Gates

Being placed in the middle of a warring desert made Magnus' life of hunting his remaining beast quota a breeze.

After watching all those scorpion men fight their tribal war, he roamed about in the skies. From up there, he spotted his prey. And with his gravity, he wrenched them out of the earth. All to be slain by an angel of judgement.

When he was done, a Scroll appeared before his eyes.

[[ Return Scroll ]]

[[ Tear this Scroll to return to modern-day Thare. You have until the end of this Trial to tear it. Happy hunting. ]]

With that done, Magnus did not immediately tear the Scroll.

Just like last time, he was going to make the most out of this opportunity given to him. The remaining days were spent for both Klaris, Javelin, and everyone's foundational skills such as swordsmanship, scythemanship, gravity manipulation, and more.

Although progress was slow in the foundational skill department, it only made sense. He was at the Beginner Stage of mastery and Magnus was learning without a guide or a teacher. He just fought and analysed the way he fought, experimenting as he went.

With the brainpower supplied by the Hivemind, he was looking at things from multiple perspectives, aiding in his research of combat.

Javelin though was able to see substantial growth. He hit the 1.9 ceiling after stealing enough fruits from the Mirror World Tyrm.

All that was left now, was Klaris.

Magnus either needed a suitable heart to give him or simply more time to cultivate the current zombie heart up to par. After all, it came from a 3-star monster. Just a little push and Klaris would soon reach the 1.9-star rating.

Unfortunately, however, it was not going to happen now.

The end of the Trial was nigh as Magnus took the Return Scroll in hand and tore it apart.

Rrrrip!

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Magnus reappeared back in his new hotel room. The same hotel room he had used when growing his abilities.

No time had passed despite him experiencing a month somewhere else. Magnus confirmed this by checking his Mirror World phone.

"It is truly a jarring feeling..."

To return as a different person to a world that hadn't changed... That was the feeling that Magnus had a peek of right now.

Shaking his head to rid himself of those deep, deep, thoughts, Magnus stretched and collapsed on the nearby bed.

"Hah," He sighed in satisfaction as his eyelids uncontrollably closed.

"Some comfort after a long month..."

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Magnus slept for an astounding 48 hours.

No Trial woke him up in his sleep and no one knocked on his door. The exhaustion born from his manic fighting had been a heavy weight to bear—and the only way to cure it was through immense rest.

When he came to, Magnus was starving. He enjoyed a buffet at a nearby restaurant and filled himself up. The taste of good food after only eating fire-roasted monster meat for an entire month was an inexplicable pleasure.

"Modern-day spices are truly the best... I can't even imagine how good future recipes could be," Magnus muttered as he ate.

These mutterings were overheard by a nearby waitress who gave him a smile.

"An Earthling, right? We're glad that our food is to your world's tastes."

Hearing that, Magnus could only smile back.

He was no longer as concerned with hiding his identity as an Earthling, especially now that any small action could allow people to notice it. They've figured out what Earthlings were like.

It would have been something to be concerned about if one was alone like during the start of the tutorial, but for Magnus it was different. With his fame, and with the way he acts, people would already assume that he was already part of a faction— making it harder to target him.

Especially with how mysterious this 'faction' of his was.

'That reminds me,' Magnus thought to himself, 'I need to start setting up the foundations...'

A faction crest, name, and short description.

Those were the most important parts of a faction aside from its members.

After that came the registration—which he preferred not to do. And he did not really need to do it.

His faction would be composed of him and him alone.

There was no need for publicity to recruit members nor was there a real need to find a place for the faction headquarters.

Anywhere Magnus went was where the faction goes.

After eating, Magnus circled back to his hotel room in secret. He still did not fancy the idea of his Magnus persona being tracked and traced by others.

After all, he had secrets to hide. And despite him using his original body for the public, he still cared about keeping a certain air of mystery.

Once Magnus was back in his hotel room, he decided to do some research.

'Which Pocket Worlds would best be given Gates?' He asked himself as looked towards the Public Pocket World website that had just popped up.

With people crazy over the internet, information surged so much that Magnus wondered just how the servers were keeping up. In the end, he just chalked it up to the literal magic they use.

There was no other way to explain it.

As Magnus searched, he discovered his candidates.

Hellia — 1-star rated Pocket World

Tyrm — 3-star rated Pocket World

Vanthos — 5-star rated Pocket World

Any Pocket World above those ratings seemed to have been kept away from the prying eyes of the public. Tyrm was a special one that Magnus added just because he was familiar with it. He was very powerful in that world given his ability to practically steal the efforts of others.

Without Spirit Manipulation, Tyrm is indeed 3-stars in rating. Maybe even 4-stars at times.

But with Spirit Manipulation, things become totally different. Especially if one reaches the Proficient stage like Magnus had when he first stole Jistill's mastery.

Hellia was there because it was a famous beginner Pocket World. Some brave students have even made a few attempts on the monsters in that place—and they were successful.

As for Vanthos, that was a Gate inside Midseer, similar to Hellia. It was a place filled with monsters that could level a city in Thare. Terrifying beings lurked within that Pocket World, and it was there as an attraction for experts of sorts.

After all, any human at 5-stars can also wipe out a city by themselves. As long as those in the city were of 1-star threat levels, of course.

Vanthos was a Pocket World shared by the factions in the Heaven-Touching Mountains.

"It would be fun to see it be given a Gate," Magnus cackled, "I want to see if I can survive the flood of monsters that would come from it if it were to overflow."

It would surely be a spectacle, even if chaos didn't fully bloom.

When Magnus was finished with his research, he summoned Klaris and had him steal a One-Time Transport Scroll for his convenience.

As both Vanthos and Hellia were inside Midseer and only Tyrm was close to Quarteridge, Magnus set off on foot first.

He switched with Javelin after placing the One-Time Transport Scroll in his storage and snuck out of the hotel. After that, he took a familiar route to Tyrm's entrance and took out one of his Gatemaker's Scrolls.

Rrrrrrip!

Magnus tore the Scroll open and a whirl of energy suddenly appeared out of thin air. The whirl expanded, creating a vortex of space-bending energy swirling within it.

Swwiiiiiiiiii!

The sound of space being torn apart after being overly bent rang out. It almost made Javelin's ears bleed.

Soon, a black, circular portal was torn open, crackling with power. It was about the size of a two-story house, towering over Magnus who glanced at it in awe.

"So the this is a Gate..." He muttered to himself as he stepped forward uncontrollably.

"I want to give it a try..."

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Magnus reigned himself in. He had to abide by the plans he made so that he wouldn't just die without him knowing why.

He wanted the [Gatemaker] title, as information was quite important as revealed by his trip to Hummolus. Without the handbook he had bought back then, he wouldn't have been able to dance with his prey and eat their Undead Hearts and souls.

Resisting the urge to step into the Gate, Magnus tore the One-Time Transport Scroll.

He found himself in a new city in the next moment.

"Whoa, it looks like Tokyo."

If Magnus could make a comparison, Quarteridge looked like London in the 2000s, while Midseer looked like Tokyo in the 2020s.

But with a twist of mystical beauty mixed together with the towering buildings of concrete and light shows of magic.

Swarms of people flooded the sidewalks and magical transport systems zoomed through the wide roads.

It was a busy sight and Magnus was truly becoming baffled by the technological levels achieved by the people on Thare.

It all seemed so bizarre to him. So jarring.

The internet had been created just a few days ago, and yet it was already filled to the brim with information. Then there were the holograms came that in fact came before the internet.

One second they were primitive, another second they were advanced. Sometimes they were advanced before they were primitive.

It was a mess.

"I should just go with the flow," Magnus shrugged to himself as he waded through the thick crowd. "I need to get to Hellia Park and the Fort of Vanthos..."

Those two places housed the entrances to their respective Pocket Worlds. It cost money to enter, and Magnus wasn't sure if he had enough to enter the two.

That, and he was also afraid of being designated as the cause of the Gates' creations.

Thus, he was going to try sneaking inside. Especially with the Fort of Vanthos.