Chapter 210: Chapter 40: The Heart of the Nightmare Lord

Seeing Ulysses suddenly appear, the bones weren’t too surprised.

In his view, the raven standing on his boss’s shoulder should be a manifestation of his boss’s talent or perhaps the boss’s twin.

The forms of Nightmare creatures are varied and bizarre; he found nothing strange in whatever kind of Nightmare creature appeared.

Ulysses looked around and flew a few circles around the ruins before finally returning to Richard’s shoulder and whispered in his ear,

“Gah, something is watching us. According to what you said, that year, the Nightmare Lord dragged the entire domain into the Nightmare Domain.

This is quite unusual.

I suspect that the Nightmare Lord might not be dead; he is currently living in some form within this domain.”

“Hmm!?”

Richard’s face tightened, and his pupils unconsciously constricted. Ulysses’s words were truly frightening–a living Nightmare Lord existing in this domain meant that they, the Nightmare creatures who had entered, could become his prey.

“Gah, don’t be nervous. Nightmare creatures are different from us; they regress in strength without the Power of Nightmare. A Nightmare Lord, having lost his domain and subordinates, would consume a great deal of Power of Nightmare unless he is asleep.

After so many years, even if this Nightmare Lord is still alive, it’s likely that his control over the Power of Nightmare has already been significantly depleted.”

After finishing his words, Ulysses looked around the environment and continued,

“Gah, but this damned place, it’s better if we leave. Your ‘original self’ isn’t here; if this incarnation is lost, it would be quite troublesome.”

Richard nodded as he too thought the same.

Although the Nightmare Artifact was appealing, it was best not to risk it given their current strength.

“You scout ahead. We’re leaving now.”

“Gah, okay.”

Ulysses flew toward the outskirts of the domain while Richard signaled his bones to prepare to leave this forsaken place.

“Boss, aren’t you going to take a look at that Nightmare Artifact?” the bones asked somewhat puzzled.

He had seen Richard and Ulysses muttering for a long time and thought they were planning on how to retrieve the Nightmare Artifact. He didn’t expect that after their discussion, they would actually leave.

Richard glanced at him and said earnestly, “Bones, what did I tell you? The main goal now is to stay alive.

Is the Nightmare Artifact something we can meddle with? Forcibly taking it is not only extremely dangerous, but even if you get it, can you protect it once outside?

The person who sent you the message never intended for you to survive. Even if we get out now, we would probably be hunted.

Not to mention getting the artifact.”

Listening to Richard’s admonition, Bones obediently nodded repeatedly.

Richard looked at him and couldn’t help but sigh.

When he had named Bones initially, it was because he seemed somewhat clever, able to help out in the future.

But now it seemed that Bones’s cleverness was merely driven by survival instincts; once the danger of survival was gone, his brain began to gather dust.

But gathering dust was fine; simple creatures are often more loyal.

Following Ulysses, Richard and Bones reached the street through which Bones had passed earlier.

It was here that the Priest was dragged into one of the surrounding houses by a group of shadows, his fate unknown.

Before entering the street, Ulysses suddenly stopped.

“Gah, there are a lot of residual Dream Rules here,” Ulysses warned cautiously, “I think it’s best if we take another road.”

But Bones spoke up at this moment,

“It’s all the same; we’ve checked the entire perimeter of the Inner City District. The entire area has remnants of Dream Rules; this street is somewhat better because at least we know where the triggers for the rules are.

In other parts, we don’t even know what the special rules are.”

Hearing what Bones said, Ulysses said no more and landed on Richard’s shoulder, entering the street together.

The street was very quiet, the buildings on both sides looked dark from the outside windows, as if they were not windows but the gaping mouth of some monster.

Knowing the rules, they kept their mouths shut while walking and soon reached the edge of the Inner City District.

Beyond this, they could enter the safe Outer City District.

But as Richard took a step forward, he suddenly realized he was still in the same spot. Thinking it was an illusion, he stepped forward again.

But his body remained in place.

He looked at Bones and realized that Bones was experiencing the same. Ulysses flew up from Richard’s shoulder, intending to leave via the air.

But it was the same.

Ulysses gave Richard a significant look and then flew backward.

Moving backward seemed to pose no problem.

Richard and Bones followed suit, and as they walked out of the street, Ulysses spoke,

“Gah, it’s a spatial loop. Someone doesn’t want us to get out.”

Richard’s expression darkened, and he said in a low voice, “That Nightmare Lord?”

“Gah, I don’t know, but what’s certain is that with our current strength alone, we probably can’t force our way out.”

This was quite troublesome.

Hearing the conversation between the two, Bones’s heart was filled with self-reproach.

Had he been more wary and less proud of his own strength, perhaps things wouldn’t have gotten to this point.

There was silence for a moment before Richard spoke in a low voice,

“Sigh, it looks like we have no choice but to look into the Nightmare Artifact.”

He only had this one avatar, and only one underling, a skeleton. If both were lost, his arrangements in the Nightmare World would be completely undone.

Although at the moment, it seemed like Richard had only lost a disposable pawn, a minor loss,

in the long run, Richard lost his setup in the Nightmare World, missing out on a lot of Power of Nightmare. These powers of nightmare could eventually be turned into Soul Essence once his soul entered the Nightmare World.

Moreover, this loss would vary depending on how soon Richard found a way to enter the Nightmare World, the longer it took, the greater the loss.

It was like the big fish that got away during fishing; as time passed, the fish that weighed a few dozen pounds could have grown to weigh hundreds.

“Ah, we might as well take a look,” Ulysses didn’t care, Richard’s gains in the Nightmare World wouldn’t benefit him in any way, even if Richard found a way to enter the Nightmare World later, it wouldn’t affect him, the World Master.

“Who knows, maybe we can actually tame this divine artifact.”

…

Bone led the way to the plaza while Richard and Ulysses kept exploring this territory.

Richard had Energy Vision, so if there were any traps or ambushes in the entire territory, he could detect them immediately. Ulysses, being a soul projection, acted without any concerns, daring to enter buildings even if they were tainted by the Dream Rules and might contain unknown demons and monsters.

His exploration turned out to be not in vain; he indeed found something useful for Richard.

“Ah, this thing must have been made by a Nightmare Lord. After so many years, it still exists and can still move.”

Ulysses held a palm-sized carriage in his claw, which looked like the carriage the Magic Puppet Billy had used to take Richard to the city of Amade.

But when Bone saw the carriage, he exclaimed,

“Boss! This is not a nightmare creation; this is a Mist Carriage! Its Power of Nightmare has been completely drained!”

“Oh?” Richard took the carriage with some surprise and saw a little figure, about five or six centimeters high, emerge from the carriage. The figure wore a straw hat, held a whip, and was a skeleton.

It was a shrunken version of a Mist Carriage Driver.

The little figure immediately began kneeling to Richard, shouting,

“Spare my life, master, spare my life! I’m only left with a trace of the Power of Nightmare, eating me won’t do you much good.”

Richard looked curiously at this regressed nightmare creature, he hadn’t really studied such beings yet.

But, considering his current circumstances, studying nightmare creatures seemed a bit costly.

Richard pinched the Mist Carriage Driver and asked Bone,

“How about this little guy assists you? You mentioned before that he has a lot of knowledge and experience.”

Bone was stunned, not sure what Richard meant by that. But Richard was right; the Mist Carriage Driver did have rich knowledge and experience.

“…Alright,” Bone replied after thinking for a moment.

Having an experienced assistant would be quite helpful for his survival.

Richard looked at the Mist Carriage Driver. “Little one, how about I give you a name?”

As Richard’s power increased, the naming mechanism granted him more and more privileges.

From initially sensing emotions to now being able to extract Power of Nightmare from those he named, which was higher than his own.

If he reached the Third Level, who knew what naming would bring him.

Hearing that Richard was about to name him, the Mist Carriage Driver nodded repeatedly,

“Thank you for the honor of giving me a name, master!”

Naming was something that could only happen with the agreement of both parties; with the Mist Carriage Driver’s consent, Richard casually gave him a name.

“Previously you were called the Mist Carriage Driver, so now I shall simply call you Carriage Driver.”

As the name was bestowed, an instant connection formed between Richard and the Mist Carriage Driver.

After the naming was done, Richard held the Carriage Driver up to inquire about his experiences.

The Carriage Driver and Bone had been relocated together, but compared to Bone, who had Richard’s support, the Carriage Driver’s experiences were unfortunate.

He had been transported to a district with strict rules and had encountered multiple nightmare creatures attacking him.

The Carriage Driver, stronger than Bone, fought desperately, managing to counter-kill the attacking nightmare creatures, but before he could be happy, he violated a rule and was pulled into a building by shadows, having all his Power of Nightmare drained.

“Oh? This district has rules?”

Richard glanced at the surrounding houses, thinking about how formidable the Nightmare Domain was, able to play with Big Nightmares on even tainted land.

“Yes, master. This area has a restriction on noise levels; I was punished for the sound of my whip.”

Richard nodded and used Magic Pocket to store him.

With Ulysses present, the Carriage Driver’s experience seemed rather inadequate; his usefulness would have to wait until they were outside.

Soon, Richard and his party finally arrived at the edge of the square, where a black pyramid was floating up and down in front of the chest of a statue of the Nightmare Lord.

“Ah, something is off about this,” Ulysses looked at the pyramid and suddenly said, “This thing, I don’t feel like it’s a Nightmare Artifact but rather like…”

Suddenly, a voice came from within the pyramid:

“Wizard, I’d like to make a deal with you.”

Richard frowned and asked Ulysses, “Has this thing become sentient, developed an Artifact Spirit?”

Ulysses shook his head and said with a serious tone,

“Ah, no, it’s the heart of the Lord who once ruled this territory!”

wuxiaworld.site .co