Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 3103: Chapter 3104: Proto-Temporal Body

If this speculation is correct, wouldn’t it mean that the proto-temporal bodies placed in the Forest of Memories by Laplace have possibly been transformed by Wonderland of Dreams, becoming special NPCs similar to Maggie?

This would be quite a "major project."

Bear in mind, Laplace’s proto-temporal bodies, even those Angel can count, number in dozens. Cicada-wing fairies, iridescent elves, moonlight banshees, red soil dwarfs, harpies, abyss succubi... and so on.

Even more, there are races that Angel has never heard of or seen.

Have these all turned into NPCs?

Angel voiced his conjecture. Laplace hadn’t said anything yet, but Glaipnir spoke first: "Speaking of which, I once ventured into the Forest of Memories... the Forest of Memories of the Crystal Origin of Dreams."

"Inside the Forest of Memories of the Crystal Origin of Dreams, the internal spatial environment is roughly the same as the outside world, but inside, there wasn’t a single proto-temporal body."

"Previously, I thought proto-temporal bodies couldn’t be drawn into the Crystal Origin of Dreams by the Dream Conch, so I didn’t pay much attention. But now that I think about it, perhaps I was wrong, the proto-temporal bodies actually arrived at the Crystal Origin of Dreams; they’ve just fused with the Authority of Wonderland of Dreams, forming the special gifted people Angel spoke of."

Angel: "Do proto-temporal bodies in the Forest of Memories count as living beings?"

Laplace pondered for a moment and shook her head: "Not really. Proto-temporal bodies are merely memory amalgamations influenced by the laws of the Forest of Memories; they can only be considered living entities once they become true temporal bodies."

The memory amalgamations look real, but actually don’t have any physical form. It’s just a shell materialized under the influence of the laws of the Forest of Memories and Laplace’s special ability.

"If it’s just an inactive shell, the Dream Conch should be able to draw them into the Crystal Origin of Dreams," Angel judged.

"Does that mean my proto-temporal bodies really have become gifted people?" Laplace murmured.

Angel: "Why don’t you take a look at this Maggie, see if she is the Treasure Mermaid from your memory."

Having said that, under the watchful eyes of Laplace and Glaipnir, Angel used illusion techniques to completely recreate the scene when Maggie first met Jeanne.

"Maggie, is she the Maggie from your memory?" As the illusion ended, Angel finally asked.

Laplace remained silent, nodding slightly.

Maggie’s appearance was identical to the proto-temporal body she had created herself.

Angel: "Then I can basically confirm now that your proto-temporal body most likely has become a special NPC."

After reaching this conclusion, there was a long period of silence at the scene, with no immediate realization of what to say.

Finally, Angel broke the silence: "This outcome is set, and we can’t see whether it’s good or bad right now... However, since they are Laplace’s proto-temporal bodies, might they be closer to you?"

For instance, when Laplace entered Silver Coral Island, did Maggie give her special treatment?

Laplace shook her head: "Within the proto-temporal bodies, there are only their own memory scenes, nothing related to me. So, even if I encounter them, they won’t recognize me."

Angel: "In that case, the transformation of your proto-temporal bodies into special NPCs doesn’t seem to provide us with much benefit, does it?"

"Benefit?" Laplace pondered: "From the perspective of instance clearance, it probably doesn’t offer much help. Like this Little Treasure Tower... Maggie’s memories contain the concept of the Little Treasure Tower, but she hasn’t seen it, nor does she know what’s inside; there’s no chance for a trial of 120 levels."

The trial of the Little Treasure Tower is a replication created by the Wonderland of Dreams’ authority, combined with Maggie’s memories.

This is considered a "original" instance, just wrapped in a Treasure Mermaid background story.

Even if Laplace knows all of Maggie’s memories, getting her to pass through the Little Treasure Tower probably wouldn’t have any help.

It’s just like the "Escape Room" instance Jeanne is currently attempting; this splendid hall’s escape room Laplace simply hasn’t seen.

Though to Laplace, this escape room instance seems simple, it’s only the first layer of the instance; she’s cleared the circus instance, knowing these instances have many pitfalls. Strength isn’t the definitive measure. According to her, she doesn’t have the confidence to clear the Little Treasure Tower instance... after all, 120 levels remain.

At this point, Glaipnir suddenly said: "Although in terms of instance clearance, it might not provide much support; in terms of Maggie’s character setting, she matches the characteristics of a proto-temporal body quite well."

Angel: "Character setting? Characteristics?"

He understood the meaning of each word, but putting them together left him somewhat bewildered.

Glaipnir glanced at Laplace, and seeing her barely nod, Glaipnir then began to explain: "Although the proto-temporal bodies created by the original body are just memory amalgamations, in the process of creating them, certain characteristics of a proto-temporal body were magnified, or one might say, future personality tendencies were highlighted."

"Take Luigi, for example... When he was created, his characteristic of ’pursuit of dreams’ was magnified." Glaipnir: "At the time, we wanted to create someone who’d never give up chasing dreams. However, maybe there was a slight mishap in magnifying this characteristic, and that’s how Luigi turned out."

Angel: "..." Do temporal bodies also make fun of each other?

However, currently Luigi is indeed a "dream-chasing youth", his pursuit of music is absolutely sincere.

Angel: "Is it the same for you and Little Laplace?"

"I had the characteristic of ’pondering questions’ magnified." Although Glaipnir spoke of himself, he didn’t hide anything.

Pondering questions, this aligns with Angel’s perception of Glaipnir’s personality. Analytical, but overly skeptical.

Glaipnir continued: "However, Little Laplace is different from us, she didn’t have any characteristics magnified because she was directly projected from the original body’s memories, directly split as a temporal body."

Simply put, Glaipnir and Luigi advanced from "proto-temporal bodies" to "temporal bodies", possessing both Laplace’s memories and their own personal memories in their minds.

On the other hand, the Rabbit Girl emerged directly as a temporal body from the original, bypassing the "proto-temporal body" stage, with memories entirely belonging to Laplace.

Angel now understood: "So, all proto-temporal bodies have their own unique personalities?"

"Yes." Glaipnir nodded: "Including this Maggie, in creating her, the characteristic magnified was—’tolerance toward the benevolent.’"

Tolerance toward the benevolent bears a "Holy Mother" flavor, but actually differs from being a Holy Mother.

A Holy Mother indiscriminately showers love irrespective of good or bad.

Maggie, however, only extends her tolerance to those with kind hearts; for those who are unkind or malicious, she simply disregards them.

This is consistent with Maggie’s personality traits within the Fairyland Duplication.

Maggie allows kind-hearted people to reside long-term on Silver Coral Island, providing them with shelter. This is the result of "tolerance towards the kind-hearted."

Glaipnir: "In other words, by understanding the character of these gifted people transformed by the temporal body, one can make targeted adjustments... This could be considered a benefit, right?"

Angel nodded: "Indeed."

Although the trial of the Little Treasure Tower, with Maggie’s kind-hearted persona, doesn’t help much in clearing it; but what about other instances, like the Sunshine Circus? If the host is played by the temporal body, you might be able to tailor the performance to his personality, potentially reducing the difficulty of each level and increasing the rewards.

Therefore, from this perspective, having the temporal body portray special NPCs is also beneficial.

However, these benefits are not yet obvious, mainly because currently, only Maggie, this special NPC, has appeared. The whereabouts of other special NPCs are unknown, and these benefits can only be... foreseen in the future.

"Since you know Maggie’s character, do you understand what her criteria for judging kindness are?"

Angel didn’t dwell on those future NPCs, focusing instead on the present; if he could understand Maggie’s criteria for judging kindness, Silver Coral Island might become a gathering place for new residents in the future.

Laplace understood Angel’s intention, as she was the one who suggested Angel use the authority of the Crystal Origin of Dreams to recruit new residents. However, when faced with Angel’s inquiry, she didn’t quite know how to respond.

After contemplating for a while, Laplace said: "Treasure Mermaids are innately endowed with the Power of the Mind, making it as easy for them to sense a person’s good or evil as it is for humans to breathe; this is a talent of the Treasure Mermaids."

"However, the standards for good and evil for Treasure Mermaids vary. I don’t know Maggie’s criteria for judging kindness either..."

The Treasure Mermaids are native to the Lofte World, and in Lofte’s unique Extraordinary System, the tears and scales of Treasure Mermaids are important demonic materials. This fact affects the Treasure Mermaids’ view of humans.

Some Treasure Mermaids believe that: those who don’t harm them are kind.

Others lower their standards and consider those who trade for tears and scales as kind.

However, most Treasure Mermaids view humans as: as long as you’re human, you’re evil.

Therefore, the Treasure Mermaids’ views on good and evil are quite flexible.

Of course, in Maggie’s memory, she hasn’t been harmed by humans, so her view of good and evil probably hasn’t reached the point of "just by being human, you’re evil." Otherwise, she wouldn’t have allowed Jeanne to enter Silver Coral Island.

Yet, how she currently judges kindness, even Laplace, who created the temporal body, doesn’t know.

Since Laplace couldn’t provide an answer, Angel gave up too.

Judging kindness is inherently subjective, especially when Treasure Mermaids can flexibly adjust their views on good and evil, her criteria are likely still within a vague boundary.

Rather than pondering it outside, it’d be better to directly enter Silver Coral Island to find out.

...

Angel, along with Laplace and Glaipnir, went to the edge of the pool. The surface of the pool looked as calm as ever without any oddity, but beneath it lay a light circle, connecting to the path to Silver Coral Island.

Angel originally planned to enter Silver Coral Island together because according to Maggie, as long as they don’t challenge the Little Treasure Tower, they can leave at any time.

This was friendly to all three of them.

The three of them, especially Angel and Laplace, were not very interested in challenging the fairyland duplication. Of course, if it was a simple and short instance, Laplace might be willing to try, but she had no interest in long and tedious trials.

That was the shadow cast by the previous Sunshine Circus instance.

However, Silver Coral Island is different from other instances. It exists for the Little Treasure Tower, and simply going to Silver Coral Island wouldn’t affect them.

Thus, even Laplace found it agreeable to visit Silver Coral Island... perhaps even try sea fishing.

But plans can’t keep up with changes.

The light circle was beneath the pool, yet they couldn’t enter it.

Initially, Glaipnir thought it might be because their "kindness" assessment was unqualified, hence the inability to enter Silver Coral Island. But later, Angel used the Fairyland Authority to perceive information from the light circle and discovered that it wasn’t yet the phase for a "kindness" assessment.

The kindness assessment is initiated by Maggie, and since Maggie was outside the Little Treasure Tower and hadn’t even appeared, how could it be assessed?

The reason they couldn’t enter Silver Coral Island was because—

"The Little Treasure Tower instance is opening, the entrance to Silver Coral Island will be locked."

In other words, as long as someone starts the challenge of the Little Treasure Tower, Silver Coral Island will be in a closed state.

To enter Silver Coral Island, they would have to wait for Jeanne to finish.

Unable to enter Silver Coral Island, Angel decided to start a "live broadcast," using Illusion Technique to present Jeanne’s process of clearing the levels.

He started the live broadcast purely with the thought that enjoying alone is inferior to enjoying together.

The "together" here referred to Laplace and Glaipnir.

Yet unexpectedly, Laplace and Glaipnir weren’t very interested in the process of clearing the levels, mainly because the first level was too simple. On the contrary, other new residents of Rabbit Town eagerly opened their windows on the Rabbit Mansion, craning their necks with excitement to watch the live broadcast.

Considering this, Angel didn’t stop the broadcast. They were eventually going to encounter the fairyland duplications, so gaining insight into Jeanne’s instance process allowed them to see things in advance.

The only pity was that the instance was too easy and without life-threatening risks. Otherwise, its educational value would be greater.

In the live broadcast screen, Jeanne’s puzzle-solving speed was fairly quick. In just over a quarter of an hour, she had already found five puzzle pieces and two gems, leaving one puzzle piece and one gem to find.

The puzzle piece and gem that she hadn’t found were actually locked in the same box.

However, this box was located in a very unique place—it was in the chimney of a burning fireplace.

Perhaps due to oversight, despite passing by the fireplace multiple times, Jeanne hadn’t discovered it.

Just as Angel was contemplating whether to give Jeanne a small hint, her gaze happened to fall in the direction of the fireplace.