Our protagonist explored the city a little more, trying to find good places to sleep. Having found a relatively large house with a still usable bed, he set up alarms and ways to avoid being caught off guard while sleeping. He lay down on the bed and slept, sleeping until the sun woke him. He took a roasted fish from his space ring, ate it before continuing to explore the cities, looking for anything he could use as a weapon while checking the perimeter for beasts, further confirming his theory that something was wrong with the place when he didn't find any beasts.
He was soon preparing to leave, to continue his journey and perhaps return later. Just as he was trying to leave the city, an invisible barrier manifested itself—or rather, he crashed directly into the barrier because, well, it was invisible.
(Well, damn, an invisible barrier, it only activates when someone enters? But that doesn't make sense, I guess, it would be full of beasts, can they somehow sense the barrier or does it only work on humans?)
With doubts in mind, our protagonist continued his walk, now knowing he wouldn't be able to leave the city through normal means. He searched for something that could be used as a matrix or any secret passage in the giant mansions, failing to find the first objective, but in the second mansion he searched, he managed to find a passage in the floor after moving a brick.
"Better than nothing, I guess."
He entered, picking up an unlit torch from the wall and beginning his attempts to create fire with a piece of wood and a plank. After 10 attempts, he succeeded, splitting 9 pieces of wood in half. With this, he lit the unlit torch and continued forward, second down the corridor, obviously testing for traps, but there didn't seem to be any, maybe an escape tunnel.
Without our protagonist realizing it, he reached the end of the tunnel, where something resembling, perhaps, a portal appeared. It seemed to have the shape of a Minecraft portal, square and purple.
- (I hope this doesn't take me to hell, and how do I turn this on?)
A nearly dismantled manual was found next to a shelf with a bunch of identical manuals. Putting the missing pieces together into one manual, he discovered that he could only activate the portal by setting it on fire, but they warned that the portal was unstable and only connected once. The moment that portal was destroyed, the portal on the other side connected to another dimension, posing a risk of being trapped between dimensions without being able to return. Lines described a dimension entirely formed of darkness, a dimension where it is only night, a dimension that literally looks like hell. It is said here that there are many travelers who have never returned from other dimensions and that the moment the portal is activated, both sides can pass to the other side.
(So, it's dangerous to turn it on now, I'll wait until I reach the silver level to open it.)
Our protagonist went back to the mansion, setting traps around it, since entry was still possible. With that, he began his cultivation and physical training.
Time Skip - 30 days
Our protagonist trained his body and energy to silver level 2, now just waiting to kill a beast and be lucky enough to merge with its spirit. He was in front of the portal; only beasts below silver level entered that enclosure, so it was easy for him to get food, in addition to the water he already had from the previous lake. He then turned on the portal. The space inside the portal formed a square, a landscape inside, a cave appeared before his eyes. The moment he crossed it, he felt a huge urge to vomit, vomiting beside the portal.
- Entering portals on an empty stomach, noted.
He composed himself before exploring his surroundings, a cave quite similar to the previous one, gray bricks filling the walls with an extinguished torch.
His surroundings illuminated by the purple glow of the portal, revealing only an old, rotting wooden door. He opened the door and came face to face with a dark staircase lit only by the sky seen at its top.
Climbing the stairs to their end, our protagonist realized that he was now in a dimension filled with islands in the sky, some connected by bridges that looked like something out of a suspense film, where they would clearly collapse if someone used them.
Furthermore, winged beasts like giant birds of various colors were seen on the horizon, probably the only inhabitants of this area of the dimension. The first thing he looked for was something to make a small shelter or get food—priorities.
His disappointment came when he couldn't find any of the food he knew on the island, or any animals at all. The island seemed completely empty; there weren't even ruins for him to spend the night.
(Continue here and build a shelter on the stairs or go back through the portal and get a flying animal spirit to fly between the islands.)
This was the decision he was trying to make. He decided to stay there for the night; perhaps he could get a flying beast to land on the island or pass nearby, and he could try to lure it if it wasn't too strong.
While he waited, he began to meditate. Since he was going to stay awake all night, it was better to do something and get closer to Silver Rank 3.
The night here was much calmer than in the ruins. There wasn't a sound, not even of a lost or hunting animal. It was simply the sound of the wind rustling through the few trees that place had, and nothing more. It was strange to have such a calm night after sleeping for a month, waking up every time an animal got too close to his ruin.
Dawn was arriving in that world. It was strange because it was just islands. Perhaps there was a world on the ground; it was something to check later.
Since no animals appeared that night, he returned to his ruins, now heading back to his main dimension.