Delayed Transfer

Mark sat in one of the bar seats that was recently vacated and ordered a mug of ale. He planned to listen to the conversation between the customers and due to how loud everyone was talking, it would not be too hard for him to overhear the topics they would discuss. He just had to act like he wasn’t listening.

As expected, the conversation revolves around the Star Wars movie franchise and the Star Wars gaming tent. There was a healthy debate between a group of soldiers about siding with the empire or siding with the rebels and since most of the soldiers were idealistic young men almost all of them sided with the rebels.

Mark was highly amused to overhear that one of their friends who probably liked to be contrary sided with the empire and kept telling everyone that the army was like the soldiers of the empire. Even though the guy was obvious in his rage-baiting tactics, his friends fell for it and argued with him until their faces were red.

Suddenly they were joined by three soldiers and one was excitedly telling his friends that he successfully entered the Star Wars gaming tent. His friends looked at him in envy and asked what he encountered inside.

Apparently, only the players could invite up to two of their friends to join him while playing the game so most of the people who wanted to learn what the Star Wars gaming tent was all about could only speculate. Even though there was a huge television set showing a video clip commercial of the game, they still couldn’t imagine what was going on inside.

“It’s like I’m a god and created an avatar of myself in the world of Star Wars! I chose to become a Jedi Knight of course and I controlled my Jedi to fight alien beings! It’s so wonderful! I partied with other players and did some quests. When we complete a mission or kill enemies we level up and our strength grows! Not only that I unlock more powerful abilities the higher I get!” The soldier said to his friends.

Mark could almost see the exclamation mark after each sentence the soldiers uttered. The man’s excitement was obvious and it made his friends antic.

“I want to experience it as well!” One of his friends said.

“The line is so long. If you queue now, you will probably only be able to play in two or three weeks,” One of them said forlornly.

“I overheard that there are a couple of secret tents behind the gaming tents that were reserved for the people of the circus. Maybe we can befriend one of them so they’ll let us play there!” One of them said and Mark almost laughed.

Mark focused his attention on another group but basically, all of the groups surrounding him were talking about different variations of the same topics which were the Star Wars movies and the Star Wars The Old Republic game.

It was a bit jarring for him to look around since he was in a medieval fantasy-style tavern but everyone was discussing the Star Wars films and games. After nursing his mug of ale for about an hour, Mark left the tavern.

It was still early so he roamed around the circus. The cinema tents had a long queue in the ticket booths but there was still a huge crowd in front of the Television set that was set up in front of the entrance and it showed the commercial for all the movies and they were being looped over and over again.

Mark briefly checked the content of the tickets and there were details on it like the date and time the ticket was valid. After that, he headed to the computer gaming tents and the queue was also very long in the ticket booth. He briefly checked the inside and was surprised to see the circus leaders were in the rest area drinking coffee.

“Mark! Come join us,” Hamil called when he was noticed by the circus leader.

“What are you all doing here?” Mark asked.

Hamil was with the three elven sisters, Dozon the acrobat, Mosalan the halfling, Nilfur the dwarf, Zenethor the beast man zookeeper, and Linuel the theater director.

“We’re resting here a bit and waiting until your friends return from Narcone. We all planned to talk with them regarding visiting your planet,” Dozon said.

“Hamil had been telling us all the things he saw. He told us that he glimpsed the huge metal bird that flew above and one of your friends informed him that it was like a spaceship from Star Wars wherein a lot of people were riding it to travel the countries across the ocean,” Mosalan said.

“He told us about the carriages that ran by gasoline or electricity that were all over the streets,” Nilfur said.

“He told us all about the huge shops that sell everything!” Solinae said and Mark could almost see the elven woman already planning her shopping adventure.

“Hamil told us about the amusement park and we planned to copy some of the attractions there but as we mentioned already, it would still be best if we see them personally,” Linuel said.

“We’ve been informed that you’re currently negotiating with your government. Will you encounter any problems?” Mentorra asked.

“Nothing I can’t handle but it’s still going to be a delicate situation. I would like to remain amicable with them since I don’t want to sneak around while visiting my own world. By the way, please remember that anyone that I didn’t authorize wouldn’t be allowed to use the Warp Gate to enter my world so once you’re done speaking with Donald and Robert, please talk to me regarding who would visit so I can give authorization,” Mark told everyone.

“Also for safety reasons, I removed everyone’s authorization from everyone in the circus to enter the Warp Gate on Earth,” Mark added.

That meant that even if Sam and the others opened the Warp Gate to Earth, they were the only ones who would be able to enter it since those who were not authorized would just be blocked. Mark was glad to see that no one was offended since they understood the situation.

“Your mastery over your Warp Gate is commendable. You could assign a specific person to use it and even assign only one of the connections. The intricacy and complexity of such magic is beyond Ken that you deserve to be called an archmage already,” Solinae said.

“I don’t feel like an archmage. I feel like all I had was just brute force. I couldn’t even defeat that lich that attacked us before,” Mark said.

Everyone laughed when they heard what Mark had said.

“That lich was a grand monarch lich which is one of the most powerful beings in this world. The fact it was able to summon multiple bone dragons was proof of that. Also, the fact that you were able to drive it off was also proof of your power,” Mentorra added.

Mark was taken aback when he heard that. He never thought that the lich was that powerful. He remembered that it made him discouraged a bit due to him not being able to defeat that undead and his confidence in his power waned a little.

“Is there a device or an enchanted item that one could use to measure one's magic to know for sure if one has reached archmage status?” Mark asked.

“In the magical academies there are items that could measure mana but that is not indicative of one’s true power but it’s still used to grant a wizard the archmage status.,” Solinae answered.

Mark knew that if he were given a chance, he would probably do that test to know for sure if he had reached the esteemed status of archmage.