Wizard: I Can Refine Everything-Chapter 176 - 6 Managing Territory, Nightmare Demon Beast

Chapter 176: Chapter 6 Managing Territory, Nightmare Demon Beast

However, after entering the Nightmare Body, Richard soon discovered a problem.

This body could not be controlled by him, because after the transformation, it had essentially become a Nightmare creature. If he tried to force control over this body, it would lead to the Nightmare Body being digested by him and reverted back into the Power of Nightmare.

It was as if he had eaten the Nightmare Body.

Emerging from the Nightmare Body, Richard turned his attention to the sealed core.

Within the core, the imprisoned nascent consciousness was roaring in rage. At this moment, it was akin to a patient who was completely paralyzed; no matter how it issued commands, its body remained motionless.

This feeling was akin to torture.

...

Richard invaded the core with his spiritual power and compared to his own, the new Nightmare creature’s consciousness was exceedingly weak.

“What are you! Monster! Get out of my body! Get out!”

The Nightmare creature’s consciousness issued a fierce yet hollow roar, but Richard paid it no attention.

“Interesting.”

Richard looked at the Nightmare Body and fell into thought.

This nascent consciousness somewhat exceeded Richard’s understanding of the Soul School; it did not originate from a soul but rather seemed more like the electrical consciousness of a Synthetic Beast from Alchemy—purely a false personality formed by the biological electric currents stimulating the brain to produce spiritual power.

Regarding this knowledge, Richard was not very familiar, but he was certain that even if he destroyed this consciousness with his spiritual power, as long as the core remained intact, new consciousnesses would emerge from it.

However, Richard quickly found a solution.

“No soul? No problem, I can share a bit with you.”

Richard said with a smile as he condensed a Soul Seed.

Since the core would continuously produce new consciousnesses, he decided to occupy the ecological niche of consciousness with a Soul Seed, preventing the formation of new consciousnesses.

With a slight motion of his spiritual power, the nascent consciousness within the core was churned into oblivion by Richard, and the core began to form a new consciousness as he had anticipated.

Seizing the moment, Richard sent his Soul Seed into the core.

The spiritual power produced by the core was quickly overpowered by Richard’s Soul Seed, which then prevented the formation of any new consciousness. Moreover, the capacity of the core to produce spiritual power was limited, and once it reached its threshold, it ceased production.

As the core stopped producing spiritual power, Richard’s Soul Seed became the supreme ruler of the core.

Richard then lifted the sealing, and once more, he entered the Nightmare Body.

This time, the Nightmare Body could finally move normally.

“Gah! You actually did it!”

Ulysses looked at the Nightmare Body moving freely, uttering in surprise.

What Richard had done was akin to body-snatching a Nightmare creature, far better than his previous scheme of using the Power of Nightmare to pinch out a body.

Richard now seemed to be hiding inside the stomach of a Nightmare creature, except that this Nightmare creature did not digest him.

In such a situation, even if Richard faced a Nightmare Lord, he could easily fool them.

Richard’s mouth curled into a confident smile:

“This is the wisdom of a Wizard.”

Richard channeled all of the collected Power of Nightmare into the Nightmare Body, instantly raising its strength to the level of a Legendary Knight.

This also fulfilled Richard’s initial goal—constant evolution.

Now that Richard had collected an ample amount of the Power of Nightmare, this body could become a Big Nightmare, maybe even a Nightmare Knight or a Nightmare Lord.

To move toward this goal, Richard was ready to slightly increase the efficiency of his Power of Nightmare collection.

…

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At night, the blood moon rose, and the Nightmare Spirits crawled out from their hiding places, beginning their preparations to collect the Power of Nightmare for the night.

But today was different; they were once again gathered by Richard at the center of the village.

After a month of observation, Richard found the efficiency at which these Nightmare Spirits collected the Power of Nightmare to be rather laughable.

A Nightmare Spirit of average strength could collect only one strand of the Power of Nightmare over ten nights.

Several stronger and slightly longer-lived Nightmare Spirits could obtain one to three strands of the Power of Nightmare in a single night.

Moreover, these few Nightmare Spirits often needed to harvest four or five dreams to acquire that much.

Their efficiency was, to say the least, very low.

Further observation led Richard to discover that these Nightmare Spirits also often fought each other, and such fights would often end with one party dying, allowing the Power of Nightmare to enter the earth.

These fights did not lead to a decrease in the number of Nightmare Spirits. In the hidden corners of the village, Nightmare Spirits would frequently grow from the ground.

This growth was literal.

While these fights did not decrease the number of Nightmare Spirits, they did lead to a rapid turnover, making it difficult for them to accumulate sufficient experience to scare people more effectively.

A newly born Nightmare Spirit might not collect even a trace of the Power of Nightmare in a whole night.

Richard set the tribute at one-third; for every strand of the Power of Nightmare these Nightmare Spirits collected, they had to hand over one-third to him.

Therefore, to accelerate the collection of the Power of Nightmare, Richard decided to give the Nightmare Spirits some guidance, enabling them to collect more Power of Nightmare each night.

…

In the village center, Richard stood aloft in the air, shouting down at the group of variously shaped Nightmare Spirits below.

“Minions, you collect the Power of Nightmare too slowly! Today, I will teach you some tricks to let you collect more Power of Nightmare when you scare people!

In addition, starting tonight, all Nightmare Spirits are forbidden to fight! Any Nightmare Spirit that fights becomes my food!”

Richard’s statement sent a buzz through the hordes of Nightmare Spirits on the ground.

Among them, a few that had lived longer and possessed greater strength muttered to each other, finding this newcomer quite odd.

Prohibiting combat and intending to teach those little ones how to scare people?

What a madman.

“Quiet!”

A loud shout instantly silenced the Nightmare Spirits.

Richard looked at the menacing group and said,

“Whoever disagrees is welcome to stand up. I assure him a dignified death!”

…

Not a single Nightmare Spirit dared to move.

Pleased with the result, Richard nodded in satisfaction and began his lesson.

The content of the lesson was quite simple; scaring these country bumpkins didn’t require any exaggerated or complex scenes.

A skeleton, a venomous snake, a large wild beast, or an evil ghost that couldn’t be killed—any of these could frighten ordinary farmers.

And these things didn’t require the Nightmare Spirits to manipulate dreams.

They merely needed to change their own appearances within the dreams.

No matter what the surroundings were, these things could scare people.

After teaching the scare tactics, Richard’s body suddenly divided into several mini Richards.

Having become a wizard, Richard now could divide more Soul Seeds—a One Ring Wizard could split into ten Soul Seeds.

These mini Richards were essentially Richard’s avatars, mainly used to maintain order among the Nightmare Spirits and to prevent them from fighting one another.

After all, Richard couldn’t hold classes for them every day.

Following the same formula, Richard quickly started scare-tactic classes in four other villages.

He left two avatars in each village to manage order while his original body began his research in a secluded room of the village.

In the Nightmare World, not only Nightmare creatures could be researched. The rules of this world were an exact replica of the Wizard World, and Richard could still conduct Spell research here.

Although the world lacked tools, there was research that could be done without them.

…

Time passed by day by day, and before he knew it, Richard had spent nearly three months in the Nightmare World.

Back in the Material World, Richard’s body had been placed into a Secret Realm by Ulysses and was being guarded by a World Mushroom—there were no safety concerns.

While in the Nightmare World, Richard’s collection of the Power of Nightmare steadily proceeded.

After initiating training and banning combat, the level of the Nightmare Spirits under Richard’s command greatly improved, and those of the most basic level of the Power of Nightmare had vanished.

On this foundation, Richard refined his management, assigning a fixed dream to every Nightmare Spirit, ensuring that each had a dream to enter.

After such regulation, the Nightmare Spirits, taking on the forms of fierce beasts and Evil Ghosts, struck hard at the dreamers, with some even learning on their own to first give pleasure then a last-moment scare, causing the villages of the Wizard World to erupt with screams night after night.

In just three months, Richard had collected an astonishing 15,000 units of the Power of Nightmare, with each village providing around a thousand units per month on average.

However, looking at the data, the collection of Nightmare Power peaked in the second month and saw a significant decline in the third.

Experiencing such intense and repetitive frights, it was only a matter of time before the commoners developed immunity.

Richard made no changes, however. If the villages suffered nightmares too frequently and for too long, it would surely attract the attention of the Wizard Academy. It would be troublesome if it brought Wizards of the Soul School or even Guardians of the Wizard World.

Richard believed that the Wizard World must have conducted research into the Nightmare World.

Attracting the attention of powerful beings might spell his end with a single slap.

As for seeking help from these wizards to escape,

Richard being a pure Soul, any rescue by a wizard might lead to soul-to-soul contact, and if other wizards noticed the existence of the Miracle Furnace, it would be a serious problem.

Although the chance of the Miracle Furnace being discovered was slim, having a way out, Richard preferred to play it safe and not to take any risks.

With 15,000 units of Nightmare Power absorbed into his body, Richard’s Nightmare Form had reached the level of an advanced Wizard Apprentice.

Such strength meant that he was generally not in danger unless he encountered high-level Nightmare creatures…

“Gah, Richard, come out quick, we’ve got trouble!”

Ulysses flew in from outside, his voice sounding very anxious.

“What has got you so panicked?” Richard asked, rising calmly.

“Gah! Come out and see for yourself. And remember to engage your Energy Vision.”

Exiting the room, Richard switched to Energy Vision.

With Energy Vision engaged, faint energy trails appeared on the ground. Following Ulysses into the nearby forest, Richard was startled by the sight before him.

Threads of Nightmare Power seeped from the ground, slowly forming into a black Nightmare creature.

On this creature, Richard felt no sign of intelligence, only a hunger as deep as the Abyss.

“Ulysses, what are these things?” Richard asked, his expression composed.

In his hand, a Magic Wand made of Nightmare Power gradually took shape.

“Gah! These things are Nightmare Demon Beasts, they chase and kill all intelligent Nightmare creatures. They’re the most annoying mad dogs of the Nightmare World.”