Chapter 83

After enjoying a meal made up of high-grade ingredients from the premium food area, which was what he was accustomed to at this point as leader of Dragons Gate, he returned to his room.

High-grade food ingredients, and similar things were questions he had to find an answer to too. While their one-time effect was minimal, over a long time they had quite the beneficary effect on his personal strength and health.

It wasn't a benefit he wanted to lose; additionally, they tasted good. He would have to find a way to bring them to other worlds, either by cultivating them himself or directly trading them.

How nice would it be if he could directly open the gate to his store?

Unfortunately, it wasn't working yet. His hope was that he could do it when becoming a

Rank 1 Magus, having manifested his Sea of Conciousness fully and the quality of his Spiritual Force improving drastically.

Right now he only had enormous amounts of low-quality spiritual force, 'or'magic' vailable.

His main theory was that he could break through the walls surrounding this universe, world, or whatever was keeping him here by undergoing a qualitative change like becoming a magus.

If that didn't work, he had still another idea.

Well, he had more ideas, but one was extremely risky while the other was going the legitimate and becoming a Rank 4 Magus and being able to travel the universe.

An option he didn't want to have to rely on since the amount of time he needed to complete it was just too long.

Even with his talent and advantages, it would take years to decades.

Soon after he had returned to his room, a knock on his door woke him from his pondering.

It was Nyssa, Dodoria, and Guricha. Both boys looked healthy but hardened from the war.

Something he was unable to notice on Nyssa since her form was concealed through her clothes.

The babyfat that had been present on them before his departure had vanished, and their skin had become hard and steeled. Even scars were visible on them.

They experienced the war. Both of them, like Nyssa, had reached the level of a Rank 2 acolyte.

"It's good to see the three of you. You've gotten stronger." Harry greeting them.

"Hello Harry, it's been a while. As expected of you, you are a rank 3 acolyte already." Dodoria replied as he entered with Nyssa and Guricha.

"Yes, I reached a bottleneck that I plan to break soon." Was his noncomital agreement.

"Wait, you mean to say you found a method to become an Official Magus without the Academy?" Guricha asked shocked.

"Oh, you know about the problem already?"

"We searched and looked into how to become an official magus to solve my problem." Nyssa replied quietly.

"Makes sense. Which means you know about Grine Water and Advanced Meditation Techniques." Harry understood, before having a tought, "Did you find any hints about advanced meditation techniques?"

The three of them looked at each other, communicating silently before looking worried around.

"No need to be scarred; you can talk freely here. I have ensured that no one can listen into the place." Which was the truth; his anti-surveillance and privacy spells were all still working, and he had even upgraded them. "It's obvious you found something. So speak."

Just now, during the last part, he had used a slightly modified part of the Confundus Charm that allowed him to make empowered voiced suggestions with magic. In principle, a form of magical hypnotism.

It was Guricha who spilled the beans: "We found the location of an advanced meditation technique, a Rank 3 one!"

Nyssa looked at her friend strangely before sighing, "We found it on the body of an acolyte we killed during the war." We just don't have any idea where the place mentioned in the information is. It's called Eternal River Plains!"

That made so much sense to Harry. Of course he knew approximately where this place was. After all, it played a more or less central part in the story relating to the South Coast. A whole great war broke out for it.

And now Harry also realized where Nyssa in the original story found her Advanced Meditation Technique in the original story.

After all, she had participated in the Great War as an acolyte a while in the future, still under the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy.

During that war, she must have used the opportunity to sneak out and get the meditation technique.

"I know the place. But it will be hard for you to get it. It's a yet-undiscovered secret plane. A massive one, in a size never seen in the South Coast before. The problem with it is that it seems to be designed to trigger a war all over the South Coast." Harry sighed as he honestly shared his information.

In fact, this had been one of the things he had used Dragon's Gate for. He had sent out his underlings to discover the entrances to this secret plane.

Till date he found only one and had the approximate location for another one that he hadn't managed to check out yet since it was far away.

"Designed to cause a war?" Dodoria asked with a deadpan, Are you serious?

"Yes, but not one in the size you are thinking of. The plane is so massive that it has enough resources to cause a war over the entire South Coast. It has seven entrances all over the continent, and as soon as one is opened, the others will open, and everyone will notice them." Harry sighed with disappointment.

He really wanted to get his hands on the contents of the secret plane; it would speed up his quest for power to return home massively. And all the resources and information in there would help too.

But right now he lacked the firepower. While his organization could easily produce Rank 1 Magi's. Once you abandon the ridiculous notion of hoarding Advanced Meditation Techniques, it was easy to accomplish.

Rank 2 and higher Magi were a completely different matter. Not only do they require a ton of resources, but also time. Time he didn't have, and if he didn't act himself, the plane would be discovered soon anyway.

Unfortunately, he is the only one in Dragon's Gate currently with a fighting strength of Rank 2 and above. And he could only survive against Rank 3 Magi; it was unlikely that he could beat them in a straight fight.

"Oh, so there is no way to get our hands on that meditation technique." Nyssa muttered, downcast.

"No, as soon as you trigger the activation, Magi will be swarming towards it. Unless you know where exactly the meditation technique is and are really, really fast, you won't get in and out unoticed. But don't worry, I have some advanced meditation techniques for you guys. The only question is, Will you want it?" Harry grinned brightly.

"Why wouldn't we?" Guricha asked, confused.

"Because you would have to leave the academy for them. I know you have to participate in the battle between Academies. But take this." He said as he handed them a rope.

"A rope? What is it good for?" Nyssa asked, unsure.

"It's unlikely you would survive that battle. It's meant to slaughter as much of our acolytes as possible. And I am not sure how you feel about the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, but is it really worth dying for? There are two paths in front of you; stay in the academy and try to get some gin water or a meditation technique. Or took the unknown path I am offering you."

"What path? You haven't shared any details." Dodoria complained.

"And I won't. It's a possibility you have to take blindly. In my opinion, it's a better one. But advanced meditation techniques are just the start. If you want to accept my offer on the day of the great battle, all three of you hold onto the rope tightly and say 'towards the gate'."And this was all Harry said.

Whether they trusted him or not, it was their choice. But he already had helped out with a bit of mind magic, and even then he didn't share any crucial information with them.

If they take the key towards their freedom, they would be rewarded.

———

Harry's days until the war were relaxed. He mostly spent his time shopping for the cheap resources the academy was offering to their acolytes to strengthen them. He had enough magic crystals to pay for it.

Why not exploit it if someone was offering cheap goods?

At the same time, he had to dodge a ton of offers, from families wanting to recruit him by offering him the resources to become a magus. Even the big three backers of the academy had invited him.

These contracts they were offering were nothing but slavery. Sure, he knew he was a hypocrite right now, but he had his own moral values.

While he would force anyone belonging to him to work and contribute, he wouldn't abuse his power over them.

If he needed someone for a life-changing experiment like using a work-in-progress meditation technique, he would offer it but not force anyone to do it. They would get rewarded for participating also.

During his meeting with Merlin, Harry had made a similar cryptic offer and left him a portkey. While Merlin had a contract with a family backing him, he could step anytime out of it until he accepted their offer for becoming an official magus.

Wether Merlin would accept Harry's invitation was another question.

Hopefully he did; Dragon's Gate could use more Genuine Geniuses. Right now it consisted mostly of wandering Acolytes and Magi with a lot of survival experience and all kinds of knowledge, but none classical Geniuses.

He also completed his deal with Dorotte and received the incomplete Advanced Meditation Technique for Branded Knights. Harry had a lot of fun reviewing it during his free time and sent the information already to Dragon's Gate through the AI chip.

After all, he could share any information over large distances through his soul with the AI chip. Anyone having an AI Ring was able to get messages from him.

A nice side effect of using his own soul for the soul seeds that share the AI chip with the rings. And a damn useful power to have. Large-distance communication was always nice.

Before the upcoming battle, there were some other competitions held. But Harry had no interest in showing his skills and kept out of them.

And then it was here, the day of the planned bloodbath.

Over four hundred Acolytes had gathered in one wide open field. Harry kept somewhere in the corner.

At the front of the large group were the professors; even the chairman's three Rank 2 Magi were here, who were insulting each other while waiting.

These three idiots were the whole reason for this idiotic war between Academies.

Harry had nothing better to do than to analyze their bodies secretly while they were waiting. Rank 2 Magi are rare in the South Coast, and he couldn't just go out and capture one easily.

Still, he was excited to finally begin once the three chairmen stepped forward, pulling a scroll out of their pockets.

Activating them, it formed a massive portal.

"This is the entrance to a secret plane that we have already completely cleared of any resources. All of you will fight in there."

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