Esdras was fine with that, it's not good to be too greedy besides he could figure something out until then.
As for his breakthrough to the first threshold, it would take months for him to complete that jump even with Tara's 'help'.
The amount of negative energy needed was massive and Tara wasn't providing as much negative energy as before. No matter how much he humiliated her it no longer worked, he even started getting a creepy feeling from her lately…
If he didn't need her for other things he would have disposed of her long ago.
Anyway, she will prove just how useful she was soon, during the Rite of passage in a few days time.
At first he thought of the Rite as something silly that he should get it over with but his need for negative energy could be solved very conveniently.
Heheh
There are many ways to expedite the process, why should he have to wait several months if he didn't have to? He was a modern man after all, he had to think of practical solutions.
Anyway. After his morning routine he and Celine stayed in bed watching the war in Seorie.
After Esdras got his crystal ball, he found out that it had many uses not just video calls. It could be used to record scenes and sound, it could be used to store information for short periods of time as well.
This feature is often used by mages to record vital information while in the middle of an important experiment. The crystal ball was a very useful item, only it was a hassle to carry it around lightly due to its size.
This was not a problem for Esdras because he had a Storage ring.
Anyway, he found a way to project the scenes transmitted to his mind by the Spy eyes to the crystal ball, as long as he had enough mana. This was also a good way to combine entertainment and practice at once.
Celine was shocked at first but then she was engrossed in the show.
The war grew only crazier since he last checked on it, there were several times when he thought that the city was going to fall for real.
The magic barrier and the gate were broken in one charge that the orcs rushed into the city and were only driven out a day later. At that point the soldiers were exhausted and on the verge of losing moral.
But that is when the king arrived personally, clad in golden black plate armor and astride his warhorse he joined the soldiers on the wall and even helped treat the wounded.
Soon moral improved and the people in the back were even cheering "King of dragons!" "King of dragons!" "King of dragons!".
The king was an old but strong-looking man with a white well trimmed beard and his presence inspired power. The flag of the kingdom depicting the silhouette of a man riding a dragon seemed to have his reflection in it.
He wasn't alone, the grand princes, the kings royal brothers came along too. And some of the crown prince's brothers, Esdras had met them back then.
The crown prince himself wasn't in attendance, he and Calvin took off with an army to subdue the corrupt Baron long ago.
Esdras shook off his laziness and used his newfound identity to purchase several trinkets from the Octarine tower.
The Prince rewarded all of the team with tons of gold and he got a lot more, so he deposited the gold with a bank and turned it all into low grade mana stones. He only kept 20% for his expenses.
When he was done running around he was alerted by a movement in his sea of consciousness and returned to his room in haste. This signal meant that the pharaoh was awake again after going into slumber to study the elven language.
"You're in luck," the pharaoh said with a snicker, "we found what we were looking for."
Esdras couldn't suppress his excitement, "are you saying what I think you're saying?"
"Yes, the elves were indeed otherworlders and they had the means by which they could travel to different worlds. I was able to crack their rune code, if we can get to a function Way-gate then I can use it no problem."
Esdras high-fived himself since no one was there. "Fuck yeah!"
"But, wait… didn't you say it was hard even for powerful being to travel between worlds? How can an entire civilization do it casually?"
Right. He definitely said something like this.
"I did say that, and it is still true. For a civilization to do something like this they had to pay a great price. It's possible that their original world had a rating of 4.5 or higher. I don't know what method they used but it's not far fetched that they came up with a method that I didn't know about."
"Oh?" Esdras unintentionally leaked a noise of surprise.
"What? You have something to say?" The pharaoh asked in anger.
"No, it's nothing. It's just that… I didn't think you would say something like that."
"Why not? I am still young and the Great void is endless how could I know everything there is to know?"
Wow. Esdras thought he was just a grumpy old man but it turns of he was much more reliable than he appeared.
"What did you just think about me brat?!"
Esdras was caught red-handed, "I told you not to read my thoughts you old demon!"
"I don't have to, your simple thoughts are not that hard to predict."
"Fine, let's get back to business. So where can we find this Way-gate?"
"How should I know? That's on you. I would think it can be found in important elven cities or something."
"But, there are no more elven cities in this age. Not since four thousand years ago."
"How should I know?"
"Fine, but what are the chances of finding a functioning gate in a ruin? It's impossible."
Esdras's mind was running through all of the possibilities but things weren't looking too good.
"Don't be stupid, we had nothing before, now we have a very good idea of what to look for. Besides, even if we find barely anything it's a step in the right direction for us."
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om