Needing a day to recuperate from my “shit storm,” I moved the camp to a nice clearing at the foot of a mountain. I spent the entire day swingiween annoya the ck of data and acceptahat I o figure out everything myself. I also emptied my garbage barrel.

  Walking about a kilometer from camp, I dug a hole aied my barrel. I had a lot of takeaway boxes. Initially, I po burn all of them, but on sed thought, I ed the good psties and saved them for the cooked food I’d store iure. Additionally, I discovered the broken suhat shielded my eye from the “goat bomb” and cast Mend to restore them. This spell was outstanding; they were like new. After remembering my shredded leather pants, I mehem as well. Sometimes, maintenance was necessary.

  Eventually, my annoyance reached the point where I was willing to go into the Archive again. I returo camp, got fortable in a lounge chair with a footrest, and dove into the Archive again.

  There was a ry in the Archive to buy a supply of shoeces on worlds that have good ones because the Traveler had to resort to using a rope. I wrote him a ent, “Buy the Mend spell,” and tinued scrolling.

  I reached the discussion about additional Qualities. The Traveler who got the Luck Quality from the [Treasure Hunter] sub-ow had 63 people calling him a liar. The Traveler who got it from the [Path Finder] sub-ow had 41 people calling him a liar. When I reached my “post,” I felt like a social media star. 136 people said they had the Mert Profession, didn’t get the Quality, and called me a liar. I blew those guys out of the water.

  Yay me!

  Scrolling down until I reached the pompous ass who wrote “My Thoughts on the Differeween Awakened Beasts and Monsters,” which was the st pce I stopped, I tinued from there. Again, I had to wade through a lot of bullshit. Somebody posted a recipe for “An Amazing Siskek Campfire Stew.” The only ingredient I reized in the whole recipe was salt, and it amazed me to see three people thanking him and saying it was delicious.

  Somebody else asked to please, please, please, when you write ‘world information’ about a world you’re leaving, put the Gate that got you there and the cluster where it’s located. I had read nothing about clusters before but could ihe meaning from the text. I didn’t get how you know what cluster you’re in. The Gate request was a great idea.

  Araveler also wrote about clusters and cleared up the fusion. He asked if somebody knew a good pce to buy mana crystals in the cluster of Lipia-Timus-Ilmavirta-So. I ented, suggested he harvest the crystals himself instead of buying them, and described how I did it. Also, I asked him what the use of mana crystals was—after some time, I’d check the entry to see if he replied.

  Then, I came across something arming. It was an article titled “Opportunities and Dangers in Worlds Undergoing an Iion.” After the LitRPG books I read, the title was arming by itself, but reading it armed me even more. The article first described how you could reize a world close to iion and listed mana levels 9-10 and over 200 Gates to that specific world from mana worlds. It expihat the first step before iing a world is to increase the Gate t to flood the world with mana. Remembering that Earth had a lot of Gates, I looked for my notebook and ted them—139 Gates. Phew! Not 200 yet. I also remembered that some Gates I approached were to ued tech-worlds. I rechecked my notebook. 10 Gates led to low mana tech-worlds. So, 129 potential mana-world es. I checked my notes about Earth’s mana level—3. It seemed like Earth would bee ied, but it still had time.

  The description of the primary danger was enlightening in a way: “ Waves of mana flood the world through the Gates, creating areas with uneven mana. Those areas be as mild as a low mana world and as dangerous as a very high mana world, with all the dangerous mas usually present in such worlds.” That sounded scary; I wasn’t sure I wao visit a high mana world.

  Pausing in the middle of the article, I took a moment to assess my feelings—did I care? I left Earth without intending to return, but my arm at reading the article and worry about Earth told a different story. After some thought, I cluded Earth was not my home. I didn’t belong there, but I had a responsibility for the pce that birthed and raised me. Besides, there wasn’t much left for me oh—just two graves that served as reminders of a life I had lost.

  So, I decided I would occasionally check the Gates to Earth and monitor the mana levels. If I saw the mana reach level 9 a like it, I might help the locals in the area around the Gate. However, I wouldn’t go out of my way to provide global help. I felt no responsibility or debt to Earth; my life had moved on, and I no longer sidered it my home. Because I felt good about my decision and overall felt better and less annoyed, I left the Archive.

  Since I hadn’t pyed my guitar for a while, I took it out and started pying. I didn’t learn new songs; I just pyed the ones I already knew. After a few songs, I pyed a song I discovered in the songbook and fell in love with—”Sleeping Sun” by Nightwish. After a few seds, I stopped and started again, but this time, I sang.

  “The sun is sleeping quietlyOnce upon a tury...”

  Halfway through the song, Stretch sat beside me and began to howl-sing with me. We sang like this for hours, until I exhausted my entire repertoire.

  The following m, I felt brimming with energy. I just wao move. After I broke camp, I ran—Stretch thought it was a great idea. I was running fast but felt that I could go faster, so I pushed myself to go faster, faster, faster until I felt like I was flying; I didn’t think I ever drove that fast.

  We flew through the wilderness for a few hours until I saw a big river in the distance. Instead of stopping, I tried somethiirely new for me. I “stored” the clothes off my body, and it worked! Additionally, I stored my shoes, socks, and, stly, my sungsses. I was running buaked and ughing loudly. When I got to the river, I dove in without stopping. The flight through the air before I hit the water was the most exhirating experien my life. Stretch jumped after me, and we pyed ier. I experienced a sense of freedom alessness.

  When I was tired of pying, I floated on my bad let the current take me; it was slow and rexing. Stretch swam beside me, and I told him to let me know when he wao e out of the water. He seemed tent to doggy paddle beside me. After some time, we left the water, dried off, and had lunch. I drank a bottle of wih my food and enjoyed life.