From playing around with the gateway, Jordan very quickly learned a few things about how it actually worked. First, he had poked it with a stick, which was a classic move in the world of scientifically learning about anything and everything.
Something which had instantly proven to be interesting, as the stick vanished from his hand the moment its tip touched the orb. Not pulled into it or forcefully tugged out of his grasp in any way, but simply gone. It might as well have turned into a puff of smoke, with how quickly his grip was just around the thin air where it used to be.
Noting this result, Jordan then found and grabbed a much longer branch. One that was at least four feet in length, and would serve as a good comparison. He repeated the previous motion while holding onto the opposite end that was poking into the orb. And once again, the whole thing simply disappeared from between his hands.
The gateway transports whatever object touches it, and so far I’ve shown that it at least takes organic, if dead, material. The size of the object and how much of it actually makes contact with the gateway seems to be irrelevant. If a limit to what can go through the portal does exist, I can only assume for now that it would be based on the size of the portal itself. Which considering how big it is, that’s a lot of wiggle room for all sorts of things, Jordan thought to himself as he jotted down his personal thoughts.
If anyone ever did manage to kill him and take his Kingdom for themselves, at least they would have the advantage of all his detailed notes. It was a bit of a randomly dark thought that popped into his mind, but hopefully one that would never come to reality.
Next, he tested his drones and how the portal dealt with them.
Jordan first had his air drone fly right into the portal. An action that made it disappear, yes. However, it was at that exact same instant that he felt his mental connection become cut off as it was desummoned. Now that brought an interesting question. Did the portal actually destabilize the Skill itself, or was it the simple fact it’d forcibly brought the drone outside of its maximum range? Actually, that in itself prompted yet another question.
Would a gateway, even if it went to the direct opposite side of the planet, really count as outside his Skill’s range? In the sense that if the gateway itself was considered an actual thing that acted as a tunnel, then whatever was on the other side could be technically considered as just one step away. So if the portal remained open and functional, then a theoretical argument could be made that from where he stood just outside of it, everything on the other side would be within range for as long as the drone remained within the range limit of the portal itself.
To start finding out, Jordan looked at the land drones. However with them, there was a bit of an issue. They were simply too short to reach even just the bottom of the sphere. The very top of very bodies only equaled his stomach in height, and even though the barrels of their twin guns did extend out, they weren’t adjustable. Though if the land drones could point them straight up, that still wouldn’t have been quite enough to make up the difference.
Hmm, can’t I just do this? Jordan asked himself as he squatted down, and attempted to assume what he at least believed to be proper deadlifting form.Then while finding a spot under the drone to hold on to, Jordan tried to primarily use his legs to lift it. And while he was fully ready for it to either be too heavy to lift at all or at least a titanic effort, he blinked with surprise as it actually began to come off the ground with far more ease than expected.
Just a few seconds later, he was holding up the whole body of the land drone. It didn’t even feel that heavy, necessarily. Even after losing all his momentum to now be standing still, Jordan felt that it wouldn’t be difficult to then begin lifting it up toward the orb. And aside from that, just holding it as he was now felt like something that could be sustained for at least a few solid minutes before it even began to tire out his muscles.
Hot damn, I think I’m finally seeing the result of that 30 in Strength, huh? Because either this thing is much lighter than you’d think for a fully metal tank of its size, or I’m just that strong now. Well… I guess the jury’s still out for the density of whatever it’s actually made of. Even as the System said its evolutions have made it tougher, the metal it’s built from doesn’t seem to have ever changed. Hmm, just some more food for thought, I suppose.
In any case, he then adjusted his grip before pushing the land drone up and into the sphere. Jordan watched both his TP and focused on his mental connection to the drone. If it simply cut it off from him or basically acted like anti-magic that forcibly destroyed even the permanent manifestations, he would find out in a second. And then just like the sticks, the weight of the land drone was removed as it disappeared instantly upon contact.
Jordan felt the TP connection become cut off, and for just a split second, he was a bit disappointed. But then, just as he started to feel that way, surprise replaced the emotion. Jordan’s cold lips tugged upward into a grin as he felt the drone again and sensed it like normal.
If the portal did have a disruptive effect or brought the drones into some weird dimensional between the gateways that were considered out of range, then it only mattered for the air drone that would instantly disappear. But for the land drone that could survive without being connected to him for ten minutes, it was only like a momentary loss in signal.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He couldn’t help but give himself a mental pat on the back for what was retroactively a genius decision for the Fundamental Evolution. Even if he had no way of knowing that it would apply to a magical portal, that didn’t stop him from praising what had clearly been predictive foresight.
Now rubbing his gloved hands together, partially with glee but also just to warm them back up, he began to consider the next move. Jordan could still maintain a stable mental connection with the land drone on the other side. So, just to prove that it could still take his commands, he gave it a rather simple one to start with. If possible from wherever it ended up, it was to drive through and come back.
A few seconds later, the lucky test subject didn’t return from its trip abroad. Though Jordan could quickly think of a few reasons for this. The most simple of which was that the opposite gateway was hoving the same distance in the air above relatively flat ground. Something like that would make it pretty much impossible for the drone to just drive through on its own, like on this side.
Or it could just be a matter of the terrain. If the other side was a winter wonderland, then Jordan didn’t assume that being dropped into what could potentially be several feet of snow would be good for its mobility. That or literally any other reason under the sun that might be preventing its ability to return through the portal.
Hmm. Oh! Here’s something else that might work, actually. Let’s just… play it safe, just real quick. It’d be a real shame if his idea led to him accidentally getting shot by his own drone, after all. So to help prevent that, Jordan ordered another drone so that its side was the part facing the orb. Then, after taking cover on the other side by getting onto his knees, he ordered the teleported drone to orient its position as needed and then fire a single shot through the portal.
Just a few seconds later went by, before a single pair of energy bolts from the dual guns flew through the air. While it did shoot toward the side of the orb that he’d been standing, it thankfully wouldn’t have been close enough to hit anyway. Still, better to find that being overprepared wasn’t needed, than being punished for being underprepared instead.
Right, so its ability to take my commands has now been proven. How about this, then. If the drone can spot any living creatures from its current position, then it’ll fire twice. If not, then only fire once. Take as much time as needed to first confirm for every direction that it can see, he relayed as a new order.
He waited less than ten seconds before a single shot of duel blasts once again popped through. At least now he could feel a bit safer about there not being anything, or anyone, waiting just close by on the other side. Plus as an additional benefit, this had also acted as another test whose results could be noted down.
First of all, the energy blasts were obviously able to come through. So there wasn’t any disrupting force to just fully cancel them out, at least. Then, second of all, their momentum had been conserved.
So if Jordan went running through the gateway, then he should also still maintain that inertia after crossing over to the other side. But if the energy blasts could be fine while the air drone was forcibly desummoned, then it did mean there was something about the details that needed comparison and further study from more examples.
But speaking of him running through the gateway…
Jordan had probably learned as much as he reasonably could while safely staying on this side. Sure, he could probably think of more tests and learn a couple of other details to try and find out a bit more first. Like one thing that pretty quickly came to mind was simply playing the waiting game.
Where he just went back to his base and left the drone on the other side. So after day came, he could find for sure if he was right about the purple sphere only even appearing at night. And if so, whether that would cause the drone to be fully cut off and disappear after ten minutes, since the gateway wouldn't be there to technically count as remaining in range.
This whole time, the air around the portal had been relatively calm. But while he was thinking about it, a powerful gust of wind came through and practically smacked him in the face with a wind chill so atrociously cold, that it made his breathing stop for a second.
Nope! Thank you multiverse; the message has been received, loud and clear! Just another layer or two of clothing isn’t going to cut it if the other side is going to feel like that. I need to treat this thing like I’m about to climb Mt. Everest or something like that. Because screw letting my impatient ass get frozen to death from my own stupidity, Jordan very clearly decided after seeing a bit more sense. As much as the reminder that quickly made his eyes feel dry had sucked, it was good that he got it now, compared to feeling it as soon as he got to the other side.
Jordan now had a new plan. The first thing to do now was go back home and get some sleep. Then first thing in the morning, he would see what the update was on the wildfire. Now that he knew that the orb was a portal, he highly doubted that fire would do much to hurt it. But then if the fire was out or at least safe near where he’d thought the Crab, Jordan would see if the Advancement Crystal could still be recovered.
After that, the rest of the day trying to see how the Transmuter would exactly work with the land drone. Though on that front, just the difference in how the portal treated it versus the air drone was already a pretty good start. And at some point, he would also use that time to use the several sets of clothing in his pocket pace and turn some of it into hardcore winter gear.
Finally, when tomorrow night came, he would put on his brave face and explore whatever waited on the other side. In the meantime, however, there was just one last thing that could be done while he was already here. Putting them through by lifting them up, Jordan had all but one of the other land drones teleported through the gateway.
While it was still open, it’d be a waste not to have them do some Experience farming around the other side, after all.