Chapter 150: Those Who Fall Into a Dream

'Sleepiness... The curse of sleeplessness... This doesn't make sense. Why is this curse energy inducing sleep to those affected by it, when the curse that is affecting the Village of Tulog is the curse of sleeplessness. Why is it conflicting with each other?' Calvin thought to himself.

"Shit, to think that the driver was a doppelganger! Fuck, what should we do now? I don't know how to operate these beasts!" Ricardo fiercely cursed. The beasts driving the carriage wasn't something that any common man could handle. They weren't tame at all, and if one wanted to have them obey their bidding, one must be recognized by the beasts as someone with a higher authority than them.

In short, these beasts weren't going to obey anyone so easily.

Calvin heard Ricardo's curse and he turned to look at the beasts that were pulling the carriage. Now that the doppelganger had disappeared, the illusion that he placed around the wagon had also vanished. The beasts who looked like horses had now returned to their original forms. They weren't actually beasts similar to horses at all. In fact, they were lizards.

"Rock-Steady Lizards!" Calvin exclaimed.

"Oh, you also know their name?" Ricardo turned to look at Calvin.

"Yeah..."

How could he not know anything about the Rock-Steady Lizards!

The army sent by the Joselian Kingdom to fight against the Rock-Steady Lizards had cavalry consisting of soldiers fighting on the back of these lizards instead of horses! The reason why these Rock-Steady Lizards grew so popular was the fact that even though they were incredibly hard to tame. Once tamed, their stamina and roadworthiness were far greater than the greatest horses.

But that was in the condition that they were tamed.

The owner of these Rock-Steady Lizards had just died, and it would only be a matter of time before they realized it.

When that happened, they would surely go berserk.

Calvin had to find a way to tame them before that happened.

As far as he could remember, once a Rock-Steady Lizard go berserk, it was close to impossible to calm them down again. In short, a Rock-Steady Lizard would be due for a mercy-killing once they became crazy and started wreaking havoc to the surroundings.

This must be one of the reasons why it took so long for humanity to notice the potential of these Rock-Steady Lizard when it came to pulling wagons and chariots, as well as becoming mounts.

Calvin pondered for a while.

'If I recalled correctly, the Rock-Steady Lizards started becoming popular among the army at the Battle of the Tirad Pass.'

'The Battle of the Tirad Pass should happen approximately twenty-years from now after that border at the northwest is breached... Who was it? Who was it that proposed the idea of taming these Lizards? Shit, I can't remember! Wait, let's forget about the guy who gave the idea...'

'Let's think about the person who created the technique of taming these Lizards... Who was he? How did he do it?' Sweat started to form on Calvin's forehead as he used all of his brainpower to think about who the person was. But then suddenly, something clicked in his head.

"Hey, man... Are you all right? You're awfully sweating..."

Ricardo saw the blank look on Calvin's face and he couldn't help but voice out his concerns.

"He must be starting to lose his mind right now given that we have no way to tame this beast. Sigh... If I had enough Mana, I could probably attempt to hypnotize these beasts so that they could temporarily obey our orders until we can find a suitable beast to replace them that is not as aggressive as these Rock-Steady Lizards, but unfortunately..."

"I'm out of gas..." The Priest sat hopelessly on the cold floor of the wagon.

"That's it!" Calvin exclaimed.

He had just remembered the vague minute details as to who was the individual who had been Knighted by the King after offering a significant contribution to the Joselian Kingdom. The reason why Calvin could even vaguely remember this person was that the Knighting event that happened at that time had been pretty popular among the commoners and soldiers alike.

Calvin couldn't remember the full name of the man, but he knew that the man was a Priest of the Church of All-Encompassing Light.

The moment these details came into his mind, Calvin immediately took out the Notebook of Secrets and yelled out.

"You!"

"What is your name?!" Calvin stared right at the Priest.

The Priest frowned, but he couldn't be bothered to complain, "Heisenberg."

"Is that the first name or the full name?"

"The last name."

"Then, tell me your full name!"

"All right, I will just don't scream, honourable sir, please..." The Priest didn't know what to say. He glanced at Calvin and when he noticed that he was doing all of these for jokes, his expression turned grim as he said, "Walter Heisenberg..."

"Walter..." Calvin almost keeled over from shock when he heard the Priest's full name. But he suppressed himself from commenting about it as he scribbled some words onto the Notebook of Secrets.

"Is Walter Heisenberg the person who had created the techniques of taming the Rock-Steady Lizards in the previous timeline?"

A moment later, the word "Verified" appeared beside the statement.

Calvin heaved a sigh of relief.

He closed the Notebook of Secrets and placed it back into his chest pocket.

"For a man bearing such an honourable name, you sure are perverted." Calvin couldn't help but remember the scene where Heisenberg went at it with that woman early in the afternoon.

"H-Honourable name?" Heisenberg looked visibly confused.

"Nothing..." Calvin shook his head, "I will supplement you with the Mana that you need. Are you sure that you will be able to temporarily hypnotize these beasts once you have the Mana that you need?"

"Are you serious, sir?" Heisenberg couldn't help but scratch his bald head, "Does the honourable sir know the art of Mana Manipulation?"

'Know? What a joke! I'm a master of it!' Calvin almost wanted to exclaim, but he had nothing to gain from it so he only smiled, "It doesn't matter whether I know it or not, what matters is are you willing to do this gamble with me or not!"

Ricardo stared at Calvin and he suddenly found the youth unfamiliar. Early in the afternoon, he found Calvin to be an amusing cherry boy after he noticed him staring blankly at the sex scene that had unfolded earlier. But now, he was acting so manly and decisive that Ricardo wasn't so sure if he was still looking at the same person that he had conversed and talked with earlier.

"Hey, man... Do you seriously know the art of Mana Manipulation? I've heard about it before but I have never seen someone use it in my entire life. It's supposed to be a lost ancient art, how do you know about it?" Ricardo couldn't help but ask.

At this moment, Calvin stared at him in the eye and said, "Do you know why the old man next door is able to live for so long in such a shitty neighbourhood?"

"Why?"

"It's because he doesn't ask questions that he isn't supposed to ask."

The coldness in Calvin's voice was clear and obvious.

Ricardo swallowed a mouthful of his own saliva as he subconsciously took a step backwards and said, "All right, chill out, man. I am not going to do anything, just spare me, okay?"

Calvin only smiled at him before he turned to look at Heisenberg.

Inwardly, Calvin was cursing himself in his heart. The art of Mana Manipulation was indeed an ancient art, but after it was discovered by the Joselian Kingdom... They decided to share the art to everyone after the Kingdom realized that it could benefit commoners and Predators alike.

In the war against the invaders, any help was necessary.

The elderly even learned the ancient art of Mana Manipulation, so that they could fight against the invaders. Manipulating the innate mana in their bodies, they were able to achieve superhuman strength, and even though this particular usage of Mana Manipulation to greatly bolster one's strength shortened their lifespan. The elderly knew that they were about to die anyway.

Instead of dying peacefully in their beds, most elderly in those times decided that they were going to fight for the future of their descendants.

Thus, the most unique Suicide Squad of the Joselian Kingdom was born.

Calvin found their stories to be fascinating at that time so he decided to learn the art of Mana Manipulation for himself.

Although he didn't use it as wantonly as the members of that particular Suicide Squad, he still found the ancient art to be incredibly useful, especially when healing squad members or friends that were suffering from mana deficiency or just slightly reinforcing one's body by covering it with a thin layer of Mana.

The usage of Mana Manipulation was so common back then that Calvin forgot that it was still an ancient art at this point in time. He wasn't supposed to share this information with anyone else and that was why he was now cursing himself for this blunder.

'Well, since the rice is now cooked, there's really nothing that I can do about it.'

"Ricardo, do you want to learn the art of Mana Manipulation?" Calvin suddenly spoke out.

"What...?" Ricardo couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Are you going to teach me?"

"Yeah, I sure am... Once we're done and over with all of this, I will teach you before I alight at my destination." Calvin smiled.

Heisenberg stiffened from where he was standing. Clearing his throat out with a cough, he stared hopefully at Calvin and asked, "Honourable sir, may I know if I am qualified to learn such an art under you once this ordeal that we are facing is over?"

Calvin's lips repeatedly twitched, "Heisenberg, can you stop using such parlance? With my age, you are like my father, so can you not talk so formally with me? It's making me comfortable."

"All right, if the honourable sir says so..."

"Just call me, Calvin."

"Got it, Calvin..."

Calvin nodded in satisfaction and he didn't dare to waste more time anymore. He had Heisenberg stretch his hand out and a stream of warm current flowed its way from Calvin into Heisenberg's body.

"I can feel it..." Heisenberg's body started trembling like a leaf.

His face reflected a look of excitement.

"I can feel you coming inside me, Calvin!"

"Stop shouting, you baldhead!" Calvin couldn't help but smack his shiny head.

Heisenberg stiffened and he didn't dare to say anything anymore when he saw the grim look on Calvin's face.

Transferring one's Mana unto another was definitely an exhausting endeavour. Heisenberg knew not to interrupt him anymore.

A few seconds later, Calvin suddenly fell onto the floor on his butt.

He crawled near the windows at the bottom right side of the wagon.

"I'll leave it in your hands now, bald head!"

"Yes, sir!" Heisenberg jumped out in excitement, leaving Ricardo and Calvin alone inside the darkness of the wagon.

Ricardo surreptitiously glanced at Calvin.

'This guy...'

'He already looks so exhausted, yet why do I still feel like I am staring at an unsheathed blade?'

Calvin might be exhausted at this moment but he was secretly holding his golden quill in his right hand concealed by the darkness of the shadows produced by the covers of the window.

He had judged Ricardo to be a decent man, but Calvin would never trust anyone so easily.

Especially, when he was this weak and vulnerable.

A man like Calvin was at the most dangerous when he was weak.

This was why Ricardo could vaguely taste the killing intent coming out of Calvin.

He was now too scared to approach him, so Ricardo decided to walk closer towards the door.

He wanted to calm himself down with the breeze of the night.

"Reeeeeeeeee!!!"

The signature noise that any Rock-Steady Lizard could make suddenly pierced through the night.

"Ah!" Ricardo was so startled by the sudden piercing shriek that he jumped into the air and bumped his head onto the ceiling of the wagon.

"What the fuck was that?!" He cautiously turned around and he found Calvin smiling.

"It's the Rock-Steady Lizards. It's the noise that they make when they are tamed and ready to move. It seems that Heisenberg succeeded."

Ricardo didn't know if Calvin was telling the truth or not.

He knew of the Rock-Steady Lizards since the Judiciary where he belonged also had a Beastiary. As a part of his training, Ricardo memorized each and every detail contained within their Beastiary, so he knew about the existence of Rock-Steady Lizards.

But there was no information in their Beastiary regarding what kind of noises does a Rock-Steady Lizard produce, so it was understandable that he was caught off guard.

Calvin just found his reaction amusing, so he couldn't help but let out a smile.

"But it's too late, for us to escape..." Calvin let out a bitter laugh.

"What...?" Ricardo furrowed his eyebrows and was about to ask what Calvin meant when he saw his vision swam.

"What is this...?"

He quickly caught hold of the door so that he wouldn't lose his balance, but his eyelids were just too heavy for him to open and he eventually fell onto the floor asleep and with a loud thud.

Calvin's vision was also dimming.

He took out a piece of paper from his chest pocket and infused enough Mana into it before he rolled the paper into a ball and directly swallowed it down his throat.

Before he lost his consciousness, the last sound that Calvin heard was the movement of his own throat as it tried its best to force the ball of paper down his stomach where it would rest until the day that Calvin found it handy for use.