I trudged wearily to the Gate, my mind and body drained of all energy. When I crossed, I had even fotten to cast Invisibility, a sign of my exhaustion. Fortunately, there was nobody oher side. Lis and Mahya, though tired, still had some spark left in them. Rue, oher hand, was full of energy; he napped while we worked. I was so worn out that I couldn’t even decide if he was a lucky dog or a lucky familiar.

  We checked our phones oher side of the Gate, and to my surprise, five days had passed oh. I blinked in disbelief; I didn’t think we’d been oher side that long—maybe a day and a half, tops.

  With a puzzled expression, I turo Lis for answers. “Don’t you think the time skip looks too long?”

  He shook his head, seemingly unfazed. “No,” he answered calmly. “It be even longer. I think it has to do with distance, but I don’t have proof.”

  “Distance?” I echoed, still trying to my head around the cept.

  “Yes, the distaween the phat the Gate ects.”

  I opened my mouth to ask more, but my exhaustion hit like a tidal wave. My body craved nothing more than a long, uninterrupted sleep. Mahya was already on the phone, calling Lyura to find out which hotel she was at, while Lis ordered a taxi for us. I just stood there, barely able to keep my eyes open, and dozed off on my feet.

  Oaxi ride to the hotel, Mahya leaned over and asked me quietly, “Do you have Silence or Privacy?”

  “Privacy,” I replied, blinking myself awake.

  “Cast it, please,” she requested.

  I did as she asked, and ohe spell was active, she spoke up again, “Lis, I think there might be a wild dungeon oher side of the Gate.”

  Lis’s eyes narrowed in thought. “What makes you think that?” he asked, his voice low.

  “We cleared three tribes of mas, but you still mao find enough monsters for John’s css,” Mahya expined, her tone serious. “With that number of mas, there shouldn’t have been a single mohey would have been wiped out instantly. The monsters weren’t strong enough either; they were too weak for a world with a mana level of 61. I believe it’s a trated pocket of high mana, which expins the presence of three tribes of mas instead of one, leading to the formation of a fledgling dungeon in that area.”

  Lis’s expression grew more serious as he sidered her words. “You might be right.”

  “We should go back, clear the dungeon, ahe core,” Mahya suggested, determination in her voice. “It will help us with our project.”

  Lis seemed lost in thought, his gaze distant as he mulled over the idea. After two minutes, he nodded slowly. “You’re right, and we’d better do it quickly. With the time skip, the dungeon mature and grow stronger if we dey too much.”

  When we finally returo the hotel, Lyura rushed to Mahya and hugged her tightly. “I was so worried. Thank you, Spirits; you’re all right,” she said, her relief palpable.

  “Do you know about the time skip?” Lis asked her.

  “Yes,” Lyura replied with a nod, “but I thought it would take three days, not five.”

  I hadn’t even sidered a one-day skip.

  Why does everyone seem more knowledgeable tha’s not fair!

  But I was too tired to dwell on it, so I asked, “Did you get us rooms?”

  “Yes, here is your key card,” Lyura said, handing it over.

  I took it gratefully, already picturing the bed waiting for me.

  The following m, we headed to a café for breakfast. After the server brought our food, Lis cast Privacy around us and leaned in. “Mahya thinks there’s a wild dungeon oher side of the Gate, and it might be a good idea to clear it.” He then turo Lyura, his gaze questioning. “You want to e with us?”

  Lyura hesitated, looking down at her coffee. “I’m not sure I handle a dungeon in a world with 61 mana. It’s too high for me.”

  Lis sidered her words, then houghtfully. “We think it’s a young dungeon, at least judging from the monsters in the area. It might be your level. What’s your element?”

  “Lava,” Lyura replied, her voicertain.

  “A good element,” Lis remarked, nodding with approval.

  Lyura shook her head. “Not really. It’s very limited.”

  Lis leaned back, arms crossed, sidering her words. “Maybe now. But once you advance, you separate it into stone and fire, and you’ll have trol over two very powerful elements that are abundant, so you’ll always have mana avaible.”

  “Yes,” Lyura said, a faint smile appearing as she recalled something. “My mother said that, but it’s very limited right now, and with my mana level, I’m very limited if I don’t have a source to fill from.”

  “What’s your mana?” Lis asked.

  “620.”

  “Any other skills that help you in a dungeon?” Lis pressed.

  “Sword fighting and Archery, but they are at a low level,” Lyura admitted, a hint of frustration in her voice.

  Lis nodded, his expression thoughtful. “Yes, I agree. This dungeon might be too hard for you.”

  Lis then turo me and asked, “So, are you ing with us?”

  “You tell me,” I replied, feeling unsure. “I’ve never been to a dungeon before, and the snake seemed terrifying, so I don’t know if it’s just me or if the difficulty is too high.”

  Lis gave me a reassuring smile. “I think you’ll be fine. You killed the monsters I brought you without a problem, and anyway, healers advan dungeons not from killing monsters but from healing the party they’re diving with. So, Mahya and I will protect you, and you’ll heal us as needed.”

  “What about Rue?” I asked, gng over at the big dog.

  “He should definitely apany us. It’s critical for him to gain experience; being at level 0, he will gain the most from this,” Lis expined, his toter-of-fact.

  I nodded, but then added, “I think we should wait a day or two. My mana els feel raw and strained after everything I did.”

  “Actually,” Lis responded, leaning in slightly, “this is the optimal time for this. Enrging your els through strain is a ethod for adva.”

  “But what about the book you reended about el enha?” I asked, remembering our previous versations.

  “That one is for the sedary els. For the primary els, you have two optioher employ your method with the spirals, a teique exclusive to wizards, or push them to their limits without causing damage and tio advahem.”

  “Okay, if you think it’s a good idea, I’m in,” I said, feeling more fident.

  Lis then turo Lyura. “See if you find a short-term apartment for us. There’s no reason to spend a fortune on a hotel, and wheurn, John will have a lot of cooking to do.”

  “Thanks for voluntelling me!” I quipped, throwing my hands up in mock exasperation.

  They all ughed, and Lis cpped me on the back, his grin wide.

  I turo Lyura. “ you drive?”

  “Yes, I bought the skill,” she replied, sounding proud.

  “Good,” I said with a nod. “Let’s rent a car. I don’t thiedly calling a taxi to the Gate is a good idea. Especially si’s in the middle of nowhere, without anything near it that expin our presence. I’m still worried that the US knows about the Gates. I don’t want to be captured.”

  Mahya and Lyura spoke up at the same time, their voices overpping in . “What?” “How?”

  “I have no idea,” I said, frowning as I recalled my past experiences. “But when I was Gate hopping in the Americas, eight of the Gates had army bases around them.”

  “That’s not good,” Mahya said, her tone dropping.

  “No, it’s not,” I agreed, my mind rag. “That’s why we o be careful.”

  Lis’s expression grew serious as he nodded in agreement. “I fot about that. I think we should check out of the hotel, go somewhere crowded, use a bathroom, and ge mour and dots just in case. We lived in London and then Paris for a long time, and we’ve been moving a lot retly. Let’s hide our trail.”

  We all agreed, the gravity of the situatioling in as we prepared to cover our tracks.

  We headed to Revontuli Mall, making a beeline for the bathrooms. After a quick sweep to ehere were no cameras and the coast was clear, we got down to business, ging our identities. I picked the name Jonathan Crk—because, let’s face it, with all the fighting I’d been doing tely, I felt like Superman. A brief nod to the Man of Steel wouldn’t hurt.

  Shifting my vision, I g Rue. He now looked like a massive, fluffy mountain of brown fur, even more so than his usual state. After some quiline research, I settled on a Tibetan Mastiff as his new breed. The transformation erfect; he looked like he could’ve been a bear in another life.

  Re-juring his identification and service dog credentials took a lot of mana, but I reminded myself that we were heading to a high mana level, so it would be worth it. My re-gmour and re-identificatio me back 400 points total—worth every bit for the new alias. Rue’s re-gmour and re-identification were even pricier, costing 500 and 600 points respectively, with each aspect running 300 points. Familiars, it turned out, were an expensive business, whether it was feeding them, maintaining their gmour, or keeping their paperwork in order.

  While at the mall, I discovered that it’s possible to purchase prepaid cards at R-Kioski. We took advantage of that, st away the old cards to empty them before leavih again. With the new cards in hand, we didn’t waste any time pig up burner phones. Once we sorted that out, I diligently racked my brain to make sure we had left no loose ends that could lead back to us.

  Satisfied that we’d covered our tracks, we rented a car and drove straight to the Gate.

  After we crossed into Tuone, Mahya stayed with me at the Gate while Lis went ahead to make sure nothing dangerous awaited us. Wheurned, he immediately asked, “Do you have armor?”

  “Yes, I bought some in Shimoor,” I replied.

  “Show me,” he said, extending his hand.

  I took out the armor, and Lis exami carefully. “With a mana shield, this will do for now,” he said. “But you should look into getting somethier at the first opportunity. You might want to che Earth; they could have developed something useful for the poliilitary.”

  Mahya chimed in, “Do either of you have spare armor?”

  Lis shook his head, but I took out the three armors I had left after selling the rest and id them out for her to choose from.

  While Mahya looked over the armors, Lis asked her, “Did you vert your mana shield?”

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Why don’t you buy Stone Armor from the Guidance?” Lis suggested.

  “Not a good idea for me,” Mahya responded, shaking her head. “My bat subcss is Bdesinger, and I rely heavily on my Agility.”

  Curious and not wanting to be rude, I hesitated for a moment before asking, “May I ask what kind of csses you have, or is that sidered taboo?”

  Mahya smiled reassuringly. “Generally, it’s not polite to ask about csses unless you’re pnning a dungeon dive together. But today, it’s fine. Besides, I’ll always answer you, no matter the circumstances.” She paused before expining, “As I mentioned, I’m a Bdesinger—a fast, acrobatic melee fighter that bines spells. I use spells like Slow, Entangle, and Sink to slow down my oppos, Blind and fuse to disorient them, and others to boost my speed, like Wall Dash or Jump. I also have the Wood Artisan profession.”

  “So, the trees were for you?” I asked, pieg it together.

  “No, the project we’re w on ies both my profession and Lis’s new subcss,” she expined. “It’s rare to get a ce to cooperate with someone from a different profession, so we’re both making the most of it.”

  “Sounds cooler than being a Mert,” I ented, half-joking.

  “It depends on your perspective,” Mahya replied with a small grin. “As a raveler, you’re already richer than I was before the elves robbed me, so there are definitely bes.”

  “I spent close to a million dolrs oh before leaving; that’s not from my profession,” I pointed out.

  “It’s still a good way to earn money and travel without w about expenses,” Mahya noted.

  While we talked, Lis took out one of the green snake skins and began w with it. He cut a rge piece, made holes along the sides, and then fashioned leather cords from the same material, threading them through the holes. After a few minutes, he called, “Rue, e here; I want to fit you in armor.”

  Rue padded over obediently, and Lis ed the leather around him, seg it with the cords. He stepped back, eyeing his handiwork critically. “Walk around and see if there’s anything that bothers you,” he instructed.

  Rue trotted around, testing the fit, and after a minute, returo Lis with a satisfied expression. Lis made a few adjustments, then nodded in approval when Rue sent a mental “I’m good” to all of us.

  “Cast a mana shield on yourself, Rue,” Lis told him, “And re-cast it every time the spell ends. When you start running out of mana, ask John to re-cast it.” He g me with a hint of a smile. “You too, John.”

  “Yes, Dad,” I replied sarcastically, earning a ugh from Mahya. Lis just shook his head, smiling.

  We began our walk from the Gate, with Lis leading the way, followed by Rue, then me, and Mahya bringing up the rear.

  After about three hundred meters, I couldn’t help but ask, “How do you know where to go? You don’t even look around; you just go.”

  “This is where I found all the monsters yesterday,” Lis expined. “At some point, we’ll have to start searg for the dungeon.”

  “Is there a way to locate them?” I asked, curious about how dungeons worked.

  “Some specific types are easier to spot,” Lis said, “but usually, it’s by appearance.”

  “What does a dungeon look like?”

  “Like a very dark entrance,” Lis answered simply.

  “Which types are easy to spot?” I tinued.

  “Fire or ice dungeons are retively simple because the mohat escape typically burn or freeze everything around them. Uh dungeons are also easy to detect; everything nearby starts to die. For other types, you have to look fns.”

  “Do you know what kind of dungeon we’re heading to?” I asked.

  “I’m thinking it’s nature-based, maybe a forest or something simir,” Lis specuted. “All the monsters I found were either variations of lizards or felines.”

  We tinued walking for another half a kilometer before Rue suddenly started growling. Lis gnced in the dire of the growling and said calmly, “I’ll trol the monster; you kill it.”

  A moment ter, something jumped out of the bushes, only to freeze mid-air and crash to the ground. It looked like a cat but with oversized, metallic teeth. Rue luearing out its neck with precision.

  Lis turo me. “Want to harvest the crystal?”

  Nodding, I quickly set to work. It only took me about two mio press the monster into a crystal, and since I learned how to de-aspect crystals, I ended up with a “ral” crystal, ready for whatever use we might find for it.

  After repeating this sario over twenty times, I came to a solid clusion: monsters are stupid. No matter how small they were—some barely the size of a house cat—they still threw themselves at a group of three people with a rge dog, as if they had any ce of winning. It was almost ughable.

  At first, the monsters came at us from a single dire, like they had some kind of death wish assembly line going. But then, they started attag from all sides, making it clear that they weren’t just random enters anymore. Lis he ge and said, “We should start looking for the dungeon.”

  He turo me and said, “You and Rue go together. Have your staff out and ready, and monitor with your mana.”

  Shit! I had pletely fotten about monit with mana. ly my fi moment, but I quickly fixed that, extending my senses outward.

  We split introups and spread out, searg for any sign of the dungeon. No luck. We kept moving, cheg again, fighting off more monsters, then searg some more. This rinse-a routi on for hours.

  After what felt like ten or twelve hours of this relentless search, we’d wandered so far from the Gate that I couldn’t even se anymore. Finally, we stumbled upon the dungeon. It was hard to miss—it looked like a dark entrao a cave, but not your usual cave-dark. This was more like a portal of doom, the kind you’d expe a horror movie. If I’d found something like this on my own, I’d have turail and bolted out of there without a sed thought.

  Lis looked around, assessing the area. After a moment, he walked away a bit and, to my surprise, pulled his house out of his Ste.

  “Why did you get your house?” I asked, genuinely puzzled.

  “It’s getting dark,” Lis replied calmly. “We’ve been walking for hours, and we’re tired. It would be stupid to go in like this.”

  “But why the house?” I pressed, still irely uanding.

  “My has excellent protes, and this is a high-mana world,” Lis expined, as if that crified everything.

  “But I thought you killed everything,” I pointed out, gng around uneasily.

  “Yes, ie area,” Lis said with a slight smile. “If you haven’t noticed, we’ve moved pretty far from it.”

  That bit of information made me worry, and I looked around in fear, suddenly hyper-aware of how exposed we were.

  Lis noticed and ughed, trying to put me at ease. “Don’t worry. I’m pretty sure some of the mas we killed came from even further out than here. It took some of them a long time to reach us, and they didn’t attack us all at once—just alone or in pairs.

  “Anyway, just to be safe, I reend we sleep in my house with all the defenses up. In the m, we’ll ehe dungeon. I hope you’re not disappoihat we’re not doing it today.”

  “Disappointed? No way!” I excimed, my earlier fear fading. “I’m in a high-mana world, and I’ve killed monsters. It feels like being an adventurer from the books I’ve read.”

  Lis ughed, shook his head affeately, and waved us ihe house.

  Onside, Mahya and Lis vinced me to give the scary snake meat a ce. Relutly, I agreed, and I ended up cooking a stew with it. They were right—mana snakes were delicious, the meat practically melting in your mouth. It was so good that I regretted adding aables to the pot. I had inteo make enough to st the four of us for a couple of days, but somehow Rue polished off the e. We were all genuinely impressed—Rue was rge, but not in the “eat 20 kg of meat in one meal” sehat was a new one for all of us.

  In order to be fully rested for our dungeon dive the day, we went to bed early. Despite my usual aversion to fighting, I couldn’t help but feel a bit excited. The idea of a dungeon dive was intriguing, and even though I didn’t want to fight, the thrill of what y ahead was undeniable.