[Michael’s POV]
‘They weren’t kidding when they said this trip would take a day..’
What do you expect? These continents are many times larger than the ones of your world.
‘I mean yeah, but, how are there so many villages?’
Over the course of the entire flight, Michael counted at the very least 80 villages and they were all of similar size to one another.
Better yet, the view was beautiful and there were all sorts of canyons and mountains, despite the technological advancement, nature was unaffected.
‘Well for the most part..’ He thought while thinking back on the mana he felt permeating all the surroundings.
He could guess it did change something, maybe that’s why the continents were so big?
‘Anyways..’ Michael looked around himself, noticing the others had snoozed off already, with only him still being awake.
He also noticed that his Halo couldn’t interact with the surroundings, only he could touch it, besides that, it went through everything it came into contact with.
That made his life a little bit easier and plus the benefits it provided, this trip was worth it.
In the distance, he could finally see a few skyscrapers, it meant Vivum was just a couple of minutes away.
Despite his previous conclusions, Vivum appeared to be fine, at least from a distance.
But the closer they got, the more he noticed that the city was untouched, it looked like just another regular day.
‘So the problem was on our side… but what?’ He was now truly confused but decided to let it go, debating the unknown would get him nowhere.
They signaled for the pilot to land near the Academy and he did, dropping the 4 of them off in the massive courtyard before flying away.
Michael turned to Kevin “What’s the time right now?”
He checked his phone and then pointed it at Michael, showcasing the time which showed 7:00 AM, meaning they still had time before class.
However, as those thoughts entered his mind, he felt a presence appear and head directly for him at a speed that he could simply describe as monstrous.
Before the impact happened, he created a Shield, parrying the full brunt of the attack and sending it back to the one who had done this.
The person was sent flying for a bit before halting in mid air, stopping themselves from flying any further.
They levitated for a bit, landing in front of Michael with widened eyes.
“You.. already?”
“Nice to see you too, Amanda” He rolled his eyes at her antics, she seemed to attack him every single time they met, he was just able to catch her off guard this time.
“Where have you all been? You suddenly disappeared during the assignment, what happened?” She asked in a slightly worried voice.
Michael sighed and turned to Elizabeth, gesturing for her to explain.
He thought she seemed too lively these past couple of days, she could deal with the aftermath while they go do whatever they wanted.
However, much to his surprise, Amanda stopped her and turned to Michael “No, I want to hear it from you, follow me” With those words she started walking backwards, a car appearing just like the time he came back.
‘She jumped out again…’ He chuckled inwardly and waved to his party before finally heading right after her, entering the car and driving to the headquarters in complete silence.
The elevator ride upwards was also the same, for some reason she seemed to be a tad bit irritated.
They entered the room with the round table and it was completely empty, it was just the two of them there.
She went around and sat on the chair meant for the leader, while gesturing for him to choose any seat he liked.
Michael glanced at her with suspicion “So… did we need to head all the way back here? You know I have classes right?”
She simply chuckled “Classes? You really think I care about something like that?”
“Why not? It’s always good to know more” Michael tried joking around with her but upon taking another look at her, noticed the serious expression on her face.
“Did my father help you create that Mana Core?”
“He did..?”
“Did he tell you about anything else?”
Michael looked back to that time and he remembered Fafnir falling asleep immediately after helping him “No.”
She sighed and laid back on her chair “I see, he does tend to forget important things sometimes..”
“I guess..? Was I supposed to be informed of something?” He asked in a slightly confused tone.
“Yes.. You see, this world is only one of many, with others being hidden in other realms. This world is also one of the weakest, hence why you don’t see many people with Mana Cores running around, it’s just not that advanced” Amanda explained while rocking back and forth in her chair.
“Not that advanced? Does technological advancement not count?”
“Technologically, we have some grounds, however, power wise as I said, we are pretty weak.” She answered patiently before continuing her earlier explanation.
“Luckily for us, we just so happen to have a portal leading to another realm inside of this building.”
‘Huh?’
“You might have seen it, back when we were showing you around, it was a medieval land, not as technologically advanced, but the strength of the individuals there was nothing short of formidable.”
Michael thought about what she said and his eyes suddenly widened.
When he first entered the elevator, he remembers seeing some kind of a medieval city right below him, it looked strange but he didn’t put much thought into it.
The thought that it was a different world entirely didn’t even cross his mind, he still did not know about that back then.
Amanda smiled upon seeing his expression “You might have heard of the new, well kind of a new thing that Vivum has released, VR.
“I did hear about it..”
“We were able to connect that world with this one, the people who buy the Vivum VR can enter that realm any time they like” She said with a nonchalant expression.
However, Michael was left even more shocked ‘Did she just say they connected the worlds? How is that even possible?’
“That world had a weak portal and it needed an anchor, it was the place where my father and I lived at first, we only came across this world by mere coincidence and due to that, it was not extremely hard to tie the two of them together.”
‘So she came from that world..? It’s making less and less sense as she keeps talking..’ Michael sighed and continued listening.
“It works via mana projection, the VR is simply a massive amplifier that sends out a portion of the individual’s mana straight into that world, allowing them to control it from here like some kind of an avatar, pretty cool, right?” She chuckled sarcastically.
“Y-yeah..” Michael was absolutely speechless.
“Now then, that brings me to my next topic, would you like to enter that world normally? Not through an avatar but with your actual body.”
He thought for a moment and nodded, this seemed too good to be true, however, he was not one to pass up such an opportunity to get stronger.
“Good, I will have everything ready by next week, you can go now” She gestured for him to get out.
Michael got up and headed out, it seemed that she didn’t really care about what happened to them during the assignment after finding out about his Mana Core.
He didn’t mind it though, with strength comes opportunity.
Walking to the elevator and heading down, he was on his way to the academy.
However, as he finally arrived, he noticed a clock on the wall, right above the receptionist’s desk, it said 8:10 AM.
‘Damn it…’
