Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

With my eyes zeroed in on Fay, I made sure not to relax my hold over our bond.

Just like we've decided all this time ago, abusing it just because it felt great to unite with each other wasn't going to do us any good in the long term. It was because of our constant effort to keep a hold on this intoxicating bond that, even after our advancement, we managed to still keep the thing optional rather than permanent.

Now, however, I had to use every last bit of my willpower not to peek into Fay's soul to find out how exactly she was feeling.

Limited to just her batted breath, the wrinkle cutting through her forehead and a slight sense of uncertainty in her eyes, I patiently awaited her decision.

'Worst case scenario, we will have to find a different way.'

There was no way I would ever force Fay to do something she deemed herself unable to complete.

And, in all honesty, the more I thought about it, the keener I was to just turn around and abandon the idea.

The barrier was a circle, so we could always go along its edge to try on the other possible end of it. We could also go all the way back to the new camp through my portal and then travel northeast instead of just north, hoping to simply never approach the barrier, to begin with…

But whether or not that was possible, I couldn't really tell.

'With all the effort it had to take to excavate this hole, there's no way whoever's responsible for this would omit such an obvious way past the trap.'

I took a deep breath, right as Fay gathered her courage and raised her chin, staring ahead with those lovely, blue eyes of hers.

"I can do it," she resolutely claimed, snapping her straps off and standing up, only to move to the seat of my left and strap herself back in and mirroring my position, with her right hand moving to the stick on my left.

"What do I…"

Fay halted her words when she saw the baffled look on my face.

"Wait, did you think I was going to make you do it without any proper training?"

I glanced over to the massive chasm nearby before looking back at Fay's face.

"For real?"

Fay's eyes turned wider as she realized her mistake.

"Damn, girl, you sure are metal…"

Just looking in the direction of the chasm was enough to make me feel like throwing up. While I wasn't exactly afraid of heights in particular, the enormity of the void below reached below the limits of reason, making me feel as if I was trapped in some sort of an optical illusion.

"Haaa…." Fay's body limped out as she relaxed in her chair while breathing out a sigh of relief. "I really thought you wanted to do it right away. Or rather," she turned her head over to the side, giving me a look of curiosity, "aren't we kind of in a hurry? Do we really have the time for me to practice?"

I turned my head over and simply stared at Fay for long enough for her to notice and turn to look at me… and then some more.

"Do you seriously think I would make you perform a task you never did before when all our lives would depend on it?" I asked, raising my left eyebrow in disbelief. "All three of us dying is one thing… but did you really think I would put that kind of pressure on you?"

At this point, I processed what Fay's misunderstanding actually meant. And in all honesty, this didn't really feel good if wasn't outright depressing.

"I mean…" Fay hesitated for a second, only to then hang her head down and shake it a little. "No, I'm sorry, I too quickly jumped to a false conclusion," she admitted before lifting her hands and giving me an expectant look. "What do I do, then?"

"For now?" I asked before shaking my head as I grasped the control rod of the basic plane of movements. "Nothing. We need to get back to a safer place for you to train."

That meant, yet another delay. And between the trip back down the mountain's side, our growing need to get some sleep or have a meal… It wasn't going to be just a minor slow-down. That is, unless…'

For the first time in a while, I reached down and unlocked the hinge below my chair before swinging around and taking a look at the path we took to get where we were right now.

A path full of treacherous ditches, pitfalls, and traps that would easily render the maglev immobile if I didn't pay my utmost attention to controlling our path and speed while climbing up the mountain.
Enjoy new adventures from empire

'But now that I think about it…'

"There were no humans near the mountain, right?" I asked, already thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong with the one time-saving measure I came up with to counteract at least part of the time loss we had no other choice but to accept.

"I don't recall there being any," Claudy replied, more than happy to contribute now that the discussion moved over to a topic he had any understanding of.

"Good," I replied, gulping my saliva down as I braced myself for the stunt I was about to pull.

With just the gentle prod of the stick, I set the hovercraft into a gentle turn.

"What the hell are you planning to do?"

Even without relaxing her hold over our bond, Fay noticed the foreboding expression flashing on my face.

"Just a small trick to accelerate our return," I smiled, before pushing all the emotions aside and focusing every last bit of my brain's calculative power on managing the turn and planning my next, daring move.

The maglev spun around, turning its rear ramp back towards the massive ditch while facing the way we came from.

"Strap in," I called out, switching off several safeties up in the control panel. Once I visually confirmed that both Fay and Claudy secured themselves to their seats, I pushed the control stick forth.

The maglev jerked forward, putting us into a gentle acceleration.

An acceleration that turned into an uncomfortable pressure when I pressed the safety on the power supply leaver and pulled it just a little bit higher than the theoretical, safe maximum.

"What the hell are you planning to do?!" Claudy mirrored Fay's question, now that he likely realized what my plan was.

And it didn't take a genius to figure out how little faith he had in my silent decision.

"Just like I said," I muttered while the maglev continued to accelerate while shaking up and down, with our speed alone serving to hamper the rapid changes of height below our ship. "I'm taking the easy way off the mountain," I explained, just moments before we reached one of the many, steep walls of the mountain.

A place where the height of the ground changed so fast, it was dangerous to even approach it.

But now, the moment we've nearly passed by the stone wall's edge…

I pushed the power leaver to its physical maximum.