"Huh. So that's the Dawn Gate." Glenn looked said-Gate up, his hands on his waist. The two massive doors separating him from the Eastern side of the Fringe were magnificent, to say the least. In a similar fashion to the Twilight Gate, it was built out of rough, dark stone bricks. Glenn had arrived at the gate for lunch so he couldn't see anything special besides the two usual statues, but he had heard the Gate would change color with the dawning sun and gleam with light orange-pink hues.

"Who cares about that? The spells, they are the actual interesting things," Diamanes exclaimed impatiently.

Glenn smirked at his left hand, "What is wrong with you? Are you starving for some reason? You already got two new things shoved in your belly, how can you..."

"You grow stronger, I grow hungrier," Diamanes interrupted him before moistening his lips hungrily, "Let's get to it now, presto!"

"Okay, okay..." The two statues were made out of that same dark stone the Gate was built out of. One was the sculpture of a cloaked archer holding an absurdly big bow, while the other was an armored knight—maybe a paladin, wielding a gigantic shield with two hands.

"The archer and the tank archetypes..." muttered Glenn as he approached the statues, "...Let's see if they have some interesting spells."

A moment later, Glenn was back in an isolated area, his left hand brimming with new additional powers.

"Burp! Damn, that's some Michelin food right there! I can't get enough of it!" Diamanes laughed in satisfaction. Glenn paused and looked at his left hand.

"Wait, don't tell me you're still hungry? Is there no limit to your stomach? Can I just take as many spells as I want?"

Diamanes sneered, "Nah, it's scaled on the capacity of your body and soul. Right now, I'd say I could take two more powers safely. You'll have to wait to reach a higher Circle to get more."

Glenn shook his head, "How convenient. Now, let's test this thing..." He called out to the archer's power, expecting a bow or an arrow to manifest, but instead half his total Mana disappeared into his left hand, a substantial, almost nonsensical amount of power. Glenn waited for another second, but the Mana taken away simply didn't move nor dissipate. It just...stayed there, waiting.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with that?" Glenn asked aloud as he rubbed his chin. He looked at a nearby target and reached out, but still nothing happened.

"What if it's not an attack spell, but a buff?" suggested Nelg curiously. Glenn's eyes widened and he immediately put that theory to the test. He chose a relatively weaker spell, Solar Laser, the weaker version of Solar Flare, and shot it at a random tree. The boatload of Mana saved in his left hand suddenly disappeared, and Glenn's Solar Laser, initially as thick as a pencil and of a yellow flame, became a pillar of pale blue destruction. The targeted tree disappeared, alongside a good chunk of the forest.

Glenn blinked at the sight, his jaw hanging slack.

"So that's why it used half your Mana," Diamanes said in a casual tone, unsurprised. Glenn rubbed the corner of his eyes and looked again, but the ashes and remnants of the blue fire were still there, crackling with power.

"That's fucking insane," Glenn blurted out, "I used that...boost, or whatever that was on Solar Laser. Not even Solar Flare, the actual spell I usually cast, but on its weaker version. Imagine how absurdly powerful it would be combined with...I don't know, Nitrogen Lance for example, or Shooting Star?" He couldn't help but get excited at this level of strength.

"It does cost you half your Mana capacity," Nelg remarked, calming down his host's fervor, "That means you can use it at most twice a fight. It's like a last-resort kind of spell. Like Overload."

Glenn repeated Nelg's last words, "Like Overload...Yeah, you're right, it's definitely in the same spirit of going beyond the boundaries of what is supposedly possible," He crossed his arms and his lips curved upward, "...I think I'll call it Arcane Surge. Yeah, that sounds okay."

"Lame."

"I can't help but agree."

"Go fuck yourselves," Glenn groaned as he extended his left hand once more to test out the paladin statue's spell. This time, the effects were quite straightforward. A large, red shield appeared in front of Glenn, wide enough to cover him entirely and tall enough to protect him if he crouched.

"This one I'll call—"

"Lord's Shield!" Diamanes interrupted Nelg without a shred of shame, grinning from one thumb to the pinkie. Glenn felt his sword vibrate by his side with dissatisfaction and sighed.

"Another defensive solution besides the Saturn Rings. I'm not sure it's really useful to me though..." He shrugged and turned away, cutting off the flow of Mana that he was sending to the spell to maintain it.

Only, to his surprise, the spell didn't disappear. The red, wide shield, remained, somehow keeping its shape as if everything was fine. Which wasn't possible, since Glenn stopped using Mana to maintain the spell in existence.

"Oh-oh, that's better than I thought then," Glenn realized with a grin. He tried kicking the shield, only to hurt his foot uselessly.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Hmf," He grunted, "So the spell just remains there? What if I want it to disappear—" The shield faded away as he willed it, "—Oh, okay. Nice."

"It only took three books and a half for you to get a proper shield..." jeered Nelg.

"What?"

Glenn headed off once again to his last remaining objective, the Burning Gate. He arrived in the evening, just in time to see the "Burning" part of that Gate. The two statues standing on each side of the Gate suddenly went up in flames, burning in a fiery show. The light was powerful enough to cast its glow over the entire surroundings of the Gate, chasing every shadow away.

"Cool..." Glenn muttered as he walked up to the nearest statue, which he guessed was a necromancer from the two skulls the hooded figure was holding. The statue's feet weren't in flames, thankfully.

"Is that my "arise" arc?" He muttered in a slightly mocking tone as he pressed his left hand against the warm stone. He took the statue's power and then looked at the next one.

Glenn couldn't help but pause and do a double-take.

What the hell was that?

"Is this a...a farmer?" Glenn muttered, confused. So far, every statue always showed specific fighting archetypes: swordsman, barbarian, mage, archer, priest, paladin, and necromancer.

So what the hell was a farmer doing there?

"Don't estimate the might of farmers, for they are the ones putting food in your belly," Diamanes warned in a sage yet mocking voice. Glenn rolled his eyes and pressed his hand against the statue, taking its power once more.

"Necromancer and farmer...weird choices, not very righteous-like," Glenn sighed before leaving one last time for an isolated place. He had an inkling as to what the necromancer's power was going to be, but he couldn't say the same about the farmer's. It certainly had him intrigued, that was for sure.

"First...the necromancer," Glenn extended his hand and called out the necromancer's power. He felt his Mana trickle out lazily, only to dissipate without taking effect. Glenn frowned and tried once more, but it failed again.

"Huh. Is there no animal corpses in the damned forest?" He questioned with a tinge of annoyance. He channeled more Mana into the spell, hoping the intensity would change something, but again, it didn't do anything.

Glenn smacked his lips, "I guess I'll need an actual corpse to test it out. Too bad."

"I love how you're saying that like you're not killing stuff like you're eating breakfast," sneered Diamanes. Glenn ignored him and finally called up to the farmer's power. The ground trembled, small cracks opening up here and there. Small, green vines crawled out of the holes, before dying helplessly.

This time Glenn couldn't help himself.

"That's fucking bullshit," He cursed, "How can both of these statues' powers be useless? What am I supposed to do with them?!"

"It won't help, but do consider that these weren't made with you taking them in mind," Nelg reminded him, which only annoyed him further.

"Still! Rah..." Glenn walked back to the Gate with his hands in his pockets, sheepish and disappointed. This little outing of his still bore quite the fruits, but the ending left him hungry for more. A robed man suddenly walked in front of him, blocking his path.

"Sir Glenn the Devil's Hand?" The man asked, his face hidden under a thick, featureless mask. Glenn raised an eyebrow.

"Who's asking?"

The man bowed slightly, a hand on his chest, "I don't have something such as a name, but you can call me Faceless if you'd like."

Glenn moistened his lips, unimpressed, "How original. What can I do for you, Faceless?"

Faceless cleared his throat and extended out an indigo envelope sealed with unstamped wax, "The organization I belong to would have some questions to ask you about some information you sold us. Do you remember the Indigo Bureau?"

Glenn's eyes lit up and he grinned widely, "Of course! Your intel was the only reason I managed to do what I wanted back then. Anyway, what do I—"

Faceless hurriedly put his hands up, "Oh, don't ask me, Sir, I'm unaware of everything. I'm simply the messenger, the contents are in the envelope. You can read it now and give me an answer, or reply later once you're back in your home on Longhorn Street. Just put the letter in front of the gate and someone will pick it up."

Glenn shook his head, "No need for that, I'll give you my reply now."

He opened the letter while making a note for himself. It might have been a coincidence, but for that guy to mention the place he lived...This wasn't a threat, was it...?

"...Hah." Glenn snorted as he burnt the letter with his magic. Faceless waited patiently, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Tell your boss to come see me tomorrow at my place, since he seems to know where it's at," Glenn decided as he dusted his hands off.

Faceless tilted his head to the side, his expression hidden under his mask, "I apologize, but—"

Glenn clicked his tongue, "No buts. It's either that, or he can go fucking himself. Why the hell would I care about a bunch of troglodytes who opened the box of Pandora?"

"Pandora...?" Faceless repeated confusedly, before sighing, "...Understood, Sir. I'll be sure to relay your message to my superior. I wish you a pleasant evening."

"Likewise, Faceless," Glenn waved his hand dismissively and walked past the masked man. His gaze followed the moving shadow on the ground, discerning it from the natural ones. It would have been impossible to notice if it wasn't for his Mana Sight.

"Hahaha, that's hilarious!" Diamanes laughed widely, unbothered by the possibility of being heard. Glenn was at a certain point in his life where he was starting to not care much anymore about that either. What would people do anyway? Talk about it? He was already nicknamed the Devil's Hand, how worse could it get?

"I'm not sure I find that funny," Nelg replied to Diamanes with a concerned tone, "We already got the news it disappeared some time ago, but for that to be the cause..."

Glenn shrugged, "Don't worry too much about it. Seeing how desperate they are for answers, I'll be able to get quite a few freebies. Maybe some interesting information about Count Mortelli or the Thorn's Church, who knows?"

Nelg winced, "Still. An entire team of Seekers, protected with a rare Fifth-Circle Magi and a couple of Rank Four Grand Chevaliers, that's not nothing. That's technically much more than our team's firepower. And yet..."

"Yet they all disappeared," Glenn completed his sentence, "With the laboratory containing that cannibal Doyle Malory, yes, I know. But what can I do about it, anyway?"

"Isn't it your responsibility, since you told them the information?" Nelg attempted. Glenn chuckled and shook his head, "Is it my fault they decided to go explore that place? I didn't expressively tell them to be careful, but seeing how they prepared their expeditions, they had some sort of idea as to who Doyle Malory was. They wouldn't bring people as strong as that just to fight off some golems, that wouldn't be making any sense."

"Whatever!" Diamanes suddenly exclaimed, "I can smell revenge in the air, and an opportunity for a breakthrough! Glenn, it doesn't matter what they need you to do, do it! You'll get to the Fifth Circle much faster this way!"

"I'll consider it, Diamanes, I'll consider it. For now, let's return home. Hah, I'm impatient to see their faces when they'll realize I was just gone for a day." Glenn grinned widely, satisfied. He had been quite productive, all in all.

Glenn would only return to his mansion in Silverhomes one month later.

And he wouldn't be back empty-handed.