"Well, now I am really wondering what is happening," said Arin as he scaled down the tree. They had spent hours sitting perfectly still and watching the portal, yet nothing had emerged from it. The complete lack of activity was unusual enough to make him curious. Rather than continue guessing from a distance, he decided to inspect the situation personally. As he approached the base of the tree, he motioned for everyone else to remain hidden, confident that he could defend himself if something unexpected happened.
The hill felt unpleasant beneath his feet as he made his way upward. The dark soil seemed almost alive in the worst possible way, soft and damp despite the lack of rain. Every step felt wrong, as if the land itself rejected visitors. Arin ignored the sensation and continued forward. His attention remained fixed on the strange portal standing beside the dead tree.
"Right, what do we have here?" Arin thought as he approached the portal. The strange aura that had previously radiated from it had completely disappeared. Before, the portal had been pitch black and seemed to absorb light from its surroundings. Now it was white, almost ordinary in appearance. The change was so dramatic that it immediately put him on guard.
The closer he got, the stranger the portal appeared. Its surface looked solid and stable, lacking the unsettling distortions it once possessed. There was no sense of danger coming from it anymore. In fact, it almost looked harmless. That realization made Arin even more suspicious.
"Okay, it seems we have emptied the secret realm of its inhabitants," Arin thought as he studied the portal. The theory made sense based on what they had experienced during the past several days. Every creature that had emerged from the realm had been killed. If the realm truly contained a finite population, perhaps they had finally reached the end.
Curious, Arin stepped forward and attempted to enter the portal. Instead of being transported elsewhere, he passed straight through it. His momentum carried him forward until he bumped into the dead stump hidden within the white frame. The unexpected impact caused him to stumble backward in surprise. That definitely was not supposed to happen.
"Okay, this is strange," Arin muttered under his breath. He reached out and touched the white surface again. His hand passed through without resistance. For several minutes he walked around the hill, checking each portal opening in turn. Every single one behaved exactly the same way.
"Well, what do we do now?" Bertho asked from behind him. At some point he had silently approached the hill without Arin noticing. That was hardly surprising given the training they all received. Members of the clan were naturally light-footed, and everyone moved even more carefully on the unpleasant soil covering the hill.
The dark ground had become infamous among the recruits. Several people had stepped too heavily into it and found their boots sinking into the mud-like earth. The last three recruits who made that mistake had spent hours cleaning themselves beside the river afterward. Since then, very few people had been eager to approach the hill unless necessary.
"Well, I say we keep an eye on it," Arin replied after thinking for a moment. "I will go inform the elders." There was little else they could do until someone figured out what had happened. The portal no longer produced creatures, but that did not mean it was safe to ignore. With that decided, he turned around and started jogging back toward camp.
Unlike most of the others, Arin was happy to leave the waiting duty behind. Endless observation was necessary, but it was also incredibly boring. Since he was the shift leader, he had a legitimate excuse to report the situation in person. That left Bertho responsible for supervising everyone else. Bertho merely shook his head as he watched Arin disappear into the forest.
"Oh, it seems another secret realm is empty," Gaia said as a notification appeared before her. She sat inside a room dominated by a massive map of Earth. Countless red lights covered its surface, each one representing an active secret realm. Among them were a growing number of green lights, which marked realms that had already been cleared.
At the moment there were twenty green lights scattered across the map. Compared to the countless red lights, it was not an impressive number. Nevertheless, it represented progress. Humanity had only recently begun exploring the world after the expansion ended. The fact that they had already cleared twenty secret realms exceeded many expectations.
"That is good," Gaia said with a small smile. "I wonder how many humans are cursing right now because their money machine is gone." She could already imagine the complaints. Many people had become attached to the idea that secret realms were endless sources of wealth. Discovering that they could eventually run dry was probably not pleasant.
The thought amused her more than it probably should have. After all, many humans had built plans around exploiting those realms for decades. Some even dreamed of turning them into permanent strongholds similar to those found in cultivation novels. Unfortunately for them, reality worked differently. The universe was not nearly that generous.
Gaia possessed the ability to selectively forget information and rediscover it later. It was one of her favorite abilities. Thanks to it, she could reread stories and experience genuine surprise despite already knowing everything. The power had allowed her to enjoy humanity's fiction in a way that would otherwise have been impossible.
Still, the secret realms were a far more important matter. Humans continued complaining because they could no longer enter cleared realms. From their perspective the decision made little sense. Gaia certainly had the power to leave those portals open if she wanted. However, doing so would create far more problems than it solved.
The secret realms were not magical paradises filled with treasure and opportunity. They were filtration systems used by the universe itself. Their purpose was to safely process and contain void matter before it entered reality. Because of that function, the environments inside them were fundamentally hostile to life. Corruption permeated every part of their existence.
Even after humanity exterminated every corrupted creature inside a realm, the problem remained. The land itself was contaminated. Given enough effort, humans could eventually transform those realms into beautiful and productive environments. They might even create territories larger than entire countries from the old Earth.
Unfortunately, the realms would continue performing their original function regardless of human desires. Void matter would still seep into them over time. Corrupted creatures would eventually appear again. The danger would never truly disappear. It would simply accumulate until another crisis emerged.
There was also another concern. If large populations settled inside the realms, corruption incidents would become far more dangerous. Corrupted humans escaping into the wider world would create disasters far worse than a few monsters emerging from portals. Gaia had no interest in allowing such risks to develop unnecessarily.
Because of that, she had made a simple decision. Secret realms would remain one-way battlefields until they were emptied. Once every creature inside had been killed, the portal would close permanently. The realm would then remain isolated until enough corruption accumulated to require another cleansing. It was an elegant solution to a complicated problem.
Now those empty realms sat dormant, waiting for the distant future. Eventually they would fill again. Corrupted creatures and void matter would continue entering them as part of the universe's filtration process. When the danger reached an unacceptable level, the realms would reopen and humanity would once again be called upon to clear them.
The arrangement benefited everyone involved. The universe avoided spending resources cleaning its own filtration systems. Gaia gained assistance dealing with corruption. Humanity received experience, resources, and opportunities for growth. It was not perfect, but it was efficient.
Of course, none of that prevented people from complaining. Gaia could easily explain the entire process if she wished. She possessed more than enough knowledge to answer every question humanity had. Doing so, however, would defeat the purpose of allowing them to develop independently.
"They need to learn for themselves," Gaia said quietly. She watched countless humans struggling, adapting, and experimenting across the planet. Mistakes would be made. Complaints would continue. Yet each challenge forced them to become stronger and more capable.
If she solved every problem for them, they would never mature. Humanity was being prepared for a future that demanded independence. They needed to learn how to investigate mysteries, solve crises, and adapt to changing circumstances. Those skills could not be taught through simple explanations alone.
So Gaia merely smiled as another green light appeared on the map. Somewhere in the forests, Arin and his family were reporting the disappearance of a portal. Somewhere else, thousands of people were probably cursing her name. Neither bothered her very much. In the end, all of it was part of the process.