Jonathan flopped backwards, mentally drained from his experience. However, he still had something to do. Now that he knew that his rune construct was safe, he created a series of runes on his skin, hissing in pain. He made sure to draw the Rune of Consumption last. With a hum, the rune construct came online, and power suddenly rushed into him.

Effective mana density has reached Tier 2. All power demerits have been canceled.

The only thing left was to set up all of the Tier 2s with this rune. It would be a great asset in the war against Granath. Jonathan’s chances of winning were growing higher and higher.

It would do little against Granath himself, as the worm dwelt within a zone of higher mana concentration anyway, but it would help for the defense of this city.

Jonathan got to his feet, stretching, and headed out of the cave and into the sunlight for the first time in days. He didn’t really need to stretch anymore, but it was more of a vestigial reflex imbued in him from his time as a normal human. Back on Earth, sitting still for days would have done a lot more to him than simply triggering a languid stretch.

He headed down into the city, which looked even larger than it had before. An entire section had been set aside for the purpose of taking full advantage of the portal to the Universal Trading Hub. Jonathan idly wondered what would happen if more merchants gained the ability. He would have to find out.

As he walked, the mana density around him decreased as the runic array sucked the energy out of the air. It created a zone of Tier 2 mana around him, most of which was funneled into his body. In any case, even with the low density of the ambient mana, there was far more of it than anything Jonathan could siphon away with his array. He would not be running out anytime soon.

He had a spike of Divinity ready to destroy the runes if they proved to be unstable, but so far he was satisfied with their power. He knew that it would not be past the System to feed him a false notification to assure him of the safety of his array, while it was actually unstable in reality. One of these days, the System would try to kill him again, and he needed to be vigilant.

Some time later, Jonathan entered the merchant district, wanting to see the progress that had been made on the portal. While he was not technically in charge of the city, he still had a greater vested interest in it than anyone else. It was an important part of his quest to destroy the Infinite Hells for good.

The portal hummed and whirred with power as people stepped in and out of it. It was in the center of a square that was filled with stalls, with merchants hawking exotic wares that could only have come from the Trading Hub. It looked like it was already injecting some wealth into the city.

Judging by the powerful weapons that Jonathan saw on display, this was for the better. As long as the merchants were not extorting the citizens, it would be fine. Then Jonathan remembered that anyone could enter the portal. If someone was unhappy with the prices here, they could simply enter the Trading Hub. Because the majority of people here were Tier 1, the prices would be cheaper as well.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It seemed that only one person could use it at a time however, and the merchant who the portal belonged to was sitting by it, poring over a piece of paper. The woman looked flustered but happy, and she was probably raking in experience for her class by the bucketful.

Jonathan walked over, the crowd seeming to subconsciously part before him as he walked. Then again, judging by the looks of awe he was getting, it was more of a deliberate thing. He knew that his aura was completely retracted, but they still made way.

Jonathan sighed and headed towards the merchant woman, sidestepping a man coming out of the portal. It seemed that there was some sort of minor time dilation effect within the Trading Hub, as people were swapping places far faster than it would take to complete a transaction. Or maybe the merchants were just fast. Jonathan had no idea. The woman looked up from her paper upon seeing Jonathan and smiled.

“Faction leader. It has been some time.”

“Yeah, I had some things to attend to. How is the portal working so far? I can see that people are coming in and out rather quickly. How exactly does that work?” Jonathan asked.

“It runs off of mana. Depending on how much I put in, a minor time dilation effect is created that allows for quick transitions in relative time here. I wish there was more mana though.”

Jonathan frowned, noting a small conduit of mana running from the woman’s chair to the portal.

“I might have something to help with that,” he said. “Also, I never got your name.”

“My name is Kanessa,” the woman replied.

“Kanessa? Not related to Janessa by any chance?” Jonathan said, raising an eyebrow.

“You know my cousin?” The woman said, sitting up straighter.

“I met her a few months back. She was the librarian of one of the towns further into the Ash Heaps. I don’t know where she is now though. Perhaps she will come here.”

“That is good news indeed,” Kanessa said, smiling. “What about that mana you were talking about though?”

“Right. I’m not sure if this will work, but here goes.”

Jonathan walked over to the portal, and tried to gauge the amount of mana that it was taking in. From his experiences creating the Mana Magnet array, he found that its draw was about a quarter of the strength of his own draw on the ambient mana. It was a shockingly low amount of mana for such a powerful skill, but it was supplemented by elemental energy as well, which seemed to come from the air around it. Mana was a lot harder to channel naturally than elemental energy, as it had no inclination to clump together.

Jonathan adjusted the parameters on his Mana Magnet Array, and created it on the ground next to the portal. It lit up as mana started to pulse around it, and Kanessa raised an eyebrow.

“Interesting. If I establish a conduit from the mana array to the portal, it could run indefinitely.”

She got out of the chair and touched the array, closing her eyes. The stream of mana coming from her was immediately taken over by the array, and she took a step backwards. The portal sputtered, and then blazed into life, continuing without Kanessa’s input. Jonathan felt a small amount of pathway skill experience trickle in from creating the array and manipulating it. Luckily, it only looked like a glyph array from the outside, so nobody would bat an eyebrow at Jonathan. Barely anyone knew about glyphs enough to become suspicious, and what exactly were they going to do anyway? The System already knew that he possessed the power of the runes. It was far more dangerous than anything else that might come for him.