The m we po leave Shanghai, I had a great surprise waiting for me—a message from Lis.

  Yes! Thank you, Spirits!

  TR. LM

  "Ior, Versailles, Hungry, Clueless"

  Hello, my dear friends. I hope you are well.

  First and foremost, the Dragon Realm is terrifying. Don't you dare e here before ALL your Traits are over 200 and your stealth skill has reached a maximum of 25. I'm serious; don't you dare even think about it.

  But as you see, or read in this case, I'm fine. I reached the city of Holmeserion a not one dragon, but dozens.

  The best way to describe a dragon is as a mix between a wise sage and a curious puppy. The bination sounds strange, but that's as close as I describe them.

  I presehem with the entire package of books I had brought and informed them that John Rue from the world of Gaia had generously provided the books (don't even try to say the name Earth; it doesn't transte well; stick to Gaia). They assured me they would widely reize your name and treat you as a signifit individual upon your arrival.

  Tomorrow, I'll start teag English lessons so they read the books.

  Plus, it turns out all dragons have wizard-like magical abilities, and when they heard you were a budding wizard, they bombarded me with suggestions for exercises you could do and things you could learn or research. I won't share the entire list at once—I promise it will overwhelm you—but I made a list of everything. I will give you four basic exercises, and when you tell me you've mastered them, I'll give you more.

  After sulting with one dragon, and after I told her about the stone balls you created, she reehe following exercises:

  Exercise 1: Always have your mana seive. Initially, it will make you tired and give you headaches, but don't give up. tiil it bees sed nature, and you don't have to think about it.

  , learn to keep it active even in your sleep. Again, it will take practice, but she promised me it will be very beneficial, and an enemy will never surprise you.

  Exercise 2: She told me you should learn to immerse yourself in the surrounding mana. I told her you already do that and have Mana Oneness as a skill. She found it to be very impressive. Apparently, you skipped aep before Oneness—Mana Immersion. I told you that you're talented—now even a dragon says so. Anyway. Keep practig and learning about mana.

  Now, she told me that exercises 1 and 2 are things you should always keep doing. The dragons do not see these as exercises, but as basic as like brushing your teeth or bing your hair. She emphasized that these are not exercises, but a way of life. I called them exercises anyway.

  Exercise 3 (or 1, acc to the dragons): Practice moving small things all over your mana-sensing field. The emphasis is oire field, not just the border you reach easily. They promised it would be easier when you have your mana seive. Start with small things like a leaf, move to a small piece of wood, then a pebble, and work your until you move things all over the field.

  Exercise 4: This one is more active and more plicated.

  1. Start with a stone you created and gradually increase to five stones.

  2. Fill the stoh mana until it vibrates.

  3. Pick it up with your mana and spin it around your head—not with telekinesis, but with free mana.

  4. At first, it will require a lot of tration, but quickly, it will bee easier and more manageable. Get to where the stone is spinning around you all the time, with no special attention on your part. I mentiohe term "muscle memory" to her, and she said it recisely that—only mana memory.

  5. Once you reach this point, keep adding stones until you reach a total of five.

  6. Now, it gets more plicated. Return to practig with oone, but do it with mana only from the Mind power ter, not all your mana. Again, with just your Mind Mana, reach five stones spinning around your head.

  7. Now, switch to your Spirit Mana a the exercise.

  8. After achieving total trol, incorporate Mind Mana and perform both.

  9. After achieving plete mastery in both, you begin using Body Mana by starting with a sione and gradually incorporating more.

  10. Once you bee an expert, you spin fifteen balls: five balls around the head with Mind Mana, five balls around the ter of the body with Spirit Mana, and five balls around the lower body with Body Mana.

  11. In the step, you start all over, but the rotation is different. She showed it to me, and the best way to describe it is an "atomic pattern." Again, gh the whole process until you get to where you trol fifteen balls in an atomic pattern around your body with no balls colliding with each other—she assured me it's going to be plicated for you, but will raise your mana trol to levels you 't even imagine.

  12. When you reach that stage, bine exercises 3 and 4: move the stones around you, and then shoot them all over your mana-sensing field.

  13. , ask somebody to throw the sto you, and you will practice grabbing them in motion, pleting the pattern around your body, and shooting them at the "enemy."

  14. I step, do the same as no. 13, but with different objects that you didn't ih your mana.

  She also instructed me to remind you of the golden rule, a cept I don't fully uand, but she assured me you would:

  Never force >> guide

  Never pressure >> ask

  Never exert trol from above >> seek Unity

  I hope you find this information valuable, and I look forward to hearing from you. Please let me know how it goes.

  That's all I have to say today, and I'd love to hear how you're doing.

  With friendship and love

  Lis, aka Ior

  Upon hearing that he was OK, the relief that flooded me was so intehat my knees buckled, and I had to take deep breaths to stabilize myself again. As more time passed without hearing from Lis, my fear grew, but I refused to dwell on it so it wouldn't paralyze me. I lost too many people in my life. I wasn't ready to lose my first friend. Knowing he was fine, I let the emotions flood me, and my body began shaking from their iy.

  When I felt stable again, I reread the message, chuckled at the puppy parison, and wrote down the exercises—they were fantastic.

  Tr. JR

  "Clueless, Versailles, Hungry, Ior"

  Hello, my friend; it is so good to hear from you. With every passing day, I became more and more worried.

  Thank you for the exercises, and thank your dragon friend. I promise I'll practice. We'll have an o crossing two months long, and now I know what I'll be doing.

  All three of us are fine. We purchased a boat in Yig and are now sailing in a betweees. Mahya and I just finished a project to turn the boat into a Magitech. While we still need a dungeon core, Mahya believes we get by with our mana crystals and mana from us, if needed.

  It appears that the mana levels oh have increased to seven, so we will not fly to the Uates but sail there.

  Speaking of the Uates, if you scroll down through the Archive, you'll see a call for help from a Traveler being held captive by the US military. We pn to rescue them, and I'm having difficulties with it. Maybe you could ask the dragons for advice.

  You have always referred to it as 'trolliernal mana.' However, Alfoold me about a wizard who eled external mana through his familiar. Additionally, I came across a book written by a pompous wizard who also refers to it as 'eliernal mana.' Are these two cepts distinct, or are they synonymous?

  If these are distinct practices, how I learn to el external mana—not trol it, but el it—and then el it through Rue?

  It will be beneficial to rescue the Traveler.

  We bought a hot-air balloon but still don't know how to fly it. oal is to traihe o.

  Other than that, I have little to share. We travel and go sightseeing. I take pictures, and we visit the Gates. Rue eats and watches movies and TV. I train my mana—yes, I promise I train. Mahya studies your notes and blueprints and pys with her mosaic ritual circles, and Alfonsen reads romanovels about vampires and werewolves. No, I'm not kidding; that's what he's reading.

  While I miss your presence here, I'm delighted to know that you're enjoying yourself and expanding your horizons. I hope to meet you down the road.

  John, aka Clueless

  A weight I didn't know I was carrying fell off my shoulders, and I felt like I could breathe again. My friend was fine, and I didn't really lose him—just his preseh me. But e-mails or Archive-mails were fioo. What truly mattered was the ongoing unicatioween us.