This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

"Awakening Stone..." As he sat on the carriage, Lucien could not help but ponder about the Awakening Stone and the awakening ceremony in his heart, analyzing the possibility of making Lurah an Awakener.

After all, in this world endowed with extraordinary powers, if one could not become a Transcendent, they would naturally be at a disadvantage when facing other "players" with extraordinary powers in the future.

However, obtaining an Awakening Stone was not an easy task.

Because this special resource was produced only in small quantities at the core of the Demon clan nests, every Awakening Stone represented the blood and sweat of demon-hunting soldiers and other Awakeners, thus it was strictly controlled by the Awakening Temple and very difficult to obtain.

Like Lurah’s older brother, Harvey, who had only received an Awakening Stone with the flame manipulation talent at the age of twelve, through the military honors bestowed by their father, Anos, while Lurah and her second brother, Carol, had not received one due to their age.

According to Lucien’s estimate, if he wanted to obtain an Awakening Stone through his family’s gift, he would have to wait until Lurah was 10-12 years old, leaving a gap of 5 to 7 years.

That amount of time was simply too long, so long that Lucien doubted whether the Dream World would still exist by then.

Thus, if he wanted to obtain an Awakening Stone, he would need to explore some special channels, although this might bring some unpredictable risks.

"Are you not happy playing with your sister Sura, my dear Rach?"

(Rach: A type of flower in the Dream World)

While Lucien looked out the window to hide his contemplation, Anos beside him spoke softly and gently rubbed Lurah’s cheek.

Lucien silently controlled Lurah and responded to Anos.

"No, I just saw Brother Harvey practicing flame manipulation this morning..." Lucien’s thoughts stirred, quietly testing Anos’s attitude by speaking about witnessing Harvey practicing flame manipulation and tentatively expressing his own desire to acquire extraordinary powers.

"Lurah, you are still too young; both your body and spiritual power are too weak. Even if you obtained an Awakening Stone now, it would be difficult to awaken powerful abilities," Anos gently rubbed Lurah’s head. "Wait until you’re a bit older, um... by the time you turn ten, Daddy will definitely give you a birthday present..."

"Thank you, Daddy..." Lurah smiled sweetly, but Lucien, who was controlling Lurah, felt a wave of disappointment, realizing that the conventional path to obtaining an Awakening Stone was essentially blocked.

Just as he was preparing to control Lurah to obtain some basic world information from Anos, his dispersed spiritual power keenly detected a subtle fluctuation of spiritual power.

It was from another Wizard’s spiritual tentacles, and the intensity of this unfamiliar spiritual power was comparable to Lucien’s, allowing both parties to detect each other’s presence.

Another player! And probably a Formal Wizard or even a recently promoted second-level Wizard!

Lucien’s breath tightened; he and the unseen Wizard simultaneously withdrew their spiritual tentacles, but soon, both cautiously extended them again, and the unknown Wizard sent out a wave of friendly spiritual power to Lucien during their second contact, followed by a message.

"Haimingsen University sophomore, you can call me ’Thunder.’"

Haimingsen University, sophomore?

An organization where a Formal Wizard can be a student or an apprentice?

Many thoughts surfaced in Lucien’s mind, but within the True Place of the Dream Layer, he was unsure of the attitude of the mysterious Wizard, so he remained quite cautious.

"You can... call me ’Shadow.’" After a brief silence, Lucien transmitted his thought.

"Didn’t expect to meet a friend here from the Wizard World; this is my third cycle. You... how many times for you?"

The self-proclaimed Thunder seemed quite talkative, and even though it was impossible to hear the tone through spiritual communication, Lucien could still somewhat imagine a Wizard sitting across from him, chatting away. However, he was very interested in the "cycle" mentioned by the other.

"Reincarnation?" Lucien didn’t hide his confusion and, in order to concentrate and communicate with "Thunder," he slowly manipulated [Lurah]to close his eyes, presenting himself in a state of deep sleep.

"Yes, reincarnation. I was attempting an experiment in my lab with electrical systems combined with the power of dreams, and then due to some accidents, I came to this bizarre world." There seemed to be a hint of self-mockery in the fluctuations of Thunder’s spiritual power.

"This dream will last for one and a half years. After the outbreak of the ’magic disaster’, it will return to the original time point, accept the ’newcomers’ and will also change the identities of us old remnants."

"Heh heh, I seriously suspect this dream’s master maybe has some excessive desire towards women. Heh heh, you know? All the kind-hearted characters around him are women, from five-year-old children to seventy-year-old grandmas... and the core antagonist roles are also mostly girls. If you’re embodied in a male character, it basically means your role in the dream is the most trivial among the trivial."

"Damn it, do you know? On my second reincarnation, I was a newly married young woman with a husband who loved me dearly! A husband dead set on having a child! Damn it... if it were outside, I would have given that dream master some shock therapy!"

Thunder grumbled, seemingly expressing his complaints against that dream master.

Lucien’s mouth twitched, he gleaned too many details from Thunder’s complaints, so much so that he even felt fortunate about his own embodiment in [Lurah].

"I also came in due to an accident, but looking through the rules, it seems the rules encourage us to slaughter each other." Lucien paused for a moment, still choosing this approach to tentatively probe "Thunder."

"You can understand it that way. After all, if the ’game’ can be won, naturally, the fewer the winners, the more benefits each person can get. But after you reincarnate a few more times, you will understand that this condition holds true only if you are confident enough to decipher this dream."

Thunder’s voice carried a hint of helplessness, "I’ve also made quite a few... well, friends, I guess. Among them, someone had reincarnated seven times. Until we can break free from the dream, this place can’t bring us much substantive benefit; it’s more like a prison."

"And now, I just want to go back, go back to the university, then vent thoroughly!" There seemed to be a hint of suffocation and fatigue in Thunder’s voice, making Lucien almost want to offer him a cigarette.

"I want to know the basic situation of this world." After some contemplation, Lucien voiced his need to Thunder.

"We also have a limited understanding of this world—the only confirmed information is that the core of this Dream World is likely related to the ’magic tide’ that will occur one and a half years later." Thunder’s response carried a note of uncertainty.

"In my previous two reincarnations, once I helped the dream master, [Rafael], to prevent the outbreak of the magic tide and killed the leader of the demonic tribe, the Demon King. The second time, I failed to stop the magic tide, and in that tide, Rafael was defeated by the Demon King and died, but the result was the same in the end... as you see, everything restarted."

Thunder’s voice bore a hint of weariness. However, he soon asked Lucien, "How did you come in and... do you have any special understanding of this world?"

"I have a Nightmare Contract Life and with its power, I ventured into the depths of the Dream Layer to explore." Lucien roughly shared his experiences, but he still chose to withhold the critical information about the "Land of Reality" from Thunder.

"Deep within the Dream Layer?" Thunder’s consciousness was silent for a moment, seemingly pondering something.

"It’s nice to meet you, Shadow. If you don’t mind, we have a small ’gathering’ the day after tomorrow at midnight. The location is behind the abandoned clock tower of the Menter family. Those who are coming are some pretty reasonable friends. If you’re free, you can join us."

After transmitting this last piece of information, Thunder’s spiritual power swiftly retracted, and soon he lost contact with Lucien.

"A gathering for the ’players’?" Lucien’s spiritual power also slowly retracted, and he directly discarded the part of the spiritual power that had been in direct contact with ’Thunder’.

Though this would cause slight damage to Lucien’s spiritual power, it would also prevent any potential hidden markers set by ’Thunder,’ allowing tracking without his awareness.

This was a necessary caution.

As for the gathering mentioned by ’Thunder,’ Lucien was somewhat undecided.

If the description of the Dream World and what "Thunder" claimed are similar, then finding a few reliable teammates could undoubtedly make Lucien’s subsequent activities easier, and also better handle some special situations in the Dream World, including item trades, intelligence exchanges, etc.

However, the problem lies in the fact that such gatherings come with no guarantees. In this dream that encourages players to attack each other, "Thunder’s" invitation could very well be a trap.

"Go back and ask Sanaxis first." Lucien made up his mind, but he manipulated [Lurah]to slowly sit up and quietly began to search the crowd for Thunder’s real identity among the players.

Should he be able to discover Thunder’s true identity, Lucien would then have a bit more confidence when dealing with Thunder later on.