Chapter 79: The Other Side of the Portal -1-

Rosa stood in the bathroom doorway with her arms crossed while Eren held the dungeon fragment in his right hand and waited.

“So this marble is a magical energy battery.” Rosa said with no amusement.

She didn’t believe it. Eren could hear it in her voice.

“It stores mana which is an energy from the other side but unlike the usual game mp concept. It is more like water or air to that world.” He was saying but Rosa surprised him with her lack of game knowledge.

“Games?”

Eren had to spent half a minute to explain what mana represented in their gaming/fantasy culture. Then he continued his earlier explanation. “Anyways, I used all of my mana while getting here so I need to absorb enough to open the portal again.

“And that takes how long?”

“Every 100 mana between universes make it stay for one second. And my total pool is around 550.”

“I was asking how long it will take you to use that thing?” She was getting more into learning things as time passes.

Her face didn’t have her usual boredom which was a good thing in his experience. She usually used to be bored or distracted while he was telling her about tv shows, games or popular media in the past three years.

Their relationship was weird. He was a nerdy but otherwise normal guy and she was a dull woman whose only hobbies were cooking and reading history books.

In reality, Rosa was the odd one in their dynamic but Eren never saw it that way. His insecurities about his own body and his financial troubles always made him feel inferior.

But he pushed the thought aside and answered the question. “Last time it took a full day to charge this from empty but now taking it back is supposed to be faster.”

Eren focused on pulling mana from the fragment into his own body and felt the familiar tingle in his veins. But something was different this time, drawing mana out of the fragment and into himself was much faster than the slow natural charging he had done in Evon.

Maybe it was the density difference or maybe his body had gotten better at absorbing stored mana, but the numbers were climbing quickly.

“Eren you’ve been standing there holding a marble for four minutes.”

“I know.”

“This is exactly what a mental breakdown looks like from the outside, not judging just explaining…” It was like a bad youtu*e video about fake couple therapies. She had the same weird face all those couples had while looking at the camera like a bad office episode.

He signed and muttered. “Just wait…please”

Rosa was already reaching for her phone. He caught the name on her contacts: Dr. Aleyna. Her psychiatrist friend from university years. She was genuinely about to have him talk to a therapist but Eren was waiting to shock her with Elves.

Let’s see who will have the last laugh…

Then the fragment pulsed green for a second in his hand and his body felt full suddenly. He tried to have more mana than his pool could bear but nothing was happening. Cheating wasn’t allowed.

Rosa lowered her phone while Eren walked around the room and tried his skill.

No system message showed itself this time. Or nothing about choosing a location like usual.

But somehow, imagining the location of Evon Universe – Aradne Planet – Starter Village 31 with pictures of an Elven Village, was enough. It took too long to describe it but actually imagining them with skill usage was instant.

A new shimmer spread across the bedroom-bathroom wall in between. It was like water rippling outward from the stone.

The tiles faded and in their place the Evon forest materialized in full color with door shaped portal. Evening light coming through enormous trees with trunks wider than cars.

The smell of a wild forest hit them both at the same time. Pine and wet soil and clean air with something underneath it that didn’t exist on Earth.

Mana probably.

You couldn’t see it but you could feel it in your lungs like breathing at altitude. At least Eren could feel the existence of mana after his race and soul evolved. Before that, he was a bit clueless.

[Door Master – Level 6 Activated!]

[Destination: Evon – Outside of Beginner Village 31 – Nearest Accessible Location to the Intended Coordinate]

It was level 5 before coming here. Making a succesful trip to Earth leveled the skill, huh.

Niceee!

“Oh my god.” Rosa whispered it while Eren found out that access to the system was related to being connected to the Evon with new words of system showed up.

There was no system panel or any voices last night.

While Rosa’s phone almost slipped from her hand and clattered on the bedroom tiles. Her knees buckled and Eren caught her with one hand with inhuman speed and reaction like Pet*r P*rker from the first movie.

He lifted Rosa off the ground like she weighed nothing because she basically did.

She made a sound between a yelp and a scream and wrapped her arms around his body but before she even understood what was happening, Eren hurried to grasp all the shopping list he prepared on his right side.

Seconds were ticking and it was too stresfull for him.

With one arm holding Rosa and sixty kilos of supplies on his right arm, Eren stepped through the portal with a jump.

The portal snapped shut behind them.

It was a much more close call than he imagined it would be, because just after they left from the forest side, portal shut down immediately!

What the hell, I was suppose to have three more seconds…

He decided he shouldn’t wait even a second next time. Skill time calculations apparently varied from different sides of different universes.

It was less than three seconds he spent totally, but most likely close six seconds passed on Evon side.

Time differs to any and everyone, Einstein said that right?

He didn’t know anything about space, time, physics or math but still used a famous sentence wrong from the genius scientist.

While he was thinking random crap in his head for a second, Rosa was in shock with what she experienced.

“It was real and you didn’t lie!!”

“Hahaha…” Eren was having too much joy from watching different emotions going through her face.

“This is a real forest.” She was grabbing his jacket with both hands and her eyes were locked on trees and scene.

“Trees and rocks and a path. What is that light? Why does the air feel different?” She had too many questions but her mouth wasn’t keeping up with her thoughts speed.

“Slow down. This is Universe Evon and a planet named Aradne. Also different universes have different air, I guess. And there are elves, magic and much more..

We need to go to village now. Are you coming or are you staying here?” He asked without thinking deeply and that was a mistake.

“WHAT? Don’t even say leaving me as a joke. Never!!!?” She was angry and Eren was damn sure he wouldn’t joke about it ever again.

It was a dick move when he considered this for a second. This was so safe to him now after dealing with it for the first time. But to her, everything was wild, fresh and horrifying.

Rosa looked at Eren from real close, which they were almost hugging each other with mostly Rosa was using her entire body to hold his left side.

She gulped and took a step back as her anger dissipated. Then saw the two packed backpacks he had already slung over his right shoulder in one smooth motion. Sixty kilos of supplies and he moved like it was nothing.

“You’re insane. I must be insane. Everyone is insane….FUUU*K!!!” She left his grasp with a newfound courage and just held his left hand with her entire strength.

This day was about to be more insane if she already started cursing with a portal travel between universes.

Eren was expecting more creative curses from -his ex?/girlfriend-almost fiancé.

Fu*k it. We didn’t break up as a matter of fact, so I will just call her “my girlfriend”.

..

After walking for a few steps Rosa suddenly throw up.

Eren didn’t blame her. This was too shocking and she was getting the implications of being on a different universe step by step.

He set her down on the grass and held her hair back while she emptied her stomach behind a large tree.

“This isn’t… I’m not…” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Where are we again?”

“About three hundred meters from the village.” He looked around to give her some space.

The portal had dropped them at the almost the same spot it did for his day 1.

They were outside the village boundary, near the southern tree line. It wasn’t the exact same place and mush closer to the village.

He had a theory about the Totem blocking direct teleportation into the village but he didn’t care enough to test it right now.

Rosa stood up on shaking legs and looked around as he held her hand again to help.

The forest was nothing like anything on Earth. The trees were taller than apartment buildings with barks that shifted between dark green and grey depending on how the light hit them.

Bioluminescent mushrooms grew in clusters on the roots, giving off a faint blue glow even though it was still technically daylight.

Small insects with wings that left brief light trails flew between different type of trees. The ground was soft with moss and old leaves and the air tasted fresh but also dense. Probably the effect of mana but Rosa was guessing at this point.

Rosa turned in a slow circle with her hand over her mouth.

“This can’t be real.”

“It’s real.”

She looked at her hands like she was checking if they were still the same hands. “I think I need to sit down.”

“You just stood up.”

“Then I need to sit down again! Shut up and find me a rock or something.” She was on her commanding mode. And Eren didn’t argue and tried to be understanding as mush as possible.

He let her sit on a fallen log for a minute.

Her eyes were darting everywhere, trying to take in every detail at once. She reminded him of a wildlife photographer dropped into an alien jungle. Everything was new and her brain was trying to catalog all of it simultaneously and failing.

He half expected the system to give her something.

Come on Evon, at least teach her the language. What happened to that language gift pack, huh??

A message, a stat panel, a language pack or something. Anything would help her or help them actually.

When he first arrived in Evon the system had greeted him within seconds.

But sadly, nothing happened for Rosa.

“Do you hear a voice in your head? Anything?” He still asked.

“No? Should I?”

“When I got here the system..local power system I guess, talked to me almost immediately. Gave me a language and helped me.”

“There’s no voice and no anything.” She looked worried. “Is that bad?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it takes longer for some people or first you need to hear a local to try talking to you. Not sure..” He tried his Beastin skill on her as a test. The skill rejected the connection immediately.

So she wasn’t even registered as a beast. Maybe and hopefully, not registered for now! 9 times stats were really helpful.

But after trying for a few times he tried to feel his own body and soul and Beastin language allowed him to feel his own presence. And it wasn’t even remotely close to Rosa’s human feel.

So in the end he was certain.

Rosa was human, in and out. And Evon’ system treated her differently than it treated him.

“I guess, you won’t be able to talk to anyone here. But don’t worry, I am good at translating between different species.”

“How so?” She was distracted from existential crisis with his weird words.

“We have two cute wolf cubs which are very smart but can’t talk with elves.”

“Great. So I’m basically a toddler in a magic forest and there are talking wolves.”

She stood up and brushed dirt off her jeans.

“I am better now.”

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