At breakfast, Mahya told me quietly, “Cast Privacy, please.” After I did, she tinued, “I think we should stay here for a few days. Fusing all the crystals will take time and mana, and we regee oher side of the gate.”

  “You are wele to stay and use the Gate, but I have no iion of going there,” I replied, pushing my empty pte aside, my to.

  She tilted her head, frowning. “Why?”

  “Because oher side, there are ht hundred corpses of stinking rats, which must stink even more now that they’re dead. I don’t know about you, but my nose has suffered enough. I still shudder now and then when I remember the stench,” I answered, my face sg up at the memory.

  Mahya wrinkled her nose. “Hmm, yeah. I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe we could burn them?”

  “It will cause a forest fire. We don’t know what’s close by; maybe there’s a vilge or a town, and we’ll cause a serious fire,” I pointed out.

  She crossed her arms, leaning ba her chair. “No way. With the number of rats we’ve killed, nothing is close. Even if there were people dozens of kilometers away, they would have destroyed the rats. I promise you, that area is deep in the wilderness,” she said with fidence.

  “I create a fme in my palm, but it’s still not a spell. It’s not enough to burn the whole pile of rats.”

  “There might be better masks to block odors than your medical masks,” Mahya suggested, drumming her fingers oable. “That will solve the stench problem. We buy oil, gas, diesel, or something, pour it os and around the area, set the whole thing on fire, aurn through the Gate. After a day or two, I’m sure the fire will go out, and we go in there and take advantage of the mana levels. We might not be sailing to Tibet but traveling by train, but if there is an answer from the Traveler on his way to Earth, we may have to sail immediately. I still o take care of the engine and charge all the crystals for the voyage,” she added, her fiapping oable for emphasis.

  I saw the logid nodded. “Okay. I hope there are gas masks for sale here,” I muttered, rubbing my .

  “What is a gas mask?”

  I opened my phone and showed her pictures and a video of gas masks.

  Her eyes widened in surprise. “Why didn’t we buy these before we took care of the rats?” she asked incredulously, shaking her head in disbelief.

  I rubbed my ne embarrassment. “Because I didn’t think of that…” I admitted, avoiding her gaze.

  She shook her head in exasperation. “At least you’re thinking about it now,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.

  “Hey! You said nothiher. If you’d asked me about a mask to block out the smell, I’d have thought about it. Besides, you’ve been to a teological world. Didn’t they have anything like that?” I retorted, raising my hands in defense.

  “Yes, but the teology here is low. How should I know what you have here or don’t?”

  “We’re not cave dwellers,” I protested.

  She patted me on the head and said in a desding tone, “It’s okay, don’t stress about it.” At least she winked and smiled after, so I fave her.

  When Alfonsen heard we were returning to the Gate, he responded, “I would choose destitution over returning to that repulsive sewer. This project is entirely under your responsibility. I io enroll in further workshops,” he said, his voice full of disdain as he waved a dismissive hand.

  I turo Rue, who was loungihe doorway, and asked, “Rue, do you want to e?”

  He jerked his head up, ears twitg as his voice rang out in my mind. “No! Never! Stinky rats! No snakes yum!” His nose wrinkled, and he shook his head vigorously, sending me a feeling of how much the idea appalled him.

  Our party was a colle of spoiled brats!

  After searg the i, I found gas masks for sale. We also bought ten of the biggest jerry s we could find and drove to a gas station to fill them up.

  Whe to the Gate, I put on the mask beforehand—I had no iion of getting even one whiff of the rats. The rat carcasses were full of worms and flies, and thank you, Guiding Spirits—I smelled nothing. We poured fuel on the bodies and around them, and when we were standihe Gate, I threw a lit mat the fuel. As we crossed the Gate, I heard the whoosh of the fire ahe intense heat on my back.

  We spent the wo days at the ke and even used our E-foils. During the breaks between swimming and surfing, I located the book with the tree Lis reended and started reading it. I made little progress because we were too busy enjoying the water, but at least I started. During those two days, I kept my mana seivated all the time. I uood what the drago when she said “headache.” At first, it was just fusing until I learo deal with it, but it became a mental burden, theal stress that developed into a terrible headache. No matter how many times I cast Healing Touch, it didn’t help—the headache wasn’t physical, but it felt like it was ing from my Mind power orb. I dealt with it for two days until I couldn’t take it anymore and took a break.

  Mahya and I crossed the Gate again on the m of the third day. Everything looked like after a wildfire. The smell of soot hit first—not pleasant, but definitely better thating rat stench from before. Holy, anything grade. The air was thick with the smell of burnt wood, like that heavy, lingering smoke you get after a campfire dies down, without the fun memories.

  Some trees had survived the fire, but they stood there coated in soot, looking like they had been through hell. A lot of them hadn’t been so lucky, though—charred trunks and branches were all that remained. As we walked, the ground ched under our boots, soft with ash. Every step kicked up little clouds of soot that stuck to our clothes. It was quiet, too—no birds, no bugs, just the occasional snap of burned wood giving in and falling apart.

  “I feel bad about the damage,” I said.

  “Sometimes a fire is beneficial for the forest. After the fire, the forest grows new ahy. Here, it’s good. Those rats tributed nothing to the health of the forest, and I’m sure they’re the reason we didn’t hear or see any birds or is. They ate everything.”

  We traveled over two kilometers, and it was like walking through a ghost town. Not a single living thing in sight—just rows of burrees standing like skeletons against the gray sky. It looked like the fire had gohrough here days ago because there were no signs of lingeri—no embers, no smoke, not even that faint crackle you get when a fire’s still hanging on.

  Everythi still like the whole pce was holding its breath. The ground was a mix of ash and scorched earth, and every step we took made the quiet even louder. The smell of soot was in the air, but it was old, not the sharp sting of fresh smoke. Even the wi dead—barely a breeze, just enough to stir the ashes around.

  I asked Mahya, “Doesn’t that seem odd to you? No signs of smoke or embers. A fire doesn’t just die down like that,” I pointed out.

  “Don’t fet the time skips. It could be five days or even more,” she reminded me.

  “Right. I fot,” I said, shaking my head at my pse.

  She patted me on the back but said nothing. We tinued walking, and after another kilometer or a kilometer and a half, we came to an area with holes in the ground and saw several burned rat corpses. We put on the gas masks and surgical gloves.

  Mahya opehe head of the rat and took out a crystal. She held it to show me, “We better collect all the crystals.”

  “I hate that part,” I pined, groaning.

  “Me too, but it’s worth it,” she replied with a shrug.

  “I know, I know. I’m just griping,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.

  She ughed, aarted colleg the crystals from the rats’ bodies. After we collected the crystals from all the bodies we could find, Mahya approached me and asked, “I’m sure there are more iheir caves, but I don’t feel like digging to get them out. Any idea what we do?”

  “Let me try something.”

  This time, I attempted to direct my mana seo the ground instead of the surrounding area. Although it was vague, I could sense what was happening underground. I felt something I suspected was a rat. Yes, it was a rat. It worked when I sent a and to store it. I dropped it beside Mahya and told her, “I’ll tinue searg for more.”

  Step by step, I advanced as my mana sense sed and probed the underground. Before, I thought it was a headache; I was wrong. This time, I got a headache—the mother of all headaches. It felt as if hammers were pounding on my brain, each blow more brutal tha, and hot knives were being ied into my head through my ears and eyes, twisting with every pulse of mana I sent out. The pressure wasn’t just painful—it was overwhelming, like my skull was going to crack open at any moment. Every time I tried to focus, the pain surged, f me to stop and recover. The throbbing behind my eyes made it hard to see straight, and my ears rang with a high-pitched whihat refused to let up. It was like every sense I had was being attacked at once.

  Despite needing to stop and recover a few times because of the pain, I tinued—not because I wahe crystals. We had enough, but because this was an excellent and valuable tool, I o master. Lis was right; you don’t get the maximum be if you don’t push yourself to the max. Even though it felt like my brain was on the verge of exploding, I pushed through, knowing that this pain was the key to mastering the skill.

  It took me hours to go over the entire area with the burrows, and I didn’t know how many rats I collected, but it was a lot. All this time, I had tears of pain running down my face. Several times, Mahya suggested I stop, but I insisted on tinuing. I learned from my els. If I hadn’t dealt with the itg and pressure, I wouldn’t have gotten my els to the state they were in today. I had to get through it and e out the other side victorious.

  As it got dark, I noticed that my sense eing much deeper than before, and I was getting a clearer picture of what was happening below. It took me a while to notice the difference because the improvement was gradual—a timeter at a time, but enough timeters turned into meters, and my acuity also improved.

  “Enough for one day. Let’s take out my house, rest, and tiomorrow,” I said, exhausted from the pain.

  I cast on myself and Mahya, situated my house, and made dinner.

  Mahya pced our old crystals ihe charging station and suggested, “You’d better leave your house outside the whole time we’re here. Your core absorb a lot of mana here.”

  “Good idea.”

  The day, I went over the area I had already checked and found rat bodies deeper underground. I kept walking until I reached the ter of the work of burrows, and I felt a sizeable space. I sent my senses in as deep as I could a something big and piles of sticks.

  Bones?

  I closed my eyes, trated, and moved my senses bad forth over the entire space like a s. Yes, there was a huge rat corpse, at least five times the size of the others, many small rat corpses, and piles of bones scattered all over the cave. With increased tration, I pushed harder with my iion and stored some piles. I kept pushing harder and harder with my i, expanding my mana sense and st more and more piles, but still not the gigantic rat. I gave o mighty push, even yelled, “Ha!” and stored it, feeling a surge of triumph.

  For a moment, it felt like something broke in my head—a sharp nce of pain shot down to my toes. And then I felt the amazing wave I reized. There was a signifit spiritual expansion within me, followed by a massive wave of mental relief. My head still hurt, but it wasn’t as bad. I checked my mana: 8400/9900—an increase of 600 points.

  Hooray!

  When I returo Mahya, I pulled out the giant rat and all the gathered piles. She looked at what I took out, looked up at me, looked down at the piles again, looked at me, and said, “You know you’re scary sometimes?”

  “Me? Scary? Why?” I asked, bewildered.

  “Because you do things that other people don’t even know where to start,” she replied, shaking her head.

  I rubbed my neck, looked down, and asked quietly, “Are you afraid of me?”

  She hugged me. “Never! Besides, when I say you’re scary, I don’t mean you’re dangerous. Just sometimes it’s intimidating to be in the pany of someone so talented,” she said softly, her voice reassuring.

  I hugged her back, feeling relieved.

  “I want to do another s of all the burrows, and then I’ll help you get all the crystals out.”

  “It’s okay, you’re doing enough,” she assured me, waving me off with a smile.

  I went over the entire area of the burrows again. It was much easier this time, and it felt like I had developed ser vision. It wasn’t a real vision. I didn’t “see” what was happening ihe burrows, but I felt everything and could build an accurate mental picture of their entire yout and everything there. I located more piles of bones and many mana crystals—this time, the increased mana of the crystals “pinged” my senses, and I collected them all.

  By the time I fihe st sweep of the burrows, it was dark, so I ed up Mahya and myself again, made dinner, and we spent a quiet evening at home.

  There were still rats outside that she didn’t have time to process, so I helped her process them all the following day. This operation yielded another 349 tiny crystals from the rats, 211 crystals I found scattered in the burrows or bone piles, and oennis ball-sized crystal from the gigantic rat.

  After examining the crystals at the charging station, Mahya excimed joyfully, “All the crystals are fully charged. I like the mana levels here; it’s such a refreshing ge.”

  We began to fuse the tiny crystals inter ones. I discovered Mahya could merge a maximum of two, which required effort. I could take a handful, hold them in a closed hand, pour mana into them, and bihem inte crystal. It required 2,500-3,000 each time, but we progressed much faster thahought possible.

  After two days, we finished fusing all the crystals and pced them in the charging station in my house.

  “We’d better leave your house outside to give the dungeon core a ce to draw mana from the surroundings and recharge the crystals. In the meantime, let’s walk around the forest and see if there’s anything else iing here,” she suggested, stretg her arms.

  I activated the house’s defeo be safe—just the protective force field, not the attad we checked out the forest. Acc to the Map, we were on a small isnd with no cities or towns, and the Gate was in the ter. It took us five days to explore the isnd, and we did find some iing things.

  At the isnd’s southern end, we found immerees resembling palm trees with delicious purple fruits. Luckily, Mahya had the ability [Jump] because the trees were very tall with a spiky bark, and we couldn’t reach the fruits with telekinesis. It took us a whole day to pick all the fruits, or rather, it took Mahya aire day while I cheered her from below.

  Oher side of the Gate from the rat area, we discovered shorter trees with sturdy and derunks ranging from four to five meters i, which the fire didn’t reach. Mahya loved the wood quality, and because she picked all the fruits, I cut dowrees. It also took a whole day, and I thahe Guiding Spirits for the Heal Muscles spell every so often.

  The sand on the beach was white-pink and very fine. Mahya said it was excellent fssmaking, so we took a “walk” on the beach, and with each step, stored a rge amount of sand.

  Now that my mana sense was active all the time, I discovered all kinds of things: in several areas of the isnd not affected by the fire, I located mana-rits and picked them all for Alfonsen. I didn’t know what he could use and what he couldn’t use, so I collected everything. It took another day and a half.

  During our tour of the isnd, we came across a stream. When we looked ier, we saw glittering. Upon careful examination, Mahya fidently identified it as gold.

  “You think we should linger and sift it?” I asked, eyeing the glittering water.

  “We don’t have to sift anything, just touch the gold and store it,” she said, grinning.

  When she was right, she was right.

  We advanced along the stream and found its source: a natural spring bubbling out of the ground. I sent my mana sense deep into the earth following the water a a siderable accumution of gold fkes. After st the entire accumution, I tio search. While I found a few more clusters, the initial one was the rgest.

  On our sixth day on the isnd, Mahya informed me she had finished charging all the crystals. We stored all the crystals intended for the boat; I stored my house, auro Earth.

  After we crossed to Earth, I quipped, “I feel like an aplished looter.”

  She burst out ughing. “One day, I’m sure you’ll create the perfect looting spell. For now, the loot we got is good enough,” she said, shaking her head with a smile.