“Lillie, how much longer?!” Victor shouted.

  Lillie was kneeling in the corner of the room, her heterochromatic eyes shining as she concentrated on opening a passage. A shimmering circle of light was forming before her. “Almost… there!” she called back.

  Victor clenched his jaw, glancing back at the piano. The cracks spiderwebbing across its polished surface were growing wider, and the chaotic dreamforce contained within was becoming dangerously unstable. It was clearly trying to do a last-effort attack to take them down. The longer we’re here, the more dangerous this gets.

  All the remaining musical instruments shot dissonant notes toward Lillie as a final assault in a desperate attempt to stop her. At the same time, shadowy tendrils lashed out toward Victor once more in order to take his attention.

  Acting quickly, Victor cast {Spatial Fold}, creating a pocket of warped space that intercepted the incoming dissonant notes, trapping them inside. Meanwhile, the shadowy tendrils struck his spatial shield with relentless force, shattering it completely.

  “Ngh!” Victor staggered, the strain of maintaining his spells had clearly taken a heavy toll on him. His infused mana reserves were nearly depleted, and every time he cast a spell he felt like wading through quicksand.

  But then, Lillie let out a triumphant shout behind him. “It’s open! Mentor, hurry!”

  Victor turned his head to see the portal glowing brightly — the same one that had brought them to this place. Without wasting a moment, he rushed toward her, the Voidborn Orb trailing behind him like a loyal pet. Finally, I can get out of this place!

  The entity, however, wasn’t about to let them escape so easily. As Victor reached Lillie, the piano emitted a deafening shriek, and countless shadowy tendrils exploded outward. One of them snagged Victor’s leg, yanking him back just as he reached the edge of the portal. Darn!

  “Mentor!” Lillie screamed, her hands reaching for him.

  “Hmph!” Victor twisted mid-air, slashing at the tendril with an ethereal blade summoned from the only remaining rift before it crumbled.

  But it wasn’t done yet. More tendrils surged toward him, each one pulsing with malevolent energy. Victor gritted his teeth as he unleashed the stored dissonant notes from his {Spatial Fold}. The trapped energy burst forth like a torrent, colliding with the tendrils in a chaotic explosion of sound and light.

  Realizing that letting the entity live might cause future troubles, Victor made his decision. I should eliminate it here once and for all!

  “{Nova}!” he chanted in a high-pitched voice as the room began to collapse, using his last sigil.

  In an instant, the space right beside the piano erupted with a blinding explosion of Cosmo elemental energy, and the force of the blast ripped through the room. Because the spell was more of using atomic reactions to mimic a thermonuclear-like explosion, it was designed for catastrophic impact. However, being within the Dreamscape, the destructive potential was dampened, limited by the surreal nature of the realm.

  Still, the spell’s power was more than enough.

  The piano shattered under the immense pressure, shattering into countless pieces. The shadowy tendrils dissolved mid-air, unable to withstand the heat and force of the explosion, and the entity wailed, screaming “No!” as it was consumed by the explosion, fading into nothingness.

  The blast’s force propelled Victor forward, and with the last of his momentum, he grabbed Lillie’s outstretched hand. Together, they dove into the glowing portal just as the room behind them collapsed entirely, imploding into an endless void. The portal sealed shut a heartbeat later, leaving no trace of the Dreamscape realm behind.

  Victor landed heavily on solid ground, his body rolling on the ground as he protected Lillie with his arms. With ragged breathing, he lay flat on his back, still feeling the heat from his own spell on his face. Fuck! Although I didn’t suffer any serious injuries, I’m all out on mana… If I’d been there for a few seconds longer, I might have been the one to croak instead.

  Beside him, Lillie clung tightly to his arm while trembling. Relief flooded her face as she buried it against his shoulder, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Thank you, Mentor Victor. You saved Lillie…” she whispered, full of gratitude.

  Victor nodded weakly, managing a faint smile despite his exhaustion. “Well, all’s well that ends well.”

  Gently, he patted her head, smoothing down her silver locks. “As a king, you shouldn’t cry, Lillie,” Victor joked, tilting his head slightly as he looked at her. Despite the lighthearted tone, his thoughts carried a depth rooted in his rational nature, shaped by living two lives. To him, Lillie felt more like a niece than merely a mentee.

  Lillie sniffled, pulling back just enough to look up at him. “Lillie is not crying!” she insisted, her cheeks blushing as she wiped her tears away with her sleeve.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Victor smirked and sat up slowly. “Of course, Your Majesty,” he said with mock seriousness. “How foolish of me to assume otherwise.”

  A faint pout formed on Lillie’s lips, but the corners of her mouth twitched upward despite herself. She glanced around the classroom, which had been the starting point of their adventure in the Dreamscape, as if realizing for the first time that they had truly escaped. The stark contrast of the stable reality around them made the chaos of the Dreamscape feel like a distant memory, almost unreal.

  She’s still just a child… and yet, she carries so much, Victor thought. He rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the smirk fading as the weight of their ordeal settled in.

  [Mission Accomplished!]

  [Congratulations on passing the mission. You have successfully saved your apprentice from the Dreamscape.]

  [The reward (basic comprehension of using dreamforce) has been issued.]

  Just as the mission accomplishment notification appeared, the door to the room burst open, and a tiny fairy fluttered in. With a cry of relief, she launched herself at Victor and Lillie, wrapping her small arms around their cheeks in a clumsy but heartfelt embrace.

  “Where have the two of you been?! I was so worried, you know!” she exclaimed in agitation. “When you two suddenly went into that portal, I thought you were dead! Do you have any idea how long you were gone?!”

  “Miss Lizbeth, don’t worry. Mentor has saved Lillie, so she’s okay now.”

  Unfazed, Victor asked nonchalantly, “Well, how long were we gone, anyway?”

  “Thirteen days. You two were gone for thirteen days…” Lizbeth answered earnestly.

  “That long?” Victor raised an eyebrow. He was certain he had spent much longer in the Dreamscape due to the Temporal Riftstorm, though the time he spent exploring around was much shorter. This only confirmed that time flowed differently between dimensions.

  Regardless, a lot could have happened at the academy at that time. Hopefully, everything was running smoothly. Then again, Victor had left a contingency plan for Lizbeth to execute in case of his prolonged absence, so there shouldn’t be any major issues, but he decided to ask anyway.

  “Mm.” She nodded. “Nothing big happened over the past two weeks. The plan to expand the academy’s main building started while you were gone, just as you instructed. You should check the System’s main tab to see how the academy has progressed so far.”

  Expanding the academy’s main building was actually the project that he had planned for some time. The building would surround the Headmaster’s Building, and most of the lectures would be moved there. This was needed because the Headmaster’s Building was starting to become too crowded, making the expansion necessary.

  Other than this project, Victor wanted to start building Magus towers, but that should wait for a bit more… Though one might be constructed soon enough.

  Victor nodded slowly in response, still trying to wrap his head over the whole adventure he had gone through. “Thank you... I’ll take a look.”

  Academy Name: Sanctum of Interdimensional Magi

  Headmaster: Victor Asteriscus

  Academy Points: 7620

  Academy Grade: Level 4

  Total Acolytes: 1419/2000

  Total Professors: 1/2

  Total Assistant Professors: 4/8

  Progression Value: 1180/2000

  Since he hadn’t completed any missions that awarded academy points, his total remained unchanged. However, what caught his attention was the significant increase in both the number of acolytes and the progression value points. With more players joining the game, the progression bar should fill up quicker and quicker.

  “Mentor…” A gentle tug on his sleeve made Victor glance down, finding Lillie rubbing her sleepy eyes. “Lillie’s tired… Can Lillie go to her room?” she mumbled drowsily.

  “All right, Lillie. You should rest for a bit. We’ll talk later.”

  There were still many things Victor wanted to ascertain about her powers, but he was also drained from the journey. More importantly, he needed to assess the situation at the academy and check the mission rewards. It would be best to leave the discussion for another day.

  As Lillie left the room, Lizbeth perched on the table, crossing her tiny arms. “So… where exactly did the two of you go?” she asked, tilting her head. “And did you manage to solve Lillie’s trauma? I couldn’t see anything once you entered the portal.”

  Victor exhaled, leaning back slightly. “It’s a long story…”

  He gave Lizbeth a brief rundown of what they had gone through before shaking his head. “I hope I never have to go back there… It’s such a dangerous and chaotic place.”

  Lizbeth narrowed her eyes. “That doesn’t sound reassuring.” Then, after a brief pause, she let out a small sigh and smiled. “But all that matters is that you’ve returned safely.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Oh, and Eleanor has been nagging me, asking about your whereabouts,” Lizbeth continued. “The things you asked her to make are ready for experimentation and your input, but she said they’re still missing voidstones.”

  Victor rubbed his temple. Voidstones, huh… He had searched high and low but had never come across them. Still, it was good news that the rest of the project was on track.

  “Actually, Master…” Lizbeth hesitated before adding, “it’s possible to purchase voidstones from the System shop. They suddenly appeared when the mission was given.”

  “Seriously?” Well, if the System wants me to do something, it makes sense for it to provide a means to do so. Although, Victor doubted it would be that simple, though he couldn’t figure out what was missing.

  “Only that—”

  “What is it? Is it extremely expensive?”

  “Well, that,” Lizbeth twiddled her forefingers, “and… you can only buy one the size of a ping pong ball—”

  “—What?!”

  A voidstone the size of a ping-pong ball wasn’t exactly that useful. If it were to be made into interspatial rings, it could potentially produce more than a dozen of them, each with at least ten cubic meters of storage. But for constructing three Teleportation Waypoints, that might require a bit more, especially since this would be his first time attempting it.

  “Whatever. I’ll check in with her later,” he said, making a mental note. “For now, I need to take a long rest.”

  Plus, he still had to check out those sweet rewards from the System.

  As he was about to head into the basement, Lizbeth suddenly hovered closer, studying his face with an unreadable expression. Then, with a small huff, she crossed her arms.

  “What? Is there a stain on my handsome face?” Victor joked, expecting a sassy remark in return.

  Lizbeth, however, didn’t bite back. Instead, she simply muttered, “No. It’s just that I’ve been missing you.”

  “…Huh?”

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