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Since there wasn\'t any point in going deep on this floor anymore, I decided to check out a few new paths that were somewhat close.

As expected, by following them we managed to find a settlement.

It was more populated and better defended than Earth\'s but it wasn\'t that big either...

Mia and I took the opportunity to gather info, but it was no luck. No one seemed to know about her tribe or any country from her world for that matter.

Just to be sure, we decided to enter through their gate.

This led us to a small city, and except for the different races going about their day, it was pretty much what you\'d expect from a medieval European town, both the house structures and people\'s clothes were very reminiscent of it.

In a way though, this place made me feel like I was the one "uncivilized".

The current policy agreed upon by every country has been to demand an ID from anyone leaving the dungeon, and in case they don\'t have one or refuse to present one, they are made to go back inside the dungeon.

Everyone understands that they are doing this to buy time and prevent incidents until a system to register and hold accountable people coming from other worlds is in place, but this hit me especially hard since I have to make the girls go back to the kingdom whenever I leave the dungeon.

At least for entering they still only ask for one of the party members to show their ID and adventurer register...

Earth\'s current outlook is completely reversed from this world\'s settlement and city.

No one seemed to care when we used their gate, and If not for a guard telling us to not cause trouble, the people in this city would barely have shown any reaction.

I doubt Earth will ever be so nonchalant like this...

Either way, aside from an interesting experience, there wasn\'t much for us here once Mia confirmed that she didn\'t know about the country this city belonged to.

It\'s not conclusive evidence in any way, but it\'s not like we can search through an entire world just to confirm it either.

For now, this is the best we can do, but I believe it\'s just a matter of time before we find her world since some databases are already popping up on the internet.

Since we know that Hamperlon has more than one dungeon in its territory, one of these dungeons will likely connect to one of ours on some floor.

With that being said, there wasn\'t any reason to stay in this place, so after resting in the public square, we made our way back home.

We managed to trade all the loot for an impressive $730, over half of this amount was thanks to the mana orb dropped by the black skeleton mage.

Had we waited for a request to be made for the extermination of the monsters on the fourth floor, I\'m sure we\'d make even more than that, but there\'s no way I\'m complaining about the amount we just got.

Of course, we\'re only able to make this much thanks to the effects of the [Enhanced Drop Chance].skill, so I\'ll be sure to share it with everyone now that I got a new level up in it.

While it\'s hard to determine how effective each level is since drops are still up to chance, I can\'t help but be glad that I can level it up through the Gacha since otherwise there wouldn\'t be any good method for training it and spending level-up points to do so, while being a good investment, would ultimately weaken me on the long run.

I can\'t believe I\'m saying this, but thank you Gacha Gods.

Speaking of which, whenever I got home, I went to meet the Merchant so that he could choose a banner to roll on.

Merchant: "Yo! You\'re back already? That was fast... did they kick your butt?"

Miwen: "You wish. What about you? Are you having fun chasing bunnies?"

Merchant: "Haah... That\'s the only downside to this place, there\'s not much to do here."

He\'s right about that, while the view is pretty, it gets boring quite rapidly thanks to the lack of activities.

At the very least there\'s hunting now to supplement that but...

Miwen: "I can grab a chessboard real quick if you wanna play."

I hadn\'t thought about this since chess is quite well-known, but the Merchant had never played or seen someone play, so I had to teach him the basics like how each piece moves and their initial position on the board.

On our first match, he annoyingly copied every move I made, which allowed me to win quite easily once he couldn\'t do that anymore thanks to how the pieces were positioned on the board.

For our second match, I had him go first, and he started by moving the pawn protecting the left rook two squares.

For whatever reason, allowing the rook space to move during the early game is a strategy a lot of beginners go for in their first games, so I thought he was going to do that, but to my surprise, he then moved another pawn... he refused to move other pieces aside from the pawns up until the formation he had created crumbled.

Merchant: "I thought you said you weren\'t smart..."

Miwen: "I\'m not though, you\'re only having trouble because you\'re a beginner. I always lost a bunch of matches when I played against more experienced players."

On our third match, the Merchant became quite adept at the game, enough to give me some trouble and make me think carefully about every move.

According to what he said, the game was similar to some others he had played before, so he only had to adapt what he already knew, which he did by seeing how I used the pieces while figuring out strong positions for the pawns.

I\'ve never taught anyone how to play before, and I learned by playing against my sister when we were young, so I don\'t know if this is standard or not. At the very least, his progress is noteworthy.

Merchant: "...Well, it\'s to be expected to lose against people more experienced, is it not?"

Seems like someone is preparing an excuse for his eventual loss.

And while what he\'s saying is a fact most of the time, the truth is that there are a few people, those truly exceptional, who are capable of challenging that notion, for example...

Miwen: "Not always. My sister would rarely lose no matter who she was playing against."

Merchant: "Oh, did you play with her?"

Miwen: "Yeah, she was the one who taught me how to play... But I never got more than a 40% win rate against her, even when I started practicing."

To be fair, she also started practicing more as soon as she noticed I was starting to win more often.

But even then, to say my sister is incredible would be an understatement. She\'d always pick up something different and learn it at an unprecedented rate.

Both pretty, smart, and athletic, she seemed so perfect and out of reach that I sometimes had my doubts if she was truly human.

Considering it was always just the two of us, I often found myself on the receiving end whenever she needed a practice partner, which only hammered home the fact that she was way better than me.

Thanks to that I also learned about a bunch of things, if only to try and get back at her.

And while I admit that her genius made me jealous now and then, I never had any resentment toward her. If anything, I really admired her.

From a young age, we understood our situation and did our best to become as independent as possible so as to not worry or cause problems for our parents.

Merchant: "I think that just the fact you\'re comparing yourself against someone you hail as a genius already makes you pretty competent yourself though..."

Miwen: "My grades would disagree with you on that one..."

Merchant: "...But you were always moving no? Didn\'t that also impact your studies? If you managed to pass while having less time to learn, doesn\'t it mean that if you had more time, you could\'ve done way better?"

Miwen: "Eh... maybe."

Probably not though.

I don\'t know if his strategy is to distract me by making me think about something else, but I better teach someone else how to play or else he\'ll start giving me therapy sessions every day.

Wait, he\'s not gonna tell me to pay for that right?

Miwen: "More importantly though, what about you? Are you fine spending days in here? Didn\'t you have a score to settle with the king of the gods or whatever?"

Merchant: "Asdrea... Well, the current plan is to absorb as much divinity and demonic power as I can, then go back to a time when he was weaker, and hopefully, I can beat him. It\'s been a few Cycles since I put this plan in motion, but in a few more, it might be doable. However, I found a breakthrough in this Cycle, so it seems I have a bit of time to spare."

Sometimes I forget that his Gift is not simply teleportation...

But even with a time travel ability, the current Merchant would still lose to the guy... I can\'t even imagine how powerful he must be.

Miwen: "I never agreed to fight the Gods, much less their king though."

Merchant: "True... You have your own journey, and I believe one day you\'ll reach the truth of this world by yourself. I\'m quite confident you\'ll join my side then. You can count on me though. For a price."

I wonder about that...

While my Gift certainly puts me in a pretty good position, and I might even rise to become one of Earth\'s strongest, that wouldn\'t really amount much against the Merchant, much less this other guy.

So even if I were to declare war against any of them, it would be like an ant rising up against a lion.

Still, I can\'t help but be curious about some of the things he said.

Miwen: "What are these Cycles you keep talking about? Last time you told me that you and... Asdrea? Were both born on the first Cycle too..."

Merchant: "That\'s information only available for those on my side."

And there he goes, being as petty as possible while provoking me.

This so-called truth of the world will need to be pretty bad for me to willingly join this idiot.

Merchant: "...Knowing about that now would only make you give up..."

He whispered something, but I couldn\'t really catch it.

Miwen: "What was that?"

Merchant: "Nothing! More importantly, shouldn\'t we get started with testing out your Gift?"

Miwen: "Sure, do you have any banner in mind?"

He very abruptly changed the topic, but I\'m not confident I can force him to talk about something he doesn\'t want to.

And even though I only got a few crumbs here and there, some theories are floating around my head already...

Merchant: "Yeah, I thought about all that we\'ve discussed and what I\'ve seen. Since you can summon physical objects and concepts, how about something in the middle?"

Miwen: "That being...?"

Merchant: "The [Spirits Banner]. I want to see how close to The Origin you can get."

The Origin...?

He\'s messing with me, right? He\'s just making up stuff now.

But the [Spirits Banner] huh.... I\'m not very thrilled about that. When we talk about spirits, there are a bunch of interpretations.

For some, the spirits are like phantoms, souls that remain after death.

In fantasy, they may be like fairies, clinging to nature or a person, being somewhat alive, but with an undecipherable will, sometimes acting like a pet or as a wise being.

There are some people with Gifts that allow them to make contact and even contract spirits, but they often give different explanations about their spirits, and since only people who have a contract with other spirits can even see them to begin with, for outsiders the whole thing seems a bit sketchy.

Most of them prove their spirit\'s existence by making them do a few tasks, and some high-ranking adventurers fight with a contracted spirit by their side, so although the whole thing is somewhat mysterious, most people don\'t really doubt it or anything.

Miwen: "So... are they like fairies, or are they more like ghosts?"

Merchant: "More like... What? Pfft. Hahaha."

This guy sure knows how to get on my nerves.

Miwen: "I don\'t know okay? I can\'t even see them to begin with."

Merchant: "Hm... don\'t worry, I\'ll lend you one so that you can see them for yourself."

Eh? Is that something a Spirit Contractor can do?

And what the fuck, since when does he have a spirit?

Before I could answer him, a message popped up for me.

[The \'Travelling Merchant\' has offered you a temporary contract with a spirit: Kian. The contract might be terminated at any time, and the spirit will not offer you his loyalty. Do you wish to accept it?]

I really wanted to see a spirit with my own eyes, so I ended up accepting it right away.

In front of me, a small lion cub with an iron helmet appeared, the tip of his tail was on fire, but he still looked like the cutest thing in the world.

I tried to pet him, but as soon as I approached, he ran back to the Merchant.

And when I looked at him... I saw an army behind him.

There were a bunch of small and big animals of all types following him, there were even some humanoid ones that looked like fairies.

It was a spectacle to behold.

Merchant: "Don\'t look so surprised, these are just the ones that can manifest in a place with such low mana density."

Yeah, show-off.

How come the spirits who look so cute and innocent like this idiot so much? It\'s not fair, I want one too.

Miwen: "I\'ll summon some now..."

Merchant: "Yeah, go ahead."

Aside from the tickets reserved for Beatrice, I put everything on the [Spirits Banner], which brought a display similar to when I summoned a bunch of creatures that other time.

Still, these were way better behaved and didn\'t start fighting against one another at all.

The only problem was that they were disappearing right in front of me, which was kind of sad...

The Merchant told me that they consume the mana that resides in a place, further enhancing that place\'s qualities.

The problem is that, when exposed to malicious thoughts or ambients, they end up changing and becoming a distorted version of themselves.

Seems like this place doesn\'t have a high mana concentration, which made them go back to their plane of existence.

In the end, only four small spirits remained, of which, aside from a very small beige bird, everyone entered a contract with the Merchant.

Merchant: "Don\'t look at me like that... I can\'t help it alright? I\'m pretty close to The Origin myself, it cannot be helped that they flock to me."

Miwen: "Sure."

Merchant: "...This one seems to like you, do you want Kian to facilitate a contract between you two?"

Miwen: "You can do that?"

I\'ve never seen anyone capable of doing something like this back on Earth...

It was common sense that you can only contract a spirit if you have a Gift for it, or if a Spirit Contractor puts you into a temporary contract.

Kian, the merchant\'s contracted spirit, ran cycles around the bird, who became very sacred.

Instead of flying away though, it kept coming toward me.

Merchant: "Extend your hand and think of a name for him."

A name... he\'s kind of bubbly and awkward, so a name that seems somewhat badass would be extra funny...

Miwen: "I think I\'ll call him Munin."

Merchant: "...He hated it. Try another."

Eh? But it\'s one of Odin\'s crows and... fine... I guess he doesn\'t look like a Zeus either... so maybe...

Miwen: "Apollo?"

It\'s still a cool name, but somehow it seems to fit him better.

The little guy flies toward me and lands on my shoulder. And moments later confirmation that he liked it came to me in the form of a message.

[A spirit has taken a liking to you and wishes to form a contract. He offers you loyalty and his power. Do you accept it?]

Beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[A contract has been formed with the spirit: Apollo.]

Merchant: "He\'ll absorb some of your mana from time to time, it won\'t be any significant amount, but be sure to leave at least a little bit for him, alright?"

Miwen: "Yeah, any other tips?"

Merchant: "He\'s weak so... don\'t count on him for anything. He\'ll acclimate to your power though, so he might become pretty useful given enough time."

Alright. I don\'t like him talking bad about my bird, but there\'s no denying that even a breeze seems like it could hurt this guy.

Which makes the Apollo name extra great in my book.

I was expecting the Merchant to show some reaction to a God\'s name, but he never did. I wonder if this means that Gods from Greek mythology never existed, or if he\'s killed so many by this point that he doesn\'t even remember their names...

Merchant: "About your Gift though Miwen, I think I figured something out."

Miwen: "Seriously? Go on then, I\'m all ears."

Merchant: "Some beings have what\'s called an \'Essence\'. You don\'t have that. It\'s not something to worry about though, mortals rarely do. The problem is that whenever you summon something, your essence spreads everywhere, and it might even be able to reach as far as The Origin since it managed to get these guys out."

There he goes again...

While I didn\'t understand it completely, I couldn\'t let what he said pass.

Miwen: "But you said I didn\'t have an essence, to begin with, how is it spreading?"

Merchant: "Precisely. It is dividing itself, even though there\'s nothing to divide, to begin with. Every time I looked, it disappeared as if it wasn\'t there, to begin with, but I know for sure it was present everywhere. This might be something else that even I don\'t know about but... I\'m pretty sure this is how you\'re reaching the things you summon.

I still don\'t have a clue about what exactly happens when your nonexistent essence reaches something though."

Seems like he discovered a lot with this last experiment... Sorry for doubting your funny words funny man.

Even still, it doesn\'t explain much. If anything, it seems to only raise more questions.

I hope a time comes when I can actually understand what my Gift does.

I\'m thankful that the Merchant is here to help out though, since he knows a lot and can detect things that I never could.

I left the Merchant with my head occupied by a lot of questions, but my shoulders were occupied by a cute little bird so it was an absolute win.