Just a Guy and a Gate to the Multiverse - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

Chapter 33: A worthy Seat

— Hadarac Desert, 8001 AC —

Matt’s POV

“Ahahaha, this is amazing!” I laughed out loud.

My body felt so light, and I could move incredibly fast. Even my five senses had improved beyond recognition. It was as though I had previously seen the world in 360p, only for my eyes to suddenly upgrade to 4K. Everything looked incredibly sharp, and I could see much farther than before!

That wasn’t even mentioning my other senses. It had taken me a while to get used to them because I initially suffered from sensory overload. Now, however, I could track things by their smell, hear everything around me, and taste every subtle nuance in my food.

Admittedly, that wasn’t always a good thing, but whenever I had delicious food, the experience was amazing. With an enchanted item, I could also dull my senses to a more bearable level whenever necessary.

Most importantly, my entire body had become much stronger.

By my estimates, I was faster and stronger than any elf I had ever encountered.

That was probably because my body had reached the peak of what was possible in this world, with the Stats from the Fallout System added on top of that. My previous World Attunements might have also raised my upper limit slightly.

It was difficult to get a precise reading since I had no usable data beyond my own estimates. Much of what I knew about my Skills, aside from their descriptions, was based on my own guesswork and observations.

Still, one thing was certain: I had become much stronger than before. Physically, I stood at the peak of this world, and the only creatures that were probably stronger than me were dragons.

All of this was possible because Galbatorix had such an obvious and exploitable weakness.

I would have to be an idiot not to exploit it. An arrogant tyrant with a god complex and an exploitable weakness was simply too tempting a target.

Well, calling it easily exploitable was a bit of an overstatement. It was only easy for me because I had the perfect skill set to take advantage of that weakness. Anyone else would be utterly fucked in the face of Galbatorix’s overwhelming power before they could even approach his weakness: the Eldunarí.

Yes, the very objects that granted him his overwhelming power were also his greatest weakness. After all, they were physical objects that could be taken away. Without several thousand Eldunarí, he would no longer possess godlike power.

For most people, however, stealing them would be an almost impossible task. The treasury within Galbatorix’s palace was the most heavily guarded place in all of Alagaësia. Anyone attempting to infiltrate it would most likely die before they even reached the treasury, especially after its defenses had been strengthened following Brom and his ally Jeod’s attempt to steal the three dragon eggs stored there.

Jeod, a scholar and self-proclaimed bibliophile, had discovered a book containing a description of a secret passage into Urû'baen. He and Brom had used that information to hire a thief who broke into the Royal Treasury and attempted to steal the three dragon eggs for them.

For some reason, the thief had only stolen one of the eggs—Saphira’s egg—and hadn’t delivered it as promised. Instead, he had kept it for himself, forcing Brom to hunt him down over several months. That incident caused security around Urû'baen, especially the Royal Treasury, to become nearly impossible to breach.

Even if someone managed to sneak into the Royal Treasury, what could they possibly do afterward? Steal a handful of Eldunarí? Galbatorix had thousands of them, so there was no way a single thief, or almost anyone else, could sneak out with all of them.

First of all, how would they carry so many? A group large enough to transport several thousand Eldunarí would have no chance of sneaking inside unnoticed, even if the security measures were weakened. They would need to learn a spell capable of storing them, such as the Pocket Space Spell I had learned from Tenga.

However, let’s assume the person trying to steal the Eldunarí somehow obtained such a spell. Perhaps an ancient elf knew it or possessed something similar, or maybe they had encountered Tenga or asked his apprentice, Angela. Even then, they would still need to escape afterward, which was practically impossible.

Galbatorix and the Eldunarí were connected because he had forced his will upon them. The only way to break that connection was to overwrite it by imposing someone else’s will on each Eldunarí individually, a process that would take weeks.

The moment someone entered the Treasury and tried to steal the Eldunarí, Galbatorix would know. That person would then have to resist his mind, which was strengthened by several thousand Eldunarí. Even an elf wouldn’t stand a chance for more than a few seconds.

Only Eragon, with the support of his own 136 Eldunarí, could resist him for several minutes, but there was no way he could escape within that limited amount of time.

Stealing the Eldunarí required someone capable of resisting Galbatorix’s mind long enough to either break the connection instantly or escape and create enough distance that Galbatorix could no longer sense or draw power from them.

Someone like a man with a Pocket Space large enough to store every Eldunarí, the ability to teleport, and a Philosopher’s Stone powerful enough to protect his mind.

Of course, that person would also need to know exactly where to teleport and choose the perfect moment to act. Ideally, it would be while Galbatorix was distracted, such as when he was projecting his mind into someone else during a battle against another experienced Dragon Rider.

Fortunately, nobody in this world understood the concept of machines and robots, least of all Galbatorix. That made scouting his palace and sending surveillance crawlers—my small, spiderlike robots—into the Treasury surprisingly easy. Most living creatures would have died merely from coming into contact with his Wards.

He had clearly taken no chances after the previous break-in.

Even so, his precautions weren’t enough to stop me.

While he was occupied with fighting Oromis and Glaedr in Gil’ead, an event I had been monitoring through the bug I had planted inside Zar’roc, I teleported directly into his Treasury. All I needed was a clear view of the destination, which my surveillance crawlers had provided after infiltrating his palace several weeks earlier.

Once inside, I moved quickly and cast a Spell that transferred everything within the Treasury into my Pocket Space. Whether it was the Eldunarí, the gold and jewelry, or the enormous collection of Rider swords the madman had gathered, I took everything.

Naturally, Galbatorix noticed me only a few moments later, but that was enough time for my Magic to finish its work. Even then, I had to endure the full pressure of his enhanced mind, and I only managed it because the Philosopher’s Stone strengthened and protected me.

The man didn’t hold back once he realized what I was doing. Despite my specific skill set, the entire operation had been incredibly dangerous. Without Galbatorix being distracted or the Philosopher’s Stone supporting me, I would have died.

However, with all my preparations in place, I managed to endure the pressure long enough to teleport away, effectively dooming Galbatorix.

I had essentially saved Alagaësia by myself, and nearly everything had gone according to my plan, even though I had acted mostly for selfish reasons.

There was, however, one small variable that hadn’t worked out perfectly. I had known from the beginning that it was a possibility, but it wasn’t something I had any control over.

I hadn’t learned the true name of the Ancient Language.

Unfortunately, the timing hadn’t worked in my favor because Galbatorix hadn’t discovered it before I made my move.

It had never been clearly stated when he discovered the Name. At the beginning of the third book, it was hinted that he was close to finding it, while by the fourth book, he already knew it and had even shared it with Murtagh.

That was one of the things I had been aiming for, and one of the main reasons I had planted the bug inside Zar’roc in the first place.

However, Galbatorix hadn’t discovered the Name before his battle with Oromis. Afterward, it no longer mattered because I had already taken away the source of his overwhelming power.

Even if he discovered the Name of Names after that, he still wouldn’t stand a chance. Without the Eldunarí supporting him, most elves could defeat him in a mental battle without relying on Magic based on the Ancient Language.

He chose the easy way out, and I ended up without the Name because I had no idea where to begin looking for it. I knew Galbatorix had found it on some kind of tablet written in another land and another age. It hadn’t been written by elf, dwarf, human, or Urgal hands.

That was all the information I had. I didn’t even have a starting point for where to search. Galbatorix hadn’t searched for it physically. Instead, he had projected his mind across the lands while looking for it, something he could only do with the power of the Eldunarí. That made it impossible for me to follow his trail.

Besides, it had taken him at least a century to find it! I didn’t have that kind of time.

That ruined my plan to use the Name of Names to determine whether the Spells I wanted to modify and enhance my body would actually work. I also would have loved to experiment with the Name of Names since it could literally alter the rules of the entire Ancient Language Magic System!

It would have also been hilarious to play a few pranks with it, such as forbidding other people from using Magic.

Okay, now that I thought about it, maybe it was better that I hadn’t gained absolute power over the most commonly used Magic System in this world.

I didn’t plan to stay here for long, so I didn’t need that kind of absolute power. I also would have felt terrible if I somehow fucked up and broke the entire Magic System.

Besides, I already had a backup plan for enhancing my body in the form of intent-based Magic, which I had spent several weeks practicing under Tenga.

And it had worked!

Once I got my hands on Galbatorix’s thousands of Eldunarí and managed to gain control over them, I had a shit ton of power to spare for casting such a vague Spell based entirely on my intent.

I needed the enormous amount of power contained within the Eldunarí to cast the Spell properly without completely draining myself. That was especially true because I wanted to enhance myself as much as possible and couldn’t build safeguards into the Spell to prevent it from killing me, unlike with the Ancient Language.

Still, it had been worth the risk.

At the very least, my current physique was equal to MCU Captain America’s, and I was possibly even stronger. I was probably closer to East Blue Saga or early Grand Line Monkey D. Luffy or Roronoa Zoro.

However, I didn’t possess the insane physical growth potential of a human from One Piece. In all honesty, I had already reached my current natural physical limit, and nothing in this world could enhance me beyond that level. There seemed to be a natural limit determined by each world, so I would need another World Attunement to grow beyond it.

Still, being as strong as East Blue Luffy was a good starting point for most worlds.

Well, it wouldn’t be enough for a world like Dragon Ball. Fucking Krillin, as a child during the second World Martial Arts Tournament, could probably fight and defeat a Yonko. Just think about it: Master Roshi destroyed the moon during the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament, and he was only slightly stronger than Goku at the time.

Could Kaido destroy the moon with a single Bolo Breath, or even destroy it at all?

Master Roshi had a Dragon Ball power level of only a little over one hundred. By the Buu Saga, those power-level numbers should have reached somewhere in the billions.

Still, I was now strong enough to be slightly better than a fodder character in One Piece or Naruto. Admittedly, even if I traveled there and used a World Attunement, my growth wouldn’t be comparable to Luffy’s because I didn’t possess his talent.

At least I would be able to survive as long as I kept my head down. That was without even considering the rest of my Skill Set beyond my body’s physical strength.

I had already planned my next two World Attunements, but perhaps I should visit one of those more powerful anime worlds afterward. I could use a World Attunement there to begin acquiring some of my favorite Power Systems.

I finally felt ready to take the first steps toward obtaining them, and I now had a decent chance of surviving. That would remain true as long as I didn’t make any excessively large moves and stayed out of the spotlight.

But staying out of the spotlight would be boring. I wanted to play a major role, and that was exactly what I had been preparing for. I wanted to obtain the best things each world had to offer, so I would have to work my way up from here.

Maybe I could visit a popular world with a cool Power System but a lower power ceiling, or make a brief trip to a more powerful one solely for the World Attunement.

However, I would eventually have to choose between those worlds. There were simply too many things I wanted. I wanted Chakra so I could become an epic shinobi, and I also wanted to learn Haki. Obtaining even more types of Magic would be amazing, as that would fulfill yet another one of my dreams.

That five-year cooldown really sucked, and it wasn’t even the only problem affecting how I could proceed.

I also wanted to obtain the Force from Star Wars—the Legends continuity, of course—but that presented a serious problem. My World Attunement was limited to granting me average talent. While I could specify a human subspecies for my Skill to target, a Force-sensitive person wasn’t a subspecies, no matter how I looked at it.

Everyone in the Star Wars universe, regardless of species, possessed midi-chlorians. The concentration of midi-chlorians within someone’s body determined how sensitive they were to the Force. Therefore, Force-sensitives couldn’t be considered a human subspecies.

I also couldn’t define Togruta, Sith Purebloods, or Yoda’s species as human subspecies, even though most members of those species were Force-sensitive. Their origins were entirely separate from humanity.

A genuine human subspecies in the Star Wars universe would be the Chiss, Grand Admiral Thrawn’s species. They were descended from a human colony that had been sent out on either a generation ship or a sleeper ship before hyperdrives existed, around 27,000 years before the fall of the Republic.

They had evolved in complete isolation from the rest of humanity within the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. Their environment had eventually transformed them into those blue-skinned humans.

However, they weren’t any more Force-sensitive than ordinary humans.

The chances of me becoming Force-sensitive after using a World Attunement in the Star Wars universe were practically zero. In a galaxy populated by quadrillions of sentient beings, only around 10,000 Jedi had existed at the Order’s peak. The average human wasn’t Force-sensitive at all, not even slightly.

Then there were universes that were incredibly promising but equally dangerous. Dragon Ball was one such example. The possibility of having a wish granted or becoming powerful enough to destroy a planet with a single Ki blast was certainly enticing.

The same applied to some of those Cultivation worlds. Their potential was almost limitless, and the highest-level beings in some of them could create and destroy entire universes. Why wouldn’t I want that kind of power?

However, I had no illusions about how dangerous those worlds were. As I had already said, they contained beings capable of destroying entire universes.

I was also under no illusion that I possessed the Plot Armor of a protagonist. Without it, someone needed an absurd number of Cheats to succeed in those worlds. Otherwise, their first unfortunate encounter with an arrogant young master could easily result in their death.

Yeah, although I could afford to take more risks now, especially after completing my immediate plans, I still couldn’t allow myself to become cocky.

First, however, I had to finish dealing with this universe.

Sitting upon a throne made from solid gold and inlaid with countless gemstones—a souvenir from Galbatorix’s Treasury—I watched the horizon. I had no idea why he hadn’t used it as his actual throne.

It was certainly a seat worthy of a megalomaniac’s ass, especially while I sat upon it and watched the four dragons on the horizon steadily grow larger.

[ End of the Chapter ]