still lowered his voice and said:

"It's said that you'll be directly rewarded with a complete set of materials for crafting the Holy Wedge."

Upon hearing this, Chris showed a look of surprise for the first time.

"Would...would it?" he asked incredulously.

Chris wasn't faking it; he was genuinely shocked.

At the same time, he was even more curious about what role he played in Chase and Vivian's mission in this dream world.

This made Morphy think that he would be rewarded with a complete set of materials for making the Holy Wedge.

Chris knew all too well how difficult it was to gather all the materials needed to make a complete set of Holy Wedges.

That would be too expensive.

"That's normal." Morphy leaned back slightly and lay back in his chair.

"The benefits for torchbearers are quite good, especially for us frontline team members. Once we complete certain special tasks, the extra rewards are also exceptionally generous."

He looked at Chris and continued, "I heard you haven't embarked on the path to sainthood yet, so I estimate that you'll be directly rewarded with a set of Saint Wedge materials."

"Have you decided which holy path you want to take?" Morphy asked.

Hearing Morphy's words, Chris's expression of surprise slowly faded.

At this moment, his brows furrowed slightly, as if he were deep in thought.

Seeing his reaction, Morphy smiled and said, "No need to rush, you can think about it slowly. There are books about the Holy Path in the reading room; you can take a look. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me anytime."

After saying that, Morphy slowly closed his eyes and dozed off.

"Don't worry about the shifts. It's the day shift now, so I'll keep an eye on things here. You can arrange your own time during the day, just be back here before 7 p.m.," Morphy said slowly with his eyes closed.

Chris replied, "Okay, I'll go check out the reading room first. I might be away for a while this afternoon."

"Yeah, no problem." Morphy waved at Chris without even opening his eyes.

After leaving the duty room.

Chris followed his memory and walked to the reading room at the outpost.

The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves, with a few books scattered on them.

In the middle of the room, there were two square tables and four chairs.

Most of these books had their titles printed on their covers, and they looked much neater than the handwritten copies he had seen at the mystical gatherings.

After looking around the bookshelves, Chris discovered that most of the books on them were ordinary books, and the majority of them were novels.

It seems that this reading room is mainly for the people on duty to pass the time.

However, there are indeed a few books related to mysticism in it.

There is a book called "The Origin of the Holy Spirit," which, in addition to recording various Holy Spirit myths, also mentions a lot of basic information about the Holy Path.

However, this book doesn't record much about the Holy Spirit; its core content is the mythology related to the Four Holy Spirits.

Several other Holy Spirits were mentioned incidentally.

He knew all the holy paths corresponding to these holy spirits, except for one called the Mother of Darkness, which he had never heard of.

After that, Chris picked up a book called "Foundations of Semiotics" and started flipping through it.

This book mainly introduces the meanings of more than ten basic esoteric symbols, as well as several simple ways to combine them.

However, it did not mention how to draw these runes, let alone the most crucial part: how to make these runes produce a synergistic effect and form an array.

Chris spent the entire morning in the reading room.

Although there aren't many books related to mysticism here, every single one is a high-quality, official edition.

He estimated that these books were probably printed internally by the Imperial government, intended only for use by these official extraordinary individuals.

The content recorded in the book is absolutely guaranteed to be true.

So Chris watched it very carefully.

By visualizing the Star Key, he maintained all his senses at their peak.

This also allowed him to concentrate at his peak while reading.

In just one morning, he had memorized most of the contents of the books in the reading room.

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime.

Although it was a dream, the hunger pangs in my stomach felt ridiculously real.

Fortunately, the funeral home in Immorales provides meals, so he doesn't have to worry about food and drink himself.

Most importantly, he had just checked every pocket on his body and the briefcase he carried with him.

He discovered that he didn't have a single copper crown on him.

He always carries his wallet with him when he goes out.

This is illogical.

In the end, Chris could only attribute this situation to the dream.

In the afternoon, Chris said goodbye to Morphy and then left the funeral home.

As Chris walked out of the funeral home, a hint of doubt slowly crept onto his calm face.

That's so true.

It all feels so real.

After he dispelled the feeling of unreality he had in the morning with the Star Key, he no longer sensed anything unusual.

With no countdown timer appearing in the sky, he was almost unable to tell whether he was dreaming or in reality.

A sense of unease lingered in his heart.

He sensed a hint of danger.

Chris's intuition told him that he had to find a way out of this dream as soon as possible.

……

Room 102, Apartment 037 Nottingham Street.

Everything in the room was exactly as Chris remembered it.

He found his wallet and put it in his pocket, then took out the secret box and the star cards.

Looking at the star cards in his hand, Chris suddenly felt like doing an astrological reading.

He had absolutely no idea how to leave this place.

If this dream were a game, he wouldn't even have figured out the main quest yet.

Before that, he tried to communicate with the Star Key to see if he could enter the mysterious space.

But the Star Key gave him no feedback.

"Looks like I can't enter that mysterious space in my dream," Chris muttered to himself, looking at the star card in his hand.

Then he tried the special Mars card and the Guardian Ring he wore on his left little finger.

It is confirmed that the abilities of the Mars card and the Guardian Ring are still usable in this dream world.

He then sensed the Holy Seal of the Wind Avatar within his body to confirm that the power of the Holy Path could be used normally.

After doing all this, he unfolded his hand-drawn background star map, laid it on the table next to him, and began the astrological ritual.

……

A moment later.

Chris closed his eyes slightly, placed his right hand on the star card in the third position, and silently repeated three times in his mind: "The way back to reality."

Just as Chris finished reciting the question one last time in his mind.

A subtle spiritual energy suddenly rose from beneath Chris's feet, enveloping the entire bedroom almost instantly.

In a daze, Chris's spiritual vision automatically activated.

He first saw a blurry outline of a pendant, then the screen went dark.

When the screen lit up again, a familiar figure appeared in the center of the screen.

"Vivian..."

Chris recognized the person's face; it was Vivian, whom he had seen that morning.

In addition, he noticed something else in the picture.

It was a completely black cat.

At this moment, the black cat was quietly crouching at Vivian's feet, its vertical pupils glowing with purple light, staring intently at Chris outside the frame.