Chapter 70 – Me and My Big Mouth (Patreon)

On our way to the Gate, I took out the wooden ring I had gotten from the dungeon and put it on my finger. I looked at my profile and didn't see any change. I asked Lis, "The ring's description says +2% constitution, but I don't see any change in my profile."

"What is your constitution?"

"46."

"Two percent equals 0.9. You won't see it in your personal information until at least one full point."

"That doesn't seem like a very impressive dungeon reward."

"It’s not. As I said, it was a very young dungeon. The rewards also get better as the dungeon matures."

"What is considered a good reward?"

"A lot of gold or luxury magic items."

"Such as?"

“Jewelry with big storage space, magical weapons, unique potions, advanced spell scrolls, Magitech schematics, or the like.”

“That does sound nice.”

“Yes. If you come across such a dungeon, wait for it to regenerate instead of leaving the area, run it repeatedly without collecting any resources until you reach the maximum number, and only then empty it. In such a case, refrain from taking the core and instead consider selling the location, as it can be more lucrative. Of course, you may still need the core for a specific purpose.”

“What do you mean by the maximum number of times?”

“There is a limit to how many times you can run a specific dungeon. The number changes without rhyme or reason; it can be as small as ten or fifteen and as large as over a hundred. Nobody figured out the formula yet.”

“What should I do with this ring?”

“Sell it to a front-line fighter. Their main Trait is Constitution.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded, and we continued to the Gate. On the other side, we checked how much time had passed and saw that it was twenty days, so the five-day jump was constant.

We called Lyura to pick us up and waited for her beside the road. She picked us up and took us to the four-bedroom apartment she found in the center of Rovaniemi. We stayed a week in Rovaniemi to rest and because I was voluntold to cook a lot of the bear and snake meat.

After a week, we took a train from Rovaniemi to Luleå in Sweden. We toured the city a bit and took a train to Gällivare. After a short tour of Gällivare, we rented a car and drove to the gate, which was three hours away.

I touched the gate and exclaimed, “Seriously?! It’s real?!”

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Travelers Gate #54816825

Destination: Asgard

Status: Integrated

Mana level: 76

Threat level: Lethal

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The three of them looked at me in confusion.

“There are legends and movies about this place,” I explained.

“It makes sense,” Lis said.

“How exactly does it make any sense? How did they know about it?”

Lis, Mahya, and Lyura answered in stereo, “Portals.”

I looked at Lyura and asked, “They’re old, but how do you know about portals?”

“My mom told me.”

"We all grew up with Traveler parents. They taught us things; we didn’t learn everything alone,” Lis said.

“Actually, my mother never taught me anything my whole life. One day, she informed me that I would work as a nanny for a noble family, and she took me to a Gate. Only after my mana awakened did she bother to tell me anything. I still want to kill her."

Lis had a pained expression on his face and said, "Ouch!"

Lyura looked like she was about to go right this minute and murder her mother.

We became invisible and popped in and out of the Gate. I remembered something and asked Lis, "When we cross a gate, it's instantaneous, but when I was waiting for you in Shimoore, I felt the gate activate for ten minutes or more before you crossed over. Why?”

"I was reading the world's information."

“Huh. I never thought of it.” Another mystery was solved.

 During our train ride to Stockholm, I asked Lis, "According to our class abilities, the sub-class description says that it will be weaker. But it doesn’t seem weaker; it’s awesome.”

“That’s because you trained and gained the class for free in full strength.”

“No, I didn’t. I paid five points for it.”

“What?! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“You didn’t ask...” I said sheepishly.

“Shit! You’re right. I should have told you not to take a ‘paid class.’ I thought you knew because you got Healer and Wizard for free.”

“Why?”

“Because the abilities you have are the abilities that made you get the class—you didn’t gain anything. In half strength, you would have gotten one skill or spell with the class and a new one every ten levels; in full strength, you get three with the class and one every five levels.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, we have to upgrade your class.”

“How?”

"Training, training, training, and then demonstrating in the physical world that you learned something from all this training."

When we arrived in Stockholm, Lis said to rent an apartment and not bother with a hotel. After a short search on Airbnb, we found a four-bedroom apartment in the heart of the Old Town, and after two days, Lis found a closed gym on the market for sale. He rented it for six months and told me I would start training the following day.

He took me to the gym, took out two wooden swords, and said, "Begin."

I tried to attack him with the sword. He made a circular motion with his hand; the sword flew out of my hand; my hand flew to the side, and he pressed the sword to my throat.

"Hey!" I said, "That's not fair! You're older and more experienced than me. You're supposed to teach me, not trash me in a second."

"I am teaching you."

"What am I supposed to learn from this?"

"Never attack someone who is stronger than you or if you are unsure of your opponent's strength. You fight defensively and look for openings."

"Oh."

What followed was six months of pure torture. He trained me for sixteen hours a day and didn't allow me to heal myself or my muscles during training except at the end of the day.

He kept saying, "Pain is the best teacher."

I don't know if he learned it on Earth or in some alien world, but this phrase has become my most hated phrase in the world. I don't think anyone in Sweden's entire history sweated as much as I did in the Swedish winter.

He trained me in all the types of swords I had already practiced, and dual wielding with a long and a short sword, a sword and a knife, two "normal" swords, two swords that resembled katanas but had a shorter hilt, a giant sword that was held by the hilt and in the middle of the blade with the other hand, and every type of sword found in every world in the universe!

After six months, Lis decided we needed to relocate. We drove to the Gate that initially brought us here, which also led to Asgard, and then took a plane to Romania.

In Bucharest, we rented a villa in Cotroceni, and Lis again found a training hall in a closed building. I concluded that he has a special knack for finding torture facilities.

This time, he started training me with a staff. Again, I was black and blue most of the day, and of course, he wouldn't let me heal myself. That's how he tortured me for another two months. After training with a staff, he switched to martial arts. Before that, I didn't know I could fly without magic.

After two more months of torture, he added Mahya to the mix. Both of them were attacking me, and I had to defend and attack with all the weapons I knew.

After this abuse, they found a paintball bow and arrows, and Mahya took me to the mountains. I thought we would practice target shooting, but oh my god, how wrong I was. Mahya jumped from place to place like a deranged demon, and I was supposed to hit her with the arrow while trying to dodge her arrows. She was always immaculate, and the thick layer of paint covering me made it difficult for me to move.

Finally, they deemed me "passable" and decided to search for a suitable Gate to "demonstrate my abilities in the physical world."

I concluded it was all my big mouth’s fault and decided to take a vow of silence from that moment on.