We were oher side of the Gate fht days, and only tassed oh—that expined how the forest looked days after a fire. It was days.

  When I presented Alfonsen with the pnts I had collected, his eyes widened in awe. “From where did you acquire these remarkable spes?” he asked, his voice full of admiration as he examihe leaves.

  “Beyond the Gate. you use them?”

  He nodded enthusiastically, a wide grin spreading across his face. “Ihey are magnifit,” he excimed, his hands already moving to sort through the colle.

  “I’m gd. Enjoy,” I said, g him on the back. I didn’t think he even heard me or noticed the touch. He entirely focused on his new pnts—smelling and chewing on some leaves.

  Mahya proposed a detour to Shanghai to finish the boat before our jouro Tibet, and I agreed. She was right; if the Traveler en route to Earth were to tact us, we might o leave fast. We boarded a train to Shanghai, and during the journey, I checked for messages from Lis, Lyura, or the Traveler. The Archive held no ents from them, but a new post from Mahya caught my attention.

  Tr. MN

  “Versailles, Clueless, Hungry, Ior”

  Hi Lis, I hope you’re still enjoying the Dragon Pne.

  We are okay and tinuing to travel betweees. Retly, we fought giant rats, and John did a fantastic job. Your training paid off.

  I have a question:

  In the books you gave John, is there anything about translocation, teleportation, or something simir?

  tio have fun and keep in touch.

  Mahya, aka Versailles

  I asked Mahya, “Are you pnning to build a teleporter?”

  She looked at me with a furrowed brow and asked, “What are you talking about?”

  “You asked Lis for books on teleportation,” I crified, raising an eyebrow.

  She ughed. “It’s not for me, it’s for you.”

  I looked at her with a question mark on my face. “Huh?” I tilted my head, genuinely puzzled.

  She crossed her arms and asked, “You didn’t even realize what you did, didn’t you?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I replied, shaking my head.

  Mahya took a deep breath before expining. “My parents are veteran Travelers who have visited even very high mana worlds. I traveled with two of their friends to two high mana worlds and spent nearly fifteen years in their pany. Lis is an even more seasoraveler than my parents. And none of these people store something without toug it.

  “My parents trained me for years before I set out, and I have a mana sense of almost three meters, but I ’t store anything within my sehout toug it. I’ve never heard of anyone who store things across a barrier. You didn’t drag the rats out of the ground through a tunnel you created; you stored them directly into your Ste. This isn’t a regur st fun; it’s teleportation or translocation.” She tapped her finger oable, emphasizing each point.

  Teleportation?!

  I bli her, her words sinking in. I believed I was using my Ste as intended—effitly and vely. But this? This was something else entirely. The idea of having such a power without even realizing it... It was a little unnerving.

  “I didn’t even know it wasn’t possible,” I admitted, rubbing the bay neck.

  “That’s exactly my point. When you’re not aware of the limitations, you do amazing things. That’s why I said you’re scary,” she cluded with a small smile, shaking her head as if I were a puzzle she couldirely solve.

  During the rest of the jouro Shanghai, I was deep in thought, turning over her words.

  I guess I’ve been breaking the rules without even trying. That’s me, always fumbling into power without a clue. I’ll never get rid of the Clueless moniker.

  I felt the weight of it. Teleportation—something no one else could do, something I hadn’t even realized I was doing. It was mind-blowingly huge, impossible to grasp fully. Sighing, I shook my head, trying to elimihe heavy feeling. I didn’t know what to do with this information or how to develop it further. Shrugging, I set it aside. I’d been through this before, ba my early days in Shimoor, stumbling through magid meiot knowing what half of it eve.

  It worked out then. It’ll work out again... I hope.

  In Shanghai, we checked how our boat was doing, and it was fine. Mahya returo tinkering with the engine. She handed me eight pieces of thick copper cable and instructed, “Engrave the ruransfer’ here and here, here in the middle the rune ‘Bance,’ ahe rune ‘e,’” she directed, pointing to each spot precisely.

  “Yes, boss,” I said with a salute.

  After I engraved all the runes, I returhe cables to her, and I became her assistant, watg her closely as she tightened, ected, fastened, and moved all kinds of things in the engine area.

  “You’re not doing stuff with the engine?” I asked, slightly surprised by her focus ohing but the primary po.

  “There’s no he engine is perfect. The surrounding parts need work because they feed power to the engine,” she expined, her hands opping as she worked.

  “You know best,” I said with a shrug, trusting her expertise.

  We worked for three days, with Mahya occasionally givihings to engrave. Then, I helped her put them in pd ect them to the rest of the system. When we finished, she told me to start the boat.

  When I turhe key in the switch, I was amazed. Before, the engine was noisy. After the overhaul, it was quieter, but I still heard it. Now I heard nothing. I felt the vibration that indicated the engine was running, but it was utterly silent. The vibration also felt stronger, like the engine had more power.

  I turned off the engine and asked Mahya, “Do you know you’re an artist?” I couldn’t hide the admiration in my voice.

  She ughed. “Thank you,” she said with a pyful bow.

  “Is everything w okay?” I asked, gng back at the eill in awe of its performance.

  “We’ll see. If there’s a problem, I take care of it on the way. We also have over forty spare crystals, so depending on how she behaves during the voyage, I see what else I improve,” she replied fidently, ing her hands with baby wipes. I uood why she bought too many. She already used a whole box.

  “Excellent! Now, let’s go back to the hotel, and tomorrow, we’ll sail up the river to a quiet spot to store the boat,” I said, eager to the day.

  Everyone had a list of things they wao buy before our trip to Tibet. Alfonsen had been talking for days about finding beakers and small gss bottles, eager to experiment with the pnts I’d collected. He also po buy rge wooden barrels—soaking valerian pnts arently the critical step in making a proper sleeping potion. Mahya, oher hand, was ser-focused on hunting down gss-blowing equipment. When she mentio, the excitement in her eyes made it clear she was already thinking about her project or hobby. Rue, as usual, had simpler goals. He wao visit a DVD store where he could stare at the colorful covers and decide whies to watch based solely on the pictures. I, of course, had my own pn—to check the markets for rare aing ingredients for cooking.

  We spent the entire day going from pce to pce. By afternooumbled across a street stall selling baseball caps with bright red text: “I got Shanghai’d in Shanghai.” Mahya snatched two up immediately, ughing. “These are ridiculous. I love them!” she said, tossing oo me. Rue eyed the hats curiously, and when I plopped oo his head, he blihen shook it off with a grunt. Hats apparently weren’t his thing.

  Alfonsen, however, stood back with a look of utter disdain. “There are certaihs I refuse to sink to,” he decred, arms crossed as he gave the caps a final dismissive gnce.

  Mahya pulled my arm. “Let’s find a quiet pce for a moment.”

  We went around the er, and her eyes lost focus. She looked at the hat, looked up again with unfocused eyes, and asked, “You’re kidding me, aren’t you?” She waved her hat and asked in an incredulous tohis pushed me over the threshold? This?”

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “Look!” And popped out a s.

  During the st year, you have bought and sold goods for sizeable sums.New Sub-Profession unlocked: [Mert]Would you like to take the Mert Sub-Profession?aking this Sub-Profession will allow you to use the banked adva.Cost: 3 Ability PointsY/N

  “Ha! You’ll be a mert like me,” I said with a grin, nudging Mahya pyfully.

  “Numerous Travelers possess this css due to their frequent trading of various odities,” Alfonsen said. “My family advised me to steer clear of this css,” he added, gng away and looking unfortable.

  “Why not?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “This is a css for oners. Our status is royalty, not merts,” he said stiffly, lifting his as if the thought alone made him feel above it all.

  “But you’re also Travelers. Why not take a css that help you earn a lot of money?” I pressed, genuinely fused by the tradi.

  “It is g in dignity,” he replied, his voice steady but his posture even mid.

  I shook my head in bewilderment and turo Mahya. “Are you going to take this css?” I asked, hoping for a different perspective.

  “I don’t know yet,” she said with a shrug, her tone casual. “In any case, there’s no way I’ll take it for points. I’ll decide when the Guidance offers it for free,” she added, sounding much more practical.

  After finishing all our shopping in Shanghai, we sailed down the Huangpu River in search of a quiet pce to store the boat. Using my mana trol, and occasionally cheating with telekinesis, I sat in the front and trolled the helm and sails.

  The good life, o get up.

  I went to the saloon to check how Rue was doing without television and found him napping on the couch. Alfonsen was reading one of his romances beside him, and I saw Mahya on the back deck. When I approached, she atting the ded g to the boat. “You are such a beautiful baby. Yes, you are. There is no other in this world like you. You are perfect. My perfect baby.”

  When she saw me, she jumped and looked embarrassed.

  “There’s o be embarrassed. I call her ‘good girl’.” I told her with a smile.

  She nodded, and we tio sail in silence.

  We sailed for half a day and didn’t find a suitable spot. Most of the way, there were settlements along the river. And in areas without settlements, there were boats and ships. We reached a river ected to the Huangpu River, called the Dazhi River, and turned into it, hoping to find a quiet pce without people. Only in the evening, when it got dark, we found a pce with a lot of trees around a bend that hid us from most dires.

  I took out my biggest inftable dinghy and told Rue, “I know you don’t like small boats, but we have to store the big boat. Cope with the small boat for a few minutes, and then we’ll use the E-foils to get to the settlement.”

  He sighed audibly aally, but nodded.

  After everyone was in the dinghy, I took my binocurs, ensured we were alone, and stored the boat. We took out the E-foils and surfed to Luhui Town. After spending the night in Luhui Towook a bus to Shanghai the day. We missed that day’s train to Tibet, so after buying tickets for the following day, we spent the rest of the day t Shanghai.

  The following day, Rue stood before me, his rge eyes wide with expectation, his tail wagging furiously as he telepathically demanded, “Rue chocote cake! Strawberry ice cream! ut ice cream!” His ears perked up, as if that sealed the deal.

  I groaned, ping the bridge of my nose. “No, Rue, you ’t have cake for breakfast. You need protein, not sweets.” My voice was firm, but Rue wasn’t having it.

  He huffed and stomped his paws to emphasize, “Cake! Ice cream!”

  “No! I’m not giving you cake and ice cream for breakfast. Fet about it!”

  His response was immediate, a sharp bark punctuating his telepathipint, “John no friend! No love Rue!” The betrayal in his mental voice felt almost ical, but he followed it with another loud bark to emphasize his seriousness.

  “Rue, be quiet for a sed,” I said, trying to focus. I could’ve sworn I heard a knock at the door, but Rue’s mental shouting drowned everything out.

  “Rue want cake! Chocote!” His barking tinued, eg both in my ears and my mind.

  I shot him a gre. “Shut up, Rue! And you’re not watg Sponge Bob again.”

  I was sure it was somebody from the hotel ing to pin about the barking, but it was Mahya. “I think we o give up oibet idea.”

  “Why?”

  “The Traveler headed to Earth arrived; check the Archive.”

  Tr. SS

  Greetings, Johhis is Sonak Susil. I have arrived in the world of Gaia. Right now, I am located in Germany. I do not wish to use flying apparatuses. Please instruct me on how to get where I o go to help my friend.

  I did an i seary puter and wrote him a reply.

  Tr. JR

  Hello Sonak, and wele.

  I didn’t find ships from Germany to the Uates.

  You o travel to Engnd. There are trains from Germany to the city of Paris in France, and from there, a train to Engnd. In Engnd, take a train to the city of Southampton. There is a cruise from Southampton to the City of New York in the Uates iy-three days from now.

  From New York, you o travel to the state of Nevada to the city of Las Vegas. We will be sailing from a, but it might take us forty to fifty days to get there. Please let us know where you are staying if you arrive before us. If we arrive first, we will let you know.

  After writing the reply, I told Mahya, “His timing is shit. Two days earlier, and we wouldn’t have stored the boat,” I muttered, shaking my head in frustration.

  “Yeah, but at least he caught us before leaving for Tibet,” she replied, her voice calm. A slight shrug showed she shared my annoyance.

  “Did you tell Alfonsen?” I asked, gng over at her.

  “Not yet, I’ll do it now.”

  Well, it looked like our ese trip had ended. At least this ued twist stopped Rue from throwing a fit over the cake. He was happily eating chi breasts and liver with mushrooms.