This wizard only wishes to be a teacher

"Is this really Rafael’s inner thoughts?" Lucien found it hard to believe, feeling as if Rafael’s roar was still echoing in his ears.

"The Elder’s plan? He’s had enough?"

Lucien felt as if his mind had suddenly exploded. Rafael, who could say such things, naturally couldn’t be the protagonist of the dream. He must be a player just like himself!

It was utterly inconceivable. Had it not been for Lucien’s previous observation of Rafael’s emotions and his subsequent guesswork, he might have caused some disturbances like dropping snacks or other minor actions that could attract attention due to his intense emotional fluctuations.

After all, even at the previous "judge" organized player gathering, Lucien had never heard such secretive news.

It should be noted that in that player gathering, most were like "Thunder," who had undergone reincarnation in the Dream World multiple times. However, from the meeting Lucien attended and his previous conversation with Thunder, these players seemed to have not noticed Rafael’s issue.

At least, the wizard "Thunder" seemed unaware of the fact that Rafael was being played by a player. According to Thunder’s own account, his first two reincarnations revolved around Rafael and pushed the story forward.

From the current situation, the vast majority of players who were unaware were likely kept in the dark. Misguided by incorrect information, they subconsciously gathered around Rafael and tried to find opportunities near him, ultimately ending up being tools manipulated by Rafael.

The player impersonating Rafael, along with the Elder and possibly other entities behind him, seemed like a group of puppeteers hidden behind the scenes, deceiving and manipulating most players, including Lucien!

Perhaps this was why many players, including the wizard "Thunder," kept trying to crack this dream but were always trapped inside it—because what they were given from the start was a tampered, false script.

Perhaps the false script was only slightly twisted compared to the real one, but it was due to this slight change that the final outcome was flawed, causing many unaware players to be repeatedly dragged into cycles of the Dream World.

"Calm down, I need to calm down." Lucien harnessed his spiritual power, struggled to control his emotions, and then closed his eyes. Using the technique of the Meditation Method to regulate his breathing, once he felt his emotions had mostly stabilized, he reopened his eyes and subtly adjusted his sitting posture so that he could see Rafael from a more natural angle without being noticed.

Lucien hoped to hear more useful information from the player impersonating Rafael, preferably something about the Elder behind him.

However, to Lucien’s disappointment, the player embodying Rafael seemed quite reticent. Although Lucien could occasionally catch glimpses of Rafael’s inner thoughts through his "Mind Reading" ability, there was scant useful information.

What concerned Lucien the most—details about the Elder’s plan or about the Elder himself—had not reappeared.

Instead, Rafael’s inner thoughts mostly consisted of complaints about the female characters around him and some in-depth evaluations of those characters. As Lucien’s "eavesdropping" skills became more refined, he heard more complete and comprehensive content.

This caused Lucien’s lips to twitch slightly, feeling that if he silently continued to follow Rafael and recorded all these bizarre content he was hearing, he could easily write a book titled "Rafael’s Otherworldly Seduction Chronicles" and "108 Intimate Ways with You."

"It seems that Thunder’s description was correct at least in this regard—in this Dream World, Rafael is a hybrid of a bulldozer and a pile driver, hmm, and it’s that kind of harem harmony, no need to worry about jealousy issues, it’s a fantasy world."

Lucien muttered to himself, while also looking at the two players who were Rafael’s companions with a bit more hidden pity.

...

"Two-legged hairy beast, the situation you described is a bit special." That night, when the awakened Count Sanaxis heard Lucien’s description, his voice carried a hint of uncertainty, "The only possibility I can think of is that they found the stone tablet that records the rules of the Dream World."

"Then they used ink or some other special Dream World resource to slightly tweak one of the rules..."

"Is it possible that they found the real Dream Realm Lord and brought him into this world?" Lucien hesitated for a moment before voicing his concerns. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Absolutely impossible!" Earl Sanaxis said, his voice becoming somewhat excited as if a cat whose tail had been stepped on, devoid of the previous sleepiness.

"The dreams or other artifacts cast in the Land of Reality all originate from... uh, from a great world that has already perished, a world that was destroyed long ago, leaving only fragments of images or dreams that can still be somewhat presented within the Land of Reality."

"And like this ’fantasy’ world you are in now, it’s just a dream woven by an ordinary person within that world, distorted into some sort of real existence by the effects of the Land of Reality and fixed in place. As for the real Dream Realm Lord? He died when the world was destroyed and couldn’t possibly have survived until now..."

Earl Sanaxis spoke with unusual certainty.

"In that case, it must be that elder who’s orchestrating everything behind the scenes," Lucien said thoughtfully, stroking his chin while pulling out his Wizard’s Notes, beginning to supplement some empty pages with witchcraft that he might need for the impending battle.

"Maybe, but the stone tablet inscribed with the Dream Rules can’t be moved. Finding it might also reveal the source of this dream," Earl Sanaxis yawned, seemingly about to fall asleep again under the constraints of the rules.

"Sanaxis, is it possible that behind this lies a Dream Realm Lord level, or maybe a tier-four Wizard’s involvement?" Lucien quickly thought of something and hurriedly seized the moment Earl Sanaxis was about to fall asleep to ask this crucial question.

"There might be some mechanisms they laid down within the Land of Reality, but such high-tier powerhouses are utterly unable to interfere within the Land of Reality. After all, this place is like a net to them, with levels like you—tier-one Wizards, tier-two Wizards—coming in; the ’net’ is virtually non-existent for you, as you are not their targets, so you could easily move through each loophole, even consuming the bait inside without issue."

"For those at the tier-three Wizard level, they need to be cautious of the Land of Reality’s ’net’. Given their ’size’, the current gaps in the net may also limit them somewhat. If they are not careful and get tangled in the net, they qualify to become ’small fish.’"

Earl Sanaxis humphed twice, "As for those lord-level powerhouses? The net is laid out specifically for them. Once they touch some of the insights within the Land of Reality, certain special substances within them would be plundered by the one who laid the net..."

"Of course, they also covet the things inside the Land of Reality, so they would constantly probe cautiously, plan, and either dispatch or invite some underlings or powerful entities into the Land of Reality. However, they dare not step into it in their true forms or even let their tokens be brought inside the Land of Reality."

Earl Sanaxis continued, then yawned greatly once more.

"However, this has little to do with you since even if you advance to a tier-two Wizard, you wouldn’t satisfy those characters’ appetites. Even those at the tier-three Wizard level would face significant restrictions within the Land of Reality, unable to manipulate everything at will."

"So that’s how it is..." Lucien pondered over Earl Sanaxis’s words, recalling the judge he had met at the party who liked "witnessing" and "observing."

Perhaps the other party didn’t genuinely enjoy witnessing but was extremely restricted in what actions they could take in the Land of Reality. In such a situation, maintaining a small player circle, managing players through intimidation, and co-opting techniques were more cost-effective than slaughter.

But whether he had any relationship with the "elder" Rafael spoke of...

Lucien pondered for a moment but felt that handling this affair alone was somewhat difficult. Therefore, he now needed to enlist a few reasonably powerful "allies" to collaborate on his upcoming plans.

The first person Lucien thought of was "Thunder" from the Wizard World.

Thunder didn’t feel to him like the cold-hearted Wizards previously nurtured by Greybone Academy but rather like a somewhat fanciful, romantic guy, perhaps because he had an aunt who was a dean as a backing.

Yet these were not the focus. Lucien valued more that he had no immediate conflicts of interest with him, laying the foundation for a deep collaboration between them.

"I hope my choice is not wrong." Lucien murmured softly, hastening the speed of recording witchcraft in his Wizard’s Notes while also starting to think about the details of negotiating with "Thunder."