Hundreds of meters above the ground, cloaked beneath the dense canopy of the Eastern Forest, Alphonse's silhouette hovered in absolute silence.
His semi-transparent form blended flawlessly with the refracted sunlight piercing through the leaves. From that altitude, his golden eyes gazed sharply downward, observing every movement of the leather-armored scout squad that had just arrived at the site of his massacre.
He watched as the man with the scarred neck—who appeared to be the squad leader—inspected the scorched crater with intense scrutiny, before ordering his subordinates to shoulder the intact Dire Wolf carcasses.
Alphonse curved his lips into an unseen, faint smile. "Their behavior clearly indicates a trained military formation. They are gathering the remnants of the battle as if investigating a crime scene."
He rested his chin on his illusory hand, highly amused by his own situation.
"Surely they wouldn't go through the trouble of hunting me down just because of this minor skirmish, right? I haven't even visited any settlements yet," he murmured. "Or perhaps... Dire Wolves hold the status of a royal protected species in this world?"
Realizing that observing low-level grunts would not yield any more valuable information, Alphonse decided to take his leave.
With a single push of his will, his weightless body darted away from the area, cutting through the midday air without leaving a single trace or the slightest sound.
He flew several miles to the north, ensuring he was a safe distance from any potential trackers. His eyes caught sight of a massive, ancient oak tree with giant roots protruding from the earth, creating a naturally shaded and hidden alcove.
Alphonse landed smoothly upon the mossy roots. He severed the flow of his magic.
[Tier B - Fly] [Tier C - Mirage]
The light-bending effect faded like mist swept away by the wind. His pitch-black robe, white fur collar, and physical form returned to reality. Earth's gravity gripped his boots once more.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, allowing the pure forest air to 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 within his body. It was no longer merely a blue numerical value on a game's UI bar.
It was a pulsating life force, flowing thickly through his veins, granting a vitality that vastly exceeded the biological limits of an Earthly human.
Moreover, his perception was now intrinsically linked to the surrounding nature. He could feel the invisible particles of mana floating in the air.
As he breathed, those particles seeped slowly through his pores, replenishing the magical reserves he had slightly depleted after slaughtering the wolf pack.
Alphonse sat down, leaning against the trunk of the giant oak. He extended a finger, touching the surface of the Stella Obscura hovering before 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 capabilities remain unchanged as well."
His eyes gleamed. He channeled a thread of intent into the crystal.
The Stella Obscura responded instantaneously. Its pitch-black surface emitted a brilliant starlight, illuminating the shaded area beneath the tree with a silver and blue luminescence.
[Tier S - Gate]
The air in front of Alphonse distorted violently. A galactic vortex, three meters in diameter, was torn open from the empty space, emitting a low, resonant hum.
The swirling vortex of stars spun elegantly, generating a gentle breeze that carried foreign scents from an unknown dimension.
Alphonse smiled in deep satisfaction. "Hoho... it worked. And my mana reserves haven't diminished in the slightest."
Using his magical perception, Alphonse observed the flow of energy around him. Rather than draining power from within his body, the Stella Obscura acted as an independent reactor.
The crystal siphoned natural atmospheric mana from the surrounding environment to stabilize the spatial structure, keeping the Gate open indefinitely.
In Orion Online, Phantasmal-category weapons were not items that could be purchased with gold coins. They were mythic artifacts obtainable only through the conquest of a World Boss, with a drop probability of less than zero point one percent.
The Players dubbed them the "Legal Cheats."
The Stella Obscura possessed a passive effect that completely violated the game's balancing laws: the crystal was capable of permanently creating and maintaining Tier S Gate spells without consuming a single drop of its wielder's mana.
"Let us see just how far your limits stretch," Alphonse challenged.
[Tier S - Gate]
[Tier S - Gate]
[Tier S - Gate]
One by one, galactic vortices tore through the air surrounding Alphonse. The brilliant light was blinding, and the low hum escalated into the roar of a massive engine.
The gentle breeze transformed into an artificial gale that snapped small twigs and sent dry leaves flying.
Ten star gates now encircled him, spinning with terrifying majesty.
"Nine... ten," Alphonse counted amidst the roaring wind. "The limit remains the same. I can only sustain ten gates simultaneously."
He attempted to cast an eleventh gate. However, the spell failed to form.
Alphonse observed the Stella Obscura.
The starlight within the crystal had faded drastically, leaving behind a seemingly exhausted 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 limitation was simply written as a twenty-four-hour Skill Cooldown."
"But in reality, that rigid mechanic translates into a capacity issue: the internal energy storage of this weapon has been depleted."
He could feel the Stella Obscura now working overtime like a parched sponge, aggressively absorbing the mana in the air to gradually recharge its empty core.
"If the mechanics have become this realistic, do I also have to wait a full day for this crystal to fully charge before it can open free gates again?" he pondered.
Alphonse stared at the ten galactic vortices surrounding him with a furrowed brow. Waves of magical energy seeped from behind the gates, offering paths leading to nowhere.
In the game, if a Player opened a Gate without setting specific destination coordinates, the system would hurl them to a randomized location on the world map.
Stepping into a spatial vortex to an unknown destination in a completely alien world was an act of absolute suicide for a planner like Alphonse. He was not about to take a ridiculous gamble like walking in blindly, only to suddenly find himself at the bottom of the ocean, or in the middle of an ancient dragon's lair.
A few minutes passed in a silence filled only by the roaring wind.
Suddenly, without warning, one of the galactic vortices to his right trembled violently. The gate shrank rapidly before ultimately 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 revelation hit him.
The concentration of mana in the surrounding air, which moments ago had felt so abundant and dense, had now thinned to a concerning degree.
The nine remaining gates began to flicker dimly. They acted like starving parasites, violently fighting over the meager remnants 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 closely together like I did in the game."
One by one, the galactic vortices lost the battle for energy. They contracted, shuddered, and vanished. The atmospheric mana was simply too thin to support the stabilization requirements of Tier S magic.
As the final gate dissipated, the surroundings fell dead silent.
However, Alphonse felt a profound sense of discomfort.
His chest felt tight. The air he breathed felt hollow, like gasping for breath on an oxygen-deprived mountain peak. The sudden depletion of surrounding mana triggered a visceral rejection from his body, which was now fueled by magical energy.
He remained seated in silence, regulating his breathing rhythm until several minutes later. The natural flow of mana from deeper parts of the forest gradually drifted in, rebalancing the energy concentration in his vicinity. The suffocating tightness slowly faded.
Alphonse rested his head against the oak tree's bark, letting his body relax. Watching the Stella Obscura return to floating peacefully, memories of his past flooded his mind.
In the era of Orion Online, the hierarchy of power was not solely determined by who had the highest level, but by which faction held a monopoly over strategic resources. The dominance of the Three Emperors and the Ten Kings was forged upon the possession of Phantasmal items.
The Pioneer Guild—which lacked the massive financial backing of the Three Emperors—managed to climb the hierarchy and be recognized as the wealthiest guild among the Ten Kings purely due to the existence of the Stella Obscura.
Alphonse smiled faintly as he recalled his old master plan. While other guilds used legendary artifacts to slaughter World Bosses, Alphonse used the Stella Obscura to build infrastructure.
He created ten gates in the grand plaza of the Lamdal Capital. Those ten gates connected directly to the commercial hubs in ten different cities controlled by Pioneer.
Why was that so crucial? Because the game's instant teleportation system could only be utilized by Players. The millions of NPC populations, who played a critical role in the world's economy, possessed no such access.
With Pioneer's instant logistical network, NPC merchants could move caravans of goods from the north to the south in a matter of seconds. Even casual players opted for Pioneer's routes because Alphonse set transit tolls that were significantly cheaper than the game system's teleportation fees.
That interdimensional tollway was what transformed Pioneer's territory into the largest financial hub in the game.
Their wealth ballooned uncontrollably, allowing them to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Kings, and slowly evolving into a very 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, governed by rational economic and political laws...
"A world without the system..." Alphonse whispered, his gaze turning razor-sharp. "...is the perfect blank canvas."
However, he knew full well that a leader could not conquer an entire continent alone. He needed his twenty-two members. He needed the forces of Pioneer.
And most importantly, he needed eyes to witness the true vastness and borders of this mysterious new world.
Alphonse pushed himself off the tree trunk. He brushed the residual dust off his robes, then stepped into a slightly more open clearing among the ancient trees. The forest wind blew, ruffling his wolf-fur collar.
He raised his left hand slowly, allowing the Stella Obscura to spin rapidly around his arm.
He no longer had any intention of conducting small-scale experiments. If he wanted to locate his subordinates and map this continent in an instant, he had to dissect the sky itself.
His golden eyes blazed brightly, projecting the absolute dominance of a ruler.
"It is time to see just how massive this new cage is," Alphonse declared softly.
He began to focus the entirety of his energy flow, preparing to cast the highest-tier skill in his arsenal: an Ultimate Skill.