Wizard: I Have a Nightmare World

At Du Wei's command, the five of them shot off like arrows, using the effect of the concealing rune stones to quickly move along the edge of the dense forest's shadow.

Outside the western city wall of the holy city lies a shantytown in ruins.

Those low wooden houses and stone sheds have long been deserted, leaving only some abandoned household items scattered in the narrow alleyways.

The air was filled with a damp, rotten smell, mixed with the acrid smell of burning, which made Lynn's nose wrinkle slightly.

Du Wei stopped at the edge of the shantytown, took out the yellowed sheepskin map from his pocket, looked at it against the terrain in front of him, and then pointed to a half-collapsed round stone house.

"The entrance is beneath the cellar of that stone house."

The five people quickly crossed the shantytown and slipped into the stone house.

The interior of the stone house was in a mess, with broken pottery jars and scattered fabrics everywhere, and the floor covered with a thick layer of dust, indicating that no one had been there for a long time.

Kulen put down the metal box on his shoulder and glanced around.

"Where is the cellar?"

Du Wei didn't speak. He walked straight to the largest stone slab in the center of the stone house, squatted down, and ran his fingers along the edge of the slab for a moment before pressing down hard into an inconspicuous groove.

Click!

With a crisp snap, the stone slab bounced up and slowly sank, revealing a downward-sloping stone staircase.

The stone steps were deep, and in the darkness, a faint red light could be seen shining through at the end.

"Walk!"

Du Wei led the way down the stone steps, followed closely by Lynn, with Fei Qing and Cullen bringing up the rear, and Scarlett bringing up the very back.

The stone steps were very long; it took almost ten minutes to reach the bottom.

When Lynn's feet touched solid ground, he looked around and found that they were standing in a wide underground passage.

The walls of the passage were made of huge black stone slabs, which were covered with dense totem patterns.

The patterns gleamed faintly in the dark red light, like some ancient language, telling the story of this world's past.

The top of the passage is very high, about four or five meters high, and there is a thick stone pillar supporting the weight of the top every ten meters or so on both sides.

"This is the passage leading to the depths beneath the holy city."

"According to intelligence, this passage leads directly to the underground base of the central pyramid of the Holy City, and the core of the world is in a separate space directly below the base."

Du Wei said in a low voice.

Kulen whistled, the sound echoing through the empty passageway.

"Those totemists seem very confident; they didn't even put up any guards."

"That's not confidence; it's that the path itself is a huge trap."

"These patterns are alive; once they absorb the intruder's life force and become activated, they release powerful curse energy."

Du Wei pointed to the totem patterns on the wall and said.

Upon closer inspection, Lynn discovered that the totem patterns were indeed wriggling slightly, like the blood vessels of some living creature.

"Then how do we get there?"

"Use this!"

Du Wei took out four silver-gray rune stones from the leather pouch at his waist and distributed them to the four people.

"Putting these runes on your chest can temporarily shield you from the corrosive energy of the curse."

"But the shielding effect of the runestone only lasts for half a quarter of an hour. We must find the core of the world before then, or we will be trapped here."

The four of them placed the runestones on their chests, and a silvery-gray light shone in the darkness, like a thin protective shield enveloping their bodies.

The totem patterns on the walls, upon contact with the silvery-gray light, seemed to be scorched, rapidly contracting to create a safe passage.

"continue!"

Du Wei was the first to step into the passage.

The temperature inside the passage was very low, and Lynn's breath condensed into a cloud of white mist in the air.

His footsteps were light, trying not to make a sound, but the stone slabs under his feet still made a low rubbing sound under the slight pressure.

After walking for about five minutes, the passage began to fork.

Du Wei paused only briefly each time, checking the map to confirm his direction before choosing a side road without hesitation and continuing onward.

That decisiveness, tinged with a hint of certainty, made Lynn realize that he seemed very familiar with this place, or at least had read detailed intelligence records.

"stop!"

Du Wei suddenly raised his hand, signaling the four of them to stop.

Lynn held his breath and listened intently.

A moment later, he heard a faint sound, the low breathing of some kind of creature, coming from around the corner ahead.

Du Wei gestured for Kulen to step forward.

Cullen gently placed the metal box on the ground with unexpectedly gentle movements, then took the battle axe from behind his back and groped forward along the wall.

Lynn also moved forward a few steps, leaning against the corner and secretly peeking out half of his head.

Ahead was a wide, circular hall, in the center of which crouched a huge creature.

The creature resembled a giant lizard, but its body was covered with a layer of hard, dark red scales, and a row of sharp bone spurs protruded from its back. A thick tail dragged on the ground, constantly swaying.

Its eyes are dark yellow, with a cold light gleaming in its vertical pupils, and two fangs protrude from the corners of its mouth, each as long as a finger.

"Totem Guardian Beast".

"His strength is equivalent to that of a peak third-class apprentice. He is tough and thick-skinned, but his movement speed is not fast."

"Kullen, you hold it off. Fei Qing, provide support from the flank. Scarlett, find an opportunity to shoot it in the eye."

Du Wei’s voice came from beside Lynn’s ear.

"Lynn, once Cullen has drawn its attention, throw these things at its feet."

He turned around and handed Lynn three black metal spheres.

Lynn took the metal sphere; it felt heavy in his hand. The surface of the sphere was engraved with some fine runes and emitted a faint heat.

He nodded and held the ball in his hand.

Kuren took a deep breath, then burst out from around the corner like a cannonball. His battle axe drew an arc in the dark red light, cleaving straight at the head of the totem guardian beast.

Roar! !

The totem guardian beast let out a deafening roar, twisted its body violently, and lashed out at Kuren like a whip with its thick tail.

Kuren abruptly changed direction in mid-air, the blade of his battle axe grazing the scales of the totem guardian beast, producing a piercing metallic scraping sound and sparks flying everywhere.

Fei Qing rushed out from the other side, his short sword leaving a trail of afterimages in the air as he stabbed towards the side of the totem guardian beast.

But when the blade pierced the scales, it only left a shallow white mark.

"Such tough skin!"

Fei Qing frowned and quickly retreated.

Scarlett's arrow was fired at the same time, hitting the totem guardian's left eye precisely.

The totem guardian beast suddenly closed its eyes, and the arrow that struck its eyelids was deflected.

"Lynn, now's the time!"

Du Wei shouted.

Lynn took a deep breath, held it, and then threw the three metal balls in his hand at the same time.

The sphere traced three arcs in mid-air and landed precisely at the feet of the totem guardian beast.

Bang bang bang!

Three muffled thuds sounded almost simultaneously, and black smoke instantly billowed out, enveloping the totem guardian beast.

Suddenly, a painful roar and a violent struggle came from the smoke, but the sound quickly grew weaker and weaker and eventually disappeared completely.

When the smoke cleared, the totem guardian beast lay collapsed on the ground, bleeding from its seven orifices, its body still twitching slightly.

"Corrosive smoke bombs are specifically designed to deal with these thick-skinned monsters, and can quickly corrode their respiratory system and internal organs."

Du Wei explained.

Kuren kicked the totem guardian's corpse aside and grinned at Lynn.

"Well done!"

Lynn did not reply, his gaze fixed on the corpse of the guardian beast, pondering whether there was anything about this creature that could be of use.

"keep going."

Du Wei's voice interrupted his thoughts.

The five people passed through the rotunda and entered a narrower passage.

Murals began to appear on the walls on both sides of the passage. The murals depicted giants carving mountains and rivers, giant beasts holding up the sky, and the first rays of light falling on the ground.

But deep within the mural, Lynn saw a scene that made him stop in his tracks.

The mural was located in a recess at the end of the passage, partially obscured by a collapsed stone pillar.

The scene depicts a gray-white land shrouded in thick fog, within which are countless distorted human figures crawling toward a massive fissure in the center.

At the edge of the rift, a figure clad in totem armor stood in the mist, holding a spear engulfed in black flames, seemingly preventing the humanoid figures from climbing into the rift.

Lynn's gaze fell on the figure's eyes, which were red, exactly the same color as the eyes of the nightmare monster in his nightmare world.

"Lynn?"

Du Wei's voice came from ahead, carrying a hint of urging.

Lynn suddenly snapped out of his daze and realized that he had been staring at the mural for almost half a minute.

He shook his head vigorously, suppressing the inexplicable unease, and quickly caught up with the group.

But those dark red eyes were already deeply imprinted in his mind.

After passing through the mural passage, the view suddenly opened up.

The five people stood at the edge of a huge underground space, which was at least several hundred meters in diameter and its height was difficult to estimate. The top was shrouded in darkness and the end could not be seen.

A huge, dark red sphere of light floated in the center of the space. Countless fine golden lines flowed across the surface of the sphere, like a giant heart beating slowly.

Below the sphere of light was a thick black stone pillar, covered with densely packed totem patterns.

Around the sphere of light, twelve stone pillars are arranged in a ring, and a figure stands on each pillar.

The figures were wearing robes of different colors.

There are dark gray Steelscale Academy, silver-white Moonring Academy, and two other colors of robes representing Obsidian Academy and Crown of Thorns Academy, respectively.

The advance teams from the four academies arrived at the location of the world's core at almost the same time.