"You can now speak clearly in my mind?"
Previously, the senior had spoken to him in his mind before, but because her consciousness was too far from her main body, she couldn't say much at a time.
He didn't expect that now she could speak so fluently in his head in the real world!
And…
"You said to follow you? Where are you? How do I follow you?"
"Just let go of me," her voice rang out again.
Wade stared, dumbfounded, at the cat in his arms.
But at this moment, the cat Tom's emerald green eyes no longer held their usual lazy look…
Seeing that familiar gaze, Wade exclaimed in surprise, "You… you possessed Tom the cat?"
"Yes… from now on, if I want to find you, I won't need to enter your dreams. As long as this cat is by your side, I can use the magic in its body to communicate with you. If you want to talk to me, just call me through the cat… Don't worry about its well-being—when I possess it, it's just temporarily asleep."
"This... This is amazing!!!" Wade held up the cat and examined it from all angles.
"P-Put me down..." the senior's voice sounded slightly embarrassed.
After possessing the cat, she could feel everything the cat felt. Being held up like that by Wade made her feel awkward…
"Oh, right..." Wade quickly lowered the cat, now inhabited by the senior's consciousness.
"Follow me..." she said, then controlled the cat's body to walk into the nearby forest.
Watching the cat's retreating back, Wade scratched his head.
"So now she's really turned into a cat-senior..."
…
The cat moved quickly.
Even though she deliberately slowed down, Wade still had a hard time keeping up.
"You should buy a broom. Flying through the forest on one would still be better than stumbling around on foot," the senior said.
"Uh... alright." Wade nodded.
Indeed, with a Disillusionment Charm and silently flying above the treetops, it would be far more stealthy than walking slowly on the ground.
Few people ever anticipate threats from the sky…
"Umm, Senior, can you teach me how to attach my consciousness to an animal?" Wade couldn't help asking.
It was clearly a very useful skill!
If he could possess birds or insects, the possibilities would be endless!
"When the day comes that your consciousness can truly detach from your physical body, that will be the first requirement met..." the cat senior replied.
"Uh… alright then..." Wade was a bit disappointed.
Consciously leaving his body? That still sounded a long way off…
After walking for quite some time, the cat possessed by the senior sister finally stopped, stealthily crouching outside a large camp.
Wade poked his head out to look too.
It was a camp five or six times bigger than the previous goblin outpost.
…all the lights in the goblin camp began to flicker.
One by one, the bright magical lanterns dimmed as if covered by an invisible veil, and soon the entire camp was engulfed in a dense, eerie fog.
The fog didn't just affect vision—it carried a strange chill that seeped into the bones, making even the most alert guards drowsy.
Wade's eyes widened. He wasn't the one casting this magic—this was entirely the senior's doing.
Soon, low muttering and yawns echoed from within the camp.
Even the goblins, always alert and sensitive to magical fluctuations, were now rubbing their eyes, their weapons drooping in their hands. A few even slumped to the ground, fast asleep.
The witches and wizards among the Alliance fared slightly better, but even they looked confused, their reaction times visibly dulled.
Wade turned to the cat beside him—the senior's borrowed form—and murmured in awe, "This is… dream magic?"
"More accurately, a sleep domain I established within the dream realm, temporarily pulled into the real world using your body as a medium," the cat senior replied calmly.
"Now, go in. You'll find the goblin craftsman in the large tent near the center."
Wade nodded silently and, under the cover of the fog and sleep enchantment, quietly slipped into the camp.
"Got him." Wade swiftly stepped over the threshold and crouched beside the old goblin.
The goblin was snoring loudly, a half-finished metal device still gripped loosely in his hand. Tools and enchanted schematics lay scattered across the workbench.
Wade didn't waste time. He drew his wand and murmured, "Mobilicorpus."
The goblin's limp body slowly floated into the air, suspended like a puppet with invisible strings.
"Take him and go," came the senior's voice from the cat beside him. "I'll cover the retreat."
Wade nodded, tightening his grip on his wand as he turned and hurried out of the tent, the levitating goblin following close behind. The fog remained thick, swirling protectively around him, masking sound and movement. He could still hear the muffled snoring of the sleeping Alliance members and goblins as he passed.
Once they had cleared the outer perimeter of the camp, Wade ducked into the undergrowth and pulled the goblin behind a large tree. A moment later, the cat padded up beside him.
"Done," the senior said. "Let's get out of here."
Without hesitation, Wade Apparated away, taking the goblin craftsman with him—leaving nothing behind but silence and a dream-laced mist.
"It's him. Take him to your lab. The rest is up to me," the senior said.
Wade nodded, grabbed the old goblin's arm with his right hand... ehm.. scooped up the senior—still in the cat's body—with his left, and Apparated away from the goblin camp.
Just before vanishing, Wade didn't forget to snatch a blueprint and a circular object from the workbench.
As Wade disappeared, a surge of white mist rolled in, wiping away any magical traces left by the Apparition.
Moments later, the mist faded…
A few minutes afterward, anxious shouts rang out through the goblin camp.
"He's gone! The craftsman is gone!"
"What the fuck happened?!"
"Why was I asleep?!"
In an instant, the entire camp was ablaze with light and chaos.
…
Inside the Somnolen wizard's tower,
Wade laid the unconscious goblin craftsman on a bench, then casually placed the stolen blueprint and ring-shaped object on the table.
"Ok, what do we do next?" he asked.
"Well.. umm.. could you first put me on the ground?" The cat looked at him with embarrassment.
"O-Of course!" Wade didn't want to die early after all.
"Put him on a bed. I'll handle the rest," the cat senior replied. "He's already trapped in my dreamscape. His knowledge will soon become mine!"
Her voice carried a hint of excitement.
If Wade's assumptions were correct, she might be able to free herself sooner than expected—and without needing him to take any further risks.
While Wade was settling the old goblin onto a bed, the senior leapt onto the table, pawing through the blueprint and circular device he had brought back.
"Oh? It's actually this thing!" she said, clearly delighted.
"What is it?" Wade asked.
"This is a goblin control ring, along with its improved design," she explained. "Goblin control rings can be used to control magical creatures... Back when I was being hunted by a dragon, it had one of these rings around its neck!"
Wade immediately recalled the armored troll he had fought before—it too had worn such a ring around its neck. He remembered that when he decapitated the creature, he had accidentally destroyed the ring along with it.
In the end, those scraps of metal had even been dug back up by him and turned into containers for holding the "residue"...
"This really is a valuable item..." Wade said.
"Mm... Looks like this goblin craftsman is quite skilled. He seems to have been working on improving this ring!" the senior said as she looked down at the blueprint.
However, it appeared that the design hadn't yet been fully completed.
"Don't worry, we're not letting good things like this slip by~" the senior said in a chilly tone. "Back then they used this thing to hunt me down—I've never forgotten it! Now this device belongs to us. Hmph... I'm really looking forward to the day those goblins get pummeled by their own enslaved trolls."
Wade, listening from the side, chimed in, "Exactly. Might as well make them wear one of these rings themselves—let them experience what it's like to be enslaved."
The senior's cat eyes glowed eerily as she turned toward him. "Keh~ Great idea, Wade! Let's do it!"
Wade felt goosebumps rising across his skin.
It was clear that the conflict between the senior and the goblins had been extremely intense.
Otherwise, she wouldn't still be holding such a grudge to this day.
"Alright, you head back for now. I should enter the dream and properly meet this goblin master craftsman... Hm... actually, now that I look at him, I feel like he looks a bit familiar… could it be that we've met before?"
As the senior finished speaking, the kneazle on the table suddenly shivered, then blinked around in confusion.
Wade knew that her consciousness had already left.
He glanced at the old goblin lying beside them with a trace of sympathy in his eyes.
"Tsk tsk, don't tell me you just happened to have offended her in the past?"
_________
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