Wizard: I Can Refine Everything-Chapter 178 - 8: Naming and Magic Puppet Billy

Chapter 178: Chapter 8: Naming and Magic Puppet Billy

After leaving the forest, Richard returned to the village with the cage imprisoning the Nightmare Knights. At the village entrance, Richard unexpectedly found several powerful Nightmare Spirits peeking at the forest where the Nightmare Demon Beasts had appeared.

Upon seeing him emerge, the Nightmare Spirits hurriedly shrank back into the corner.

Richard felt there was something odd about these Nightmare Spirits and stepped forward, pulling out a skeletal-looking Nightmare Spirit and angrily demanded,

“What are you running for, don’t you recognize your own boss?”

The captured Nightmare Spirit trembled and said, “Recognize! Recognize! Of course, we recognize!”

“Why are you running then?”

...

The captured Nightmare Spirit looked about to cry, lamenting that although several old fellows had come over, only he had been caught.

Looking at the terrifying figure before him, the Nightmare Spirit said with a trembling voice,

“Boss, you’ve changed a lot, we were a bit scared to recognize you.”

“Scared to recognize….” Richard’s voice was initially steady, then he suddenly shouted, “At this time, aren’t you usually sleeping! How come you all suddenly came out and gathered here!”

The Nightmare Spirit’s body shivered, and its entire skeletal frame nearly fell apart.

He had no doubt that if he didn’t provide an explanation, his own boss would instantly crush him and then devour him.

“Boss, the noise you made was so loud, of course, we could sense it.”

Speaking of which, the Nightmare Spirit took a cautious glance at the stone behind Richard; he could clearly sense that inside the stone resided someone as formidable as his own boss.

Richard turned his head to look at Ulysses, “Did I make a lot of noise?”

“Gah, not too little.”

Richard nodded his head, then asked again,

“Which one of you has lived the longest?”

“…Me, boss,” the Nightmare Spirit said, trembling.

Richard raised an eyebrow, “You? That’s quite a coincidence.”

Richard turned to face the stone, used Alchemy to control the stone, and opened a window, revealing the face of the Nightmare Knight inside.

“That’s perfect, take a look…”

“Ah! Black Knight! Black Knight! The Black Knight has appeared again!”

Upon seeing the contents inside the stone, the Nightmare Spirit screamed and scrambled backward, running as fast as he could.

Richard frowned and quickly grabbed the Nightmare Spirit back.

“Do you recognize this thing?”

The Nightmare Spirit stared at the Black Knight, shaking uncontrollably. After realizing that the Black Knight was imprisoned by Richard, its mood eased a bit.

“Boss, this is the Black Knight!” the Nightmare Spirit said somewhat excitedly, “These guys kill us on sight, and I used to live in a village with a leader nearly as strong as you, boss, but he was stabbed to death by the Black Knight with a spear.”

Remembering the previous boss who had been killed, the Nightmare Spirit felt a wave of fear as the terrifying scene left an indelible shadow in his heart.

But now, looking at the Black Knight imprisoned in the stone by Richard, the Nightmare Spirit felt a surreal sensation.

This new boss is so powerful!

“Quite interesting.”

Richard stroked his chin, thinking that such a beast tide seemed quite common.

“Little thing, what’s your name?” Richard casually asked.

“That… Boss, how could I have a name? Names are only for big shots like you,” the Nightmare Spirit carefully said.

“No name?”

Richard looked the Nightmare Spirit over. This particular Nightmare Spirit seemed to be the one that learned the last turnaround, and it looked pretty clever.

If he wanted to develop his own forces in the Nightmare World, his subordinates were certainly indispensable, and this one seemed quite suitable.

“No name, then I’ll give you one. You shall be called…” Richard looked at the Nightmare Spirit and offhandedly said, “from now on, you’ll be called Bone.”

When the Nightmare Spirit heard the name, it paused for a moment, then bowed and thanked Richard:

“Bone, Bone…Thank you, boss! Thank you, boss!”

And as the Nightmare Spirit acknowledged the name, the Power of Nightmare within Richard’s body suddenly stirred.

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A Wizard Language symbol for “Bone” formed by the Power of Nightmare appeared in Richard’s hand and then automatically burrowed into Bone’s body.

Names seemed to have a special meaning in the Nightmare World.

Once the character entered Bone’s body, Richard felt a connection forming between himself and Bone.

This connection was like a contract, not only could Richard sense Bone’s emotions through it, but he could also detect any malicious intent from Bone at the first moment. He could also share the Power of Nightmare gained by Bone through this connection.

If Bone gathered the Power of Nightmare, he would take a quarter of it.

However, Richard somehow felt that there were limits to this naming mechanism; the number of names he could grant was limited. Once all were given, unless he revoked a name granted previously, he couldn’t bestow another.

“Ulysses, do you know about the mechanism of granting names to Nightmare creatures?”

“Gah, what the heck? Name granting? Never heard of it. I didn’t really hang around in the territories much, I only know a little about Nightmare creatures, and that too heard in the Lawless Land.”

“Lawless Land?”

Another new place.

“Gah, the Lawless Land is a place where Nightmare creatures who don’t live within the Nightmare Territories live by robbing other Nightmare creatures.

Usually, between the territories.”

“Aren’t the lords taking action to exterminate them?”

“Caw, sometimes it does, I’ve encountered it once, and it almost left me in the Crow Realm of Nightmares.”

…

After the naming ceremony, Richard appointed Bones as the village’s inspector, taking over the management of the Nightmare Spirits in the village for Richard’s avatar, while he himself began dissecting the Black Knight in his room.

Time flew by, and three days had passed in the blink of an eye.

During these three days, Richard’s understanding of the Black Knight had significantly improved.

The structure of the Black Knight was similar to other Nightmare creatures, but in its Nightmare Core, Richard had not found consciousness—only an emotion filled with endless hunger.

This sense of hunger drove the Black Knight to seek out Nightmare creatures and devour them to gain the Power of Nightmare.

During Richard’s tests, this hunger would only temporarily subside when the Black Knight acquired the Power of Nightmare, but after a short time, the Nightmare Core would produce a sense of hunger akin to generating spiritual power, leading the Black Knight to relentlessly devour without end.

It had to be said that if Richard hadn’t seen the Black Knight emerge from the ground, he would have thought it was some kind of man-made object.

This thing resembled a biological weapon designed to exterminate Nightmare creatures.

After devouring the dissected Black Knight, Richard obtained nearly ten thousand strands of the Power of Nightmare from it. This number also seemed quite odd.

Calculating by the amount of the Power of Nightmare consumed when Richard wove the Nightmare Body, this Black Knight should have been able to produce fifty thousand strands of the Power of Nightmare.

The Black Knight definitely contained greater secrets.

However, this secret was still too remote for Richard, and he decided to deal with the immediate situation first.

Nightmare Territory—someone had arrived.

…

At the entrance of the village, Bones was confronting a small Nightmare Spirit.

After receiving his name from Richard, Bones had truly become the leader of the village, patrolling around all day.

To him, Richard’s orders were divine.

And with Richard as his backing, Bones had grown braver.

Facing this foreign little Nightmare, Bones did not flinch and went up to interrogate:

“Where are you from? This is our—,” Bones thought for a moment. It seemed Richard hadn’t named their faction yet, “…our boss’s territory.”

The stopped Magic Puppet Billy looked at the reckless Nightmare Spirit before him, somewhat surprised.

Daring to stop him?

Could this fool not see that he was a little Nightmare?

Perhaps he had hidden himself too well.

Thinking so, Magic Puppet Billy burst forth with a powerful surge of the Power of Nightmare.

“Now you should be able to recognize me,” Magic Puppet Billy thought.

He somewhat eagerly looked at Bones, wanting to see Bones overwhelmed with fear, tremblingly apologizing or at least obediently stepping aside.

He really enjoyed frightening these Nightmare Spirits and then eating them while they shuddered in terror.

Fear was the best spice.

But he soon became displeased.

Because Bones hadn’t shown the slightest hesitation, instead he conjured a long spear with the Power of Nightmare and pointed it at him.

“What are you doing? This is our boss’s territory, are you trying to take it over?”

Magic Puppet Billy was annoyed, but a thought also crossed his mind.

Unless this Nightmare Spirit before him was an idiot, his lack of reaction indicated that his boss was stronger than Billy.

A new village had a wild little Nightmare like this?

Magic Puppet Billy decided to play it safe and meet this Nightmare Spirit’s mentioned boss.

“Little thing, call out your boss. I am a subordinate of Lord Demon Sword Amade, here to investigate matters concerning the Black Knight.

Little one, has there been any Black Knight near your village?”

Regarding the last question, Magic Puppet Billy didn’t expect an answer, for usually, a squad at least would be needed to handle the appearance of a Black Knight, and a common little Nightmare would be skewered by their Riding Spears on sight.

Even a lone Black Knight would take a lot of effort for a normal little Nightmare to perhaps luckily kill.

Many times, the fate of little Nightmares was to perish along with the Black Knight.

“First, I’m not a little thing! My name is Bones! Second, the Black Knight near the village has already been dealt with by the boss!”

As Bones spoke, his voice carried a sense of admiration. Having a boss who could kill a Black Knight was indeed something to be proud of.

“Hmm!?”

Magic Puppet Billy was surprised—someone single-handedly killing a Black Knight meant this village’s boss was quite skilled.

Such a little Nightmare could become a subordinate of Lord Demon Sword Amade.

But he then skeptically asked, “Little thing, are you sure it was a Black Knight?”

Wild Nightmare Spirits surviving a year or two were considered long-lived, while the last occurrence of a Black Tide had been three years ago.

But before Bones could reply, he saw a figure in a black robe approaching him.

“I did indeed kill a Black Knight.”

Richard walked up to the puppet little Nightmare and calmly asked:

“Where are you from? State your name!”