I walked back to the tent, humming my “new” ability points song:

  “Buy buy my ability points I gave my points to my boy, and now the well is dry. And them good ability points make me drink Rye. Singing this will be the day that they die. This will be the day that they die …”

  Yeah … I still o work on that; I was no Don M.

  The air felt different when I got about half a kilometer from the tent. It took me a sed to uand why—there was no mana in the air; it was empty. About two hundred meters from the tent, I sensed some mana in the air as I tinued walking. I remembered experieng a rge infusion of mana into the ritual and into myself during it, but it surprised me it emptied the air.

  As I stepped ihe tent, I was in for another surprise: no trace of the ritual remained except for the grooves on the floor for the purifiixture. Everything else just disappeared. I got on all fours and examihe floor; there was nothing. I didn’t find even one speck of ash rain of salt. Everything was just go least the vent was still pumping out mana as if nothing had ged.

  I built up the “mana absorption” aspe my els and sat down tee. Every so often, I had to add more absorption because the itg decreased, and by evening, I was already at 3,251/8,800 mana. When I examined my els, they looked almost twice as wide as they were when I started my teique, and the el in my left hand was more than double the width I started with. I took a d cast the Absorb Mana spell on myself.

  I felt nothing for about three mihen I got a minor itg, and the spell ended without the feeling of getting strohis cretely showed how much I had progressed with expanding my els. It oook me three full days tee 3,000 mana. I filled the same amount today ihan a day. I had to do it sciously, but it was worth it. That thought stopped me in my tracks.

  Maybe I don’t o do it sciously?

  Perhaps I build an automatia regeion system?

  I tiee, and I started building my idea. My first attempt was to create a mesh of mana lines with an absorption aspect. However, I quickly gave up on the idea; the mesh didn’t fit the structure of the el. Then, an idea came to me. I built a spiral that started in the palm of my left hand, and I gradually progressed with it until I reached the Spirit orb. It took me over two hours to build the spiral, where I ran into a problem. One of the primary things I learned about spells is that they ot have open ends. If there is an open end, the mana will leak out, and the spell will colpse. However, turning around and sending the spiral down my arm and hand would draw mana from my body and direct it out of me. I would essentially cycle mana in and out.

  Hmm, I ran into a problem and decided to sleep on it. Rue had joined me ient an hour before, so we ate diogether and slept ient. In the m, I checked my mana: 3,617/8,800.

  Having that sleep must have cleared my mind because I came up with a new idea that I thought would work. I built the spiral in my Mind orb. First, I structed the spiral around the sides of the orb, then proceeded to build a spiral in the el linking the Mind orb to the Spirit orb. Again, I built a spiral around the sides of the Spirit orb a down the el to the Body orb. In the Body orb, I built another spiral the same way. When I got to the bottom of the orb, I started the entire process in reverse by heading upwards. I built another spiral in the Body orb, again up the el to the Spirit orb, and tinued up the st el and built the spiral in the Mind orb. When it was done, I ected the two ends, the start and the end, and “locked” the spell using a teique I learned in one book on mana.

  I checked, ahe blinking light was back.

  First Spiral pleted Quality: 17%

  I felt judged.

  “Seriously? 17%? It’s not that bad!” I said out loud.

  I didn’t get an answer.

  With a deep sigh, I broke the spell lod unraveled the spiral. I sat thinking about what might be the issue. My goal was regeion, so how I increase it?

  Maybe add ms to the spiral? That should increase the regeion.

  Again, I built the spiral in my Mind orb and built the spiral around the sides of the orb as tightly as possible so I would have as many rings as possible. When I couldn’t fit even one m, I built a spiral in the el that ected the Mind orb to the Spirit orb. Again, I created a spiral around the sides of the orb with tightly packed rings, and when it was ready, I went down the el to the Body orb and built another spiral the same way. When I got to the bottom of the orb, I started the entire process in reverse by heading upwards as I built another dense spiral in the Body orb, again up the el to the Spirit orb.

  By this point, I got a headache from overexertion. It was tough to keep all this mana under trol in the proper form and not let it fall apart. I tinued up the st el and built the spiral in the Mind orb. By this point, my whole body was shaking, but I knew, I just knew I was on the right track, so I didn’t give up. The st few rings at the top were a David vs. Goliath fight, but I built the previs and ected the two ends, the start and the end, and I “locked” the spell.

  As soon as I could let go of this plicated stru and effort to keep it under trol, I almost fainted from relief. I sat for a few miook deep breaths, and waited for the spots before my eyes cleared.

  First Spiral pleted Quality: 81%

  “Hey, that was hard. I think it deserves at least a 95% score. Not a measly 81!” I pined loudly in an indignant tone.

  Of course, I didn’t get an answer.

  I sidered the low score and decided it robably because I didn’t pack the spiral tightly in the eg els, only in the power orbs.

  My els were tingling on the verge of itg, so I knew I couldn’t add another spiral just yet; it would be too much for them. I sidered unraveling the one I built, but it took me hours, so I didn’t feel like doing it again right now. To verify, I created a tiny amount of the absorb aspe my right arm el, and my el itched immediately. As I thought, I wasn’t ready for the one.

  I checked the art of my profile, and the spiral was there, as well as another surprise.

  Sub-css 2 Wizard Level 2

  Wizard Abilities:

  Mind Split x3 Mana Sensing [Junior] Mana Saturation [Apprentice] Mana Manipution [Medior] Mana Regeion x 1

  Wizard Spells:

  Harvest Mana Crystal [In Progress] Harvest Game [In Progress]

  What the hell is a Medior? I never heard this word.

  Before leavih, I bought mabooks on various subjects and some diaries for teical words. I facepalmed; I should have given Lis an introductory engineeribook.

  In one diary, I found Medior:

  “A Medior is someoh three to five years of work experience who lead projects indepely. The Medior has suffit knowledge to perform executive tasks successfully aor Juniors, but is often supported and supervised by a Senior.”

  For the first time, I sidered that the Archive and all the system messages were in English. I never gave it a sed thought. I just ope and read. But now, it became apparent that the system was transting everything. The system needed a word for the level I reached but didn’t have a suitable word, so it took the closest word that veyed that cept.

  Huh!

  Again, I felt like an idiot. I should have wondered about it sooner.

  After a few minutes of feeling like a clueless idiot, I reminded myself of Lis’s words about fist-walking before running and decided that I was too harsh with myself. I was learning, and because I discovered many things myself, with no guidance, I cluded that I might be good at this wizarding stuff.

  I spent anht ient, waking to nearly full mana reserves. Watg my profile, I saw my mana tick up by three every minute, missihan a hundred points to the max. I felt exhirated. No more sitting around actively regeing mana.

  Automation for the win!

  Pag up the tent, I headed back to the house. Lis was on the porch, buried in a book. “I’m ready whenever you are,” I announced.

  “Yeed fast! I thought it would take a few more days,” Lis said, looking surprised.

  “I found a way to speed it up with aspected mana and developed a method tee even faster yesterday,” I expined.

  “How?”

  “I built a spiral in my mana system, whicreased my regeion rate. I even regeed while sleeping!”

  Lis looked embarrassed, awkwardly rubbing his neck. “I am sorry. I knew about wizard spirals. My friend, the wizard I mentioned, built three for me. I should have told you, but I fot.”

  “It’s okay. Disc things on my own helps me feel less hopeless,” I reassured him.

  “You are not hopeless, not even a little. Your first two csses could be attributed to Earth’s immi iion, but you got the Wizard Css after a short journey on a low-mana world. That takes talent—a lot of talent. For parison, I got my first sub-css five or six years after I started traveling and clearing dungeons with a sword. It took me that long to earn a sub-css after using psionic spells and a sword to clear a few more dungeons.”

  “Thanks for the pep talk,” I said, appreciating his encement.

  “What is a pep?” Lis asked.

  “It’s a feeling of happiness or energy. So, a pep talk is something to make you feel better.”

  He nodded. “I was waiting for you tee. I am ready to go.”

  Lis stored his house, and I called Rue. Despite traveling for over a year and st many things, seeing Lis store a huge two-story house was still something else.

  Rue came running, and I told him we were going to Earth. He didn’t have an opinion oter.

  “I remembered that I have a lot of engineeris in my ste, so now it’s my turn to apologize for fetting about them,” I said to Lis.

  He ughed, patting my shoulder. “Thank you for making me feel better about fetting the spirals. And do not feel bad about the books. I am enjoying the ones you gave me.”

  Something had been bugging me. “When we discussed the book, you said it was ridiculous because there ’t be a store or unicatiowees. But the Guidanunicates with us in every world, even in transtion. How that be?”

  “You are fused, my friend. The things I was talking about are man-made. The Guidance was not made by people but by itities. This is pletely different.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “itities are beings with limitless power. Some worlds believe they created the physical world. They have many names: ic Beings, ic Gods, Celestial Gods, the A Gods, the Guiding Spirits, and many more. Many worlds have temples, and in others, churches where people pray to them for help or blessings. They are not people but supernatural powers above the material world.”

  “What’s the differeween a temple and a church? Isn’t it the same?” I asked.

  “No. A temple is a pce to pray, ask for help, or express gratitude. Priests or priestesses are there, but people dedicate themselves to a God or itity by choice or for family honor or prestige. Churches actively send representatives to vert people to believe iity or another.”

  “And all these worlds believe in the same entities?”

  “Yes, some of them have different names, but when you discover what the entity represents, you realize it is the same itity called something else in a different world.”

  “It’s strahere are many religions oh, and there have been many wars to make people believe in ion or another. Yet you tell me many worlds believe in the same entities. How is that possible?”

  Lis ughed. “Is there any proof oh of the gods responsible for these religions?”

  “No.”

  “And that is the root of the problem. There is proof of these gods’ existen the worlds I told you about.”

  “How?”

  “Religious csses that have the name of the god or entity, like a Padin of The Two-Faced God or a Faith Healer of The Triple Goddess.”

  “I should have guessed,” I said. “I didn’t think about the fact that people in many worlds have csses. It makes sehat there would be religious csses with the gods’ names. I even read about it in books.”

  “A day when you learn something new is a day wetting up in the m.”

  “So tely, I shouldn’t sleep at all. I keep learning a lot of hings,” I quipped.

  Lis roared with ughter.

  As we started climbing toward the Gate, I told Rue, “I hope it was the beginning of spring oher side and not the end of autumn. I know you hate snow.”

  I got ahic agreement from him.

  Lis turo him in surprise. “You hate snow? But you have fur; you ot eve.”

  I got a feeling of cold feet and a strong distaste for Rue.

  Surprised, I said, “That’s your problem? Cold paws?”

  I got a firm yes and aronger feeling of distaste.

  “I thought you didn’t like it because it wet your fur.”

  Rue shook himself like he did to fling out water from his fur.

  “Yeah, that makes sense,” I said. “Sometimes, I see dogs in Chicago with dog shoes in winter. Maybe we find something in your size.”

  I never felt such happiness from him before. I ughed and scratched his ears.