Loren woke up very early the next day. After getting up, his first task was to send the unconscious witches back to their respective rooms before leaving his own bedroom.

Now he had to start thinking of ways to deal with Phoris. After a night of contemplation, Loren already had an idea.

"Master Mentor, good morning…"

After sending the others back, Loren happened to run into Anna, who had just woken up. She was yawning, her eyes still bleary with sleep.

"By the way, Anna, come here for a moment."

Hearing Loren call her, Anna instantly became a bit more alert.

"Master Mentor, what do you need me for?"

"I brought the ruler that records your height earlier. Come here, let me measure you."

Loren recorded the children's heights every year to determine when they stopped growing.

Naclis stopped growing at eighteen, remaining frozen in her current appearance.

Loren had also brought the ruler used to record Naclis's height. Although it was useless now, it held strong sentimental value, documenting Naclis's growth trajectory.

"Oh." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Loren placed the ruler against the wall, and Anna, responding with a sound, stood next to it.

Then, Loren held a small knife against the top of Anna's head and made a mark on the ruler. It was exactly level with last year's mark.

"Seriously, you stopped growing at twelve?"

Anna's age had frozen far too early. The current Anna was too small, making many things rather inconvenient.

For instance, using most weapons was very awkward for her; holding them felt unnatural, though Anna had gotten used to it.

Yes, it was only inconvenient for combat.

"But I'm very cute now, don't you think so?"

Anna tilted her head, blinking her big eyes at Loren.

"If I grew any bigger, it wouldn't be as convenient for you to hold me. I'll always be your little cutie."

Unlike the other witches, Anna, raised by Loren, had always been confident. She knew exactly how adorable she was, so she spent all day acting cute with Loren.

"Alright, alright, alright…"

Loren pinched Anna's cheeks, making her pout, and finally gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"I'm going to the laboratory. It shouldn't take too long. Have a little something to eat first. I'll have a proper meal with you all when I come out."

"Okay…"

Anna nodded obediently, nuzzling her face against Loren's hand.

...

After entering the laboratory, Loren finally selected a new talent. Choosing talents at critical moments was the right approach.

The new talent Loren chose was called [Dreamwalker]. This talent allowed Loren to completely control his own dreams and also invade the dreams of others.

Generally, this talent was used for intelligence gathering. After all, the God of Dreams was constantly in seclusion, and people didn't know much about Him, so they weren't very guarded about their own dreams. This gave [Dreamwalker] an opening.

Simultaneously, Dreamwalker could also be used to deal with Dreamwalkers. The authority of a Dreamwalker was higher than that of a Dreamwalker. If a Dreamwalker entered a Dreamwalker's dream, they would instead be controlled by the Dreamwalker.

Even in other people's dreams, Dreamwalkers couldn't affect a Dreamwalker.

This wasn't the most crucial part. Dreamwalker granted Loren the qualification to enter the Forest of Dreams. Without Dreamwalker, one would be instantly controlled by the God of Dreams upon entering the Forest of Dreams, completely becoming His puppet.

However, even with Dreamwalker, invading the Forest of Dreams was still difficult. It was the God of Dreams's divine kingdom, guarded by many Angels.

If we're just talking about the effect of being unaffected, the True Sight Eye could also achieve that. However, the True Sight Eye wasn't very controllable. After all, that was the power of [Truth], which conflicted with dreams. It could help Loren escape danger but couldn't enable him to successfully invade.

Loren's plan to deal with the God of Dreams didn't rely entirely on Dreamwalker either; this was just a bonus. The real killing move was still the Outer Gods. Cassian had already dealt a heavy blow to the God of Dreams before.

So, Loren intended to repeat the same trick. He wasn't afraid of making a mortal enemy of the God of Dreams. Leaving aside whether He could guess it was Loren's doing, even if He did, the one taking the bigger loss would still be Him.

Even if Loren were crippled, he had the Bountiful Church to support him. But once the God of Dreams was weakened, the surrounding Orthodox Gods watching like tigers wouldn't let Him off.

The God of Light and Fire was right next to the God of Dreams, and Loren wouldn't mind informing the Church of Light and Fire about the good news of the God of Dreams being weakened.

After selecting the talent, Loren began concocting potions. This time, he was brewing Dream Potion, a third-tier magical potion that could immerse the user in pleasant dreams, making them very difficult to wake.

Simultaneously, the dreams would be strengthened, no longer as fragile as usual.

What Loren planned to do was have others drink the Dream Potion, then use Dreamwalker to enter their dreams, guiding them to the Forest of Dreams to cause trouble for the God of Dreams.

Loren wouldn't take such risks himself. At most, he would invade the Forest of Dreams while others were drawing fire.

However, Loren wouldn't truly harm others either. The Dream Potion could, to some extent, guarantee their safety.

This was only a third-tier potion. For the current Loren, concocting it was extremely easy. In just half an hour, Loren had successfully brewed many bottles.

After finishing the concoction, Loren left the laboratory. It was just lunchtime.

By now, everyone had woken up one after another, and soon the dining table was surrounded by people.

Only, Luna's mood wasn't very good. In her eyes, Phoris was someone she had brought; she was the one who had harmed Loren.

So, during the meal, Luna couldn't help but ask Loren:

"Master Mentor, is there any way to completely resolve the issue with Phoris?

"An existence like hers, even if captured, wouldn't be of much use, right…"

Luna was right. Capturing Phoris was useless. She could commit suicide at any moment, especially after gaining the authority of the God of Dreams, making it even easier for her to kill herself.

"It's not that there's no way…"

Then, Loren explained his idea without the slightest concealment. With the witches, Loren didn't need to hide anything.

"Then, can I go? With the Dream Potion, I can use my abilities in the dream too, right? Didn't you say our abilities have a restraining effect on Orthodox Gods?"

Luna was correct, but Loren still didn't plan to let them take the risk.

Loren himself had many trump cards to ensure he wouldn't come to harm, but the witches didn't.

Moreover, this damned world had a fundamental rule: any life form could not be resurrected. If something truly happened to the witches, even Loren would be powerless.

Therefore, even knowing the witches were better at dealing with Orthodox Gods, Loren didn't intend to send them.

"Forget it. Having people from the Church is enough. I can't let you take risks. If I lost you, I would suffer for a lifetime."

Loren stroked Luna's hair, comforting her.