The Witch's Taste

Chapter 10 Chaos Approved Warrior

If there were any words to describe the dream world, the best word Chen Ziang could come up with was "grotesque".

Yes, grotesque.

It's not the kind of grotesque that is artificially designed, but a kind of unspeakable weird style that has been distorted from the root.

For example, the horror movies, comics, and novels that Chen Ziang has read in the past are like make-up artists deliberately pretending to be ugly.And after following Nicole to the ancient city of Enrank, everything she saw and heard was like a born deformed animal—there was almost a world of difference.

The ancient city of Enrank is a medieval style city.

There are hardly any technological creations here. The ground is paved with cobblestones. The surrounding houses are mostly made of wood and stone. The base of the wall is covered with creeping moss.

Walking the streets are human inhabitants dressed in linen.Most of the women are wearing headscarves, looking haggard; most of the men have beards and messy hair, wandering or sitting on the doorstep in a daze.

Seeing Chen Ziang and Nicole coming side by side, they quickly walked into the house with gloomy faces, closed the door heavily and locked it, and then cast a secret peeping gaze from the window.

A huge shadow flew by in the air, but it was a nightmare of the same family as Neeko.They flew to high places in the house, and then crawled in through the attic windows.

"Peaceful coexistence, isn't it?" Nicole giggled, "These human beings all strayed into this world for various reasons, and were taken in by our hospitable clansman - everyone gave them room." Get out of your room to live in!"

"So, what's the price?" Chen Ziang asked calmly.

Of course he wouldn't believe any nonsense about "hospitality", not to mention judging from the gloomy expressions of those humans, life in Enrank has absolutely nothing to do with "happiness".

"The price is just a small rent." Nicole said lightly, "After all, we have nightmares, and we feed on the fear in dreams."

A simple sentence, but the hidden meaning behind it is chilling:

In other words, the human residents living here will inevitably have nightmares every time they sleep, for the owner to feast on the nightmares... No wonder everyone has a bad look, it's not bad if they stay here for a long time without being driven crazy.

Chen Ziang's expression was cloudy and uncertain, only to hear Nicole say again:

"If these human beings return to your world, they will decay and die immediately. They have stayed in the dream world for too long, and they have already been assimilated here."

"Even if you just leave Enrank, you will be preyed upon by other weirdnesses in the outside world. Being able to stay here and have nightmares is already the greatest blessing."

Chen Ziang didn't answer.

The two walked across the street and finally reached the town square.

The huge and towering temple is located in the center of the entire ancient city.The main entrance is like two tall screens, opening silently inwards, revealing the dark and mysterious palace inside.

In the center of the hall, there is a square pillar-shaped altar with a faint blue flame burning on it.

"Altar of Chaos." Nicole raised the staff in her hand and pointed to the blazing blue flame, "Pray in front of the altar, and ask the God of Chaos for what you want—this is also the Lord of the Great Deep Sea's mean."

Chen Ziang showed a look of hesitation, and Nicole didn't rush him, but said lightly:

"I guess, you didn't just come to this world by accident just for sightseeing."

These words reminded him.Chen Ziang was silent for a moment, then came to the front of the flame altar.

The faint blue flame swayed and danced, but it didn't emit any heat, instead it brought a chilling chill.

Chen Ziang closed his eyes and thought to himself:

"I want to find a way to cure my sister's disease."

After a while, he opened his eyes in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Nicole asked from the side.

"He said..." Chen Ziang hesitated to speak, and reorganized the language, "He said that I can exchange powers with him."

"That's it." Nicole showed a satisfied look, "You have obtained His approval."

"From now on, Enrank recognizes your qualification to fight for the shadows, and all our war missions will be open to you."

Chen Ziang was silent for a long time, and asked:

"The powers He gave..."

"It's your current rank, all the abilities you can exchange for." Nicole's tone became more kind, and she explained patiently, "Do you still remember the shadow cloak I gave you just now?"

"No matter what plane or world you are in, as long as you wear it and kill any individual belonging to the fog camp or the flesh and blood camp, it will calculate the corresponding merit for you."

"After getting the meritorious service, you can exchange the meritorious service for the power you want at any chaotic altar within the shadow forces."

"Of course, you can also accumulate them to exchange for higher military ranks to unlock more power lists."

After hearing Nicole's explanation, Chen Ziang also secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

The feat that Nicole said was actually the kindling he obtained from hunting monsters before.

He turned his gaze to the altar again, and then a list appeared in front of him:
There are three powers on the list, namely [Touch of the Abyss], [Desecration of Witchcraft], and [Avatar with Thousand Faces].

"Touch of the Abyss" is to summon tentacles that can obey commands;
"Profane witchcraft" is a large number of unclean rituals related to curses;
"Thousand-faced incarnation" refers to the ability to change the appearance of the body.

The exchange price of the three powers is 50 points of fire, but none of them is related to "treatment".

Fortunately, Nicole said that as long as the military rank is raised, more powers can be unlocked, and Chen Ziang finally feels a little relieved.

The meritorious requirement for advancing to the next level of military rank is 100 points of fire, which may be tricky for ordinary people to convert into the number of hunting monsters, but he is not worried at all - after all, this is what he does in his job.

"If I leave, can I come back here?" He continued to confirm and asked.

"Of course." Nicole replied, "The shadow cloak I gave you already has Enrank's coordinates set inside."

"The next time you come to the dream world, you only need to meditate in your heart while wearing it, and you can be directly transported to the city."

The Nightmare Priest seemed to have guessed that Chen Ziang didn't have any meritorious service to exchange for power at this time, so he just made a "please" gesture and said generously:
"Enrank welcomes your visit anytime."

Chen Ziang nodded, then turned and left the temple.

He stood still in the center of the town square, took a last look at the gorgeous lavender sky, and then activated the "dream walk" power.

Consciousness seemed to be falling rapidly, and Chen Ziang felt that he had traveled through many galaxies, passed through the subconscious layer and then the preconscious layer, and finally fell back into the body.

He opened his eyes suddenly on the bed, quickly raised his arms, and looked at the spiritual pressure meter on his wrist.

The number on the dashboard shows 0, indicating that he has returned to the real world far away from the mystery.

The sanity lozenge under his tongue had dissolved, and the Mandala sword was still held in his arms. Chen Ziang half sat up from the bed, and subconsciously looked at his chest again.

The medal called "Shadow Cloak" is still pinned to the front of the chest.

According to Nicole, even if her real vision has risen to 50 or even 100, as long as she wears it on her body, she can always lock her vision at the original 13 and avoid being attacked by deeper and dangerous monsters.

Of course, if it was removed, the spiritual vision would return to reality, and the security would no longer exist.

The reason why such a function is designed is undoubtedly to encourage him to dive into the dream world more often and fight bravely for the shadow forces without worrying about the danger brought by the rising of the spirit vision.

But as long as he frequently enters the abyss, the true vision will continue to rise after all, which means that his dependence on this shadow cloak will also increase.

Chen Ziang rubbed his eyebrows in distress, and suddenly the cell phone beside his pillow rang.

"Hey?"

"Senior!" Tsukimiya Suzuna's cheerful voice came from the opposite side of the phone, "I'm here to study with you! I'll be at your door soon!"

"Okay, I'll open the door for you." Chen Ziang hung up the phone, and subconsciously pulled the shadow cloak off his collar.

He wanted to hide it under the pillow, but he quickly reacted and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

...or take it with you.

(End of this chapter)