I Died and Got Summoned to Another World as a WHAT?!?!

Myria and I enter the inn and head up to the top floor, which also brings back memories. However, Myria grabs me and starts kissing me before I can get lost in my memories. It is a welcome distraction, dwelling on the past is pointless right now.

Myria says "Alright, I'll go check on Leonarr, but I'll be back tonight. Have fun catching up with everyone!"

"Okay, see you in a few hours."

Myria gives me another deep kiss and then leaves through the teleporter. While I am waiting for my guests I make another gate platform and put it in my room. Illium isn't far enough away to need one, it just makes things more convenient.

I expect to be doing a lot of gating back and forth, so this just makes sense. With a platform here, I don't have to stop to search for where I want the gate to open. It also saves me mana each time I gate, so it is worth a bit of effort and materials.

Once the platform is in place and active, I return to the main room and sit down to wait. I don't have to wait long before I hear footsteps approaching on the stairs. Rat comes running up ahead of Roddick and Belliza, she throws herself at me.

Rat yells "Uncle Ash!" and hugs me as hard as she can.

"Hello, Rat. Have you been well?"

Rat says "Yes, but I missed you!"

"I missed you too. I'm sorry for being gone for so long."

Roddick says "I'm really glad you made it back safely, Ash."

Belliza says "So am I. Even if I want to hit you for making Rat cry."

"Look, I never intended to be gone for so long. I didn't expect the other end of the gate to have been destroyed."

Roddick says "Rat, this is what a dangerous level of curiosity looks like!"

"Oh, so you mean to tell me that if you found an ancient gate you wouldn't go through to see where it went?"

Roddick says "Uhm."

Belliza says "If he did, I would kill him if he managed to make it back!"

Roddick says "Anyway, how about you tell us what happened on your adventure?"

"Let's wait for the others so I don't have to repeat myself."

Ambrose enters and says "You better not have started without me!"

Roddick says "Not yet."

Jezzel says "See, I told you that we didn't have to run all the way over here!"

Before anyone else can say anything, Sarah and some of her girls come up carrying trays full of drinks. Right behind them comes Borrik, almost like he was just following the drinks. He grabs a drink and cracks a couple of jokes as everyone sits down at the table.

Once everyone is sitting and has a drink, I start the story of my trip through the gate. Of course, I keep the story to just the major highlights, otherwise it would take days to tell. As it is, it still takes hours to tell because the guildmasters keep interrupting.

They just can't keep themselves from asking for more details about the major events. Then, when I give them the details, it ends up sparking discussions and arguments. It doesn't take long before I start to regret telling them the story, but I can't stop now.

If I even tried to leave things as they are, the guildmasters would probably try to lynch me. Dinner comes and we all eat our fill and as soon as I am done eating I go back to the story. Luckily, since they are still eating, for a while the interruptions decrease.

Even with that, I am still not done by the time that Myria returns and joins us. Everyone smiles when she walks into the room and immediately sits on my lap. However, other than putting my arm around her, I ignore her and keep telling the story.

Myria being there complicates things since she knows more of the story than I am telling. Luckily, she takes pity on me and only makes a few snide comments here and there. Eventually I am able to finish telling the story, but then I get bombarded by questions.

"Alright, that's enough. It's late. Rat fell asleep a while ago and Borrik is about to join her! You can come back in the morning and we will talk about my plans for the future."

Borrik says "I am not!"

Roddick says "Yes you are! With the amount that you have drunk it is surprising that you haven't passed out already."

Roddick and Ambrose keep teasing Borrik as they help him down the stairs. It takes a few minutes for everyone to clear out and then it is just me and Myria. She is still sitting in my lap, so I take advantage of that to nibble on her ear.

Myria says "If you don't stop that, I won't tell you what Leonarr said!"

"Alright, tell me what he said, then I will continue!"

Myria says "No, no teasing me!"

"It doesn't count as teasing since I plan to follow through."

Myria blushes and says "Leonarr said that everything is going well. The first scout teams are already across the border. They could move in force tomorrow if they rushed. You can cast the spell as planned."

"Good."

I stand up, holding Myria in my arms, and nibble on her big fluffy ears as I carry her to bed. She responds just as I had hoped and we have fun for several hours before falling asleep. As usual, I wake up after just a couple of hours and I know it is too soon to wake up Myria.

As I am trying to think of what to do with myself, I realize that my mana pool is full. In fact, it has been full for a while, but I was distracted and didn't pay any attention to it. Now that I have some time, I decide to work on my core and see if I can figure some things out.

First, I draw all the pure mana out of my mana pool and convert it into lightning mana. Once it is all converted, I focus on my core and start feeding it to the lightning ring. As I do, I notice the ball of fire shrinking, but that is fine since I prefer lightning.

There is probably a way that I could keep both, but it would be a lot more work. Besides, I think picking one and focusing on it will show better results in the end. So, I ignore it and just keep feeding my mana into the lightning until I run out.

Core Upgrade Progress: 45%

Strange, my progress dropped to forty percent, but then it went back up to forty-five at the end. If that is how it is going to work, then it will slow me down for a bit, but I don't mind. Taking a little more time is worth it if it ends up anything like I am imagining.

Of course, I won't really know how it is going to work until I try it again. However, that won't be for a while since I will need to save my mana for casting the spell later. It won't be until it refills after that that I can work on my core again to see what happens.