After talking about the “Nightmare Form”, Sunders stared at Angor again.
“Yet… your talent seems a little different.”
Sunders thought about the scene when they were in Barbie’s Restaurant. At that time, Angor accepted a rose from Little Red, which surprised both him and Flora for good.
Little Red did not exist in reality. It lived in a small fragment of severed Nightmare Realm. It was not really Nightmare Realm itself, but similar.
The Nightmare Realm had three major properties: projecting a reality, painting it into imaginary, and creating truth.
“Creating truth” meant it not only project something from the reality into the Nightmare Realm but it would also bring something the other way round. However, transferring objects in either direction required someone to be inside the Nightmare Realm.
Angor was standing inside Barbie’s Restaurant – the reality.
The boy resided in reality and managed to touch Little Red while taking a rose from Little Red’s hands. That meant Angor’s action affected the Nightmare Realm from reality. Even if Little Red did not actually stay in the Nightmare Realm, it still proved that Angor’s talent was something special.
“I’m different…” Angor mumbled, without knowing what exactly was different about him.
Sunders continued, “No matter what kind of world it is, once a civilization is created, it will not take long for the residents to establish social classes. I’ve been regarding Nightmare Forms as natives in the Nightmare Realm because they can create hemi-passages and travel to and from this place, and I thought that was the only thing they could do. Until I saw you, Angor…
“Maybe Nightmare Forms also have social classes. Some can create hemi-passages, some can affect the reality, some can create truths… These classes are strictly divided and cannot be crossed. And your class is higher than mine,” said Sunders. He revealed an awkward smile at Angor as he continued, “Let’s say… you’re a queen while I’m a soldier.”
A queen…
Angor curled his lips. Sunders was not really good at joking.
Whether he believed them or not, the boy slowly began to take in Sunders’ words,
A moment passed and Angor was still wearing a puzzled look.
Sunders chuckled at him, “Don’t worry too much. Those are all speculations. There is no record about Nightmare Forms, so you have to figure out everything on your own. I might be right, and I might be wrong.”
“On my own? Professor can’t help me?”
Sunders tidied his sleeves and removed his white glove, revealing a thin, white wrist with inconspicuous blood veins pulsing on it.
Angor did not understand his action.
Sunders put his exposed hand on the back of Angor’s.
Angor felt warmth, and a little bit wetness coming from his professor’s skin.
“Do you think I’m a Nightmare Form now?” Sunders smiled.
Angor put his hands on his own face, then rubbed his hands. He only sensed a cold touch. But… Sunders’ palm felt warm, which was different.
“You can feel the warmth. You’re a soul and you can’t give out body heat while I’m here as my body, so I appeared to be warm,” said Sunders. He put on his glove again and expressed a somewhat regretful expression as he continued, “In early years, I was greedy about entering a higher state and sacrificed my talent. Ever since, I could only come to the Nightmare Realm as an actual body, and could no longer work on hemi-passages. This is why I must find Greya and ask for a Twisting Protozoa to come here.
“I accepted you as my pupil for two reasons. Your talent, and convenience. You know, I prefer not to run around looking for Greya all the time.”
Sunders revealed his true intention. The man wanted to benefit from Angor, true, but now that Sunders explained his idea openly, Angor felt relaxed. At least he no longer had to worry about whether Sunders held some kind of evil plot day and night.
…
With Angor’s talent explained, Sunders finally picked up the Singularity Dispersive Meditation lying on the desk. He then said, “This book is an extremely precious one. You should try to recite it. When we leave, take it with you. Maybe your talent will allow it to ‘become truth’, and make its appearance in reality.”
Angor nodded in acknowledgment. He had already recorded the book into his tablet, but after hearing Sunders’ words, he began to worry that his soul was carrying a “fake” tablet. So he accepted the book and began reciting, assuming that his tablet would not work.
Sunders did not stand idle during Angor’s study. The man walked around and searched for items. If Angor could truly take “special items” away from the Nightmare Realm, he might as well take as many as he could.
There were actually previous examples in which someone took objects from the Nightmare Realm to the wizarding world but they were random items despite people’s intentions. For example, one might pack up a bag of gems in the Nightmare Realm only to find a single gem when one was back at the wizarding world. A pile of mythril might turn into alchemy gold instead. Well, one would still get something in the process.
Only extremely particular items would disappear completely, and the book Singularity Dispersive Meditation was such an item.
Thanks to his superior memorizing skills, it only took Angor about two hours to remember Singularity Dispersive Meditation .
Angor looked up from his book and did not see Sunders in the study. He then put away the book and left through the door.
In the main hall, Angor saw Sunders walking to him from the hallway to the left, with a potion bottle in his hand.
“Tsk. One bottle of Potion of Austere Night only. I’m in bad luck today,” said Sunders. He tossed the bottle to Angor and said, “This thing will help you to improve your spirit power limit but only once. If you can bring it back to the wizarding world, it’s yours.
“Such a pity. There’s nothing valuable apart from the book,” said Sunders. He sighed, “Even if there is something, I’m not sure we can take it. Let’s go back as is. If your talent proves to be helpful and that you can actually bring the book back, we can simply come again and look for other things.”
It seemed Sunders was planning to use this chance to determine the actual usefulness of Angor’s talent.
Angor recalled seeing the secret chamber under the main bedroom. There were still a lot of alchemy books.
Sunders didn’t find them?
Angor decided not to ask. The secret passage was not really a “secret”.
The professor must have found it. The man just didn’t want to talk about it for some reason.
With that in mind, Angor put the idea aside.
Sunders sat beside the desk at the center of the hall and asked, “You’re done reciting the book?”
Angor nodded.
“Then let us pray that we won’t forget about it when we’re back.”