Chapter 105: Nightmare: White Tower
Annan didn’t hesitate for too long.
Annan lay on the bed, holding Gerald’s broken bones.
Annan felt a strange chill seeping into his blood. It brought an inexplicable comfort for it.
Four seconds, five seconds…Twelve seconds, thirteen seconds.
Finally, Annan’s gaze began to drift away.
His surrounding gradually became quiet and dark, and a prompt appeared before his eyes:
[Detected unpurified Nightmare Fragment.]
[Rank requirement: Bronze Rank and above]
[Profession requirement: Wizard]
[Special requirement: Once killed someone]
[The requirements are met. You will fall into a nightmare after ten seconds, 10, 9…]
Suddenly, Annan felt his consciousness begin to fall rapidly.
Annan didn’t know how long he had been falling. Until at a particular moment, he suddenly woke up.
It was pitch black before his eyes, and only the data stream flashed through quickly:
[Falling in a nightmare. A dungeon instance is being generated.]
[Dungeon instance difficulty is set as hard. You can enter up to ten times.]
[The current purification progress is 1/10.]
[The total erosion rate of the team is 8%. The dungeon instance difficulty rises by 8%. The nightmare’s mutation probability increases by 8%.]
[This dungeon instance has no checkpoint. The erosion rate is increased by 5% for each death. You will be forced to exit the dungeon instance after one death.]
[This dungeon instance provides a plot and has decryption rewards.]
[Dungeon instance clearance reward: Wizard profession increases by 1 level.]
[Reward for 50% dungeon instance decryption: Obtain random Soul s.n.a.t.c.h school spell (must be equipped)]
[Loading complete.]
After the “loading completed” texts gradually faded away, Gerald’s sigh sounded in Annan’s ear:
“Be skeptical on everything.”
Gerald seemed to be standing beside Annan, staring in front, and sighed in a low voice, “Don’t trust anyone.”
As his voice sounded, the surrounding darkness was torn apart by the cold wind in an instant.
Annan immediately noticed that he was in the snowy area.
The sky was lead-grey, and the blizzard was coming.
Even the unusually dazzling sun had faded a bit at this place.
He was wearing heavy anti-skid boots, holding a long stick in his right hand, and wearing a wool hat on his head.
His boots were sunken in the snow. His face and hands were numb due to the cold. Even though his clothes were thick, Annan couldn’t help but shiver.
“This is a little cold.”
If I continue to stand here, I may be frozen to death.
I have to find a place to shelter from the wind and snow.
Annan realized this straight away.
He looked back and found that his footprints came from a distance beyond his sight, and the wind and snow covered the farthest footprints. This showed that his body had just walked over there. This snowfall should have lasted for a long time.
There’s no way for me to turn back.
My only choice is to continue forward.
Annan made his decision and checked the items on him.
The result was less unexpected.
Annan wore Gerald’s silver ring in his left hand, a pair of gold spectacles in his backpack, and a silver pocket watch that could be used as a mirror. There was also the…
A little white hammer?
“Isn’t this-“
The Venerated Skeleton’s bone blood trigger.
Annan was startled but not too surprised.
He remembered Salvatore saying that this curse vessel should have been stolen not long ago, about four or five years ago. At least it was three years after Gerald had advanced to Silver, so it certainly wouldn’t be too long ago.
Annan checked and found that six teeth were loaded in the bone hammer. He seemed well prepared for battles.
On the contrary, this body came to such a cold place without a backpack. There was no change of clothes, no food or water.
It was as if the original body host knew from the beginning that he wouldn’t stay outside for too long.
No matter what, I got to first confirm my ident.i.ty.
Annan thought so and faced the smooth surface of the pocket watch.
Reflected from the silver surface was a young man with a gentle smile and an ordinary appearance. His brown curly hair was covered with snow, and his dark blue pupils were unusually calm.
“Sure enough, it’s you.”
Annan murmured.
The body he was using now was the man, David Gerald.
The wanted black wizard by the Swamp’s Black Tower.
At the next moment, the plot introduction of this dungeon instance appeared in front of him:
[After being expelled by Swamp’s Black Tower, David Gerald is homeless with nowhere to go.]
[If he is an Alteration Wizard, then he can at least find a job. But it’s a pity no n.o.ble would believe him with his background as a wizard of the Soul s.n.a.t.c.h school. Hence, no one hired him.]
[At least until he advances to gold, this situation will not improve.]
[Not long ago, Mr. Gerald caught wind of something.]
[Howling White Tower Master, Gold Rank’s Wizard “Time Stopper Eye” Michelangelo, decided to recruit an heir for Howling White Tower among the Silver Rank Wizards all over the world.]
[No age limit.]
[No gender limitation.]
[Disregard origin and background.]
[The only requirement is that you have no teacher, no cla.s.smate, and no apprentice.]
[There are eight schools, namely Soul s.n.a.t.c.h, Edict, Prophet, Alteration, Falteration, Destruction, Shaping, Idol. Each school’s applicants, who meet the requirements and prove to be the best, will receive Master Michelangelo’s invitation letter. They will be summoned to the Howling Wind White Tower. Finally, there will be a secret ritual to determine the ultimate successor.]
[Gerald signed up symbolically. But he never expected that he would be selected.]
[The moment he opened the invitation letter, he was teleported to the snowy field near the Howling Wind White Tower. Fortunately, he was prepared. He put on heavy clothes with trekking poles prepared in advance. Although it looked a little funny, he was not embarra.s.sed.]
[But correspondingly, except for the curse vessel “the Venerated Skeleton’s Bone and Blood Trigger,” he did not carry any other weapons or curse vessels.]
[You will come here for him to complete this ritual.]
[To use this curse vessel, tap anyone’s bones with it, and it will allow you to apply “Cardioplegia,” “Forgotten Secret,” “I’m Not Here,” “Speak No Evil,” “Claustrophobia,” “Claustrophobia” and “Page Lock” to your target. Each curse can only be used once in this dungeon instance. If the power difference is too large, the effect may be exempted.]
[You need to bear Gerald’s curse – “Break the Declaration” temporarily.]
[Before launching an attack on others, you must issue a warning three to ten seconds in advance and reveal the target of the attack. The closer to ten seconds, the greater the output. But if the attack is not followed up within ten seconds, the state will be reset.]
[In this dungeon instance, only Soul s.n.a.t.c.h school spells below the Silver Rank can be used. Your mana pool ratio is temporarily regarded as 15/34 (chaotic power is twice the order power).]
[At sunrise, you can restore all Order Power.]
[At sunset, you can restore all Chaotic Power.]
[Warning: After the mana pool ratio is reversed to 2:1 ratio or higher, you will enter the Lost Control (frenzy) state, losing 20% of the maximum health per second.]
After these words dissipated, a line of words appeared in front of Annan again:
[Main mission: Stay alive.]
Immediately, small texts appeared under this line:
[Do not fight with anyone.]
[Get everyone’s real name.]
[At least survive till only four people remain.]