“It means the Nightmare Domain you cut out from space shall fall under your own management,” Sunders said.
“Um, you mean like a lord who owns his land?”
“You can put it that way,” said Sunders as he nodded.
Angor’s eyes twinkled. “So this domain is mine from now on?”
“Correct.”
“Is it like Sorcerer’s Garden? But without a law? I can put my stuff in there anytime, and I don’t need a space storage?”
Sunders sneered, “In your dreams maybe.”
“I… can’t do that?” Angor’s enthusiasm instantly vanished.
“Do not consider Nightmare Domain as a space storage. They’re completely different.”
Angor was still confused.
Sunders kept his voice transmission on, “We cannot determine the nature of Nightmare Domain. In fact, I named it myself. You may think of it as a special illusion. An illusion does not exist in reality. Instead, it exists in people’s minds or dreams. It’s the conception of space, but not a conceptual space.”
Those words confused Angor more. What was the difference?
“One means something that exists for real, while the other is theoretical,” said Sunders as he tried to make the explanation easier.
“But we’re standing inside a Nightmare Domain, right? I mean, a real space. How can we exist in a theoretical place?”
“It’s complicated. Reality and fake, time and space… everything you know has an opposite, counterpart concept. Here’s an example… When you went into Nether City last time, you existed inside the Nightmare Realm where time is frozen. To those in the wizarding world, your travel was instant. You never ‘spent time’ in the Nightmare Realm. In other words, you never left the wizarding world. But can you say that the Nightmare Realm doesn’t exist in reality?
“It involves knowledge that is still being discussed by wizards today. If you’re interested, go read a book composed by Barzel the Great Twisted Wizard called Barzel Thesis: Time, Space, and Reality .”
Angor grasped just a tiny bit of the explanation.
“Nightmare Domain” was only theoretical space. It was closely connected to the Nightmare Realm, but it was not the Nightmare Realm.
Sunders, who named the concept called “Nightmare Domain”, had not gained systematic knowledge about it yet. He only knew its connection with the Nightmare Realm. Sunders could create a Nightmare Domain, yet he could not enter the Nightmare Realm through it. On the opposite, monsters from the Nightmare Realm could enter into their world by going through a Nightmare Domain. A newly established Nightmare Domain would always attract such monsters and this included many extremely powerful ones.
To Sunders, Nightmare Domain was a special illusion that contained elements of the Nightmare Realm. These elements made his illusions uniquely deadly in the southern wizarding region.
Due to the nature of Nightmare Domain, whoever created the domain carelessly risked allowing super monsters to show up in wizard world. For this reason, the art was both a powerful and risky weapon to Sunders.
To prevent the risk, Sunders spent decades doing researches and finally gained an idea using knowledge related to plane separation.
When a Nightmare Domain was created then severed from the Nightmare Realm by particular means, its creator could fuse the domain with himself and enjoy the ability to wield nightmare illusions AND avoid attracting powerful monsters.
This meant “undertaking” the Nightmare Domain.
Such a move brought lots of merits such as allowing an illusionist to gain control over powerful illusions perfectly almost immediately.
However, following the universal rule of equivalent exchange, the merits also brought great danger. Due to the elements of the Nightmare Realm, fusing Nightmare Domain into oneself might easily cause the illusionist to confuse what was real and fake. One should gain enough knowledge and practice in illusion before attempting so.
Flora was an exception. She was not an illusionist, but Little Red allowed her to undertake her own Nightmare Domain. It was a destiny Flora found, and no one could learn her way.
“… I’d wait for you to become a wizard and achieve attainment in illusions before allowing you to undertake your Nightmare Domain. Now you did it as a fresh apprentice… and almost let that woman loose!” Sunders could not help complaining. He thought Angor was the most modest one among his three students. Maybe the boy was a little slow to be a wizard, but the problem could always be solved with enough time. Sunders would not mind seeing Angor growing into an academism wizard.
The man did not expect the timid boy to possess such guts. He almost destroyed the world! Thank heavens Sunders happened to be attending Twilight Auction just at the right moment. If any of the monsters from the core area of the Nightmare Realm showed up in the wizarding world, no one could predict the consequence.
Innocent people would die just because a monster beyond legendary saw something he did not like and spat in disgust. The spat would be powerful enough to sink the entire continent.
In which case the southern wizarding region would not have many wizards left.
Sunders always acted neutral in front of people in the past centuries, and now he broke that personal principle just to clear Angor’s mess. Naturally, he was angry.
Also, clearing the mess was not the end of it. He was going to gift Angor a huge destiny by doing so.
Sunders did not really mind giving people profits. However, he was still frustrated at how he had to waste his strength, while the “criminal” of all was acting happy-go-lucky.
It was made worse when the “criminal” was looking at everyone proudly as if he was waiting for a badge for his heroism.
Sunders did not know how many years had passed since he was so angry last time. He simply tried to quell it.
“You brought the Nightmare Domain, and you’ll be the one to take it with you.”
Angor nodded quickly. He had no reason to refuse such a giant gift.
“And if you fail, you’ll definitely die,” Sunders had to remind his student.
“I understand. Thank you for being so considerate, professor!”
I was not! Sunders complained in his mind.
“Um, sir, since you’re willing to help, can I ask something from you?” Angor looked down at Toby with a gentle look.
Sunders gazed at Angor and his bird, quickly predicting what Angor was going to ask.
“You found a really good helper, Greya…” He sighed. “Okay, go ahead.”
With a passionate expression, Angor looked up and asked, “I… can’t get a hundred thousand crystals in half a month. Can I borrow some from you, professor? I’ll pay you back soon!”
Sunders clenched his fists. I was wrong, Greya. This is an unthankful little bastard!
“No,” replied Sunders as he remained calm. However, his tone gave him out a little. “Apart from money for Twilight, the materials I used to help you sever the Nightmare Domain were about hundred-fifty thousand magic crystals. I give you one month. Fail, and the amount would be doubled!”
Earlier, Sunders was planning to give the materials to his student for free. However, he changed his mind.
“A hundred and fifty thousand?? But I’m a level-1 apprentice! This is unthinkable!” Tears moved around Angor’s eyes.
“Nice music box. Keep it up,” Sunders left those words and turned away.
“Did he ask me to sell music boxes to pay my debt?” Angor pondered. That was not going to get him enough money!
…
The preparations for fusing the Nightmare Domain was done. Sunders took Angor to a corner of the hall.
“Get ready, I’m starting,” Sunders warned.
“Wait!” Angor looked worried as he asked, “While I do what I need to do, will the Twilight Auction start without me?”
Sunders nodded. “Yes, if nothing goes wrong again.”
Angor had no idea how long the process would take, so he handed his bone card to Sunders.
“Professor, please help me finish the transaction coming from the auction if I’m not there to do it, and accept the items I bought,” Angor asked.
Sunders checked the boned card and chuckled, “So you’re Number 187? Flora will be quite surprised to find out.”
Angor’s forehead started to sweat.
“Okay. I’ll get your items, as long as you are still alive.” Sunders considered a little and decided not to ask Angor why he bought materials only master alchemists could refine.
“Prepare yourself.”
“Hold on!”
Sunders frowned. “You’re changing your mind now? Too afraid to die?”
Angor shook his head and revealed a pleading look. “Professor, I have another request, may I?”
“No,” replied Sunders as he thought about Angor’s previous request and grimaced.
“I want your help to buy the eyeless man. Spending some money is fine. I’ll pay you back as fast as I can,” Angor explained despite Sunders’ words of refusal.
The gentleman hesitated a little and could not persuade himself into ignoring Angor.
“So you can pay me back, no matter how many crystals I used to help you?”
Angor nodded. “Yes. I’m doing it for Toby this time.”
He had been hiding Greya’s information from Toby. Since the bird always helped him in times of need, Angor felt greatly indebted to his little partner.
Sunders sighed. “A gourmet wizard… even if he’s an apprentice, he’ll worth more than you can imagine. I’ll put it this way… You’ll probably need more magic crystals than the sum of your current debt. Are you sure you want to buy him off if the bid climbs beyond two hundred thousand?”
“Two-two hundred thousand?!” Angor did not even hesitate. “Ne-never mind.”
Sunders was speechless to see Angor’s determination faltering so soon.
“Professor, can you note down the name of the buyer then?”
“You… want to hijack him after the auction?” Sunders would be really disappointed if that was Angor’s plan.
“I… think I’ll buy the eyeless man from the buyer later… When I get enough money, that is.”