It was an object that originated from the VR version of the game which surprises me a bit as there has been little resemblance between the two. This world, despite still being Solis, is a completely different variant of the game which makes it hard to think of the two as the same one.

But by chance that the object’s functions are the same, then this should be a dungeon key used to unlock a special part of a dungeon. To be exact, the dungeon located near the capital which I mentioned earlier, that dungeon has a special weapon, but at the same time a special monster waiting which makes it a bit of a no for me.

“What do you think about the key?” Kayla looked at me and asked while sipping on some wine, my eyebrows frowned as I laid back on the sofa, shaking my head.

“As much as I want to go, the potential risks are too high. What if the dungeon were to hold a dragon, or perhaps a serpent… can you manage to escape from the grasp of death?” I answered, looking up at the ceiling as memories of the battle resurfaced.

The serpent, despite being weakened was more than capable enough to annihilate me even with the support of the system. Had Mana’s father did not take the hit for me, I most likely wouldn’t be standing here again. The sole thought of entering an unknown battlefield with high risks makes me shiver now and then.

“I agree, the dungeon is still newly discovered and from the experiences of our ancestors, newly discovered dungeons tend to be the scariest. They hold secrets behind our knowledge, ones that even the likes of you and I wouldn’t be able to comprehend even with ten minds…” Mana responded causing Kayla to sigh as she looked at Leisha who was also nodding.

After realizing she could not convince any of us, she took another sip of her wine and laid back on the couch as she sighed, “I understand. For now, how about we focus on eating first since little Ayumi will have to travel to the capital by tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked with surprise as she nodded.

“His Majesty recently approved the usage of the escape portal towards the capital for this case since he owes you one. All of us were a bit surprised to hear a portal since most of us would never think there was such a thing in existence, it caused quite the uproar at the school and everyone wanted to know how it feels to teleport such a long distance.”

“Portals… What are those?” Flora suddenly inquired while handing a piece towards the little brown-haired girl that came along with the elderly lady. Not to be confused with the other brown-haired girl who was her friend.

“Well, a portal is similar to teleportation where you can move through distances in an instant…” Kayla explained only to receive Flora’s confused gaze as the little girl shook her head and walked back towards her two little friends as she said.

“Yui… Sheila, let’s get away from them…”

All of us looked at her with a wry smile, it seems like she hates talking about something that requires a lot of logic. A totally normal person, even I would avoid such talks if I were her age. Well, to simplify the difference between teleportation and portals.

Teleportation is a spell you can actually use in this world, but teleportation towards something like this city to the capital which normally takes a week or longer ride and a few days with flight is something once said to be impossible. The amount of mana required and the possible consequences of distorting large quantities of space is the restrains that stops such a spell from existing.

Portals are exceptions though; they are fundamentally different from teleportation. In their cases, it is more like a combination of movement from two declared points which is different from teleportation which only consists of moving through two points that shouldn’t have an entry and exit point. You can think of portals are wormholes towards two points while teleportation as breaking space to force a wormhole.

The two may sound similar but they are different since portals do not break any space… it’s a hard concept but that was all I knew from my original understanding of Solis, do note that I did not write any of the code for teleportation in Solis VR which makes it hard for me to understand the concept.

“How would they power a portal that can teleport such a distance though?” Leisha suddenly popped into the scene, asking with her eyes shining as her hand held a notepad and a quill pen almost like a journalist… or scien—a magus.

“From what I heard, they are planning on using reserves from the capital’s mana storage to power both portals at the same time. I do not have any information about how long the reserves can power both portals but from some calculation from the others, the reserves could maybe power it for seven seconds?” Kayla said while looking at Leisha who wrote all of the details down, nodding before a heavy sigh left her mouth which took us back as she continued scribbling on the note.

After a few moments of scribbling, she finally laid the note to rest as she heaved another sigh, “Their calculations aren’t that far off from mine. According to my estimates, if the reserves are ten high-quality diamond-tier mana stones then it could power the portal up to fifteen seconds otherwise for medium quality, seven seconds is appropriate…”

“That’s quite the difference actually, why would ten high-quality mana stones be able to power such a heavy spell for fifteen seconds? Is there something we don’t know?” I looked at her and asked before she nodded as she opened her mouth and said, “The spel—” before the lights turned off as the sound of glass breaking echoed throughout the residence.

After a few short seconds of darkness, the lights turned back on as Leisha was no longer in her seat. All that was left was a single yellow note with red ink. I was utterly surprised, not just me but all of us as we stared at the note that said.