Insect Tamer's Ascension

They made their way toward the group of workers that were assigned to provide them with the equipment.

The whole process was seamless, where they took everyone’s measurements, and every one of them was handed their gear.

It was all medium-grade equipment, which, according to the kingdom, was more than sufficient for their current requirements.

Theo decided to skip the armor. The one he already wore was far superior to what the kingdom was going to offer.

They rested for the night, and by morning, everyone stood ready in full gear, prepared to move toward the gate’s location.

The carriages bore the emperor’s crest, drawing attention wherever they passed. People stopped to stare since it was nothing short of a spectacle.

This time, a group of women caught sight of Theo and Lucien through the window, and it was as if they were going crazy. Clara quickly shut the window, earning a quiet chuckle from Theo.

But one thing was certain now: Theo and his group would gain far more attention than before. After all, not many received direct support from the emperor.

The journey lasted only a few hours before the terrain grew rough and uneven.

That was when Theo noticed the wheels the carriage was using for the first time.

Despite the harsh terrain, the ride remained incredibly smooth; in fact, they couldn’t feel any uneasiness inside the carriage, as if they were traveling over a perfectly paved road.

It made Theo wonder whether it was some kind of advanced suspension system or something unique to this world.

But the thought of owning such a carriage for his own family crossed his mind, and just like that, it became a goal.

After they had passed through stretches of forests, all the carriages finally came to a halt.

That was when they saw the gate.

Theo extended his neck out of the window and narrowed his eyes.

"What is it, young master?" Clara asked from the side, making Theo look at the gate with even more focus.

"This gate is much weaker; I can sense it."

He could see that the strands of spatial energy around the gate were very thin, far less dense than those he had seen in the crawler gate.

And that brought a small sense of relief within him.

As they gathered in front of the gate, Theo stepped forward and glanced at the group.

Even the knight, Kaelor, seemed tense, his nerves working overtime, while the usually arrogant noble brat had gone unusually tame.

Lysara wore a perplexed expression on her face, while the scout was steadying himself with deep breaths.

Lucien, on the other hand, wore a plain expression.

Out of all of them, he was the only one, beside Theo and his attendants, who had been in a gate, at least from what everyone had told him during the training discussions.

Theo knew this was the moment to say something.

"The gates are just worlds connecting to ours. Sometimes these worlds are harsh... sometimes they are not," he said, grabbing everyone’s attention.

"But the emperor wouldn’t send us if it were beyond what we can handle. So let’s get inside with confidence so that we can finish this mission early."

Even after his words, the tension in the group didn’t fade much. Theo could see the nerves on their faces.

’I need to work on my speech skills...’ he thought, raising his hand to signal them to follow.

"We will give our best the moment we step inside. Creatures in there can sense danger a lot better than we can."

Now that Theo was a lot closer to the gate, he could feel the strands of energy brushing against his body and entering it.

But unlike the last one, these strands felt very calm, almost soothing, as if they were refilling him with the energy again while sealing it within. Theo took a deep breath, a small smile forming on his face without him even realizing that everyone was looking at him.

That genuine smile of refreshment and confidence did more for the whole group than his earlier speech ever could. Their faces visibly relaxed.

"Hold each other’s hands. We will be entering soon," Theo said.

He grabbed Clara’s hand, while Clara took Elias’s, and the chain went on with the knight at the very back and the supporting members in the middle.

Theo took a few steps forward.

A slight resistance tugged somewhere along the chain, yet he tightened his grip and pulled his hand with a little more strength. Clara understood him right away, passing the signal down to Elias, and soon the whole group started moving together again.

Theo felt himself entering the core of the whole spatial energy.

And in the next blink, the terrain around him changed completely, and the hand he had been holding wasn’t there anymore.

But that was only for a split second.

Clara’s hand reappeared in his, as if she had teleported here a second later. That small delay made Theo realize that the spatial energy and the gates were a lot more complicated than he had thought.

With his mind already shifting into battle mode, Theo gave Clara a brief look before letting go of her hands and started scanning their surroundings.

The ground beneath him was covered with soil, but something felt odd; the whole soil was deep, vivid red in color, making Theo think that it was a little too bright than any usual red soil.

His eyes went up, and he saw towering trees packed tightly together. He let out a sigh of relief, realizing that there were plenty of places to hide.

But the trees were the same crimson shade like the soil, and even the smaller plants carried that unnatural red hue.

It was as if the entire world had been painted in a bright red color, one that made even the flowers look sharp and strangely beautiful.

He glanced back to see that the entire group had arrived and was looking around cautiously.

"Where did the gate go?" the knight asked with a frown while looking at the ominous forest.

"The gate we enter from is different from the one we leave through," Theo replied. "We need to find the exit gate in this world as well."

At that statement, it was as if their understanding of the whole world for most of them had been overturned, which made Theo feel like he had failed, at least a little, as their leader.

They should have been aware of this information already.