After checking the location of the Frankfurt Gate on the Map, I discovered it was situated close to one of the roads, approximately thirty minutes away from the city. The moment I drove past the location, I could feel it immediately. I continued driving for another two minutes, then I stopped at a gas station and walked to the Gate.
The Gate's location was not particularly impressive. Around fifty meters away from the road, there was a cluster of five rocks, and two of the rocks were the Gate anchors. A quick glance around revealed that several trees and bushes concealed me from the road. I was relieved because I didn't want anyone to see me disappear.
I touched the Gate to view its information:
Travelers Gate #468217257
Destination: Shimoor
Status: Integrated
Mana level: 17
Threat level: Very low
No tech level, interesting. Does it mean they're in the Stone Age or something?
While still maintaining contact with the Gate, I opened the Archive to view the world's information. The first entry was from the same guy that wrote the entry I read about Earth. That should be good—I liked his grumblings.
Summer, year 9 of King Lure IV—Traveler Guar Shum
I'm leaving through a portal in the northern part of the major continent. I have no idea what kingdom it belongs to. You can find the location marked on the Map.
This is my second time here, so I have little to add. I found a sweet, sweet deal with copper coins and came to convert them to gold. If you want to know what deal, find a Gate to a place called dirt, ground, and something else and read my entry.
I looked for his other entry.
Winter, year 8 of King Lure IV—Traveler Guar Shum
Hello, fellow Traveler. I hope my words will help you on your journey.
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Came through the Gate. Don't need identifications or glamour. Good. Spent 500 mana to learn the language. Mana levels are relatively low, so regeneration is slow. Something like 100 a day. Tolerable.
This world is nice but boring. Because of low mana levels, there are almost no monsters, and they are relatively weak. The strongest monster I saw from afar was level 2. I didn't bother killing it. I want to get the Warrior Class as a sub-class, but don't think it will happen with such a low-level monster.
Life is unfair sometimes.
This is my second world—or maybe my first. I'm the son of a Gate Traveler, and my father prepared me all my life. Before he let me through a Gate, he made me travel our world to gain experience. So, my first? Second? Doesn't matter.
So, this world.
The good stuff:
My father was right that it's a great starting world. The people are nice and friendly, the wild animals are not especially dangerous, and there are few monsters.
The locals are humanoid like us but have a strange light brown color instead of blue. I didn't need glamour, and they had no problem with my color. They assumed I was from the "unknown kingdoms over the sea" and kept pestering me with questions about how I crossed the sea. I invented a new story in every new town to break the monotony. Great Spirits, it's boring here.
The money system is straightforward: copper, silver, and gold. 10 coppers=1 silver, 10 silvers=1 gold. They don't even have platinum or mithril coins here. Boooriiing.
Most places have a basic inn, nothing to tell stories about. A night in an inn costs 3 coppers, a meal or an ale 2 coppers, tea 1 copper.
The bad stuff:
BOOOOORIIIIING
There's nothing here except endless wilderness with some towns in between. The few capital cities are just like the towns, just bigger—no interesting magic, no dungeons, just boring, boring, boring. I'm feeling my mind going numb.
I'm leaving through the first Gate I find.
Goodbye. May your road be happy and your adventures gentle.
Well, Earth definitely broke his monotony.
His Boooriing sounded like heaven to me—endless nature, small towns with friendly people—just heaven. I decided right then and there to take care of everything that was associated with my life on Earth, to transform all of my money into jewelry and other things that were useful or valued, and to depart for Shimoor. The idea of living in a fantastical place filled with magic sounded far more appealing to me than the idea of being back on Earth. Moreover, I can always conjure identifications if I return in the future.
I went through the Gate to get an idea about my future starting point and came out in a ruin. The Gate looked like a giant pointy boulder cut in half with a flaming sword—the walls inside were smooth and had a glassy feel. The ruin was old, built with enormous stones covered with moss and vines in a thick forest. It used to be a big something with big rooms built from enormous stone blocks. The stones were spread around the area and covered by vegetation. After exploring the ruin for a while, I concluded they had knowledge of the Gate in the past and constructed the entire structure around it. It had a circular shape with smaller rooms on the outside and bigger rooms the further you went toward the Gate. The Gate chamber was the largest and the center of the circle. Based on the condition of the stones and the vegetation, I estimated people had forgotten about it for hundreds of years, if not thousands.
I did a quick tour around the area to check that there was nothing dangerous here, but all looked fine. It was in the middle of a forest with towering trees with enormous trunks. I could hear birds and bugs, but nothing bigger.
I checked the Gate from this side.
Travelers Gate #468217257
Destination: Earth/Gaia/Terra
Status: Unintegrated
Mana level: 3
Technology level: Low
Threat level: Humans–moderate. Other species–very high.
The information was the same as the other Gate, even the number looked similar. I wrote it down to compare.
Back to Earth, I needed to get ready for my travels.