The Door Hidden Within the Illusion

The structure of the Tower of False Dreams was simple. It showed the challenger a false dream, and the challenger had to endure every illusion the tower conjured while climbing its floors.

'It's manageable at first.'

But the deeper one climbed, the stronger the illusions became — a place where even those at the highest tier could not brute-force their way to the top. The orthodox method was simply to throw yourself at it again and again until you broke through, but no matter how generous the Tower's rewards were, no one had an infinite amount of time to burn.

That was why every other player had given up on it. I, however, had retried like a madman here in my previous life, and in doing so I discovered something the tower never advertised: the Imprint of False Dreams.

'After that, it was easy.'

Obtain the imprint the Tower of False Dreams grants, and you acquire the True Qualification — an absurd ability that erases every single illusion the tower projects, no matter how potent.

My footsteps echoed up the stairwell. As I climbed, traces of other people began to appear here and there. To the outside world, this was known as a single-player tower, but that was a lie. It was a multi-player tower — its floors merely induced such violent hallucinations that even top-tier challengers ended up lost inside them.

"Die, you damned orc! Khahaah!"

"Damn it! Why is a goblin shaman this stubborn?!"

Ahead of me, two men were locked in battle — one a magic warrior, the other a mage. I walked straight past them. The fights happening inside this tower weren't real. Those two believed they were clashing with monsters projected by the tower's hallucinations, but the truth was that every ounce of mana they released here was devoured by the tower the instant it left their bodies.

"Treasure! It's finally before my eyes!"

"Hahah! With this, I can wipe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out every mage who ever looked down on me!"

The mage had found a treasure chest. That, too, was an illusion. A place where worthless dreams drifted like dust — that was why it was called the Tower of False Dreams.

I left them to their mirages and reached the end of the first floor.

'No different from before.'

I studied the reward options. Clearing a floor granted a commensurate prize. A permanent +1 to Magic Power at just the first floor meant the rewards would snowball into something monstrous on the upper floors — or so one might assume.

I chose the Stone of False Dreams.

I pressed the stone against the spot where the Imprint of False Dreams had been carved into my body. The imprint flared to life, and I felt myself grow just a little stronger.

From there, I simply kept walking. The higher I climbed, the fewer people I encountered.

Again, I took the Stones of False Dreams.

After breaking through Floor 9 and stepping onto Floor 10, an enormous door came into view. From here on, things got considerably more tedious. Floors one through nine were pure illusion, but on this floor, an actual monster awaited.

The Demon of Bewilderment. A genuinely annoying creature — lacquered head to toe in resistance to every school of magic, with physical strength to match. In raw terms of rank, it sat somewhere around the middle tier. But combined with the tower's bewitching function, it evolved into something capable of killing even a highest-tier challenger.

'Not that it matters to me.'

I pushed open the door to the tenth floor. In the center of the chamber stood a single chair, and draped across it in a seductive pose sat the demon. Modern clothing — a blouse and high-waisted skirt. Membranous wings and a tail. Pink hair, pink eyes. The moment our gazes met, hers curved into something sly.

"My, my. It's been an age since we had a visitor. And one carrying the Qualification, no less."

I quietly rested my hand on Heukcheon's hilt.

— Fighting the moment you walk in, are we? Even with the Qualification, the hallucinations should still take some hold on you.

"You chatter too much, fiend."

I drew. Heukcheon erupted from its white-scarlet sheath like a flash of lightning and came down on the demon's skull. My target was her neck. Carrying the essence of Heukcheon's Slash, and in the instant before the blade kissed her throat, I layered in the essence of Soul-Reaping. And in the moment before that lightning-fast blade landed, the essence of Transmutation and Bewitchment.

"Is that all you've got?"

The demon raised her hand with a confident smirk, pink mana harvested from the tower sheathing it like a glove. Then, abruptly, her face drained of color.

Reverse Sky burst forth. The shockwave riding Heukcheon's edge compressed into a single blade of pure force.

Shrrk. A vile sound rang out, and a repulsive sensation crawled up my arm as it passed through her. The demon's hand rose into the air — then dropped to the floor.

"Gyaaaaaaaagh!"

She screamed and stared at me, too stunned even to think about her severed hand.

"Y-you — how are you using the tower's own mana?!"

I didn't dignify that with an answer. Instead, I sheathed the Winter Sword into White-Scarlet to charge it and surged forward. The demon gathered her remaining hand, and a hexagram magic circle bloomed beneath her. From it, a sphere of pink light leapt out.

'An illusion-type curse.'

Taking that head-on would put even a highest-tier challenger in mortal danger in a heartbeat. It simply had nothing to do with me. I vaulted skyward, Heukcheon raised high.

"Diiiiiiie!"

The demon hurled the pink sphere at me. Just as I thought — she had almost no real combat experience. If it were me, I'd have widened the distance and buried my opponent under every spell in my arsenal.

'Too simple.'

reversing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my grip on Heukcheon, I carved a domain into empty air and leapt a second time — cleaving straight through the pink sphere as I rose.

"Wha—?"

My blade took the demon's neck cleanly.

Shrrk. Her head, still wearing an expression of utter disbelief, rolled across the floor. I flicked Heukcheon once to shake it off — her blood had slicked the blade.

I chose the second option. To begin with, I'd never had a choice at all.

'Couldn't you at least let me pick a stat other than Magic Power?'

Grumbling inwardly, I pressed the option — and a swarm of light settled into my body.

— So this floor is the end, then?

"That's right. All that's left is to open the door and—"

Mid-sentence, answering Heukcheon, I froze.

...Because there were two doors.

The Tower of False Dreams had only ever had one door on the tenth floor. Clear it, slay the Demon of Bewilderment with the True Qualification in hand, and a single silver-engraved door would appear. But the doors before my eyes now were two: one engraved in silver — and one engraved in gold.

Higher difficulty, increased rewards? That explanation raised more questions than it answered, because this wasn't a reward in the usual sense at all. Honestly, I'd never even seen these illusions before, so for all I knew the difficulty hadn't risen at all.

Which left one far more likely candidate.

'The tower was always meant to have two doors.'

If that were true, everything fell into place. Suppose that even with the True Qualification, you could only ever see the silver door.

'A door the Tower of False Dreams wants to hide.'

Which would mean the Qualification didn't render you completely immune to the tower's hallucinations after all. The reason I could see both doors was almost certainly the essence of Reverse Sky dwelling in my body.

— Why do you labor over it so, Lord Seoha?

"Because there are two doors."

— ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠...Two doors?

Heukcheon's eyes blinked as she looked them over — but her gaze drifted straight back to the silver one.

— I see only the silver door, my lord. Yet if you say there are two, then two there must be.

"Pretty high-level illusion work. The demon's tricks were already troublesome enough."

— Which door will you take?

"Let's try the other one first."

I walked toward the gold-engraved door and threw it open.

Creeeak—

A passage revealed itself — narrow, barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through.

— So there really was a second door.

I followed it inward. And there, deep in the passage, sat a box wrapped tight in layer upon layer of iron chains.

'So this is what the tower wanted hidden.'

I forged Black Wings from Reverse Sky and sheared through the chains.

Clang. Clang.

Chains severed, I opened the box. Inside lay something like a suit of armor.

...Appraisal.

"Eternal Preservation"

: However dented or crushed the armor becomes, it restores itself.

"Blade Impervious"

: Halves the potency of all sword-qi class attacks.

"Existence of a Phantom"

: While worn, every drawback of wearing armor vanishes.

Not bad at all. I stripped off my coat and put the armor on. The moment it settled against my skin, it turned transparent.

I pulled up the mirror app on my phone and checked — nothing looked even slightly off. 'It doesn't feel like I'm wearing armor at all.'

That was the power of Existence of a Phantom: armor that existed in reality, yet seemed to have no existence in it whatsoever.

I stepped back out of the passage and opened the silver-engraved door. The moment it swung wide, the imprint etched into my forearm blazed pink.

I examined it.

"Truth Within the False Dream" (B)

: Once per day, cast an illusion upon a target.

: Once per day, summon a dagger that entraps the target in illusion.

"Qualification of False Dreams" (A+)

: Grants the right to erode into another's dreams within the Tower of False Dreams.

: This right may be exercised only inside the Tower of False Dreams.

I skimmed over the Qualification of False Dreams. It was, after all, nothing more than a power that let me exercise rights within the tower.

Truth Within the False Dream. I activated the skill, and a dagger of pink light materialized in my palm.

A pretty solid item. It had the flaw of requiring physical contact, but the moment you made contact, even a highest-tier being would drown in hallucination.

I stored the dagger in my subspace. Truth Within the False Dream could be summoned once a day — but the number of daggers wasn't fixed.

Stockpiling them like this, layer by layer... nothing had ever topped the day Kim Seohyun and I unleashed a rain of ten thousand daggers of Truth Upon the World on our enemies.

I stepped through the portal and emerged into the open air.

After returning to the academy, I stayed by Seo Gayeon's side under the pretext of helping her train.

Whoosh! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Starlight cascaded down. Her black hair bleached to white, and her pupils shifted to violet.

'She's gotten quite good at that.'

"Mm. I practiced, because I want to be with you, Seoha."

"...Right."

Seo Gayeon's bluntness could be dizzying sometimes.

"But... do you really need me, Seoha? You're strong."

"Why would you think that?"

"You're strong, Seoha. Magic and curses don't work on you. You're kind, and you're strong in one-on-one duels. I heard from the others — you look strong in team battles too. And you're cool, on top of everything."

Self-interest was threaded through that list at every interval, but I nodded along anyway.

Truthfully, thinking about it, this might partly be my own fault. I'd given her a rough outline of my power, but she still hadn't truly experienced what that power meant — not while fighting alongside me against the demons.

'Which is exactly why I've been hiding it.'

The gap between highest tier and middle tier was genuinely enormous. I could beat a highest-tier opponent, but ordinarily, no middle-tier being should ever defeat a highest-tier one. If an average middle-tier fighter crossed blades with an average highest-tier one, nine times out of ten they'd die — and the tenth would crawl back from the brink of death, barely alive.

Yet the starlight mana Seo Gayeon carried was lethal by its very existence.

Even as a lowest-tier challenger, Seo Gayeon could kill a highest-tier demon.

'It's genuinely insane.'

There was a very good reason one of the Seven Great Evils had once gone out of its way to ambush her just to uncover her identity.

I opened my mouth to speak — and thought. What should I say? Sweet-coated words wouldn't be needed here.

She wasn't quite my dearest among the second-years, but I truly, honestly liked Seo Gayeon.

Seo Gayeon never yielded to any adversity. Hong Yuhwa, Erciel, Kim Ara, Seol Hwaryeon — each of them had at least one path in which they could fall to evil. But Seo Gayeon, time and again, had become the roadmap of humanity's journey and led the human race forward. She faced the demons alone, until the world came to call her the Saint of Starlight.

So.

"I need you."

Not anyone else — I needed Seo Gayeon, Seo Gayeon herself.

"It might sound abrupt, but I know you better than anyone. I've watched you for a long time. A very, very long time."

I believed no one in this world understood Seo Gayeon as I did. No — I would say it flatly: I understood Seo Gayeon better than anyone alive in this world.

With a serious expression, I told her so.

'When convincing Seo Gayeon, nothing else is required. Truth. Pour in sincerity, and she will understand.'

Not a cunning tongue that plays with people's hearts — sincerity itself.

"If it gets to be too much — if you tell me you truly can't bear it, if you say you don't want to — I'll stop. But..."

I briefly imagined a future without Seo Gayeon in it. It was so grotesque I didn't even want to picture it.

"Sorry. Still, I don't think I can give this up. Will you come with me?"

Seo Gayeon lowered her head, her face flooding crimson.

"...?"

What was with her all of a sudden?