Warlock Apprentice

A lone house in Nightmare Realm, a lit candle or oil lamp.

Is there someone, or… is it Sunders? No, can’t be.

Of course he wasn’t going to walk to the house and knock on the door. Traps, monsters… there were more than enough things that could get him killed. The house might not be one of the “red zones” mentioned by Sunders, yet Angor wouldn’t trust Sunders’ info too much because he just ran into something unknown. Nothing in Nightmare Realm followed common senses.

He carefully approached the house and planned to check through the window first. What if it were really Sunders in there?

He floated to the window, and the moment he touched the ground, he felt pain on his back. Even though his soul could not be “physically” damaged by the fall, but that accident still hurt him quite badly.

Without thinking too much about the pain on his back, he peeked through the window. Using the faint light, he saw a small flower pot placed on the ledge of the window. There was trellis in the pot but whatever that needed it had withered away.

Then he looked further into the room. From his position, the only thing he could see was a simple desk and the wall on the opposite side.

The desk had nothing other than a lamp, while a painting was hung on the wall.

To be precise, it was a Victorian oil painting.

Angor was very puzzled to see such a delicate painting lodged inside an expensive-looking golden frame in a simple wooden cottage that looked like a farmer’s home. The decoration did not fit in with the environment in many aspects.

The painting showed a castle stood silently at night, whereas the lone moon shone brightly.

Something told him that the painting contained useful clues, but when he looked more carefully, he felt an unknown fear crawling on his spine that told him to immediately look away.

Startled, he stepped away from the window until the house was hidden behind the thick mist again. He was glad that all the mist helped him stay well and hidden.

Next, he turned around and decided to head somewhere else. Most of the space in the strange house could be observed from the window, which meant Sunders wasn’t there. Unless of course, for some reason, the gentleman chose to hide in one of the blind spots.

It was when Angor was well away from the house did he finally remember Sunders’ words and checked the scrolls on him.

He reached inside his clothes and had no problem taking out the packed-up scrolls. However, something was not right—the scrolls felt too light.

After practicing and using the sequence of gravity, he was very sensitive to the weights of different objects. He was sure the scrolls looked exactly like before, yet he couldn’t feel anything in his hand at all.

Next, he saw that the runes that were drawn on the scrolls were obscured, which meant that the scrolls couldn’t be used.

So I can’t bring items to Nightmare Realm after all?

He checked his bracelet next, which was “fake” in a similar way.

In fact, everything that he had on wasn’t solid—His clothes, his necklace, and all the other miscellaneous stuff that he had.

But didn’t my tablet start up just fine last time?

He immediately regretted his decision of placing the hologram tablet inside his bracelet before coming here. Now that his bracelet wasn’t working, he had no way to tell whether the tablet was able to function.

Defeated, he decided to keep walking.

It wasn’t long before he saw another building—a wooden house with firelight coming from the window. It looked no different than the last one.

Did I accidentally move backward in the mist??

He kept moving forward without minding the house. He wished to find one of the “safe houses” as soon as possible.

Soon, he ran into the lone cottage for the third time, and he was getting really stressed out.

Sunders mentioned something about how the mist in Witch’s Town could intentionally lead people to different locations, and that he only needed to keep trying until he reached somewhere safe.

What happened to the “guidance”?

Angor didn’t believe the mist could take him to the same place three times in a row… unless something “wanted” him to come here.

He headed back into the mist again to make sure, and when he looked at the same house for the fourth time, he was unhappy as his assumption was right. This time, he wanted to see who or what kept dragging him here.

Determined, he moved to the door and pushed it open. It was not locked.

The layout in the house was not much different from what he saw earlier. A bed, a desk, a flower pot without plants, a lit oil lamp, and a painting that was out of place.

After making sure that the room had no hidden compartments or hatches to the underground, he stepped to the oil painting and watched it with a frown.

It still showed the beautiful castle shrouded in the moonlight. Yet something was not quite right.

Are there fewer trees beside the castle? I can’t really remember…

He didn’t memorize the painting earlier because of the strange fear that suddenly intruded his mind. The same feeling just came again, but he chose to keep looking.

Nothing happened.

He had no choice but to leave the cottage since there was nothing else to see here.

It was as if the house was fooling him by telling him that something was there, yet there wasn’t.

He wondered if he could finally get back onto the “right track” since he already explored the weird house. With that in mind, he activated his sequence of gravity and moved a great distance.

Then his lips twitched when he saw what was coming.

“Not leaving me alone, eh?”

He planned to take off and check the sky next. The house probably didn’t know how to fly.

But something caught his attention.

The door of the house was closed. However, he clearly remembered that he did not close the door when he left.

Sunders did say that everything in Nightmare Realm, both live and dead ones, could revert to their original states, while the time they needed to do so would depend on how “powerful” they were. Common objects would return to where they were faster, while items that held power were slower.

But I only left the house ten seconds ago… I spent several minutes inside the house and the door did not close on itself.

So is the mist actually taking me to different houses that looked the same?

He entered the cottage to check again, and still, he did not find anything worth noticing.

Unless…

What about the painting?

His instincts told him that if there were differences, he should find them in this particularly strange painting.

He tried to memorize the whole picture as clearly as possible last time, which helped him quickly locate a small detail.

The location of the “viewer” was slightly off.

Compared to the last painting, the angle of view for this painting moved a bit closer to the castle. Several trees on the last painting’s edge could no longer be seen on this one as they were left outside the boundary.

…

It seemed the mist insisted on messing up Angor’s route. No matter where he moved, he always ended up at the strange cottage. He was now visiting it for the tenth time.

Also, he noticed that the “view” of the painting kept getting closer to the center, which was exactly what he guessed earlier. The castle that was originally a background landmark in the entire drawing grew bigger until it almost took up all the space.

There was nothing wrong so far. Angor expected something to happen when the painting finally reached the castle’s door, just like how he entered the fairytale world in the bunny’s book when he read it.

Perhaps I’ll go to the castle for real in the end?

He couldn’t prove his idea for now. Also, he didn’t wish to proceed on this unknown path that was manipulated by something unknown, so he stopped checking the painting and went for the sky next, even if it meant running into monsters.