Chapter 728 – New Inspiration

Chapter 728 – New Inspiration

Inside the Well of the Sky, the Dreamweaver World had just posted a new task invitation.

The task content was still “Hunt Dream-Eating Tapirs,” but both the task assistance and task rewards were different.

【Task Assistance: Knowledge Infusion – Dream-Eating Tapir, Key of Dreams (Sealed Version)】

【Task Rewards: For each Dream-Eating Tapir hunted, the Key of Dreams unsealing duration increases by one night and dungeon challenge opportunities increase by one. Additionally, 100 ordinary Mana crystals and 1 origin Mana crystal are awarded. For every 5 hunted, an additional Fruit of Materialization is awarded. For every 10 hunted, an additional Dream Chronodisk is awarded.】

The Key of Dreams now had the additional label of “Sealed Version.”

Among the rewards for hunting Dream-Eating Tapirs, two new items had been added: Key of Dreams unsealing duration and dungeon challenge opportunities.

Combining these changes, it wasn’t hard to deduce that from now on, the Key of Dreams obtained by Explorers in the Dreamweaver World would no longer work the same as for Dreamweaver Federation citizens. They could no longer freely enter the dream realm once night fell, and even if they did enter the dream realm, they couldn’t freely challenge dungeons.

Only by hunting Dream-Eating Tapirs could one increase the unsealing duration for the dream realm and the number of dungeon challenge attempts.

These two things happened to not be tangible items, making them impossible to produce using the Book of Cards.

With this change, it was now impossible for Mo Lan to do what she’d done before — relying on Dream Chronodisks produced by the Book of Cards to spend extended periods in secluded cultivation inside solo dream dungeons.

If anyone tried to tell her this wasn’t specifically targeting her, she wouldn’t believe it!

“No wonder the task suddenly ended!”

With the 《Universal Covenant》 in place, neither the world nor the Explorers could modify task-related content during an active task.

To change the task assistance and task rewards, the only option was to end the previous task first, then issue a new task invitation to form a new agreement.

For Explorers who treated hunting Dream-Eating Tapirs as their primary task and had little interest in the dream realm, these changes were inconsequential.

But for Mo Lan, it was an entirely different matter.

Dream-Eating Tapirs only appeared at night, and the dream realm also only opened at night. If she wanted to enter the dream realm, she couldn’t hunt Dream-Eating Tapirs.

To continue exploring the dream realm, under the current task format, Mo Lan would need to devote a considerable amount of time to hunting Dream-Eating Tapirs.

If only the Key of Dreams activation time needed to be earned by hunting Dream-Eating Tapirs, she could simply hunt a large number at once and then spend several nights in the dream realm — that wouldn’t be difficult for her.

But as it happened, dungeon challenge attempts were also restricted.

Each dungeon challenge could only use one Dream Chronodisk, and without dungeon challenge attempts, no matter how many Dream Chronodisks Mo Lan produced, they’d be useless.

She had originally planned to use dungeons and Dream Chronodisks to save time for Magic research, and to visit the Exploration Zone to collect more magical knowledge.

Under the new task rules, she couldn’t make use of daytime in the real world, nighttime had to be partially spent hunting Dream-Eating Tapirs, and only the remaining time could be used in the dream realm for her own purposes.

This meant that all the potential benefits Mo Lan valued in the Dreamweaver World were now restricted, requiring her to invest far more time to achieve the same returns as before.

Meanwhile, the rewards from the “Hunt Dream-Eating Tapirs” task itself were too ordinary for Mo Lan.

The cost of obtaining potential benefits had increased, the potential benefits themselves had decreased, yet the task’s own rewards remained unremarkable.

The Dreamweaver World’s task invitation had suddenly become far less attractive to her. On top of that, her Witch Magic level had already reached the upper limit of what the Dreamweaver World could offer. There was little point in accepting this task to explore the Dreamweaver World any further.

The magical knowledge in the Dreamweaver World’s Exploration Zone alone was no longer worth another trip.

Interesting magical knowledge could be found in other worlds too — some even more developed and systematized than what the dream realm’s Exploration Zone had to offer.

As for the now heavily restricted method of using Dream Chronodisks to alter dungeon time flow and save time, that was even less important.

Sorceresses had long lifespans, and Mo Lan was still young. Time wasn’t that precious to her.

And besides… regarding the Dream Chronodisk and solo dream dungeons, she had gained new inspiration.

Having spent so long in the Golden Mine Tunnel, Mo Lan was now nearly certain that so-called dungeons were essentially small living spaces with incomplete laws.

More advanced than storage spaces, but far inferior to demi-planes — roughly on par with planar fragments.

And solo dream dungeons were equivalent to small living spaces that could only accommodate a single intelligent being.

The reason the Dream Chronodisk could only be used in solo dream dungeons was almost certainly because it could only alter the time flow of a small living space containing one intelligent being.

Away from the Dreamweaver World, without solo dream dungeons, there would be nowhere to use the Dream Chronodisk.

But Mo Lan’s Book of Cards had the ability to produce Dream Chronodisks. If she could also acquire the ability to create small living spaces similar to dungeons, combining the two to create a small living space with a different time flow from the outside world wasn’t impossible!

Small living spaces… Mo Lan recalled that during her fourth year, she had read some scattered mentions of “small living spaces” in the 《Guide to Spatial Greenhouse Construction》 from the Academy Library.

How did it go again?

“…The Power of Laws in a world is hidden and difficult to observe, but the Power of Laws in small living spaces is far more straightforward and simple. After observing the constituent Power of Laws in over a hundred small living spaces, I finally used Alchemy runes to construct greenhouse conditions conducive to plant growth, and from this created the spatial greenhouse…”

This passage was written in the book’s foreword. Small living spaces had been the author’s source of inspiration for developing the spatial greenhouse.

Mo Lan had already mastered the method for creating spatial greenhouses. Put simply, it involved using Alchemy to make the temperature, humidity, air, light, and other factors essential for plant growth adjustable within a semi-independent space.

A semi-independent space like a spatial greenhouse was still part of the main world, sharing universal laws.

A small living space, on the other hand, was a truly independent space with its own operating laws.

The gap between the two was like the difference between a Spatial Tent and a spatial ring.

Knowledge of spatial greenhouses wasn’t particularly helpful for creating small living spaces, but the author of 《Guide to Spatial Greenhouse Construction》 had been able to observe over a hundred small living spaces. She must have known where to find them.

Even if small living spaces might involve the Power of Laws, and the Book of Cards might not be able to produce one even with the right materials, she could still try modifying the Dream Chronodisk to work on small living spaces!

Most crucially, the author of 《Guide to Spatial Greenhouse Construction》 was someone she knew — Sorceress Traci.

Accounting for the time difference between the Valen world and the Dreamweaver World, at most only five years had passed since Mo Lan left the Valen world. Traci was most likely still in Valen — it would be inexcusable not to seek her guidance.