We emptied the tents of our Ste onto the house’s deck. Since we brought a lot of materials, we had to do it in two parts. Each part took the house a few hours to absorb the materials, but my house was a trooper and absorbed everything.

  We had no particur pns for the materials, so I didn’t pursue any further a. From my perspective, it was a long-term iment. Mahya wished to add more wood and stoo the house, but I was not ied. I told her she could ha herself if she wao.

  After I emptied all the materials from my Ste, I headed to put my stuff ba. It arent we had been gone for at least two weeks. It was all covered in dust and fungus spores. Making the most of this opportunity, I sorted out my Ste after a long time. Initially, I wao “stretch” my Ste to make it lower and longer, but after gng at the new height of my house, I realized that wouldn’t work.

  As I sorted my belongings, I went through them individually, casting on each item. I left room for the house and pced all the big items beside it, like boats, mert stalls, etc. I divided the spato three ses: one for st food, another for sales items, and the st for my personal equipment. There was still a generous amount of ste spa the ter.

  Once I had fi everything, I headed out to spend time with Rue. My boy had been alone for at least two weeks and deserved attention. Before pying, we checked the ahya had pced on the vent. Although the core seemed bigger, it was not yet the size of Mahya’s fist.

  Rue informed me, “Rue squishes bad cats.”

  “Were there many cats?”

  “Lots lots bad cats. Rue squashed bad cats.”

  I ughed, scratched his ears, and said, “Well done. You’re an amazing guard dog.”

  His tail drummed rhythmically on my leg.

  As we stood there talking, I saw the air shimmer, and Rue yelled, “More cat!”

  The mohat appeared was indeed a cat, but different from the previous ones we fought. It was bigger, red with white instead of bck, and much fluffier. It even looked cute—at least until it bit my leg.

  “Ouch!”

  Infuriated, I stomped o and verted it into a crystal. At least the crystal was rger.

  “If we leave now and go py, you help me find the cats ter?” I asked Rue.

  “Yes! Rue bestest cat finder.”

  “Great, buddy. So let’s go py and take care of the cats ter.”

  With kites in hand, we went to py with the wind. The wind caught the kites and flew them around the valley. Rue chased the kites and tried to catch them. Oher hand, I tried to use wind magiove the kites without cheating with Telekinesis. We spent the whole day pying. Rue had more success than me, as seen by the three chewed-up kites. I couldn’t move a kite even once. I didn’t know what I was missing. The word Wind appeared in my profile, which meant I could do something. But I was stuck when I tried to do something indepely, without asking the wind for help.

  During ame, I entered a few spots where Al had harvested mushrooms and saw new, small mushrooms sprouting. It made me feel better. At some point, ast Mahya, who was chopping down a tree. She gave me a murderous look, harrumphed, but said nothing.

  In the evening, after dinner, Rue helped me locate the cats that had appeared in the meantime. I stomped them and turhem into crystals. There were thirteen cats, and he assured me there were no more. By my estimate, we pyed for about seven hours, meaning the core created a monster about every half hour.

  This gave me an idea: I waress my loot spell, and here, I had a stant and stable supply of monsters. It would be a shame to waste these perfect ditions.

  In the m, Al informed us both, “I wish to return to Earth for a few days. I have identified a few additional items I require, and I do not wish to squahe opportunity of accessing a teological world that I am familiar with and know how to navigate.”

  “But a few days oh would be a few months here. I don’t think we have enough to do to stay a few months in this valley,” I said, frowning.

  “You cross the mountains and travel the rest of the isnd,” Al suggested, gesturing toward the distant peaks. “I have a means to cross the mountains. However, if you sail to the main ti, you may have to return to retrieve me if I am uo find a way to cross the sea.”

  Mahya crossed her arms and looked at him skeptically. “Are you sure you hese things? ’t you do without them?”

  “I do require them,” Al insisted, shaking his head. “While I mahout them as I did prior to my arrival oh, I see no reason to do so.”

  Curious, I asked, “What do you even need?”

  “Test tubes, vials of various sizes, particurly those with droppers,” Al listed, ting off on his fingers. “These are exceptional iions, and I wish to procure a greater supply. Graduated ders, watch gsses, and Erlenmeyer fsks are also necessary. Additionally, I require a rger stock of distilled alcohol and distilled water, or perhaps some water distillers, so your house produe that operates on mana.”

  He looked at us expetly, awaiting our response.

  “Didn’t you buy a long shopping list of all those things?” Mahya asked.

  “I did indeed. heless, upon eng the brewing process, I came to realize that certain items were less advantageous, whereas others surpassed my expectations. I io secure a rger supply of the beneficial items.”

  I thought momentarily and said, “Yeah, I uand that.” Turning to Mahya, I added, “I want to use the vent with the core to advance my loot spell, and you wao finish work on at least oorcycle, preferably more. So, how about this: I’ll work on my spell, and you’ll work oorcycles and the boat. If I finish before you, I’ll join you, and we’ll plete these projects together. If Al doesn’t return by then, you still have your phone. We’ll store the house, and the three of us will cross over to Earth, call him, and find out how long it will take. If it’s a brief wait, we’ll have a piiear the Gate; if it’s longer, we’ll stay a night or two in Calgary. What do you think?”

  Mahya still looked hesitant.

  I told her telepathically, “I don’t want to refuse Al. He atient and helped us when we hings for the house. It wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t sider his needs.”

  Mahya nodded slightly and said, “Sounds good to me. How many days do you think you need oh?”

  “I am uain. It depends oher I find everything in Calgary or must pce orders through Amazon and await deliveries.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Anyway, we’re not crossing the mountains without you. Either you e back before we’re done, or we’ll cross to Earth and wait for you.”

  Al gave a huge smile and said, “Thank you very much. I genuinely appreciate it.”

  After Al left, I walked toward the core to work on my spell. For the first few hours, I didn’t try anything. I only waited for a moo spawn, killed it, and tur into a crystal. I scrutinized each step of the process carefully to uand the aspects I would need for the spell.

  After a few hours, I felt I kly what was required. I already uood the purification aspect well from the aluminum blobs I had made before, so I didn’t o focus on that. What I was missihe aspects that made up the spell, as well as the aspects of ‘envelope with mana,’ ‘squeeze,’ and ‘shrink.’ I thought I might also need an aspect or aspects to prevent the mana from esg, but I wasn’t sure sihe mesh shell of the spell might hahat.

  For three days, I worked on those aspects, occasionally killing monsters. My focus was intense as I experimented, watg every detail closely. After those three days, I had the ‘squeeze’ down pat, but the spell was impossible. It was posed of so many aspects, all woven together, and I couldn’t “un-weave” them. The ‘shrink’ was also giving me problems, si o be a gradual progression. I again and again at each stage. But if I yered the mana ihe mesh with it, I didn’t have enough space for the other aspects.

  After spending awo days trying to solve this drum, I had to admit defeat and think of another approach. Frustrated, I took a day off to clear my mind. Rue and I spent the whole day pying, this time without the wind. We raced around the valley, swam in the big ke, roughhoused, and had a lot of fun. His joyful barking and our pyful iions helped lift my spirits.

  The following day, I returo the core with renewed determination. I spent the whole day he core, killing monsters occasionally and thinking of a solution.

  Mahya came over, her hands on her hips, watg me for a moment before asking, “Do you think you create a magic circle with magic script that will work on a sphere-shaped surface?”

  “Maybe?” I replied, scratg my head. “I’ve ried.”

  “Please try.”

  “What kind of magic circle do you need?”

  “To absorb ambient mana,” she expined, showing me a rough sketch of her idea. “I created three different circles with runes, and they wreat, but only on a ft or semi-ft surface. The minute I apply them to a sphere-shaped surface, the whole thing colpses.”

  I nodded, studying her sketch. “I’ll give it a shot and see what I do.”

  To practice, I walked around the valley and collected stones with a more or less spherical shape. I took some part and drew the initial circle. It didn’t take me long to uand why Mahya had a problem. I pyed around with a few ideas, but no matter what I did, I ran into the same issue. On a ft or semi-ft surface, everything worked fihe sphere shape roblem. Another puzzle. On the one hand, these puzzles were iing. It was b when the solution came to me too easily. But oher hand, it was very frustrating.

  This puzzle took me awo days, but I cracked it. I used the magic script to create the circle, and incorporated engineering runes—Rey, Transfer, ect, sistency, and tinuity—pced at precise intervals to overe the spherical issue. Additionally, I ied runes for Adaptability, Stabilize, vergence, Harmony, and Iion to further refihe circle’s effectiveness. Fortunately, the sed batch of runes only o be pced on the circle, not at intervals. The stone I practiced on hummed with the mana it absorbed, and I felt like a genius.

  When I showed Mahya the circle and the stone, she jumped on me, hugged me, kissed my forehead, and agreed that I was a genius. It was very nice.

  I was about to go back to the core, but she stopped me and asked, “Do you know the aspect of heat?”

  “Not yet. But I have the Heat spell, so I’m pretty sure I learn it.”

  “Excellent,” she said, handihe twe crystals we collected in the dungeon from the fluardians. “I need you to aspee crystal to wind and the other to heat.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Why do you hem?”

  “Project.”

  “I figured, but roject?”

  “For now, it’s a secret,” she replied, her smile widening as she turned away.

  I shook my head and sighed helplessly ao learn the heat aspect. The heat aspect was very simple. I thought maybe it was because I already khe aspect of fire, a was a derivative. I gave the crystals baahya a back to the core.

  The magic circle I created for her got me thinking. Maybe instead of building yers of aspects ihe mesh, I could build the magic circle ihe mesh. Of course, I would have to i it. I built the circle for a spherical shape outside the sphere, not i. But I didn’t expect the process to be too plicated. The question was whether it was even possible to build a spell in this way. All the books I’ve read so far on magisist that you only build spells with aspects. When I thought about it, it made little sense. Magic script was so versatile and adaptable that it made little sehat it couldn’t be used to build spells. Either way, if I wao build a spell with magic script, I was definitely missing some symbols.

  Mahya came ain, her brow furrowed. “You built a magic circle with runes and a magic script.”

  “Yes...” I replied, unsure of where this was going.

  “Runes of engineering,” she crified.

  “Yes...” I repeated, waiting for her to get to the point.

  “Why?”

  “Because it solved the problem of the spherical shape,” I expined.

  “Engineering runes?” she asked, incredulous.

  “Yes, why not?” I shrugged.

  “You ’t build magic circles bined of runes and a magic script. Everyone knows that.”

  “Who is everyone?”

  “Anyone who works with rituals,” she insisted.

  “If you say so...” I muttered.

  “I’m serious. What made you build it like that?” she pressed.

  “I told you. It solved the spherical shape problem,” I repeated patiently.

  “But it won’t work,” she argued.

  “Where is the stone I gave you?” I asked, holding out my hand.

  She took it out of her Ste.

  “Look at the stoell me, is the circle stable?” I asked, watg her closely.

  She nodded.

  “Feel the mana ione. Do you feel it?”

  “Yes, but you keep messing with rocks. We have a basket of stone balls on the breakfast bar,” she pointed out.

  “I didn’t do anything to the stone, except engrave the circle on it. All the mana you feel ione is mana that the circle absorbed from the enviro,” I expined, my tone growing more fident.

  Her eyes widewice as wide as she looked at the stone again, then back at me. “Seriously?”

  “Yes,” I nodded.

  “Are you sure?” she asked, still in disbelief.

  I gave her a look, my patience wearing thin.

  “Okay, okay. You’re sure,” she ceded, finally accepting the truth. “But I’m not sure I’ll be able to engrave the circle on the crystals. you do it?”

  “Sure.”

  She handed me the two crystals back, and I engraved the circle on them. It took a while; the circle was plex and required precision. As I worked, I heard Mahya ughing. I looked up, a questioning look on my face.

  She shook her head, still ughing. After a few seds, she asked, “Did you eveer the fact that you stomped on the new monster and verted it to a crystal without lifting your foot from it?”

  “Oh, that,” I replied, gng down at my foot. “Yeah, I’ve do so many times i week and a half that I don’t o stop what I’m doing to hahe monsters. It’s muscle memory by now.”

  She ughed even harder, clearly amused by the situation, while I returo engraving the intricate circle on the crystals. It took me about two hours, but I was done and gave her the crystals back. I also picked up the five crystals that accumuted on the ground. Seeing this, Mahya ughed again a back to the house. I tinued w on my loot spell.

  It took me a few more days—I’m irely sure how many—as I was too engrossed in studying. I worked through two more books of magic script until I felt I had all the necessary symbols.

  I didn’t even try to draw the circle, but immediately built it from mana. I structed the outer mesh orb, making it quite rge from the beginning to give myself more room to work, and then built the reverse circle ihe mesh.

  Another unknown number of days passed—it’s embarrassing to admit, but when I get engrossed in something, I lose all track of time. I didn’t even bother taking breaks to cook, just ate whatever I had stashed in my Ste and gave the same to Rue. He checked in on me a few times, licked my face when he saw I was busy, and returo doing his own thing.

  I entered several obstacles, including three exploding mesh orbs, a couple of unraveling magic circles, and a few other mishaps. But finally, the spell—or at least the potential spell—was ready.

  I checked it over and over to make sure everything was fine, and everything seemed stable. I closed the mesh and poured mana into it. The ball disappeared, and my red light began to blink. I kept my fingers crossed, hoping food news.

  gratutions!

  Hark, intrepid Wizard! The are forces have boro your unparalleled iy and unyielding perseverance. Your hand inscribed a neter in the annals of magic. You have fed a spell never before seen in the realms of existeestament to your brilliand mastery over the mystic arts.

  By the a aernal decree, your feat shall not go unrewarded. You are hereby bestowed with +1 to all stats, a mark of honor, and reition of your exceptional skill and dedication. The ethereal energies themselves bend to your will, aowledging your creation.

  Now, noble Wizard, the final rite remains. This groundbreaking spell, a bea of yacy, awaits its christening. What shall you his wondrous juration that shall echh the ages?

  Ehe name of your spell: [________________]

  Stand tall, for you have asded to a new echelon of magical prowess. The os reveres your name, and the elements bow to your and.

  Well, it was quite something. For a mihere, I thought the system was cursing me, so I had to look up the word Hark in the diary.

  Hark: derived from Middle English herken, used as an order to tell somebody to listen.