Chapter 368: The Golden Ticket Of Entry

"We need to go to the end of the Origin Expanse to get it." Faust replied.

Hearing this, Caelus’s eyes lit up.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go to the end of the Origin Expanse of the Ace-Rank."

They all flew into the portal and shot towards the Origin Expanse.

Faust was riding on Jormungandr, the massive World Serpent coiling through the air with terrifying presence.

Seeing this, Caelus immediately shifted fully into his dragon form.

His body expanded rapidly as blue scales covered every inch of his skin, his size towering over Jormungandr within seconds.

Faust shook her head with an amused smile.

"Competing with size? There’s no way the World Serpent can compete with your dragon form. At least not now."

She had seen his dragon form once back in the Abyss, so she wasn’t surprised he had access to it in this world too.

"Yeah, that’s what I thought." Caelus said with a laugh.

The World Serpent was inferior to a Chaos Perception Dragon.

He turned his massive draconic head toward Sylvia.

"Sylvia, climb on top of me."

Sylvia did as instructed and climbed onto his back, settling comfortably between his shoulder blades.

BOOM!

Sonic booms erupted from where he was as he shot through the sky with immense speed.

Faust and Jormungandr followed close behind, the World Serpent struggling to keep up with the Chaos Dragon’s velocity.

Eventually, they reached the end of the Origin Expanse.

The landscape here was completely different from what they had seen before, the sky was a deep purple and the ground was covered in strange crystalline formations.

As of now, they probably couldn’t deal with the beasts here.

But they weren’t necessarily here to deal with beasts.

Caelus shifted back to his human form as they suspended themselves in the air, Sylvia hopping off gracefully beside him.

"There should be a guy here." Faust said while looking around. "He is said to be standing atop a mountain."

"Interesting." Caelus scanned the horizon. "Where is he?"

"Hey! Hey! You kids! Look down!"

"I’m here!"

Some garden gnome looking guy from below shouted at them.

He was barely three feet tall with a long white beard and a pointy red hat.

"The garden gnome is talking." Caelus gasped in shock.

"Fuck! Who are you calling a garden gnome?!" The little creature’s face turned red with rage. "Do you think I wouldn’t destroy your planet?!"

"It should be this guy." Faust stared at him for a while before saying.

"Are you sure?" Caelus looked at her with disbelief. "This is a garden gnome."

"Yes."

Sylvia was trying very hard not to laugh, her shoulders shaking as she covered her mouth.

Eventually, they went down to meet the gnome.

The garden gnome examined them carefully, stroking his long beard with a thoughtful expression.

He coughed into his hand and spoke with sudden dignity.

"Not bad, not bad. You all have enough potential for the Emperor-Rank."

His eyes gleamed as he studied each of them.

"Not bad at all."

Then he clapped his tiny hands together.

"Alright! If you win in rock-paper-scissors with me, I will give you as many tickets as you want."

"What? Rock-paper-scissors?"

Everyone was visibly dumbfounded hearing this.

"You want us to play rock-paper-scissors for tickets to the Path to Worlds?" Sylvia asked incredulously.

"Yes! What’s wrong with that?!" The gnome grew impatient. "You want it or not?! Stop wasting my time and start the rock-paper-scissors!"

Caelus suddenly smiled.

"Leave it to me."

This would be a perfect opportunity to use Temporal Regression.

If he lost, he would reset time and try again.

This would also help his Chaos Analysis understand Temporal Regression better through repeated use.

He stepped forward and faced the gnome.

"Alright, come on now."

"Finally! Someone with guts!" The gnome grinned. "Best of one! Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

The gnome threw scissors.

Caelus threw rock.

"I win."

"Tch! Lucky shot!" The gnome grumbled. "Again!"

They played again.

The gnome threw paper.

Caelus threw scissors.

"I win again."

"What?! How?!"

They played a third time.

Caelus lost.

[Temporal Regression Activated]

Time rewound by three seconds.

Caelus changed his throw.

He won.

"Another one!" The gnome demanded.

They continued playing.

Every time Caelus lost, he simply activated Temporal Regression and changed his choice.

The gnome had no idea what was happening, he just kept losing over and over again.

"How is this possible?! I’ve been doing this for ten thousand years! No one has ever beaten me this many times!"

Caelus smiled innocently.

"I guess I’m just lucky."

After ten consecutive wins, the gnome finally gave up.

"Fine! Fine! You win!" He pulled out a stack of golden tickets from thin air. "Here! Take your stupid tickets!"

[You have obtained: Path to Worlds Ticket x10]

Caelus took the tickets with a satisfied grin.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

"Get out of my sight before I change my mind!" The gnome shouted while waving his tiny fists.

Caelus distributed the tickets immediately.

"That was surprisingly easy." Sylvia said with an amused smile.

She knew he was using Temporal Regression but she didn’t say anything.

"Sometimes the hardest challenges have the simplest solutions." Caelus replied.

Faust stared at him with a suspicious expression.

"How did you win ten times in a row? That’s impossible."

Caelus just shrugged.

"Like I said, I’m just lucky."

Faust clearly didn’t believe him, but she didn’t press further.

"So when do we use these tickets?" Sylvia asked while examining hers.

Caelus looked at the golden ticket in his hand.

[Path to Worlds Ticket]

[Use this ticket to enter the Path to Worlds.]

[Warning: Once entered, you cannot leave until you reach the end or die.]

"We should prepare first." Caelus said after reading the description. "This doesn’t sound like something we can take lightly."

"That’s right. It would be wise to prepare." The gnome said.

Hearing him, everyone turned towards him.

The gnome then pointed at the end of the Origin Expanse.

"Beyond that lies the Path To Worlds and further beyond that is the Tier 2 World and It’s Origin Expanse."

"No one can pass through here because as soon as they stop into the disorder outside, they will destroyed by the Origin Network for breaking the rules."

"Hence, The Ticket is the only way to enter the Path Of Worlds."

"Break the rules, you say?" Caelus’s eyes flickered as he stared at the end of the Origin Expanse.