"He's a little bit special." Ron smiled as the shadow werewolf finished its bow and walked onto the dimensional platform. It took on a unique stance and started gathering an insane amount of energy.
Erin was shocked to see its power actually materialize before his very eyes.
As the shadow werewolf finished accumulating power, it started blasting out an incredible amount of interdimensional energy! All that energy flowed towards the platform's metal gate. The gate reacted immediately and was greedily absorbing all of it!
The platform quickly lit up instantly!
In mere seconds, the once dim area became as bright as day. The runes covering the giant gate on top of the platform started lighting up one-by-one. When they were all lit, a swirling portal filled the edges of the previously empty dimensional gate.
A holographic control panel suddenly appeared in front of the platform. It activated the same time that the dimensional gate opened.
The shadow werewolf walked up the dimensional gate's control panel located in front of the platform. It looked blankly at the control panel before lifting its head and staring at Ron.
"Connect it to planet Charh of the Dusk Galaxy." Ron said as he glanced back at his familiar.
"Ooh! Planet Charh! We've never been there before!" Olivia and Edward exclaimed with great enthusiasm. The both of them looked like they were about to go on an adventure!
'Planet Charh?' Erin has never heard of this planet before. However, he does know about the Dusk Galaxy! It was one of the most affluent galaxies in the past. He wondered if it was still prosperous today.
Erin noticed a lot of small text appearing on the holographic control panel's screen. He sighed in relief because he realized that he could still recognize all of these characters.
'Thankfully it seems the universe's common language hasn't changed.' Erin gratifyingly thought to himself.
"Master." The shadow werewolf suddenly spoke up!
"The guardians stationed on Planet Charh are requesting verification of your identity."
Ron expected this and took out a crest from one of his pockets. With a light toss, the crest flew directly into the center of the dimensional gate.
After three minutes, the text on the control panel finally updated and the shadow monster spoke again.
"Master, they have confirmed your identity. A guardian by the name of Pearson also sends his sincere regards to Master Darwin. We've also been granted sub-gate permissions. They wish to know which sub-gate you want our gate connected to."
"Oh? That lad was stationed on planet Charh? Haha, that makes things easier then." Ron smirked in delight.
'If that's the case..' Ron changed his plans a little bit since the odds were greatly in his favor.
"Tell them A-18."
"Understood."
The shadow werewolf typed in a short response on the control panel.
It only took a few seconds this time before a response came. It seems the guardians were treating their gate's connection with a lot more attention this time.
"Master, they said that our original wait time for sub-gate A-18 was approximately seven hours. However, our gate has been upgraded to the highest priority level. It will connect to A-18 in about thirty seconds."
From Erin's perspective, the shadow monster bowed to Ron and disappeared.
In reality, it fulfilled it's task and returned to Ron's shadow.
"Fantastic!" Ron was ecstatic. This actually saved him a lot of time and hassle.
Normally, after getting the guardians approval, their gate would simply be connected to the next available sub-gate. After they entered, they could literally arrive on any part of Planet Charh. This could easily be near or far from their destination. However, since they got to pick, Ron obviously picked the closest gate.
Ron also planned to hire a private planetary ship to quickly get towards his intended destination in the shortest time possible. Unlike starships, planetary ships could only travel through a planet's atmosphere. They were far less expensive and more commonplace than starships.
"Well then, what are you all waiting for?" The same moment Ron spoke, the portal inside of the dimensional gate changed colors! It was now connected to sub-gate A-18.
Without any hesitation, Edward and Olivia ran into the dimensional gate's portal. Erin quickly followed and Ron walked in last.
As Erin exited the portal, he was stunned by the remarkable things in his surroundings!
All around him was an area filled with hundreds of small dimensional gates! It looked like it formed a giant circle.
The portals in these gates were constantly flashing as people teleported in. Most of these people were very well-dressed. Some even came in accompanied by small beasts and oddly shaped-monsters.
There were silver-armoured guards stationed at each gate keeping the flow of traffic moving smoothly. They were strict but polite with their methods.
Erin looked closely and noticed that these guards all had cybertronic weapons and shields!
These weapons could easily cut through the hull of a small starship. In turn, the shields could block plasma guns with ease. The guards also had small plasma pistols buckled to the sides of their waist.
The entire room looked very well-decorated. There were even giant windows near the ceiling of this room that let in a lot of natural light. The height of the room appeared to be several tens of stories high.
The gate that they came out of was surprisingly in the epicenter of this vibrantly populated circle.
While all the other dimensional gates were on the main floor of this room, the dimensional gate that they came from was actually on it's own giant platform! Although it was only slightly elevated compared to the other gates, it stood out completely.
To the north and south of the room were giant halls that led outside the room. Erin was surprised to see that everybody was walking down to the South hall. Although there weren't any guards blocking the north hall, nobody was exiting through the north at all.
Erin casually looked behind himself and was stunned by the sight of an even bigger dimensional gate! This gate actually looked fifteen times bigger than the huge gate he had just entered through!
There were even more guards stationed at this large dimensional gate. To Erin's surprise, the guards here didn't rush them to leave at all.
As Ron finally stepped out, the large dimensional gate temporarily shut down.
One of the guards with an extremely powerful aura walked to Ron and carefully handed him back his crest. Erin noticed that this was the same crest that Ron threw into the portal when the Guardians of Charh requested identification.
The aura emanating from this guard actually felt stronger than Darwin's aura!
Unlike most of the other guards, this powerful guard was wearing gold armour instead. He also had a small metallic bird on his left shoulder.
[[Name: ????] [Level: ????]
[Species: Gold Hawk] [Grade: Rare]
[Affinity: 0/100 | Recent Changes: 0]
[Primary Skill: Bird of Prey (Tracks Target within the same planet)]
[Secondary Skill: Clear-Sight (Counters weaker illusions)]
"Bird of Prey? Clear-Sight? Both of them sound like really useful skills." Erin muttered these words unintentionally.
In the end, the golden guard still heard Erin and looked at him with surprise and delight.
"Goodness. I did not expect to see such a young and powerful Tamer today!" The golden guard looked at Erin warmly. It was common knowledge that only Tamer's at a higher level than the targeted beasts can read their details.
Although he was confused by the guards response, Erin noticed Ron's gaze and quickly understood how to react.
"Haha. I appreciate the compliment. However, I'm still studying." Erin bowed his head gently.
"Modesty is a good trait. You have a bright future." The guard glanced at Erin with respect this time.
The golden guard then re-directed his respectful gaze back to Ron.
"Sir Ron, Master Pearson sends his deepest regrets that he can't accompany you today." The guard spoke with a very polite tone as he bowed slightly.
"Furthermore, Master Pearson informed us to tell you that he has also added his identity signature to the external segment of your crest." The guard glanced at Ron's crest with both deep respect and fear. "If you require anything, we will do our best to accommodate your needs."
"Haha. I appreciate it. In fact, I just need a planetary ship to drop us off at the planet's Clover Auction House. Sooner would be better." Ron said this very casually.
When the guard heard the name Clover, his eyes had a flash of enlightenment!
"Of course! We will prepare it immediately!" The guard pulled out a small communication device and sent out a few encrypted messages.
"If you would please." The golden armoured guard motioned for the group to follow him.
As the group followed the golden guard, Erin noticed that everyone else instinctively made way for their group.
The room, despite being very big, was already quite crowded because of the immense number of people teleporting in. It just so happened that a lot of these people were scared of accidentally offending the gold guard; keeping their distance was the natural reaction.
"Why are all the dimensional gates only receiving people?" Edward glanced around the giant room and looked confused.
Erin noticed this earlier and had the same question. He didn't say anything because he didn't know if this was common knowledge or not.
"That's because Charh is a very popular commercial mega-planet!" The golden guard proudly responded. "There are simply too many incoming and outgoing travelers. Thus, a long time ago, the Guardians decided to build several hundred large rooms dedicated for either one or the other. Most of those rooms look almost identical to this one. It made traffic flow a lot better."
"Ohh!" Edward was impressed by this answer. Although he knew this planet was famous, he did not know it received so many people! Olivia also looked enlightened by this answer.
'There are that many dimensional gates on this planet?!' Erin looked very shocked. The golden guard's answer basically meant that the planet had at least a hundred thousand dimensional gates at the bare minimum! Although he just recently heard about the term dimensional gate, he assumed that they were expensive to make.
Either they were a lot more affordable than he anticipated, or the wealth of Planet Charh was at a level he couldn't imagine!
As the group continued walking, Erin noticed that the crowd around them was thinning out quickly. It was at this point of time that he realized the golden guard was guiding them to the North hall!
This was the only hall in the room that nobody else was going to!
Erin wasn't really concerned or worried since it felt like they were being treated like guests. If anything, he was just really curious!
What exactly was on the other side of this North hall?
Once the group entered the North hall, Erin quickly found out that it was extremely long. When he looked down the hall, he couldn't even see the other end!
The golden guard and Ron stopped suddenly and just stood there quietly. Erin, Olivia, and Edward didn't understand what was happening but they stood behind and waited patiently too.
After about half a minute, they saw a levitating vehicle appear over the horizons of the hallway. Unlike an ordinary vehicle, this one had a completely open roof and no driver's seat.
When the levitating vehicle arrived, it lowered itself to the ground and automatically opened its doors. Edward and Olivia have never been on such a vehicle before and had their eyes glued on it. Erin was joyful because he finally saw a levitating vehicle!
There were two rows of comfortable velvet seats on the vehicle. Ron went around and sat in the front while Olivia, Edward, and Erin sat in the back in that order. The golden guard waited for everyone to board before he sat on the front row next to Ron.
The levitating vehicle started up the moment all the doors were closed and sped down the halls at an incredible speed!
Even though there was no windshield, the group inside the vehicle didn't feel or hear anything at all. When Erin looked at the sides of the vehicle closely, he saw a barely visible barrier covering the entire levitating vehicle.
'Plasma barrier! A simple transportation device is covered entirely by a plasma barrier?!' Erin was stunned by this show of wealth.
Plasma barriers were normally used on civilian grade starships because they had generators large enough to make it cost-effective. For a generator to work on a vehicle this small meant that it was literally burning away money.
As the levitating vehicle approached the exit of the hall, it suddenly increased in speed.
The movements were so smooth that Erin didn't feel a thing!
In literally no time at all, the vehicle shot out of the hallway and started gliding over a ginormous open-air platform.
This platform was so huge that Erin literally saw it stretch from the Eastern horizon to the Western horizon!
What really caught his attention were the thousands of small starships casually landing and taking off across this platform!
When he took a deeper glance, he saw similar pathways sectioned across the platform that the starships avoided landing on. Some of these pathways had entrances and exits that descended to the floors below. These very long paths had countless hovering vehicles gliding across them.
The path that Erin's vehicle was on was surprisingly empty.
The sight of so many starships shocked Olivia and Edward a lot. Their eyes lit up with so much excitement that Erin could literally feel the emotions emitting around them.
"This is one of several thousand public docking platforms on Charh." The golden guard noticed the youngling's excitement and explained to them where the group was. "We'll be approaching the platform for planetary ships soon!"
In just a few more minutes, the path they were on suddenly descended at a fairly steep incline. The starship platform disappeared from everyone's sights and in its place was another long hallway.
As the hallway leveled off again, three new hallways appeared. The vehicle smoothly transitioned into the rightmost hall and was still moving very fast! After a while, even more hallways appeared. This cycle repeated several times before Erin finally lost track of where they were going.
'Such complexity' Erin thought to himself. He realized the true immensity of this planet if this area was just considered one out of several thousand.
After about ten minutes, the levitating vehicle finally broke the chain of continuing hallways and entered another ginormous platform!
However, this time, the platform only had a one carrier-sized planetary ship parked on it!
'Surely that isn't our ride?' Erin realized this ship could literally transport over thirty thousand people.