The ancient forest was dark, damp, and crawling with monsters of every imaginable shape and species.
Deep within its unexplored heart lay a vast swamp permanently covered by corrosive, poisonous mist.
At the center of that deadly marsh stood a seven-story stone tower, hidden from ordinary humans and magical creatures alike by layers of powerful illusion and concealment magic.
Inside the arcane laboratory on the tower’s highest floor, Leon Cromwell stared at the mutated two-headed python he had just killed through a remote-controlled spell.
A long, exhausted sigh escaped his lips.
At his command, a translucent blue panel appeared before his eyes.
[Current Level: 10 → 11] [Sixth-Circle Spell Slot Unlocked: 1/1] “Level eleven…” Leon’s voice trembled as he stared at the notification.
“I finally reached level eleven!” Tears of relief and excitement gathered in his eyes.
For more than a year, he had hunted nearly every monster in the surrounding forest, desperately trying to obtain the final one percent of experience needed to advance.
Leon Cromwell was not originally from this world.
Ten years earlier, he had spent an entire night playing a Dungeons & Dragons–based computer game.
Sometime before sunrise, exhaustion overwhelmed him, and he blacked out at his desk.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying in the middle of an unfamiliar forest.
Worse, he had transmigrated into the body of an unlucky young man who had apparently died after being bitten by a venomous snake.
The translucent screen inside his mind was the only thing that had accompanied him into this new life.
It was his greatest advantage—the D&D System.
Although Leon had inherited the dead young man’s body, he had received none of his memories.
He did not know the man’s name, where he had come from, or even what world he had entered.
Fortunately, the body possessed unusually high Intelligence and Wisdom attributes.
By combining those natural advantages with the information provided by the D&D Panel, Leon successfully awakened the Wizard class.
At first, he had tried to escape the forest.
He survived by killing weak monsters, gathering food, and slowly learning how to use his spells.
Those plans changed after he encountered a strange creature.
It resembled a weak, half-formed wraith, but when Leon used the system to examine it, the panel identified it as a Demigod Lich.
No challenge rating, abilities, or additional information appeared.
Naturally, Leon had been terrified.
However, when the creature drifted toward him, he panicked and fired several cantrips.
To his disbelief, the supposed Demigod Lich died instantly.
The experience reward immediately raised him to level two.
Even more surprisingly, Leon encountered the same bizarre creature again several days later.
After killing it a second time, he received another enormous amount of experience.
As an experienced gamer, Leon quickly realized that he had stumbled upon an extraordinary opportunity.
The creature appeared to respawn at regular intervals, yet it remained inexplicably weak despite its terrifying classification.
The amount of experience it granted decreased as Leon’s level rose, but it never became completely useless.
The reward seemed to scale with his current level, always granting a small but valuable percentage of his experience bar.
To Leon, the strange creature became the perfect renewable resource.
For nine years, he patiently camped near its spawning area and killed it whenever it reappeared.
Then, one year ago, the creature suddenly stopped returning.
Without his reliable source of experience, Leon became trapped at level ten with ninety-nine percent progress.
He spent the following year hunting every dangerous creature he could find, and only today had he finally gathered enough experience to advance.
“It’s unfortunate that I lost such a valuable elite monster, but at least I finally broke through.” Leon smiled as he felt his newly expanded magical power surging through his body.
He opened the spellbook section of the D&D Panel and examined the sixth-circle spells now available to him.
“At level eleven, I can finally learn Disintegrate and Globe of Invulnerability.” His eyes brightened.
“With spells like these, I might even stand a chance against a dragon.” Before Leon could begin studying his new options, a piercing alarm echoed throughout the tower.
His smile vanished.
The alarm came from the defensive formations surrounding his home.
They had been designed to activate whenever a living creature crossed the outer perimeter.
Most ordinary animals and weaker monsters would immediately be driven away by the first layer of protective magic.
Only two kinds of intruders could trigger the alarm: a creature powerful enough to resist the defenses or a spellcaster capable of dismantling them.
The first possibility was extremely unlikely.
During his year-long hunt for experience, Leon had wiped out nearly every high-level monster within a considerable distance of the swamp.
That left the second possibility.
“A human spellcaster?” Leon immediately raised one hand.
Magical energy gathered in the air and formed an enormous floating mirror made of water.
The mirror displayed the edge of the poisonous mist surrounding the tower.
Space suddenly twisted.
An invisible force seemed to tear open the air, followed by a sharp crack resembling the compression of space caused by Greater Teleportation.
A tall, thin figure appeared out of nowhere.
It was an elderly man.
He possessed a long silver-white beard that reached nearly to his waist, a crooked nose, and half-moon spectacles.
His clothing was even stranger—a purple robe decorated with bright silver stars.
In one weathered hand, he held a slender wooden wand.
One of Leon’s permanently active detection spells immediately analyzed the intruder.
[Target: Human Male] [Class: Spellcaster] [Estimated Level: 15+] “Level fifteen or higher?” A chill raced from the soles of Leon’s feet to the top of his head.
In his understanding of D&D, a fifteenth-level spellcaster possessed the ability to devastate cities and wield eighth-circle magic.
Such a person could manipulate the weather, dominate powerful creatures, and even begin creating personal demiplanes.
“Calm down,” Leon whispered to himself.
“You need to remain calm.” He had spent ten years covering the swamp with defensive spells, traps, summoned guardians, and magical barriers.
Even if he could not defeat the intruder, those preparations might convince the old man that entering the tower was not worth the trouble.
The elderly wizard looked around after arriving, his expression mildly puzzled.
He appeared to be searching for someone or something.
It did not take him long to notice the disturbance in the surrounding magic.
“A concealment barrier?” His eyes moved toward the exact location of Leon’s invisible tower.
Leon’s stomach tightened.
The old man raised his wand.
“Please forgive my intrusion,” he said gently, “but I must confirm that no dark force is hiding within this place.” He gave his wand a casual wave.
The concealment magic covering the entire swamp vanished.
Leon’s seven-story tower appeared in the center of the mist as if someone had simply pulled away a curtain.
From the top floor, Leon stared at the water mirror in disbelief.
The old man had not even spoken an incantation.
“Silent casting?” Leon immediately activated the first true defensive layer.
“Fourth-circle spell—Wall of Fire!” Flames exploded from the ground in front of the old man.
The inferno expanded rapidly, forming an enormous burning ring around the tower.
The swamp hissed as water evaporated beneath the intense heat.
Any ordinary intruder would have been reduced to ash before reaching the other side.
The old man merely traced a graceful circle through the air with his wand.
The raging flames bent toward him.
Instead of extinguishing, the fire twisted, stretched, and divided into dozens of brilliant scarlet shapes.
Within seconds, the deadly Wall of Fire transformed into a flock of flaming birds.
The creatures chirped happily before soaring into the sky and scattering through the clouds.
Leon stared at the scene with his mouth slightly open.
“What kind of spell was that?” He could understand counterspells and elemental suppression, but the old man had completely altered the structure of the spell.
He had taken uncontrolled magical energy and transformed it into stable, animated constructs with a single casual motion.
“How can someone reshape elemental energy so easily?” Leon did not have time to analyze it.
He activated the second defensive formation.
“Fifth-circle spell—Conjure Earth Elementals!” The ground shook violently.
Three enormous figures rose from the swamp, each standing nearly sixteen feet tall.
Their bodies were composed of stone, mud, and tightly compressed earth.
The elementals roared before charging toward the intruder.
Once again, the old man showed no sign of concern.
He resembled an experienced conductor standing before an orchestra as he lightly tapped his wand toward each approaching giant.
The three earth elementals froze.
Their massive bodies immediately collapsed into piles of fine white sand.
A moment later, two beautifully carved stone lion statues emerged from the sand and settled on either side of the path.
Leon’s palms began to sweat.
“Instantaneous casting.
No visible struggle against their magical resistance.
Permanent transmutation of matter…” The old man’s methods surpassed Leon’s understanding of established spellcraft.
Leon could not identify the spells being used, much less estimate their circles.
The intruder seemed capable of altering existing magic and physical matter through sheer intent.
“He’s too powerful.” For the first time since arriving in this world, Leon truly understood what it meant to face someone completely beyond him.
While he was still processing what he had witnessed, the elderly wizard reached the base of the tower.
An invisible barrier blocked his path.
It was Leon’s final defensive measure—Wall of Force.
The barrier could stop physical attacks, magical creatures, incorporeal beings, and even intruders attempting to enter through the Ethereal Plane.
Leon had invested an enormous amount of time and magical resources into strengthening it.
The old man paused after sensing the obstruction.
He raised his wand and gave it another effortless wave.
Snap!
The supposedly indestructible wall disappeared.
Leon immediately retreated to the teleportation circle in the center of his laboratory.
Layers of protective magic covered his body.
Stoneskin hardened his flesh, Greater Invisibility concealed his figure, and several additional defensive spells shimmered around him in overlapping fields.
The teleportation circle beneath his feet was already active.
At the slightest sign of danger, Leon intended to abandon the tower and escape.
“I can’t defeat him.” His breathing quickened as the intruder entered the building.
“There’s absolutely no chance.
That old man must be the Chosen of some god.” Footsteps echoed through the tower.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The sound gradually climbed toward the highest floor.
Leon positioned himself in the center of the teleportation circle and prepared to activate it.
He expected the laboratory door to explode or a devastating spell to tear through the tower.
Instead, someone politely knocked.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
An aged and gentle voice came from the other side of the door.
Despite its warmth, Leon felt an indescribable pressure behind every word.
“I sincerely apologize for disturbing your seclusion, sir.” The old man paused briefly.
“My name is Albus Dumbledore, and I am the current Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” Leon froze.
“I came here while tracking an old acquaintance who recently escaped,” Dumbledore continued.
“However, it appears that he is no longer in this area.” His tone remained courteous.
“Would I have the honor of speaking with the owner of this tower?” The arcane laboratory fell into complete silence.
Leon stood motionless at the center of the teleportation circle.
The dozen defensive spells surrounding him continued flashing in different colors, illuminating his stunned expression.
For several seconds, his mind stopped functioning.
“What did you say?” His hoarse voice traveled through a magical communication array and emerged outside the laboratory door.
“Hogwarts?” Leon swallowed.
“Albus Dumbledore?” He had spent ten years practicing D&D wizardry, constructing a mage tower, farming monsters, and preparing himself to survive in what he believed was an unknown fantasy realm.
Now someone was telling him that he had been living inside the magical world of a children’s novel all along?