Healing System

'This is... not how they looked on their map?' Michael looked on with widened eyes.

The system's map displayed the entire continent; however, the locations that had been marked with glyphs were instead less scattered and focused in single areas.

What was most surprising, however, was the fact that there were multiple blue dots scattered around the entire continent, some of which were much bigger than the others.

'System, are these...?'

Portals. Those that lead into pocket worlds, also known as smaller worlds.

'That's a thing?' Michael grumbled. The different world talk had already been a headache, and now he had to deal with these so-called pocket worlds.

They are basically closed-off dungeons that you can open if you are in the right spot. Most are probably branching out from the much bigger portals.

'And you can see them how exactly?'

The glyphs that you couldn't read were just stored information. All I had to do was decompile it, which did not take that long. Anyway, I think it's time to look for Aldion, no?

Michael sighed inwardly and darted around the system's map. The continent was by no means small. Added to the fact that it now had an extra couple of hundred portals to explore was not exactly in his book of saving time.

Nonetheless, he began flying towards the nearest portal, one that emanated the most energy, possibly one of the six main portals the woman was talking about.

However, as he got closer and closer, he noticed the energy in the air distorting, similarly to how it was with the rift, just a bit more stable.

As for the little portals that were clearly present on the map, he could barely feel them. It merely seemed like some lingering mana instead of a portal, possibly why no one had found them yet.

But that was not his objective; it was to find Aldion. The only problem was, he did not even know where to start.

Rebecca had said that he would know once he saw it, but so far, everything looked practically the same.

After a few minutes of flying, he finally arrived right above the supposed main portal, and upon descending down, he furrowed his brows.

There was indeed a portal there, one that seemed around 10 meters in diameter. However, that was not what had stood out.

Instead, it was the monsters that were coming out of it and beginning to tunnel underground, even collapsing some of the nearby snow into what appeared to be a massive underground cave system.

The monsters looked like worms, but just much, much larger than one would be used to seeing.

They were a deep purple in color and were aggressively tearing apart the ground while, at the same time, sharing the resources they found with the other worms before taking them back through the portal.

'...This isn't Aldion, right?' he asked, just to be sure.

Nope, this is Lhara, I think? There are many worm worlds like these. Most have the same name, so it's hard to tell.

'Yeah... this is pretty disgusting,' Michael thought while glancing downwards once again. The worms were eating each other and growing much larger than before.

'I'll just move on for now...'Nôv(el)B\\jnn

With that, he decided to fly to the next one. It was a bit further, but since his mana had been restoring itself at a decently fast pace, he was able to use his flying speed boost to arrive there within minutes.

And upon doing so, a similar sight greeted him. This time, however, there were orcs, ones that were of similar size or even larger than the portal itself.

Explore hidden tales at empire

But aside from fighting each other, they too were not what he was looking for.

Michael felt a bit frustrated but nonetheless went to the next one and then to the next until finally, he had visited all six of the main portals.

The only thing he felt at the moment was disappointment. None of them were Aldion. Worse, he was still unsure how he was supposed to know which one it would be.

However, as all seemed hopeless, he suddenly felt a tiny amount of mana reach him.

He thought nothing of it for a moment, that was until his eyes widened in realization.

Ever since the third portal he visited, he had been feeling this same pulse of mana coming right at him.

It was coming from under the ground, quite a fair distance away. He was only able to feel it due to his newfound mana sensitivity. He had the weird Ascension to thank.

Nonetheless, with the little bit of knowledge he acquired, he headed straight down to the ground, and upon landing, he immediately felt the pulse much stronger than before.

'If only I landed earlier... I might have felt it then,' he thought with a bit of regret as he tried locating the source of the pulsations.

After a few moments, he was able to narrow it down to the north—the only open space he could see on the map.

Also the only place that did not have a single portal around it.

Without waiting further, Michael flew back into the air, heading straight north towards the mana pulsations, which, as he got closer, began increasing in intensity.

Until finally, he arrived, and what greeted his eyes was a massive snowy chasm, expanding as far as the eye could see.

He thought he was in the wrong place for a moment, but the mana pulsations were much stronger than what he had felt earlier, and this time, they were traveling through the air.

That meant that what he was looking for was located inside of the chasm before him.

'System, can you map it out?' Michael asked as he slowly made his way inside. The mana was much denser than outside.

Not accurately, but I can try, the system replied, and all of a sudden, the map updated. However, it was much more distorted than he thought.

In fact, even when zoomed in, it was hard to tell what he was looking at.

Raising his brow, he asked in a sarcastic tone, 'Is this the best you can do?'

Genius, try using Eyes of The Healer.

Michael looked amused at the system's dodging but nonetheless decided to try it out.

However, as he did so, a bright blue light invaded his eyes. It felt as though they were being gouged out. Therefore, he immediately stopped using the skill.

But to his surprise, the damage was already done, and he couldn't see. That was until he cast a heal on himself, restoring his eyes to what they were just a moment ago.

Pfft... Idiot.

'...' Michael was speechless at the system's remark. He did not expect the mana to be this dense to the point where it even managed to destroy his eyes.

Anyways, to answer your earlier question, I can, but I would rather not waste the precious mana stored in a Halo just so you could leave this world faster. Explore. You could find something interesting after all.

He rolled his eyes and began floating just above the ground, moving towards the source of all the mana.

From what he could tell, it was likely either some kind of anomaly, a monster, or even the portal he had been looking for all this time.

The mana it was giving off was definitely much larger than what the other main portals were exuding, so it was safe to assume that he was on the right track.

Michael passed by a few icy structures, some of which didn't seem to depict anything. However, there were a few that seemed to resemble some monsters that he had seen outside.

It almost seemed like they were frozen in place.

But as he went deeper and deeper, the mana began growing much more wild, even slightly pricking him despite the fact that just recently, his endurance had increased by a bunch.

He got closer, feeling the mana seemingly tangling around in the air until finally, he saw the source of everything.

It was a relatively small blue portal, one that did not look as intimidating as the six main portals, but nonetheless, the energy it gave off dwarfed them in comparison.

Michael approached and stood right in front of it, seemingly admiring it before asking the system, 'Is this it?'

Why don't you go in and find out?

'True.' He chuckled and stretched out his hand. The mana was spiraling all around him as if accepting his presence.

That was when he touched the portal, his figure morphing and twisting, until finally, Michael disappeared.

The only thing left behind was a small golden streak of mana that traveled outwards before heading up into the sky and dispersing above the clouds.

It was the first step on Michael's path to uncovering the truth and achieving his goals—a journey that was only just beginning.

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End of Volume 2: Tribulation

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A/N: The updates will be the same as usual, 2 a day :)