Dream Ritual

After some effort, Matthew obtained information from Jack.

Sure enough, the Old White Mutant's attack on 56 Riverside Street was no coincidence—it was an assault orchestrated by Jack.

Moreover, on the night of Lady Alsha's banquet, the two wizards who attacked Matthew were also hired by Jack. His feelings for Lady Alsha were twisted; just because Matthew danced the opening dance with her, Jack saw him as an obstacle to winning her affection.

Matthew simply couldn't comprehend his reasoning.

Jack's eyes were now somewhat vacant. To facilitate communication, Matthew released the petrification on his head and fed him a bit of truth serum.

A person's memory is not a book that can be flipped through at will, nor are thoughts etched into the brain for easy reading. Memory and thought are complex, multi-layered things.

Thus, even Matthew, who had mastered Legilimency, couldn't casually browse memories. He needed to use words and potions to stir emotional fluctuations in the target, awakening related feelings or recollections.

Blue light flickered in Matthew's eyes as he stared into Jack's and asked softly, "How did you turn Old White into this?"

Jack showed some signs of struggle. This touched on his secrets, but under the influence of the truth serum, he couldn't hide them. Slowly, he spoke, "Months ago, through the introduction of my good friend Thor Griffin, I joined the Mining Brotherhood.

He taught me a Dream Ritual. By entering a dream through the ritual, I could step into God's Kingdom within the dream. The god would bestow Divine Grace in that kingdom.

The Divine Brew was the grace I obtained in my sleep. After I fed it to my father, he began to mutate."

"Divine Grace? A god?" Matthew's scalp tingled. How did investigating a missing persons case lead to gods?

He had been in this world for a while now. As far as he knew, there should be no gods here. The religions of this world all worshipped some powerful wizard from history, and those wizards were long dead, with no records of Divine Miracles descending.

"Did you see the god who granted you Divine Grace in your dream? Are you its follower? Don't speak the god's name in your next answer." To be cautious, Matthew didn't ask for the god's name. If this god truly existed, uttering its name might draw its attention.

"I never saw the god, and I'm not its follower."

"You never saw the god, and you're not its follower—then how did you obtain Divine Grace?" Matthew was somewhat surprised.

Jack continued, "That's just how things are in the Mining Brotherhood. I only joined for the benefits; I'm not a follower of the god.

In fact, many in the Mining Brotherhood are like me. We exchange benefits and take what we need.

The Dream Ritual to enter God's Kingdom was passed down by the core members of the Mining Brotherhood.

When you use the Dream Ritual to enter a dream, you arrive in a God's Kingdom shrouded in mist. Entering from different positions leads to different places.

The 'Divine Brew' I obtained came from the fruit of a plant in that God's Kingdom. The people in the Mining Brotherhood say everything gained in God's Kingdom is a gift from the god."

Matthew rubbed his chin. This "God's Kingdom" sounded more like another world, and the Dream Ritual was the key to entering it.

Wizards in this world were aware of the existence of other worlds, which they called "Other Planes."

In the distant past, this world had experienced a Plane War, as recorded in historical texts.

Not long ago, Matthew had read descriptions of the Plane War in books from his study. Plundering Other Planes could strengthen one's native plane, and the Wizarding World had been plundered thousands of years ago.

That Plane War was brutal. Though the wizards successfully repelled the invaders, the Wizarding World's very essence was wounded in the conflict.

From then on, high-level wizards in the Wizarding World grew fewer and fewer.

To this day, the Wizarding World hadn't seen a Level Four Archmage or higher in over a thousand years.

Now, Level One Wizards (Formal Wizards) formed the backbone of the Northern Wizard Alliance's power. Level Two Wizards were the top combat power, and Level Three Wizards could rule a region. The councilors of the Northern Wizard Alliance were Level Three Wizards, each a leader of a major wizard faction in the North.

Matthew pressed on, "Have you ever seen this god perform a Divine Miracle?"

"No, I haven't."

Matthew suspected someone in the Mining Brotherhood was using the "God's Kingdom" Other Plane as a pretext to establish a religion.

But these relatively rational wizards wouldn't believe in a vague "god" without seeing a Divine Miracle first.

Thus, most people in the Mining Brotherhood, like Jack, weren't followers of that "god." They just exchanged benefits and took what they needed.

A sudden thought struck Matthew. "Why does your wizard-centered society call itself the Mining Brotherhood?"

"Performing the Dream Ritual in a mine makes it easier to enter the 'Treasure Land' in God's Kingdom, where the chance of obtaining Divine Grace is higher.

So, we founded the Mining Brotherhood to more conveniently acquire mines in various regions," Jack answered truthfully.

Combining this with the memories flashing through Jack's mind, Matthew understood: performing the Dream Ritual in a mining area made it easier to enter resource points in the other world.

"Is the Dream Ritual dangerous?"

At this, Jack seemed suddenly terrified. His whole body trembled, and fear twisted his face.

"Dangerous—of course it is.

If you don't enter the 'Treasure Land,' you're very likely to enter the 'Forbidden Zone.'

There, you'll encounter 'Divine Attendants.' They will kill any creature that trespasses into the Forbidden Zone.

Even if you don't meet a Divine Attendant, you can easily get lost in the Forbidden Zone forever.

I almost got lost there myself."

Through the memories flashing in Jack's mind at that moment, Matthew saw that Jack had once entered the "Forbidden Zone." Perhaps because he performed the Dream Ritual in a mine, he was lucky enough to find the path to the "Treasure Land" before encountering a Divine Attendant.

Matthew regretted not being able to glimpse these so-called "Divine Attendants" through Jack's memories.

He asked one final question. "What was that thing you stored in the basement before? Where did you move it?"

"Besides my father, I had other experimental subjects. I also tested the Divine Brew on magical creatures, but the results weren't as good as with human wizards. I had one more experimental subject with greater potential. Now all of them have been moved to Thor Griffin's place."

Thor Griffin was the Whitestone Town Branch Master of the Mining Brotherhood.

Deciding he couldn't get any more useful information from Jack, Matthew waved his wand. A Transparent Arc Wind Blade swept across Jack's neck.

By then, Jack had regained his senses. His eyes, now clear, were filled with hatred and resentment, but he was powerless to change the outcome. He could only let his head roll off the bed and onto the floor.