The Gate Traveler

After Lis didn’t react to the second batch of books I gave him, I gave up on the book intimidation game. I was determined to find a solution where we wouldn’t be reliant on each other for books. Despite Lis being a faster learner, I refused to let that discourage me. I knew that my learning was different, requiring more than just reading. I had to practice, which meant my progress was slower through the books Lis gave me.

The discrepancy in our learning speeds continued to bother me. The next evening, over dinner, I couldn’t help but ask, “I know you have the Mind Power Center and are a Researcher and a Scholar, but your speed seems way faster than mine. I’m about to finish the third book you gave me, and you’ve already finished almost a hundred. How can I increase my speed?”

Lis shrugged and replied, “You can’t compare us. I have a high level of Clarity and Mind Index; you don’t.”

“How exactly does it work?” I asked, curiosity piqued.

“Clarity helps me understand things faster, better, and more thoroughly, you might say,” he explained, tapping his temple. “Every evening, when I finish studying, I activate the Mind Index ability, which cross-references everything I learned that day with the rest of the data stored in my memory. It creates an overall picture instead of having lots of unrelated pieces of knowledge.”

“That’s amazing!”

He nodded and smiled, looking smug.

After a minute, I asked, “Does Clarity also have special properties like Luck?”

“Of course,” he said. “All the special traits have two additional aspects: one directional, and one not. With Clarity, if there is a topic I don’t understand because I lack knowledge, I can activate the first aspect and feel in which direction I can find the missing data. The second aspect is my favorite: When I read a text, and it doesn’t matter what text, the important data appears in a clear, dark text, and all the unimportant things, the unnecessary filling, appear in light, almost transparent text.”

I just stared at him with utter jealousy. I had to find a solution for the book exchange, or he would leave me in the dust.

“Did you get the class you wanted?” I asked him.

“Of course not; I haven’t done anything yet,” he said, shaking his head.

“What do you mean you haven’t done anything? You’ve studied almost a hundred books!” I exclaimed, incredulous.

“Yes, I learned. But I did not take any actions in the real world that demonstrated this knowledge and made me eligible to receive the class,” he explained, leaning back in his chair.

“Is that why my Wizard class didn’t go up with everything I learned?” I asked, frowning.

“Yes,” he said, nodding. “We progress not from learning but from doing. But before we can do anything, we must first learn. You’re now learning the basics of mana and magic. Once you gain sufficient knowledge, you’ll begin to do things with this knowledge, leading to an increase in your class’s level.”

“But I did actions! What about the ritual I performed?” I asked, my frustration showing.

“First, your class is not a Ritualist but a Wizard,” he said, pointing at me. “Second, you can’t get double benefit from the Guidance, and you’ve already got the benefit: Rue as your familiar.”

“What do you mean you can’t get double benefits?” I asked, puzzled.

“You can buy a hundred spells with points, but you’ll never get the Mage class. That is because you didn’t earn it, but bought the spells through the skill the guidance gave you—you benefited already,” he explained patiently. “But if you clear dungeons and earn the spells as rewards and then use them, or apprentice to a Mage, at some point, you’ll get the class from the Guidance. Why do you think I didn’t buy the engineering skills, but learning them the ‘hard way’? I don’t want to lose the possibility of getting the class I want. Alternatively, you mentioned that you were harvesting crystals from monsters. You will never gain a level from doing it. You already receive the benefit: the crystal. But if you build a spell to harvest crystals, you’ll get at least a level. Why? You did something that doesn’t really benefit you, as you don’t need it, but it benefits others.”

“Makes sense. I never thought about it,” I said, nodding thoughtfully.

At this point, Rue returned home utterly drenched, and I had to dry him. He made friends with all the kids in the neighborhood, so he would leave in the morning and come home only for dinner. Initially, some of our neighbors were afraid of him, but over time, he became the most loved dog in London. Quickly, all our neighbors discovered he was a bottomless pit, so they fed him, and judging by his breath, he found some neighbors to give him a beer almost daily. He was having a lot of fun.

After a brief search online, I stumbled upon the reloadable Visa Prepaid card. I wasted no time and immediately headed to Amazon to purchase all the textbooks I could find, not just about engineering. I meticulously compared my collection with what I didn’t have, ensuring I bought one copy for Lis of everything they had and copies for myself of the books I didn’t have. If his mana rose through study, I was sure he would appreciate many things to learn. I then scoured other websites that sold textbooks and bought all the books I couldn’t find before.

After a few days, huge shipments started arriving. I separated my books from Lis’s and stored everything. After all the shipments arrived, I called Lis into the living room and told him, “Give me back all the books I gave you.”

“Why?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s a surprise,” I said, grinning.

He didn’t seem pleased, but he cooperated and returned all my books. After I finished putting away all the books, I started taking out box after box of books and said to Lis, “These are all your copies. There’s not just engineering here, but every subject I could find a textbook on.”

He looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Thank you so much!” his voice filled with gratitude. After a minute, he couldn’t help himself and gave me a bone-crushing hug.

When I finished giving him all his books, I said, “Now I want my surprise. I know you can’t give me your books, but I bought a copier, and if you agree, I want to copy all of them.”

“Of course,” he replied, nodding enthusiastically.

He took out more and more books, and I stored them in a separate corner.

For the next seven months, between my classes, I copied books and filed them in separate folders.

To my surprise, I discovered an interesting phenomenon: the conflict between technology and mana exceeded my expectations. I tried to copy a runic language book, and after I pressed Start to copy the first page, the copier died. I still wasn’t sure it was the book, so I bought another copier. This copier also died. I tried a workaround and took a picture of the page with my mobile phone. The phone died.

I knew my camera was good with magic, so I inserted a new film and photographed the book’s pages. The film became all scrunched up during the development process as if someone had chewed on it. It was annoying. A lot of books I put aside had magic circles and rituals, so it looked like I wouldn’t be able to copy them the easy way.

I examined all the books with runes, magic scripts, magic rituals, and circles, and they were different. The paper was very thick and saturated with mana.

I went to an office supply store and bought all kinds of thick paper. I came home and tried to saturate the paper with mana. No matter what I tried, the paper crumbled into tiny specks. After searching the internet, I discovered parchment. I purchased a package and attempted to imbue the parchment with mana. It worked!

Further investigation revealed that manufacturers had made some parchment with real leather and some with artificial leather. I didn’t want to take a chance, so I ordered large packages of parchment from anywhere that stated it was genuine leather.

That’s how I spent the next five months: going to classes, saturating parchment, and copying books with a copier or by hand.

A week after I started copying books by hand, Lis saw me doing it and asked, “Why do you copy books by hand?” He watched me with a puzzled expression.

“Because these books kill the copier,” I replied, shaking my head in frustration.

“Of course,” he said, nodding in understanding. “Runes and magic scripts always contain mana, so they will obviously destroy an electronic device. But why don’t you buy a spell to do the copying? You have enough points now.” He looked at me as if the solution was obvious.

I was embarrassed and said, “Because I didn’t think of that...” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly.

He laughed and went back to studying.

I checked the spell list, and there was indeed a list of copying spells. One of them was “Copy Magical Text,” which cost three ability points.

I filled the next two months with fighting classes and copying.

I finally finished copying Lis’s entire library; the entire process took me over a year. By now, I had completed most of the fighting lessons. I continued with each lesson until I got the ability and leveled it up a bit, then moved on to something else.

During this time, I discovered Udemy and Skillshare in one of my internet searches. It wasn’t just a gold mine; it had diamonds, too. We stopped looking for workshops and switched to online courses. By this point, I had 58 ability points, and Lis had 80+ because of all the previous workshops I had done.

After another three intense months of online learning, I had 85 points. Lis had 93; with all his studying, he had less time to spend on the Internet. I also kept restoring weapons, conjuring documentation as my mana allowed, and selling them in antique shops.

I was ready for my second spiral, and this time, I packed the rings tightly, not only in the power orbs but also in the channels leading to them.

 

Second Spiral Completed Quality: 92%

 

Yes!!

I took a day to rest; the spiral creation process was very taxing. I unraveled the first spiral and rebuilt it with the tight rings.

 

Second Spiral Completed Quality: 93%

 

Double Yes!!

Before that, my regeneration was 3 mana per minute or 5 mana per minute, with additional mana absorption. After the two spirals, my regeneration jumped up to 7 a minute. If I added the absorption aspect to my channels, it would go up to 8 and sometimes to 10.

It took me a few days to realize the reason for the difference in numbers; after a few hours of regenerating, the mana in the area was thinner. Because the change was gradual, I didn’t notice it at first.

I was getting restless and was looking for a way to occupy myself while not on the computer.

I reorganized my Storage and donated a lot of the clothes. They didn’t sell well in Shimoor; household goods were much more popular.

By sorting all the textbooks in boxes by subject, I cleared a lot of space in my bookcases and filled them with new fiction, and the copied books from Lis.

I started visiting pawnshops, selling gold coins, and buying jewelry.

My collection of musical instruments grew, and I used ability points to buy skills to play the flute, violin, piano, saxophone, harmonica, and lute.

In the piano section, I also found skills to tune and upkeep a piano, and I bought both. For some strange reason, the skills didn’t appear on my profile, but were “absorbed” into the piano skill. I purchased five of each of the instruments I could now play, visited music stores, and bought every sheet of music I could find, from classical and opera to rock and heavy metal.

Remembering the “mana dead zones” you can create, I bought five of the best laptops I could find and 20 external hard drives (10TB each), and started buying music and movies online.

After I found a porcelain dishware company going out of business, I bought their entire stock.

I visited flea markets and thrift stores to buy metal cookware and glass dishes.

Finally, I had enough. I was too restless to stay in one place for too long. In Shimoor, I got used to traveling and moving from place to place. After thinking about the UK Gates with the danger signs for a while, I decided to take a chance. I had no intention of traveling there; I wasn’t suicidal. But I figured that if I cast Invisibility at myself and popped in and out to gain the Gate number, I’d be fine.

That evening, I told Lis, “I want to go to the Gates on this island to raise my Gate Traveler class. Want to come with me?”

He shuddered and said, “I have no intention of going near that horrible place. I won’t stop you, but please be very, very careful and don’t venture from the Gate. You should be in and out in less than a minute.” His concern was evident in his voice.

“Yes, Dad, I promise,” I said with a grin, trying to sound reassuring.

He laughed and asked Rue, “You’re going with John?”

I had no idea that Rue could express “Duh” in a feeling so expertly.