"Parallel timeline?" Gaus asked.

"Oh?" Minorita said, "I understand why the term will be confusing to you. My friends and I believed this world is just one timeline. So for convenience, we named the other timeline as the parallel timeline. I'm sure the people over there would have a different name for it. You will have a different name for it."

Okay, but something still didn't make any sense.

"You said the deceiver created the Multiverse by joining the two timelines. So why is the parallel timeline still in existence?" He asked.

"That's what we've been trying to find out," she said. "You still didn't answer my question. Are you from the parallel timeline?"

He didn't know if coming from the parallel timeline was good or bad.

"I'm not from the parallel timeline."

"Then where did you come from? Why aren't you on any Register? My men would find your contacts if you were born here," she said.

Sooner or later someone was going to ask him that question. He'd thought about how to answer it and the best way would be to avoid answering the question altogether. He didn't even know if there were other earthlings in the Multiverse. How uncommon would it be for him to come from another world? How would the inhabitants of the Multiverse react?

"Why are you so interested in my origin?" He asked.

"I just want to make sure we aren't enemies," she said.

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it."

There was more to it than just 'making sure they weren't enemies'. She was curious. He could see it in her eyes. Perhaps, he could turn her curiosity to his advantage.

"Hey, " Gaus said. "I'll tell you where I came from and you'll tell me about London. What do you say?"

"London?" Her eyes went wide. She was confused. Why would a stranger be interested in London? "You know what? I don't care about where you came from. Let's just keep this professional: you'll carry my memory package and I'll give you the skills you need."

Uh-oh, she saw through it. Well, it was an obvious trap and he didn't think she would fall for it.

"So, what will you be teaching me today?" He asked.

"Choose a topic," she said.

Time magic was his favorite. He had this high affinity for it and the first time he tried it he got two skills almost effortlessly. It would be nice to start with something he enjoyed doing.

"Let's start with cord shedding. I already have cord pulling and longevity sense."

"Cord pulling, huh? Why don't you pull my cord?"

He looked at her questioningly, wondering if he heard her right.

"Just do it," she said.

He created a pair of hands from world essence and grabbed her cord with it, or at least he thought he did until the cord disappeared just before he touched it.

Startled, he turned to her for answers.

"You can't see it, can you?" She asked.

He nodded. "Is this cord shedding?" He asked.

"No," she said. "This is called invisible cord. It just makes the cord invisible. The simplest way to bypass it is to attach world essence to it."

But how could he attach world essence if he couldn't even see it?

"It's simple," she said. "Just create a big balloon of world essence and surround my body with it."

He turned the world essence around her into a balloon. For him, controlling world essence had always been easy, almost trivial. He considered it to be normal since nobody seemed to react to it.

"Compress it," she said.

With a simple mental command, the balloon began to shrink. The cord became prominent. At first, it was translucent but it slowly became solid. He could see it now.

"I can see it!" He said.

"That's fast," she said.

Congratulations, you've learned longevity color.

Rank:?

As a practitioner of time magic, your ability to identify the cord is invaluable. That's why you need longevity sense. But what if the cord suddenly turned invisible and you can't see it even with longevity sense? Longevity color will make it visible.

Cost: 10 MP per minute.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

*

Congratulations, you have learned invisible cord.

Rank:?

Your cord is now invisible. If they can't see it, they can't touch it.

Cost: 10 MP per second

"Now that you can see it let's move to the next exercise. Grab it."

Instead of its usual opacity, the cord was now steam. It started moving as well. He reached for it but it dodged. He tried to grab it from the opposite side but it dodged just as easily as the first time. He created another pair of hands and tried again. When that didn't work, he created another pair making a total of six. He took several minutes but he finally grabbed it.

Congratulations, you have learned advanced cord pulling.

Rank:?

You can now pull multiple cords at once.

Cost: 10 MP per second

*

Congratulations, you have learned mobile cord.

Rank:?

Your cord is now mobile. Although they can see it they can't catch it.

Cost: 10 MP per second

"You're doing better than I expected. You can even create six hands from world essence. Wonderful."

He just grabbed and pulled her cord and she didn't even notice it. Ariwen almost died from the same thing. Was she resistant?

As if answering his question, the cord slipped through his hands.

"I have activated another defensive skill called immaterial cord," she said. "Let's see if you can grab it now."

The cord didn't dodge like the last time, but he couldn't touch it either. It would slip through his hands like it wasn't even there. One desperate attempt after another. He lost count.

"Why can't I touch it?" He asked.

"Alright, lemme give you a hint. Make the hands thicker by pumping more world essence into them and then try again."

He put more energy into making the hands bigger but to no avail. No matter how much world essence he used he just couldn't touch the cord.

"Oh, please, put your heart in it. I believe you can do it."

He tried for one hour straight while she was taking notes in her journal.

"Alright, you can stop now," she said. "It appears even you can't do it. I couldn't do it either. I thought you are different."

Gaus glared at her. She was the same mean library receptionist.

"Most people will run out of luck if they face an enemy with immaterial cord," she said. "You have invisible cord and mobile cord, you only need immaterial cord to learn cord shedding. Let me ask you a question, out of the three branches of the dark arts, which one do you think is the most useful in battle?"

"Mind magic?" He said. "You can knock your opponent unconscious and it won't matter how powerful they are."

"But you can knock someone unconscious with cord pulling or any other soul attack as well," she said.

"But mind mages can affect people's thoughts," he said. "They can create illusions and read memories and control humans remotely."

"I don't deny mind mages are wonderful in many fields," she said. "But you are missing the point. I asked you which skill is the most useful in battle."

"I... don't know," he said.

"What if I told you there's a skill that can stop every other skill? A skill that can stop mana?" She asked.

Was that even possible?

"I'm listening," he said.

"When someone activated immaterial cord, the only way you can defeat them is to target their mana veins. The cord can't be pulled but the veins are still there and you can affect them."

"What veins?" He said. "I have never seen them."

"You won't see them until you level up longevity color to level 10," she said.

If that was meant to discourage him then it failed. He had the experience from his last visit to the old dungeon.

Longevity color has reached level 10.

Mana veins will be 10x more visible.

The cost has been reduced to 9 MP per minute.

"It's done," he said. "What's next... Huh?"

Minorita's cord suddenly looked different. It was no longer just a unit. There were at least twenty veins in it. Each vein was divided into several smaller veins as it entered the body.

"You can see it now, can't you?" She said. "Each vein represented a pathway to a skill. Mana passes through the veins to the skills. If you can stop the mana before it reaches the skill then the skill won't activate."

Gaus was getting excited.

She created a bolt of lightning on her left palm.

"A normal bolt won't take more than 2 MP," she said. "I'm feeding 9.3 MP to this bolt to make the veins that supply it more prominent. I want you to identify and block them. To do that, you need to follow each major vein from the cord and check them out one by one."

He started at five minutes past two o'clock in the morning. At 2:48 am, he was still tracking the tributaries of a single vein. He still didn't know how many veins were in every major vein. His mana was almost gone, drained from using longevity color.

"It's 2:51 am," Gaus said. "I think we should call it a day."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh. "I still can't believe it." She looked around the cave curiously, probably hoping to see some signs that the world was coming to an end.

Gaus laughed. There wouldn't be any signs. "You will get used to it." He whispered to himself.

***

Magiwatch has saved twenty-four hours.

Thirty minutes was how long it took to get back to the forest.

"I changed my mind," Minorita said once they were seated in the cave. "I think I'll take your offer."

Gaus was startled for a moment. He then realized what she was talking about.

"You want to tell me about London?" He asked.

"Yes," she said. "But you'll have to tell me about yourself too. Where you came from and why you aren't on any register."

It appeared she fell for his trap after all.

"Go on. Tell me about London."

It was such a good question that he found himself smiling as he said it.

Minorita turned to the woman behind her. "Lilat?"

"Yes, ma'am," Lilat said.

"Please give us the room," Minorita said.

Lilat nodded and walked outside. She took the two guards outside with her and closed the door behind.

What could be so important?

"London is a city from a place called Earth. It's very far away from here and I won't be surprised if you have never heard about it before. I was born there."

He was right about her.

"Are you ready for my question?" She asked.

Gaus nodded. He knew what she wanted already but it didn't matter now.

"Why aren't you on any register? Where did you come from?" She asked.

"Earth," he said. "Just like you."

"Please," she said. "Be a gentleman. If you are from Earth then why aren't you in any register?"

Gaus frowned. Why would he be in any Register? Did the Multiverse keep a record of every earthling that came to their world?

"Why would I lie?" He asked.

She looked at him questioningly as if expecting him to turn back on his words and say he was lying.

"Earth is a distant place," she said. "The only way for the people over there to come here is through transmigration. You'll need a new body here when you come. Therefore, you will be identified in the Registers."

She paused and stared at him as if that was all the explanation he needed.

"Whose body is that?" She asked, pointing at him.

Gaus blinked in confusion. This was his real body. What was she talking about?

"Are you saying...?"

"Yes," she cut him off, "I'm saying your real body couldn't have crossed over to this universe and remain in one piece. Only a soul can safely cross over."

So he came differently.