A Sorcerer's Journey 505 Nightmare Phantoms

Grimm did not attack immediately.
The reason being that this pair of feet was snow-white, as if the small feet of a human infant of the Sorcerers World. The small feet kept kicking and struggling in the small world aperture.
Seemingly not hearing Grimm's voice, the woman's weeping behind the world aperture grew more and more sorrowful.
After some thought, Grimm realized something. After he had inserted the Lamp of Awakening into the Dimensional Gap and hid his own Principle Will of the Sorcerers World, his body turned back into a twisted—illusionized form and emitted a heavy nightmare breath. Once again, he looked back at the pair of small feet.
What feet was there to look at?
Just strands of an odd grey mist floating as it attempted to squeeze into the Sorcerers World.
The world aperture on the wooden bed was bigger than normal apertures from the common households. It was obvious that in the Sorcerers World, the owner of this stone castle was not just a normal commoner but a sorcerer-apprentice!
Well, at least, a sorcerer-apprentice with some potential.
"Hmph, well at least I have found a Nightmare Phantom."
In order to distinguish the nightmare creatures of the Nightmare World, Grimm had named the nightmare creatures that were said to invade the Sorcerers World as 'Horrifying Creatures'.
While these normal parasitic nightmare creatures were referred to as 'Nightmare Phantoms' by Grimm.
For now, besides the fact that Nightmare Phantoms could not be killed, Grimm knew nothing about them.
If Grimm were to wander around the Nightmare World or even find Judgment Staff Stigmata Sorcerer to leave this place, he would have to first understand the dominant group of creatures in this world, the Nightmare Phantoms.
"Attraction!"
As Grimm's body became more nightmare-like, becoming one of the nightmare creatures, he could land an actual attack on the nightmare creatures, unlike the previous scenario where they passed through each other.
"Ah… ah… ahh..."
An ear screeching scream could be heard.
In Grimm's eyes, the grey smoke slowly became a hideous monkey with red fur. The monkey was dragged out of the world aperture by Grimm bit by bit.
The abnormal face of the creature was mostly covered up by red fur while its long scarlet tongue had strands of a woman's hair in it. After swallowing the hair greedily, it stared at Grimm in rage.
"So weak."
Based on Grimm's intuition, if the special form of the Nightmare Phantom were to be removed, it would be merely a knight in the eyes of a sorcerer.
A hand quickly grabbed the neck of the Nightmare Phantom. But just as Grimm was about to try controlling the creature in order to study it, the Nightmare Phantom turned into black smoke.
"Hmm?"
Grimm felt that.. that the Nightmare Phantom was trying to squeeze into his body?
The Nightmare Phantom tried to squeeze into Grimm's body from his mouth, his nose, his ears, literally any hole it could find yet it was blocked by the twisted Sorcerer's Barrier.

"How is that possible!".
Grimm was shocked at the sight, that such a weak Nightmare Phantom could cause the Sorcerer's Barrier to be so twisted. If he were not seeing it with his own eyes, Grimm might not have believed it.
If it were to squeeze into his body, Grim did not know what would happen next. But to come to think of it, it would probably be nothing more than a way to control Grimm.
Could it be, that this was the natural ability of Nightmare Phantoms, and only this ability had been evolved to its peak?
Could it be that when the Stigmata Sorcerer of Black Isotta Tower said that the reason Stigmata Sorcerers were invincible in the Nightmare World was that besides Stigmata Sorcerers knowing the way to leave the Nightmare World, the creatures of the Nightmare World were unable to harm the Stigmata Sorcerers in any way as well?
Crunch crunch!
"Repulsion!" Grimm yelled as the barrier had almost been twisted to its limit.
"Argh.. argh.. argh.." The hideous monkey was repelled away as it screamed. Fireballs ignited above the Sabbatic Goat Staff as it was shoved toward the Nightmare Phantom that had failed in parasitizing Grimm's body.
Boom!
Huge flames dispersed as the hideous monkey turned into black smoke once again. But this time, it did not attack Grimm. Instead, it flew toward the ticking wall clock, as if it was not worn out at all.
Under the Mask of Truth, Grimm set his gaze on the ground where his staff had striked.
A high density shockwave ability, on top of flame energy, could not even damage anything in the room?
After pondering for moments where he stood, Grimm suddenly tried to smash his Sabbatic Goat Staff into the wall clock.
Bang!
High density shockwave ability attacks and flame energy attacks were both used on it, yet the wall clock was not damaged at all.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock...
The clock's pendulum ticked at the same pace, while the hands of the clock resumed rotating normally unlike how it was upside down previously. After Grimm had observed it for some time, he bent over and picked up the few strands of black hair from the ground.
This was indeed the woman's hair from the Sorcerers World.
"So it would seem that the Sorcerers World isn't completely unaffected by the Nightmare World."
Grimm muttered to himself as he held onto the woman's black hair.
After taking a look at the wall clock that had returned to normal, Grimm continued to stare at it but did not find anything out of the ordinary.
Grimm still could not determine the true source of Nightmare Phantoms.
After a few moments.
Grimm started to imagine what this corrupted room would have looked like in the Sorcerers World. It should be the room of a woman with a unique nature. Grimm sat on the wooden floor as he took out his notes and his ice marrow crystallization books once again and fell into deep thought.
All he could do now was observe what would happen to this room when night fell.
The black sun rose once again as a new day in the Nightmare World began.
The world aperture on the wooden bed in the room started to close up, as if representing the waking of the sorcerer-apprentice.
"Ahh… so tired… It's that bad dream again. Aniya, was I wrong?"
The sound of the woman yawning could be heard from the world aperture followed by the voice of a cheerful girl.
"C'mon, what 'wrong' are you talking about, we're sorcerers! Hehe, having nightmares is the nemesis of our beauty as women though. You should be careful sis, look at your hair that has fallen off."
Only in this short period of time, Grimm could hear the wonderful voices from the Sorcerers World as he imagined what had happened in the Sorcerers World.
As the world aperture slowly closed and the day of the Nightmare World arrived, the world slowly became distorted again. The ominous, corrupted and pressured breath was replaced by distortion. Even the ticking of the wall clock had vanished as silence filled the air.
In midst of the silence, Grimm devoted himself to studying his preparations needed to advance to a Level-2 Sorcerer.
Seven hourglasses went by.
The night of the Nightmare World arrived once again. As the nightmare mists covered the world once more, the world turned from being distorted back into a broken reality. Thick clouds of mist were shrouded throughout the distance.
Grimm was still focused on his studies regarding the professional knowledge mentioned in his magical books, deriving knowledge again and again based on his own situation.
After another hourglass.
The Sorcerers World had already entered midnight. As the world aperture was forming on the wooden bed, the ticking of the clock became clearer and clearer.
Grimm slowly closed his experiment notes and his ice marrow crystallization books and stood up. His eyes under the Mask of Truth were staring at the clock hanging on the wall.
Gradually, in Grimm's eyes, that ever-oscillating pendulum seemed to have become heavier and heavier, longer and longer until a noticeable stretch was formed. Black liquid flowed down from the clock.
Whilst the hands of the clock had also begun turning upside down.
"Argh!"
"Puff!" The black liquid turned into smoke while swarming toward Grimm. The Sorcerer's Barrier made a creaking noise of intense friction at the same time.
"Repulsion!"
Grimm repelled the Nightmare Phantom once more as it took the form of a hideous monkey with red fur.
However, this time, Grimm did not choose to immediately kill this Nightmare Phantom. Instead, he took out the Lamp of Awakening and called out to his Principle Will of the Sorcerers World to solidify his body.
At that moment, the hideous Nightmare Phantom had changed in his eyes.
A ferocious infant appeared in Grimm's vision.
The infant had black hair. Hair like the one Grimm collected yesterday. Or in other words, the hair of the woman from the Sorcerers World.
The hair of the ragdoll rolled toward Grimm, preparing to attack as Grimm waved his magic staff.
"Puff!" The Nightmare Phantom escaped into the wall clock once again.
The doubt in Grimm's heart grew even stronger. Just what on earth were Nightmare Phantoms? Were they really just lives that appeared randomly in the Nightmare World?

Chapter end