After the soldiers left and Mahya and I stopped ughing, Sonak went to his room and disappeared until the day when Al came back. I thought he felt embarrassed and didn’t want to show his face. Mahya opened all the windows, and I cast on the room again and again until we got rid of all the whiskey smell. It took hours for the room to stop smelling, but we didn’t care. We were in this together, and the shared humor of the situatio us going. While w, every few minutes, one of us would start giggling, iing the other, and we would ugh again.

  Rue joined in and helped me up. It was a fantastic idea to buy him the spell, and I didn’t care about the three points it cost. I still had over two hundred points and was sure they would st me for years.

  Finally, after the room was , Mahya and I decided we didn’t feel like tinuing with the inal pn of going gambling. Instead, the three of us pyed Monopoly for hours. We filled the game with ughter, friendly banter, and the occasional dramatiegotiation. At the end of the game, I owhe entire board. Mahya and Rue accused me of cheating, and I swore up and down that I didn’t, but I had a nagging suspi that my Lud Mert css had a hand in the victory.

  Al joined us the following day, his face glowing with pride and a broad smile stretg across his face. His eyes sparkled with excitement as he strode fidently into the room, shoulders bad chest puffed out. With an almost theatrical flourish, he announced, “The potion potency exceeded my initial expectations. The Valerian we purchased is truly remarkable, and I utilized some pnts you gathered os’ isnd.”

  “How strong is it?” I asked.

  Al’s grin widened, and he nodded enthusiastically. “As soon as the bullets make tact,” he said, his voice filled with triumph and pompous dession, “The affected person, along with ahin a radius of two to three meters, will quickly enter a state of deep slumber.” He spread his arms wide, emphasizing the range of the potion’s effect, his eyes log onto mio make sure I uood the gravity of his words.

  “If it’s s, why don’t you fall asleep?”

  Al’s lips curled into a small, fident smile. “I possess a unique ability that, oivated, serves as a shield against the creations I produce.”

  “So it put us to sleep if we’re in range?” I pressed, my eyes narrowing as I tried to piece together the implications.

  Al’s expression shifted as realization dawned on him. “Yes. I failed to sider that possibility,” he said, sounding less enthusiastic all of a sudden.

  Mahya, who had been listening ily, perked up. “Maybe we’ll put on gas masks?” she suggested.

  Al shook his head. “It will not be of any help. Magic is an integral po of alchemy. While it may offer prote against physical substances, it is iive against the magical aspect. To aplish that, you will require runic prote.”

  Mahya’s face fell slightly, but then she brightened with determination. “We have a lot of books with runes. Maybe we’ll find something there.”

  I hough I felt a sinkiainty. “There was nothing suitable iwo runiguages I studied.”

  “We have a lot of runiguages,” Mahya said.

  “You do?” Sonak chimed in for the first time.

  “Yes,” I said and took out all the books of runes I had. I returhe two nguages I studied and started going through the rest. After paying the thousand mana to learn the nguage and activating the ability [Local Adaptation: Runes/Magic Script], I read the introdu and learhe first three Foundational Runes of the nguage to uand it. My face tightened with frustration. “No, that won’t help. All the runes here deal with strengthening materials, mainly for stru or building plex maery.”

  I moved on to the book and quickly learhe written nguage, but I felt a barrier when I looked at the runes. My heart sank as I remembered the points I’d spent. “I paid for only three runiguages,” I muttered, gng at the others. “I’ll have to pay a point for the uages. Oh well, we don’t have a choice.”

  After spending another ability point and a thousand mana, I read the introdu and studied the first two Foundational Runes. I felt the pressure in my head, so I didn’t study the third Foundational Rune of that nguage. Still, I felt eted. My previous limit was three runes, but now I could quickly learn five, and I felt that the break between learning sessions would be shorter. “Those are special runes for formations. Not going to help us here.”

  Mahya snatched the book from my hand and said, “But it will help me with my projects.”

  I checked the book, shaking my head in disbelief. “Lis collected the stra runiguages possible. This nguage is specific for clothes. You embroider the runes with special metal threads. At least the detailed intro saved me from learning the Foundational Runes.”

  Giving it to Mahya, I said, “It might be good for the balloon, and the gold wire might work.”

  Sonak suddenly jumped, his eyes wide with excitement. “Which Lis are you talking about?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, taken aback by his iy.

  “Are you referring to Lissarom Munyon?”

  “How did you know?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.

  Sonak’s face lit up with reition. “He is famous. He is a very old Traveler who has helped many Travelers.”

  “John and Lis have a bromance,” Mahya said teasingly.

  Sonak’s eyes widened even further, and his mouth dropped in shock. “Is he your lover? I didn’t know Lis was ied in males.”

  I ughed, shaking my head. “He is not. Bromance means very close friends, not lovers.”

  “And he gave you books?” Sonak’s voice was filled with awe.

  “He gave him his entire library,” Mahya remarked, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

  Sonak looked like he was about to faint, his face paling. “How did you earn su honor?”

  “He and John are very close friends,” Mahya expined.

  I turo Mahya, a hint of a smile on my lips. “You’re his friend too, not just me.”

  “He tolerates me; he loves you,” Mahya replied with a pyful nudge.

  “Not true. He thinks of you as an annoying little sister,” I said.

  Mahya rolled her eyes. “How do you know?”

  I gave her a knowing look. “Right,” she said, sighing. “Stupid question.”

  Sonak looked at the two of us, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, but said nothing. I thought he might be speechless.

  I returo the books, my focus sharpening. The book was another book of Runes fitech. I ha to Mahya and checked the one. My eyes lit up as I read. “I think I found what we’re looking for,” I said, excited. “It says here that these are general runes for everyday use. Sounds promising.”

  I paid the skill point for the nguage but had to wait a few hours before learning the first five runes.

  In the meantime, I brought up aopic that was b me. “Regarding the paintball bullets,” I began, gng around the room to gauge everyone’s attention. “I think sitting for hours, emptying the bullets and then refilling them, would be a nightmare. Does anyone have an idea how to do it faster?”

  Sonak looked up, his expression puzzled. “What do you mean?”

  I took out a paintball and held it up, my fingers absently trag its surface. “We pn to empty the paint, cast on the bullet, and fill it with the potion we discussed. We have 500,000 bullets. Although I don’t think we will he entire amount for this task, two or three thousand bullets is the minimum. Emptying and filling them individually will be an arduous and b task.” I sighed, my shoulders slumping slightly as I looked around the group. “We need a more effit way to do this, or we’ll be here forever.”

  “We use our ste to do that,” Sonak suggested.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, intrigued by his proposal.

  Mahya snapped her fingers, her face lighting up with sudden realization. “How e I didn’t think of that? Of course! We’ll remove only the paint into a bucket or something, leave the empty balls in ste, and thehem. Likewise, we also fill them with a potion!” She seemed very enthusiastiodding vigorously as she expined her idea.

  We all got out buckets or pots; I gave Sonak and Al a bag of paintballs. Putting a separate bag in my ste, I trated and instructed only the paint to go into the bucket, not the tainers.

  It worked!

  The bucket tained a few intact balls floating, but most of it was filled only with paint. I took out the empty bag and checked it - most of the balls were empty, with a few still left with paint. I felt a tremendous relief. The thought of emptying, ing, refilling, and mending thousands of bullets bothered me in the bay mind for days. I was also proud that everybody had the same results as me, with some balls floating in the bucket and some balls still with paint in the bag—I wasn’t hopeless.

  We fished out the full balls, dumped the paint in the sink, cast on the empties—I handled Mahya’s empties—and moved on to the bag.

  Based on our results, si all the balls emptied ideally, Al suggested waiting to fill the balls until rote from the potion, and we all agreed. None of us wao fall asleep suddenly.

  Iernoon, I studied the first five runes from the book and suspected that it might not be perfect for our needs, after all. Wherodu said these runes were for everyday use, it meant they were for mundane everyday use.

  This nguage had no Foundational Runes, and of the first five runes I learhe first one was tthen cy cups and ptes so they wouldn’t break easily, the sed was for silver cutlery so it wouldn’t tarnish, the third was fraving on pots, and then when mana is eled into the ru keeps the food i hot, etc. Just in case, I learned another five in the evening, but again, they were too mundane.

  I sighed in resignation a back to cheg books. The one was for water treatment runes and anything else you could do with liquids. I put it aside as a maybe siions were liquid, but I didn’t have high hopes. The intro stressed that the runes were for ing and refining liquids, not prote. I gave the book to Mahya and hihat she might want to figure out the water treatment system in the house and copy it for the boat. She stuck her to at me but took the book.

  The book of runes was for unication and assessment. Intrigued by the subject, I set it aside for future study, but my attention was elsewhere. Runes for ons and Armor Enha was the title of the book. To extend an olive branch to Sonak, I copied the book for him. I remembered he said he was a bcksmith. The was also for rituals, one more for formation, another for plex systems, and two more colles of runes feneral use. The general runes were more advahan the mundane ones, but not by much. Well, the runes were a bust.

  I thought about moving on to the books that weren’t rune books, but on specific topics, with runes as part of the topic. But just the thought of learning over four hundred nguages ??made me feel so hopeless that I immediately gave up on the idea. The runes had already taken three days, almost all my mana and ten ability points. The gang was having fun in Vegas, and I was learning and regeing. Not fun at all.

  I moved on to the Magic Script books; they were more promising. The problem with a Magic Script was that it wasn’t in a particur theme or subject. These Magic Script symbols came from different worlds, and as a result, they were very diverse, but they were all general. The books tained long lists of signs, symbols, and shapes you worked with like a jigsaw puzzle to assemble a desired result. After a deep breath, I started reading the first book.

  The entire issue of a Magic Script surprised me. With runes, I had to trate on learning a rune. After three days of study, I increased my limit to six, but still found the sixth rune plicated. The Magic Script was pletely different. I still had to pay fifty mana to learn each symbol, but only o look at the symbol for one sed to know it. And beyond the uanding I was used to when learning a rune, intuitive knowledge apa, as if I uood the stated meaning of the symbol, but also uood its deeper meaning, its in.

  Also, I started feeling pressure in my head only after learning ten symbols, and it was easier to ha wasn’t like a balloon filled with too much water and about to burst, but more of an ‘okay, I need a quick break to process and then tinue’ situation.

  When I was halfway through the first book, after two days of inteudy, I grasped an intuitive uanding of how to work with a Magic Script. It was a revetion beyond the typical proficy I experienced with runes. It felt as though the script spoke my nguage, or more accurately, that I spoke its nguage. I was over the moon when I realized this. I knew I had found my niche aally abandoned runes food. While runes had their charm, the Magic Script was simply extraordinary. I adored its adaptability, the mental challe posed, and the creative freedom it offered.

  Unlike runes, which were structured, trolled, precise, and regimented, Magic Script epitomizes chaos and uability. Yet, it was also artistic, flowing, versatile, and imbued with a pyful sense of fun. W with Magic Script felt like engaging in an art form, where every stroke and curve had the potential to create something unique and magical.

  I was so taken by it I studied as fast as my regeion allowed. After three books, I got ideas on iing runes within the circles of Magic Script, thus giving the circles a more aructure and bringing trol into the chaos of the Magic Script. Enthusiastically, I bihe study of the two general books of runes, alternatiweehree runes, five Magic Script symbols. I pletely lost myself in my studies because it was so much fun. I discovered a new nguage of the world, of mana, which was my nguage. Then it dawned on me: my new Creativity trait! It had to be. Runes were structure and order, but Magic Script was chaos, expression, free-hand and art.

  After a week, Mahya shook my shoulder and asked, “What’s going on? Do you have a solution? It’s been a week, and Sonak is getting nervous.”

  Oops! I fot I had a mission.

  “Yeah, let me finish a few things, and then I’ll take care of it.”

  I finished with the of symbols I was in the middle of studying and moved on to take care of the reason for which I started these studies.

  I took out a gas mask and immediately suspected it wouldn’t work. It felt like dead matter, but Magic Script needed living matter that art of the world. Just to be sure, I did a test. I quickly sketched a minimal magic circle whose purpose was only to test the patibility of the material. As soon as I etched it on the gas mask, it started ing; parts of it melted, and within three minutes, it looked like an uifiable lump of pstic with fkes of melted pstic around it.

  As I suspected—inpatible material.

  Realizing fabric wouldn’t work, I opted for wood. I thought about asking Mahya to make wooden masks, and I was sure that the wood we got from the dungeon would be perfect, but the thought of wearing a wooden mask on my face didn’t appeal to me. I looked around, and my eyes fell on the Magic Script pages. Those were leather part and hahe script perfectly. A leather mask sounded much more pleasant than a wood mask.

  An online search led me to the Love Store website—an adult store specializing iishes. I looked at the s for a minute and decided I didn’t care. If they had what I needed, more power to them. Mahya and Al joined me on the shopping trip. As we ehe store, I focused oask at hand. I needed five bck leather masks, and I always liked to have spares, so ten should do it.

  As I started browsing through the masks, Mahya approached me with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “So, what exactly are we shopping for today?” she asked, amused, with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.

  “Ten bck leather masks,” I replied, gesturing to the shelf in front of me. I turned back to the masks, iing them.

  Al, meanwhile, ractically boung on his feet with excitement. “I must say, this pce is absolutely astonishing,” he excimed, a broad grin on his face.

  I focused on the masks, pig up several and scrutinizing them. “These should do,” I said, satisfied with my sele.

  A while ter, Al emerged from another aisle with a full basket, his face beaming with enthusiasm. “Feast your eyes upon the remarkable colle of items I have found!” he ughed, clearly enjoying himself.

  Mahya raised an eyebrow at him, a hint of amusement in her voice. “You sure went all out, didn’t you?”

  “Absolutely! This store is incredible!” Al nodded enthusiastically.

  I shook my head slightly, a small smile pying on my lips. “Gd you’re having fun, Al,” I said, handing the masks to Mahya. “Let’s pay for these a out of here.”

  Mahya took the masks, her smile widening. “Lead the way.”

  At the checkout, the cashier smiled professionally. “Did you find everything you were looking for?”

  I nodded, my expression calm and posed. “Yes, thank you.”

  Al pced his bags on the ter, still grinning. “Yes, indeed, we did!”

  As we paid for our items ahe store, I carried the masks while Al juggled his many bags. Mahya ughed softly at the sight.

  Back at the hotel, I took out my engraving pen and got to work. I had five masks to engrave, and the circle retty plex.