Chapter 53

Harry Potter POV

'STOP!'

The images continued to enter his mind without a break as he got pulled deeper and deeper into his Gate of Truth.

At this point, countless shadowy hands were clinging to him.

He had no idea how long he was inside, but it seemed like an eternity.

'My head is going to burst!'

It didn't matter how painful it was or how much he begged for it to stop. Neither would anyone help him.

Harry had chosen to gamble with a force of nature, and now he was paying the price for it.

'I need to get out of here!'

But what he wanted to do didn't matter. He couldn't move either way.

The massive rampage of information into his mind paralyzed him completely.

His brain was simply overloaded without the assistance of the system handling so much knowledge.

'Ahhhhhhhhhh! Please stop!'

Suddenly, he saw a light. With everything he had, he tried to move towards it.

He didn't need to. His body was pulled at rapid speed towards it, whether he wanted it or not.

Everything was moving so fast that he couldn't even see what was happening around him anymore.

Suddenly, everything was white.

Then he harshly landed on something.

It took a few moments for his vision to return and for him to adjust to his surroundings.

Dirt. Black Dirt.

All around him was blackened dirt, in a vast, dangerous feeling of wilderness.

Oh, that will be dangerous if no one finds me.

But there was nothing he could do to change his situation right now; he could only pray that no wild beast would find him until he was back up.

Harry felt weak. He had no strength left; the last thing he noticed were voices in the distance and his system having notifications appear again in his field of vision before the world around him had turned black.

———

The next time Harry awoke, he realized he had no idea how long he had been out of it.

But one thing became obvious: he was no longer out in the wild, lying in the dirt.

What he could see were rows of evenly hollowed planks forming walls around him. It took him a few moments, but he recognized where he was. Or at least in what he was.

A cheap wooden carriage, he had become quite familiar with the looks of one so he would recognize it everywhere.

This one wasn't made for comfortable journeys but rather to be able to transport as many people as possible, even though it seemed empty right now.

Still, he could hear voices coming from the outside. Whoever had saved him wasn't right now in the carriage, as it wasn't moving, but probably taking a break.

Which is quite a relief to Harry, as it gave him a chance to sort out his troubles before anything else happened.

His gaze focused on the notifications he had missed.

[ The system has rebooted and once again started with limited functionalities. ]

[ Currently, the user is in a spatially isolated location, and multiversal functionalities are limited. All Mutliversal Skills are unable to work.

Please find a location with less interference or become more powerful to break through the Isolation! ]

'That's new…' Harry realized as he read through the message, 'It seems like I am stuck for now. The truth has gotten me good. And I still have no idea where I actually am.'

Not only did any of his chat functions or skills, like the 'Interdimensional Trader', which was preventing him from directly opening a door and returning home, but he couldn't check on the actual status of his territories either.

Usually, once something gets accepted as his territory, he is able to check the progress on it from anywhere he is, be it far away or even another universe. He had even been able to send orders.

But nothing of that kind was working anymore. It seemed like he was completely cut off—no communication, support, or easy way back.

And worst of all, he almost didn't feel the connection to Tiamat anymore. It took a lot of focus and effort to know that she was even there.

Their connection felt strange, like it was dizzy or something. Normally, while they were in the same world, he could feel where she was; in a different universe, he could still feel how her status was and even really strong emotions.

But now he could feel almost nothing. It was like he was feeling a signal that got

interrupted several times and was so twisted and foreign. It is hard to describe precisely.

'Status.'

[ Name: Harry J. Potter

Class: The Gamer

Gender: Male

Level: 103 SAO-Level: 51

Next Level: 21.5%

Title: The Boy Who Lived

Age: 16

Species: Elf/Human (Magical/Dragon Rider)

HP: 550 MP: 4158

Strength: 73 (61)

Vitality: 66 (55)

Intelligence: 250

Wisdom: 100

Dexterity: 64 (54)

Charisma: 60 (50)

Luck: 10

Points: 175

Empty SAO Skill Slots: 3 ]

He had accumulated quite a few stats again, but one thing had become certain. Leveling had become slower without proper foes.

Most of his level rises when beating a powerful and meanigful opponent like Sloth had been; that kill raised his level by almost 3.

The normal ID's he had been able to create just didn't spawn strong enough opponents to give him a meaningful amount of EXP to be really efficient.

Leveling had been far easier while he was at a lower level. Even in SAO, the floor was still too low to give him a meaningful amount of EXP.

That made each stat point he could freely assign so valuable, especially since daily training barely raised these stats anymore. It cost far more time than it gave in return, and leveling skills has been far more efficient.

But Harry had to admit that right now he is in a dangerous situation.

An unknown world, chosen by truth to trap him. Although he had no idea why the godlike being didn't directly kill him,.

Were there any rules it had to follow? Or was there a completely different reason?

But the decision about which stat to raise wasn't an easy one. He knew that at 250 stat points, he would get another stat-based skill. So one possibility based on his build was his wisdom skill.

The other one was to gamble on his intelligence skill. It was unlikely that 300 would give him another skill, maybe 400, but based on previous raises, 500 was the more likely option.

He didn't have enough points to get that far.

While intelligence gave him more mana and power for his spells, wisdom gave him mana regeneration, control, and efficiency. Combined with another skill, it was probably the right choice.

A few points in intelligence didn't hurt either.

[ Name: Harry J. Potter

Class: The Gamer

Gender: Male

Level: 103 SAO-Level: 51

Next Level: 21.5%

Title: The Boy Who Lived

Age: 16

Species: Elf/Human (Magical/Dragon Rider)

HP: 550 MP: 4477

Strength: 73 (61)

Vitality: 66 (55)

Intelligence: 275

Wisdom: 250

Dexterity: 64 (54)

Charisma: 60 (50)

Luck: 10

Points: 0

Empty SAO Skill Slots: 3 ]

[ New Skill Aquired! ]

[ Genius Mage (Passive) Lv. Max: You are a natural genius in all matters related to magic.

Any spell comes to you naturally. You have a very easy time controlling your mana.

100% increased mana regeneration.

60% decreased mana consumption for all mana-related skills.

All spells get learned and leveled faster. ]

'Good, that will help. At least I will be able to fight longer.' Harry nodded. While power was important, endurance and the number of spells he could put out were just as important.

Now all he had to do was finally figure out where he was. Hopefully it was a world that he knew and not some death trap meant to kill him.

Based on this carriage, it wasn't too advanced. Altough depending on the World that fact could decieve. Sometimes there are massive differences based on the region one is in.

Since he did know sh*t, he had to be careful and work under the assumption that he was in immediate danger.

Another possibility was that this world was just hard to get out of.

And then there was the whole fact to consider of why Truth had wanted to remove him.

What was wrong with his system?

Right now, the inhabitants of the carriage were still outside, a perfect opportunity to carefully take a look around. Better be prepared for any surprise.

As Harry looked around the carriage he was in, trying to get any possible information, he realized he wasn't alone.

In a corner on the cold wooden floor, another form was laid under a blanket. A closer look at it, and Harry realized it was a brown-haired boy with bushy eyebrows. He wasn't much older than 13.

His whole body was full of bruises; he had been beaten completely black and blue.

Shit, are these people abusive or something?

But he seemed human, so maybe they weren't very strong? There wasn't anything about that boy that was special at first glance.

Harry could only be certain if he used 'Observe.'

…

Well Shit.

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