What a Big Black Cat

Time passes quickly when you're focused on something. Summer vacation ended before Fanny knew it.

The weather began to change in September, and the heat had mellowed down, although it was still uncomfortable for Fanny when he returned to school.

"What have you been doing all holiday? Why weren't you hanging out?"

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Billy was the one person that contacted Fanny the most during the holiday. It didn't take a genius to know what Billy wanted, so Fanny ignored his friend.

"I was very busy," Fanny replied in a bad mood. Other than Billy, there were also a few girls who contacted him, but he really was busy with farming experience, studying magic, and accompanying Skye's practice. His lack of time management skills gave him no choice but to harden his heart and reject all the invitations.

"What were you busy with?" Billy was shocked. He immediately went to Fanny and whispered, "I haven't heard any news about Knight of Divine Punishment during the summer vacation. What has he been doing all this time?"

"He has been busy studying recently."

Fanny wasn't lying. He had focused all his attention on studying the dimensional space. He even put his experience farming project with Hulk on hold.

With hard work and Mordo's guidance, Fanny had begun to slowly grasp other dimensions. Expanding his awareness would be essential to his goal of accessing the Mirror Dimension.

Yet while he had a vague awareness of them, it was still not enough. It was as if he had one foot through the door but couldn't move the other one.

School had begun before Fanny could finish his thought.

"Studying?" Billy looked surprised, then he quickly asked curiously, "What was he studying? Was he making a new armor? Or was he going to show new Divine Punishment?"

Fanny looked at Billy with a headache. He felt that he must stop his friend's probing into Knight of Divine Punishment as soon as possible, lest he annoyed him to death.

Fanny continued to think about his training after casually fooling Billy. He spent his day at school absent-mindedly thinking about mastering dimensional awareness.

Ultimately, he concluded that he still had to start from the portal again.

His increased awareness of other dimensions had started from the strange portal that he had accidentally opened. He had tirelessly pored over it.

Ancient One had revealed some more information. She had told him that it wasn't a place on Earth or even within the universe; instead, it was a sealed dimension. Fanny was somewhat surprised to know that dimensions could be sealed.

Despite his inability to reopen that portal, his curiosity was unstoppable. His tireless probing had allowed him to gain a leap in understanding dimensions.

Thus, he concluded that he had to start from that same point to truly understand dimensions.

However, he still couldn't enter the sealed dimension that Ancient One refused to reveal, and it wasn't like he dared to enter that space recklessly. Ancient One even warned him about the danger, after all.

The logical conclusion was to explore other dimensions instead.

Fanny spent the next few days deliberating before deciding to try again that weekend. He didn't dare to do it at home, so he stayed at Kamar-Taj. This way, he could immediately ask for Ancient One's help if any problem arose.

Fanny stood straight in his quaint room, emptying his mind. He held the ring in his hand and slowly drew circles in the air.

Yet he still couldn't produce the same condition as he did. There wasn't even any spark of energy in the air, much less an open portal.

He finally decided to stop after failing for several hours.

Fanny was not discouraged. This was one of Kamar-Taj's most profound spells. If it was so easy to master, everyone would be using it.

Fanny's life seemed to have returned to normal, other than the time he spent every three to five days fighting Hulk and finding a way to win.

Hulk also began to notice that something was wrong. He began to be picky about the battlefield and even wanted a weapon. The giant even restrained himself from eating 'Sumire Karaage Rolls' before the battle.

This made it difficult for Fanny to completely control Hulk's rage, so the result of the battle would occasionally return to a draw.

Even so, Hulk still gave Fanny a massive amount of experience points. On top of that, he didn't slack off with his training in Kamar-Taj, and even sometimes went to spar with Tony. All of them brought him ever closer to the sixth extraction.

October slowly arrived.

Fanny still hadn't given up on exploring the dimensions, but after so many failed attempts, he no longer limited himself to experimenting in Kamar-Taj. Sometimes he would try it in the remote area where he practiced his skills before returning home with the portal.

On October 7th, somewhere in the Himalayas.

Fanny began as usual by emptying his mind and trying to reach the unknown dimensions.

Fanny's mastery of the portal had increased through continuous practice, although the system unfortunately didn't gain experience through portal usage.

As the saying goes, given enough time, a bunch of monkeys with typewriters would eventually write Shakespeare.

After nearly a month of trial and error, Fanny finally found something legible among the mass of random typed words.

Fanny was astonished when the portal suddenly opened in front of him. After so many tests, he never thought that he would finally succeed. He went through the motion and walked through the portal as if it would bring him home.

Fanny was jolted back to reality when he realized what he had done.

This dimension wasn't dark like the sealed dimension he had accidentally stumbled into; it was beautiful, even. He seemed to be in a grassland, though it was purple all around and above him instead of a blue sky.

Fanny had no idea where this was, but at least it didn't seem to be the Dark Dimension. He was relieved; if he accidentally met Dormammu, he would just be eaten.

However, no matter how nice it was, Fanny knew he couldn't stay in this unknown place. He turned around and prepared to leave the portal without wasting any more moments.

"Who are you?"

But just before he could walk away, a female voice spoke to him. He suddenly felt like something had locked onto him.

Fanny felt all the hair on his body stand up. His body was frozen; he didn't dare to look at the source of that voice. He suppressed the fear in his heart to make way for the portal.

Yet just as he was about to cross the portal, a large black claw slashed through it. The portal flickered, the sparks sputtered, and then they all disappeared.

Fanny was forced to come face to face with the existence that had stopped him from leaving.

What a big black cat!

This was the first reaction in Fanny's heart. With a second look, however, he realized that it was a black panther with pitch-black fur.

A pair of shining blue eyes stared right at Fanny!