Throne of Magical Arcana

It can’t be such a coincidence, can it? Donnie felt that the uncanny fear grabbed his heart tightly like a giant hand, making it difficult for him to breathe.

“You… had a nightmare too?” he asked uneasily. Even though he tried to keep his voice steady and normal, it still came out like the smoke at night.

“Yes.” Karl was the first to catch his breath and answer Donnie’s question. Then, he looked around at Sammy and the rest of them with his beautiful silver eyes and said rather solemnly, “I dreamed that Sammy was possessed by his ghost and lost his self-awareness before he walked to the center of the Cemetery of Eternal Sleep. In order to find out the reason, Donnie, Jones, and I followed him…”

“Me too!” Before Karl finished, Donnie and Jones blurted out, equally appalled. The few people in the dormitory had the same nightmare?

Could it be any weirder?

Was there really a ghost that was haunting the dormitory and influencing everywhere in secret? Or had all of them been cursed?

Donnie swallowed hard. Cold sweat gathered on his forehead and slipped off his face one drop after another. He sensed a fear that he had never felt before.

“You’re the same? You followed Sammy into the tomb, saw the Original Body, and found a certain item that was sealed below it?” Karl raised his voice. He seemed shocked and scared, but he was also excited.

At a loss, Jones replied, “Yes. When we passed the tomb, the mummies, the dragon liches, and the other undead creatures turned a blind eye to all of us. So, it was because we were having a dream… I was rather puzzled back then because not everybody had my talent of ‘stealth’. However… However, why was I noticed and affected? Why did I have the same dream as yours?”

In apprehension, he kept mumbling to himself, unconvinced that he had been involved in such a weird matter when he had always escaped everyone’s attention. Only at such a moment was he really behaving like a teenager.

The more he listened to it, the more certain Donnie was that everybody had the same nightmare but from different perspectives. Or rather, it seemed that the few of them were manipulated to perform an opera.

How did such a weird thing happen?

“What about you, Sammy? What did you dream?” Karl jumped off his bed and stared at Sammy. He was standing next to his bed in a thin shirt.

Sammy was on his bed. The ghost on his back seemed to have lost all the vitality and was wandering lazily. He did not say anything, as if he were still dwelling in the nightmare.

Hearing Karl’s question, Sammy shivered hard, and the remaining confusion on his face all turned into fear. “I… I dreamed that I was summoned by something and walked forward uncontrollably. There was nothing but darkness and silence on my way, as if it were the legendary last destiny. Then… Then, the enormous body made of countless intelligent creatures appeared and woke me up, making me realize that I was in a dream. I struggled and tried to free myself, only to no avail. In the end, I sensed death…”

His voice was not clear and sounded like dream talk, but it was enough to let his roommates know that Sammy had the same nightmare! However, he sensed the nightmare from the perspective of the possessed ghost.

“Karl, this is too weird for us to resolve on our own. Should we report it to the college tomorrow morning?”

Fatty Jones and Sammy immediately agreed. Although they were all talented and proud, they were teenagers and not even official sorcerers yet. Now that they ran into such an unimaginable incidence, it was only natural that they were panicked and looked for targets they could rely on. Without any doubt, the college, which had plenty of senior-rank sorcerers and archmages, was their pillar.

Donnie asked Karl first because he sensed from his dream that Karl had the curiosity of a cat and might encourage them to investigate in secret. Therefore, he hoped to strike his eagerness by asking him the question. Also, with the guy’s background, it was possible that he could see something and offer valuable suggestions.

Karl paced back and forth in the dormitory. Suddenly, he said in a low voice, “What if it’s a secret experiment of the college?”

“What? The college’s experiment?” Voices of shock echoed with intense disbelief.

“I am just saying a possibility that cannot be ruled out. Maybe a certain mentor was studying the relationship between the soul and the dream, right? Because it seemed to be different from the regular dreams that are based on brain structure. If it’s a confidential experiment that he does not wish anyone else to know, after we report it to the college recklessly, it’s possible that…” Karl made a throat-cutting movement.

Greatly alarmed, Donnie said with his shaky voice, “It’s just a possibility…”

His voice gradually lowered, because he discovered that it was indeed very possible! In Heidler, there was barely anyone that could avoid the sensors of the defense if they tried to influence them in secret, unless the alarm was not dealt with at all…

The roommates suddenly fell into extreme silence. Only the vague sound of breath suggested that there were still living creatures.

“However, we are only magic apprentices…” Frowning, Sammy said while clenching his velvet quilt so hard that veins were bulging on his head.

Jones sat on the bed like a ghost, as if he was pretending that he did not exist. “Let’s not scare ourselves. If it’s the college’s secret experiment, there is no way that we can get away from it. So, why don’t we take our chances? I do not want to have the same nightmare and wait for the final outcome every day, hoping that whoever behind the curtain is not malicious! I don’t want that!”

Having worked as a secret reporter for two years, he managed to remain sane, but hysteria still got the better of him toward the end.

“Everybody had the same nightmare… Whoever did it is too strong for us to investigate in secret…” Donnie tried to remain calm.

Out of everyone’s expectation, Karl smiled, which bloomed in the dark dormitory like starlight. “I know. What I’m saying is that we should not report the matter to the college in a rush. I have secret channels to contact the outside world. I’ll send the incident out and ask the professionals to analyze the causes and offer suggestions. After all, there are plenty of ways to let a few people have the same nightmare, and we are incapable of determining which one it was. Then, we will decide whether we wait for rescue or report it to the college.

“It’s just one more day of waiting. It shouldn’t be too dangerous.”

Secret channels? Professionals? Donnie suddenly recalled Karl’s background. As if he saw the dawn in the middle of a night, he asked excitedly, “Is it really okay? Thank you in advance!”

With Karl’s identity, it shouldn’t be difficult to deal with such a stealthy schemer.

If he really had the most terrifying strength, he need not hide in the shadow at all, and he could’ve overthrown the Congress to do whatever he wanted!

Jones and Sammy were equally excited. They looked at Karl at the same time and were finally relieved after Karl nodded. Then, one of them further moved back into the corner, and the other began to observe the surroundings sleepily.

“I thought that you would encourage us to investigate on our own…” Relieved, Donnie said casually.

Karl chuckled. “Do I look like such a reckless and inconsiderate man?”

Yes! Donnie, Sammy, and Jones thought to themselves.

“I have the keen intuitions that come from my parents. When I sense that something is too tricky for me, I’ll ask for help,” Karl said proudly. “I’ll send the message first thing in the morning. Then, we’ll go to Mr. Felipe’s open class.”

He seemed to have forgotten his previous fright and become “carefree” again.

“Yes, there’s Mr. Felipe’s open class. I have to get some sleep.” Sammy nodded, so eager to sleep that he did not seem to have had any nightmare.

Although Felipe did not specialize in ghosts, he was the most famous necromancer in the past three decades. Therefore, Sammy admired him and wanted to attend his open class.

As he spoke, Sammy lay down again. In no more than one minute, his roommates heard the familiar breath after he was sound asleep.

Karl raised his eyebrow. “I envy him so much. He can fall asleep whenever he wants. Insomnia is not a problem for him at all.”

“That’s a whole wrong way to interpret it…” Jones said in a low voice. How inert and befuddled one’s brain must be if they could still sleep after such a nightmare? “My roommates are truly all monsters…”

Donnie glanced at him. So are you, and I am the only normal person here!

However, according to Karl, the enormous undead creature I saw was the Original Body?

……

Outside of the Heidler Magic College, the slanted tombstones rose from the ground, and the graves behind them were scattered around a gigantic room in a rather mysterious way.

Two people descended from the dim, pale sky of the World of Souls. A young man with golden hair and a child’s face smiled at the man next to him. “Mr. Felipe, are you planning to establish a branch of the Heredity Laboratory?”

It seemed that he made use of the power of the defense, which allowed him to utter in the Cemetery of Eternal Sleep.

Felipe was still tall, slim, and handsome, with a sickly face. With his hands in the pockets of his black coat, he looked around and said briefly, “Many factors that affect my research can be avoided here.”

He was only wearing two badges on his chest. One of them was the badge that was a hand holding a quill, suggesting that he was a member of the Arcana Review Board, and the other badge looked like a pale hand. There were neither arcana badges nor magic ones.

Seeing that Felipe had no desire for communication, the man with a child’s face smiled and accompanied him through the Cemetery of Eternal Sleep to the gate of the college. He did not dare to say anything else.

Suddenly, Felipe stopped and stared at the dark tomb at the center, squinting.

His face did not seem to change, but it was grimmer than before.

“Mr. Felipe?” the man with a child’s face asked in confusion.

Felipe moved his right hand, which was wearing a white glove, out of his pocket and pointed at the center. “The scent of death there seems more intense now.”

“What about it?” The man with a child’s face did not feel anything wrong at all.

Felipe snorted but did not bother to explain himself. He simply gave an order, “After the open class, give me the records of the defense in the last three days.”