Wizard: I Have a Nightmare World

Inside the cave, Du Wei, Cullen, Scarlett, and Fei Qing quickly disappeared into the morning mist of the hills, leaving Lynn alone at the cave entrance.

He watched the four people leave, and only after confirming that their presence had completely disappeared from his perception range did he slowly withdraw his gaze, turn around, and walk back into the depths of the cave.

The black crystal core, the size of an egg, lay in his palm, its surface covered with fine cracks, like a work of art about to break.

The cracks extended from the surface of the crystal core all the way to the inside, and a faint, dark light could be seen flowing through them, as if congealed blood had been reactivated by some force.

The morning light shone through the cracks in the cave, refracting an eerie glow on the surface of the crystal core and illuminating Lynn's calm yet focused face.

He crouched down, placed the black crystal core on a flat rock, and took out several items from his spatial ring: a magic lamp, a set of precision dissection tools, several blank magic test papers, a bottle of silver-white testing reagent, and an open parchment notebook.

Amber flew off his shoulder and landed on the edge of the rock, curiously examining the black crystal core.

"Lynn, are you really planning to research this?"

Amber's small face was filled with worry, and her big, dark green eyes were fixed on the crystal core, as if she were looking at a venomous snake that might awaken at any moment.

"The aura emanating from this makes Amber very uneasy."

"disturbed?"

Lynn looked up at Amber.

"You mentioned before that your grandmother talked about corrupt dreams. What exactly did that mean?"

Amber's little face furrowed slightly, as if she was trying hard to remember something.

She flew above the crystal core and carefully circled in mid-air, as if observing or confirming something.

"My grandmother said that not all places in the astral plane are safe."

"Some dimensional fragments, after being corrupted by corrupting energy, will become a strange state that is neither completely dead nor completely alive."

"In those places, energy corrupts, souls become distorted, and even memories become confused."

"My grandmother said that those places were called the 'Corrupted Dreams' by the older generation of fairies in the Astral Plane."

"And she also said..." Amber's voice grew softer, almost as if she were talking to herself, "In the corrupted dream, there are some... forgotten beings."

"They were originally intelligent life forms living in a certain world, but after the world became corrupted, they did not die. Instead, they were assimilated by the corrupted energy and transformed into a strange form that was somewhere between the dead and energy."

Lynn listened intently, his brain working at a rapid pace.

"Did your grandmother ever tell you what the core of those assimilated beings was like?"

Amber tilted her head and thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"Grandma didn't go into details, but she said that the core of power of those assimilated beings usually turns into a black crystal containing fragments of their memories and power from their previous lives."

"Furthermore, if a living organism comes into contact with this black crystal, it may be eroded or even assimilated by the memory fragments within it."

Upon hearing this, Lynn's pupils suddenly contracted.

He looked down at the black crystal core in his hand. The cracks were like fragile fissures, through which he could vaguely see the energy flowing inside.

Assimilation?

He repeated the word to himself, then slowly raised the crystal core again and examined it carefully against the light.

"But when I came into contact with it, I didn't feel assimilated. Instead, I gained some memory fragments and an increase in power."

"Does this mean that these black crystal cores are not entirely unusable?"

Amber listened, and then anxiously spun around in the air.

"But Grandma said those things are very dangerous!"

"Your current strength is not enough. If something terrible is hidden inside, you might be controlled by it!"

Lynn felt a surge of warmth in her heart as she looked at Amber's anxious expression.

He didn't refute Amber's concerns, but smiled slightly and gently touched her little head with his finger.

"You're right, direct contact does carry a significant risk, but I have a way to mitigate that risk."

Amber was stunned by these words, blinking her big eyes.

"What method?"

Lynn did not answer directly, but turned and walked to the center of the cave, where the middle-aged totemistrar's corpse lay.

After being left overnight, the corpse began to emit a faint stench of decay, and blue blood congealed into dark brown patches on the skin.

He carefully placed the black crystal core he had brought back from the Nightmare World on a clean piece of velvet. Then, he conjured a thin wind blade in his hand and, after slightly adjusting the angle, peeled away the surrounding flesh and tissue layer by layer along the original location where the crystal core was embedded.

His movements were extremely precise, each cut perfectly avoiding vital meridians and skeletal structures.

Amber perched on his shoulder, covering her mouth, wanting to look but not daring to, but finally couldn't help peeking through her fingers.

"Lynn, why aren't you scared at all when you're dissecting corpses?"

Amber asked in a low voice.

Lynn didn't even look up, the blade in his hand still moving steadily.

"Fear doesn't solve problems; only understanding can overcome them."

The blade sliced ​​across the blue veins on the bone's surface, producing a soft, grinding sound.

He carefully observed the patterns, quickly comparing the body structure of a first-ring totemistrar in the totem world with that of the totem warrior in the nightmare world in his mind.

The middle-aged totemistrar's skeletal surface was covered with fine blue patterns, like some kind of natural runic loop, extending outwards from the crystal core slot, as if a sophisticated energy net covered his entire torso and limbs.

The totem warrior's body structure dissipated into black mist after his death, but during Lynn's battle with him, he clearly remembered the black energy patterns flowing on that body. Although the colors were different, the distribution logic was surprisingly similar to the blue patterns on the middle-aged totem master's body.

"Indeed, they share the same origin, but the black energy is more ancient and purer."

Lynn muttered to himself as he extracted a blood sample from the middle-aged totemistrar and dripped it onto the magic-testing paper.

The silvery-white magic test paper quickly turned deep blue, and a faint shimmering light appeared on its surface.

He took out a small fragment of the black crystal core he had brought back from the Nightmare World. It was something he had scraped off the surface of the crystal core with a blade and placed it on another test paper.

Two test papers are placed side by side.

The glow of the blue magic test paper began to slowly dissipate, while the glow of the magic test paper containing the black crystal core fragment was not only brighter but also lasted longer, as if the energy contained within it was more condensed.

"The quality difference is at least three times or more."

Lynn took a deep breath; the discovery filled him with ecstasy.

He immediately made a decision: he would try to incorporate the totem power system of the totem world into his own power system in the real world, taking the best from each system and making up for the shortcomings.

However, he wouldn't directly channel the energy of the black crystal core into his body; that would be too risky.

He chose a more cautious approach, using the flesh and blood of the middle-aged totemisturizer as a medium to first try to introduce energy fragments from the black crystal core into it, observe the reaction that would occur, and then decide on the next step.

He carefully picked up a small fragment of the black crystal core with tweezers and placed it into a glass dish containing the blood of a middle-aged totemistrar.

The moment the two came into contact, the blood in the glass dish suddenly boiled, making a sizzling sound.

The blue blood turned deep black at a visible speed, and an eerie dark red halo appeared on its surface.

Amber was so frightened that she flew to the top of the cave and watched from afar.

"Lynn! Your hand! Your hand!"

Lynn looked down and noticed that there were faint black lines on the tips of his fingers, which were holding the tweezers, spreading upwards along his finger bones.

He felt a chill run down his spine and immediately mobilized the magic power within his body, attempting to force back the invading force.

But that black energy seemed to have a strong adhesive quality, becoming entangled with his magic and even rapidly spreading within it.

"Oh no, we've gone too far!"

Lynn made a quick decision, preparing to mobilize the energy of the first-level spell [Shadow Fang] given to him by the Bloodvine Wizard, to forcibly dispel the black energy.

But just as he was about to activate the ring, the black energy suddenly stopped spreading, as if it had found some kind of balance, and stopped at his fingertips, forming an extremely subtle coexistence with the magic power in his body.

Lynn was stunned when he saw this.

He looked down at the faint black line on his fingertip, a line that was extremely similar to the lines on the surface of the middle-aged totemistrar's bones, but darker in color and finer in line.

He could sense that although the black energy was dangerous, it did not erode his consciousness. Instead, it was like some kind of key opening a door to a completely new power system for him.

"I can sense that it has no ill intentions, it just needs some kind of guidance."

Lynn muttered to himself, closed his eyes, and channeled his mental energy, carefully trying to touch the black line on his fingertip.

The moment their mental powers touched, a massive amount of fragmented memories surged into his mind once again.

This time, he saw more: how totem warriors used the power of crystal cores in battle, how they attached totem power to their weapons, and how they used specific breathing techniques to unleash power far exceeding their own limits in a short period of time.

Combat techniques, energy circulation routes, and explosive secrets.

This knowledge is no longer scattered fragments, but a complete system with traceable patterns.

Lynn opened his eyes, and a black light seemed to flash in his purplish-black pupils, but then disappeared.

He exhaled a long breath, and saw that the black line had quietly disappeared under his skin, leaving only a faint mark.

"Interesting, very interesting."

Lynn stood up and stretched his stiff fingers.

He felt his mental energy become more abundant than ever before after absorbing those memory fragments, and the mental crystals in his consciousness space became more crystalline and more stable.

He walked to the open space outside the cave, took out a crystal ball that he hadn't used in a long time from his spatial ring, placed his finger on it, and infused it with his spiritual power.

The crystal ball burst into a dazzling light, and the markings soared.

He held his breath, his eyes fixed on the constantly changing numbers, until the scale finally settled on a number that made his heart leap.

Spirit Scale: 9.8!

He remembered that before he set off for the Astral Outpost, his mental scale was 6.2, the threshold for a third-class apprentice.

Just a few days later, after defeating two nightmare monsters and absorbing the black crystal core, his mental scale increased by 3.6 points, just one step away from the peak limit of 10.0 for a third-class apprentice, separated by only a thin membrane.

This means that he is just one step away from stepping into the realm of a first-ring wizard and becoming a near-first-ring wizard like Du Wei!

An indescribable surge of joy welled up in his heart. He clenched his fists, feeling the surging spiritual energy within his body.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the distant horizon. A column of black smoke shot into the sky from the direction of the Crimson Flame City, followed by the faint sounds of battle.