Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

'Huh?'

Alerted by Claudy's desperate cries, I took a quick account of the situation around…

Only to find out everything was perfectly fine.

We were currently cruising some five meters above the ground, with no obstacles in the way. Only, some distance to our right, a massive forest spanned as far as I could see from just the corner of my vision. Everywhere else, open plains stretched out into the apparent infinity, making it seem as if we didn't leave the starlight plain in the first place.

But it was different.

The strange power of this plain, the diffused light of the stars…

Somehow, I came to miss it.

Ever since the day I learned how to turn its harmful influence into a boost to the quality of my power, I grew to be familiar with its constant and endless burden.

But now, free from the influence of that devious place and thus of the pressure this force exerted I felt…

I felt strangely out of my element.

'Maybe it's because of the changes to my core?' I looked down as if there was any particular point that, when focused on, would reveal the entirety of my soul and the aura core within.

'Wait, no!'

I shook my head while already turning it over to my side.

Fay's breathing was steady and perfectly stable, her complexion fine. Only her eyes hinted at whatever she just went through.

'How come we didn't share in on our rebirths?' I suddenly thought, once my first worry for Fay's well-being was soothed. 'It wasn't like that the last time…'

I still didn't know shit, not even the first hint of what it entailed to be someone of a fourth rank.

Looking back, as a simple mortal, all I could do was slowly work on my body, bringing it up to its peak state with the extremely convenient help of my system. Then, as an ascender, I've learned to properly harbor and wield aura, reaching beyond human means.

Then, as a promoted ascender, I've learned how to feel the aura, recognize its existence around me, and profound ways in which it affected the world, from simple forms naturally developing in the world, through others using it all the way to the mysteries hidden within my system-born skills and abilities.

Lastly, as a supreme, I've come to, for a relatively short time, wield powers I've come to believe to be the peak of my possible development.

Sure, the thought of what would come after supremes did appear in my mind a few times, but I never really gave it the attention and focus it was due.

With the powers of a supreme, I've learned to control the aura that wasn't even mine, to begin with, exerting my power and influence beyond the limits of my flesh. In a sense, I've taken a first step on the path of developing a domain, which was the very same force both Etaria and Madam gave up on when engaging a fellow supreme.

But I knew what domain was, and with enough time, I could surely learn how to properly wield and operate it…

This time, though, things were different.

My stats were pretty much maxed from the very moment I reached my new peak. Yet, before I would come to learn how to actually use my newfound powers, all due to the endless dangers of the starlight plain, I somehow reached the next rank.

And while I still had a rough idea of what to do as a supreme, when it came to the next and my current rank…

I had no idea. No first clue or a single hint. Which, in turn, meant, I couldn't really tell whether Fay was okay or not.

"IF YOU ARE AWAKE, THEN SLOW THE FUCK DOWN ALREADY!"

Seeing how I've now moved and started to come back to my senses, Claudy hurried to alter his shouts.

'Just where is his desperation coming from?' I thought, giving the plains ahead yet another glance.

We were moving fast, sure, but not THAT fast.

With the dangers of the starlight plain now left behind, the maglev could finally showcase what it was actually supposed to be, which was a long-distance traveling vehicle.

The onboard power generator could easily sustain this sturdy vehicle with juice in perpetuity within human's understanding of the scales of time. The only caveat, it only produced roughly a third of what it could use when pushed to its limits.

Which, in its current, damaged state, meant as fast as safely possible.

'Sure, we might be moving faster than any horse and roughly as fast as an average supreme,' I conveniently ignored how I only knew a few of those, 'but we are out in the open, so what's there to…'

Too focused on the current puzzle of how to best take care of Fay who still had yet to act up until this point, I only managed to catch a glimpse of a village when it first appeared on the horizon.

It grew out literally out of the ground, when the surface below the ship suddenly took a gentle yet long dive, revealing a small settlement located at the bottom of a local depression.

Read new adventures at empire

Or rather, when taking into account appearing on the highland's ridge revealed, a huge area jagged with hills big and small alike, with no end to this geographical feature in sight.

The speed of the maglev carried us over to the village and then above it before I could even jerk the control shaft to my right.

Following the commands of the integrated AI, the ship gently jerked to the side, passing a huge, bell tower of some sort with no more than two meters of safety margin to spare. The very next moment, the village became nothing more but an afterimage, fading away in the rear-view projections of the maglev's displays.

'Shit!'

I had no idea why, but I've somehow failed to realize the ship's real speed!

Maybe it was the monotonous terrain thus far, maybe the influence of what went down back in the starlight plain, or maybe the influence of that devious trap somehow altered my own spatial sense…

Or maybe, as I quickly came to realize when our speed suddenly dropped down to a mere margin of its full extent… without any side-effects of an instant deacceleration like that.

My body didn't jerk forward, nor did anyone else.

The world around me simply… slowed down.

As if my aura tribute, a spell I didn't invoke…

'No, that's not it,' I quickly dismissed the idea.

I could freely look around and even move a bit now. And again… I didn't invoke that damned spell, nor any other ability of mine for that matter!

It felt familiar but also foreign at the same time, just like my aura tribute. Only… different.

And then, Fay lazily turned her head over, her eyes shining with sparks of vivid, accomplished excitement.

"Can you feel it?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Fay's lips barely moved. Her words reached my ears strangely distorted, her voice lower than the tiny movements of her mouth indicated.

'You did this?' I thought, happily making use of our unreleased bond to converse with my flame, instantly pushing aside all the thoughts over the matter of our insane speed.

'Oh right,' still well within our connection, I directed just enough focus to pull the shaft of the maglev back...

And for the very first time, I noticed the delay between moving the control rod and the hypermagnets starting to alter their working pattern.

'Wait, if I do it right...'

I still had no idea what was going on, really. It was all too bizarre. But...

At the same time, it was all too familiar. Everything simply felt like the right steps to take and the obvious, most logical use of my aura in this particular scenario.

Within a single instant, our perception of time recovered to how it should be, freeing us from the prison of near perfectly still time Fay created, while upholding our ability to process all the information at the rate we could while stuck within Fay's slow-down spell.

"Holy..."

Uttering a single moan of awe, I witnessed how our maglev came to a quick yet safe stop, right as a massive, massive dam came into our view.

Right as the reflection of Isera changed when her eyes locked on that fortress.

And right as, while still joined in perfect union with Fay, we analyzed every last possible detail of this distant sight, all the way down to the level of every speck of dust that dirtied the walkways of this dam-turned-fortress.

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