Lying flat on the floor, Tae-soo focused on the conversation coming from below. He needed more information.
Next to the portal, the people who had entered the building earlier were getting ready to enter.
The people who were leading the conversation were Jin-hee and Jin-hyeok.
“It’s all well and good but this place is so far and remote so there’s a few discomforts here and there.”
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement at Jin-hyeok’s grumbling.
“There’s nothing we can do about it anyway. Doors appear in areas like this without humans.”
Fascinatingly, doors that lead to another world only appear in places without humans. It’s been like that till now. It could also be that we just haven’t managed to find a door in the city.
“There definitely will be a door in Seoul somewhere. Wouldn’t it be in a place like the Han River or like abandoned buildings?”
“That could be. That’s why we’re searching for them even now. If that’s your wish, find more detectors in the other world or something.”
Jin-hyeok frowned.
“You think we’re not finding them because we don’t want to? If you find one it’s a fortune big enough to fix your destiny. We can’t find them because there aren’t any. And if I find one and earn a big fortune, you think I would go back to the other world?”
Jin-hee laughed faintly.
“Will you really not go in the end?”
Jin-hyeok shut his mouth. If he was being honest, he had no confidence.
The moment you go to the other world, you receive an enormous amount of power incomparable to now.
If you have never experienced that elation and sense of freedom, you wouldn’t know how amazing it was.
You wouldn't know if you haven't experienced it at all, but once you've experienced it, you won't be able to escape it.
“Still, isn’t it more of a relief that once a door opens it doesn’t close?”
“That’s true.”
If that wasn’t the case, travelling between this and the other world safely would be far more difficult. And the war would be even more fierce.
Of course, protecting the door like this was no easy task either.
Even now, those watching for an opportunity aiming for this door are still swarming.
Because in this world, there were more organisations that didn’t possess a door than organisations that did.
“And how much of a relief it is that the destination is limited to one city. Same when coming back. Not being connected to Seoul like we are would be even more of a hassle. You know Daesung1T/N Daesung: A rival organisation I believe is connected to Busan2T/N Busan: a city located in the south east of the Korean peninsula right?”
Everyone nodded vigorously at those words. That truly was a relief. Because coming all the way up here from Busan is a real hassle.
Jin-hee turned to face her colleagues and spoke.
“Did you all bring money? We can’t have any mishaps of you not taking any money and coming running to the base. Because this time, we have to handle Valeon guild’s request.”
Everyone nodded their heads. And Jin-hyeok, who had forgotten his money last time, secretly shifted his gaze.
However, Jin-hee stubbornly stared at Jin-hyeok.
“Have you checked?”
“Shit, I checked. I checked. Look, you see?”
Jin-hyeok took out his wallet and opened it to show her. Inside were several white notes inserted.
The currency of the other world was similar to that of this one. There were notes and coins, and even credit cards.
However, the people here could not use credit cards. Because they didn’t have proper identities.
They were merely just strangers in the other world.
Of course, since they didn’t have proper identities, they couldn’t even buy buildings. Their base was merely rented by paying money. On top of that, it was illegally rented.
They had no identities but it didn’t impede much on the work that they were doing.
There were more people without identities in the other world than one would think.
“This is money paid from the company so don’t waste it, got it? And be careful of pickpockets.”
Their base was in a location exposed to all sorts of crime.
So, they made sure to be careful.
“Right, inspect your equipment one final time and let’s get going.”
Not long after, the people that possessed magic entered the portal one after the other.
Tae-soo motionlessly observed that process and organised the information he had gathered through the conversation of the other wizards.
Firstly, he was sure that it was a door that was connected to another world. And that if you go through that door, you would fall in a random location in the connected city.
Rather than running, the other world had a fast means of transportation and had paper money. Perhaps the other world might not be so different to earth.
Their goal was probably to find things that can only be found in the other world. And it seemed there weren’t any restrictions on the movements of goods.
And when one moves from that world to this one, they are randomly dropped somewhere in Seoul.
Finally, the door here is not the only door.
Tae-soo decided to go through that portal.
This wasn’t his usual style. He was more the type to do extensive research and create a thorough plan before making a move.
However, right now he felt the incessant urge to move based on his intuition.
He couldn’t distinguish whether that impulse was because of the portal or because it was really the wizard's intuition.
Anyway, he decided to go. He wanted to stick to the portal and analyse what kind of fundamentals it had but right now there was no time to do that.
The people that had come with the wizards started installing something next to the portal.
At a glance, it looked like a device to protect the portal.
It seems that when the portal was not in use, it was tied up tightly with an assortment of security devices.
In that case, this was the only time.
Like that, Tae-soo jumped over the bannister.
Even though he landed upright from the 5th floor to the ground floor, he made no sign or sound.
It was only that the distortion surrounding Tae-soo’s body became shaky.
No one had discovered that yet. However, as soon as Tae-soo headed towards the portal, someone that was looking down from the bannister spotted the shaky distortion.
The inside of the building was fairly bright so the distorted state could be spotted instantly.
“There’s something there! Block it!”
Someone carrying the equipment on the ground floor heard this and reacted.
However, that was all they could do. At that moment, Tae-soo had already gone through the portal.
* * *
Someone suddenly appeared in an alley between two tall buildings.
It was Tae-soo.
As soon as he appeared, he stuck close to the wall and observed his surroundings.
It was an alley completely devoid of any human activity. The distance between the two buildings was also not that far.
It wasn’t that there wasn’t any life in the vicinity. If you looked at the end of the alley you could see people busily coming and going.
Their clothes weren’t that different from those worn by people on earth.
Tae-soo slowly exited the alley.
The city scenery completely unfolded in front of his eyes.
There was barely any feeling of this being a different world. If someone told him that this was somewhere in Seoul he felt that he would believe them.
However, there were some slight differences to earth.
He could feel magic from here and there.
Although it was very faint, he could feel the flow of mana from moving cars, and people passing by.
Saying that, these people were not all wizards. The amount of mana they had was about the same as the people on earth. It was just on a slightly higher level on average. You could say it was about 1% to 2% higher.
Thinking of mana, he remembered when he entered the portal.
The moment he jumped into the portal; he was really surprised.
It was because mana of a different nature had poured over and permeated his entire body.
Of course, as a wizard he didn’t just leave that alone. He turned the mana and bounced it completely off.
However, the different mana didn’t give up and kept invading.
The important thing is that he understood that he had gone into the portal and was heading somewhere, however the point was that the process was not finishing quick enough.
Making the judgement that the process would not finish unless he accepted the different mana, Tae-soo pretended to receive the mana.
Firstly, he accepted it under his skin and then swerved it from the centre of his body.
The human body is usually cylindrical. The arms, legs, and trunk too.
Each cylinder turned the external mana and drew it in.
If Tae-soo’s mana control abilities had been even slightly lower this would have failed.
Only after receiving mana like that to the fullest, was he able to get through the portal.
Even now, the brightness was continuously controlling the mana.
Out of the three parts of his mind, one part was perfectly assigned to dealing with the different mana.
Even though he had come in recklessly, since he didn’t have a plan in the first place, he had to think of what to do from now on.
‘First, let’s start with information collection.’
I still don’t know how to get back to earth. So, I have to collect information first.
It will also be beneficial to find the wizards that have crossed the portal. If I secretly observe and monitor them I can gain even more information.
‘I’m sure they said something about completing a request from the Valeon guild, didn’t they?’
In that case, finding the Valeon guild will do.
‘By the way will they understand me here?’
Since this place is not earth, there should be a language native to this place.
In the meantime, Tae-soo followed the road.
First, he tried to confirm using the signs. He saw a completely unfamiliar language. As expected, it seems he’d have to learn the language first.
If it was a regular person it would be fruitless, however Tae-soo was neither worried nor scared by this.
He only needed to fully listen and analyze the words that people say. Learning a language on that foundation was something that wouldn’t be difficult for a high level wizard.
However, it would be difficult to do on this street. Everyone was moving busily and there was hardly anyone talking.
Still, it didn’t matter. It would only take more time, the result would still be the same.
Tae-soo made sure to store every word he saw on the signs without missing a single one.
Sometimes, while looking at the signs, if he came across someone mumbling, he would compare the pronunciation with what was written on the signs.
Amongst the people walking on the street, half were east Asian. No, they were Korean. They seemed so on the outside.
The rest of the people were a mixture of various races.
Tae-soo observed them and checked the mana that they had.
The mana of regular folks moved more actively than he had thought. If you referred to the mana of ordinary folks as a sort of life force, you wouldn’t be completely wrong.
However, the movement of people’s mana here was much livelier than that of people on earth.
Tae-soo decided that it was because of the way the magic here had spread.
The mana that had invaded his body when crossing through the portal was precisely this world’s mana.
This place’s magic in good terms was lively and in bad terms was aggressive.
Using this kind of mana for magic would be more difficult.
However, it wasn’t impossible.
‘I should remember to practice using this world’s mana to skillfully use magic.’
Tae-soo had received a considerable amount of mana from the portal. So, controlling that wasn’t something easy.
Still, the reason he didn’t get rid of it was because he might need to use it as collateral when returning back to earth.
He had inferred something from the Korean wizards, starting with Jin-hee and Jin-hyeok having too little mana and the fact that they had worriless expressions when they crossed over through the portal.
They receive mana while crossing over to this place. And they leave the mana when they cross back.
Since there is a possibility of not being able to go back without mana, he decided to store the mana.
If he wanted to gather more mana he could, however that would require quite a lot of time and effort. Perhaps, gathering this much mana would be difficult.
In all respects, he had been forcefully injected with mana from the portal, and since he had received it naturally, he had been able to gather this much mana.
While thinking about this and that, listening to people speaking and reading the signs, the surroundings around a wandering Tae-soo slowly began to change.
He had arrived at the edge of a forest consisting of buildings.
A dazzling red-light district was spread in that location. However, it seemed there still weren’t many businesses open.
‘Come to think of it, it’s still daytime.’
On earth it’s night but here it was day. The time zone was probably different.
No matter how much adult entertainment there was, it wasn’t just places like bars.
Rather, there were many more various stores. There were places like restaurants, clothes shops, arcades and even bath houses.
So, there were quite a lot of people walking around and they were far more talkative than the people coming and going on the roadside.
Tae-soo thought it was great and slowed down his walking. While walking slowly, he tried to listen to as many words as he could.
Although it seemed long, the red-light district was short. He had only walked a few steps and it had already come to an end.
After strolling nearby Tae-soo turned around and walked around the red-light district again.
Strolling around here was more enjoyable than he thought so he intended to walk around here a few more times.
That’s how, after having gone to the other end, turned around and reached half way back , someone approached Tae-soo.
“Hey, brother sir. Are you looking for something?”
It was a man who was thickly built with something like muscle or fat around his body.
Although Tae-soo understood his words, he hadn’t practiced speaking at all so he didn’t reply and motionlessly stared at the man.
He felt a rough flow of magic from the man’s body. Quite a large amount.
This rascal is a wizard.
