Chapter 135: 135

**

Two pairs of skeleton horses pulling the chariot were neighing and snorting noisily .

Our chariot was currently dashing through the barren wasteland .

I settled down and leaned my back against the violently-shaking wall of the vehicle . Meanwhile, Hans seemed to be suffering from a bit of travel sickness, judging from his sickly-white complexion . Oh, he was also spewing everything he ate so far on the desert sand below as well .

“Are you feeling alright?” Tina asked while patting Hans’s back .

“Y-yes, I’m feeling… Wuu-wuuph…”

Hans wiped away the bits of vomit around his mouth and slid down on the chariot’s wall without much energy .

I stared at his exhausted face for a bit before taking out the warp scroll from the item window . After using Amon’s grimoire the last time, I grew quite interested in this magic called ‘warp’ .

Hans wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and tried to talk to me with a weak voice . “You said it’s a cheap item, but be honest with me, sir . It’s a great item, isn’t it?”

“Even though you can only travel three metres?”

“You can search both heaven and earth, sir . See if you can get your hands on a warp scroll capable of transporting you three metres . Just that scroll alone will fetch several hundred gold coins . ”

“Wow, it’s that expensive?”

“…Well, unfortunately, nobody is willing to pay that much for one . ”

Hans grinned wryly .

Unsurprising really, considering that it was a bit useless .

Three metres – that’s a distance you’d be able to cover by stretching your legs a bit and jumping forward three times or so . Who in their right mind would pay good money for something like that?

I stared at the warp scroll in my hand for a long while before saying something . “That feeling when I got sucked into the warp magic . I gotta say, it really was weird . ”

I recalled the time when I had blacked out after using Amon’s grimoire .

One of the terms I heard during that dream ‘sequence’ kept replaying in my head .

A black hole .

That’s what I heard inside that faint dream of mine .

Nasus’s warp gate, Hans’s warp scroll, then the black hole inside the VR capsule…

All three of them felt pretty similar to each other .

“You know, there’s something I’m curious about . ” I stared at Hans and asked him . “Is it possible to move between dimensions if you cast warp?”

He flinched in surprise before rubbing his chin with deep contemplation . Eventually, he looked back at me and replied . “I don’t think it’ll be completely impossible . ”

“So, that means it’s doable?” I asked back after getting quite stunned by his answer .

“If it’s ‘warp’ magic we’re talking about, Lord Allen, haven’t you been using it already?”

I’ve been using warp magic?

Hans shrugged his shoulders . “What do you think happens when you summon an undead? This type of summoning magic calls forth a soul from another dimension that has departed from this world already . You could say that it’s a type of warp magic . ”

“Then, does that mean I can also use warp to transport myself to… another realm?”

Hans shook his head . “A soul and a living being are two different things . You can’t warp a living person the way you summon an undead . ”

“What’s so different about them?”

“The weight, sizes of particles, and also, the fission and fusion points during the warp process, they’re all different, sir . In the case of a soul, it’s so much easier to summon one than an actual physical body . If we unpack the law set out by the ancient Alchemist Granggas, then…”

Hans continued on with his explanation, but it was like listening to a complicated mathematics formula and I couldn’t understand a word of it .

I clicked my tongue and cut him off . “Fine, fine . Just get to the point, will ya? Is it possible to move between dimensions or not?”

“Of course it’s possible . However, the issue will be with the distance between the dimensions . The required amount of energy will depend on how far apart the two points are, after all . ”

According to Hans, there was more than one ‘foundation’ that formed this world . He continued on and said that other dimensions were overlaid on top of the visible world around us .

The middle realm where the humans lived, the purgatory where the souls of the dead went, and also the ‘titan realm’, sealed away by the fearful gods . Then, the spirit realm, thought to be a world of legends that supposedly formed the basis of nature itself .

There were apparently dozens of dimensions overlaid with ours, according to him .

“If the distance between these realms are short, the required energy expenditure will also be on the smaller side . The walls between the dimensions are so narrow that something like a soul can easily slip through without breaking down into fine particles . However, such a thing would be challenging to pull off with a living person due to their overall physical size, even if you manage to break the subject down into tiny little particles . ”

“Does that mean a living person can never cross over to another dimension?”

“No, that’s not it, sir . Theoretically speaking, it should be possible as long as you can supply enough energy to ‘break through the wall’ . Of course, that amount of energy should be absolutely terrifying . ”

What he was saying basically boiled down to this: you can break the wall between dimensions by utilising ‘power’ that rivalled a god . Meaning, it’d be practically impossible for a human to move between dimensions .

“Wow, something about this is rather incredible . ”

I sighed out in amazement, but that only prompted Hans to sit up taller with pride all of a sudden . “Sir, I’ll have you know that I didn’t become a merchant out here in the sticks because my skills as an Alchemist were found inadequate . No, it was merely because I lacked sufficient finance and research materials . If I get my hands on those, then I can proudly boast that I’m one of the greatest Alchemists on this continent . ”

I wasn’t praising you, though?

Still, he looked rather pleased so I decided to humour him for the time being . “Did you learn alchemy from your parents?”

“No, sir . It’s all self-taught . My dear parents have passed on while I was still a young ‘un, their only heirloom being the books containing their research . ” Now that Hans got his chance, he began talking fervently about himself . “Do you know why I had to risk my life to acquire the treasure trove, sir? Was it to spend it all like a playboy? No! It’s all to make my dream come true . To spend the rest of my life researching and refining alchemy, then to find out the truth of our world! That is the ultimate purpose of my life, sir . ”

I let out a sigh of admiration at that . I took him as a greedy, aimless merchant out to make some buck, but as it turned out, he was working towards a pretty noble goal .

I asked him . “You have so much skill, yet you aren’t affiliated with anyone?”

“Unfortunately, sir… This world isn’t a kind place . The profession called the Alchemist, well, it’s too full of corruption to be successful with your skillset alone . No noble in their right mind would want to financially support someone like me who doesn’t have any personal connection and comes from a humble background . ”

After I heard his speech, I stared at him for a while . “Hey, Hans . ”

“Yes, please speak, sir . Is there anything else you’re curious about?”

He sounded a little cheerier than before, perhaps feeling pleased that he got an opportunity to speak about his life story .

“You should come to the Theocratic Empire in the future . ”

“Pardon?”

Hans made a puzzled expression .

“If you want to work for the imperial court in the future, then pay me a visit . I will spare no expense on supporting you . ”

Hans’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor at that .

It was a promise made by an Imperial Prince of all people, after all . He probably realised that I’d be able to properly support him financially .

It was then, Tina cried out, “We’ve arrived! It’s Evelyum!”

Hans and I turned our heads in the direction Tina pointed at .

She was right . I could see a city made out of hardened sand standing above the barren landscape .

That was the city of slaves, Evelyum .

**

I cancelled the summoning of the skeleton horses and placed the chariot back in my item window .

Tina, Hans, and I walked the rest of the way to the distant city .

Entering it proved to be easy enough . We easily passed through the guard station by handing over a small portion of silver coins recovered in the ruin as a bribe .

After passing through the city’s outer gate, we were immediately greeted by the sight of a lively marketplace and the merchants populating it .

“Selling demi-humans! Selling healthy demi-humans! Orcs, dwarves, and even elves! We sell everything!”

“Truly outstanding nightly technique! Only one gold for a burly slave that will heat up any lonely noble ladies out there!”

“This slave is formerly a mercenary! He’ll serve as a guardian knight during the day, and a servant of lust during the long and steamy nights! Come and take possession of this wonderful…”

The main product on sale in the marketplace happened to be slaves . The slave merchants were busy hawking off living people as if they were selling fruits and vegetables .

I could only grin wryly at this somewhat surreal sight . “There are… a lot of slaves here . ”

Tina, who was next to me, smiled forlornly . “Even a princess can end up as a slave in this world after all . ”

I placed my hand on her head and patted her there .

She then pulled out a small flower pot from her luggage . It contained a weed that the children gifted her with before we departed from the ruin .

Tina had been watering the pot with holy water and nurturing the weed with every little chance she got .

I asked her . “Is it that precious to you?”

“It’s my hope and dream, my lord . A hope that one day, even weeds can start growing on this land . ” Tina smiled innocently before asking me back as if she recalled something just then . “By the way, how do you perform the summoning magic for the holy skeletons?”

“Even if you ask me, it’s still the same basic theory that you already know . You told me that you already tried Necromancy before, didn’t you?”

Of course, I was summoning the undead with the game system as my foundation . It’d be next to impossible for an Elf’s special trait which possessed divinity and Mana, not the usual demonic energy, to summon an undead .

However, Tina still didn’t give up . “Can you tell me what it feels like?”

“What it… feels like?”

“Yes, the feeling . In your case, Lord Angel, what do you feel when you summon the holy undead?”

I had to think deeply about this before answering her, “I just imagine it in my mind . Such as, what the summoned undead will look like, what its ability will be, and the amount of divinity spent summoning one . It feels like I’m consolidating all of those while calling out to them . Like… how the undead with ego answer my call and show up . ”

“Consolidating while calling out? Ego?” Tina’s eyes resembled a surprised rabbit’s at my reply .

She put the flower pot on the ground and picked up her staff . Divinity and Mana began writhing around her . The combination of those two energies created light that oozed out from the tip of her finger .

I could tell that she was trying pretty hard to summon an undead . Even though it wouldn’t work, she didn’t seem to know when to give up .

That was one of her strengths, though .

I didn’t say anything and silently observed her attempts, before turning my head away at the commotion coming from a corner of the street .

“Oh, oh! Amazing . That’s nine times in a row!”

“Looks like that slave used to be a Paladin from the Theocratic Empire, doesn’t he?”

“The Theocratic Empire, you say? Why are you bringing up that bastard of a country?”

“Who cares about that! We won handsomely all thanks to that punk, didn’t we?! Hahah!”

A crowd had formed over there and I could hear their jovial laughter . Then, I noticed a group of slaves marching forward in between them .

Since an unfamiliar spectacle presented itself, I decided to leave Tina and Hans here for the time being and take a look for myself .

Just as I took a couple of steps forward, Tina gasped out in surprise .

“Uh? I did it!”

1

(TL: There will be only one chapter tomorrow . )