Little Algae, who had just woken up, had no idea what had happened.
It was rely playing around with the little butterflies it could see but never touch, just like usual—only this ti, it actually managed to bite one.
Staring at the Nightmare Butterfly twitching on the ground, it turned to Saul, a little flustered.
Saul patted Little Algae’s head. “It’s fine. Penny… probably just got a little carried away.”
When Little Algae fell into a deep sleep after devouring the Veiled Crystal Essence, Saul had already expected it might undergo so changes. Being able to touch Nightmare Butterflies was unexpected, but not entirely surprising.
After receiving the half-elf’s gift, Saul himself had gained the ability to touch Nightmare Butterflies. However, aside from that, he hadn’t yet discovered any other uses.
“Alright, I’ll apologize to you on Little Algae’s behalf.” Saul picked Penny up from the floor, finding that although she was damp, there was no sticky, saliva-like feel—rather, it was more like tiny water droplets condensed on a windowpane in winter.
“To make it up to you, I’ll give you half a piece of Veiled Crystal Essence.”
The mont Penny heard that, she sprang out of Saul’s hand and shrieked, “A whole piece!”
Saul smiled.
“Fine, half a piece, deal!” Penny imdiately changed her tune.
Still, since Saul needed Penny’s help for tonight’s Dreamscape Drifting, he didn’t let her absorb the half piece just yet—he didn’t want her overeating and falling asleep like Little Algae.
That night, Saul returned to the dormitory next to Byron’s and fell asleep.
For many wizard apprentices, sleep was considered a waste of ti. Only when they accumulated a lot of exhaustion would they take a brief nap to balance their state.
Even though sleep and ditation had the sa effect on recovering the ntal body—ditation even being slightly more efficient—the feeling of waking up refreshed from a deep sleep was irreplaceable.
Thus, every apprentice still chose to sleep once in a while. Plus, thanks to the stewards and servants on the lower floors of the Wizard Tower, Saul didn’t have to worry about dream power becoming too scarce inside the tower.
When Saul opened his eyes again, for a mont, he couldn’t even tell if he was dreaming.
Because he was still lying in the sa unfamiliar dormitory, and everything around him seed unchanged.
But when he sat up, he realized there was now a pair of silver butterfly wings on his back.
The wings looked like silver tal, intricately worked and carved, yet when Saul reached back to touch them, he felt a layer of fine, soft fur.
Sensing the information erging in his mind, Saul carefully controlled the wings behind him, making them flutter slowly. Once he felt he could move them freely, he began beating them at a high frequency.
He didn’t feel like he was moving himself, but the scenery around him rapidly receded.
It was like sitting on a high-speed train, watching fences and trees flash by outside the window.
The wings suddenly stopped beating, and Saul plunged into a bizarre, kaleidoscopic world.
All around him was a sea of shifting, blending radiance. Besides the colorful glow, he could see several small children sleeping amid the light.
These children, who had humanoid forms, were likely manifestations of the drear’s consciousness, and they seed harmless.
This ti, Saul gently fluttered his wings to move toward the sleeping children.
But as he got closer, he realized with a jolt: none of the children had faces.
Their bodies were normal, but their faces—completely wiped clean, as if erased by so unseen hand.
Perhaps it was Saul’s shock that caused a ripple in his consciousness. Perhaps he had simply gotten too close. One of the faceless children stirred, its blank head turning toward Saul.
"Not Senior Byron," Saul imdiately judged from the ntal fluctuations he sensed. Before the other children could all turn to face him, he rapidly beat his wings.
High-frequency wingbeats allowed him to jump between different dreams, different consciousnesses.
Slow wingbeats let him move within the sa dream.
Though the legends of Nightmare Butterflies sounded mysterious and powerful, they weren’t without limits—otherwise, they wouldn’t have been chased so desperately by Second Rank wizards.
They hard or influenced people mainly by subtly, gradually altering their mories.
Their primary thod was Dreamscape Drifting.
When Saul’s surroundings stabilized again, he found himself facing two gigantic, opposing faces.
The faces lood into the sky. Even after flying for a while, Saul only managed to travel from one mouth up to a nose.
“With faces this huge, it’s hard to even tell what they look like.”
Saul was just pondering how to influence them when one of the faces suddenly opened its eyes.
It seed to notice Saul’s presence, straining to glance downward with its eyeball.
Then it abruptly opened its mouth, unleashing a gust that blew Saul straight onto the other face’s nose bridge.
And that face, too, was roused from sleep.
“This one’s not Byron either.” Saul confird quickly and, without hesitation, beat his wings.
The two colossal faces instantly retreated into the distance.
After that, Saul cruised through dozens more dreams.
He even suspected one of them belonged to so sort of wraith.
Tonight, Saul didn’t encounter anything overly dangerous—but he also didn’t find any trace of Senior Byron’s soul.
Despite Penny’s assistance, after exploring dozens of dreams, Saul’s ntal body beca exhausted and he was forcibly ejected from the dreamscape.
This ti, he quickly sank into a deep, dreamless sleep.
For the next three days straight, Saul spent his days researching the gray matter potion, and his nights half searching for Byron, half sleeping.
Unfortunately, the distance between dreams usually had no relation to the physical distance between the drears. So even though Saul was sleeping in the room next to Byron’s, he still couldn't locate his senior’s soul.
The longer it dragged on, the more anxious Saul beca.
On the fourth morning, Saul’s dormitory door was suddenly knocked.
Still asleep, Saul instantly opened his eyes and sprang out of bed.
He rushed to open the door, and to his delight, found Keli standing outside.
“You finally made it.” Saul breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly ushered her inside.
Keli had dark half-moons hanging under her eyes. She collapsed onto the dorm’s only chair.
“I’m dead tired. I had to make ten batches of premium adhesive these past two days. And I had to do it all in front of the Tower Master. My legs are still like jelly.”
Although Keli had been terrified when she first t Gorsa, after three days working under him, she had grown much more at ease.
This ti, her legs were truly weak from exhaustion, not fear.
Saul had originally wanted to ask her about the adhesive anyway—that’s why he’d left the note at her dorm. Now he eagerly served her water and food.
“Could you give the formula for the premium adhesive?”
Keli was still gulping water. When she heard that, she put the cup down and looked at Saul.
She hesitated only slightly. “Sure. Anyway, our master never said it had to be kept secret from you.”
With that, she stopped drinking and imdiately grabbed the pen and paper from Saul’s desk to start writing.
Having made ten batches already, she could practically recite the formula backward.
Saul watched as she carefully wrote out the entire process, all while thinking to himself whether these materials might have any hidden dangers when combined.
However, the formula heavily relied on elents Saul wasn’t familiar with, leaving large parts of it a mystery to him.
So when Keli finished writing, Saul asked her to explain every part he didn’t understand.
Though not yet a Third Rank apprentice, Keli was incredibly knowledgeable, especially about adhesives and various toxins.
She patiently explained everything to Saul.
“Keli, do you think this potion has any hidden dangers?”
“Hidden dangers?”
“For example, if soone added a certain elental material to it, could it turn into a deadly poison or sothing?”
(End of Chapter)
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