A Gate

"Oh now I feel something!" Josh looked around, trying to find the location of the source.

Ana also felt the feeling of mana, which slightly surprised her with it's density.

Up until now, both Ana and Josh had been unable to detect anything, like nothing. They couldn't sense wether there was something near them through mana waves due to the gate that was interfering. Thankfully they were well trained, and didn't rely solely on mana to detect things.

The only reason they were able to get this far in finding the gate was because of the Spirit Eye, a rare item that could improve magic power. It was like a staff, but in ball form.

There wasn't a lot known about the items that came from gates, as not many people could even unlock the full potential of these items in the first place.

But what is a Spirit Eye? Because of it's amazing abilities, the Spirit Eye was researched for over a decade, and scientists are still finding new things about it to this day!

There are only 3 of them in the world though…

Anyways, how do Spirit Eyes form? They're actually a natural existence and can't be artificially made, well not with the current technology anyways. Like in the name, Spirit Eyes come from spirits. They form when a spirit dies, and due to spirits being immortal, it's not a common occurrence. There are said to be other ways Spirit Eyes are formed, but those from spiritual worlds have refused to disclose anything. Thus leaving it up to the scientists on Earth to figure it out themselves.

After finally being able to sense the mana around, Josh carefully put the Spirit Eye away.

Alex's eyes widened, 'What? What did he just do?!'

The crystal ball in Josh's hand had just vanished into thin air. Although Alex knew that such things should be of common occurrence now that she would be around them, she still couldn't hold back her shock.

'Would I be able to do such things in the future?' Her eyes sparkled at just the though of being able to use magic.

Ana's voice interrupted her fantasy, "Come here you two, we need to talk." She beckoned them with her hand.

Alex and Caron obediently went over to her, Alex being a little behind due to the weight of the backpack.

"We've made up a plan, only problem is you two." Ana put her hand on both Alex and Caron's shoulder. "Listen close…"

Josh was a combat magician, though he didn't look like it, he could pack in quite the punch. And while his skill in close combat might not be up to par with Ana's, his real worth lied in his magical abilities.

Ana on the other hand, while she was a very skilled swordswoman, and had a fire-type sword aura, she was just… Too strong…

The backpack actually didn't contain as much as you would think, it had food, med-kits, blankets, and a couple potions. And those were in small amounts. The reason why the backpack was so unnaturally heavy, was because of the 15 iron swords inside of it.

The reason behind this was that every time Ana would use her sword, or use sword aura, the weapon would begin to degrade. So much so, that she had to have at least 10 swords on her just in case one of them would break in a battle.

It's understandable that the swords would be unable to contain such power, and on top of that, Ana couldn't help it. Aura is based off yourself, personality, likes, dislikes, you could say that Aura is like another limb. And while it is extremely difficult, it's possible to circulate it into your weapon of use.

Ana's aura, like her personality, is fiery and fierce. And so there's no way that a simple iron sword could handle it without breaking.

But why not just use a better sword? As said before, gates are not common, and so items like swords, crystals, elixirs, etc. Are also very uncommon, thus every time anything came out of these gates, it would immediately be confiscated by the government for further research.

And so, there'd be not way for Ana to get her hands on a better weapon, and the ones made on Earth weren't really meant to be infused with aura.

"But you're so strong Ms. Ana! Why wont they let you use one of those special swords?" Alex said.

Ana's mouth curved into a smile, "Yeah, I'm strong. But the people who work for the government are stronger, and have more political power. I bet that even a normal person would be able to get their hands on a good weapon if they had the money and authority."

She patted the iron sword on her waist, "But it's fine, I don't need a fancy sword to kill a monster."

"Anyways, the plan is that both me and Josh will clear the way of monsters, and this…" Josh threw a small disc at her, the size of her palm.

She held it in front of Caron, "You'll use this to go ahead and place a protective barrier, that way we'll be able to safely rest before we go back to fighting."

"Try to find somewhere that's hidden, just because it's a barrier doesn't mean we'll be completely safe." Caron grabbed the disc and held it in his hand, it was pretty light for a barrier.

He inspected the disc, trying to figure out how it worked, "Uh, how does it turn on?"

"Here." Ana grabbed the disc from him and pointed at the black circle on top, it slightly went inwards.

"You tap this and throw it to the ground, as soon as it hits the floor a barrier will go up." She motioned herself throwing the disc.

"Oh yeah, only throw it if you're sure there's no monster near you. It will prevent anything that's not human from coming in or out, so if something gets stuck in there with you. It's there until you kill it."

"Oh." Caron looked at the disc, wondering how such a small thing would be able to protect them.

"Something get's stuck in there, you might as well not even use the barrier at all." She handed the disc back to him.

"Can we use it more than once?" Alex asked, if they threw it wrong could they pick it up and change it?

"Nope, the spell engraved on this is one time use, it's stuck to the ground the moment it activates." She shook her head.

"So make sure when you throw it, your sure about it's position."

Alex and Caron nodded, but they themselves were unsure if they would be able to handle such a task.

Josh came up behind them, patting them on the shoulder. Alex and Caron jumped in surprise.

"You don't need to worry to much, even if you fail it won't matter." Josh tried to motivate them, but it only made them feel more aware.

Ana's eyebrows scrunched up, but she held back. "Alex you can drop the backpack, it'll only slow you down."

Alex nodded and took off the bag, feeling a bit better with less weight on her shoulders.

"So where is it?" She heard about gates from Josh, and had read about them in novels, but she had never seen one in real life! This was a once in a life time chance!

"Follow me, it should be around here." Josh walked ahead, and the three of them followed him.

Alex one again was flabbergasted, her eyes widened just as much as her mouth was open.

'So this is a gate…'