Hundreds of meters above the ground, shrouded behind the dense canopy of the Eastern Forest, Alphonse's silhouette hovered in silence.
His semi-transparent form blended perfectly with the sunbeams piercing through the gaps in the leaves. From that altitude, his golden eyes stared sharply downward, observing every movement of the leather-armored scout squad that had just arrived at his massacre site.
He watched the man with a scar on his neck—who seemed to be the squad leader—meticulously inspect the scorched crater before ordering his subordinates to shoulder the remaining intact Dire Wolf carcasses.
Alphonse formed a faint, invisible smile. "Their behavior clearly indicates a trained military formation. They're gathering the remains of the battle like they're investigating a crime scene."
He rested his chin on his illusory hand, amused by his own situation.
"There's no way they went out of their way to find me just because of this little skirmish, right? I haven't even visited any settlements yet," he muttered. "Or... do Dire Wolves hold the status of protected endangered animals by the kingdom in this world?"
Realizing that observing low-level soldiers wouldn't provide him with any more valuable information, Alphonse decided to leave.
With a single push of his will, his weightless body shot away from the area, slicing through the afternoon air without leaving a single trace or the slightest sound.
He flew several miles to the north, ensuring he had put enough distance between himself and any potential trackers. His eyes caught sight of a giant ancient oak tree with massive roots bulging out of the ground, creating a naturally shaded and hidden alcove.
Alphonse landed smoothly on the mossy root. He cut off the flow of his magic.
[Tier B - Fly]
[Tier B - Mirage]
The light-refracting effect faded away like fog swept by the wind. His pitch-black cloak, white fur collar, and physical form materialized once again. The earth's gravity reclaimed its grip on his boots.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting the pure forest air fill his lungs.
"What a miraculous energy," Alphonse whispered.
Now that the tension of combat had subsided, he could truly feel the existence of mana inside his body. It was no longer just a blue number on a game's interface bar.
It was a pulsing life energy, flowing thickly through his veins, granting him a vitality that far surpassed the biological limits of an Earth human.
More than that, his perception was now connected to nature itself. He could feel the invisible mana particles drifting in the air.
As he breathed, those particles slowly seeped through his pores, replenishing the magic reserves he had slightly depleted after slaughtering the wolf pack.
Alphonse sat down, leaning against the trunk of the giant tree. He reached out a finger, touching the surface of Stella Obscura hovering in front of him. The fist-sized black crystal felt cold to the touch, yet it radiated a familiar resonance.
"In this world, my physical strength and magical affinity as a Level 100 player have proven to be real," Alphonse said, staring at the miniature nebula spinning slowly inside the crystal. "I hope... your abilities haven't changed either."
His eyes gleamed. He channeled a thread of intent into the crystal.
Stella Obscura responded instantly. Its pitch-black surface emitted a brilliant starlight, illuminating the area beneath the shady tree with a silver and blue glow.
[Tier S - Gate]
The air in front of Alphonse distorted. A three-meter-diameter galactic vortex was torn open from empty space, emitting a low hum.
The starry vortex spun elegantly, creating a gentle breeze that carried an alien scent from an unknown dimension.
Alphonse smiled in satisfaction. "Hoho... it works. And my mana reserves haven't depleted at all."
With his magical perception, Alphonse observed the flow of energy around him. Instead of draining power from his body, Stella Obscura acted as an independent reactor.
The crystal absorbed natural mana from the surrounding environment to stabilize the spatial structure, keeping the Gate open.
In Orion Online, Phantasmal-category weapons were not items that could be bought with gold coins. They were rare artifacts that could only be obtained from subjugating World Bosses, with a drop rate of less than zero point one percent. The players dubbed them "Legal Cheats."
Stella Obscura possessed a passive effect that completely broke the game's balancing laws: the crystal could permanently create and maintain Tier S Gate magic without consuming a single drop of its user's mana.
"Let's see the limits of your capabilities," Alphonse challenged.
[Tier S - Gate]
[Tier S - Gate]
[Tier S - Gate]
One by one, galactic vortexes tore through the air around Alphonse. Blinding light filled the area, and the low hum escalated into the roar of a giant machine.
The gentle breeze turned into an artificial storm that snapped small branches and blew dry leaves away.
Ten star gates now surrounded him, spinning majestically.
"Nine... ten," Alphonse counted amidst the roaring wind. "The limit is still the same. I can only sustain ten gates at a time."
He tried to cast an eleventh gate. However, the spell failed to form.
Alphonse observed Stella Obscura. The starlight inside the crystal had faded drastically, leaving behind an exhausted-looking black stone. There was no magical energy left in its core.
Alphonse nodded in understanding, finding the logical correlation. "I see. In the game, this limit was simply written as a twenty-four-hour skill cooldown."
"But in the real world, that rigid mechanic translates into a capacity issue: the internal energy storage of this weapon has been depleted."
He could feel Stella Obscura working hard now, like a thirsty sponge, absorbing mana from the air to gradually refill its empty energy core.
"If the mechanics have become this realistic, do I also have to wait a full day for this crystal to fully charge before I can open free gates again?" he muttered.
Alphonse stared at the ten galactic vortexes surrounding him with a furrowed brow. Waves of magical energy seeped from behind those gates, offering a path to nowhere.
In the game, if a player opened a Gate without specifying precise coordinates for the final destination, the system would throw them to a random location on the world map.
Stepping into a spatial vortex to an unknown destination in a completely foreign world was an act of suicide for a planner like Alphonse. He wasn't going to take the ridiculous risk of walking in blindly and suddenly ending up at the bottom of the ocean, or in the middle of an ancient dragon's nest.
A few minutes passed in a silence filled only by the roaring wind.
Suddenly, without warning, one of the galactic vortexes in the right corner trembled violently. The gate shrank rapidly before finally collapsing and vanishing into thin air.
Alphonse straightened his back. His golden eyes narrowed. He immediately stretched his magical perception as far as possible into the surrounding area.
A shocking new fact hit him.
The mana concentration in the surrounding air, which just moments ago felt so abundant and dense, had now thinned out to an alarming level.
The nine remaining gates began to flicker dimly. They acted like starving parasites, fighting each other over the scraps of mana in the environment just to maintain their existence.
"Of course," Alphonse sighed, massaging his temples. "Even the natural atmosphere has a capacity limit. If the energy in this area is entirely absorbed by these gates... it means I can no longer place multiple Gates close together like I did in the game."
One by one, the galactic vortexes lost the battle for energy. They shriveled, trembled, and vanished. The mana in the air had become too thin to support the stabilization needs of Tier S magic.
As the final gate disappeared, the environment fell into dead silence.
However, Alphonse felt a profound sense of discomfort.
His chest felt tight. The air he breathed felt hollow, like gasping for oxygen at a high mountain peak. The depletion of ambient mana triggered a rejection reaction from his body, which now possessed magical energy.
He sat still, regulating his breathing rhythm until a few minutes later. The natural flow of mana from the deeper parts of the forest slowly drifted in, rebalancing the energy concentration in his area. The tightness in his chest gradually faded.
Alphonse leaned his head against the oak tree's bark, letting his body relax. Observing Stella Obscura as it floated calmly once again, memories of his past flooded his mind.
In the era of Orion Online, the hierarchy of power wasn't solely determined by who had the highest level, but rather by which faction held monopolies over strategic resources. The dominance of the Three Emperors and Ten Kings was forged entirely by the existence of Phantasmal items.
The Pioneer Guild—which didn't have massive financial backers like the Three Emperors—managed to climb the hierarchy and be recognized as the wealthiest guild among the Ten Kings purely because of Stella Obscura.
Alphonse smiled faintly, recalling his old plan. While other guilds used legendary artifacts to kill World Bosses, Alphonse used Stella Obscura to build infrastructure.
He created ten gates in the plaza of Lamdal Capital. Those ten gates connected directly to shopping districts in ten different cities controlled by Pioneer.
Why was that important? Because the game's instant teleportation system could only be used by players, whereas the population of millions of NPCs who played a crucial role in the world's economy did not have that access.
With Pioneer's instant logistical routes, NPC merchants could move caravans of goods from north to south in a matter of seconds. Even casual players chose Pioneer's routes because Alphonse set transit tolls that were cheaper than the game system's teleportation fees.
That interdimensional toll road was what turned Pioneer's territory into the largest financial hub.
Their wealth ballooned unstoppably, allowing them to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Kings, and slowly become a real threat to the thrones of the Three Emperors.
Alphonse opened his eyes, staring at the sky through the leaves. If he could replicate that logistical strategy in this real world, with rational economic and political laws in place...
"A world without the system..." Alphonse whispered, his gaze sharpening. "...is a perfect blank canvas."
But he knew very well that a leader couldn't conquer an entire continent alone. He needed his twenty-two members. He needed the Pioneer army.
And most importantly, he needed eyes to see the full boundaries of this mysterious new world.
Alphonse got up from his leaning position. He brushed the dust off his cloak, then stepped into a slightly more open area among the ancient trees. The forest wind blew, shifting his wolf-fur collar.
He raised his left hand slowly, letting Stella Obscura spin rapidly around his arm.
He no longer intended to conduct small-scale experiments. If he wanted to find his subordinates and map this landmass in an instant, he had to dissect the sky itself.
His golden eyes glowed brightly, radiating the dominance of a sovereign.
"It's time to see just how vast this new cage really is," Alphonse said softly.
He began to focus all the energy flowing within him, preparing to cast the highest-tier skill he possessed: an Ultimate Skill.