The Gate Traveler

In the morning, before we took off, I decided to empty the house’s water reservoir and refill it with fresh water from the lake. I trusted Lis and was confident that the purification system he built was top-notch, especially since I knew the Purify spell and its power. Still, it felt like a good time to renew the water.

I took out the hose, pulled it up to the trees as far from the house as possible, and gave the command to drain all the water. The amount of water that poured out didn’t match the size of the reservoir, even in the house’s large configuration. It turned out my core had already created a pocket dimension before I even asked for it. I remembered the water level dropping in the mushroom lake and facepalmed. Of course, I knew that.

It drove me crazy.

How the hell do I forget things? Why do I forget things?

In my previous life, before all the magic and everything else, I didn’t forget things. I studied, remembered everything I learned, and applied it in my work. There was never a situation where I forgot something, only to remember it later or realize I’d forgotten something important. Ever since my mana awakened, my mind felt as hollow as Swiss cheese. It made little sense. Mana, magic, and all that jazz were supposed to improve me, especially with my Intelligence stat going up.

So, how the hell do I forget things? Why do I forget things?

Of course, there was no answer.

What else is new?

After all the water drained from the house, I put the hose in the lake. The lake level also went down, but less so. It made sense; this lake was bigger.

Mahya wanted to cut down trees to replenish our inventory. During the winter, we used up all the wood we had saved for heating, and we even had to cut down fresh wood, which I had to dry with the Heat spell to burn in the fireplace. By evening, we finished cutting the trees, and I began drying. Quickly, I grew tired of it, and when I looked at the remaining wood that still needed drying, I felt discouraged by the magnitude of the task ahead.

After drying the second tree, I had a brilliant idea. If I was in charge of collecting crystals during the snow season, there was no reason I should also be responsible for drying the wood. I knew I couldn’t teach them the spell since I bought it. At least, I remembered that from my experience teaching Lis. But they both had enough points to afford it.

I approached Mahya and Al with a big grin. “You two are responsible for drying the trees,” I announced, crossing my arms.

Mahya raised an eyebrow. “But we don’t have the Heat spell,” she protested, trying to look innocent.

“Yes, neither of us has it,” Al said, nodding earnestly.

“Well, you’re going to buy it,” I said, smirking. “No arguments.”

Mahya stuck her tongue out at me, then broke into a laugh. “Fine, fine. I’ll get the spell.”

Al shrugged with a smile. “Very well.”

At least that settled it.

The next day, while Mahya and Al were busy drying wood, Rue and I spent our time racing jet skis on the lake. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that Rue was much better than I was, though it wasn’t surprising. Before the lake froze, Mahya had only finished one jet ski, which the three of us shared. She completed the other two after the lake had already frozen. Rue, of course, claimed the first one and spent every spare moment on the water.

It took them three days to dry the wood, and I served as Rue’s charger during that time. My reward for this service was enthusiastic slobber all over my face—and one time, he even got his tongue up my nose. Sometimes, love truly had its challenges.

Throughout those days, I made a quick fly-by in the gorge every day to check if our angry friends had shown up, but there was still no sign of them.

Once the wood was finally dry, I was kind enough to help them cut it into firewood. When we finished, Mahya asked how many crystals we had in total. Al went off to play with Rue on the jet skis while Mahya and I, as he put it, “counted our riches.” I pulled out all the crystals we had collected, and there were quite a few. Many of them were tiny, no bigger than a grain of sugar, from the bats. Another large batch was the size of a grain of rice, taken from pims, manta rays, snakes, scythe insects, and birds. The smallest batch was the bigger crystals, gathered from the acid-spitting plants and bear-gorillas. Mahya had already confiscated the large ones from the floor guardians for her projects.

Mahya pushed the pile of tiny crystals toward me. “I need you to combine these into larger ones, about the size of a pea.”

I nodded and set to work. She took about a third of the medium pile as I started combining the crystals.

“What are those for?” I asked, glancing up at her.

“I’m going to feed them to the boat,” she explained, already heading toward the door and probably the lake.

“What should I do with the rest?”

“Keep them,” she said, her tone casual, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Why?”

“In higher mana worlds, those crystals are a type of currency,” She said and left to “feed” her boat.

As I merged the crystals, something tickled the edge of my memory. There was something significant about these crystals, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The thought lingered on the tip of my tongue, frustratingly out of reach, no matter how hard I tried to grasp it. It drove me crazy for half the day until I finally let it go, hoping that if I left it alone, the memory might eventually percolate to the surface.

As we gathered for dinner, Mahya leaned forward, looking between us. “So, the core we took from the last dungeon,” she began. “It’s a little bigger than the boat’s core, but not by much.”

Al raised an eyebrow, curious. Mahya continued, “I’ve been leaving the boat outside whenever possible and feeding it crystals. That’s sped up the growth of its core.” She turned to Al. “Since John has the core for the house, and I’ve got the core for the boat, it only makes sense that you should take this third core—if you have a particular project, you need it for.”

Al considered her words. “I currently have no specific use for a core,” he finally said, nodding in my direction. “I already have a greenhouse that John built for me at his home.”

He then gestured toward Mahya. “You can take the core for one jeep. If I require a core in the future, I’ll obtain it from the next dungeon we conquer.”

Mahya smiled, satisfied with the plan. “Alright then,” she agreed, grinning wide. “I told you the Jeep would be epic.”

Her words finally triggered the what had been bothering me. Leaning forward, I frowned.

“Do you know how I can add the crystal harvesting spell to the Guidance list?”

Mahya shook her head, but then looked at me curiously. “How exactly did you build the spell?”

“I created a round spell shell with mana, and inside it, I constructed the spell using a magic script,” I explained.

Al’s eyes widened in surprise. “You know how to make spell marbles?” he asked, leaning forward with sudden interest.

“What are spell marbles?” I asked, feeling a bit lost.

Mahya jumped in. “Spells come in two forms—scrolls or marbles. Simpler spells are usually on scrolls, while more complex ones come in marble form. Spell marbles are much more expensive, even for Travelers.”

“How expensive?” I asked, intrigued.

Al explained, “In Leylos, every time the captain of the royal guard changed, my father would buy a spell marble for the new captain. This spell allowed the captain to know where every person in the palace was, detect new arrivals, and discern their intentions. If someone harbored ill will toward the royal family, the spell would even reveal the level of that ill will—whether they were angry or had intentions of harm. After purchasing one of these marbles, the wizard tower wouldn’t pay taxes for five years.”

I let out a low whistle, impressed. “That’s expensive.”

Mahya nodded, a thoughtful expression crossing her face. “I didn’t realize you built the spell using a spell marble. If I had known, I could have told you how to teach it to me.”

“How?” I asked.

“Build the spell the way you did before, and then I’ll inject mana into it to learn it,” Mahya explained, her tone confident.

“Is it really that simple?” I asked, skeptical.

They both nodded in unison.

Huh! Live and learn.

“Okay then,” I said. “I’ll start on it tomorrow.”

Both of them looked like a cat that ate a canary.

This time, it took me much less time to build the spell. I completed it in just one day with no trial and error. After double-checking that everything was in order, I closed the shell and called Mahya. She poured mana into the spell, and the orb disappeared. She pumped her fist in the air with a triumphant jump and exclaimed, “Yes! It worked!”

Just then, my red light started flashing.

Level up +3 to all stats Wizard Battle Master Level 9

 

Now it was my turn to jump triumphantly, pump my fist in the air, and exclaim, “Yes! It worked!”

When I opened my profile to admire my new level, I noticed a few more changes. “Lightning” had advanced to “Lightning [Apprentice],” and “Mana Control” had progressed to [Medior]. Under Wizard Abilities, I gained a new ability: “Spell Creation [Junior].” In the combat section, “Ranged Weapons” had also advanced to [Medior]. There were additional changes to general skills and spells, with the most significant being “Exude Mana,” which had jumped four or five levels—I wasn’t sure exactly how many.

Unfortunately, “Wind” was still just “Wind.”

Oh well, you can’t have everything.

It took me another day to create a marble for Al, and after he learned the spell, he was all smiles for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, I didn’t gain another level.

Stingy system.

This time, I didn’t feel any rebuke. Maybe the system had gotten used to my grumblings and stopped responding.

During my daily fly-by in the gorge, I spotted our alligator “friends” stomping away from the ex-dungeon location, their voices carrying on the wind as they cursed up a storm. They were promising death and retribution to the “three thieves.”

Back at camp, I relayed the news to Mahya and Al. “I saw our friends again. They’re not happy. They were swearing vengeance on the three thieves.”

Mahya and Al exchanged glances. “We should change our glamor,” Mahya suggested, already thinking ahead.

Al nodded in agreement. “Better safe than sorry.”

Just then, Rue padded up to us, his ears perked with interest. “Rue want to be black,” he declared. “Black look dangerous.”

I chuckled at his enthusiasm, but nodded. “Alright, let’s give it a try.”

Activating my ability, One Of The Crowd, I watched as Rue transformed. His fur darkened, shifting to an inky black, and the result was indeed intimidating. He now looked every bit as dangerous as he had hoped.

Rue looked in the mirror, then trotted around, clearly pleased with the transformation. “Rue scary now,” he said with a toothy grin, his tail wagging a mile a minute.

The three of us laughed as we admired Rue’s new look.

Mahya headed off to store her boat, while Al went to tend to some last tasks with his plants—I wasn’t entirely sure what. Meanwhile, I took Rue for one last lap on the lake with the jet skis. Once everyone was ready to move, I ordered the house to close, stored the core, and then joined Mahya and Al to help inflate the balloon.

As we rose into the air, I glanced over at Mahya. “Need a boost from the wind?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No need. Let’s fly slowly and enjoy the view.”

Instead of taking the usual route through the gorge, we flew directly over the mountains, heading in a straight line toward the swamp. The mountains were almost as dense as those surrounding the mushroom valley—no wonder this valley had remained undiscovered for so long. After four hours of flying over the mountains, we finally reached the other side. Mahya directed us over the river that runs through Pemisor, continuing on toward the marsh.

“Isn’t it dangerous to fly over the city?” I asked, a bit concerned.

She shook her head confidently. “No. They can’t see us. I activated the cloak.”

We continued following the river, and as evening approached, we reached the swamp. It was massive. Even from our height—about five hundred meters above the marsh—we couldn’t see its end. The sun was setting, casting long shadows over the landscape.

Al looked out over the swamp and suggested, “I believe the optimal plan is to land near the edge of the swamp and spend the night outside of it. Tomorrow, we can use the balloon to fly over and scout for a suitable spot deep within the swamp or, ideally, in the middle.”

Mahya and I both agreed. We landed, I opened the house, and we settled in for a quiet evening. Dinner was a comforting meal of crab soup, and we ended the day with a movie. Every time we watched movies on my Magitech TV, I couldn’t help but send a silent message of admiration and gratitude to the core. I never received a response, but I kept doing it, anyway.