Warlock Apprentice

The tunnel appeared as a shattered space rift about two or three meters wide. The dark tunnel floated in mid-air without any support, while the space around it seemed stable enough.

Angor carefully looked inside without finding anything. It was like staring into an unlit train tunnel. However, he could sense the surging nightmare aura that was assaulting his face.

“The aura is still weak…” he murmured. He then pondered about it.

Probably because the tunnel was too far from the Nightmare Realm, most of the aura was lost in the void while it passed through the tunnel.

He reached out his spirit feelers around the seemingly stable tunnel, and he didn’t sense any danger near the entrance of it.

Using the feelers, he could see that the nightmare aura that was deeper inside was stronger than the ones outside. Only a small portion of it escaped into the wizarding world.

“So the other side of the tunnel is the Nightmare Realm…”

“What did you say?” Sunders’ voice suddenly reached his ears. “What’s your situation over there?”

Before reporting that everything was fine, Angor heard Devildare’s voice in the transmission and quickly amended his words. “I met some resistance, but I can manage.”

Sunders remained silent for a while and chuckled.

“I’m not using a wide-broadcast connection as what the Tree Spirit did. Just speak the truth. No one will hear us.”

“Oh, heheh… I’ve reached the top. I’m looking at the tunnel right now.”

“Good. We’ll probably need a moment longer. Wait there. I’ll keep in touch.” Sunders sighed and changed into a more careful tone when he asked, “Did you learn anything from the tunnel?”

“Nothing in particular. I just saw that the tunnel is pretty solid, and I think the Nightmare Realm is just at the opposite side. Um, you told me that there’s no stable tunnel that leads to Nightmare Realm, right? Say, if we keep the tunnel here, can we use it to travel to Nightmare Realm?”

“Naive assumption. It’s true that the tunnel is connected to Nightmare Realm, but that’s not a two-way pass. The tunnel is a special plane passageway. Without directions, the worst thing that awaits you in there is to lose yourself for eternity.

“Going into the Nightmare Realm requires more than a tunnel. You also need something that is once related to the place as a coordinate. You yourself is such a coordinate since you were hurt by a nightmare monster before. You don’t know how to locate a space coordinate yet. And suppose you somehow managed to enter the Nightmare Realm, you’ll probably end up at the inner regions. There’s no way you can trick your way around using Shava’s name.”

From the explanation, Angor understood that the Nightmare Realm was more complicated than he expected.

“We’re going to execute our plan,” Sunders said, “and I’ll cut the connection for now. The next time you hear from me will likely be the moment for you to close the tunnel. Stay safe and don’t wander off.”

“Understood!”

…

Outside the inner auction hall at Twilight Auction House.

The door was blocked by a series of inconspicuous white strings, which took Lion Princess’ life as well as Devildare’s arm.

Sunders stared at the mist-covered doorway. “We’re going in. Stay alert, Devildare.”

The gentleman brought out his usual black walking cane and tapped on the floor.

A black horse covered in dark, burning scales galloped out of the ripples created by the tap.

“A Nightmare Substitute!” Devildare stared at the handsome creature in shock. It was Sunders’ original spell, and no one else could learn it. The spell was commonly believed to be the most efficient means of escaping in the entire southern wizarding region.

When the Nightmare Substitute shrieked toward the sky and ran around Sunders and Devildare, Devildare saw dark gleams and a strange pattern forming under the Nightmare Substitute’s hooves. In the next second, they were teleported into the inner hall.

The Nightmare Substitute could be used to “replace” someone from a dangerous situation. At the same time, it could teleport people for a short distance.

“Keep your Truesight on so that we don’t run into the white strings,” Sunders warned.

He had barely finished his words when a thick light beam emerged from the mist. Sunders didn’t react, while Devildare stomped the floor and summoned the image of a large blue lion from his body.

“Guardian Lion!”

Devildare could avoid the parasites because of this original spell that he created after finding the path of truth. It could block all sorts of spells and evil tricks.

The light beam paused in front of Sunders and moved away. It went for Devildare and quickly turned to dust-like glitter dust when the lion image stared it down with those mighty eyes.

At the same time when the light beam came, a surge of wind also blew over the hall and removed the mist. And now, both Sunders and Devildare were attracted by the giant nest inside the room.

This one was larger than the one in Lady’s Juice. More importantly, three extra monsters stood beside the colorful dragonflies.

A card painted with a clown stood right in front of the nest. The clown card was making all kinds of funny poses. With each move, the mist began to gather. When the clown bowed in the manner of a curtain call, the mist from both sides joined together to block the view once again.

“Don’t mind the card. You distract the animals. Let’s move!” Sunders ordered.

Devildare released a series of meteor strikes toward the frog and fox.

The animals had been playing their music. They immediately retaliated. Froggy would send an attack to Devildare each time it opened its mouth, while the fox harper flipped its harp strings and created more white strings in the room.

“Tank the frog while watching the fox’s movement, Devildare!” Sunders yelled as he flew toward the top of the nest. As he expected, the dragonflies threw themselves at him like bombs. But they were one level below real wizards. Each of Sunders’ attacks could easily wipe out a great number of them.

The fox harper also looked at Sunders and revealed a grim look. When it played its instrument again, a white string appeared right beside Sunders.

Using Truesight, Sunders easily leaped away from the string.

He believed that the fox was the most dangerous being. The large energy reading they saw before came from the harp held in the animal’s paws. Using it, the fox creature could release legendary-level energy even though the fox itself was only as powerful as a level-2 wizard.

It was very likely that the harp once belonged to a legendary. Or rather, the harp was a Mystery Weapon.

At that thought, Sunders displayed a passionate look. The harp was the second reason why he chose to come to the auction house.

“Stop that harp!” Sunders called and began to release his own mana. As more energy ripples showed around him, the image of a giant black tower materialized behind him, decorated by swarms of bats and a full moon.

The Nightmare Tower.

Sunders spent two centuries to combine three Nightmare Domains into one and named it the “Nightmare Tower”.

All the monsters in the auction hall were immediately engulfed inside this Nightmare Domain. They were all surprised when they sensed the rich nightmare aura.

“A foreign breath…” The clown made a strange pose and caused the energy of the Nightmare Domain to shift. Sunders squinted and quickly suppressed the unwanted energy surge.

“He who tries to fool the moon-blessed Froggy shall be spat on by the moon itself!” the frog scoffed.

The fox harper remained silent. It always was.

While the wizard-level monsters managed to refrain from getting attracted by the Nightmare Domain, the rainbow dragonflies failed; they all began to absorb Nightmare Aura eagerly.

When the insects absorbed enough nightmare aura, Sunders detonated them and wiped the floor with bug juice.

“Close the tunnel!” Sunders moved to the mist tunnel and hurled several Nightmare Stones inside.

At Lady’s Juice, Angor also received the message and quickly displayed his own Nightmare Domain to fix the broken space.

They successfully started their work at the same time, although Sunders was having more problems on his end.

“Damn it, the fox is slippery. It won’t fight me!” Devildare yelled out while reflecting Froggy’s attacks. “It’s heading toward you!”

Sunders was still focused on the mist tunnel on top of the monster nest. He suddenly heard something moving behind his back.

“How fortunate of me to meet a live Nightmare Watcher. Harper Fox, at your service.”

Sunders didn’t look back. He already saw the fox showing up just behind him, flipping its flame-red tail while stroking that harp.

“Nightmare Watcher? Is that how you address people who own Nightmare Domains?”

Fox lifted its harp with a smile. “My queen cannot wait to descend upon this realm for any longer. Please do not bother her highness, Mister Watcher.”

Sunders asked another question before Fox could play its harp, “Is Shava a Nightmare Watcher too?”

It wasn’t easy to run across a monster who could communicate properly, so Sunders asked something he wanted to know most instead of “playing calm”.

Fox revealed a cold look. “The true name of her grace is not for you humble watcher to use!”

Following another harp note, several white strings rushed toward Sunders.

As the attack approached, Sunders sighed deeply and mumbled, “The day and night are divided by more than light and shadow. Heh. It’s been a long time.”

Under the surprised gaze of Fox, a dark shadow struggled to climb out of Sunders’ body. The shadow’s white-glove covered hand slowly brushed past the incoming white strings, when the strings all caught fire. Black fire.

When the flames died down, Fox looked at… Sunders, in the familiar black gentleman suit, who just broke the strings.

But there was… another Sunders, who was still fixing the tunnel.

A new Sunders just appeared out of Sunders’ body?

Fox looked more carefully and noticed that the “second” Sunders appeared younger and had darker skin. This one’s sclera was black instead of white, while his irises were of bright, blood-red color.

The second Sunders looked more handsome in a sense. Devilishly handsome.