Lillie opened her eyes, blinking in surprise as she stared at the portal she had conjured. “Wow! It’s just like in Lillie’s dream…” She then glanced at Victor for reassurance. “Has Lillie succeeded?”

  “Mm, you have. You’ve just done something most Magi wouldn’t even believe is possible,” Victor replied, still caught in a trance as he observed the portal.

  Creating a portal to a pocket dimension or even another realm or world was one thing. But a portal to the Dreamscape? That was something on an entirely different level; something that was almost impossible by conventional understanding.

  To begin with, Dreamscape was said to be a separate dimension, a vast realm created from the dreams of all intelligent creatures. These dreams converged and intertwined and were thought to form an entire plane of existence. However, opening a passage to such a place required immense energy and could never be achieved through ordinary means like using nexus gates or common teleportation methods.

  But there was something that Victor was curious about: Lillie had a pair of mismatched eyes, which meant that she was supposed to have two distinct powers. If one had the ability to control dreamforce, then what was the other? Perhaps it had something to do with her ability to materialize things out of nothingness and maintain their existence.

  Even though dreamforce was shrouded in mystery and capable of feats far beyond ordinary magic, its influence should have been limited in a material world like this. Without being physically in the Dreamscape, such powers typically diminished significantly. Yet, here she was, defying that very logic.

  Seeming to notice Victor’s astonishment, Lillie’s face lit up with pride and excitement. “Mentor! Can Lillie go inside?”

  “Perhaps. But let’s not be hasty,” Victor cautioned.

  As far as Victor knew, the Dreamscape was an inherently unstable place, rife with unknown dangers. Even powerful Magi hesitated to delve into it without thorough preparation. While the Dreamscape consisted of countless realms, each varying in rank and stability — much like how different planes and worlds were categorized — the realm Lillie had opened must be one of the lowest tiers. Even so, exploring it carried significant risks.

  For now, he just wanted to observe this marvel — a doorway to a realm that shouldn’t exist outside of dreams — she had created and experimented with it. Although he had only been an official Magus for a few months, Victor had already begun experimenting with a variety of concepts. As a matter of fact, he’d recently built a personal research facility in the academy’s basement. By installing several protective magic formations, it could become a secure place to further study this newfound phenomenon.

  Out of the blue, the same shadow that had haunted Lillie in her room flickered to life within the portal, taking the shape of a shadowy figure with a single, vertical eye. It stared menacingly at both Victor and Lillie, though it seemed to linger on Victor most of all.

  “When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks back at you,” Victor mumbled in realization, which sent a shiver down his spine.

  It was at that moment he noticed the abnormality on Lillie. She suddenly went into a trance, with her expression completely blank, and she began to walk slowly toward the portal.

  “Lillie. Lillie!” Victor tried to stop Lillie from moving closer to the portal, but just as he moved closer, an invisible force pushed against him, stopping his hand mere inches from her. No matter how hard he pushed with his extraordinary strength, the force wouldn’t budge.

  With brows furrowed, he tried to manipulate the elemental particles around her, attempting to use his spells to pull her back. Yet, to his shock, the surrounding force refused to respond, as though an unseen power had severed his connection to them entirely.

  It was as if that “something” was taking her away.

  Victor watched in helpless horror as Lillie stepped through the portal, vanishing before his outstretched hands. Immediately, an immense amount of guilt formed within him. If he hadn’t asked her to attempt opening the passage, she wouldn’t have been dragged into the Dreamscape. This entire situation could have been avoided.

  Nonetheless, there was no use crying over spilled milk. Victor clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay composed. After all, there was no way he could have predicted this outcome. What mattered now was finding a way to save her… but how?

  Victor creased his eyebrows, trying his best to think. Mobilizing the players — who were mostly low-rank acolytes — was out of the question. Sending them in as cannon fodder would achieve nothing, and the portal wouldn’t last long enough for them to even prepare.

  That left him with only two choices: enter the Dreamscape himself to rescue her or leave her to fend for herself and hope she could make it back.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  But could he really leave her alone in such a dangerous place, that innocent girl who couldn’t even cast a spell, all on her own?

  As if to exacerbate this situation further, there was a new side mission that told him to save Lillie.

  Mission: Save Lillie in the Dreamscape

  After having been told the truth, you asked Lillie to open up a portal to the Dreamscape. Now, she’s trapped in there thanks to the influence of a dangerous Dreamscape entity. It is your duty as her mentor to save and bring her back.

  Type: Side mission

  Reward: Basic comprehension of using dreamforce

  “Ah, screw it!” Victor growled under his breath.

  Sinking his nails into his palms, Victor steeled his resolve. Regardless of the dangers that lay within, he couldn’t abandon her. He had to bring her back at all costs!

  Allowing himself no more hesitation, Victor stepped into the portal. The pastel colors rippled like liquid light as he reached out a hand, feeling the strange, almost dreamlike warmth that radiated from its surface.

  Taking a deep breath to calm the racing of his heart, he muttered under his breath, “Hold on, Lillie. I’m coming to save you!”

  With that, he plunged through. The sensation of crossing the portal was eerily smooth, unlike when passing through the portal of a pocket dimension; there was no nausea, no disorienting weightlessness whatsoever, and the transition happened in an instant.

  Scanning around, Victor found that the surroundings were truly a surreal, otherworldly expanse that defied logic. The place he had been transported to looked no different from the fairytale lands depicted in children’s books. Bright, colorful, with wonders at every corner that he turned his head to.

  So, this is the Dreamscape.

  To be honest, Victor was quite distraught by the unpreparedness he had to go through here. After all, only Magi of Sigil Conversion rank or higher would dare to venture into the Dreamscape that contained unimaginable horrors. But he sighed in relief that the realm he had entered appeared to be one of the lowest ranks and the environment seemed non-hostile. On the surface, at least.

  As he explored a bit of this mysterious land, Victor noted its beauty — floating islands drifted lazily in the air, dazzling rainbow bridges arched gracefully between them, and a crystal-filled forest sparkled with an almost hypnotic light. This place was simply too magical to exist in Seraphia.

  Then, he stumbled across a small lake surrounded by giant flowers. In its center was a massive lily pad, and atop it sat a huge emerald-green toad with skin that glistened like polished jade. The toad turned its bulbous, golden eyes toward him, and to Victor’s surprise, its expression appeared… startled.

  “Traveler from another dimension, why are you here again?” it croaked in a deep, resonant voice.

  Victor blinked, caught off guard by the toad’s sentience and speech. What have I stumbled upon? A huge talking toad? And what does it mean by “again”?

  After a moment, he composed himself and asked, “I could ask you the same. Who — or what — are you?”

  The toad looked as though it was pondering the question. “I am just an ordinary creature in this place. You, however, are clearly the strange one, stranger. Your presence has alerted the surroundings. Answer me — why have you come to this place again? I’m pretty sure you have made your way forward a long time ago.”

  Again, what is this toad talking about? Victor didn’t care about this nonsense and just crossed his arms. “Well, have you seen a snow-white-haired little girl wearing a simple dress, about this tall?” He raised his hand to about her height, gesturing at the air. “Her name is Lillie, and I’m looking for her.”

  The toad’s eyes widened, and then it let out a booming laugh. “You mean Princess Lillie? Of course, of course! No one in this realm doesn’t know her.”

  Princess? But she’s only been in the Dreamscape half a minute longer than me! The realization hit him. Perhaps Lillie’s recurring dreams about this place had allowed her consciousness to exist here long before her physical form ever arrived. It was a plausible theory, but he couldn’t be certain just yet.

  “If that’s the case, do you know where she is now?” Victor asked.

  “Naturally, yes. She’s in that white castle over there,” the toad replied, gesturing with a webbed hand toward a majestic white castle perched atop a hill on the largest floating island in the distance. Then, the tone turned more serious as he continued, “But be careful on the way there, though. Many of us aren’t as… friendly.”

  Victor was 100 percent sure that this toad was a Dreamscape creature, and its combat capabilities were likely formidable. It might not even pale in comparison to a newly promoted Elemental Adept Magus.

  “Whoops!” The toad suddenly straightened, its golden eyes darting nervously toward the sky. “The ‘Riftstorm’ is coming soon.”

  Victor squinted. “What storm?”

  “Temporal Riftstorm…” the toad croaked ominously. “No time to waste explaining. I gotta hide! If you don’t want to die, you should hide too.”

  Without wasting another second, the toad disappeared by leaping into the waters of the lake, leaving Victor alone with more questions than answers.

  All at once, the serene, colorful sky above began to change. It darkened and bled together, transforming into an ominous shade of blood red. It was as though the heavens themselves were warning of an impending apocalypse.

  Victor’s body tensed upon witnessing this drastic change. This must be the Temporal Riftstorm the toad spoke of!

  It was only the sky at first, but then came the storm. A fierce, chaotic wind erupted out of nowhere, carrying with it fine particles of shimmering sand. The particles were like tiny prisms, creating an almost hypnotic effect as they whipped through the air.

  Victor shielded his face with his arm as the storm intensified, trying to manipulate the elemental particles around to form a protective barrier. But to his horror, his control over magic in this place was severely nerfed; it was like trying to move at the bottom of the ocean — every action sluggish and painfully inefficient. Here, in the Dreamscape, he was almost no different from a mortal.

  Despite this, the winds didn’t let up as it howled like a thousand wailing voices, carrying a strange, oppressive force that seemed to distort reality itself. Shapes flickered within the storm — phantoms, shadows, and shifting silhouettes — making it nearly impossible to discern what was real.

  “Oh, shit!” I can’t stay out here. This storm isn’t just magical; it is laced with dreamforce!