Again. The wall of trees. I went through it again. I did it about an hour or two faster than last time. The town was there. I killed it again.

The herbs were unpicked and so, I took them and dug up the corpse and sealed it.

I walked and walked. After coming across all kinds of beasts that weren’t of the spiritual kind, I arrived at the other continent.

It was barren. A sharp contrast to the greenery and crowdedness of the towns back in the Greyserf Empire. I looked and saw many holes though. I looked into them.

There were tunnels and tunnels of mechanical bits and pieces. There was a metal door a bit deeper into the tunnel. An icon was on the door. A wrench mixed with a soldering iron. Dwarves and gnomes.

Two sides of the same coin. Dwarves were the lower class of the humanoid species. Gnomes were nobles and of a higher class.

The only thing they shared was the hate they had when compared to the other.

Gnomes were better at making machinery while Dwarves were good at metal-making and building the materials that the gnomes needed.

I didn’t have anything to do with the dwarves and gnomes. I only needed to gather two more materials before going to the depths of the ocean and gathering the rest.

I walked across the barren plains and, after a couple of days, saw dead trees surrounding a white bush. I reached it. I couldn’t have missed it anyway since it gave off a peculiar smell over a long stretch of land.

I burned the bush and stored the glowing white ashes in another sealed jar.

One more and I’d need to go to the depths.

There wasn’t much to see here. It was only dead grass with rarely any trees which would usually be thin and dead.

After I burned the white bush and attained its ashes, there weren’t any holes and tunnels that belonged to the gnomes and dwarves.

It was bland, dead, silent, and boring. The only thing was me and a sack or bag on my back. The ragged cloak helped a bit when it came to the cold breeze that still felt alive even with all of this barren wasteland under it.

That was something to smile about. The air and breeze were still alive. On a short note, this part of the continent was dead. No humans live here. The only reason gnomes and dwarves were here was because they could live in harsh conditions easily. They could last for weeks or months on a tiny amount of food and water even in harsh weather conditions as well.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I saw the rare pipe jutting out one of the holes. I guessed it was for the air and breeze but it could be for something else.

There were rarely any water sources around. There were enough for dwarves and gnomes but easily not enough for humans and plants to live.

***

Another tree. Another scratch mark just in case.

If there weren’t any trees then a symbol on the dirt would be the next best thing.

My worries didn’t happen though. It was a smooth, although bland and eerily silent, journey. It was close. I could feel it. The mana was light as if they were moving away from here. I could feel them moving in a singular direction. It was to my right.

I looked and somehow I missed the dimensions folding in itself and reflecting infinitely. I looked away and then looked back and it disappeared. It reappeared the next minute.

I moved towards it. I knew what it was. It was what mana purifying itself looked like. It wasn’t what I did before, no, it was a huge amount of mana merging due to a single dying will and spewing out all the impurities into the surroundings. The dying -will- is the spirit energy that didn’t have anywhere to go and is trying to keep going and make more. There was a corpse here. Not a spirit but maybe a spiritual beast with a small amount of spirit energy.

A split second. That’s all it took for my hand to turn the infinitely reflecting and constantly merging mana, turned spirit energy, into an orb that looked like the inside was infinitely reflecting itself as well.

That’s all the ingredients I’d get on land. The rest could only be found on other planets or in another dimension here.

Thing is… I didn’t have even a clue on how to enter another dimension. ‘Could the records and pages of history have a clue? It’d be worth a try.’ The thought came and spurred me to end this loop. It’d take time to search. Hoping this would be the last setback, I ended this loop with an Eclipse symbol.

Loop 34: Intermission

I breezed through everything until I was at the altar. All I needed to do for this loop was read. Everything and anything that can have a hint on how to enter another dimension.

I’d start with this empire first. It was easy. They never experienced magic on the level I had. I met with the empress easily. I heard her full name as she introduced herself. Irith Heft Greyserf. I turned a bit of my mana into spirit energy to fill the room and give it an oppressive aura to anyone who wasn’t used to it.

Everyone in the room was sweating bullets. “Hello nobility, loyalists, and royalty of the Greyserf Empire. I see that my magic is a bit overbearing but you’d understand that I don’t want any misunderstandings. I’ll say this once. I only need to read every historical record and document you have. Rumors too. You’ll prefer to listen to this obediently.’ I threatened and put more spirit energy into the room to prove my point.

The table was silent. I took in the room through the silence. The dazzling gold and crystal that was embedded into the marble walls and the silver pillars. “S…S...Si-Sir….I mean Great Sir. I apologize for my grave mistake. We sincerely apologize for taking your time.” A noble answered. The empress soon answered after that.

“Great Archmage, we can even give you this whole manor along with the empire’s historical storage.” The empress said while trying to hide her fear behind a still face with almost no movement except the hidden fear in her azure eyes.

“That seems good. Now leave.” I said abruptly. The members at the table took a whole second to register my words and soon hurried to leave the estate.

I was alone now. The workers were still here for my convenience. After searching the hallways for my destination, I entered a room that was filled with pages and pages with shelves that were as high as a three-story building. I went to the beginning of the shelves, took one page, and started reading.