Wizard: I Can Refine Everything-Chapter 174 - 4: Commanding the Nightmare, Nightmare Body

Chapter 174: Chapter 4: Commanding the Nightmare, Nightmare Body

Not long after he had collected the Power of Nightmare, the dream rift appeared again, which suggested that poor George had fallen asleep once more.

Compared to the first time, however, this dream rift had become somewhat smaller, with edges that appeared unstable.

“Caw, a wisdom creature of such average strength can collect Nightmare Power up to three times in one night at most, and with each collection, its dreams become more fragile,” Ulysses explained to Richard. “The capacity of a dream to bear is limited, once it becomes fragile, you entering can easily lead to the dreamscape shattering.

So, I suggest you find another sheep to shear.”

Since it was no longer possible to enter the current dreamscape, Richard would have to visit someone else’s dreams. But as he observed the active Nightmare Spirits in the village, an idea suddenly emerged in his mind.

“Ulysses, didn’t you say the Nightmare Power on these nightmare creatures can be plundered? These little guys right now are the perfect targets for plundering.”

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“Caw, these little ones carry too little Nightmare Power on them, it’s not very cost-effective to plunder. Of course, if you want, you can give it a try,” Ulysses replied with a tone that sounded a bit off, as if he were holding back some mischief.

Richard gave him a glance, then casually used the Magic Hand to grab a Nightmare Spirit.

The Nightmare Spirit looked like a toad but had seven or eight blood-red eyes on its head, which made it look quite terrifying.

“How do I plunder it?”

“Caw, eat it,” Ulysses cackled.

“Eat it?” Richard looked toward Ulysses, his expression growing dark, “Are you sure?”

Ulysses solemnly declared, “Caw, I swear on the name of the Divine King, I’m not playing tricks on you. Back then, after eating these nightmare creatures, I obtained my first strand of Nightmare Power.”

After he finished, Ulysses let out a few more strange laughs.

He was now eager to see the look on Richard’s face after he consumed these little creatures.

The taste of these nightmare creatures, to be frank, for the beings of the Material World was…

Richard, with an expressionless face, used the Magic Hand to squeeze the Nightmare Spirit to death, rolled it into a ball, and then stuffed it into his own body.

Since Richard had entered the Nightmare Wizard World in soul form only, his current body was illusory and lacked any real function.

As the Nightmare Spirit entered his body, Richard immediately felt an unimaginable wave of disgust.

If he had to describe it, Richard would rather eat British cuisine every day for the rest of his life than take another bite of this thing.

Watching Richard’s peculiar expression, Ulysses couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“Caw caw caw caw, Richard, how does it taste, these nightmare creatures?”

Richard twisted his neck stiffly, “Ulysses, I think letting the World Mushroom adjust your sense of taste was a mistake, don’t you think?”

The next moment, the cackling crow instantly froze in place.

“Caw, my dear master, it was only an attempt, a necessary part of surviving in the Nightmare World. Once you possess a body made by the Power of Nightmare, this situation will change considerably.”

Richard glared at him, then began to check the Nightmare Power he had gained from devouring the Nightmare Spirit.

Seeing that the Magic Rebound had more or less neutralized the amount of Nightmare Power he had just refined, Richard’s face turned ashen.

After suffering so much to gain such a little bit of Nightmare Power, the method of gaining Nightmare Power quickly by devouring Nightmare Spirits was promptly excluded from Richard’s plans.

But soon, Richard thought of another method.

“Ulysses, how about I become the lord of these little ones and have them pay tribute to me with Nightmare Power?” Richard inquired.

“Caw, I don’t know about that, I never tried it back then.”

“You never tried it?” Richard said, somewhat surprised, “Is there a flaw with this method?”

“Caw, it’s not that, back then I would directly consume the higher-tier nightmare creatures and snatch away their Nightmare Crystals.

Being a lord oneself, there’s no faster way than taking what’s already there.”

Richard: “…”

…

Before attempting to rule over the group of Nightmare Spirits, Richard conducted some research on these little creatures.

As the most common and lowest level nightmare creatures in the Nightmare World, their makeup was quite miraculous. They didn’t have flesh and blood bodies in the conventional sense; their lives were completely maintained by the Power of Nightmare.

The Power of Nightmare formed a simple energy cycle within their bodies. Different Nightmare Spirits had slight variations in their energy cycles.

If this cycle were broken, the Nightmare Spirit would die as a result.

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When a Nightmare Spirit sustained non-fatal injuries, its body would exude a highly malodorous black mucus. This mucus was non-toxic, purely causing disgust to the creatures of the Otherworld.

However, if they suffered fatal injuries, the Nightmare Spirit’s body wouldn’t leak out black mucus, but instead, it would begin to disintegrate. The pace of this dust transformation was related to how much of the Nightmare Power dissipated from the Spirit’s body.

The less Nightmare Power remaining in the body, the more disintegration occurred.

Once the dissipation of Nightmare Power was complete, the body of the Nightmare Spirit would turn into a puddle of black dust.

During this process, the Power of Nightmare that dissipated within the Nightmare Spirits could not be collected. After dispersing, all of it entered into the earth.

It was as if there was an invisible force guiding them.

These Nightmare Spirits weren’t very strong, most couldn’t even defeat a ten-year-old child, but as the Power of Nightmare inside them increased, so did their strength. Aside from strength, the intelligence level of these little guys was also around that of a ten-year-old, and this level of intelligence wouldn’t increase with the accumulation of the Power of Nightmare.

However, this test result was limited to the Nightmare Spirits at this stage. According to Ulysses, after a Nightmare Spirit gathers enough Power of Nightmare, it would evolve into a higher-grade Nightmare creature, with most higher-level Nightmare creatures evolving gradually from lower-level ones.

During the experiment’s observation process, Richard unexpectedly discovered that he could still use his Soul Talent Energy Vision in the Nightmare World. It was also because of the Energy Vision that he was able to complete the experiment so smoothly and observe so much data.

The entire experimental process took Richard a week’s time, but the gains from it could indeed be considered not insignificant.

Among them, the energy cycle of Nightmare Spirits was the most valuable.

These energy cycles were extremely simple, but Richard keenly sensed their potential. When these energy cycles carried enough Power of Nightmare, they would undergo a change.

And this change was the secret to the evolution of Nightmare creatures.

After the research was completed, Richard returned to the village, holding a very long purple vine in his hand. This vine wasn’t anything special—just an ordinary vine mutated by the Nightmare World, containing a trace amount of paralytic toxin.

And Richard’s purpose for holding it was very simple.

As runes appeared one by one in Richard’s hands, a simple Alchemy Array emerged in the palm of his hand. Under the action of the Alchemy Array, Richard’s spirit began manipulating the vine to transform.

The transformed vine resembled some kind of Carnivorous Plants, piercing into the houses before splitting into smaller groups to wrap up the Nightmare Spirits and then carrying them out of the houses.

Before long, all the Nightmare Spirits of the village were gathered at the center.

The Nightmare Spirits were very rowdy, their voices together sounding like a swarm of flies buzzing in your ear.

“Quiet!”

A thunderous voice overpowered the chatter of the Nightmare Spirits, silencing them.

The one who uttered the voice, Richard, slowly walked out from the shadows.

Looking at the group of Nightmare Spirits, Richard didn’t say anything hard to understand. Instead, his tone was coarse as he shouted,

“Listen up, you bunch of weaklings, I’m the boss of this village now, and you’re all my underlings!”

After studying the Nightmare Spirits, Richard believed that when communicating with these creatures, one must be straightforward, otherwise they might not understand what you’re saying. Additionally, if you want to subdue them, you must show your strength and ferocity.

And now, Richard needed some troublemakers to demonstrate his might and ferocity.

No sooner had Richard’s words finished than one of the Nightmare Spirits, looking like a Scarecrow, broke free from the vine and stood up.

“Who the hell do you think you are, to be fit to be my boss…”

Before he could finish, a black Flame engulfed his body, turning him to ash.

Richard withdrew his finger, which he had pointed at the Scarecrow, and asked with a sinister laugh,

“Heh heh heh, who else objects?”

This time, Richard didn’t wait for a troublemaker to emerge; he immediately used his Magic Hand to grab a Nightmare Spirit resembling a hand from the group.

This Nightmare Spirit had the most robust Power of Nightmare among the group and, judging from its appearance, was likely the leader of the Slap Gang. Without further ado, Richard crushed the hand-shaped Nightmare Spirit to death with his Magic Hand, then stuffed it into his mouth.

Although the taste of the Nightmare Spirit was terrible, Richard still put on a fierce demeanor.

“This guy was moving his body while I was talking, clearly looking to resist me.”

With these words, all the Nightmare Spirits at the center of the village instantly froze, even one resembling a heart stopped beating.

Richard looked at this scene, nodded with satisfaction, and said, “Good, it seems no one has any objections.

Now, all of you, hand over a third of the Power of Nightmare inside you!

Don’t think about cheating or sneaking off. I can see every move you make!”

Having said that, Richard stood in the center of the village, pointing to a Nightmare Spirit beside him, and commanded, “Now, starting with you!”

…

The way Nightmare creatures handed over their Power of Nightmare varied; some slashed off a piece of Flesh, others condensed it into some sort of object. Although these bits of Power of Nightmare were not much, with close to five hundred Nightmare Spirits in the village, Richard still gathered a thousand strands of Power of Nightmare, with several particularly large Nightmare Spirits each contributing a hundred strands of Power of Nightmare to him.

The amount of Power of Nightmare wasn’t much; even if all of it was absorbed by a single Nightmare Spirit, it would only elevate it to the strength of an average Knight.

But to the current Richard, this Power of Nightmare was enough for him to make a crude body to hide his Otherworldly creature identity.

When crafting the body, Richard didn’t just mold it like a clay figure. On the contrary, he even gave up on increasing the body’s strength in order to create a simple energy cycle inside the body, using Power of Nightmare obtained from the Nightmare Spirits.

“Gah, this body is too weak. If you enter this body, you likely won’t even be able to exhibit one-thousandth of your strength,” Ulysses commented as he looked at the body Richard had made.

In front of him was a body that looked almost human, emitting a somewhat ominous aura.

Richard glanced at him and softly caressed the body, saying,

“You know nothing, I see endless possibilities in this Nightmare Body.”