Chapter 10 - Space Rift

It's expanding.

It's really damn slow, but it's growing ever so slightly bigger.

Who knows for how long it has been here already, quietly spreading it's influence. And killing the forest.

What if there is more than one? No, maybe I should rather ask where the other ones are. There are most certainly more than just one rift.

What I should do for the time being is investigate this one and look for any clues.

I carefully try to sense through the rift in space, into the other side. Oh well, I expected as much already. It's impossible to see whats on the other side, it's somewhat of a "one way connection". This rift seems to be semipermeable in nature, keyed to the mana signature of the foreign mana.

Technically, mana keyed to that signagure could pass through the rift, but by the speed the mana flows into this world, it's highly likely that the generell mana density of this side is way lower than on the source side. This technically makes this some sort of mana osmosis, similar to processes happening at cell membranes.

Although the force genererated shrough this should make it hard to send mana against the flow, it's not impossible if enough force is procided. This is not something I am unable to do. Problem is however, I can't sense any mana that enters the other side, not even if it's bound to me. All connection is lost instantly.

If I wanted to, I think I could rip the restriction apart but I won't. There is no way to predict what would happen. It could doom the entire planet. No way in hell am I going to be the cause of something like that.

For now I'm going to try the first thing that one should think of when encountering something anomalous like this. Closing it.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

By using the power I can excert over space I should be able to "calm" the space and reverse whatever the rift is doing. Hopefully. Well, no better way to find out than to try.

...

Fortunately, it seems to have worked quite well. Although, it took me almost three entire days to close it completely. One day to figure out what to do and then almost two to see it through.

Unfortunately, the Worlds Will I had not seen in so long decided to show it self again. I didn't miss it though.

Didn't see that one coming though.

[The World recognizes your achievements]

[You have gained the Title "Space Repair"]

- Requirements: Remove an instability in the realms Dimensional Barrier

- Rewards:

Gained Skill [Dimensional Lv. NaN]

[You have accepted a quest]

[Accepted Quest "Patch the Holes"]

- Task: Find all instabilities in the Dimensional Barrier and remove them.

- Rewards on success: None

- Penalty on failure: None

- Progress: 1/NaN

"Instabilities" my ass. They are clearly holes. You said it yourself in the quest name.

And also, "1/NaN". Seriously? At least tell me how many I have to find.

But for real now, whats with all the NaN's? Even [Dimensional] has a level of NaN. And how am I supposed to figure out what that does? Do I have to achieve omniscience before being able to use this system normally? At least provide me with a brief description. Just a few words are enough, really. I promise.

No?

Oh well, I should get going then. Time to find NaN - 1 more holes. Yay.

I pack my nonexistent belongings and start heading back the way I think I came from. My intermediate goal didn't change afterall, I'm still going to visit Avongale City, even if only to approximate the distances on this damn world map.

The giant forest I'm currently inside goes to about the halfway mark between Lagos and Avongale City, which means I still have quite the journey ahead of me.

Since I already traveled this path once before and since the time spent on it can't possibly be included in my goal of distance approximations, I decided to try out another thing I hadn't done so far: check how fast I could travel if I really wanted to.

The journey into the forest took me about a week by walking. Since I walked nonstop, I should have covered about 700 kilometers (430 miles).

And like thid, operation cannonball begins: I am going to use mana to ascend upwards a good amount and then solidify a temporary platform below me. Then agter approximating the correct angle, I'm going to shoot myself in the desired direction with a strong blast created by combusting mana. Of course, I'm going to protect myselft with a whole lot of mana for the entire duration. I don't want to end up as red vapour after all.

Time to go, I guess.