Vision returned to Mack’s eyes as he glimpsed what was around him, but to Mack surprise looking to his right side, he found something he was not expecting.

“Yo old man, I think we bring extra luggage,”

Said Mack, pointing to the same sarcophagus that was with them in the room before activating the transportation array.

[Those guys, they always thought we were gods, if they knew…..]

Mack looked to the old man and the old man looked back to Mack as if both were reaching an agreement, then they started walking, leaving the sarcophagus behind.

For Mack, the place they were transported to was nothing different, a bunch of woods, just like any place on earth, just that the plants were a bit different, while walking Mack paid attention to them for a while but a few minutes and he was already bored.

.

“Where we are old man?”

[This planet is called Centaurus Three, we are here just to train you, its a remote planet but here the Essence in the environment is way better than Earth, also, it has a small population of centaurs, thus, the name]

“Is this in the same galaxy? or dimension?”

[Not the same galaxy, no, but yes, it is in the same dimension. To cross dimensions is way harder. Do you remember the 8th gate?]

“Yes, the others ‘Me’ came from parallel dimensions, right?”

[Correct, to do that takes a lot of resources, that gate was a kind of limbo, where parallel dimensions connected thus making it easier, it was not exactly sending you to a dimension, to send someone to another dimension is very very costly, a civilization could easily go bankrupt doing this.]

“To just send one guy?”

[Yes, now, enough of chit chat, we are almost there.]

Said the old man, pointing to a small city that could be seen when crossing a tree line.

The city itself was not big, and had a small brick wall around it, even some tall buildings could be seen behind the wall, some looked very ancient while others looked more modern and Earth like, Mack guessed the city already existed for a long time.

[Remember this well, this is a lawless place, law doesn’t exist here.]

“Got it”

Said Mack, putting his right hand over the sword by his right side.

[Also, I will not protect you. This is also part of your training now. You need to defend yourself here in this city for a 100 days. I will come to you by night when you get yourself a house or a room. I have a few things I need to take care]

Said the old man, vanishing from the spot.

“AND HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?? I HAVE NO MONEY!”

Screamed Mack, furious that this old man didn’t even give him some local money.

And a few meters in front of Mack, a few centaurs already looked annoyed by his screaming.

~sigh~

‘I hate this old man’s tests. Just train me, dammit.’

Walking to the city gate Mack noticed that not everyone around was a centaur, some were humans, or humanoids at least, and others were like a horse that could walk in two legs, that was the most weird thing that mack saw, he even remembered a cartoon he saw when child that had a talking horse.

When coming close to the gate, Mack saw a few centaurs before him entering and giving a tiny essence crystal to the one that looked like a guard. The essence crystal was so small that looked like rice grain.

‘So I will have to pay to enter.’

Mack still had 2 essence crystals, but they were the size of a baby fist, he didn’t had those tiny ones, if he had to show the ones he had, Mack guessed that trouble would come for him the very moment he stepped foot inside the city.

Seeing it was time for him to pay to enter the city Mack had to decide what to do.

‘I guess I have no other option.’

Thought Mack, retrieving one of his two remaining essence crystals and extending his hand to the guard.

“Can you exchange for me?”

Said Mack, and the translator on his mask quickly translated it into a language that he was not familiar with.

The language used was the same that the mask captured people talking before. The Mask itself had no way to ‘know’ which languages the other party talked. It only identified the language talked around Mack and translated to it.

The guard, hearing the robotic voice talking Hakarush and seeing the man holding a huge essence crystal, almost fell to his knees in fear of death.

He was just a guard, but he could easily recognize when someone important was in front of him, and to ‘obligate’ those kinds of people to pay? That usually means death by beheading.

The guard moved his lips but then remembered what the other guy in front of him asked, ‘to exchange’.

‘Right, maybe he was not trying to pay but only wants pocket money.’

Thought the guard

The guard looked at the crystal and quickly saw how much it was worth, and retrieved a bag from one of his pockets and extended to Mack.

The bag was full to the brim with tiny essence crystals.

Mack looked to the size of that bag, and wondered how that was able to fit in a pocket. The bag was at least twice the size of the crystal he was holding.

‘I guess they have big pockets here.’

Mack grabbed the bag and put on his backpack and was about to leave when he heard something coming from the guard’s mouth,

“Thank you for your generosity my lord.”

Said the guard, half bowing to Mack.

Mack quickly understood why. Higher essence crystal were harder to find, so people rarely exchanged them with lower crystal, only the opposite, and the ratio was always unfair for the buyers.

Mack gave a small nod and turned his back, walking in direction of the city, but before he could even cross the city gate Mack heard a ‘metallic noise’, a very familiar one of a blade being unsheathed.

‘Fuck, I knew, they want to rob me.’ 

Thought Mack, already turning his head and removing his blade.