Versatile: Alternate World

The heat packs are the first things that everyone grabbed out of all of my groceries when I returned. Even Janus who likes to eat junk food from my groceries didn't even bother to take a look at them and took two heat packs for himself.

"You are a lifesaver, Manato. I am impressed that you managed to last that long over there. Even here inside the house is close to unbearable without the combination of the heater and the fireplace," Suhei was amazed at how I managed to even last that long.

"Haha, I just have a very high tolerance for the cold. I also just made sure that we won't be stuck here hungry before people started panic buying in the future if this weather persists."

After distributing the heat pack, I pull out the kotatsu for everyone to use and I started preparing to cook some Oden. This will help with the food and also the cold weather. While doing so, my mind can't help but think about the abnormal mana I sensed earlier. It was quick and I didn't know where it came from. It might have been fine if that was normal but that incident was beyond normal.

Perhaps that is the main cause of this incident? Still, it was just a brief moment and perhaps I am just imagining things but until further notice, I have to take note of that. I might not even be imagining that earlier.

...

With everyone full and satisfied, they all went back to their rooms to sleep. I called Janus to relay to everyone including the NPCs especially Queen Tanya and the others to say that I am fine and they shouldn't worry about me and I have to do my own work on finding the exit. In the meantime, they should work hard on the quests that are assigned to them and fulfill them. As for the others, I advised them to turn on the heater installed in their rooms to warm up their rooms too. It was totally convenient that this mansion I bought had them already installed and although it won't help much in making the surroundings warm enough, it is enough to remove the cold feeling that will make every single nerve in your body freeze from the cold.

Once I finished cleaning up, I left the kotatsu behind in case someone wanted to use it for later. I checked the weather one more time outside and seeing that it is not getting better, I closed and locked the door before I returned to my room.

With the heater on, the ice that is starting to build up around my room has finally melted and disappeared. It also helped my room is now warm enough due to the heater so perhaps things will get better for later. Now that everything is done, I lie down on my semi-warm and semi-cold bed and log back into the game.

...

[Welcome Back, Bladeheart]

I opened my eyes and stood up from the bed and went out to see whether the guy is still sleeping or he is already up. To my surprise, he is still sleeping with saliva falling from his mouth. He didn't look like the guy who can easily kill you. He looks like a homeless guy you see on the streets but well, do not judge a character by his looks alone.

Since he is in his deep sleep, I didn't disturb him and returned to check the situation outside the cave I am delighted to see that the blizzard that occurred earlier is gone and the weather outside is now back to how it was. I know it is the underground but it seems it doesn't follow the same rules as what the real underground does.

Since the guy said that I am free to leave once the blizzard has already set off, the next target is to get to the first monster that is guarding the way out. I am still unsure where it is located but I can manage without anyone to help me.

"So we will not be thanking the guy for letting us stay, Master?" Lina asked.

"As much as I wanted to do that, it is his fault, to begin with, that I am unconscious after the battle so even though he didn't kill us, there is no need to thank him either. I am not saying I am ungrateful for what he did but I don't easily trust that guy. Pretty suspicious if you ask me. So yeah, it's better to depart without him knowing our departure. It's much better this way."

And with that, I left the unknown cave and continue my journey to this hell hole in search of the exit that the guy mentioned existed here. Despite my uncertainty of whether it really exists or not, that is my only lead to my way out and nothing more. With nothing else to go forward, that is my only goal, for now, to survive whatever hellish things exist here, I needed to get myself battle-ready.

...

After walking for a bit after seeing just an endless loop all-around to confuse anyone who doesn't look at the map, I soon arrived at another clearing similar to before. But the difference is that there is something waiting for me in the distance.

"Master, I am detecting a heavy load of mana in the distance. I suspect that what we are seeing in the distance is also the source of this heavy mana load I am detecting at the moment," Lucia reported.

I pulled out my Versatile Weapon and pulled out a scroll that when torn to pieces, will deploy the [Protect] spell to me. That way if this thing that we are seeing in the distance will suddenly fire something, I would be able to protect myself. I don't want to rely on the shield form of the Versatile Weapon. If I am not careful, I might be activating its special ability which has a very long cooldown. I would very much avoid that happening to make sure I have an ace to use if I faced a battle too difficult for me to handle.

While cautiously approaching, Lucia is making sure what the thing before us is while I am still not in its vicinity.

"Master, just by looking at it, I can slightly confirm it to be some sort of portal. It doesn't seem to be the same kind of portal a teleport portal does but it does transport something from one place to another as long as it passes through the dimension thingie on the center of it."

"A portal?"

I have a very bad feeling about this. The guy earlier said that we would be facing monsters but we are instead facing a portal. The discrepancies are big, but the words of the guy can still remain true since this is a big portal. Now, I have a hunch on what it was.

Approaching the portal slowly, I managed to have a good look at the portal and I can confirm that it was not just an ordinary portal that will lead me outside of this place. In fact, this has no function or whatever if I try to pass through it. In short, this portal is something I cannot use. I can't use it, but the monsters can.

The Crack in the World.

An accursed portal that will continuously spawn monsters by releasing them out of the portal and letting them go wild if left alone without any sort of intervention that will halt its spawn activities.

When I stepped into its vicinity, the portal glows bright red immediately and the middle of the portal started to spin. I keep my distance from the portal immediately and ready myself to fight back. And seeing how red the portal is becoming means it is going to spawn quite a number of monsters, that will be really troublesome and dangerous to handle. Not only that but the level difference we have right now would be 10 levels or more. With all how the monsters in this region are stacked, I am not sure whether it is wise to keep on going or to retreat.

Before I can get a clear answer on whether to retreat or not, the portal spawned some monsters in rapid speed since in the blink of an eye, the empty lands got populated immediately with multiple monsters of different sizes and races.

[Battle Ready Berserker Goblin Champion]

Level 200

HP: 4,000,000/ 4,000,000

Trait: Humanoid, Dark

[Bedrock Golem]

Level 200

HP: 10,000,000/ 10,000.000

Trait: Construct, Earth

[Corrupted Guardian]

Level 200

HP:7,000,000/7,000,000

Trait: Construct, Dark

[Shadow Wolf]

Level 200

HP: 3,000,000/3,000,000

Trait: Beast, Dark

Those monsters are just among the monsters summoned by the portal. I didn't manage to identify the others as I have to keep my distance from them. They are all level 200 and they have million HP each. And seeing that they are converted into normal mobs by this portal just spells great destruction.