The Gate Traveler

Steering was boooriiing!

I tried to keep reading while steering the helm, but it was impossible. Although I could split my mind, I couldn’t split my eyes. Trying to come up with something else to occupy myself with, I remembered my Storage. In Shimoor, I used to sort through it occasionally to organize my stored items, but I haven’t done so in recent years. With all the shopping I did in London and Paris, in various cities during our European trip, and the extensive shopping in China, my Storage was a chaotic jumble of items. It was as if a whirlwind had swept through, scattering items without a thought to their location. The sheer chaos of it all was overwhelming.

Splitting my mind, I kept looking at the sea and looked into the Storage, and this time, it did work, but it was weird. I looked at the sea with my physical eyes, while simultaneously using my mental eyes to “look” into the Storage. Even though these were mental eyes, I saw through them, which caused a great deal of confusion. Having two viewpoints simultaneously was a completely new experience for me, and it felt extremely disorienting. The world seemed to spin around me, and I struggled to find my balance. I continued to sit there and get used to this split perspective. After about two hours, the confusion gradually lessened, allowing me to focus on observing both my surroundings and the Storage. The experience was a mix of fascination and disorientation, presenting a level of confusion entirely unfamiliar to me.

With a renewed focus, I began sorting through my belongings, reorganizing them into specific categories. I set aside a distinct area for items I intended to sell and a separate space solely for food. I also moved the house and other large equipment, such as boats, to a different part of the Storage. Once these tasks were complete, I focused on the items that didn’t fit into any specific category. During this process, I stumbled upon the wooden ring I had gained in the dungeon in Tuonela, sparking a thought.

Sending a telepathic message to Alfonsen, I asked him, “I have a ring that gives 2% extra constitution; are you interested?”

“Not a very high percentage.”

“Yeah, I got it from a baby dungeon.”

“I would appreciate having it until I find a superior option.”

“It’s yours.”

After placing the ring in my pocket, I continued sorting through my belongings. I stumbled upon the box Lis built for me, and I couldn’t help but facepalm. I still haven’t used it! I retrieved the box, the file-access device, and the music-filled hard disk Mahya built for me.

Puzzled, I turned the three devices this way and that, scratching my head.

Hmm, how do I use them?

I looked closer and saw something sticking out from the device that should access files with a matching entry on the external drive. I inserted the tip into the drive, heard a click, and now it looked like one device—half transparent and looking crystalline, the other half metal, with runes covering its entire surface.

That was simple...

I examined the strange speaker, going over all the rods and antennas sticking out of it and searching for a connection point, and checked the file access device and looked for a mount point, but found nothing.

Hmm, I’m sure Lis made something useful. I only need to figure out how to use it.

I approached it from a different angle. When I examined the device that accesses the files, I identified a charge rune. This rune was in the book I studied for the boat project. By touching the rune with my finger, I could channel mana into the device. The device continued to charge until I felt it was no longer receiving more mana. Even with the device fully charged, I didn’t see any change.

What now?

When I examined all the runes on the device, I saw they were part of the containment field.

I asked out loud, “What the hell, Lis? How do I use this thing? Couldn’t you leave an instruction manual or something?” I threw my hands up, staring at the runes helplessly.

Mahya heard me and approached, raising an eyebrow. “Who are you talking to?” she asked, her voice laced with curiosity.

“Lis.” I glanced over my shoulder at her.

“He’s not here if you haven’t noticed,” she laughed.

“I know that, but complaints in my mind doesn’t carry the same weight as complaining out loud.” I shrugged, feeling foolish.

“What are you complaining about?”

“How do I use this thing? I figured out how to connect the drive to the access device, and I charged it, but can’t figure out the rest.” I gestured at the device, frustrated.

“Did you charge the speaker?”

“No.” I frowned, realizing I’d missed something obvious.

“Charge it.” She rolled her eyes at me.

Yeah, yeah.

After I charged the speaker, she turned the device over and showed me a circle in the middle with the rune Connection and an identical circle at the bottom of the speaker. “Place the two identical runes on top of each other,” she instructed, pointing. Then she pointed to a chain of runes and asked, “Recognize these?”

I looked at them, and they were familiar. “They’re ‘Access,’ ‘Activation,’ ‘Information,’ and ‘Control.’” I nodded, the realization dawning on me.

“Put your finger on Access and flow mana into the rune.” She watched intently as I followed her directions.

A list appeared on the crystal drive. It looked just like a list on a phone or tablet screen.

“Cool!” I exclaimed.

“With the other hand, scroll up or down—it works like a touch screen. When you decide which song you want to hear, double tap on it.”

I chose the song Dust in the Wind by Kansas. The song started playing through the speaker, and I started singing along with a huge smile.

I HAD MUSIC! I was over the moon and continued to steer and sing for hours with a massive smile until Alfonsen replaced me at the helm.

“Did you reach a decision?” I asked him.

“Not yet.”

I squeezed his shoulder, offering support. “Take your time. Make sure it’s what you want so you won’t have any regrets later.” I gave him a reassuring smile.

He nodded. I handed him the ring and went to the back deck to continue reading the book about mana control.

≿━━━━༺❀༻━━━━≾

Mahya was correct in her estimate of our speed if a little conservative. We left Yakushima at dawn and docked at the Tobiuo Pier in Chichi-Jima two hours before sunrise. If my calculations were correct, our speed was 29 knots! Since the sea was still very calm with almost no wind, the speed was 100% our engine.

I patted the deck and said, “Good girl. Mahya is right; you are perfect.”

A Google search revealed that there wasn’t much to do in Chichi-Jima. The place’s charm was mainly because of the beautiful beaches, but we weren’t interested in swimming. We visited the Ogasawara Marine Product Center and saw small sharks, rays, sea turtles, and various local fish. We ate a Japanese dinner at Fuku-Chan, slept on the boat, and sailed with the sunrise. If my calculations regarding our speed were correct, we should reach Guam in 28 hours.

From the very beginning, it was clear that the weather conditions had changed. The ocean was choppy, and there was wind. At least it was in the right direction. The wind got stronger and stronger until Alfonsen asked me to replace him at the helm. His sailing skill was still level three, while Mahya’s and mine were level six, so he didn’t feel comfortable steering the boat in these conditions. I quickly understood the problem: the boat flew too fast between the engine at almost maximum speed and the sails receiving a solid wind. To avoid hitting a boat or ship, I slowed down the motor more and more until we were sailing almost only on wind power.

Rue felt terrible and threw up several times. Luckily, Alfonsen had the Clean spell.

I called Rue, “Come here, buddy, put your head on my lap.”

He whined softly but mentally shouted, “Bad boat! Rue no like!”

I patted him and cast Healing Touch. That’s how I continued to steer for fifteen hours, one hand on the wheel and one hand on Rue, as I cast a Healing Touch every few minutes to help him. He looked miserable, and I felt sorry for him. If he develops such severe motion sickness, I’ve decided never to tease him again about his hatred of small boats. If they made me feel that way, I would hate them too.

When Mahya came to replace me at the helm, she said, “If the Gate in Guam leads to a world with a manageable mana level, we should take Rue in and have him kill monsters or mana beasts.”

“Why?”

“He needs two more levels. At level ten, his Constitution should be high enough to prevent motion sickness.”

“Good idea. We will definitely check this option.”

It took us another ten hours to reach Guam, and I spent this whole time casting Healing Touch on Rue. My boy felt so miserable and kept whining softly. The spell helped, but the motion sickness returned fast every time. He was so miserable that he even stopped shouting mentally.

We finally docked at Sumay Cove Marina, got off the boat, and looked for a nearby hotel. Rue needed to feel dry land. When we heard a storm was approaching on the news, we felt relieved that it missed us mid-sail. I metaphorically patted my Luck trait on the back and went to sleep—I was done after taking care of Rue for twenty-five hours.

The storm hit the island of Guam and raged for two days. During that period, we stayed at the hotel, and Rue was ecstatic to watch TV finally. I made progress on the mana control book and realized that, for now, I should give up the idea of drawing mana through Rue.

It turned out that first, you need to achieve total control of the internal mana while progressing toward controlling the external mana. Only when you completely control internal mana, can you train in complete control of external mana. Only after achieving proficiency in controlling external mana at advanced levels, can you begin to channel it. I haven’t even looked up how to draw mana through Rue. I wasn’t there yet.

Two days later, after the storm had passed, we checked the Gate. Of course, the Gate was a surprise. What else is new? The Gates surprised us so many times that I stopped feeling surprised. This time, it was Alfonsen’s turn to be speechless.

 

 

Alfonsen turned to me and Mahya, looking at us wide-eyed. “I can confidently state that a Gate linking Leylos to a technological world has never existed.”

“Well, the original Gate you came from also changed,” I said.

“This is correct, but Lis informed me it was a newly introduced Gate to your world,” he said.

“The Gate might have been there before, but nobody went through it, so it didn’t appear on the Map,” Mahya said.

“Hmm, I concur,” he answered.

“Are you planning to take this Gate home?” Mahya asked.

“No. I am presently deliberating whether to accept the role of the heir apparent. Nevertheless, even if I opt to proceed, my travel time began less than a year ago. There is still some time left for me before I have to go back to that terrible ordeal,” Alfonsen said.

“Think this place is good for leveling up Rue and getting rid of his seasickness?” I asked.

“I will know our location once we cross the Gate,” he said.

As we crossed the Gate, Alfonsen opened the Map and said, “No, this is not a good place.”

“Why?” Mahya asked.

“In our world, we consider the areas deep within the mountains to pose a certain danger. Considering the mana level, seeking a more suitable option would be more advisable,” Alfonsen said.

“It’s your world; you know best,” I said.

I checked the Gate from the other side. The mana was still holding at seven, which was good.

 

 

Once we got back to the hotel, we had a meeting and decided against going to Rota Island. The storm had caused us to lose two days, and we agreed we would rather spend those two days in Guam.

We went on a Valley of the Latte Jungle Riverboat Cruise, which lasted a whole day. Fortunately, Rue had no issues with the riverboat’s stability, and there were many children, so he made a lot of small friends. We visited Underwater World, ate good food, swam in the calm sea again, and raced on the E-foils. After three days of rest and fun, we sailed at dawn, heading to the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia.

About an hour after we sailed from Guam, fog started. Initially, the fog appeared as scattered pockets with areas of greater visibility. But gradually, the fog became thicker and thicker until it seemed as if we were sailing through milk. The wind completely stopped, and a creepy silence enveloped the surroundings. I was at the helm, and it was a strange experience—gradually, everything became deathly silent.

I couldn’t sail like this. The sailboat glided silently through the water, its bow disappearing into a thick, white wall of fog. My visibility didn’t even extend to the bow. Extending my mana sense as far as it would go, I gained about ten meters of “visibility,” but it wasn’t enough to navigate. On the river, my mana sense sphere was wider; here, it felt like the fog muted it—like it had something in it that muted everything. I had a compass and the Travelers’ Map, but as far as the sea conditions were concerned, I was sailing blind. Everything felt and sounded muted, adding to the uncertainty. I couldn’t hear the waves lapping against the hull.

With my Mana Control, I closed and tied the sails, lowered the engine speed to the minimum, and called Mahya and Alfonsen over.

“We have two options,” I said. “Either turn back and return to Guam or continue and head to the Marshall Islands.”

“Weren’t we going to Micronesia?” Mahya asked.

“The Marshalls are part of it, but we must drop Pohnpei,” I said.

“What factors need to be considered when evaluating each option?” asked Alfonsen.

“The same factor applies in both cases. I can detect objects about ten meters ahead using my mana sense. When someone takes over the helm from me, they will have even less visibility. It’s dangerous to approach an island and navigate into a marina when you can’t see anything, and the open sea is also dangerous without visibility,” I said.

“What are your thoughts?” Alfonsen asked.

“I think we should continue. Both to not lose this time and because the open sea may be dangerous without visibility, but less dangerous than an area near an island.”

They both agreed with me, and I continued navigating. Our sailing speed was something like three or four knots. I was afraid to sail faster. At least in these conditions, the sea was as smooth and calm as a river, so Rue didn’t experience any motion sickness.

The fog cleared a bit in the late afternoon, and visibility improved to about five meters from the boat’s bow. After hours of navigating with my mana sense and seeing nothing with my eyes, my entire body was tense. At one point, I even closed my eyes to “see” better with my mana. To give myself a break from stress, I asked Alfonsen to replace me for a bit. I lay on the couch in the saloon and tried to calm the nerves and tension in my body. I was tense like a spring, which didn’t improve my mental peace.

“Sailing should be fun, not a stressful experience!” I complained mentally to the universe at large and felt amusement directed at me. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up; you’re not the one sailing in those conditions.” This time, I didn’t get a reaction. I had become so accustomed to these sporadic “communications” that they no longer bothered me.

Yay me!

I saw Mahya reading the Bible and writing things down in a notebook every few minutes.

“What are you doing?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

“Research,” she replied without looking up from her notes.

“In the Bible?” I asked, bewildered.

“Yes.”

“Why?” I asked, completely confused.

“Looking for good sources of magical knowledge,” she said casually, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“In the Bible?” I felt like a parrot, repeating the same thing over and over.

“Yes,” she replied, unfazed.

“Could you break down what you’re doing? I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I feel dumb right now because you’re not making any sense at all.” I crossed my arms, feeling increasingly lost.

She finally looked up at me, her expression serious. “My father, who holds the [Lore Keeper] class, told me that during his travels, he discovered numerous evidence suggesting that magical worlds were once technological worlds, a finding that is not surprising given the integrations. But on two occasions, he found proof that technological worlds used to be magical. He called it ‘the ebb and flow of magic.’ I believe that Earth serves as another example.”

“HUH?!” I just stared at her, open-mouthed.

She smirked at my reaction. “Don’t look at me like that. With this expression, you do look dumb. I’m going through your historical texts looking for proof of this theory.”

I rubbed the back of my neck, thoroughly confused. “It’s all very fascinating, but why do WE care?” I asked, bewildered.

“Runes,” she said simply, like the answer was obvious.

“Runes?” I echoed, my confusion deepening.

“Yes, how many rune languages have you learned so far?” she asked, her tone challenging.

“Two,” I answered cautiously.

“Did you notice they are different?” she pressed.

“Yeah, of course.” I frowned, still unsure where she was going with this.

“Exactly. The more runes you know, the more you can mix and match to make amazing things or create new rituals.”

I started laughing, the absurdity of it hitting me.

“What is so funny?” she asked, sounding annoyed.

“You want to go look for things that were buried underground, and somebody dug them up,” I said, laughing even harder. “How the mighty have fallen and crossed to the dark side.”

She looked even more annoyed, and I roared with laughter, unable to stop.

We both heard a foghorn. We jumped up and ran to Alfonsen to check that everything was fine. He turned the wheel to the right, and we saw the shadow of a large ship. It was massive, resembling either a cruise ship or a cargo vessel. The fog made it impossible to determine the exact distance, but I could feel the ship’s wave pushing us to the side and rocking the boat.

“Speed up,” I told him, keeping my voice steady.

“Replace me, please,” he said in a shaky voice, his grip loosening on the helm.

I replaced him on the helm, turned it further to the right, and increased the engine speed. I felt like we were on a thrill ride at an amusement park as our boat went up and down in the ship’s wake.

Everything calmed down after a while, and the sea was as smooth as a lake again. Alphonse stood beside me, panting. I noticed his hands were shaking.

“Are you okay?” I asked, glancing at him with concern.

“Give me a moment, please.”

Once he regained his composure, he said, “I hate fog!” He shook his head, still visibly tense.

“Go drink something, rest, and recover. I’ll navigate in the meantime,” I offered.

“Thank you.”

I remained at the helm until sunset, by which time the fog had nearly dissipated. Mahya replaced me, and I went to sleep. The sea was calm in the morning, without a hint of fog.

Thank you, Guiding Spirits!

Alfonsen felt comfortable navigating, Mahya pursued her research on religious and magical topics, and I practiced expanding my mana sense. It was useful in many situations; I had to maximize it.

We continued to sail for two days with no further surprises until we arrived at Arno Atoll. There was no marina or anything like that in Arno, so we dropped anchor a few hundred meters from the atoll and came ashore with the E-foils. I blessed the day we discovered these devices every day and blessed Lis for converting them to be mana-powered. They solved so many problems for us. We spent a day and a half in Arno Atoll. There weren’t any unique attractions, not even restaurants, but the lagoon was lovely, and swimming in clear water with no waves was fun. We enjoyed a bike ride around the atoll’s perimeter and purchased a lot of coconuts. After a day and a half, we gave up visiting Jaluit and sailed directly to Hawaii. We preferred not to take a chance that more surprising things would happen along the way and delay us.

As Alfonsen put it, “Should we happen to be ahead of schedule, we will find ways to occupy ourselves. However, arriving late would result in an embarrassing situation.”