Movement

"Fredrick Easter. 4-star chaotic individual and wanted in three continents— including our Haaven continent."

Magnus read through the sparse memories out loud. He had to pick up several small pieces just to form a single sentence.

"Born in the World of Arvich. The latest world-turned-continent before the Earthlings arrived."

He said before he then looked at a less broken memory, one that was preserved despite the deterioration of Fredrick's brain.

"Arrived in Midseer just a few weeks ago, with a Trial to cause chaos… He's similar to me."

[ Told you, you would meet more people similar to you. ] Blaze's voice rang out from within the Hivemind, [ The Trials bring people of similar statures together. For both malicious purposes and the opposite. ]

Magnus nodded, [ The Trials do indeed seem to love it when people band together for a similar cause. ]

He then continued to read through the memories.

"He is a bearer of the 3-line Blessing, Touch of Multiplication and Cursed with the Vow of the Goldkeeper."

Magnus inwardly nodded to himself as he read this.

'I see,'

Touch of Multiplication must be the reason why Fredrick could obtain so many of those Gate Overflow orbs. There was no special technique that lay behind it.

Magnus was slightly disappointed…

—Before he recalled that he could use Klaris to clone these orbs as well.

"I can cause an endless Gate Overflow for a 4-star Gate… heh… heheheh,"

Magnus couldn't help but feel madly delighted.

If he could cause an endless Gate Overflow, then a lot of things could be guaranteed for him.

His growth through Soul Devourer, food to replenish his Spirit Energy, and even the little bits of soul essence that he had been picking up. All of this would become a constant for him.

It was great.

"Though if I want to finish my chaos-making Trial, I'm going to have to look for a new location…"

For this Gate, the destruction had already been dealt with. The Zone of Undead no longer spread. There weren't many red points to gain by causing this Gate's Gate Overflows.

He recalled the details of the Gate he saw using the [Gatemaker] title.

[ Gate to Laos ]

[ Generic. 4-star rating, undead-attributed. Field-type Gate filled with ghosts and other ethereal beings. There is an eerie lack of other types of undead. ]

"An eerie lack of other types of undead…" Magnus muttered as the zombie before him crumbled into ash.

It seemed like getting both life force and soul sucked out of you would lead to this kind of death.

It was likely that Restiel, who was currently in stasis inside the Hivemind, was going to crumble into in ashes as well.

Magnus pursed his lips as he picked up the items left on the floor.

"No matter," He said as he took a sheathed sword and tied it around his waist. "I now have half the skills of a 4-star swordsman together with a sword of 3-stars."

It was a great increase in his basic abilities.

Moreover, a lot of knowledge on the customs of chaotic individuals was now in the Hivemind.

The secretive places to meet, a few code words that would expire next week, trade routes and secret pathways in and out of several cities on the continents of Haaven, Arvich, and Gallioen.

As well as a few prominent figures of the chaotic alignment.

Any other information was unsalvageable given the state of Fredrick's mind.

But Magnus was already satisfied.

He could do a lot with the information he had at hand, no matter how little it was and how dangerous it would be to act using it.

After all, some pieces of information weren't experienced by Fredrick first-hand. They were simply passed on to him. Thus, the credibility of those people's information came into question.

That, and the saying, "little knowledge is dangerous," is quite true as far as Magnus knew.

As for the final boon gained from The Jester's hint,

It was a Storage Scroll.

One that was filled with—

"A lot of cash… A few more of these so-called Hellfear gemstones… food and water… extra clothes… medicine..? regeneration potions… a MagiPhone… and…"

Magnus pulled out the final item.

"A still-beating heart..."

Magnus' eyes dilated in shock.

"Why and how...?" He asked the air as he felt the throbbing sensation in his hands.

Holding a heart was normally quite weird by itself. Magnus knew it since he had been grabbing undead hearts just a few weeks ago.

But holding a beating heart?

That was another level of icky.

"None of Fredricks's memories mentioned this..." Magnus hummed as he realised that he might've lost quite a lot of memories to the body's deterioration.

Thankfully, appraising an item was quite easy, especially with Magnus' now endless Spirit Energy reserves with the ghost horde. Rie could let loose.

Thus, somewhere above ground.

At a new hotel room.

A random human was summoned into existence by Klaris' clone. It was a puppet body, as usual, and it was swiftly assimilated into the Hivemind.

Rie then invoked,

"I am she who is greater than life.

The one who sees all,

The one who hears all,

And the one who knows all.

Show me what secrets lay within your existence."

With the huge influx of information, Rie utilised the random human's brain like crazy. She ran the zillions upon zillions of pieces of information through a single brain. She swiftly found what she was looking for using the fact that the item was in the Hivemind's hands at this moment.

Divining things were much easier when the object was right in front of you, after all. Much was already known and the medium couldn't be better.

But now, that random human's brain has been fried. Literally fried.

It has been reduced to nothing but mush.

A sacrifice that the Hivemind could easily make.

Thus the information on the heart was as follows,

[[ Ritual Heart ]]

[[ Used for a certain advanced Curse's ritual. An item commissioned by Christopher Esquite.]]

[[ Crafted using the heart of a 4-star Lesser Poison Dragon, Altuefer Demon Blood ink, Mentiale Petals, fresh water, and a drop of human infant blood. ]]

Magnus' eyes shone when this information became available to the members of the Hivemind.

"What exactly is an advanced Curse?" He wondered aloud.

He had his ideas, and Rie was thus destined to be busy searching for the answers.

Thankfully, the consciousness inside Rie's mind was a more curious personality than when compared to the original Magnus from which it was fashioned.

The delegated task would be completed without a hitch despite the time it would probably take. After all, this was searching for a concept among tonnes of other concepts. It was hard to find a medium for a concept and thus harder to divine its information.

Omniscience was difficult to manage in the hands of a mortal mind.

Rie could not find that single connection that would lead her forward through the jungle of information.

Thus, she only had the MagiNet as a means for info gathering.

At least for now.

And Magnus had patience when it came to his curiosities. They weren't his thrills which he loved to death.

Klaris thus appeared beside him in a flash of light. Magnus was then handed a small pouch filled with Gate Overflow orbs.

"Perfect," He smiled as he floated back to the Zone of Undead.

It was time to add a few thousand ghosts to the horde.

That, and with his newfound Spirit Energy well, it was time to make progress with his [Gatemaker] Trial.

.

.

.

Time passed.

The three-day timer that was placed on many people's burden-filled shoulders was up.

Everyone felt an ominous premonition when quite a few people were culled by the Trials.

But nothing unusual happened with the Zone of Undead.

Every single time that Ariel would come to purge the ghosts, the Ghost Union Kraken would seemingly protect its territory. It would appear before her, with tentacles wildly dancing and a death stare that could render her immobile.

Ariel had no choice but to leave things to those weaker than her. The combatants who were attracted by the rewards she was giving out.

The Zone of Undead thus became an attraction of sorts, for people willing to test out their mettle or earn a decent amount of money.

Other than that, nothing else happened.

Until the MagiPhones of everyone in the area rang at the same time.

Gates aplenty popped up one by one. The [Gatemaker] was on the move.

Even in Thawsore and Quarteridge, Gates kept appearing. It gave Farlier and Repoire a headache as they hurriedly looked for the [Gatemaker] with all their might. The diviners and seers that they knew were put into action and their special artefacts were being used as much as possible.

But they could not pinpoint the [Gatemaker]'s location. He kept teleporting around as if Spirit Energy was not a problem for him.

Sometimes the [Gatemaker] was in Midseer, sometimes in Thawsore, and a lot of the times in Quarteridge. The [Gatemaker] even made appearances in the Monster Continent according to Ariel's diviner friend.

Every ten minutes, a new Gate appeared in some random place.

No one knew what was happening.

Ariel was massaging her temples as she thought about everything before her.

'How is the [Gatemaker] locating all of these Pocket Worlds? Are they moving around through Scrolls or their Blessing? How much Spirit Energy does the [Gatemaker] have if it's the latter? Why is the [Gatemaker] targetting only these three cities? Why us, the Interstellar Trinity, and not others? Is it a grudge? Vengeance?'

All these questions floated around her mind, overshadowing her sunny persona with a dreary one. Grey clouds were covering her face and expressions.

It made those under her worry.

"Madame..." The old butler wanted to say something but he held it back. In the end, he just sighed and let his Madame continue with her work while he tended to her needs.

This Otherworld Trials Event was quite different from the ones before.

The chaotic [Gatemaker] was a problem even for those with much greater strength. It was a mystery as to how they were doing it.

A mystery that many now wanted to crack.