After Lis didn’t react to the sed batch of books I gave him, I gave up on the book intimidation game. I was determio find a solution where we wouldn’t be reliant on each other for books. Despite Lis being a faster learner, I refused to let that disce me. I khat my learning was different, requiring more than just reading. I had to practice, which meant my progress was slower through the books Lis gave me.

  The discrepan our learning speeds tio bother me. The evening, over dinner, I couldn’t help but ask, “I know you have the Mind Power ter and are a Researcher and a Schor, but your speed seems way faster than mine. I’m about to finish the third book you gave me, and you’ve already finished almost a hundred. How I increase my speed?”

  Lis shrugged and replied, “You ’t pare us. I have a high level of Crity and Mind Index; you don’t.”

  “How exactly does it work?” I asked, curiosity piqued.

  “Crity helps me uand things faster, better, and more thhly, you might say,” he expiapping his temple. “Every evening, when I finish studying, I activate the Mind Index ability, which cross-references everything I learhat day with the rest of the data stored in my memory. It creates an overall picture instead of having lots of ued pieces of knowledge.”

  “That’s amazing!”

  He nodded and smiled, looking smug.

  After a minute, I asked, “Does Crity also have special properties like Luck?”

  “Of course,” he said. “All the special traits have two additional aspects: one direal, and o. With Crity, if there is a topic I don’t uand because I owledge, I activate the first asped feel in which dire I find the missing data. The sed aspect is my favorite: When I read a text, and it doesn’t matter what text, the important data appears in a clear, dark text, and all the unimportant things, the unnecessary filling, appear in light, almost transpare.”

  I just stared at him with utter jealousy. I had to find a solution for the book exge, or he would leave me in the dust.

  “Did you get the css you wanted?” I asked him.

  “Of course not; I haven’t done anythi,” he said, shaking his head.

  “What do you mean you haven’t done anything? You’ve studied almost a hundred books!” I excimed, incredulous.

  “Yes, I learned. But I did not take any as in the real world that demonstrated this knowledge and made me eligible to receive the css,” he expined, leaning ba his chair.

  “Is that why my Wizard css didn’t go up with everything I learned?” I asked, frowning.

  “Yes,” he said, nodding. “We progress not from learning but from doing. But before we do anything, we must first learn. You’re now learning the basiana and magice you gain suffit knowledge, you’ll begin to do things with this knowledge, leading to an increase in your css’s level.”

  “But I did as! What about the ritual I performed?” I asked, my frustration showing.

  “First, your css is not a Ritualist but a Wizard,” he said, pointing at me. “Sed, you ’t get double be from the Guidance, and you’ve already got the be: Rue as your familiar.”

  “What do you mean you ’t get double bes?” I asked, puzzled.

  “You buy a hundred spells with points, but you’ll never get the Mage css. That is because you didn’t earn it, but bought the spells through the skill the guidance gave you—you beed already,” he expined patiently. “But if you clear dungeons and earn the spells as rewards and thehem, or appreo a Mage, at some point, you’ll get the css from the Guidance. Why do you think I didn’t buy the engineering skills, but learning them the ‘hard way’? I don’t want to lose the possibility of getting the css I want. Alternatively, you mentiohat you were harvesting crystals from monsters. You will never gain a level from doing it. You already receive the be: the crystal. But if you build a spell to harvest crystals, you’ll get at least a level. Why? You did something that doesn’t really be you, as you don’t , but it bes others.”

  “Makes sense. I hought about it,” I said, nodding thoughtfully.

  At this point, Rue returned home utterly drenched, and I had to dry him. He made friends with all the kids in the neighborhood, so he would leave in the m and e home only for dinner. Initially, some of our neighbors were afraid of him, but over time, he became the most loved dog in London. Quickly, all our neighbors discovered he was a bottomless pit, so they fed him, and judging by his breath, he found some neighbors to give him a beer almost daily. He was having a lot of fun.

  After a brief searline, I stumbled upon the reloadable Visa Prepaid card. I wasted no time and immediately headed to Amazon to purchase all the textbooks I could find, not just about engineering. I meticulously pared my colle with what I didn’t have, ensuring I bought one copy for Lis of everything they had and copies for myself of the books I didn’t have. If his mana rose through study, I was sure he would appreciate many things to learn. I then scoured other websites that sold textbooks and bought all the books I couldn’t find before.

  After a few days, huge shipments started arriving. I separated my books from Lis’s and stored everything. After all the shipments arrived, I called Lis into the living room and told him, “Give me back all the books I gave you.”

  “Why?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “It’s a surprise,” I said, grinning.

  He didn’t seem pleased, but he cooperated aurned all my books. After I finished putting away all the books, I started taking out box after box of books and said to Lis, “These are all your copies. There’s not just engineering here, but every subject I could find a textbook on.”

  He looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Thank you so much!” his voice filled with gratitude. After a minute, he couldn’t help himself and gave me a bone-crushing hug.

  When I finished giving him all his books, I said, “Now I want my surprise. I know you ’t give me your books, but I bought a copier, and if you agree, I want to copy all of them.”

  “Of course,” he replied, noddihusiastically.

  He took out more and more books, and I stored them in a separate er.

  For the seven months, between my csses, I copied books and filed them in separate folders.

  To my surprise, I discovered an iing phenomenon: the flict between teology and mana exceeded my expectations. I tried to copy a runiguage book, and after I pressed Start to copy the first page, the copier died. I still wasn’t sure it was the book, so I bought another copier. This copier also died. I tried a workaround and took a picture of the page with my mobile phohe phone died.

  I knew my camera was good with magic, so I ied a new film and photographed the book’s pages. The film became all sched up during the development process as if someone had chewed on it. It was annoying. A lot of books I put aside had magic circles and rituals, so it looked like I wouldn’t be able to copy them the easy way.

  I examined all the books with runes, magic scripts, magic rituals, and circles, and they were different. The paper was very thid saturated with mana.

  I went to an office supply store and bought all kinds of thick paper. I came home and tried to saturate the paper with mana. No matter what I tried, the paper crumbled into tiny specks. After searg the i, I discovered part. I purchased a package and attempted to imbue the part with mana. It worked!

  Further iigation revealed that manufacturers had made some part with real leather and some with artificial leather. I didn’t want to take a ce, so I ordered rge packages of part from ahat stated it was genuiher.

  That’s how I spent the five months: going to csses, saturating part, and copying books with a copier or by hand.

  A week after I started copying books by hand, Lis saw me doing it and asked, “Why do you copy books by hand?” He watched me with a puzzled expression.

  “Because these books kill the copier,” I replied, shaking my head in frustration.

  “Of course,” he said, nodding in uanding. “Runes and magic scripts always tain mana, so they will obviously destroy aronic device. But why don’t you buy a spell to do the copying? You have enough points now.” He looked at me as if the solution was obvious.

  I was embarrassed and said, “Because I didn’t think of that...” I admitted, rubbing the bay neck awkwardly.

  He ughed a back to studying.

  I checked the spell list, and there was indeed a list of copying spells. One of them was “agical Text,” which cost three ability points.

  I filled the wo months with fighting csses and copying.

  I finally finished copying Lis’s entire library; the entire process took me over a year. By now, I had pleted most of the fighting lessons. I tinued with each lesson until I got the ability and leveled it up a bit, then moved on to something else.

  During this time, I discovered Udemy and Skillshare in one of my i searches. It wasn’t just a gold mi had diamonds, too. We stopped looking for workshops and switched to online courses. By this point, I had 58 ability points, and Lis had 80+ because of all the previous workshops I had done.

  After ahree intense months of online learning, I had 85 points. Lis had 93; with all his studying, he had less time to spend oer. I also kept rest ons, juring dotation as my mana allowed, and selling them in antique shops.

  I was ready for my sed spiral, and this time, I packed the rings tightly, not only in the power orbs but also in the els leading to them.

  Sed Spiral pletedQuality: 92%

  Yes!!

  I took a day to rest; the spiral creation process was very taxing. I unraveled the first spiral and rebuilt it with the tight rings.

  Sed Spiral pletedQuality: 93%

  Double Yes!!

  Before that, my regeion was 3 mana per minute or 5 mana per minute, with additional mana absorption. After the two spirals, my regeion jumped up to 7 a minute. If I added the absorption aspey els, it would go up to 8 and sometimes to 10.

  It took me a few days to realize the reason for the differen numbers; after a few hours eing, the mana in the area was thinner. Because the ge was gradual, I didn’t notice it at first.

  I was gettiless and was looking for a way to occupy myself while not on the puter.

  I reanized my Ste and donated a lot of the clothes. They didn’t sell well in Shimoor; household goods were much more popur.

  By s all the textbooks in boxes by subject, I cleared a lot of spa my bookcases and filled them with new fi, and the copied books from Lis.

  I started visiting pawnshops, selling gold s, and buying jewelry.

  My colle of musical instruments grew, and I used ability points to buy skills to py the flute, violin, piano, saxophone, harmonica, and lute.

  In the piaion, I also found skills to tune and upkeep a piano, and I bought both. For some strange reason, the skills didn’t appear on my profile, but were “absorbed” into the piano skill. I purchased five of each of the instruments I could now py, visited music stores, and bought every sheet of music I could find, from cssical and opera to rod heavy metal.

  Remembering the “mana dead zones” you create, I bought five of the best ptops I could find and 20 external hard drives (10TB each), and started buying musid movies online.

  After I found a por dishware pany going out of business, I bought their eock.

  I visited flea markets and thrift stores to buy metal cookware and gss dishes.

  Finally, I had enough. I was too restless to stay in one pce for too long. In Shimoor, I got used to traveling and moving from pce to pce. After thinking about the UK Gates with the danger signs for a while, I decided to take a ce. I had no iion of traveling there; I wasn’t suicidal. But I figured that if I cast Invisibility at myself and popped in and out to gaie number, I’d be fine.

  That evening, I told Lis, “I want to go to the Gates on this isnd to raise my Gate Traveler css. Want to e with me?”

  He shuddered and said, “I have no iion of goihat horrible pce. I won’t stop you, but please be very, very careful and don’t venture from the Gate. You should be in and out ihan a minute.” His was evident in his voice.

  “Yes, Dad, I promise,” I said with a grin, trying to sound reassuring.

  He ughed and asked Rue, “Yoing with John?”

  I had no idea that Rue could express “Duh” in a feeling so expertly.