Frankfurt’s skyline drew closer as I drove. I checked into a hotel, then slumped into a soft armchair, my notebook open, ready tahe chaos in my head—time for a pn.

  Raise my Gate Traveler level.There were a lot of Gates on the Map:

  17 Gates in EuropeOver 30 in the UK23 in the Americas4 in Australia6 in the Middle East aral Asia9 in India7 in the Far East12 in a21 in Africa1 on each of the polesAnd anates spread between various isndsI opted to skip the Middle Eastern Gates. There was one in Israel, but the others were in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Lebanon. With most of those pces dangerous for Ameris, a trip for just oe didn’t seem worth it. The isnds and the poles were also out of the question—I wasn’t keen on spending days in the air or freezing my butt off. The UK Gates had a spooky bck circle with a red skull. I made a mental o check ter in the Archive for clues.

  So, my total was 93 Gates, or 91, since I already visited two of them. Some Gates would probably be inaccessible, or the threat level would be too high. Still, it was a lot of Gates. There was no doubt I could raise my level quickly. My goal was to reach level 10 to explore the new possibilities that would open up.

  Figure out my mana ah.Not knowing how it worked bugged me—I always o uand things logically before ag or deg. Those books deserved another ce. They helped me find my profile—sort of. This time, though, my focus would be on stories about people who had goo another world. Even if it were pure fantasy, they would undoubtedly have useful ideas or help me make sense of things.

  Handle all my financial and legal issues and sell my house and cars.Make lists of what to take on my travels.Some serious digging in the Archive would be necessary to find suggestions for personal fort, items for sale, gifts, bribes, etc. Resear the i about camping, hunting, hiking, and simir activities would also be in order.

  Books were the easiest to tackle, so I returo the forums for reendations. In the past, my Kindle was full of professional literature and biographies, but now it looked like I was a teenager again.

  After a week of reading, I cluded that my Health was a bination of Vitality and stitution, each adding 50 points. Yet, the mystery of my mana remained unsolved. It made little sehat my mana was tied to the Strength or stitution stats, but those were the only stats that didn’t go up after disc my mana.

  Suddenly, a fleeting thought made me facepalm. While expl my Personal Information, I reached the abilities list, got excited, and stopped there. The answers may have been waiting iher descriptions all along.

  I poked the word Mana on my profile, but nothing happened. Poked 66 and got a rea.

  Current mana level

  Not helpful.

  I poked 3000 and got a message:

  Maximum mana capacity

  Still not helpful.

  Poking them again, separately and together, produced the same two messages over and over.

  Maybe my attributes will have the answer?

  I poked Strength and got a BIG surprise:

  Strength

  Physical: This Trait determihe iy of your force or power—how hard you hit, how much you lift, and how much resistance you exert against another object.

  Mental: This Trait determines how well you handle challenges, pressures, and stress without breaking down iving up.

  I’ve seen nothing like it in any of the books! The “manuals” were missing vital information!

  Agility

  Physical: This Trait determines your quiess and ease of motion, as well as how well you trol your body, speed, flexibility, and ba also affects your physical rea time.

  Mental: This Trait reflects your ability to think quickly, adapt to new information, and draw clusions on the fly. It influences your intellectual acuity aal rea time.

  stitution

  Physical: This Trait measures your body’s ability to withstand fatigue and physical hardship, along with your resistao diseases, trauma, and harsh ditions.

  Mental: This Trait reflects your fidend mental resilience, as well as your ability to remain true to yourself and your ideals under pressure.

  Vitality

  Physical: This Trait determines your energy, vigor, and activity level, as well as your loy and physical appearance—how young and vibrant you look.

  Mental: This Trait reflects your sense of aliveness, e with the world, and enjoyment of life. It enpasses your sense of wonder aement, with higher levels making you feel younger and more vibrant.

  Intelligence

  Physical: This Trait governs your body’s ability to deted bance critical chemicals and hormones for optimal health. It influences how your body intuitively engages muscles, maintains good posture, and learns new movement skills—the speed at whiething bees muscle memory.

  Mental: This Trait determines your capacity to learn, uand, and apply new knowledge. It includes your ability to adapt to new or challenging situations, solve plex problems, and infer or perceive information. High Intelligence allows you to learn spells faster and grasp underlying principles, truths, or meanings.

  Wisdom

  Physical: This Trait governs your body’s ability to interpret sensory input—how quickly you respond to pai, or cold—and its ability tnize and unicate its needs, such as requiring movement, vitamins, sunlight, or rest to thrive.

  Mental: This Trait establishes your ability to apply knowledge, especially in novel circumstances. It includes the capacity to make decisions based on a blend of knowledge, experience, and intuition, as well as learning from personal and others’ experiences. High Wisdom helps adapt spells, bine spells in an innovative maner, and create new spells.

  Perception

  Physical: This Trait determines your body’s awareness of enviroal factors like heat, cold, or humidity. It also governs the sharpness ah of your sensory ans, such as eyes, ears, or nose.

  Mental: This Trait expands the range and acuity of your perception, enpassing not just physical senses but also intuitive ones, like the sense of danger nizing opportunities. At a higher level, it enables you to perceive iioions, and divergent viewpoints during personal iions.

  Wow, just wow!

  ion of mana, but I wasn’t pining—this was amazing.

  Wait!

  Vitality mentioned loy. Does this mean I’d live longer if I kept raising it? Affects physical appearance?

  I stepped into the bathroom, flicked on the light, and looked into the mirror. The face staring back wasn’t what I expected, and for a moment, I froze. My hair, once light blond, was now even lighter—almost white. Or silver, as they politely call it. My eyes, which used to be purple-gray, had shifted, too. The purple stood out more, while the gray had almost pletely faded, and they glowed slightly. But the most signifit ge was my skin—smooth, with no lines ns of age. It was the same face that used to make people do a double-take in the ER.

  “Too young to be a doctor,” they’d say. Patients often eyed me with suspi, sometimes ht disbelief, like I’d borrowed a white coat for a prank. The memory brought a small smile.

  The year I cared for Sophie and the pain after her death carved deep marks into my face. The difference was so spicuous that I avoided mirrors like the pgue and didn’t want to face them. I avoided shaving, knowing that I’d have to get up close ahe toll staring back at me. Every time I brushed my teeth, I’d tilt my head away to avoid my refle, and a passing glimpse in a shop window or a reflective surface was enough to make me turn my fa the other dire.

  The man I saw back then was a stranger. Dark bags under my eyes from grief and sleepless nights, deep frown liched into my forehead, and a sickly gray pallor that no sunlight could fix. My eyes were ft ay, drained of life. I looked older—pushing forty or more on the worst days—and every time I saw my refle was a harsh reminder of everything I’d lost.

  IT WAS ALL GONE.

  My skin looked smooth and tight, as if the years had somehow been ironed away. My firembled when I touched my face. This couldn’t be real. How was this possible? Every trace of stress and exhaustion had vanished, leaving a face that looked like it beloo someone barely out of their teens. I didn’t look a day over twenty—maybe even younger—a version of myself I hadn’t seen in years. A version I thought was lost food. I stared at my refle, uo process the ge, my mouth hanging open in disbelief. The frown lihe bags, the dull, lifeless eyes—gone, as if they’d been nothing more than a bad dream. My mi bnk, caught between disbelief and shock, like I was looking at a stranger mixed with a memory from the distant past.

  And then it hit me—everything. The Gate, the magic, mana, aliens, travel pns, me being represented in numbers—everything. Up to that point, everything had a dreamy, unreal quality, like I was walking in a daydream. Suddenly, it all became REAL. An untrolble, hysterical ughter erupted from me. It was so crazy, impossible, and overwhelming that ughter was the only possible reay body felt like it was trying to release all the shock, spewing out every emotion in a wild burst of ughter. I ughed for a very long time and couldn’t stop.

  And theears came. As quickly as the ughter had seized me, an unstoppable flood of tears repced it. I cried with big, loud sobs that shook my body, as if drawn up from the very ter of my being. Something deep within me was fueling this release, amplifying every sensation, each sob resonating from a pce buried beh yers of trol and grief. The pain gushed out of me, as though a dam had finally broken, and everything it had been holding baow surged through, unstoppable, unfiltered, carried on waves of energy rising from my core.

  All the pain and sorrow I’d hiddeed, rushing to the surface without restraint. Memories surged—my mother’s death, the way her family had cast me aside. The years spent in foster care, enduring abuse from other kids and some foster parents. The relentless bullying in high school, the cruel taunts and name-calling. My in-ws’ hatred toward me, Sophie’s siess ah. Losihe void she left behind. Feeling lost and disected from the human race. Everything. Waves rose from my diaphragm, pushing sorrow to the surface, intensifying the flood of emotion, loosening even the grief I thought was buried too deep to reach.

  My body vulsed with each pulse of this unstoppable tide. My tears and sobs overtook me pletely, leaving no room for resistance or posure. Pain ed me, and I cried harder, louder, half shouting, each tremor eg that powerful surge, pushing it all to the surface. My emotions battered against me like a storm, the flood unstoppable, making it impossible to hold on to any calm. I cried and cried, allowing the rawo wash through me. Every minute I wept was a release, a silent farewell to this pce, even though I hadn’t left yet.

  It was cathartic.

  My tears finally stopped, leaving aihat felt peaceful. My emotioled, and a fragile calm settled over me—something that had been absent for far too long.

  The release recisely what I needed—a way to finally let go of the emotions I’d bottled up for so long. I felt lighter, as if some of the weight I’d been carrying had looses grip. The sorroain were still there, but they seemed easier to bear, less sharp.

  Cold water on my face relieved my swollen eyes and tear-stained cheeks. Exhausted, I dragged myself to bed, feeling a calm I hadn’t experienced ihe weight lingered but wasn’t as crushing as before. As I drifted off, a small, cautious glimmer of hope sparked—a quiet sehat maybe, just maybe, I could heal and move on.