The dream wasteland in its initial stage was vulnerable against infiltration if anyone who knew dream-related arts caught wind of it. The “Gatekeeper” power was without a doubt a much-needed protection.
And just like Dream Gate, Gatekeeper also came with other interesting features. For example, Angor could ask the Gatekeeper to allow people affected by his nightmare power to enter only. In this case, those who didn’t meet this condition could not get in unless they found the edge of the wasteland and broke inside by using raw strength.
Similarly, he could “define” many more criteria for entry, such as women only, souls only, or plants only…
There were exceptions. After some trials, he noticed that items summoned into the dream wasteland by the Dream Whelk could bypass Gatekeeper. He could still determine their landing locations, but he could not prevent them from getting in once the whelk worked.
It was probably another trait made possible by a Mystery item.
After doing enough tests, he set the “default rule” of Gatekeeper as “people invited by his nightmare energy only”. In other words, newcomers should only have two ways to reach the dream wasteland from now on, either via his “Nightmare Dream Enkindle” or using Freud’s “launcher”.
When he prepared to return to reality, he suddenly sensed something else coming from the newly gained power.
It seemed Gatekeeper was resonating with an unknown source of energy in the distance.
He summoned the “mini-map” in his mind and slowly followed the direction of the signal until he saw where the Foundation City was at.
He saw a flickering dot among the many buildings in the city, which had been reacting to his Gatekeeper through a weak connection.
He soon found an answer from Gatekeeper that told him what was happening—there was someone in the Foundation City who had attuned to the power as well.
This was similar to a case where someone successfully received the sequence power from a Sorcerer’s Garden. However, the powers taken from the domain sphere could not exist elsewhere, which made them not so valuable as actual sequence powers such as the sequence of gravity.
“Did someone else receive Gatekeeper as well? Wait, no…”
Angor shook his head as he sensed the nature of the signal.
“So I can decide whether I grant this power to them.”
It appeared whoever was in the center of the signal was “talented” in accepting Gatekeeper, but it was up to Angor how much they could take.
Before he decided whether to share Gatekeeper with this lucky citizen, he wished to find out who it was first.
He woke up from the dream wasteland and felt an obvious lack of strength. The aftereffect of absorbing the new domain power had not completely gone yet.
He felt strange bitterness lingering on his lips. When looking at Toby and an empty potion vial nearby, he quickly understood what was going on.
“Glad I got you, partner, or I’ll spend several more nights out in the wild.” He caught Toby in his hand and brushed Toby, until the bird complained of having his feathers messed up.
“I’ll check the Foundation City again before I head back—hey, wait! You should come with me. I recently invited a nice friend of mine to the city, I’ll introduce you to each other.”
After learning that the Foundation City was inside the dream wasteland, Toby quickly lost interest. The last time Toby went there, the place looked extremely boring and desolate.
“Tweet!”—You need me to watch from the outside when you’re out anyway!
“Yeah… You’re right. If some wandering wizard somehow caught me in my sleep…”
He nodded to Toby and used Dream Enkindle on himself again. He had lots of chances in the future to show Toby to Jon.
Once he landed inside the city, the signal he felt earlier shone even more brightly in the “mini-map” in his mind.
He activated nightmare vision and soon located who he was looking for—a charming-looking woman about the age of 30, who was applying makeup to some wrinkles around the corners of her eyes.
The woman wore an extremely bright and eye-catching skirt full of equally lustrous embroideries of roses and grass. It was unlikely that anyone in the Foundation City could make such a skirt, which meant she brought it here from reality before her “death”.
“She was dressed like that when dying?”
Angor did not recognize her, and neither could he foretell the woman’s character. After careful thought, he decided not to give her the power of Gatekeeper.
Anyone with Gatekeeper or even an inferior version of it might inflict a great impact on how the dream wasteland worked. It would be fine if Freud or Jon received the privilege, but he would definitely not give it to someone he didn’t know.
When he thought about checking Jon out, he suddenly heard citizens around him whispering the same thing, that they all felt a strange power surge coming from somewhere outside the city.
“They all felt it, but only that woman was able to actually receive the power?”
He decided to go to the Skyward Tower to talk to Freud. Hopefully, Freud could help him prove his assumption.
“Glad you’re here, sir!” Freud smiled as soon as he arrived. “That almost appeared like the sequence of a natural law. Did you successfully incorporate it?”
Angor explained how he found the power of Gatekeeper as well as how someone in the city could also borrow the power.
“That’s good to hear! Our city will be safer from now on.” Freud smirked. “I think I know that woman. She used to be a famous viscountess from a small nation near the Central Empire. After she lost her husband, she somehow immigrated to the Central Empire and earned a position in the upper class using her exceptional techniques. But she later dug her own grave because of it. During a feast, she attempted to allure a young guest, who happened to be the fiancé of a princess from the Silverheron Clan. Furious, the princess sent her a glass of poisoned wine and ordered her to end her own life.
“I found her when she just got in her best dress and was about to drink the wine. Luckily, I used the ‘launcher’ on her in time before the poison could claim her. By the way, she’s one of the candidates I picked who are going to manage the city in my stead.”
