The Gate Traveler

We emptied the contents of our Storage onto the house’s deck. Since we brought a lot of materials, we had to do it in two parts. Each part took the house a few hours to absorb the materials, but my house was a trooper and absorbed everything.

We had no particular plans for the materials, so I didn’t pursue any further action. From my perspective, it was a long-term investment. Mahya wished to add more wood and stone to the house, but I was not interested. I told her she could handle it herself if she wanted to.

After I emptied all the materials from my Storage, I headed to put my stuff back in. It was apparent we had been gone for at least two weeks. It was all covered in dust and fungus spores. Making the most of this opportunity, I sorted out my Storage after a long time. Initially, I wanted to “stretch” my Storage to make it lower and longer, but after glancing at the new height of my house, I realized that wouldn’t work.

As I sorted my belongings, I went through them individually, casting Clean on each item. I left room for the house and placed all the big items beside it, like boats, merchant stalls, etc. I divided the space into three sections: one for storing food, another for sales items, and the last for my personal equipment. There was still a generous amount of storage space in the center.

Once I had finished storing everything, I headed out to spend time with Rue. My boy had been alone for at least two weeks and deserved attention. Before playing, we checked the core Mahya had placed on the vent. Although the core seemed bigger, it was not yet the size of Mahya’s fist.

Rue informed me, “Rue squishes bad cats.”

“Were there many cats?”

“Lots lots bad cats. Rue squashed bad cats.”

I laughed, scratched his ears, and said, “Well done. You’re an amazing guard dog.”

His tail drummed rhythmically on my leg.

As we stood there talking, I saw the air shimmer, and Rue yelled, “More cat!”

The monster that appeared was indeed a cat, but different from the previous ones we fought. It was bigger, red with white instead of black, and much fluffier. It even looked cute—at least until it bit my leg.

“Ouch!”

Infuriated, I stomped on the cat and converted it into a crystal. At least the crystal was larger.

“If we leave now and go play, can you help me find the cats later?” I asked Rue.

“Yes! Rue bestest cat finder.”

“Great, buddy. So let’s go play and take care of the cats later.”

With kites in hand, we went to play with the wind. The wind caught the kites and flew them around the valley. Rue chased the kites and tried to catch them. On the other hand, I tried to use wind magic to move the kites without cheating with Telekinesis. We spent the whole day playing. Rue had more success than me, as seen by the three chewed-up kites. I couldn’t move a kite even once. I didn’t know what I was missing. The word Wind appeared in my profile, which meant I could do something. But I was stuck when I tried to do something independently, without asking the wind for help.

During our game, I encountered a few spots where Al had harvested mushrooms and saw new, small mushrooms sprouting. It made me feel better. At some point, we ran past Mahya, who was chopping down a tree. She gave me a murderous look, harrumphed, but said nothing.

In the evening, after dinner, Rue helped me locate the cats that had appeared in the meantime. I stomped them and turned them into crystals. There were thirteen cats, and he assured me there were no more. By my estimate, we played for about seven hours, meaning the core created a monster about every half hour.

This gave me an idea: I wanted to progress my loot spell, and here, I had a constant and stable supply of monsters. It would be a shame to waste these perfect conditions.

In the morning, Al informed us both, “I wish to return to Earth for a few days. I have identified a few additional items I require, and I do not wish to squander the opportunity of accessing a technological world that I am familiar with and know how to navigate.”

“But a few days on Earth would be a few months here. I don’t think we have enough to do to stay a few months in this valley,” I said, frowning.

“You can cross the mountains and travel the rest of the island,” Al suggested, gesturing toward the distant peaks. “I have a means to cross the mountains. However, if you sail to the main continent, you may have to return to retrieve me if I am unable to find a way to cross the sea.”

Mahya crossed her arms and looked at him skeptically. “Are you sure you need these things? Can’t you do without them?”

“I do require them,” Al insisted, shaking his head. “While I can manage without them as I did prior to my arrival on Earth, I see no reason to do so.”

Curious, I asked, “What do you even need?”

“Test tubes, vials of various sizes, particularly those with droppers,” Al listed, counting off on his fingers. “These are exceptional inventions, and I wish to procure a greater supply. Graduated cylinders, watch glasses, and Erlenmeyer flasks are also necessary. Additionally, I require a larger stock of distilled alcohol and distilled water, or perhaps some water distillers, so your house can produce one that operates on mana.”

He looked at us expectantly, awaiting our response.

“Didn’t you buy a long shopping list of all those things?” Mahya asked.

“I did indeed. Nevertheless, upon commencing the brewing process, I came to realize that certain items were less advantageous, whereas others surpassed my expectations. I intend to secure a larger supply of the beneficial items.”

I thought momentarily and said, “Yeah, I can understand that.” Turning to Mahya, I added, “I want to use the vent with the core to advance my loot spell, and you wanted to finish work on at least one motorcycle, preferably more. So, how about this: I’ll work on my spell, and you’ll work on the motorcycles and the boat. If I finish before you, I’ll join you, and we’ll complete these projects together. If Al doesn’t return by then, you still have your phone. We’ll store the house, and the three of us will cross over to Earth, call him, and find out how long it will take. If it’s a brief wait, we’ll have a picnic near the Gate; if it’s longer, we’ll stay a night or two in Calgary. What do you think?”

Mahya still looked hesitant.

I told her telepathically, “I don’t want to refuse Al. He was patient and helped us when we needed things for the house. It wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t consider his needs.”

Mahya nodded slightly and said, “Sounds good to me. How many days do you think you need on Earth?”

“I am uncertain. It depends on whether I find everything in Calgary or must place orders through Amazon and await deliveries.”

“Okay,” I said. “Anyway, we’re not crossing the mountains without you. Either you come back before we’re done, or we’ll cross to Earth and wait for you.”

Al gave a huge smile and said, “Thank you very much. I genuinely appreciate it.”

After Al left, I walked toward the core to work on my spell. For the first few hours, I didn’t try anything. I only waited for a monster to spawn, killed it, and turned it into a crystal. I scrutinized each step of the process carefully to understand the aspects I would need for the spell.

After a few hours, I felt I knew exactly what was required. I already understood the purification aspect well from the aluminum blobs I had made before, so I didn’t need to focus on that. What I was missing were the aspects that made up the Clean spell, as well as the aspects of ‘envelope with mana,’ ‘squeeze,’ and ‘shrink.’ I thought I might also need an aspect or aspects to prevent the mana from escaping, but I wasn’t sure since the mesh shell of the spell might handle that.

For three days, I worked on those aspects, occasionally killing monsters. My focus was intense as I experimented, watching every detail closely. After those three days, I had the ‘squeeze’ down pat, but the Clean spell was impossible. It was composed of so many aspects, all woven together, and I couldn’t “un-weave” them. The ‘shrink’ was also giving me problems, since it needed to be a gradual progression. I needed it again and again at each stage. But if I layered the mana inside the mesh with it, I didn’t have enough space for the other aspects.

After spending another two days trying to solve this conundrum, I had to admit defeat and think of another approach. Frustrated, I took a day off to clear my mind. Rue and I spent the whole day playing, this time without the wind. We raced around the valley, swam in the big lake, roughhoused, and had a lot of fun. His joyful barking and our playful interactions helped lift my spirits.

The following day, I returned to the core with renewed determination. I spent the whole day near the core, killing monsters occasionally and thinking of a solution.

Mahya came over, her hands on her hips, watching me for a moment before asking, “Do you think you can create a magic circle with magic script that will work on a sphere-shaped surface?”

“Maybe?” I replied, scratching my head. “I’ve never tried.”

“Please try.”

“What kind of magic circle do you need?”

“To absorb ambient mana,” she explained, showing me a rough sketch of her idea. “I created three different circles with runes, and they work great, but only on a flat or semi-flat surface. The minute I apply them to a sphere-shaped surface, the whole thing collapses.”

I nodded, studying her sketch. “I’ll give it a shot and see what I can do.”

To practice, I walked around the valley and collected stones with a more or less spherical shape. I took some parchment and drew the initial circle. It didn’t take me long to understand why Mahya had a problem. I played around with a few ideas, but no matter what I did, I ran into the same issue. On a flat or semi-flat surface, everything worked fine. The sphere shape was a problem. Another puzzle. On the one hand, these puzzles were interesting. It was boring when the solution came to me too easily. But on the other hand, it was very frustrating.

This puzzle took me another two days, but I cracked it. I used the magic script to create the circle, and incorporated engineering runes—Relay, Transfer, Connect, Consistency, and Continuity—placed at precise intervals to overcome the spherical issue. Additionally, I integrated runes for Adaptability, Stabilize, Convergence, Harmony, and Integration to further refine the circle’s effectiveness. Fortunately, the second batch of runes only needed to be placed once in the circle, not at intervals. The stone I practiced on hummed with the mana it absorbed, and I felt like a genius.

When I showed Mahya the circle and the stone, she jumped on me, hugged me, kissed my forehead, and agreed that I was a genius. It was very nice.

I was about to go back to the core, but she stopped me and asked, “Do you know the aspect of heat?”

“Not yet. But I have the Heat spell, so I’m pretty sure I can learn it.”

“Excellent,” she said, handing me the two large crystals we collected in the dungeon from the floor guardians. “I need you to aspect one crystal to wind and the other to heat.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why do you need them?”

“Project.”

“I figured, but what project?”

“For now, it’s a secret,” she replied, her smile widening as she turned away.

I shook my head and sighed helplessly and went to learn the heat aspect. The heat aspect was very simple. I thought maybe it was because I already knew the aspect of fire, and heat was a derivative. I gave the crystals back to Mahya and went back to the core.

The magic circle I created for her got me thinking. Maybe instead of building layers of aspects inside the mesh, I could build the magic circle inside the mesh. Of course, I would have to invert it. I built the circle for a spherical shape outside the sphere, not inside it. But I didn’t expect the process to be too complicated. The question was whether it was even possible to build a spell in this way. All the books I’ve read so far on magic insist that you can only build spells with aspects. When I thought about it, it made little sense. Magic script was so versatile and adaptable that it made little sense that it couldn’t be used to build spells. Either way, if I wanted to build a spell with magic script, I was definitely missing some symbols.

Mahya came over again, her brow furrowed. “You built a magic circle with runes and a magic script.”

“Yes...” I replied, unsure of where this was going.

“Runes of engineering,” she clarified.

“Yes...” I repeated, waiting for her to get to the point.

“Why?”

“Because it solved the problem of the spherical shape,” I explained.

“Engineering runes?” she asked, incredulous.

“Yes, why not?” I shrugged.

“You can’t build magic circles combined of runes and a magic script. Everyone knows that.”

“Who is everyone?”

“Anyone who works with rituals,” she insisted.

“If you say so...” I muttered.

“I’m serious. What made you build it like that?” she pressed.

“I told you. It solved the spherical shape problem,” I repeated patiently.

“But it won’t work,” she argued.

“Where is the stone I gave you?” I asked, holding out my hand.

She took it out of her Storage.

“Look at the stone. Tell me, is the circle stable?” I asked, watching her closely.

She nodded.

“Feel the mana in the stone. Do you feel it?”

“Yes, but you keep messing with rocks. We have a basket of stone balls on the breakfast bar,” she pointed out.

“I didn’t do anything to the stone, except engrave the circle on it. All the mana you feel in the stone is mana that the circle absorbed from the environment,” I explained, my tone growing more confident.

Her eyes widened twice as wide as she looked at the stone again, then back at me. “Seriously?”

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Are you sure?” she asked, still in disbelief.

I gave her a look, my patience wearing thin.

“Okay, okay. You’re sure,” she conceded, finally accepting the truth. “But I’m not sure I’ll be able to engrave the circle on the crystals. Can you do it?”

“Sure.”

She handed me the two crystals back, and I engraved the circle on them. It took a while; the circle was complex and required precision. As I worked, I heard Mahya laughing. I looked up, a questioning look on my face.

She shook her head, still laughing. After a few seconds, she asked, “Did you even register the fact that you stomped on the new monster and converted it to a crystal without lifting your foot from it?”

“Oh, that,” I replied, glancing down at my foot. “Yeah, I’ve done it so many times in the last week and a half that I don’t need to stop what I’m doing to handle the monsters. It’s muscle memory by now.”

She laughed even harder, clearly amused by the situation, while I returned to engraving the intricate circle on the crystals. It took me about two hours, but I was done and gave her the crystals back. I also picked up the five crystals that accumulated on the ground. Seeing this, Mahya laughed again and went back to the house. I continued working on my loot spell.

It took me a few more days—I’m not entirely sure how many—as I was too engrossed in studying. I worked through two more books of magic script until I felt I had all the necessary symbols.

I didn’t even try to draw the circle, but immediately built it from mana. I constructed the outer mesh orb, making it quite large from the beginning to give myself more room to work, and then built the reverse circle inside the mesh.

Another unknown number of days passed—it’s embarrassing to admit, but when I get engrossed in something, I lose all track of time. I didn’t even bother taking breaks to cook, just ate whatever I had stashed in my Storage and gave the same to Rue. He checked in on me a few times, licked my face when he saw I was busy, and returned to doing his own thing.

I encountered several obstacles, including three exploding mesh orbs, a couple of unraveling magic circles, and a few other mishaps. But finally, the spell—or at least the potential spell—was ready.

I checked it over and over to make sure everything was fine, and everything seemed stable. I closed the mesh and poured mana into it. The ball disappeared, and my red light began to blink. I kept my fingers crossed, hoping for good news.

 

Congratulations! Hark, intrepid Wizard! The arcane forces have borne witness to your unparalleled ingenuity and unyielding perseverance. Your hand inscribed a new chapter in the annals of magic. You have forged a spell never before seen in the realms of existence—a testament to your brilliance and mastery over the mystic arts. By the ancient and eternal decree, your feat shall not go unrewarded. You are hereby bestowed with +1 to all stats, a mark of honor, and recognition of your exceptional skill and dedication. The ethereal energies themselves bend to your will, acknowledging your creation. Now, noble Wizard, the final rite remains. This groundbreaking spell, a beacon of your legacy, awaits its christening. What shall you name this wondrous conjuration that shall echo through the ages? Enter the name of your spell: [________________] Stand tall, for you have ascended to a new echelon of magical prowess. The cosmos reveres your name, and the elements bow to your command.

 

Well, it was quite something. For a minute there, I thought the system was cursing me, so I had to look up the word Hark in the dictionary.

Hark: derived from Middle English herken, used as an order to tell somebody to listen.