The following day, I got started on preparing for the ritual. I’d learned from the third book on mana that perf rituals on mas is preferable, si allows the world to supply some of the power. So, the first thing I did was to look for a vent. I spent half a day wandering around, eyes half-closed, fog on sensing the mana. It wasn’t uniform; some areas had thicker mana, while others had almost none, adding a yer to experieng the world. By the afternoon, I found a spot with denser mana and focused on the point where it was emanating from.

  Dense bushes filled the area, likely thriving due to the rich mana. I started cutting through them with a machete when a jurber leaped out and bit my hand.

  “Oww! I hate those little, bitey things,” I grumbled, grabbing it by the ned tossing it to the ground. That was the end of the jurber, and I quickly healed my hand, too ao even vert it into a crystal.

  A red light started fshing, and I ope to get rid of the annoyance.

  Level 1 Jurber defeated

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I muttered.

  I uood why Lis said I should take a fighting css. If those little nuisances kept attag, at least I’d gain levels from them.

  I kept cutting the bushes until the entire area was clear. Refleg on my experience, I realized the st time I entered jurbers, it was also near a vent. The mana at that spot had been thicker, but I’d assumed it was because of the jurbers I killed. Now, it made sehey spawned os because of the higher mana tration. I hadn’t seen this mentioned in any of the books, but it seemed logical. If I wao find a vent, I should look for a tration of monsters.

  With the area cleared, I stood on the vent, feeling the mana flow. It was like a pipe from the earth, releasing mana into the air. The mana had a distinct fvor of fire and stone, a sensation rising from below.

  I set up my gmpi over the vent si still rained every other day, and I didn’t want the ritual to get washed away. I was ready to sacrifice the tent fl for this purpose.

  The first step required carving twe overpping rings, overpping by at least 20% but no more than 30%, and they had to be the same size. I pondered how to do this until aruck me: I took an arrow, tied a rope to it, and stuck it in the floor. Heating a kit kh a heat spell until it was red hot, I struck it with a stoo create a vex shape suitable for carving a el. Tying the ko the other end of the rope, I moved around at maximum tension, creating the outer circle of the first riimating the overp by eye, I moved the arrow and created the outer circle of the sed ring. ing the string around the arrow several times, I made the inner circles smaller by about 20 timeters.

  , I mixed ash, salt, and soil, saturating them with mana with the fvor of Purity (slightly different from Purify’s fvor and something I hree days to learn during my mana exercises), and filled the grooves with the mixture. The ashes symbolized the Spirit, the salt the Mind, and the soil the Body. I had prepared a rge amount of the mix in advance, but hadn’t expected how much mana it would absorb. By the time the mixture saturated, it nearly drained me.

  Mana: 230/7600.

  I sat down tee mana, practig Absorb Mana to expand my els and speed up the process. The el in my left arm could already hawice as much mana as the others. Doing this on a vent was brilliant; the mana in the air was far richer. It was dark by this time, so I hurried back to Lis’s house, finding Rue waiting with a “not happy” vibe.

  Oops! I fot to leave food for him.

  I scratched his ears. “Sorry, buddy, I’ll remember to leave you food tomorrow. My mind was too busy with the ritual.”

  After we both ate, I sat down tee.

  The day, my mana was still not full, but I returo tihe preparations, remembering to leave food for Rue this time. Adjusting to his new name was still strange, but Lis’s advice made sense. I hoped it would feel less odd with time.

  Back at the tent, I poured the mixture into the grooves of the rings, creating a mana filter to ehe ritual only tained ral mana. I needed a bit more mixture, so I mixed another pot, eled Purity, and filled the st groove.

  The step involved sketg the runes ihe rings with a pencil, ensuring the distances were correct before preparing them. I had to repeat fe tral runes—Mind, Spirit (Emotion), Spirit (Astral), and Body—all the same size. Using a piece of cardboard as a tempte, I ehe size of the runes was sistent. The smaller runes—eeld, retionship, bond, uanding, link, merge, and blend—were half the size, and I used a smaller cardboard square for them. eg lines from the tral ruo the small ones were specific: straight for Mind, wavy for Spirit runes, and zigzag for Body.

  Sketg the first ring, I realized I cked space for the st rune and its eg line, so I had to redraw several runes more deo fit everything. I repeated the process for the sed ring, reversing the order of the runes.

  By su, I’d finished sketg the rings and headed home, and had dinner with Rue. His new ill felt strange.

  The following day, I expio Rue, “For the ritual, we need blood from both of us. Give me your paw. I’ll take some blood and heal you.”

  He offered his paw without hesitation. I cut him, filled a cup with blood, and healed him. Then, I did the same to myself, mixing our blood with ash, salt, and soil until it became a thick mixture. I was ready for the step.

  Returning to the tent, I had to purify the mana ihe rings, not with a spell, but with mana. Finally, the mana ure, and I could start painting the runes. I hadn’t thought to buy a brush—another ht—so I improvised, making one from a rope’s threads tied to a stick. Using this makeshift brush, I paihe runes with the blood mixture, eling mana into eatil it glowed. I had tee before tinuing after painting a third of the first ring.

  When I got home, I found Lis was back sitting on the porch talking to Rue. He waved with a huge smile when he saw me.

  “How was your trip?” I asked, leaning against the porch railing.

  Lis stretched his legs out, looking rexed. “Nice. After a while, the low mana worlds start to look the same, but it is nice meeting new people and enjoying the wilderness. How is the ritual ing along?”

  “I’ve finished all the learning and am currently painting the runes,” I replied, sitting down beside him. “Today, I pleted more than a third of the first ring. I believe I’ll have it all done in three to four days, but I haven’t started building the cross in the ter yet. Where did you visit, and what did you do?”

  “I went in the capital city,” he said, stretg his hands above his head. “I ehe bathhouse, ate iing food, visited several taverns, met the locals, and even learned a new song about a boat on a river.”

  With a ugh, I took out my guitar, strummed a few lines from “Boat on the River” and sang it in English. “Is this the song?” I asked, gng up at him.

  He nodded, a grin spreading across his face. “How do you know the song, and in English no less?”

  “It’s ah song,” I said, smiling. “I tra into Shimoorian.”

  Lis burst out ughing, shaking his head. “The universe is huge, but sometimes something happens that makes it feel tiny.”

  We chatted on the portil he went to sleep, and I sat tee.

  For the hree days, I spent all day ient, painting runes and filling them with mana. By the sed day, I developed a faster teique: creating mana with the absorb fvor in my left arm, drawing runes with my right, and eling mana into them. I still needed breaks tee, but they were less frequent. During breaks, I focused on abs mana to bance my els. By the third evening, I’d pleted the first ring and 40% of the sed.

  On the fourth m, as I approached the tent, something sticky ed around my hand. Startled, I jerked my hand, sending a furry frog flying. I cut the toh a knife and tried peeling it off, but it was stubbornly sticky. The frog then spat fire at me, burning my pants! I k on the head with my staff, ending its attack.

  Level 2 Hopping Fire Spitter defeated.

  “Do higher-level monsters get longer names?” I wondered, peeling off the tongue. I healed my arm, ged my pants, healed my leg, and headed into the tent. Luckily, I wore jeans; the fire hurt but not terribly.

  I tinued with the runes, and by evening, I had less than 15% left to finish the rings.

  Now, I had to pn the inside of the rings. In the middle of each ring was a rge plus sign with a circle at ead, and from these circles, straight lio all the primary runes in the rings. On the sides of the cross, I had to put two ruhat represented me, one of which was my css and the other a representation of me at this moment in time. Above and below, I had to add runes representing the e between me and Rue. Rue’s circles were more straightforward: a ma on one side and a e oher. Both our crosses had to have the same top and bottom.

  While choosing the wizard css, I found it difficult to decide between Sapiend Self-Awareness for the sed circle. I felt that sapience might help Rue, but for me, this journey was a journey of self-discovery. After some deliberation, I chose Self-Awareness.

  I went to ask Rue about the other two runes. Finding him napping, I scratched his ears. “We o choose two things representing our e. I’m sidering love and prote because we both love and want to protect each other.”

  I sensed ivity ing from him.

  “So, what should the symbols be?”

  I felt a massive wave of love and deep friendship.

  “Love and friendship?”

  He nodded.

  “No problem, buddy. I think these are excellent runes.”

  At dinner, I told Lis, “You’re right about the fighting css. Monsters keep attag me. So if they bite and bur least I’ll earn levels.” I picked at my food, thinking about the ret attacks.

  He ughed, setting down his fork. “Yes, it is in their nature. Monsters are posed of tainted mana and exhibit aggression towards all entities. You wait until you are in a world with dungeons or take the opportunity here to get a fighting css.”

  “How? I fought with a bow and staff and didn’t get a css.” I leaned ba my chair, frustrated.

  “Did you buy the skills with ability points?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “No, I trained and earhem ‘the hard way.’” I shrugged, remembering the tless hours spent practig.

  “Ah, good,” he said, nodding in approval. “But were you defending yourself hting to kill?”

  “Only self-defense,” I replied, scratg my head.

  “You o fight to kill to get a fighting css,” he expined, leaning ba his chair and crossing his arms.

  “That’s how it works?” I asked, my brow furrowing.

  “Try it a few times, and you will get the css,” Lis advised, leaning forward, his eyes serious. “You go to an area with criminals, fsh some money, and they will attack you.”

  “I don’t want to kill people,” I replied quickly, shaking my head. “Besides, criminals oh have guns. My bow or staff wouldn’t be effective against guns.”

  “Then hunt animals,” Lis suggested. “I’m sure there are pces with overpopution of certain animals. Hunt them, and you will get the css.”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said, perking up. “I’ll search the i whe back.”

  With clear curiosity in his voice, he said, “I heard about the i but did not have the opportunity to looked into it.”

  “I’ll teach you,” I offered with a smile. “There’s a lot of engineering information there.”

  “Thank you,” Lis said, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

  I smiled and nodded, feeling the beginning of friendship growiween us.

  The day, I fihe sed ring and moved on to the crosses. The runes in the circles had to be 2er than the primary runes in the rings. After Rue’s ring, I regeed again. Finally, in the middle of the night, I fihe whole ritual.

  The following day, I rushed back to the tent to ensure everything was fwless—no mistakes, no blocked mana els, no imbances. I ran all the tests from the mana books and the book about familiars, and everything erfect.

  “Lis, everything’s ready. Want to e with me to the ritual site?”

  “Is your mana full?”

  “No...”

  “Sit and regee. Do not do the ritual without full mana. Rest, eat well, and only then do it. This type of ritual is taxing on the body and mana els. You o be in top dition for it to go smoothly.”

  “Thanks. I’ll do it.”

  It took two days before I felt ready to perform the ritual. My mana was full. I’d eaten well, rested, drank water, and even took vitamins. I made sure Rue did the same, except for the vitamins.

  We went to the ritual tent, sat on our crosses, and I began eling mana. As I eled mana, the runes glowed more and more, drawing the mana in the air into the ritual and into me. I tinued until I was empty, but the air ma flowing in.

  Intense paied in my head, followed by pain in my other two power ters. It hurt! I heard Rue whimper and realized I’d closed my eyes. Looking at him, he was whimpering weakly.

  After a few minutes of pain, I passed out.

  When I came to, I immediately checked on Rue. He’d opened his eyes too, looking different. He was rger, his fur lighter and matg my hair color, and his eyes were a lighter purple color than mine. Suspicious, I took out a mirror.

  Corre: his eyes were exactly my color. I hadn’t realized my eyes had bee such a bright purple.

  I identified him.

  RueBonded FamiliarLevel 0

  Examining our e el, I felt it was much more open and stable, now a two-way link.

  “Are you okay, buddy?” I thought to him.

  I felt a clear “Yes.”

  It wasn’t aion, and he didn’t say the word, but it was a “yes,” not just an affirmative.

  I walked up to him, hugged aed him. “It’s you and me against the world, buddy.”

  He stuck his tongue in my nose. Some things, even magi’t ge.

  TravelingDreamer