I spent the following day regeing with a book. Iernoon, it rained for a while and chased us ihe was too custrophobic, so I looked for a solutiohe rain stopped. My regur tents were too light and would blow away, the gmpi was too big for the deck, and my camper was big enough for one person and smaller than the .

  I finally took one of my medium tents, asked Ro for permission to hammer a few nails into the deck, secured the lio the nails, used some of the modur bamboo fl of the gmpio separate us from the wet deck, and covered the whole thing with a carpet. It was much better; the spaside was double, and because it was a tent and not a small room with a tiny window, the feeling inside was much more open. The only downside was that I couldn’t set the poles for the opy, so we could either sit inside when it rained et wet.

  Ro and his boys tinuously came around to see what I was doing, and when I finished setting up the tent, they walked around it and admired it.

  Ro asked, examining the tent closely, “Where did you get this, and how much did it cost?”

  “I’m from the isnds in the south, and I got it there.” I appraised the tent, running my hand over the sturdy material, and added, “It costs 37 gold.”

  He whistled in admiration, his eyes widening. “Expensive.”

  “Yes, but worth the price,” I replied, nodding.

  “Maybe to some, too rich for us,” he remarked, scratg his head thoughtfully. He added, “You examihe barrel if you want.”

  “Thanks,” I said, giving him a grateful smile.

  I went to examihe barrel, and he followed me. I didn’t feel like carrying the barrel to empty it overboard, so I cast and Purify oer just in case and started filliy water bottles. When I reached the bottom, I stuck my hand inside and stored the rest in one of my water tainers. Ro kept watg me through the entire process. I guessed he was worried about his barrel.

  I carried it out to exami; the pantry was too small. I exami from the outside again, but still found nothing. I cast my light ball and studied it thhly ihere was also nothing—no runes, no magic script, nothing.

  I sent my mana into it and tried to locate the magic. It took me a while. I was searg in the barrel’s wood, but the magic was ial rings ihe barrel, simir to the metal rings that held it together. The magic had a “pure” feel to it. I cast my Purify spell and ses fvor. It was exactly the same spell; there was no differen the fvor.

  I returhe barrel to the pantry and filled it with water bottles. At this point, Ro rexed a me alone. After the tenth bottle, I had enough and summohe water from one of my water tanks.

  I misjudged the water quantity, and a lot of water overflowed on the floor.

  Oops!

  I took a duvet to soak it up; it was the most absorbent thing I had. Even after soaking the duvet, there was still water. I took out my towels to the rest and was happy that Ro had left. I ed the duvet and towels but khat the spell only s dirt. For some strange and inexplicable reason, water did not t as dirt, even if it soaked invehings. I started eli into the duvet to dry it, but after a sed, steam rose from it, so I stopped immediately. I didn’t want to turn the pantry into a sauna.

  I stored the wet things, went to the railing, squeezed all the water out of the duvet and towels, hung them up to dry, and tied them with rope so they wouldn’t fly away. Ro eyed me suspiciously, went into the deckhouse, but said nothing when he came out.

  I experimented with what I learned. Sihe magic was ial rings, I took out a cooking knife, cast Purify on it, and exami with my mana—nothing. It was but didn’t have any magic. I cast the spell again and again, without success. I had an idea and eled Restore, split my mind, and cast Purify simultaneously. The Restore e only 20 mana. The knife was sharper and squeaky , but still had no magic.

  I thought about it for a long time but was out of ideas. It was dark already, so I decided to sleep on it. We ate dinner ao bed ient. It was much more pleasant.

  The day, I braved the Archive again; maybe I could find the answer.

  While scrolling, I opehe Archive and checked the posts I was ied in. The discussion about Mend vs. Restore finished without a clusion. In the post about the unique Qualities, I now had 173 people calling me a liar, and my sagna post had some odd ents. I thought the blue guy who wrote the information about Earth wrote one of them.

  I tinued searg for TWO FULL DAYS! To get past it all, I had to scroll through an unbelievable amount of crap. Travelers are a bored and chatty bunch. Finally, in an article full of self-patting on the back about enting and magical items creation, I found the following paragraph with the following ent:

  Tr. NHB

  Instead of using the elegant solution of ruhose barbarians in the low-mana worlds still use the archaic method of melting various materials, such as gss or metal, and casting spells on them repeatedly to imbed the spell iem. This method is cumbersome and takes an ungodly amount of mana; the spell quality depends on the level the mage progressed it, and it fades over time.

  Tr. KI

  You fot to mention that runes also wear off over time or with heavy use, and need an enter to rehem. So, stop being such a blown-up toad. If they don’t have runes or enter csses, that’s a brilliant solution.

  I experimented and started thinking of a solution to melt some metal. I read ohat aluminum’s melting point was much lower than iron, so I removed my cast iron potjie pot, put a small aluminum pot inside, and started eli. After a while, I felt lightheaded. I checked my mana: 120/7200, and I saw that the aluminum pot had beisshapen but had not melted. I stored the whole thing quickly so I wouldn’t lose the heat I already eled and sat down tee.

  It took me three whole days tee to full mana. By the sed day, we reached the tributary, and Jul and Rin navigated us into it with the oars. I just sat, regeed, and ehe view. The pristine wilderness around us was a sight to behold, especially in the early spring. The trees had new green leaves, and wildflowers dotted the riverbanks. Birds sang in the branches overhead, their melodies blending with the gentle spsh of the oars ier. Occasionally, a deer or other woodnd creature would emerge from the underbrush to drink from the river, only to dart bato the foliage at the sight of our boat.

  Stretapped most of the time, his bushy tail flig occasionally in his dreams. When he was awake, he wanted petting and ear scratg, leaning into my hand with a tented sigh. I asked him how he felt about a smaller boat and got a short tail wag and a feeling of mild approval. The tranquility of the moment, bined with the serey of the untouched ndscape, made the sleion of my mana a peaceful experience.

  After I regeed fully, I tinued my melting process. It took me over 1500 mana to melt the damn thing, but finally, it was in liquid form. Repeatedly casting Purify on it, I waited until it cooled and solidified. I checked with my mana, and the spell was ihe metal.

  YES!

  I tied a rope to a bucket, lowered the bucket into the river, scooped some water, and dropped the aluminum blob inside. I sat there monit the water with my mana a no ge.

  Maybe it needs more time?

  After waiting over an hour, I rechecked the water—still no ge. After thinking about it for a while, I got an idea. With a finger, I touched the blob and i with mana. I cast nothing; I eled mana and monitored the water. Ihan two seds, it purified the water. It artial success. I created a magical item that eled a spell, but the barrel did it automatically.

  What am I missing?

  I returo the barrel, touched it, and examihe metal rings with my mana. Initially, I could feel only the Purify spell; it was obvious to me from familiarity, but slowly, I distinguished between other types of mana with different fvors. One was “absorption” or “su,” and the other one was “release.”

  I examihe absorption for a few hours, with Ro cheg oo ensure his barrel was safe until I felt I “khe fvor. Then I went out and tried to el my mana with that fvor. I had to return to the barrel repeatedly to get the nuances. After a while, I had to give up. I felt pletely drained.

  The day, I tio examihe barrel until I had it. It was a duplicate. I cast a spell with this fvor of mana and got the red light.

  You have learhe spell [Absorb Mana]

  Woo Hoo!

  I resisted the urge to get up and dance, opting io pump my fist.

  Despite casting the spell a few times in the air, I didn’t feel any difference. I got an idea and opened my Profile to see my mana and cast it on myself. The Absorb e ten mana, and my mana ticked up fast without active regeion. After two minutes, I felt a slight itg in the mana els in my arms a. The itg got worse and worse, and by the fourth mi became pins and needles. I had no idea how to stop a cast spell, only a eled ohe spell ended after five minutes, relieving my worry.

  I ied my mana els, and they appeared to be fine, but there was another surprise in store for me. When I examined my mana system oh, the three orbs of energy in my body were the same size. Now, the one behind my diaphragm was the biggest, about 20% bigger than its inal size. The one in my abdomen was the in size and about 10-15% bigger, and the one in my head looked the same. I thought about it briefly, and it made sense; my mana increased, so the rew. What made little sense was that I STILL didn’t know how my mana grew.

  I activated my Luck again, still in the same dire, but the feeling of “take your time” was gone. Good—answers were on the horizon.

  I stopped today to enjoy my achievement and spend time with Stretch.

  After lunch, I took my guitar out and sang quietly with Stretch howl-singing. I even gave him a beer. I ignored him tely during my experimentation; he deserved some attention.

  Jul approached and asked shyly, “ I sit and listen to the music, or do you wao leave?”

  “Please join us; I’ll even teach you a song.”

  I taught him the song Sailing Away, which I transted, and he loved it. Rin joined us at some point, and I pyed the song a few times until they lear.

  I searched in my songbooks for another sailing song and found “Boat on the River” by Styx, which perfectly fit the situation. I trahe song while learning the chords, and they lear with me. Stretch was our backup singer, and we had a lot of fun.

  “Take me bay boat, on the riverI o go down, I o e down...”

  I ihem for diook out three precious pasta dishes, and offered them beers. They looked old enough. Stretch tried to weasel another beer from me, but I wasn’t having it. He had to settle for a tomahawk steak and looked mollified.

  Ro came over and told Jul, “You had a good rest; go repce me on the helm.”

  Jul thanked me a, and I told Ro, “Please join me for dinner.”

  I took out another pasta dish and a beer. He thanked me, a quietly, enjoying the evening and the beer.