"There! There he is!" The Knight from earlier, Alvrod, pointed a stiff finger at the figure emerging from the Gate.
Percival saw that a crowd had gathered.
Not any crowd, but a well-decorated party of Awakeners, fancy armor and everything.
Two Mages stood among them: one a Healer Mage, the other specializing in Earth magic. Alongside them were a Ranger and a Berserker.
Their average Level hovered around twenty.
Accompanying them was a warden, who proudly wore the sigil of the Golden Spire Guild (a single spire held aloft over two crossed swords) on the folds of his robe.
A few other Awakeners had gathered nearby too, scattered in loosely formed groups along the stone-paved street.
They all gazed at him. Curious. Incredulous.
The Lvl 1 who had dared to enter a Gamma Gate alone.
"You!" the warden, annoyed as he was, pointed accusingly at Percival. "Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to challenge a Gate World on your own?"
Percival said nothing, his eyes drifting past the man to the distant market stalls, hoping that a trader was still open for business.
"What?" Alford the Knight muttered with wide eyes. "How's that possible? He's in Lvl 10!"
He gestured at the crest above Percival's shoulder and the number beneath it.
The sparse crowd gasped, murmuring as they stared. "Wasn't he just Lvl 1 before he entered the Gate? How did he level up so fast?"
"That's impossible."
"Has that ever even happened before?"
The warden seemed indifferent to their murmurs.
He stepped forward, planting himself firmly in Percival's path. "You look at me when I'm talking to you," he demanded, glaring up at his face.
Percival paused, his eyes falling to the old man and the ugly mole that sat atop his crooked nose.
"I'm not afraid of you," declared the warden, his face twisted by pride and contempt. "I don't care if you're the Hero. You've forsaken us so you're nothing but an outworlder, and I represent the Golden Spire Guild!"
Another round of gasps came from the crowd.
The warden didn't think that his affiliation with the Golden Spire Guild was that alarming, so there must have been something else that had startled the crowd.
He was right.
"Wha— what are those?"
He saw one of the low-level Awakeners whisper, her finger shaking as she pointed behind the outworlder.
Following her gaze, the warden's eyes suddenly widened in sheer terror.
"By Azrael's hands!"
He stumbled backwards, only to fall to the ground and pick himself back up again.
One by one, Percival's Skeleton Soldiers emerged from the Gate World and gathered silently behind him, an army behind a general.
The Awakeners—every single one of them—stared with wide eyes of horror at the bone army of blue flames.
And at Percival, who undoubtedly, was their master.
Some took cautious steps back, others hid behind mightier party members, peeking with terror in their hearts.
"S—Skeletons," the warden stammered with a trembling voice. "You summon entities of the grave."
"The undead," the Knight whispered, staring. "So Necromancer is a Summoner Class with a Talent of awakening the undead."
"Now it makes sense how he was able to clear the Gate World on his own," the Earth Mage said, his eyes locked on Percival.
"But Skeletons! This is death magic!" the warden snarled with contempt. "How can the Hero awaken a Talent so evil?"
"Even with the Skeletons," the Healer Mage added, "it still doesn't make sense that he could clear a Gamma Gate—which usually requires a party of Lvl 20 Awakeners—by himself while only being Lvl 1."
Percival gave them all uninterested glances, then he looked at the warden.
"Would you mind getting out of my way?" he asked, gentle and cold.
"Heh! Not a chance, outworlder!" the warden had somehow found his courage. "Clearing this Gate World means you own it, and that's not allowed. A single person can't claim ownership to a Gate World."
He jabbed a finger sharply at Percival. "You have to sell it to a mayor immediately."
Knowing that it was a lawful demand, Percival didn't have any objections. He also didn't want any political issues this early on, so he conceded.
"Alright. Take me to the mayor, then."
"There is no mayor," muttered one of the Awakeners. "The last one fled to Eldermoor. Why else do you think this place is in such a slump?"
The warden turned to Percival who held a knowing look of victory on his face.
"If there's no mayor does that mean I get to keep ownership of the Gate World?" Percival gently walked through, forcing the scrawny man in robes to get out of the way.
There was a good rock for sitting by a skinny tree.
Percival sat on it. "At least until a new one is… ordained."
The warden scrambled further back as the Skeletons followed, gathering behind Percival.
"I suppose that is the case," he grumbled, dusting off his robes with irritated slaps. "But you can sell it to us. The Golden Spire Guild will pay you a fitting price for this D-Rank Gate World."
Percival looked up at the man, who now held a diplomatic expression on his face.
Despite the Golden Spire Guild being the most powerful guild in Valoris, like all guilds, hungered for every Gate World they could acquire, even lower-ranked ones like this.
It gave them political power to negotiate sales of these Gate Worlds to various mayors, and it was for this precise reason that they despised a situation such as this.
A random party claiming a Gate World or even worse, a single person.
"Sorry, but I'll have to decline," Percival refused calmly.
The warden grimaced, eyes flashing with disbelief. The rest of the Guild's party shot him questioning glances.
One of them—the Earth Mage, stepped forward.
"You can't be serious. Ordaining a new mayor could take months. Are you saying you want to keep hold of this Gate World for that long?"
Percival huffed. "It is mine, is it not?"
"That's not how it—!" the Healer Mage tried to speak but was silenced by the warden who raised a hand.
He stepped forward, his eyes boring down at Percival like a warning.
"Do you really want to make an enemy of the Golden Spire Guild, outworlder? Do you know just how much we control?"
Percival rested his elbows on his knees, his long hair spilling down his shoulders. "I know what you do not control."
He looked at the glowing portal. "This Gate World."
The warden's face reddened with anger, hands clenched. "Why you rotten elseworldling—"
"It's best that we go for now," Alford, the Knight, stepped between them. "Let us report back to the Guild and follow their orders."
Percival stayed seated, fearless, looking up at the warden as the man glared down at him.
"We will return." The warden said it like a promise.
Percival offered no reply.
With final, fleeting glances and hidden thoughts of anger and suspicion, the Golden Spire Guild's party turned and left, disappearing down the stony path.
Percival breathed out. A long, slow sigh.
He knew for certain they would be back, stronger and better prepared, knowing he was the Hero.
Percival didn't truly intend to own the Gate World for long, but he wasn't going to surrender it because he was threatened.
He knew the Golden Spire Guild well.
This was their way.
In the former timeline, he had partnered with many Awakeners from their Guild to clear numerous Gate Worlds and defend towns and hamlets from demonspawn invasions.
He knew the variety of Awakeners they had in their disposal, and he knew of their strong political relationship with many mayors and lords.
He knew all of this, and yet, he refused to sell the Gate World to them.
It would have simplified things. And that was what he wanted, wasn't it?
Clearly it was that ego again.
That stubborn,reflexive refusal to align with anything or anyone that had played a part in his betrayal.
Percival sighed the thought away and looked at the Gate World.
By now, it would have regenerated, an act that would turn the dangerous Gate World into a standard dungeon, allowing for repeat clears.
This meant he could go into the Gate World and clear it as many times as he wanted.
Since he owned it, he wouldn't have to pay an entry fee.
It was a chance to level up even higher.
To reach his goal of Lvl 20.
But first, he summoned his status screen to assess his progress.