20 More Upgrades

The unstable mana courses through the artifact, but no cracks appear on the surface of the device as the spell dissipates. I wait for a few minutes to avoid being caught in a potential delayed explosion.

I learned that lesson the hard way. Losing an arm in an explosion is not a fun time.

The Glove stays perfectly still, and I can see no cracks from here so I approach the device. I close my eyes as I touch the shield generator, but the all too familiar sting of being blasted apart doesn't happen this time.

"This is encouraging, but I don't want to count on false hopes again. Now for the second test…"

I smile as the small electric motor comes to life and a casing fly out of the ejection port. A quick inspection of the device tells me that my new system for keeping the sand out of the action works wonders. I avoid the pieces of rusted metal flying out before inspecting the fresh steel plate, which is about the size of a credit card, where all the core runes are condensed.

*There's no problem here, looks like the feeding system finally work properly. And this one should last for an entire magazine now.*

So far the new iteration of the Shield Glove has been a resounding success. But it still needs to pass the new test. I grab my pistol and aim near the artifact.

I consider a maximum power round from my modified Field Pistol to be the minimum requirement for a good shield. This might seem excessive but I'm fully expecting to go against people that can throw spells that would make a nuclear bomb look like a wet fart, so I need to be as prepared as possible.

An explosion echoes in my workshop and a blue fist-sized barrier appears in front of the round, stopping it dead in its track. The hot piece of metal falls harmlessly on the ground, and I can't help but smile when another casing is ejected from the glove.

"Finally, it's fucking working!" I shout and do a little dance before grabbing the artifact. The glove is made of a cloth-like black metal and goes up to my elbow.

The mechanism for cycling the rounds and all the needed runes are completely different compared to the bulky first iteration. Gone are the badly welded bolt action and the wires dangling everywhere, it's all replaced by a sleek electrical mechanism that's hidden in the insides of the one and a half inch thick piece of armor. In fact, the only things disturbing the form factor of the Shield Glove are the holes for the ejection ports and the magazines that are slightly poking out.

There are two types of magazines on the Glove. One is a standard .223 thirty rounds magazine that's flush with the middle of the glove. The other is a repurposed .50 BMG magazine that holds twenty engraved steel plates and is inserted sideways near the hand.

The Glove barely weighs anything thanks to the metal used for its construction, so I don't feel it when I move my arm around.

*It doesn't impede my movement too, which is nice.*

I glance at a pile of misshapen boxes on a desk and all of my enthusiasm leaves my body. I made little to no progress on the teleportation device.

*It's been three days since the Black Claws attacked… I need to finish this thing.*

I shake my head to chase the bad thoughts away, being negative won't help. I sit in front of the desk and spread the boxes in rows while reviewing the stack of blueprints.

Really, I don't know what to do. The newest prototypes are getting increasingly stable, but the power output is still a problem. I can't get my hands on the purple, high-quality Magicite. And even if I did the runes required to use them as absorption catalysts are beyond anything I can imagine.

*If only I had a way to compress an immense amount of mana in one place.*

My eyes wander around the messy room, and two ancient-looking wooden boxes catch my attention.

*If I had as much talent as the people who enchanted those guns-*

Something clicks in my head and I almost slap myself for being a complete idiot. I rush to the engraved guns and open the box containing the pristine revolver. A quick look at the welded cylinder is enough to make me jump in the air. Those purple crystals are high-quality Magicite!

*I wonder why the clerk sold it to me for so little Credits… The Magicite alone is probably worth more than half a million Credits.*

I thank my luck for meeting the worst business owner ever before focusing on the weapon; my mind is swirling with ideas on how to adapt the gun.

Let's begin the Portal Gun project!

Let's stop working on the Portal Gun for the time being!

Making a Portal Gun is harder than it looks, especially when not one of my previous designs can handle the massive amount of power provided by the gun.

Let's just say that my house would be a crater if I didn't have the Rewinder.

I sigh when I finish engraving the final letter of the last design for today. It's extremely simple and is engraved in English. Really, there's not a single rune in the entire mechanism, except for the ones in the Interdimensional GPS I strapped to the gun to enter coordinates.

The gun has two modes: the first one uses the coordinate stored into the GPS for the exit while the entrance is created by aiming somewhere and pulling the trigger.

The second mode requires two trigger pulls. The first one will create an exit portal to where the gun is aimed at, and the second trigger pull will do the same for the entrance portal.

But the underlying principle is the same no matter the mode. The first coordinate is uploaded by the GPS and travel into the word 'ENTRANCE' engraved on the side of the barrel before entering the small words 'CREATE ONE WAY PORTAL' engraved inside the free chamber. The second coordinate then travels through another wire to hit the "EXIT" engraved on the opposing side of the octagonal barrel before going back in the chamber.

The mana is then sent forward into the barrel and a small wire poking through a hole I drilled through adds the 'CONNECT' word to the mana before it's released into the world.

*There's no way that something that easy will work! There's a reason why people bother with those overly complicated runes.*

I cover my eyes with one hand and point the gun towards a wall before pulling the trigger twice.

...Sarah's PoV…

Something is weird.

At first, I had stopped poking into the mind of people ever since the incident with the man carrying a box. But my boredom and curiosity got the better of me. So I scanned the mind of the nearest person, and she was what appeared to be some sort of elf-like creature.

I found nothing interesting while rummaging through her memories, but something that happened a certain day caught my attention. She remembered that a massive pink flame erupted from the other side of town, something I would've never missed if it happened.

So I racked my brain to remember that day, and nothing out of the ordinary happened… as far as I could remember.

But I realized something was wrong when I focused more on the memory, and certain details were getting fuzzy. One good side of my ability is that I can use it on myself, meaning I can perfectly recall everything that I ever saw or heard, so this fuzziness shouldn't happen.

It took a few hours of thinking, but I finally arrived at the conclusion that the pink flame was related to the Hidden World. And if I had to guess then it's likely that the Enforcers rewrote our memories.

The implication of this revelation makes me shudder every time I think about it. What else did they do? They could rewrite my entire life and I would never know.

I already reviewed my memories and found nothing out of the ordinary, so this should be the first time that they rewrote my memories… Or maybe my brain fully integrated the rewritten memories and erased the fuzziness.

Either way, the fact that those dangerous creatures can do as they please in our world is beyond terrifying. I'm taken out of my dark thoughts by a cough and I'm back into the small, barely lit club room of the Occult Club.

"Is everyone listening?" Alex, the president of our club, ask the audience.

He re-adjusts his round glasses once everyone nods. Alex then takes a deep breath before slicking back his messy bright red hair.

"As we all know, the last phenomenon we investigated turned out to be a bust…"

How could I forget? Some rumors about a bunch of goat-like creatures gathering near an old abandoned construction site had started to spread around the campus, so we investigated. Of course, I already knew about it since I scanned the mind of multiple participants.

So I did my best to delay and give false information to the Club, or else Will would have intervened. And the recent developments confirmed that I made the right call. We would have either lost our memories or we would have vanished from the surface of the planet.

Will is the werewolf spying on us, on the outside he looks like a normal athletic student. His short brown hair and green eyes, as well as his handsome face, made him popular with women. So it was a surprise when he chose to enlist in our club, since it doesn't have the best of reputations.

*I always had doubt about him since he ignored the obvious advances of the woman clinging to him, but I guess werewolves aren't attracted to humans.*

"But worry not, dear club members! For I, your beloved president, found another mystery to investigate!" he says while doing grand gestures.

He presses a button on his computer and the projector comes to life, displaying a picture of the Hot Spot.

"As you all know, this restaurant opened recently. It quickly gained popularity since the food tastes good, and the prices are very reasonable."

Cynthia opened her mouth, but Alex interrupted her by raising a finger, "But! As you probably already saw, there's a constant stream of people going in and out of the restaurant. That would be normal since it's a pretty popular place; however, something bothered me about that…"

I glance at Will, who listens intently while leaning forward. I know him well, and his sudden interest can only mean one thing- we are onto something.

I wanted to scan his mind, but then I remembered the incident with the man carrying the large box who came out of the restaurant.

*There's something in there, but I don't really want to find out… I still have nightmares about the things I saw that day.*

"…So I came to the conclusion that there are more people coming out of the restaurant than they are coming in!"

We all stare at him in silence, our lack of reaction slowly turn his smirk into a frown.

"That's it?" Cynthia asks and Alex lowers his head while sighing.

"A-Ah! That's not what I meant!" she says while fidgeting, her cheeks darkened from the embarrassment.

I couldn't help but suppress a chuckle at her cute reaction. To me it was obvious that she liked Alex. I could confirm it by looking into her mind, but I don't want to invade her privacy.

*Poor Cynthia, the president is completely unaware of her feelings!*

...John's PoV…

A second pass, then another one…. Eh?

I open my eyes and I'm still in my workshop, not back in my bedroom. This is weird; even if I didn't feel it the explosion should have…

Oh.

My thoughts stop when my eyes wander on the two perfectly round man-sized portals floating in front of me. The deep blue circles look like someone ripped out a starless portion of the early night sky and glued it on my wall.

*No sparks, no fluctuations… I've never seen anything like it!*

I almost touch the portal but stop at the last second since jumping head first into an unknown portal doesn't sound like a good idea.

*Everything looks fine, but I don't really know what a good portal is even supposed to look like, so…*

I grab a screw and throw in into the portal. It flies out of the other one in the next instant.

Upon closer inspection, the screw bears no traces of deformation or damage, and the portal didn't deform or explode. I take a deep breath to calm the emotions welling up in my stomach as I throw everything I can get my hands on in the portal, and every single item comes out unscathed.

*Stay calm, maybe this is a fluke and it will blow up in the next moment…*

But the portals show no signs of exploding, there's not even a single fluctuation on their perfect flat surface.

My heart is pounding as I slowly approach the entrance portal. My hesitation makes it a struggle to take a step forward since this is all uncharted territory for me. I take a deep breath and close my eyes before shoving my hand into the entrance portal…

And nothing happens.

I immediately open my eyes and yell as loudly as I can when I see my hand poking out of the other portal. I move my fingers around and the slight ripples it creates on the portal's surface are beyond mesmerizing. I spent the next ten minutes doing various gestures with my hand while giggling like an idiot.

*But there's still one test left...*

My heart beat increases even more as I walk through the portal, only for it to close behind me as I emerge on the other side.

"FUCK YEAH!" I shout as loudly as possible and almost kiss the Portal Gun.

*I still can't believe it… it FUCKING WORKED!*

And nothing happened for the next ten minutes.

I absolutely didn't break my leg because I teleported on top of my roof and slipped.

…Okay, so maybe I was a little reckless. But I don't know anyone who wouldn't react like a child if they got their hand on a working Portal Gun.

I teleport back to my workshop and silence a delighted giggle when I enter the messy room before sitting down.

The success of the Portal Gun meant two things. First of all, I acquired a method of teleporting around and this will be invaluable in my future battles. The other point that I had yet to test is the reason I used an Interdimensional GPS to select coordinates.

The GPS can select different universes.

*Well, there's no time like the present…*

I search for an isolated alleyway in the Dimensional Bazaar and bookmark the location, and then I turn the dial welded on the gun's frame to change to the other mode before pulling the trigger. My gun makes a high pitched noise and blue light escape through the gap between the chamber and the barrel, but a portal identical to the last one still appears in front of me.

I step through the portal and my nose is invaded by the smell of frying meat coming from the nearby fast food joint. The hustle and bustle of the Bazaar enters my ears. I know I'm in the right location since I hear languages I can't recognize.

*Fuck, I forgot my translator at home… But it doesn't matter. I can teleport between dimensions!*

…There's one problem though; I forgot to make a bookmark to go back home!

Twenty minutes later and I arrive at my workshop.

I was getting stressed out since finding Earth was harder than I thought. The name is shared between a lot of planets, and I didn't bring the card that would teleport me out of the room where the teleporting ring was located.

*But now I'm home, so everything's fine!*

I still check my surroundings one last time to make sure that I chose the right universe; it wouldn't be funny if I landed on a copy of Earth populated by giant bug people.

I push the horrifying thought out of my head and sit down before inspecting my Portal Gun, but there's no crack or signs of damage on the engraved text.

*Looks like it can handle the power, that's good.*

I'll admit that I really didn't expect the Portal Gun to actually work between dimensions. But this feature is more than welcome since it allows me to move freely without relying on the teleportation ring under the Hot Spot.

It also meant that my movements were no longer tracked by Enforcers, so it should be harder for the Scalebound to spy on me.

*Or at least that's the plan, for all I know they are spying on me right now…*

All this talk about spying suddenly makes me think about something that completely slipped my mind; I need a new barrier.

The one I currently have doesn't serve any purpose since the Scalebound and the Wolfheart just teleported in my backyard without a care in the world.

That sleazy salesman told me that the barrier I bought was one of the best he had, and I was inclined to believe him since this model had pretty good reviews on the HiddenNet.

*At least I can get my Credits back since the store has a return period of thirty days.*

But first I need to buy another holster since I need to carry an additional gun now, and I need more magazines and pouches…

"It's time to go shopping!" I exclaim before firing my Portal Gun.

My god, I already love this thing!