To upgrade the Alchemical Hall to level three, he needed to spend 10,000 AP. The building would expand, and more alchemical labs would become accessible. Adding to that, Gimmel-tier potions and elixirs, as well as their recipes, would be unlocked for purchase — concoctions that even a Nexus Temporal Magus like Victor could benefit from consuming. However, there was one glaring issue: no one in the academy was currently capable of crafting such high-tier alchemical products.
Won’t it be pointless to upgrade the building right now? Victor thought, frowning. After some deliberation, he decided to postpone the upgrade until someone with the skills to produce Gimmel-tier potions and elixirs appeared.
It might take a long time, though, since Elara was barely able to concoct Bet-tier elixirs. The Magi at the Asteriscus Magus family were also not particularly adept at concocting alchemical products either.
Next on the list was the Artificer Hall. Unfortunately, it suffered from a similar problem. Although Victor had full confidence in Eleanor’s talents, especially considering her heritage as a Faulkner, she had only recently ascended to Elemental Adept Magus. Consolidating her newfound power would take time, and she likely wouldn’t have much bandwidth to focus on forging high-grade magic weapons just yet.
Besides, was there a need for magic artifact blueprints at this stage?
Having reached that conclusion, Victor headed straight to the Virtual Combat Chamber. This System building was filled to the brim with all the chambers occupied. It was no surprise — players loved using this facility since it allowed them to quickly raise their combat prowess while venting frustration against enemies they despised, whether monsters or even other players. Unfortunately, upgrading the chamber to level three required a staggering 50,000 AP, far too steep to prioritize at the moment. As such, the only building that was upgraded was the Magic Botanical Garden.
“Well, the current level is already sufficient enough since it can simulate opponents up to the Nexus Temporal rank,” Victor mused. “And the next building is great for combat too.”
Without wasting any time, he set off to find a suitable location to place the Mystical Dungeons. As luck would have it, there was a vacant space just beside the Virtual Combat Chamber, situated in the northwestern quadrant of the academy grounds. It was a fitting location — close enough to be associated with combat and training, and large enough to accommodate the new building’s structure. Given the similarities between the two, placing them side by side felt almost intuitive.
[Mystical Dungeons is available to be constructed.]
[Please select a location on the map to place the building.]
Victor opened the System’s building interface and zoomed in on the rectangular plot of land before him. With a quick tap, he marked the designated coordinates. “Confirmed.”
In an instant, a building emerged from the ground as if peeling itself from the layers of space. Dark gray stone rose from the ground in jagged formations, rearranging themselves into an imposing dungeon-like structure, crowned by a tower-like spire that pulsed with ambient mana. The architecture was quite different compared to the other System buildings, being more ominous and deliberately alien.
“Now we’re talking,” Victor commented.
“Master, this building seems to draw mana differently from the others,” Lizbeth said, narrowing her eyes at the structure.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means…” Lizbeth paused before continuing after observing some more, “…it is a convergence point of unstable mana streams, linked to multiple pocket dimensions. A fractured locus, if you will. It doesn’t just use the ambient mana… It’s siphoning from overlapping realms.”
Victor’s brow lifted slightly. “So it’s tapping into other realities.”
But how was that possible? Linking just one pocket dimension required complex magic formations and immense resources. To connect with several at once — let alone sustain it — was bordering on the absurd. None of the System buildings were ordinary, of course, but even by those standards, this felt like it belonged to a different class altogether. It felt like Victor was missing an important piece here.
Luckily, Lizbeth’s next words offered a sliver of clarity. “Exactly. And not just any realities. Chaotic ones, full of anomalies. That’s likely why the architecture looks so… unworldly. It’s designed to anchor and stabilize dimensional intersections with the pocket dimensions from which they originate.”
“The Dreamscape…” Victor muttered. That was the only explanation that made sense.
He finally grasped how the building functioned. A realm beyond logic and natural law — where dreams shaped reality, and chaos ruled over order. A domain where consistency bent to the will of imagination yet remained forever unstable. No wonder the Mystical Dungeons felt so different. It wasn’t merely a building. It was a tethered breach into possibility itself.
Victor smirked at this finding. “This will become a perfect playground for the reckless players, then.”
“It’s more than that, Master,” Lizbeth warned, her wings fluttering uneasily. “Convergence points like this… they sometimes awaken things. Be careful what you let loose in there.”
Victor stepped forward without pause, hands clasped behind his back like a monarch surveying new territory. “Then I suppose it’s time to see how this building actually works.”
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Without another word, they approached the entrance — an imposing set of double doors tilted unnaturally at a 30-degree angle, as though the building defied Euclidean geometry on principle. Victor and Lizbeth stepped through the threshold, into a place that should not exist.
As soon as they entered, a thick white fog blanketed everything. It swallowed the floor, the walls, the air, leaving behind only a colorless void. Faint arcs of violet lightning flickered in the distance like nervous pulses in a dreaming mind. The ground beneath Victor’s boots was soft and damp, though no soil or stone could be seen beneath the mist.
“Master… this place feels eerie…” Lizbeth whispered from his shoulder, twitching with unease.
Victor said nothing and continued deeper, the fog parting sluggishly before him. Minutes — or perhaps seconds, for time was strange here — slipped past until the haze thinned just enough to reveal a silhouette ahead.
First came the gentle rustle of layered fabric. Then, strands of moon-pale hair shimmered into view, cascading like a silver waterfall down her back. As the fog receded like parted curtains, Victor beheld a girl unlike any other. She wore a deep violet dress layered with white frills, trimmed with satin bows and delicate lace. In her hands hung a strange lantern that radiated golden light.
Her silver hair gleamed in the dim glow, and her eyes — an intense amaranth — gazed at them with an almost lonely curiosity. She looked like she had stepped out of a forgotten fairytale, untouched by time or reality. A dark ribbon, tied in a precise bow, adorned the side of her head.
She stood at the threshold of the swirling dream-fog and the waking world like a gatekeeper of realms. Nothing about her belonged to this world. Hmm, this mana signature… She’s not human? It’s closer to a spirit.
“Welcome, Headmaster Victor Asteriscus,” she said, her voice soft and echoing faintly, as though spoken from every direction at once. “I am Lorelaine, the overseer of the Mystical Dungeons."
“Lorelaine, tell me what this place is exactly?”
“As you wish.” She raised her lantern slightly, clearing the fog from the area. “This place exists outside of your dimension. A convergence point where stray thoughts, dying memories, and discarded dreams gather into spaces of both challenge and reward.”
“So, like a subconscious dumping ground?” he asked.
“In crude terms, yes,” she replied without offense. “But more accurately, it is a canvas for remnants — echoes of lived experience and fragmented intent. With sufficient recollection, these fragments can manifest into entire dungeon scenarios. Currently, those recollections are sourced from the Shadowlink Marks. The more data those marks record, the more dungeon variations become available.”
“I see…” Victor nodded thoughtfully. He understood what she meant clearly and completely. Everything he and the players had experienced, fought through, or even merely observed — if etched deeply enough into memory and encoded by the Shadowlink Marks — could be transformed into a playable dungeon. A repurposing of memory into a challenge. Fascinating.
Lorelaine tilted her head with an expressionless face. “Headmaster, do you wish to view the currently available dungeons?”
Victor nodded. “Yes. Show me.”
She turned silently, as though beckoning them to follow. As she walked, the mist receded from her path, revealing a black obelisk in the far distance — identical to those found in other System-constructed buildings. The central command hub of the building itself.
Without a word, Lorelaine led them to it. Victor stepped forward, raising his hand without hesitation and pressing his palm against the crystal surface. At once, a translucent System window materialized in the air before him, displaying the available dungeons.
Available Dungeons:
- Queen Arachnid’s Catacomb
Difficulty: Easy
Potential Reward: Magical beast materials, mana crystals, low-grade magic tools, and miscellaneous alchemical ingredients.
Minimum Power Requirement: First-stage Initiate Attunement - Valley of Death
Difficulty: Medium
Potential Reward: Iron weapons and equipment, mana crystals, low and mid-grade magic tools, and low-rank potions.
Minimum Power Requirement: Second-stage Initiate Attunement - Steelrose Order Stronghold
Difficulty: Medium
Potential Reward: Golem parts, mana crystals, high-grade and lower magic tools, and rare potions and elixirs.
Minimum Power Requirement: Third-stage Initiate Attunement - Undead Princess’s Castle
Difficulty: Hard
Potential Reward: High-rank corpses, mana crystals, superior-grade and lower magic tools, rare potions and elixirs, and miscellaneous alchemical ingredients.
Minimum Power Requirement: Elemental Adept - Strange Dreamland
Difficulty: Hard
Potential Reward: High-rank Dreamscape creature corpses, mana crystals, superior-grade and lower magic tools, rare potions and elixirs, memory fragments, illusion-enhancing materials, and miscellaneous Dreamscape alchemical ingredients.
Minimum Power Requirement: Third-sigil Elemental Adept
“These are the fragments with enough data for manifestation,” Lorelain explained. “More will become available as the academy and its players continue to shape this world.”
“Interesting,” Victor muttered.
Each of these dungeons directly mirrored key encounters he and the players had faced. Queen Arachnid’s Catacomb, for example, was clearly based on the Lesser Hiveborne Arachnids’ invasion — the very first group of enemies the players had fought alongside him — as well as their nest that the players attacked in the past. It just so happened that this dungeon was set in an underground cavern teeming with exactly them.
Valley of Death, on the other hand, was unmistakably a recreation of the valley where Victor had unleashed hallucinogenic Dreamweaver Ivy and Carnivorous Man-Eating Plants, all to decimate Graviel’s mercenary force. That dungeon likely involved not only fighting those mercenaries but also navigating a hazardous environment full of those deadly plants.
The resemblance wasn’t coincidental. Every dungeon was a scenario built from memories — harvested, compressed, and repurposed through the Shadowlink Marks. Even moments that were merely witnessed could serve as a foundation, provided the impression was strong enough.
This was a good thing, though, since Victor could market this as a feature that let new players relive past events, effectively turning past campaigns into playable experiences. Such a concept would surely garner a lot of attention and popularity, drawing in curiosity-driven newcomers and nostalgia-seeking veterans alike.
Even better, the loot generated from these dungeons wasn’t just decorative. The magical beast materials, crystals, alchemical ingredients, and magic tools gained from clearing them would actively support the academy’s economy and progression.
A win-win situation, both strategically and economically.
More importantly, Victor noted that the System allowed for dynamic scaling. Though the listed difficulties showed the maximum available level, he could manually adjust them to one rank lower — making a “Hard” dungeon run at “Medium” difficulty, or “Medium” down to “Easy.” This flexibility made the Mystical Dungeons a powerful tool not just for training, but also for stress-testing players without overwhelming them.
“Master,” Lizbeth interjected, tugging lightly at Victor’s sleeve and pulling him from his train of thought. “There’s a message from the former headmaster…”
Victor’s brow arched. “Behind the obelisk?” That had been their favored hiding spot for such messages.
“No… It’s not behind anything,” Lizbeth replied, squinting upward. “It’s on the ceiling— no, the sky.”
“…What?” Victor looked up and was immediately stunned.
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