The Frankfurt Gate was only thirty minutes from the city. The sed I drove past, a tingling awareness prickled at the edges of my senses. I didn’t stop. Instead, I drove for two minutes, pulled into a gas station, and walked toward the Gate.

  The location wasn’t much to look at. Fifty meters off the road, five unremarkable boulders y scattered in a cluster. Two of those stones were the Gate’s anchors. Just past them, derees and a thick line of underbrush blocked the field of vision from the road. Gng around, I verified no one could see me a out a breath, relieved. No one would see me vanish.

  I touched the Gate to view its information:

  Travelers Gate #468217257Destination: ShimoorStatus: IedMana level: 17Threat level: Minimal

  No tech level, iing. Does it mean they’re ione Age or something?

  While still maintaining tact with the Gate, I opehe Archive to view the world’s information. The first entry was from the same guy who wrote the entry I read about Earth. That should be good—I liked his grumblings.

  Summer, year 9 of King Lure IV—Traveler Guar Shum

  I’m leaving through a Gate in the northern part of the major ti. I have no idea what kingdom it belongs to. You find the loarked on the Map.

  This is my sed time here, so I have little to add. I found a sweet, sweet deal with copper s and came to vert them to gold. If you want to know what deal, find a Gate to a pce called Dirt, Ground, and something else and read my entry.

  I looked for his other entry.

  Winter, year 8 of King Lure IV—Traveler Guar Shum

  Hello, fellow Traveler. I hope my words will help you on your journey.

  Came through a Gate from Tulidar. Don’t need identifications mood. Spent 500 mana to learn the nguage. Mana levels are retively low, seion is slow. Something like 100 a day. Tolerable.

  This world is b. Because of low mana levels, there are almost no monsters, and they are retively weak. The stro monster I saw from afar was level 2. I didn’t bother killing it. I want to get the Warrior Css as a sub-css, but don’t think it will happen with such a low-level monster.

  Life is unfair sometimes.

  This is my sed world—or maybe my first. I’m the son of a Gate Traveler, and my father prepared me all my life. Before he let me through a Gate, he made me travel our world to gain experience. So, my first? Sed? Doesn’t matter.

  So, this world.

  The good stuff:

  My father was right that it’s a great starting world. The people are nid friendly, the wild animals are not especially dangerous, and there are few monsters.

  The locals are humanoid like us, but have a strange light brown color instead of blue. I didn’t need gmour, and they had no problem with my color. They assumed I was from the “unknown kingdoms over the sea” a pesterih questions about how I crossed the sea. I ied a ory in every own to break the monotony. Great Spirits, it’s b here.

  The money system is straightforward: copper, silver, and gold. 10 coppers=1 silver, 10 silvers=1 gold. They don’t even have ptinum or mithril s here. Boooriiing.

  Most pces have a basi, nothing to tell stories about. A night in an inn costs 3 coppers, a meal or an ale 2 coppers, tea 1 copper.

  The bad stuff:

  BOOOOORIIIIING

  There’s nothing here except endless wilderness with some towns iween. The feital cities are just like the towns, just bigger—no iing magio dungeons, just b, b, b. I’m feeling my mind going numb.

  I’m leaving through the first Gate I find.

  Goodbye. May your road be happy and your adventures gentle.

  Well, Earth definitely broke his monotony.

  His “B” sounded like heaven—a world filled with endless green ndscapes, small towns where everyone knew each other by name, and life like something from an old movie. Right then, a decisioled in my chest. I’d every tie to my life oh, turn my funds into jewelry, merdise, or anything portable and valuable, and leave for Shimoor. A world with magid untamed nature was calling me, aurning to Earth seemed a distant, half-hearted notion. If I ever came back, juring up some ID would be the st of my worries.

  The first step was simple: a trip through the Gate to see my new beginning.

  Emerging oher side, I found myself in the heart of a ruin, engulfed in silehe two anchors of the Gate loomed above me. The sharp, pointed rocks looked like they’d once been a single, colossal stone, cleaved perfectly down the ter by an immense fire sword. When my hand brushed the sides fag each other, I felt a smoothness as cold and fwless as gss, an almost unnatural polish that sent a shiver through me. They weren’t just rocks; they were relics, frozeimoo an unfathomable strength.

  Arouhe stone skeleton of a once-mighty structure, swallowed by green. Thick moss g to every block of stone, vines draped over doorways and loose rocks, and t trees pressed close, their lower branches serving as the roof, with trunks wide enough to rival a truck. The building, long lost to time, had clearly been massive in its day. They built it from enormous stones, now scattered on the forest floor, half-hidden by moss and wild pnts. I stood near oone, and it reached to my waist. Wandering through, I pieced together its yout. It was circur, with smaller rooms radiating outward. All the rooms eventually led to a vast tral chamber where the Gate stood. Every detail spoke of a past civilization. They had known about the Gate, revered it, and built this sanctuary around it as if it were a temple.

  turies or even millennia buried their work in thick roots and creeping greenery. Even the air felt a, heavy with the st of damp earth and stone. Cautious exploration vinced me there was nothing dangerous here—just the faint sounds of birds and is, hidden high above i branches and the steady rustling of leaves. It was quiet and secluded.

  I felt lighter on this side, as if the ground’s pull on me was weaker. Less gravity? Or was it the mana’s influehe difference wasn’t drastic, but noticeable enough. Is there a way to measure gravity? I wondered.

  I checked the Gate from this side.

  Travelers Gate #468217257Destinatioh/Gaia/TerraStatus: UedMana level: 3Teology level: LowThreat level: Humans–moderate. Other species–very high.

  The information was like the ate, and the number looked simir. I wrote it down to pare.

  When I stepped back through the Gate, the familiar weight of Earth’s gravity settled over me. It reminded me I had work to do. My time here was short now. I o tie up loose ends, gather supplies, liquidate my funds, and start my new reality. A journey awaited me, and I was excited.