The Gate Traveler

I was sitting on the deck, enjoying the sunset colors reflecting off the water in a tranquil mood. Mahya was still playing with the engine, so we were sailing on wind power alone, and today, there was almost no wind. I watched the bank drift by and felt drowsy from the peace and quiet when Mahya approached me with a purposeful stride.

“Did you make the list Lis advised you to make of everything you need to do?” she asked, her voice throwing me out of the serene moment.

“No ... why do you ask?” I replied, glancing up at her, startled by the sudden question.

“I need you to add something when you finally make the list.”

“What?”

“Some kind of wind magic. I bought the spell Wind Funnel to steer the balloon, but you shouldn’t buy one—you’d better develop it yourself.” Mahya’s eyes narrowed when she emphasized the last part.

“Okay, I’ll add it to the virtual list.”

“You probably should make it an actual list.” She tilted her head, a slight smirk on her lips, like she could already predict my reluctance.

“Yeah, you’re right.” I sighed, realizing she had a point.

“Also, it’s your turn to steer the boat.” Mahya pointed toward the helm, her expression softening into a small smile as she turned to leave me to my thoughts.

I got up, went to the helm, positioned myself, took a pen and paper, and began making the list.

1. Practice mind-splitting and increase the number of splits.
2. Practice mana control.
3. Learn advanced aspects.
4. Create a loot spell instead of just mana manipulation—may need two spells, one for monsters and the other for the rest.
5. Build a ranged spell.
6. Continue practicing affecting matter through mana.
7. Learn how to channel external mana.
8. Learn to channel mana through Rue.
9. Wind or air spell.
10. Find a painless way to enlarge the secondary channels.
11. Selective Profile popping out.
12. Do something with the stone balls—I know they’ll be useful, but need to figure out how.

 Well, I had a lot of work ahead of me. I reviewed the list and selected item number seven as the most crucial—I needed to figure out how to channel external mana.

My time at the helm was always my favorite; I used it to practice my telekinesis. The first three days we sailed, I controlled the sails manually until I was at the helm and had to change one of the sails, but I couldn’t leave the helm because we were too close to the bank, so I moved the sail with telekinesis. From that moment on, I trained to do it only with telekinesis.

At first, it wasn’t easy because the spell couldn’t reach everywhere I needed to, but little by little, with training and as I leveled up the spell, especially after it reached level 10, I learned how to control things on the whole boat.

Now, a thought occurred to me: while the annoying book referred to it as channeling external mana, Lis consistently referred to it as controlling external mana. Maybe I shouldn’t channel it at all, but control it instead?

I started trying to do the same things I did with telekinesis with my mana. I started small by attempting to control the helm, using my mana instead of my hands. It required total concentration, but was quite simple. Next, I tried to adjust the sail’s angle using my mana but couldn’t reach it. My mana reached a certain distance and dissipated.

I recalled the first book Lis gave me to learn about mana and the exercises I did while studying it. I returned to these exercises, but this time with a twist. My goal was not to control my mana but external mana, so I tried to see if I could move or influence external mana based on the principles I learned from that book.

After three hours of failed attempts—the mana refused to cooperate—I tried something new. I flowed my mana around me, then tried to move it—not just my own, but together with the external mana. It sort of worked. I did move the surrounding mana, but ninety percent of it—or maybe even more—was my mana, not external mana. But the fact that some of the mana was external proved that I was on the right track.

I continued to practice with the same idea, and when Alfonsen came to replace me at the helm, I told him I would continue to steer, and he had the evening off. In the middle of the night, when I had to drop anchor and go to sleep, I reached the point where I controlled about twenty percent of the external mana. I still felt it wasn’t perfect, because I had almost to drain my entire mana pool to fill the surrounding space to get to that stage.

The next day, after thinking a bit about my exercises from yesterday, I had to admit that it was a failure. Maybe I moved some external mana, but it wasn’t the right direction. What helped me was that when I was in the right direction, I always felt that I was in the right direction—not knowledge from the system, but my inner knowledge that told me I was on the right track. This time, I didn’t have it.

I thought about going back to searching for books, but I didn’t feel like it. The last book was so annoying that I gave up on reading. Oh, and I had to use a whole bunch of mana and learn all these languages to find something similar.

I always succeed when I figure things out myself, so I would do the same this time, even if I make mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t learn, I told myself. I spent the entire day lost in thought, trying to crack this puzzle. At some point, I asked myself, “How do you control something outside of you?”

This stopped me short. I did control something that was outside of me. All the stone balls I created were not a part of me; instead, I manipulated the mana within the stone to alter it, affecting external mana. It wasn’t the ambient mana; it had a shape and an aspect, but it was still the external mana I controlled!

This time, I was sure I was on the right track; there was no doubt in my mind. I sat down and activated my mana awareness. I aimed not to perceive my surroundings, people, or objects, but to sense the entirety of the world. As I pushed my awareness to its limits, I discovered that my field of mana sensing grew, enabling me to reach both banks.

That’s a pleasant surprise.

After I reached the limit of my mana sensing, I sat and felt everything around me—the water, the banks, the fish in the water, the wind—and then I began to feel the mana. I felt the mana all around me, not in objects or elements. I sank deeper and deeper until I was one with the world and the mana. After losing track of time, I saw it was sunset and realized we were approaching Nanjing; I couldn’t determine how much time had passed.

I replaced Alphonse at the helm; he still didn’t feel comfortable steering the boat into a marina, and we sailed into Nanjing. We had no specific plans in Nanjing, so the following day, we bought five more computers just to be safe, made a list of the interesting things in the city, and went exploring.

We visited the Confucius Temple complex, which was very peaceful, as well as the Presidential Palace and the Linggu Temple complex. Rue and I toured the Nanjing Museum and the Ming Xiaoling Tomb alone—they were still not interested in “old things buried underground.”

I went on another market tour and bought more cooking supplies and a lot of street food; Nanjing had a great selection.

Following a five-day stay in Nanjing, we set sail for Zhenjiang. We reached Zhenjiang that evening, since it was relatively close, and the strong wind helped us get there quickly. After mooring in the marina, I made an elaborate stir-fry for dinner, and we sat down to eat.

I asked Alfonsen, “Do you know if the wizard in your kingdom channels external mana or controls it?”

Alfonsen paused, his brow furrowing in thought. “I am uncertain. My father mentioned channeling it,” he began, his voice tinged with doubt, “but I wonder if he exercises control over it instead?” He glanced away, his expression pensive. “I do not possess enough understanding of wizard magic to determine the difference between the two.”

“Okay, thanks.” I nodded, appreciating his honesty, even if it left me with more questions than answers.

After dinner, I returned to my practice and focused on immersing myself in the mana again. However, this time, I split my mind into three sections before fully immersing myself in the mana. This was an opportunity to improve my mana control and practice mind-split. Once I fully immersed myself in the mana, I attempted to manipulate it using the other part of my mind. I managed to move it and even ruffle the sails, but that was it. Nevertheless, it showed that I was making progress in the right direction. After five or six hours of training, I reached a stage where I could adjust the sail angle using external mana, similar to telekinesis. It wasn’t flawless; reaching this stage required complete immersion in ambient mana, which took considerable time. But it was progress; I knew I was on the right track, and my mana control progressed from [Novice] to [Apprentice].

“What a nice and cooperative system,” I thought, giving it a mental thumbs-up. I felt amusement directed at me, and I had to admit that it was nicer to receive amusement than a rebuke.

The following morning, Mahya wasted no time and practically dragged us to a baby wipes factory. Without hesitation, she bought a ton of wipes. No, I’m not exaggerating; she bought one ton of baby wipes.

I stared at the mountain of packages in disbelief. “Why do you need so much?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up.

Mahya shrugged. “I converted the Clean Spell to an engineering skill,” she explained, patting one box like it was a prized possession. “I need something to clean with, and these wipes are great.” She gave me a confident nod, as if this was the most logical thing in the world.

After shopping, we went sightseeing. The search I did on the phone revealed that the interesting things in Zhenjiang were mountains and hills, so that’s what we saw. We visited Jinshan Moutain, Maoshan Moutain, Jiaoshan Moutain, Mountain Mao, and Jiaoshan Hill and heartily agreed that we had seen enough mountains and hills for the next ten years. After a week in Zhenjiang, we sailed to Nantong.

Three hours after we started sailing, Mahya, Alfonsen, and Rue complained of stomachaches. I diagnosed them and found out they had a mild case of food poisoning. After healing them, I investigated the cause. I knew my food was perfectly fine because I always cast Clean and Purify on everything I cooked and the dishes, so the culprit must have been the water. Using my mana sense to explore the water, I found tiny organisms.

It was a good idea to buy the aluminum sheets.

The aluminum sheets were too big for the boat, so when we started sailing past nature and not villages, I dropped the anchor and used the E-foil to get to shore. After cutting three pieces of the main sheet, I created three “Purifying Aluminum Blobs,” as I was calling them, and dropped them in the water tanks.

When I returned to the boat, I found Mahya tinkering again in the engine space. “You think my blobs will purify salt from the seawater in our ocean crossing?” I asked, looking down at her.

Mahya paused her work, looking up at me with a shrug. “I have no idea.”

“But you made it!” I exclaimed.

“I helped build it and was in charge of the wood enchantment,” she clarified, returning to the part in her hands. “The water system is Magitech, and it was Lis’s responsibility.”

I rubbed my chin, considering the implications. “I think we should find this out, and if it doesn’t, we need to examine the house and copy the system. We can’t stock up on enough water for an ocean crossing.”

“You can always park the house on the ocean, fill the boat from the house, and then fill the house from the ocean,” she suggested, her voice practical as always.

“Hmm, yeah, that might work.” I nodded slowly, mulling over the idea.

That reminded me I had forgotten to check what she meant about my ability to control the house in my Storage. I turned my attention into the Storage and looked at the house. Once I did that, I felt more connected to the dungeon core. When the house was outside, I felt its presence strongly. However, when I stored it, I experienced a dim feeling, as if it were in the back of my mind. Now, I felt the connection much stronger, but not as strong as when I was inside or near the house.

I commanded the core to inflate the pontoons, and it worked! I couldn’t figure out how it happened, as Storage keeps everything suspended. But it was a fact that the pontoons got inflated. It solved the water problem and provided a way to park the house on the ocean.

I checked the Archive, and there was still no message from Lis, but there were new messages on the call for help from the Traveler in the US.

 

Tr. RVF “Frozen-Tail” I need your help urgently. Someone captured me after I crossed the Gate to Dirt, and they are currently holding me in captivity. They drugged me and examined me. Don’t go through the same gate as I did; they will capture you, too. They have a force field that nullifies magic and cuts off access to mana. I believe they converse in a language known as English, and an earthquake occurred recently. Maybe it will help you locate me. Try to find the blue–

Tr. SS This is Sonak Susil from Lulum. I am seeking information from the traveler Guar Shum from Tamya. I need to know the location of the Gate to Dirt. As you see above, a friend is in need.

Tr. GS The Gate I crossed through is in Shimoor. You said you traveled there. It is in the southeastern part of the continent, close to the center, with no cities or towns nearby—you can’t mistake it. Good luck with your friend.

 It looks like we’ll have a Travelers’ Party.

I added to the thread: 

Tr. JR Hello, Sonak Susil. My name is John Rue, and I’m currently on planet Earth with two other Travelers. The world is called Earth, Terra, or Gaia, not Dirt. Your friend is being held in a military base called “Nellis Air Force Base” in Nevada, in a country called the “United States of America,” or USA for short. The army base is located near the city of Las Vegas. We will head there soon, but still need to figure out how to overcome the mana-nullifying field. If you arrive before us, please don’t do anything until we arrive. In Las Vegas, we will stay at a hotel named Bellagio. Please wait for us. There is another Gate to Earth in Shimoor, southwest of the capital of Talis. Both Shimoor Gates lead to a country on Earth named Germany. I’ll check this thread and wait for your response.

Putting it out of my mind, I continued with my mana practice. It took me less time to immerse myself in the mana, but I still needed the mind split. Otherwise, I lost all awareness of my surroundings. I reached a point where I could control the helm and the sails while sitting on the back deck—with some concentration and moving about—and felt like a very accomplished wizard.

Mahya approached me, lightly touching my shoulder, and said, “I’ll take over the helm.” I nodded in acknowledgment, watching her head towards the wheel. As she left, I noticed Alfonsen sitting near me, reading a book. I turned to him and asked, “Do you practice controlling your mana?”

He looked up from his book, a bit puzzled. “I fail to see any reason for doing so,” he replied, tilting his head slightly as if the idea hadn’t occurred to him.

“To advance it and exercise control over it!”

Alfonsen shrugged, seemingly unbothered. “Why? In due time, I will attain the Mage Class, following in the footsteps of my family, and possess the ability to cast spells,” he said, his tone matter-of-fact, as if this was the obvious course of action.

“Don’t you want to control your mana like a tool without relying on a spell?” I asked, my brow furrowing in confusion at his casual attitude.

“For what reason?” he responded with a nonchalant wave of his hand. “Once I have successfully attained the class, I will have the option to purchase spells from the Guidance or acquire spell scrolls from the Mage Guild. I possess a sufficient amount of funds. Why should I go through the trouble?”

I found this point of view difficult to understand, and my mind grappled with the idea. I enjoyed discovering what to do with my mana and advancing my control. How could someone give up this chance? It was utterly incomprehensible to me.

Trying to shift the conversation, I asked, “What are you reading?”

Alfonsen glanced at the cover, then back at me with a small, amused smile. “A romance with vampires and werewolves,” he replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Okay? I shook my head. Well ... to each their own.

We arrived in Nantong and explored the Chongchuan District. I also discovered a safari park in the area, and after convincing Mahya that she wouldn’t attempt to abduct a panda, we visited it. She found a bear she liked and spent time with it until we had to leave. She was upset with me for making her swear and gave me the evil eye for the rest of the day. No matter how often I reminded her of the size issue, she still gave me the evil eye.

After spending just three days in Nantong, we sailed to Shanghai. We were approaching a cluster of three Gates and wanted to get on with it. After docking at the Shanghai marina, I consulted with Mahya at dinner. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. “I have a dilemma.”

Mahya looked up from her plate. “What?”

“During the boat’s restoration, I took precautions to store all electrical devices to prevent mana damage, yet I still damaged the lights, as you know,” I said, frustration creeping into my voice. “When I worked on the boat’s hull, I concentrated on small areas and used minimal mana to avoid damaging the engine. If we plan to sail the boat in the ocean, I want to perform a full restoration. But this will undoubtedly burn the engine, and we can’t remove it and store it for safety. Do you have an idea for a solution?”

Mahya paused, tapping her fork against the edge of her plate thoughtfully. “We can remove and store the engine, but I prefer not to. I have a complete plan to turn the boat into a Magitec, but there is one minor problem.”

“Need a dungeon core?”

“Yep, that’s the root of the problem,” she confirmed, nodding slightly. “But right now, the problem is that if there’s a storm, we’ll have to close the sails and sail with the engine, but a day’s sailing requires at least fifteen hundred mana, or even more.”

“I can supply fifteen hundred mana a day, with a little help from you, while I’m regenerating.”

Mahya’s eyes widened slightly. “What’s your mana level?”

“9,300.”

“Wow! I understand why Lis was jealous. Mine is 2,500. What’s your mana level, Alfonsen?” she asked, turning to him.

Alfonsen looked up from his meal, replying casually, “4,200.”

Mahya nodded. “Yes, we can manage that without a problem. So, let’s stop in Shanghai for a while and take care of the engine.”

Alfonsen shrugged, clearly uninterested. “I lack comprehension regarding Magitech and have no interest in it,” he said before turning to me. “John, I would greatly appreciate it if you could help me find more workshops. I am aware that both you and Mahya have accumulated over one hundred points. With only twenty-three at my disposal, I aim to fill the pool.”

“Yeah, no problem. I’ll sign you up tomorrow,” I replied, making a mental note.

After dinner, we moved to an unused cabin. Mahya quickly cleared the space, putting away all the furniture before spreading out the most enormous blueprint I’d ever seen on the floor. I crouched down, inspecting it. The blueprint contained detailed information about each part of the engine, including runes marked by name and specified locations for placing mana crystals until we could find a dungeon core. The blueprint showed we would no longer need the crystals once we put the dungeon core in the center.

“Do we have enough crystals?” I asked, glancing at her.

Mahya counted on her fingers, calculating. “I have twelve, and at your house, the charging station has at least ten more. Do you have more?”

I checked my Storage, mentally sorting through my inventory, but only had the crystals from Shimoor. After taking them out and removing their earth aspect, I handed them to Mahya.

“Get all the crystals out of the house,” she instructed.

I hesitated for a moment, considering how to proceed. “I can’t park the house at the marina. We’ll have to go somewhere discreet.”

Mahya gave me a knowing look, a hint of amusement in her eyes. “Just remove the crystals without taking out the house. Haven’t you yet mastered the art of extracting items from their respective containers?”

Right! I’d done it before. Focusing, I retrieved only the crystals, getting an additional fourteen.

Mahya studied the plans critically, her brow furrowing as she traced the lines with her finger. She paused, then did a so-so motion with her hand, her lips quirking in a slight grimace. “We can manage with that,” she said, but the hesitation in her voice made it clear she wasn’t thrilled.

“Okay, what now?”

“Now you sit and learn,” she said, handing me a book of runes. It was a rune language I hadn’t learned yet.

I sighed, already feeling the weight of more studies. “Why does everything somehow involve studies?” I muttered.

Mahya playfully kicked my leg, a teasing smile on her lips. “Don’t talk like Alfonsen.”

Alfonsen’s voice rang out from the saloon. “I heard that!”

We chuckled, and I sighed before opening the Rune book. I guessed I was going back to school.