Chapter 123: Dimensions and Their Entrances

Titus, hearing Magna’s curiosity and his lack of empathy about the story of his pitiful brother, laughed.

He didn’t care that he was this cold, as it was actually a good trait for a Shadow to have.

If they broke emotionally that quickly, it was almost certain they would die somewhere, probably stabbed from behind, even before a proper fight.

"Realms are different dimensions or worlds, to put it more simply, which you can only enter through specific entrances."

Hearing that, Magna became more interested.

The term "different worlds" held a special meaning for him, since he was also someone who had come here from a different world.

He listened intently as Titus kept explaining. "There are already a handful found and explored, like the Giants’ Realm, the Fairy Hive, the Underworld. But there are also a lot more not yet explored, either too dangerous or with an entrance that hasn’t been discovered yet."

"Entrance? What kind of entrance do they have?" Magna shifted his seat, turning toward him, his neck starting to cramp from craning up sideways.

"It depends on the realm. For the Underworld, the entrance is located at the heart of a volcanic mountain. Usually only those with high fire resistance are sent regularly to gather resources there.

For the Giants’ Realm, it’s in the sky, located inside a cloud. As for the Fairy Hive, well, that one is a little confusing. You can only find its entrance in a dream."

That was indeed interesting, but the most interesting one was still to come, as Titus continued.

"The expedition my brother was sent on still doesn’t have a name or much information, since so far none of those sent have come back. But from what I’ve heard, there’s actually no specific entrance for it. You just walk into a specific place at a specific time, and you suddenly find yourself there."

Magna frowned slightly. ’What is this, the backrooms?’

The concept was quite familiar to him, an internet legend that had been a hot topic on internet forums for many years.

It was literally a glitch, occurring when a person accidentally slipped through a collision gap and suddenly found himself outside the map.

Seeing Magna fall so hard into his thoughts and looking quite depressed, Titus suddenly stood up.

"Stop falling into depressed thoughts. You’re different from my brother." He picked up the two maces from the ground again and held them out, saying. "He disappeared in a realm because he wasn’t strong enough. But you..."

He watched Magna slowly get to his feet, and handing the weapons to him, looking directly into his eyes, he said. "You have the potential to become so strong that no realm will have enough power to hold you inside."

He wasn’t saying those words only to make Magna feel better. He meant every word.

A Shadow’s strength was usually measured by their ability to survive, and when he looked at Magna, let alone the Tower, he could see someone who would one day explore and discover many realms, someone whose name could be written into history books.

—

The bright sun slowly disappeared behind the distant mountains, as the bluish light of the azure moon began to settle over everything.

As Magna lay on the sand of the training ground, breathing deeply, he looked up at the moon in the sky, appreciating its beauty.

"It was a very productive day, wasn’t it?" Titus said, standing beside him and stretching, with a laugh.

They had kept sparring and training nonstop, only taking small breaks between hours of training, and the whole day had passed like that.

It was indeed productive, as he said, since Magna could feel the fruit of that exhausting day on his status screen.

Strength: 32 - 56

Agility: 16 - 37

Reaction: 16 - 34

Stamina: 103 - 111

Mana 8.2%

His stats, from just one hard working day, had increased insanely, it was hard to believe.

Toward the end, the rate of increase had slowed down a lot, as if he were approaching some kind of barrier or limit. Still, it was enough to make Magna believe that in a month or so of training like this, even if he didn’t reach the same level, he could get close to Titus’s strength.

Even toward the end, he started to feel like the weight of the maces he was using was no longer challenging him enough, and he thought if he just found heavier ones, he could increase his Strength stat in particular even faster.

The one who thought most positively about this training, and was left in the most astonishment, was Titus.

He was simply too shocked, seeing how fast Magna was growing, both physically and mentally, by the hour, by the minute, throughout the day.

It almost made him wonder more than once if he was the one growing weaker during their spar.

Every hit he landed on him was getting heavier and heavier, and every move he made was getting harder and harder to follow in his eyes.

The most astonishing part wasn’t how fast he was developing, but that he seemed to have no limit at all.

Whenever Titus thought, after landing a hit, that it should be the best Magna could do, the next one landed even harder, turning his whole view of the world upside down in an instant.

So much so that it even made Titus more spirited to keep teaching the boy without a break, day after day, though even he himself needed time to rest and get a little sleep.

"If you’re willing, wake up early tomorrow so we can keep going." He asked, hoping the boy would accept.

And fortunately, he really did accept. "Okay. After breakfast, then?"

Magna hadn’t even found time to eat a single meal, so the first thing on his mind was food.

He finally pushed his tired body up from the ground, with the mission of going to the kitchen and eating everything he could see there, combining all the meals he’d missed that day into one.

But before he could put that thought into practice, his senses kicked in, his ears catching swooshing sounds coming from behind the garden walls ahead.

"Oh, you noticed?" Titus let out a satisfied chuckle as he caught his sudden reaction.

It was one of those times when some uninvited guest had come onto their territory to spy.