Theo moved away from the gate, trying to distance himself from it. Its energy was distracting him as it constantly clung to his body and interacted with the spatial energy within him.

The moment he thought about speaking to Oric, the instructor suddenly turned toward him, his eyes widening.

Oric looked momentarily confused, but Theo sharply turned his head back toward the gate.

’Its energy changed... what??’ Theo frowned; he was also confused. It felt like the very nature of the gate had changed for some reason.

The output of its spatial energy felt like it was weakening with each passing moment. Then, within a few seconds, the gate’s energy twisted into a spiraling churn, becoming disturbingly chaotic.

"G-Get back!" Theo shouted as a wave of energy struck him, snapping him out of his daze.

He grabbed Clara and Elias by their hands and pulled them back, leaving them startled.

"What happened, young master?!" Clara asked, while confusion began spreading through the group.

A few seconds later, the gate trembled and vanished with a ’POOF’.

The next instant, everyone felt a shockwave ripple.

Theo felt it far more intensely than others due to his sensitivity.

[Lesser Spatial Awareness has leveled up!]

A notification flashed, but Theo clutched his ears as the impact of the shockwave made it feel like blood would burst out of them.

Oric, Mae, and Corven stared at the now-empty space where the gate had been a moment ago, stunned.

Then Oric turned his gaze back to Theo, who had lowered his hands from his ears and was looking up.

When Theo’s eyes met Oric’s, it felt like the guy knew something about him; there was a knowing gaze on his face.

Before Theo would dwell on it, chaos erupted. Everyone started muttering and shouting among each other, their voices overlapping, all talking about the vanished gate.

"The mission members that returned from the gate, please come to this hut urgently," Mae, the female instructor, called out sharply.

Without sparing anyone another glance, she turned and walked off.

Theo lingered for a few seconds before following along just like the others. Everyone’s minds were racing; the weight of all that had happened had started to make them feel exhausted.

Inside the hut, a small table stood in the corner. The instructors sat on the opposite side, their sharp gazes sweeping over the group.

Mae’s eyes settled on Theo.

"Leader of the gate exploration team, Young Theo, do you know anything about what happened to the gate?" Mae asked with cold eyes. Theo had never seen that look on her face before. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

He responded evenly, "Instructor Mae, we just returned from the gate, and for it to close so abruptly... we have no idea what happened." Theo spoke on behalf of his entire team.

Something like the gate closing wasn’t something anyone had expected.

Mae studied his expression. After a moment, she let out a quiet sigh, convinced that Theo wasn’t really involved in the gate’s disappearance.

"Does anyone among you know the main reason why a gate closes?" she asked, making everyone shake their heads.

Except one.

"It happens when you destroy the core beast in the gate," Lucien said.

Theo turned to him in surprise.

A core beast?

There was something like that?

Mae met Lucien’s gaze and nodded. "The core beast of a gate is the strongest beast that dwells within it. When that beast is killed and its core is destroyed, the gate becomes unstable and vanishes as it is supposedly ’cleared’."

A trace of frustration crept into her expression.

"But we don’t ’clear gates’. Once it is deemed safe enough, we use it as a resource hub to breed new types of beasts that we can’t safely raise outside. We also farm, if the soil is tested to be good enough, and mine for new resources," she explained.

Corven’s voice cut in, his tone firmer and heavier. "But the gate closing means a significant loss for the entire kingdom, so we will need as many details as we can about what happened."

His tone made the situation look a lot messier than they had thought.

"We can provide you with every detail and also show you all kinds of samples we got from the gate," Theo said, placing his on the empty table.

He opened it, revealing all the preserved vials and jars filled with different liquids, clearly all the samples they had collected during their gate mission.

Clara and Elias followed suit, presenting their own collections.

Theo then began recounting everything they had observed inside the gate, giving them the full report.

The three scholar-instructors went through the detailed notes carefully.

As they read, their expressions shifted, and they began looking at Theo in a new light before moving to the next page.

"This... Crimson Spine Titan... it was a hundred times larger than you?" Corven paused on one section of the report.

Theo nodded.

"It could only have been larger than a hundred times, not smaller, Instructor Corven. And when we discovered it, the beast had been asleep for three whole days."

"And thanks to our beloved leader, quite a few of us risked their lives to get in contact with the beast," Merek added instantly, seizing the moment. The others turned to look at him.

At that moment, it felt like they all understood what had happened inside the gate between them and didn’t bring that topic up at all, as if it were the most normal thing.

"So you approached this beast?" Mae asked.

Theo nodded slowly.

"Why is that?" she asked right away.

"...I wanted to see how well we could fight the creature, if given a chance," Theo said. Now that he had said it out loud, it really sounded far more reckless than it had been in his head.

Mae and Corven looked at Theo as if he had done something very controversial.

Oric, on the other hand, broke into a grin. "You are quite brave, Young Theo! We need more daring people like you!" he declared, earning him nothing but silent dismissal from the other two.

"And what did you understand from interacting with the beast?" Mae asked again.

Theo took a deep breath and spoke, "At first, I tried hitting it with my blade aura, but it didn’t even leave so much as a scratch on the beast’s skin."

He then gestured toward Kaelor.

"Sir Kaelor used 80% of his aura, but the result didn’t change even in the slightest. After that, we decided it was too strong to try anymore. But..." Theo spoke and felt a little hesitant with the last part.

"Then my beast caught the scent of blood from it... and we explored its body..."

"???"