Offer

Magnus returned to his hotel room and laid down for a while.

He had experienced weeks of two different adventures. His bodies were tortured and his brain was used to its max because of all the puzzles he had to solve.

He took this time to recollect himself and recall just what he had been doing before he was sent out to Aodis.

He took a glance at the MagiNet and saw the various articles on the 'earlier' Gate Overflow. The one that he caused.

"Hah," Magnus sighed, "Weeks for me, but not even a second for them. I wonder how the other Earthlings are feeling? How long did they stay in Aodis? Months? A year? Years?"

Magnus tried looking for information on the history of the Aodis continent.

He discovered that it took around a couple of centuries to fully excavate all of the lost cities and uncover the secrets and artefacts within.

Magnus realised his mistake at that moment.

"I shouldn't have completed my Trial so early..."

But what was done was done.

At this moment, however, he felt a few Earthling souls wither away. His soul crest resonated with the million others.

"This..." Magnus received some information, "Death by old age?"

"...Could they have spent too much time in Aodis?"

Magnus shivered.

"How frightening."

A few more deaths occurred as Magnus continued to feel the crest in his soul. It was a strange feeling to be this close to his fellow Earthlings. They were bound by their homeland.

But they weren't a team.

Magnus could tell because his Curse had not killed him.

As Magnus was swamped by thoughts like these, something suddenly happened.

Hummmmmmmm!

Just outside his hotel room window, a swirling mass of black appeared in the air.

Magnus' jaw dropped open as he sat straight up.

"A Gate?! Here?" He exclaimed as he rushed to the balcony to have a look.

Panicking citizens instantly caught his eye. Traffic was in chaos at this moment, and the crowds were all retreating in fright.

"...Who could've known that there was a Pocket World at this location?" Magnus was astounded.

It seemed like with Gates, hidden Pocket Worlds could be located.

Taking one last glance at the chaos in front of him, Magnus, who was previously in awe, simply shrugged.

He had a few Trials to complete and couldn't be bothered with this.

Thus, he turned around and summoned a few members of the Hivemind.

Javelin, Klaris, and Rie came into existence with a flash of light.

With a thought, he delegated roles to the three.

Klaris stole a clone of himself from the Mirror World and assimilated him into the Hivemind. A spare. Just to be safe. He then resumed cultivating his 3-star zombie heart.

He was the one who was most likely to reach the peak of 2-stars the earliest among those in the Hivemind.

On the other hand, Javelin jumped down the hotel balconies to roam Midseer and gather information. As usual, he was going to go eavesdropping, searching for anything interesting among the words if the populace.

Moving on to Rie, the young girl sat down at a table and began browsing the MagiNet. She was going to fill in the gaps of Magnus' knowledge. Questions such as where babies, the disabled, and the elderly went when the Otherworld Trials began were a part of her search.

Lastly, Magnus went to the hotel's gym to train. He was going to hone his gravity manipulation and his Spirit Energy control.

There was more than a month and a half before his entrance exams for Archaeon University. He wanted to be ready for it.

As for his Trials, those all required time.

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A week passed.

Magnus did not spend it idling by.

A lot of his knowledge was given supplements. Answers to his questions arrived.

He learned that babies were usually sent into bodies of newborn babies while the disabled and the elderly tended to be sent into existing bodies or bodies of people who had just died.

As for which bodies are judged to be suitable, those who have failed a Trial at the moment of transmigration are the ones who would lose their right to exist. They would be ruthlessly replaced by new candidates.

Magnus also had fruitful results when it came to his material monopoly.

Using Mirror World Thief on Storage Scrolls was a pleasant process. Klaris was basically a living factory more than a thief.

He was currently amassing Illuminite as well as the fruits from Tyrm.

With Rie's and Magnus' Curses, the regeneration department was doing splendidly. It allowed Klaris to steal every other day.

As such, Magnus now had a stack of Storage Scrolls that he constantly had to bring around. Realising this, he then stole a better Storage Scroll. After all, his Storage Scrolls were all at 1-star. They only had space for about two cubic metres.

Since he got a 2-star Storage Scroll, he now had eight cubic metres for just one piece. He could then clone that Storage Scroll with ease, therefore increasing his 'production rate' by a large margin.

It was still far from enough to match commercial production though.

After all, he had yet to fully fill eight cubic metres with Illuminite. The little stones he had stolen before were taking time to amass.

But once he does fill the Scroll, things will go swimmingly from there.

As for his role as the [Gatemaker], Magnus had explored two 1-star and one 2-star Gates and obtained their stone tablets after a bit of struggle. All he had to do now was to crack their code.

Moreover, Magnus also used up his remaining three Gatemaker Scrolls and spawned more Gates for the world to use and see. None of these Gates made it above 5-stars though. They averaged at 2-stars in strength.

Vanthos was still the strongest public Pocket World. Magnus had no idea where others could be.

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Another week passed.

After making his monthly delivery to Hughe and gaining another 6 thousand dollars, Magnus' savings bumped up to 26k. He had yet to sell the Illuminite in his possession.

Though he was heading towards doing exactly that.

Klaris was currently walking the streets of Midseer, his face clad in a half-mask that only revealed his eyes. A certain shop had caught Magnus' attention when Javelin was eavesdropping.

It was a weapons shop on the verge of going under.

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Tiring~

The sound of a bell being rung was crisp in Elodia's ears.

A possible customer made his way into the weapon shop that she and her brother ran and had a look at their wares.

"Good morning!" Elodia was ecstatic to have someone come knocking on their door. With a sweet smile, she said, "Is there anything I can do for you… kind… sir..?"

It was only now that Elodia realised that the man didn't look all too friendly. Standing at 6 feet and 4 inches, he towered over her as his jet black eyes gleamed with hunger.

When the man went and grabbed at one of the blades, she noticed a finger missing from his hand. And scars littered his pale white skin.

Elodia couldn't help but gulp. Her sweet smile grew stiff as a silence enshrouded the room.

The man before her didn't seem to care about this silence as he continued scanning the products they had on display.

"How's business?" After an eerie, long while, the man finally spoke as he held a sword in his hands. His tone was blunt. Bordering on rude.

"It's… It's doing alright," Elodia answered, silently criticizing the man for his bad manners. She blurted out, "Why do you care?"

In truth, business was bad. None of their weapons had been sold in the recent days and her brother was sick.

Ever since the shop across the street appeared, things had been going downhill for them.

But obviously, Elodia couldn't share all these with a stranger. She had to continue with her front.

Her returning rudeness with rudeness was an accident. After all, the stress of losing her livelihood scratched at her mind 24/7.

"I care because I have a business proposal for you." The man answered her question without batting an eyelid. He didn't seem to care for her tone at all.

Elodia's eyes twitched ever so slightly. The only people who had ever said that to her had foul intentions. Or... they were a certain breed of people.

'He's not a normal customer,' She thought as she tried to keep a smile, "What kind of business?"

"I would like to use your shop to sell my wares. We will split the profits 80/20. Eighty for me, and twenty as your commissioning fee." The man stated, placing the sword down and gesturing with his hands.

'It seems like he is not that kind of man... He isn't one of those sketchy clients who want access to the black market.' Elodia inwardly nodded to herself. She currently wanted nothing to do with the notorious black market.

Although she could earn much from her time as an agent, tending to her clients' needs, it was also a risky job. A risk that she couldn't take...

At least not yet.

'I need to break through to 3-stars as soon as possible,' She thought to herself in frustration as she opened her mouth to speak, "And what exactly would you be selling... Sir?"

Midway through Elodia's sentence, the man had pulled out a 2-star Storage Scroll. From it, he produced a handful of some kind of rainbow-coloured metal.

"This..." Elodia's voice faltered as she scrunched her brows. This material was familiar to her, but she was not quite sure what it was. "Please give me a moment,"

Elodia swiftly pulled out a small flask of whisky from her pocket and had a sip. Afterwards, her eyes sparkled as she invoked her Blessing, Alcoholic Appraisal, with a soft voice.

"I am a seeker of truths,

In wine and in alcohol,

A searcher of myriad facts,"

Instantly, information surged into her brain as she scanned the item in the man's hands. She gasped, recalling just why the item was so familiar to her.

It was something that her brother had once described to her when working the forge.

"Illuminite!" Elodia exclaimed, "What an excellent piece at that!"

If her brother was here, he would surely react the same way, if not with greater vigour.

A rare material had appeared before them today.

A metal thought to have been 'lost' in the long history of Thare.