Inner World (1)

I cleared the fifteenth floor.

I even ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠claimed the Hidden Quest reward.

By the system's usual schedule, it should have ejected me by now — and yet, for some reason, I still couldn't leave the fifteenth floor.

What gives?

…Don't tell me there's still an item left?

When a quest is finished and the Tower still refuses to spit you out, it usually means you forgot to pick something up…

A bad feeling settled in my gut.

I glanced up and down the colossal mountain of gold.

…It wouldn't make me dig through that for an item. No. Absolutely not. That would be ridiculous.

I shook my head hard.

Time kept ticking anyway. And still the system refused to let me go.

…It seriously wants me to search?

No. This is inhuman!

My protest was met with absolute silence.

Ugh. Fine. I put a hand on the golden mountain, intending to pour mana through it and roughly pin down any item's location.

But…

No matter how thoroughly I searched, I felt nothing.

Was there even an item to begin with?

I was about to lodge another complaint with the system when someone tapped my shoulder from behind.

Tap— tap—

A familiar touch. A familiar rhythm.

I turned, and sure enough, Olivier was standing there.

Ah. Right.

Should I ask Olivier?

I should get her to explain what an Inner World actually is!

She was the library's manager, and she knew a lot — she would definitely answer.

Hopeful, I asked,

"Do you know what an Inner World is?"

"An Inner World? So that was the fragment of truth the grimoire handed you. Of course I know."

Olivier snapped her fingers.

Photographs bloomed in empty air — a withered desert, a frozen mountain range, a mansion thrashing in a storm, and more, a whole gallery of wildly different scenes unfurling before my eyes.

Olivier said,

"These are Inner Worlds."

"All of them?"

"Yes. An Inner World is exactly what it sounds like — another world a mage carries within themselves."

Oh…

If I obtain an Inner World, does that mean I become a mage too?

I might finally be able to clear the Main Quest.

"How does one obtain an Inner World?"

"I don't know."

"…What did you just say?"

"I said I don't know."

So even Olivier has things she doesn't know.

No — more importantly, is a library manager allowed to not know things!?

What am I supposed to do now!

I had trusted her completely…

I never dreamed I'd get blindsided like this.

Olivier's brow curved.

"Hold on. You seem to be under some misunderstanding."

"This princess misunderstands nothing."

"…To clarify a little — every mage obtains their Inner World by a different method. So there is no single answer."

…What?

Then how am I supposed to get one?

I opened my mouth to speak —

and by the time I blinked, I was standing in my studio apartment.

Had the system delayed my exit just to let me hear that…?

If it was going to be considerate, it could have given me a little more time.

I still had a mountain of questions!

I puffed my cheeks out like balloons.

Looks like I'd have to take the rest of my questions to another mage.

I logged into the Jungpan Back Gallery and wrote a post.

I knew she had one!

Perfect.

I'd use how Mora-haji-ma obtained her Inner World as a reference and awaken as a mage myself.

With that grand plan in mind, I left a reply.

What!?

Then how am I supposed to get an Inner World!

At this rate, my only option was to pray that next week's Treasure Vault would drop an Inner World as a skill.

Or awaken one myself.

…The Treasure Vault was looking pretty hopeless, though.

The odds were vanishingly thin.

So in the end, I'd have to awaken it on my own.

But how?

Hmm.

I really had no choice but to ask Olivier again.

Judging by what Mora-haji-ma said, most Hunters just had the skill and used it — meaning they didn't know the underlying principles.

Which left me with no option but to ask a local: Olivier.

She claimed she didn't know, but if I clung to her pant leg hard enough, she might cough up something.

And so, once the twenty-four-hour penalty had passed, I headed for the Tower's sixteenth floor to see Olivier.

Yep.

.

.

.

I opened my eyes.

The familiar scenery of the library filled the background, and a quest window flooded my vision.

Thirteen on the sixteenth floor, huh.

At this point, the number barely mattered.

No matter how many gargoyles they threw at me, they didn't feel like a real threat anymore.

We're on different levels now!

I'd gotten far too strong climbing the tenth-floor range.

As for the gargoyles…

I'd take them out while I was looking for Olivier.

My real purpose on the sixteenth floor was to squeeze even a scrap of Inner World information out of her.

Reminding myself of the goal, I advanced down the corridor.

Before long, I arrived at the main building.

Still no skill books in sight.

Every time I passed a shelf I swept it with Insight, but skill books simply refused to appear.

Well, I was at the main building now.

I looked around for Olivier.

My gaze soon stopped on a vast desk.

Olivier was sitting beside a "dying Olivier," reading a book.

What is she doing!?

What do you even call that?

…Desecrating the dead?

No — that's herself. And technically, that Olivier is still alive.

Right. For now…

I decided to ignore the scene in front of me.

I reaffirmed why I'd entered the sixteenth floor.

I was here to ask about the Inner World.

I approached Olivier.

"This princess has something to ask of you."

"That face says you still can't let it go. Sorry, but I don't know anything about Inner Worlds."

"Even the smallest detail will do."

"Well, if you insist."

Olivier closed the book she'd been reading.

At the same time, she snapped her fingers and summoned another volume.

So she had been hiding something!

I looked at her with rising expectation.

A book settled into Olivier's hand.

"This is a compilation of how every mage I've met formed their Inner World."

"Oh…! This is precisely the book this princess needs!!"

"Then I'm glad."

Olivier held out the book.

With solemn reverence, I accepted it in both hands.

Can't read it in the library…

A permanent anti-alteration magic blanketed the place, making it impossible to open or damage any book.

I'd have to go home to read it.

I stowed the book in my expanded pouch and stepped out into the corridor.

I'd clear the gargoyles fast, go home, and master the Inner World.

I finished off the last one.

I waited like that, and a clear message flooded my vision.

What?

Why did the Hunter Gallery only get a hundred and fifty thousand gold!?

The gold dumped into the Hunter Gallery usually went up by ten thousand per floor — this floor should have been a hundred and sixty thousand…

Don't tell me a hundred and fifty thousand is the cap?

What kind of nonsense is that!

I was about to start screaming at the system when —

I opened my eyes alone in my studio apartment.

Oh, come on…!

So that's how you're playing it?

Fine. Two can play that game…!

I had no choice… but to read the book Olivier gave me. Not like I could do anything to the system…

Sigh. Time to learn about the Inner World.

I pulled the book from my expanded pouch.

Let's see, the title…

Oh, a proper title this time.

If it had been something like Magic for Complete Idiots again, I really would have lost it.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

I opened the book.

I read through it slowly, carefully packing every detail into my head…

and finished the whole thing in thirty minutes.

Mm. Perfect comprehension…!

The content was simple.

It was just a book describing how various mages had obtained their Inner Worlds.

For example…

Someone with a frozen mountain range had obtained their Inner World inside an ice cave on a day of howling blizzards.

Most of it was like that.

Right. Now I needed to apply the book's contents to myself.

The first prerequisite was…

Looking back on one's life, huh?

If I could predict what form my Inner World would take, awakening as a mage should be that much easier.

But who wrote this book, anyway?

Olivier?

If she knew this much about how to create an Inner World, why did she say she didn't know?

I was faithfully following the book when something caught my eye — writing on the back flap.

Wait, what?!

The entire book was a scam???

No. That can't be!

I frantically scanned every line on the back flap.

…Has this person lost their mind?

Well, at least I can tell the author was going through it.

My eyes drifted to the corner of the back flap. The final sentence of the book came into view.

This guy…!?

Give me a proper conclusion!

What about people like me who trusted you and followed the book — how dare you end it so irresponsibly!

Haa. Nothing for it, I guess.

I'll just try.

The author said it might work, after all.

Right. My Inner World?

The first thing that came to mind was an empire.

My class was none other than Imperial Princess, after all.

And next…

Probably a gallery?

Nothing symbolized the person called "Lee Sia" quite so perfectly.

Combine the two and you get a Gallery Empire.

…Do I need to found a Gallery Empire?

As it happened, I'd recently acquired a skill perfectly suited to building one.

I hadn't used it in the fifteenth floor's Hidden Boss fight because I wasn't confident I'd win a spatial-authority contest…

But a fight against another gallery's Ju-ttak was a different story.

Of course, there was the former Hunter Gallery Ju-ttak, Seol-hyun — but would an A-rank Hunter really still be hanging around?

The Hunter Gallery was the Hunter Gallery. Exception granted.

With the plan set, I posted a notice on the Hunter Gallery.

And thus began the dawn of the age of imperialism.