The man then went silent, and he had clearly transitioned into the Interweb. Sam closed his eyes, and followed suit, entering the Interweb for the first time in days.
He popped out in a different section of the Interweb than the one he was used to, and blinked rapidly, startled by a bright sun. He was standing on what looked to be some sort of endless beach that extended off into the distance. The sand was purple rather than golden however, and the water was an emerald green color.
Back up the shoreline, strangely constructed mansions and other dwellings stood, soaking up the heat of the sun, which felt quite real on Sam’s skin. Sam looked up into the sky, noticing that rather than one sun, there were actually three, each of them close enough to have every vortice and sunspot clearly visible on them. Of course, if this was the real world, then this place would have been an arid hellscape by now, but as it was, seeing as none of it was real, it all worked out perfectly. Sam felt a tap on his shoulder, and he looked around, seeing Gordanus standing there.
“Well, enjoying the view?” Gordanus asked. “We are not here for idle folly. Come with me.”
The man strode off, not waiting for Sam, and he followed, a little bit annoyed. Gordanus headed for a nearby mansion, and walked up the pristine sands of the beach. A few other people were out and about, but there were few of them. Most people came to the Interweb for business, not pleasure. If these people were here, it meant that their home world, wherever it was, was so bad that they would rather seek succor in a simulation than deal with it.
Sam followed the man into the mansion, noticing that there was very little in the way of decorations within the palace. It was more like a shell than anything else, an empty playground for some cultivator to find pleasure in. Instead of questioning it however, Sam simply followed his mentor along the winding corridors and towards the center of the building.
After a few minutes of walking through the white marble hallways, they reached a section of the building that was actually furnished somewhat. The walls were covered in whimsical paintings of galaxies and other celestial bodies, and expensive looking cabinets stood by the walls.
Gordanus paused in front of an ornate door, before knocking on it loudly. A grumble came from behind it, and the door swung open, revealing a heavyset alien man, with some sort of beverage in his hand. He was pink of skin, with large, floppy ears, and a prodigious gut that marked him as being most assuredly retired. Assuming that he had been in the same business as Gordanus, he was likely quite old.
However, his features were remarkably smooth, the hallmarks of a high leveled cultivator. Sam did not know why the man was drinking something, seeing as none of it was real, but he kept his questions to himself. The man smiled upon seeing the face of Gordnaus, and ushered him in, pausing when he saw Sam.
“Gordanus, who is this fine fellow that you have brought here? I do not recognize him. I can tell that he is of the same species as you. Wait, don’t tell me…”
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Gordanus snorted.
“No, he is not that sort of acquaintance. I am his mentor, mandated by the System. He is from one of the new universes.”
“Wait, what exactly do you think that I was?” Sam asked, concerned about the image that he was presenting.
“That… that’s not important right now. I only assumed that you humans stuck together. I guess I was being presumptuous,” the alien said, trying to edge out of the conversation. “Now, what did you come here for exactly? It has been a long time, Gordanus. Surely you aren’t calling me out of retirement?”
“Of course not. Do you really think that we would force you to come back into the field?” Gordanus asked, prompting a smile from the other man. “I mean look at you. You’ve really gone to seed,” he continued, grinning.
The other man shook his head, and sighed.
“Never change, do you, Gordanus? You were always like this.”
Gordanus snorted, and then turned to Sam, pointing at the alien standing in front of the two men.
“Enough of that now. Sam, this is Pelar, one of my oldest friends. He was a teacher in some cushy universal core school for rich scions who wanted to learn more about mana manipulation. He will set your mistakes right,” Gordanus explained.
“So this is a prospective student then?” Pelar asked, shifting slightly, which caused his many chins to wobble. “Normally I charge for my services, but considering that you’re the one asking, I’ll do it for free. However, consider that favor that I owe you to be gone after this.”
“What about the other 73 then? At least, it was that last time I counted,” Gordanus replied, raising one eyebrow.
“Fine, in the name of Altari! Just forget about it then. You always get your way in the end,” Pelar exclaimed, throwing up his hands.
The man walked over to Sam, and started to eye him up, all while Sam looked at him with a bemused expression on his face.
“Hmm. Greater than average core size, but poor purity. You have been tainted by your Dao, it seems,” Pelar muttered.
“Yes, yes, we already established that. I’m not a complete rube in this,” Gordanus interjected, snapping at the other man.
“Maybe you would be a bit less temperamental without all of that rotgut you chug,” Pelar muttered under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
Sam watched in slight amusement as the two men bantered, and he found it intriguing that such a relationship could last for so long. Neither man looked to be over forty or so years of age, with Gordanus looking even younger than Pelar, but they were both probably centuries old, if not older, judging by their power.
Pelar closed his eyes, and extended a finger towards Sam’s solar plexus, causing it to glow with mana. Sam felt a strange sensation a moment later, and he could feel a tendril of mana entering into his core, and probing around in there. It was not entirely unpleasant though, and it felt comforting in a way. Pelar rooted around in there for a few minutes, presumably getting some measurement of Sam’s core.
“Correct me if I am wrong, but you seem to be abnormally powerful for your level,” Pelar said. “Unless you have completely neglected your physical stats, which I doubt, given by your choice of weapon, your mana pool is off the charts in terms of size. It’s like looking at the mana pool of someone around level 100, not around level 60. If we can get your problems fixed, then you will be a monster…” Pelar said, trailing off at the end, the man looking lost in thought, until Gordanus cleared his throat.
“Let's get started then. I will be waiting back in the real world while you two get to know one another. Come back to me when you're done, Sam. This should not take too long. We can always come back later.”