(chapter 3 ended with gauge and var'zek discussing about the history and formation of gates. Var explains that, the stronger the gate the further it teleports a person. The gate gauge walks through, threw him across 43 systems)
"43 systems!!!!"
Var shouts again as he couldn't believe his own ears, he uses his hands to wipe of his face and calm himself down,
"What the hell happened on your planet. To create a gate that breaks through 20 systems requires the power of aleast a low tier celestial, let alone 43 systems."
Var pulls out his study notes and notes down the extra ordinary phenomenon.....
"43 gates that is higher than the 17 system warp north of the vel karthar city", Var murmurs to himself.
Gauge approaches Var who turned his back on him to take notes about the incident,
"Heyy Var, is something wrong",
as he makes a concerned expression, Var realized he reacted out loud and cools his head down,
"Come lets walk though the market and I will tell you why I panicked"
As he leads gauge through the market something catches gauge's eyes,it was an armory shop selling armors and weapons, one sharp dagger intrigues him,A dagger named 'Feryx' written on the holographic showcase,
"How much for this dagger I will trade it with you for 500 Azorians(currency used in Azoria)."
The shop keeper looks confused and thinks of gauge as an idiot, Var overheard this and bursts into laughter,
"You really have no idea do you?,Azorian? Which kingdom uses that, the kingdom of 'lost speck in the vast universe'? "
As he continues laughing, he places one arm over gauge's shoulder to balance himself.
"As I told you kid....vel kartha is a city based only on gates, that means you need gate energy as currency to buy stuff in vel kartha"
Var explains as he wipes of the tears from all the laughing,he reaches into his bag searching for something and pulls out a device, a hemispherical device with a digital screen,
"What is this, how does words appear out of nowhere?"
Gauge asked innocently, var looks at him again as if he is looking at a kid,
"Tadaa!! Introducing riftcore space 3.0, a personal gate energy measuring device i brought from a traveller merchant who came from raftar the city of knowledge located in the satellite zephyros. The original prototype only measures gate energy but this updated version can collect and store gate energy for trading purposes. Almost everybody in vel karthar owns a riftcore"
He navigates the device to its payment screen and looks up at the merchant and asks how much for the dagger
"700 gate units"
Replied the merchant, Var was genuinely confused,he looked at the shopkeeper with a suspicion
"700 units? I brought the riftcore for 300 units and you are telling me a primitive dagger costs 700 units?"
The merchant sighs and shakes his head, and he looks at var,
"All you people are the same, no one understands quality material. This dagger was made from a material extracted from the spine of primitive creature spanning the wilderness of vel kartha, this creature is able to concentrate magma energy in its spine and emit beams of hot blue magma, so this dagger can be imbued with hot flames and used in a battle to gain the upper hand, it is a rare breed."
Var checks his balance on the riftcore '270 gate units' appears in the screen. As Gauge gets a sight of this. he giggles, Var was totally embarassed and started diverting the topic,
"So we collect currency in the form of gate energy what do we do with this gate energy? Well each gate is unique and by unique I mean the way it affects mortal who walks through it.We use this gate energy to shield us from the effects which actually depletes it, this gate energy is made from rare ores dropped from the gates at times but one ore is so powerfull 10,000 gate units can be materialized. The gate I walked through accelerated time around its domain and so I aged 15 Nytherra years"
Var stops and asks the riftcore space.
"How much is 1 Nytherran year in Earth equivalents"
An answer pops on the screen '34 Earth years', var turn the screen towards gauge and shows him.
"According to the data of the gate you walked through that gate in its domain must have accelerated the rate of life force depletion
(mordan remembers when the soldiers fell to their death near the gate)
You can expect no less from a gate that warped through 43 systems, what you can't expect is a mortal walking through it unfazed. Maybe there is more to you then it meets the eye..."
Both stare at each other in an awkward manner, Var was so immersed in explaining about the gates he forgot to ask about gauge's name,
"Whats your name kid"
"Mordan gauge"
" Ahhh well there's more to you than it meets the eye mordan gauge. Well now that you are here what do you seek."
Gauge thinks for a while, he doesn't know what he seeks! not even in the slightest, this isn't what he was expecting when he walked past the gates of the so called Enderworld,
" Well I came here seeking answers, this place isn't quite what I expected so I actually wanna go home."
Var was astounded and annoyed at the same time, he suddenly turned his head towards him,
"Go home ? You cut my head just so you could go home? You gatewalkers, you don't even know what to expect past your own world, as if anywhere you go the well of knowledge was gonna greet you the place you land in. Agh....43 system warp to solar system isn't possible and a gate is only one way you, walk in and it's over you don't return through it."
Gauge was dumbfound from this info and holds var's arm and stops him from walking,
"What?? Then how am I supposed to go home"
"You should have thought of that before you stepped into a distortion.We have to find an alternative pathway to send you to your home, and luckily vel kartha has a handful of these gates."
Var answered frustrated. Gauge responds,
"Thats the lucky part? A handful of them?"
Var sighed, (These gatewalkers truly do not know anything) he thought to himself and answers
"Yess a supernatural phenomenon that is rare to occur and a handful of them? Yes that is lucky, Now there is this 17 system warp to the north of this city and only God knows where it leads..."
Gauge with a mocking smirk on his face asks,
"So what, I enter one of the gates and hope I land in my bedroom? Is that it?"
Var actually laughs to this,
"Ha ha ha you might just have to, now give me a minute I need to track the exact location of the gate with the riftcore (riftcore spikes suddenly with a bleeping sound) ah shit I should've expected this."
Gauge curiously asked," why what's wrong?"
Var replies, " well with the potential to walk through a gate across so many systems, you the might be what's wrong, how did I not think he would notice."
"He...?" Repeats gauge as the bleeping intensity and frequency increases,
"The riftcore is being disturbed by someone with the same powers as the gate, it is definitely him and he is here."
The bleeping suddenly stops and both var and gauge disappear from the bazaar and someone from the crowd mentions,
"it must be him again, the Gatekeeper is on the prowl"
Next chapter - The descendent of an unknown lineage.