We arrived at the dock te afternoon, and I asked about the captain. One sailor went on board to fetch him. The captain approached me, his expression a mix of curiosity and amusement. “You’re early. I told you I don’t o test y.”

  “I finished all my business iy, so there was no point in deying. Is it a problem that I’m early?” I asked, trying to read his expression.

  “No, it’s not a problem at all,” he replied, his face softening into a weling smile. “Wele aboard.” He paused, then added, “I have a proposition for you.”

  “Go on,” I said, intrigued.

  “If you check all my crew ahem as needed, you don’t have to pay for the passage.”

  I thought for a moment and then nodded. “No problem, but not today. Today, I want to see my and rex. Let’s do it tomorrow.”

  “Of course, not today; we are busy with final preparations. Tomorrow is also not good; the first day of sailing is always hectic. How about in two days?”

  “That works for me,” I agreed.

  He called one sailor over and asked him to show us around. The sailor led us up the ramp on board the ship. The vessel was extra-long, wide, and mostly square except for the front, whiarrowed to the ship’s bow with a raised ptform. Three wooden deckhouses adorhe main deck. Pointing at them, the sailor expined, “The one in the front is the s. All the guest s, as well as the captain’s , be found there. The sed one is the galley, scullery, and mess hall. The third one is crew quarters. You sit on the main deck wherever you want, but sailors might ask you to move if you’re in the way.”

  We navigated around the front deckhouse, where the sailor poi an open hatch with a trapdoor. “The cargo hold is below deck, and there are five hatches to access it; they are very obvious. When in port, don’t sit on or hem.”

  He led us to the back of the ship, pointing at a row of enormous barrels. “Water barrels,” he said, then poi a big pot with a handle resembling a giant sau. “Use only that to fill water from the barrels.”

  Returning to the first deckhouse, he showed us a long corridor with six doors on each side and a door at the end of the corridor. Pointing to the tter, he said, “Those are the captain’s quarters; please don’t go there uninvited. If you need something, ask one of the crew. All the other doors are guest s and look the same. Since you’re the first one here, you choose whichever you like.”

  Not wanting to hear people going bad forth in front of my , I poio the end of the hall. “One of the s at the end. It doesn’t matter which.”

  He led us to the one on the right and showed us ihere was a bunk that he lifted. “You store your things here, but don’t leave valuables in the room.” He opened a small door I hadn’t noticed before, revealing a chair with a hole in the middle and a bucket below it. “Chamber pot. Somebody will empty it twice a day, m and evening.”

  I handed him a copper and thanked him. He looked surprised to receive the money but didn’t objed left.

  The room, though small, was charming. It had a bunk with ste, a table with two chairs, and a two-seater cou front of a window. I arraretch’s bs and my bunk, and we had a te lunch.

  While eating, I heard shouts outside ao iigate. Two women, one older, argued with a crewman, insisting that he pced their luggage in their room, not below deck. The older dy didn’t care that there wasn’t enough spa the room, and no, she wouldn’t pay for another room fgage. Upon seeing Stretch, she stopped mid-sentend began shrieking about “filthy animals” on the ship.

  “Excuse me, but what’s the problem?” I asked, stepping forward.

  “This… this beast!” she screeched, pointing at Stretch. “Nobody told me there would be filthy animals on board!”

  I took a deep breath, trying to keep my calm. “Don’t worry, madam; he won’t get near you.”

  “Good, because if he does, I’ll—”

  “For his own good,” I added under my breath. Then, I turned and walked bay , closing the door behind me, resolute to ignore everyone and everything.

  I spent the hree days sitting in quiet ers on deck, enjoying the passing view, except for a few hours when I checked and treated the crew. There were no signifit issues, so it was quick. The sailing speed wasn’t great, but it was faster than on foot or a bicycle. After three days, I got bored without moving, so I took out my guitar and learned new songs. Wherever I sat, the spaear me became a popur hang-out area for the crew. Stretch occasionally howl-sang with my pying, and the crew thought he was a hoot. Within a day, he was their mascot, food scraps disposal unit, aing therapy.

  One evening, I ying a tune when one of the crew members approached me. “What song is that?”

  “It’s called ‘Sailing Away.’ It’s a song from my homend,” I replied. “Would you like to learn it?”

  He nodded eagerly. “Yes, please!”

  I smiled and taught him the lyrid melody. Sihe song was inally in English, I took the time to tra into Shimoorian first:

  “Waiting at the water’s edge, Watg all the ships as they are heading for the harbor wall…”

  Soon, more crew members gathered around, listening and joining in. Some asked me to teach them, and I heard them singing or humming it for the rest of the voyage.

  I added twelve new songs to my repertoire and fihree books. I reached the st book in a series I was reading, but the series didn’t clude.

  Should I return to Earth to get the following books?

  I ughed at the absurdity of the thought and told myself not to be an idiot.

  Deg to be social, I met the other passengers, except the shrieking dies. All the other passengers were merts. We talked about trade and travel, and I sold muy gssware to them. The craftsmanship amazed them, and they gushed about it. I also offered them some of my office supplies, primarily notebooks and pens, which were a hit for personal use. I bought two belts with pouches, a knife sheath without the knife, beautifully carved bowls, and a fortable pair of boots. While trading all the supplies, I immensely ehe id-back atmosphere and fun haggling.

  At some point during the voyage, the wind ged, and the crew switched to oars. The captain informed us the voyage would take longer because of that, to the dies’ displeasure. The rest didn’t mind so much.

  Oernoon, I sat with a group of merts to discuss our travels. “So, where are you headed after Mormet?” one of them asked me.

  “Not sure yet,” I replied. “I might stay with the ship for a while longer. What about you?”

  “Probably back to the city. Got some new goods to trade,” he said, patting the crates beside him.

  We tinued sharing stories, ughing, and trading goods. After eighteen days, we reached Mormet, and the captain approached me.

  “You’re the only one tinuing with us, so you stay on the ship or take a room in an inn. I won’t charge you extra for staying on board.”

  “I’ll take a room in an inn,” I decided.

  “e find me in six days, and I’ll tell you when we leave,” he said.

  “See you then.”

  I found a lovely inn, sold the innkeeper’s wife the rest of my linen, found the baths, and toured the city for two days. After two days, I began discreetly trading, choosing specific shops based on my Ste. I still had aeock of gssware and clothes and looked for pces to sell them. The gssware was easy, but the clothes were more problematic. But I persisted and sold over three baskets. Again, I toured the bcksmiths and the leather area, buying more ons and arrows. I realized that after the attack, I had fotten my promise to the bowyers to return for more arrows. I hoped they wouldn’t be stuck with excess iory because of me.

  After six days, I paid a visit to the captain, and he informed me we would depart in five days. Si hadn’t snowed i couple of days, I checked out of the inn, and we left the city. The city was on both sides of the river; one side in a valley between two mountains, the other in open pins. I headed to iigate the other side of the mountains.

  After two hours, we reached the other side, but there were just more mountains with small valleys between them. I o move, so I ran to the valley, pushing myself to my speed limit.

  My speed was impressive!

  As a kid and an adult, I was always fast, but my current speed was inparable to the past. My speed created some serious wia was a total rush, and Stretch had a bst, too. We ran for hours, enjoying the valleys between the mountains rather than the high mountain passes.

  Iernoon, we reached a big open valley with some streams and a herd of mukar/bison.

  Yay!

  I o replenish the meat supply.

  After lunch, I went hunting. Too excited, I missed the eye and hit a cheekbone. Surprised, I momentarily froze, and the mukar started running away. Not wanting it to escape injured, I chased it. Once I brought it down, opes belly, and hung it, I reminded myself, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”

  I saturated it with mana, w on an idea I had. Instead of flooding it with mana and then trolling and direg it, I created a mesh of mana where I wahe cuts. It looked like a detailed diagram of how to butcher a cow. Adding a thin yer of maween the skin and the meat, I “pushed” with my iion. The whole thing colpsed inward. When I lifted the pelt and examihe cuts, they were better than before. The sun had moved a little, maybe half an hour. I checked my mana: 6820/7200.

  Woo Hoo! It was faster and used less mana.

  A red light started blinking in front of my eyes. When I tapped it:

  You have perfected a teique to harvest bovine game.

  +1 to Perception.

  Advahe teique and formalize a spell to get more bes.

  The notification was strange. I didn’t expect a level, and the hint about my step was nice, but still strahe increase in Perception seemed out of left field. I struggled to uand the e between this specific attribute and my potential loot spell. Scratg my head, I looked at it again and added it to the pile of things I didn’t uand.

  I checked my profile, and the ability Harvest Game still had [In Progress] beside it.

  Oh well, you ’t have everything hao you on a ptter.

  After ing everything and burying the bones, it was getting dark. I lit a fire a up camp.

  The day, after breakfast, I moved some things aied and ed another cooler. I had fourteen coolers to fill. I didn’t think I would fill them all, but I had three days and learo use much less mana. For the wo days, I hunted and harvested nine mukar and filled eight coolers. I didn’t want more of this specific meat, so I saturated it with mana.

  The day, it started snowing again, so I headed back. It took longer since I didn’t want to run too fast with the snow falling, but we still made it back te at night. I took a room he docks for a night and boarded the ship the following afternoon.

  It snowed nonstop, so I spent most of my time in the , fihe meat saturation, and switched to rest ons. When my mana reached 250/7200, I stopped tee. Now I had a problem: to read, I needed light, and the light ball needed mana. Since I was trying tee mana, it was terproductive.

  Uanding the bored Travelers who spent time in the Archive, I ope and checked my ent about buying the Mend spell. There was a whole discussion about which was better: Mend or Restore. The Restore detractors didn’t like it because it required two ability points and was a eled spell, i.e., more expensive mana-wise, uhe Meractors, who disapproved of it because it only mend breakage or tears, not deterioration or wear. The discussion was normal; nobody sounded like a frat boy, and there was no name-calling. It even surprised me a bit.

  I decided to post my sagna recipe. Remembering the recipe I read, in which I reized nothing but the salt, I tried to suggest alternatives.

  Tr. JR

  John’s Amazing Campfire Lasagna That Wake Even the DeadThe amounts depend on the size of the pan

  Equipment:

  4 metal baking pans:1 high-edge metal baking pan for the sagna1 metal baking pan slightly rger to fit over the main pan and cover it pletely2 rger metal baking pans2 potsGraterFrying paal wireTongsGlovesIngredients:

  4-6 tomatoes – or any etable from other worlds that is red, squishy, and has a sweet, acidic taste; or if you’re a smart Traveler that bought tomato sauce, use that2-3 onions – or another root vegetable that has yers, be fried and is tastyA medium bowl of minced meat10-20 sagna noodles – or any other dough you cook in waterHard cheese – gratedGarlic – if you don’t know what it is, I have no idea how to help youSaltSugarAssorted vegetables that be gratedHerb seasoningPreparation:

  Grate the tomatoes.Put the tomatoes in a pot over the fire, let them boil, and move to the side of the campfire where the heat is lower.Add sugar and taste. There should be no acidity.Add salt, garlid herbal seasoning to taste.Cook until the amount reduces to 2/3.Set aside.Boil water in a pot and add the pasta.Cook until soft.Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onions until golden.Add the meat and tinue frying until brown.Add the grated vegetables, mix well, and cook while stirring until the vegetables are ready.Add salt and seasoning to taste.Layer the pan first with pasta, cover with meat, pour the tomato sau top, and sprih grated cheese.Repeat 2-3 times depending on the pan.Put the sagna pan in a rger pan, cover with the slightly rger pan, and cover with the er pan. the wire around the whole thing to keep it together.Move the coals and burning wood aside until you create a cradle. Put the sagna in the middle and cover it with coals on top and all around.Wait until you smell something deliove the coals aside and drag the pan out using tongs.Put on gloves, un the wire, and open the pans.Enjoy

  Writing in the Archive was an iing experiehere was no keyboard; you had to “intend” to write, and ay line appeared. Then, you had to “think” the text you wao write. When I posted ents in the past, they were short and quiow, writing a recipe, I discovered it had simirities to “speech to text”—a few times, I had to delete ahink the correct text into the Archive.

  The entire process was an iial exercise. I thought about the pompous ass who wrote the article about awakened beasts and couldn’t uand why, with the difficulty of writing lo in the Archive, he padded the whole thing with so much flowery fluff.

  Scrolling to the post where I said I got the Luck stat, I saw 162 people calling me a liar. Based oure discussion I saw earlier, I cluded that calling people liars in those circumstances was a game, not an indication of the Travelers’ intellect level. I felt relieved. There was also a ret addition; somebody wrote that they got the Bard Css and received the Creativity trait. Already, 21 people called them a liar. It’s a trait I would love to receive.

  I reached the article “Opportunities and Dangers in Worlds Undergoing Iion,” which I had started to read before, and decided to finish it. I had already read the stages and the dangers, so I had to read only the bes. After pleting the article, I sat thinking. It expined how it was so easy to “farm” ability points oh and why I didn't gain any here, but it didn’t expin why it was so easy. That bugged me; I always o uand things. Finally, I added this question to the pile of stuff I didn’t uand. That pile was multiplying.

  This time, I tinued scrolling through the Archive but was smarter about it. I didn’t stop to read everything. I searched only for articles and checked the titles to see if I wao read them. This method worked wonders, and for once, I didn’t want to murder the Traveler popution, AND I found some cool articles.

  I read an iing article expining the differeween the “ps, pnes of existence, and parallel universes” mentioned ie Traveler Css description. It was fasating, and I definitely wao visit the Dragon pne/realm, but much ter, when I would be stronger. Otherwise, I would never reach a dragon. Something would eat me on the way.

  I also found an article expining the cssifications of low-mana, medium-mac., and the differeween worlds in each cssification. After reading this article, I decided my world would be a medium-mana world in the 30-50 mana level range. I hoped there was a Gate in Shimoor, maybe evee I was heading to. Initially, I thought the dire I felt and was heading was to someone writing a book and needing time to finish it.

  But maybe I was heading to a Gate that leads to a world with higher mana that would have more information?

  The only thing that made little seh this theory was the feeling of “Take your time.”

  Maybe they are writing the book in another world?

  I told myself to stop tormenting myself with specutions and tinued looking for cool articles.

  I read a few articles with theories about why mana and tech could in the same world after iion. The theories varied, and some of them souterly wild. Ohor postuted mana disrupted the eleagic fields necessary for teology to fun, rendering everything from simple circuits to plex maery useless. Aheory posited that mana acted like a corrosive foretallipos, causing rapid degradation and failure of teological devices. A particurly far-fetched idea cimed that mana had a se aspect that actively rejected and dismaeology to maintain the world’s magical purity. O job forcefully asserted that mana was the soul of the ic beings, and teology was a false soul disrupting the correct flow of the os. It was also apparent that these were merely theories by the authors with no substantial proof. They often referenced aal evidence or drew parallels from obscure historical texts, but none of the articles provided crete experiments or data to back up their cims.

  The only thing all those articles agreed on was that Magitech was the solution. Theoretically, I could imagine what Magitech was, but I looked for articles with more information. It took me a long time to find each article. God, I had to search through so much crap in the Archive, but I didn’t give up until I found some articles, and they were fasating. I uood why the dungeon cores mentioned in the “Opportunities and Dangers” article were so valuable. Dungeon cores served as Magitech’s fuel or operating system.

  I basically did some Traveler education, and it was iing and enlightening.

  Finally, the snow stopped, and I spent the st three days on the dejoying the view. Shimoor was breathtakingly beautiful, a pce where 90% of the ndscape was untouched, with pristiure. It was exactly what I needed when I arrived, grieving and broken. The serene surroundings had givehe pead solitude necessary to heal. When I first set foot in Shimoor, my heart was heavy with loss, and my spirit felt shattered. The vast expanses of wilderness and the quiet whispers of the forests offered a balm to my wounded soul, helping me find my bance again.

  But as much as I appreciated the tranquil beauty of Shimoor, I could feel myself growiless. The stillhat once brought fort now felt like a gentle nudge urgio move forward. I his pce, this beauty, this nature to heal, but I was no lohe same person who had arrived here. Now, I felt much stronger in mind and body, and it wasn’t just because of my stats. The time spent in Shimoor had fortified me in ways that numbers could never quantify.

  The raw grief that once clouded my thoughts had lifted, repced by a renewed sense of purpose. My body, too, felt rejuvehe physical activities and the pure air have done wonders for my stamina ah. I realized it was time to move on to something more diverse, challenging, and engaging. Shimoor had served its purpose; it had been my sanctuary, my pce of recovery. Now, I felt ready to face the world again, eager to embrace fresh adventures and challenges with a heart that was whole and a spirit that was no longer weighed down by sorrow.

  We reached Talis, and I bade all the crew and the captain goodbye. Stretch received so much love at departure, like a family member leaving. Then we headed into the city.