Chapter 1 Lucretia's Awakening

Lucretia jolted awake from her dream, taking several seconds to calm her mind before opening her eyes. She took a long breath, opened her eyes in the chair, and slowly surveyed the room, confirming the "hint items" she had set up in the lab beforehand.

The first thing to do after waking from a bizarre dream was never to get up immediately. Instead, one should calm one's mind and confirm the details of the real world to avoid being trapped in a double dream.

After a moment, she confirmed the details of the real world, verifying that she had completely escaped the dream and that Master Talan Eyl had also awakened.

The elven scholar was tied haphazardly to a nearby pillar with ropes, a lump on his head, while the clockwork doll Luni stood guard with a sharp kitchen knife.

"Ms. Lucretia, you're finally awake!" Seeing the "Witch of the Sea" awake, the scholar immediately cried out for help, "Your servant tied me up! I don't know what I did wrong..."

Lucretia frowned. "Luni, what's going on?"

"He suddenly yelled in his sleep, jumped out of bed when he woke up, and hit his head on your lab table," Luni reported earnestly, clutching the kitchen knife. "I believe he was contaminated by a nightmare, so I tied him up to prevent secondary injury."

The scholar immediately protested loudly, "How many times have I told you, you blockhead! I was just scared in the dream! Am I, as a normal person with a sound mind, not allowed to be startled awake when I see Duncan Abnomal in my dream?"

Lucretia's expression twisted slightly as she listened to the two "people" before her. Having just been startled awake herself, she pursed her lips and stood up from the chair. "Luni, put down the knife and untie the scholar – he's telling the truth."

"Yes, mistress." The clockwork doll immediately bowed her head, and with a clean swipe of the knife, she cut the ropes binding Talan Eyl. Then, with a flick of her wrist, the gleaming blade disappeared into some hidden compartment in her body.

Talan Eyl stumbled forward two steps after being freed, finally regaining his balance, and couldn't help glaring at the stiff clockwork doll. "You blockhead!"

The clockwork doll, however, completely ignored the scholar's anger, stepping to her mistress's side and curiously asking, "Has the old master come?"

"He… 'came', in every sense of the word," Lucretia's lips twitched, and she said with some hesitation. Then she waved her hand to the side, and a chair floated from the corner of the room and landed in front of her. "Mr. Talan Eyl, please sit down. I have some things I need to know."

Talan Eyl stretched his sore arms and grumbled as he sat down in front of the "Witch of the Sea," still muttering to himself, "Coming is one thing, but it's not like he can get here right away..."

Lucretia listened to his words in silence, not saying anything. She reached towards a nearby cabinet, pulled out a bottle of potion from the depths, and placed it casually on top of the cabinet.

Talan Eyl looked at her actions curiously. "What's that?"

"This is 'witch's brew,' which we'll need later," Lucretia said casually, obviously not intending to answer directly. Then she changed the subject, "Regarding the Sun Extinction and the dream you just had, I have some questions. I know we communicated briefly in the dream world, but given the dream's suppression of the subconscious, there are some things you may not have been aware of at the time, so now I need you to recall everything carefully in a conscious state."

Noticing the seriousness in the woman's words, Talan Eyl's expression immediately turned grave, and the scholar's demeanor returned to him. "Alright, ask away. I already feel much clearer-headed."

"You went to observe the surface of Anomaly 001 during the Sun Extinction. This is the sketch you left behind," Lucretia said without ceremony, pulling out the crumpled draft paper and handing it to him. "Is this it?"

"Yes, that's what I drew."

"I've examined it. The drawing itself doesn't carry any mental contamination, but the content of the picture is disturbing. You depicted these chaotic, branch-like lines on the surface of the 'sphere,' but after my analysis, many of these lines seem to have been scribbled haphazardly near the end of the drawing in order to cover up the original, clearer appearance of the picture. Do you have any memory of this?"

Talan Eyl's brow furrowed.

He reached out to take the draft paper Lucretia handed him, and his brow furrowed even more as he looked at the spherical image covered with tangled lines, his mind sinking into contemplation and recollection.

Lucretia's voice came from across the room. "An important question is, do you really remember all the details of what happened from the time you finished observing the surface of the sun to the time you fell asleep? It seems that you are also confused by these messy lines on the picture..."

"I... I am indeed somewhat puzzled," Talan Eyl said slowly. "This certainly looks like obvious scribbling, but I don't remember why I would cover up the previous details of the picture... It seems..."

He suddenly stopped, weighing his words repeatedly before continuing hesitantly, "Perhaps, I saw something extremely terrifying? Or a truth that should not be made public? I drew it uncontrollably, but suddenly woke up before operating the 'Swift-Send', so I hastily covered it up... But for some reason, I wanted to send it out anyway..."

Even though he was still somewhat confused, and even though there were obvious gaps in his memory, Talan Eyl's reason and logic as a veteran scholar still prevailed. He analyzed what had happened to him, and then his expression suddenly became serious. "How many people have seen this paper so far?"

"A small number of senior scholars from the Academy of Truth," Lucretia nodded. "The original is still here with me. They only saw the content after you scribbled it out. I've already issued a warning to them, and your sleep serves as a warning to everyone, so there's no need to worry about anyone secretly analyzing and restoring the picture you saw based on this sketch. But the Boundless Sea is vast, and we can't rule out whether other 'brave souls' have done the same daring thing as you."

Talan Eyl nodded thoughtfully. Then, he heard the "Witch" continue to ask, "What else do you remember about the dream? How did you enter the dream? Did your consciousness ever sink into its true 'final layer'?"

"I only remember standing in that 'forest' as soon as I woke up, like the descriptions in some ancient books, an endless dense forest, the place of origin for elves... My thinking in that dream seemed very sluggish, the sounds I heard, the information I perceived, and the reactions I made to the outside world all felt like they were separated by a thick barrier..."

Talan Eyl said as he recalled, then suddenly frowned.

"But there was one very strange thing. It was not long after you appeared that my thinking did 'sink' for a moment, but it didn't sink into the final layer of the dream, but into a... a place that seemed to transition between 'layers', where many chaotic lights and shadows intertwined, like several vastly different dreams projecting onto each other, and in that chaotic area, there were also many blurred figures surrounding me..."

"Many blurred figures?" Lucretia interrupted instantly. "Please describe clearly, were they phantoms in the dream, or 'dreamers' like you?"

"I don't know. At the time, my thinking was almost frozen. I could only feel their presence, but I couldn't accurately describe what they were, but one thing is certain... they weren't phantoms," Talan Eyl said seriously. "They existed in reality, even if they weren't other 'dreamers', they were other 'mental entities' contained in that dream."

"I understand," Lucretia nodded with a calm expression, then breathed a slight sigh of relief. "This is truly... crucial information."

"Hopefully, it will be of use," Talan Eyl said sincerely, then looked at the draft paper in his hand. "Then, about this sketch..."

"I think it's best not to let ordinary scholars come into contact with this thing for now. Whatever you 'scribbled' out, it's obviously harmful to ordinary people," Lucretia reached out and took back the draft paper. "I'll let my father take a look at it later. Perhaps he'll think of something."

Talan Eyl blinked after hearing this, reacted for a moment, and then nodded. "Oh, that's true, Captain Duncan is definitely not afraid of what's hidden in this picture. Then we'll wait for him to come and talk about it. I'm not in a hurry..."

"Ah, that's another thing I wanted to tell you," Lucretia adjusted her sitting posture leisurely, looking into Talan Eyl's eyes. "My father has arrived in Light Breeze Port."

Talan Eyl's eyes widened, his expression instantly freezing.

"Perhaps it was the special effect of the Sun Extinction that allowed the Forsaken Ship to reach its destination instantly," Lucretia nodded. "He should be interested in chatting with you face-to-face, or inviting you to his ship – he cares a lot about the Sun Extinction."

Talan Eyl continued to be stunned for a few seconds, his eyes finally flickering as if he had instantly woken up, and then he gasped, leaning back –

Lucretia watched expressionlessly, calmly picked up the bottle of potion she had placed on the cabinet earlier, and handed it to the doll Luni, who was standing by. "Pour it down Mr. Talan Eyl's throat."

Luni said "Oh," took the potion, and went to carry out her mistress's orders. Lucretia looked at the scholar who was being force-fed medicine and nodded in satisfaction.

"See, it came in handy."

Today, the "Witch of the Sea" once again successfully prevented Master Talan Eyl from suddenly dying on her ship.

(End of this chapter)