It was already late afternoon when Gerald heard a loud commotion outside. It didn't seem like it was dying down any time soon, so he decided to check it out.
A crowd of town's people gathered around a smaller group.
Gerald did his best to squeeze through to see better. He already suspected what was going on, but he wanted to make sure.
Two people were laid down on a stretcher, wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. An alchemist was currently examining them and administering some potions and medicine.
"What happened to them?" Gerald asked a nearby person.
The person spoke with a heavy tone, "Oh these poor guys, it was supposed to be an easy task, cleaning out the spider's nest for the old Lord, but they encountered a foul beast, a giant arachnid, a Broodmother!"
A woman recognized one of the wounded men and lamented, "Look! It's Gair, I knew him since he was a small child! Look at those horrible wounds, this is just too cruel! Gods are jealous of such a good lad, making him suffer so much!"
The Steelglades' group suffered severely this time. They lost one companion, two were severely wounded and the rest of them were full of cuts and bruises.
It appeared that the Broodmother was much more dangerous than Gerald experienced it to be. Or maybe it went mad after he burned down most of the nest and it became more aggressive when even more attackers came.
Gerald did feel slightly guilty for the destruction that happened. But it was also a pure coincidence that they met on the road. The same thing would probably have happened even if he didn't go on a killing spree inside the cave because the Steelglades weren't properly informed about the enemy.
In the end, it was their own overconfidence that resulted in such losses.
More people curiously walked closer, to see what the commotion was about. Meanwhile, Gerald slipped away and went to visit the blacksmith.
"Your order is finished, sir! Here it is," the blacksmith handed Gerald a pouch of silver tokens and Gerald handed him a few gold coins in return.
The silver tokens were a requirement for his plan. They represented him, and what he stood for. One side of the token had a big G, it was not in the writing of this world, but of Earth's. That way people would think it was just some arbitrary symbol.
The other side had a representation of an atom, one of the most important discoveries humans ever made and also a symbol of dominance over nature.
"Excellent craftsmanship!" Gerald praised as he was inspecting the token in his hand. "Now I can go back to Geldern for the final preparations."
He didn't pay any more attention to the gathering of people and simply left Freka.
Another half a day later he finally saw Geldern in the distance. He wasn't in a hurry, so his speed was slow and he took longer than predicted.
Gerald went back to his room at the Guild and stored his money in a chest. He put on his combat attire and pouches and took a few sacks for herbs.
His plans required a few more Swiftness Potions as a bargaining chip. But before he left, he spent a good hour drawing on another piece of paper.
Similar to Freka, he also visited a local blacksmith in Geldern and gave him the plans.
"What's this? It's going to be quite difficult to make it, and it's not going to be cheap…" The blacksmith frowned when he saw the detailed plans Gerald gave him. It was a most unusual request.
"Money is not a problem," Gerald threw him a small pouch full of coins.
"Oh," the blacksmith caught it and looked inside. His actions quickly changed, "Hehe, sir is quite generous, you don't have to worry, I'll begin working on sir's order right away!"
"But of course!" Gerald scoffed. "Take your time, I will be back in a few days and I need it to be perfect!"
Depending on the way you presented yourself people would treat you differently. Looking like a poor cripple on the outside, Gerald didn't attract any attention and he would be usually ignored.
Although this image was quite useful for everyday life, it was also a burden. Before, the blacksmith considered Gerald a poor bum with no future, though he didn't say it out loud. But although he didn't have much time to show his deeper thoughts, just his eyes showed his disdain.
Gathering herbs was just one of the things Gerald had to do. There was also something else, something that was brewing in his mind for a long time and it required his absolute attention.
A new form of magic.
If something went wrong, then there was potential for some extremely weird phenomena, so he decided to go far away from any curious eyes.
He was attempting to grasp Space magic. Or to be precise, control over the fabric of space itself.
Since people were able to create containers that connected to a separate space, he figured he could learn from it.
Space in itself was quite rigid and great amounts of energy or matter were required to bend it. A planet like Earth was quite massive, but the gravity produced by the bent space was quite weak in comparison.
And Gerald tried to do just that. Bend space to get to the much more useful side-effect, gravity, one of the weakest fundamental forces of the universe.
Arriving in the forest, Gerald found himself a nice tall tree and climbed up. He did it so he wouldn't be disturbed by wild animals.
The first thing he had to do is relive the memory of the time he examined the Golden Space Pouch. Quite some time has already passed, but he made sure to focus when examining it, so it was still clear in his mind.
For the next few hours, Gerald spent the time with closed eyes, sitting on a thick branch, with his back leaning on the tree trunk.
The sword on his hip suddenly started acting weird. It slowly lifted up and started floating horizontally in the wind.
Gerald's body also lifted up a few centimeters and started to sway, as if he was submerged in water.
Beads of sweat started to roll off his forehead as a frown started to form. This continued for a little while until Gerald tiredly exhaled and opened his eyes.
"Phew, this is much more difficult than I imagined it to be. I have to concentrate much harder to be able to just barely control it."
The sword had already fallen back down again and it was now motionlessly hanging from his belt. In just a few short minutes, Gerald completely exhausted his Mana reserves and had to stop.
"I already did it once, so the next time it should be easier, but the amount of Mana it's consuming is insane!" He complained, but there was nothing that could be done.
He took out a Mana Potion and chugged it down. Then he shifted his body to find a more comfortable position and started to meditate.
A quarter of an hour passed and he was ready to try again.
This time it was much easier to get the proper state of mind and the structure of space around him warped slightly.
There was no perceivable difference as a curvature in space cannot be observed directly, that's why he was also having such difficulties controlling it. Every detail had to be imagined in his mind, there were no external changes.
This time he warped the space in the other direction, towards the planet, and the pull of gravity increased slightly, dragging his cheeks downward. It made him look older.
A couple of minutes passed and he was exhausted again. "Damn, now I confirmed it! For 1G of gravity increase or decrease, it expends about 1 MP/s! That means I can only sustain it for just over ninety seconds! Crazy!"
Gerald wiped the sweat off his forehead, "If I want to use some other spells combined with being weightless, I can probably sustain it for about a minute before I run out of Mana."
He took another Greater Mana potion and drank it, "Hmph! Even if I can't use it for long, I still have to train!" With that, he proceeded to close his eyes and slowly recover for the next round.