324 The Reason for All of These The End of Volume IV (1/2)

Lucien looked around and realized that he was in the small cabin where he lived in when he found Elvis. Everything looked the same in the cabin, including the strong alcohol smell lingering in the air. Right now Lucien was sitting in a wooden armchair, while Elvis was sitting on his left side next to the fireplace. Lucien could still hear the noise outside, from the adventurers' campsite. The only difference was that the wooden ladle that should be in Elvis's hand was now on the floor, and the copper pot fell over in the fire. The tomato cream soup that spilled out from the pot made the fire sizzle.

Lucien realized what was going on here and the words escaped his lips, ”Your Excellency… Nightmare King?”

Elvis did not deny, although his face looked gloomy, ”Are you… really a middle-rank mage?”

Lucien recalled the mathematical exercises in the maze in his dream. He put on a slightly awkward smile and answered, ”I've been working on my fundamental mathematics, so the questions should be mostly for senior-rank mages.”

Pausing a little, Lucien switched the topic, ”Your Excellency, may I ask why did you put me into the dream? And… am I still in another dream?”

Waking up from his dreams twice, everything felt so real and also not real. Lucien was confused with the difference between dream and reality. Although he had successfully entered his spirit library, Lucien was still not sure whether he had come back to reality.

This was the most creepy magic that Lucien had ever seen!

Elvis—no, Lucien should respect him as the Nightmare King—looked very serious. Stennis, the Nightmare King, said to him, ”An old friend of mine requested my help. He thinks your level of magic cannot match your arcana level. So he asked me to put you into a dream constructed by me and let you go through things in the dream to fully develop the potential of your soul. You may feel it right now.”

Hearing that, Lucien immediately entered his meditation world. He felt something real in this virtual world. Hurriedly opening his eyes, Lucien was very surprised, ”It is stronger… Now the power of my soul is indeed at the fifth-circle level. Is it because of the electric shock from the old witch? No… it was a dream, but what I experienced in the dream helped me in reality…”

Lucien's soul was now as strong as a fifth-circle sorcerer, however, it would still take some time for his spiritual power to catch up.

The Nightmare King, slightly nodded, ”All the dreams were built upon your own cognition foundation, mental activities, and your own memories. What you have experienced in your dream has also affected your body and soul. However, for most people, the power from their dreams was too weak for them to make any actual signs of progress. In this world, I am the only one who can make the full use of dreams and use them to develop the potential of one's soul. Of course, a person's potential is also based on his or her actual power. Using dreams cannot solve all the problems.”

”I see…” Lucien finally realized why the dream about the old witch was a bit weird, for example, the part when the old witch asked the mirror who was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Lucien asked subconsciously, ”So, electric shock can improve the strength of my soul?”

Stennis put on a cold smile, ”What do you think?”

”…Never mind,” answered Lucien awkwardly. He had so many questions to ask, but finally, he chose the most bothering question in his mind, ”Your Excellency, how can I tell the difference between dream and reality? How do I know if I'm still in a dream?”

Stennis was more than used to questions like this. He put on a vicious smile like the old witch and said, ”Why is it so important? What is a dream? What is the reality? They are both your response to the outside stimuli. When my class reaches the highest level, maybe I will be able to create a dream of reality.”

”So, that being said… if my certain response in my dream cannot be predicted or is mistakenly designed by the dream maker, that would be the time for me to know what is a dream and what is reality.” Lucien murmured. At the same time, he thought to himself that he could also get out of a dream if his cognition world way surpassed the cognitive ability of the dream maker, and probably the dream maker's head would explode because of this. Lucien thus decided to try to think about something complicated later such as the wave-particle duality of light or quantum theories to testify if he was still in a dream.

Stennis was quite impressed with Lucien's answer, ”Good. No wonder my friend appreciates your talent. In fact, in your dream, I was trying to avoid things related to arcana research. In the maze, I also purposefully chose the field of mathematical basis, but it turned out…”

The look on Stennis's face was a bit complicated.

”No wonder the old witch wasn't interested in arcana at all!” Lucien was suddenly enlightened, and then he laughed, ”So you were playing the role of the old witch. I have to say that your playing was quite impressive.”

Stennis said seriously, ”Technically speaking, I'm only one part of the role of the old witch. The other part of the witch consisted of your own fear. By the way, I am also Adam, Carina, Alva, Ophelia, and Bullard.”

Lucien was a bit embarrassed knowing that this dream was all about him, so he hurriedly asked another question, ”So… bringing a letter to you isn't the true task. The task is an opportunity for me to be able to see you and get myself improved in your dream, is that right? Can I know who your friend is? I'd like to know who I should be grateful to…”

A friend of the Nightmare King… Lucien guessed that the person must be a legendary archmage.