His skill was extremely useful, but stabilizing the portal was clearly taking a lot out of him. Even with his considerable strength as an Ascendant, sweat covered his face and his breathing had already become heavier.
"It’s Alex. He knows quite a lot, although we already know most of this information," Daniel said while looking at the post again. "Wait, there are three Soul Gates? Matthew told us there were only two."
"Shut up. You’re distracting me," Samuel said, his expression becoming irritated.
Daniel chuckled, which only made Samuel more annoyed. The two continued arguing while Samuel focused on stabilizing the portal, although neither of them seemed particularly concerned about their surroundings anymore.
They were standing on a road covered with the corpses of various monsters. Several military soldiers were stationed farther away, maintaining the perimeter while keeping watch over the portal and the surrounding area.
At that moment, the blue cross in space suddenly rippled.
Matthew stepped out of the portal and casually cracked his joints before stretching his arms. He looked completely fine, if not for the blood on him, as if he had not just entered an unstable portal leading into an unknown area filled with monsters.
"It’s done," Matthew said.
"You’re back. Did you catch the Street-Level Boss inside?" Daniel asked as he looked toward him.
"Yeah. It wasn’t anything dangerous, though," Matthew replied before turning toward Samuel. "You can let go of the portal now."
Samuel nodded and immediately dropped to the ground, completely exhausted. The giant blue cross began pulsing as soon as he stopped maintaining it, and the connection between the two worlds became unstable once again.
Daniel showed Matthew Alex’s post while joking about the information he had discovered. He continued teasing Matthew about being wrong regarding the Soul Gates, but beneath his relaxed attitude, Daniel was still thinking about what he had witnessed earlier.
Matthew, Samuel, and Daniel were all Hell Difficulty Ascendants, making them considerably strong. That was why the CIA Special Services agent who had previously tried to recruit Alex and Stefan online had also approached them.
Their current mission was to work alongside military and police forces gathered by the CIA agent to deal with a powerful group of monsters in the suburbs. According to information the agent had received from his Guide, monsters attempting to gain access to the giant blue crosses, which appeared to be permanent portals, were particularly dangerous and had to be eliminated quickly.
After arriving at the location, however, Matthew had handled almost everything himself. He had not only defeated the monsters around the portal but had also terrified their leader so badly that it fled through the portal.
What shocked Daniel even more was what Matthew did afterward.
He followed the monster through the portal.
’I could see so many monsters beyond the portal. How many were there? Twenty? Thirty? Fifty? He handled all of them alone and came back,’ Daniel thought.
A shiver ran down Daniel’s spine whenever he thought about it. Unknowingly, he wondered was stronger between Alex and Matthew. From what he had seen of Matthew, and heard of Alex, Matthew was undeniably stronger.
"So he also found out about all three Soul Gates," Matthew said as he finished reading Alex’s post.
"Huh? You knew there were three? But you said there were only two," Daniel asked, looking surprised.
"I found the one in the abdomen while I was inside the portal," Matthew explained.
"How did you even have time in there to search for a Soul Gate," Daniel asked, slack-jawed.
Matthew simply smiled instead of answering. Before Daniel could ask anything else, the soldiers guarding the perimeter approached them. The CIA agent was leading them, accompanied by a military doctor who immediately moved toward Samuel after seeing how exhausted he was.
Matthew glanced at them before turning back toward Daniel. "Let’s return to Hell Difficulty quickly. According to what Xithali said, something might happen there."
"You just want to meet Alex, don’t you?" Daniel gave him a knowing look.
Matthew chuckled without denying it.
...
Alex continued watching the comments under his post. Within only a few minutes, it had already received around fifty thousand views and two hundred comments, and the numbers were continuing to rise. The <Alex’s Archive> had also gained 5,000 followers already.
He was satisfied with the result because his name was spreading exactly as he had intended. If he continued providing useful information, people would gradually begin recognizing Alex Mercer as someone who had reliable knowledge about the Difficulties.
He then checked his inbox, hoping to see a message from either his Hell Difficulty team or his parents. There was nothing from either side, and Alex could not help sighing as he put the phone back into his inventory.
He wanted to go to his parents, but Xithali’s warning continued to bother him. If something really was about to happen in Hell Difficulty, ignoring it could become a serious mistake.
Alex decided to check Hell Difficulty first. He would return to the Earth as soon as he confirmed that everything was fine, but before making the trip, he planned to evolve his Class.
The first thing he considered was fusing his Elastic Thread Spell with his Mana Cable Spell. He wondered if these spells could fuse, although after everything he had learned about the two spells, he was almost certain that they were compatible.
Several System screens appeared in front of him.
[Checking compatibility between Elastic Thread Spell and Mana Cable Spell. Compatibility confirmed.]
[Elastic Thread Spell and Mana Cable Spell can be fused for an evolution. Choose an evolution: Mana Muscle Spell, Elastic Trap Spell, Mana Bow Spell.]
Alex smiled when he saw the choices. The fusion had worked, but the three options were quite different from one another, so he carefully considered each one before making a decision.
Mana Muscle Spell was the first option. Alex had previously thought that he would need to learn Mana Tendon Spell and evolve it before obtaining something like Mana Muscle Spell, but the System had offered it through a completely different combination.
..
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