After three days, I flew to the ge again to che our barbarians. They were still there, and they seemed less frozen. They had set up camp fifty meters from the dungeon, where the ge was narrower, and lit a fire across the passage. I couldn’t uand what they were still doing there. Were they pnning to wait until the dungeeed?

  My curiosity kept me h over them, waiting for an answer. It took more than half a day, but I finally got one.

  “I want to go home,” one flunky whined.

  Their leader, or at least who I thought was their leader, responded firmly, “No, we’re staying. There’s no way they’ve left the ge. They’re probably still inside, just invisible. The cold will flush them out.”

  The third one argued with him. “We’ve sed the ge several times and have seen no signs of fire. There’s no way they’re still here.”

  He tio insist, his voice growing more adamant. “I don’t care. I’m telling you, they’re still here.”

  The argument dragged on for more than an hour. Finally, in anger, he shouted, “Do what you want, but I’m staying.”

  The group fell silent while the fire crackled, and the icy wind whistled through the ge. I hovered over them for over an hour to see what they would do. But for now, they did nothing, so I went home. I was delighted with my spying mission because it reassured me they didn’t know about the valley and would not surprise us.

  Two days ter, I flew to the ge again to che their progress. This time, the leader was alone, looking even ahan before. A thought crossed my mind, and I facepalmed again. It had been quite a long time since I st did it, but retly, I was back to facepalming. I didn’t know what that said about me.

  I Identified him.

  Keroly DanranjAre Juggernaut level 28

  Twe sounded high, and it was w. After h over him for another half hour with nothing iing happening, I returned home.

  I reported my findings to Mahya and Al. “I learhat the leader is an Are Juggernaut at level 28.”

  Mahya waved her hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about his level. He has only one css, so his trait numbers e from just that one. Maybe Al and you have lower levels in individual csses, but you’re at his her level with multiple csses bined.”

  That was very reassuring, and I put him out of my mind for now.

  After four days, I checked on him again and found he had left. I flew from one end of the ge to the other to make sure he hadn’t just moved or was hiding, but couldn’t find him. He was gone. Apparently, the cold had driven him home. The valley experienced almost daily snowfall, and a thiket of snow twenty timeters or more covered most of it. The snow didn’t stay as long in the ge, melting soon after it fell. But because of the shape of the ge, there was an icy wind blowing through it all the time, making it even colder than outside.

  The two sckers I call my friends vinced me to tinue colleg crystals from the ge alone when it wasn’t snowing.

  “e on, John,” Al said, stretg his legs towards the firepce. “All you o do is fly, kill the monsters from above, and gather the crystals. With yhtning, you do it easily.”

  Mahya nodded in agreement, arranging the fluffy b on her legs. “Yeah, the cold forces us to wear thick clothes that restriovement. It makes it difficult for us to fight.”

  I narrowed my eyes at them. “You just want to stay cozy at home in front of the firepce, don’t you?”

  Al grinned sheepishly. “ you really fault us? It is really simple for you to defeat monsters from above while remaining unseen. Moreover, you are much more effective in doing it.”

  I sighed, knowing they had a point. “Fine. I’ll do it. But you two owe me.”

  Mahya ughed. “Deal! We’ll make you the best hot chocote every time you e back.”

  I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but smile. “Alright, alright. Just don’t get too fortable while I’m out there doing all the work.”

  Every few days, I did a “flight through” the ge, colleg crystals. Rue tio py with the wind in the air, and as long as he didn’t have to nd, he had no problem with the snow. When his mana was about to run out, he would e home and sit in front of the firep his beanbag, tent as could be.

  Mahya started studying meical engineering from Earth, Al tio tinker in his greenhouse, and I went back to school. While going through the books, I came across two that I could read the titles of, with o learn the nguage first. It surprised me for a moment, but then I remembered that while training my els in Faerie, I had learned book nguages as a way to spend mana, though I did nothing with them. I went through Lis’s entire library, collected all the books in nguages I knew, and sifted through them to find my subject.

  They all sounded iing, and I chose one book about elements and another by a seasoraveler discussing long-lived races. I remembered Lis had mentioned my father was from one of these races, so I decided to learn more about them.

  As I dove into the book, I discovered a wealth of fasatiails about various long-lived races from different worlds. These groups, despite their differences, shared some on traits because of their extended lifespans. One of the most intriguing aspects was their uake on age and maturity.

  For these long-lived races, youth rolonged phase of life. They sidered their young to be children until they were 100 years old. Imagine being a kid for aire tury! This extended childhood gave them plenty of time to learn, explore, and develop their skills without the rush to grow up. Their elders and unity nurtured them, ensuring a deep-rooted uanding of their heritage and traditions.

  Adolesce, too, stretched out until the age of 200. During these years, their mentors enced them to follow their passions, sharpealents, and explore their world. The Traveler shared stories of young individuals embarking on decades-long jouro discover neighb nds and cultures, gaining wisdom and experiehat would ter be their uhis extended adolesstilled patiend a long-term perspective, highly valued traits among these races.

  The book also explored the social structures aionships within these unities. Family bonds were incredibly strong, with multiple geions often living together and supp one another. Elders pyed a crucial role in guiding the younger members, sharing their vast knowledge, and ensuring that cultural practices tinued. Respect fe and experiened the foundation of their societies, and they frequently made decisions collectively, seeking input from the most seasoned members.

  Even though I was only half of an unknown long-lived race, with my mother being human, I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant for me. Did it mean I was a child until 50 and a teenager until 100? Just thinking about it made me shudder. Although I didn’t experiehe same hormonal chaos as the other teenagers around me in high school and college, the idea of being a chaotic, horny teenager until 100 was too scary to pte. I didn’t feel that youher. While I knew muy mental maturity came from my circumstances and history, I had lived most of my life as a grown man. I studied, I worked, I was married. Oher hand, I didn’t feel like a fifty-year-old man should. I felt more like a twenty-year-old guy, and even that was doubtful.

  This whole subject fused me terribly. Thinking again about being a tee 100, I shuddered in horror and put the book aside. Bottom li didn’t really matter what the retive age of my body was. I felt the way I did, and I had learo enjoy life. To me, that was the only thing that mattered.

  I moved to the other book—maybe it would suit me better.

  The book was much more iing. It had separate chapters on each major elemeh, fire, water, and wind—with specific exercises on how to develop the physical aal characteristics each element represents.

  For earth, the focus was on stability, patience, endurance, and resiliehere were physical exercises like weightlifting, rock climbing, and grounding teiques, where you stand barefoot on the earth to absorb its energy. Mentally, it enced mindfulness meditation and activities that promote steadfastness, like long-term projects or puzzles that require signifit time and effort. One exercise suggested visualizing yourself as a tree with deep roots, feeling the stability and strength of the earth flowing through you.

  Fire was all about passion, iy, energy, and transformation. To develop these traits physically, the book reended high-iy training, martial arts, and other activities that get the blood pumping and ignite your inner fire. Mentally, it enced embrag challenges, setting bold goals, and engaging iive and innovative activities. A specific exercise involved visualizing a fme within you, growing and spreading warmth and energy throughout your body, symbolizing the transformative power of fire.

  Water focused on adaptability, flexibility, persistence, and ess. Physically, it suggested swimming, slow and flowing martial arts, and activities that promote fluidity and a e with water. Mentally, it advised practig meditation, going with the flow in daily life, and engaging in activities that require adaptability and patience. One key exercise was to sit by a body of water, its movements, and mimig its flow in thought and a, cultivating a sense of inner pead persistence.

  Wind emphasized freedom, uability, adaptability, and quick-wittedness. Physically, it reended activities like running, parkour, and other sports that require agility and quick reflexes. Mentally, it suggested embrag spoy, practig improvisation, and engaging in activities that stimute quick thinking and adaptability. One exercise involved feeling the wind against your skin and imagining being oh it, embrag its free-spirited and ever-ging nature.

  The book also covered sedary elements derived from the primary ones, just like I had already discovered that lightning was a derivative of the wind. It expihat only after mastering the major element could you develop the sedary element.

  The book id out the path to true elemental mastery by mastering the primary elements and their associated qualities, and then building upoo explore sedary elements. This book provided a prehensive guide to deepen the e with the elements and harheir full potential. It was a real eye-opener and gave me a lot to think about and work on.

  It also thrilled me to discover that, despite the usual flowery and plicated nguage like all the ic books I’ve read, I had less trouble reading and progressing through the book. I still had to re-read each page a couple of times to uand it, and had to untangle plicated sentehat were five lines long, but it was easier. Before, I had to re-read each paragraph five times. After thinking about it, I cluded that this was the effey intelligeribute. It turned out it had an effect beyond increasing my Ste without a headache.

  In the past, I had already noticed that after raising this stat; I learned magic script symbols much more easily and ier numbers. But I didn’t think about what that meant beyond that. Now that I stopped to think about it, it was so obvious I had to facepalm. When I wrote all my memories of my journey from the moment I discovered the Gate, I recalled exact details of events that happe years ago, as if they had occurred the day before. That wouldn’t make sense for an ordinary person. Of course, my intelligenfluenced and made it possible.

  And now, this ease of learning only made it clearer. I was thrilled. It turned out that stats weren’t just for show but had a crete effe the real world.

  After two more weeks of steadily dropping temperatures, Al finally felt satisfied with the thiess of the i the ke. He asked me to ask my “friend” to blow all the snow off the ke to expose the ice. She cooperated easily, and within a few minutes, we had an ice arena.

  We put on ice skates, and Mahya and Al started skating on the ke. Al looked like a professional figure skater, and Mahya caught on within minutes, even adding jumps. Unlike normal skaters, her jumps were a good few meters high.

  At first, I was hesitant to get on the ice. Twice before, I had gone ice skating, and on both occasions, my wife had held my hands so I could move forward, teasing me for being so bad. I didn’t want Mahya and Al to ugh at me either, but it turns out I worried for nothing. Within a minute or two, I found my band started moving forward on the ice. After another minute, I could skate fast, take turns, and even skate backward.

  I started skating fast and ughing out loud. It was such a liberating and amazing feeling. I threw my hands to the sides and spun around on the ice, ughing and enjoying every moment. It was amazing.

  Rue, ever curious and full of energy, watched us with wide, eager eyes as we glided across the ice. His tail wagged furiously, and he barked excitedly, clearly wanting to join in on the fun.

  “Do you want to try skating, Rue?” I called out, amused by his enthusiasm.

  “Rue try skate!” he unicated, trotting onto the ice.

  His paws skittered across the slick surface like he was trying to run in five dires at once, eae heading on its own chaotic mission. He gnced over at us, eyes wide, trying to imitate our careful steps, but his legs shot out sideways with a mind of their own. At one point, he looked like a marioe in the hands of a hyperactive toddler—paws filing in all dires while his body teetered dangerously close to the ground. But the determination in his expression never wavered, as if he believed that somehow, sheer willpower would magically turn him into a graceful skater. Spoiler: it didn’t.

  I couldn’t help but ugh at the sight of him struggling so adorably. “Hold on, buddy. Let’s get you some prear,” I said, hugging him around his body and pushing him off the ice.

  Al gave me 2 pairs of small skates, and I carefully strapped them onto Rue’s paws. He wobbled as he stood up, looking down at his newly adorned feet with a mix of fusion aement.

  “Rue ready,” he said, his voice filled with determination.

  “Alright, buddy. Let’s give this ano,” I enced him, gently pushing him ba the ice.

  Rue took a hesitant step, the skates on his paws giving him an air of awkward fidence. His legs wobbled like jelly, and though he found a momentary bit of ba was short-lived. With fs to keep track of, coordination seemed like a distant dream. His back legs suddenly shot out in opposite dires, as if they had agreed to betray him. In an instant, his whole body followed, leaving him sprawled out in a dramatic, starfish-like pose on the ice. Through our bond, I got a feeling from him that was one part fusion, two parts betrayal, and a sprinkle of indignation. If dogs could mutter uheir breath, Rue would’ve had a few choice words for those skates.

  “Legs bad. Rue fall,” he sounded betrayed.

  I crouched down beside him, grabbing hold of his colr to steady him. “Alright, buddy, let’s take it slow,” I said, trying not to ugh as his paws slid out again in every dire. With my hands on his bad a gentle push, we started with baby steps—or, in his case, baby slides. Every few seds, I’d have to grab him before he did another split or fated into the ice. “e on, Rue, just follow me. Fs ’t be that much harder than twht?”

  At first, it was like trying to teach a horse to dan high heels. He’d take a step, only for one of his paws to zip out from under him, nearly pulling me down with him. But slowly, with a bit of guidand a lot of persistence, Rue got the hang of it. His legs stopped betraying him at every turn, and he skated—well, more like glide—across the ice.

  His movements grew more coordinated and trolled, though his body was still a little stiff, as if he was fog on every step like it was the most important thing in the world. His tongue lolled out of his mouth in that goofy, doggy grin, and his eyes sparkled with the kind of pure joy that only dogs and kids on sugar highs seem to achieve.

  “Rue skate! Rue good!” he barked proudly, and I couldn’t help but ugh. “Yeah, buddy, you’re a natural.”

  He let out a telepathic cheer, his tail wagging like a blur.

  “That’s it, Rue! You did it!” I ughed, joining him in a celebratory spin on the ice.

  “Rue skate master!”

  Together, we skated around the frozen ke, enjoying the liberating feeling of gliding on the ice.

  After two days, Al decided it was time for us to learn to py hockey. He showed up with a bag of sticks and a puck, a mischievous grin pstered on his face.

  “We are going to have some fun today,” Al annouossing me a stick. “Teams: Mahya and I against John and Rue.”

  Rue’s tail wagged excitedly. “Rue ready! Rue py hockey!”

  I could not help but smile at his enthusiasm. We took our positions on the ice, and the game began. Al quickly took trol of the puck, gliding gracefully across the ice, his movements fluid and precise. Mahya, true to her nature, added her own fir of jumpiers in the air and running oical surfaces, using the trees to navigate at impossible angles.

  “Hey! That’s not fair!” I shouted, watg in disbelief as Mahya zoomed past me, easily avoiding my attempts to block her.

  “All’s fair in hockey!” Mahya teased, her ughter eg through the air as she executed a perfect jump, nding gracefully and tinuing her advance.

  Rue, uerred by Mahya’s acrobatics, took a different approach. “Rue use stick!” he sent, activating his telekinesis. The stick floated in front of him, moving with surprising agility as he guided it with his mind. He intercepted the puck from Al a it flying towards me.

  I caught the puck with my stid tried to move it forward, but Al snatched it out of the air with telekinesis. “ry, John, but you will need more than that to get past me.”

  Because Mahya and Al were determio use every strategy they had, I evened out the petition. “Alright, Rue, it is time to fly.”

  Together, we zoomed above the ice, making it nearly impossible for Al and Mahya to keep up. Rue used his telekinesis to trol the stid the puck, while I provided aerial support, blog any attempts by Al tain trol.

  Not to be outdone, Mahya unched herself off a tree, s over our heads before nding gracefully on the ice. She intercepted a pass from Rue, defying gravity with a stunning mid-air twist. But with both of us flying, we outmaneuvered her, reg the puck.

  Al, notig our aerial advantage, decided to cheat more. His stick moved with a life of its own, guided by his telekinesis. He blocked our shots and made swift passes to Mahya, who used the trees to gain impossible angles, ung herself bato the ice with breathtaking precision.

  The game turned into a chaotice of abilities, with Al and Mahya using their unique skills to challenge us at every turn. Our flight proved to be a formidable on, allowing us to keep the pu stant motion and evade our oppos. We passed the puck bad forth, flying and weaving through the air, making it almost impossible for Al and Mahya to predict our move.

  Despite their best efforts, Al and Mahya could not keep up with our bined cheating tactics. Rue and I scoal after goal, the exhiration of the game and the thrill of our abilities merging into an unfettable experience.

  “Alright, alright, you win!” Al finally ceded, ughing as he leaned on his stick, out of breath. “The cheating was quite extreme, but I must fess, it was enjoyable.”

  Mahya nded gracefully beside him, shaking her head with a smile. “You’re impossible to keep up with when you’re flying.”

  Rue nded beside me, his tail wagging furiously. “Rue wins! Rue and John win!”

  I patted him on the back, grinning from ear to ear. “We sure did, buddy. We sure did.”

  We tio py “cheat hockey” every day or two, and Al and Mahya developed tactics to block us. After a couple of games, our ability in the game became quite banced. Losing wasn’t as fun as winning, but it definitely made the game more challenging and really improved my flying skills. I learned how to make sharp turns and pull off aerial acrobatics. Holy, I don’t think I would’ve gaihat level of trol in any other situation.

  I tio check the situation in the ge and collect crystals every few days. After about two months, I discovered the dungeon had finished regeing. We did another dungeon run, which was no more iing than the first, but we collected a lot of silver ore. During this run, I remembered something and asked Rue, “I remember iabs of Paris you had a problem and just wao get out of there. But now, I see that it doesn’t bother you. What ged?”

  “Rue is now smart!” he replied with a quick wag of his tail.

  On the sed dungeon run, we were taking a break after three days of mining on the sed floor, when aarted f in my head. I left the others and headed over to the spell room. Dumping the ores onto the floor with a ctter, I eyed the pile for a sed. “Alright, house,” I said, “absorb everything, but give me back the silver.”

  The ore disappeared into the floor and a mier, silver bars started popping out. Soon enough, the house lined up forty-one shiny silver bars, each with a 925 stamp right in the ter.

  I showed it to Mahya and asked, “Why do I have a stamp in the middle of the bar?”

  She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and said, “Because you’re the Dungeon Master.”

  The answer wasn’t very informative, but I uood what she meant. I also realized that she would op calling me clueless. Oh well, that was my lot in life.

  At least she and Al thought it was a smart idea and did the same.

  After we fihe run, we decided not to take the core yet, but to do one more run before the winter was over and then take it. To be safe, we exited the dungeon while invisible, but this time, there were no surprises outside.

  Between the hockey games, colleg crystals in the ge, ice skating for fun, and reading books by the firepce, I occasionally tio practid progress, but without iing too much time. I really internalized what Lis had tried to vey to me: I had all the time in the world, and there was o rush.

  I filled my stone balls with mana and began the exercise the dragon reeo Lis. Initially, the first stone was quite tough and needed stant attention, but once I “figured it out,” it became easier. The secret was to find your flow and execute it in a semi-automatiner as if it were muscle memory—only mana memory. The sed stone was much easier. By the time we were ready for our st dungeon run, I to three stohat I could spin around my head all day without a problem and without them breaking things—though it did happen once or twice, but nothing important.

  The snow turo rain, and the temperatures rose more each day. Although the trees were still mostly bare, I noticed the beginnings of vegetation here and there. Spring was ing, and it was time for us to leave the valley. While it was difficult to determine a duration without a dar or too much attention to the matter, I estimated we had been in the valley for about half ah year.

  We returo the ge o time and did one final dungeon run. Before taking the core, Al went outside to ehere weren’t three crocodiles with a toothache waiting for us. Everything was clear, and we colpsed the dungeon. Overall, it was worthwhile and iing. The only annoying part was that in the first ru substantial rewards, but iher two runs, we twice received silver pendants that offered a minor boost tical resistand slightly enhanana regeion.

  Silver Pendant of Resiliehis finely crafted silver pendant provides subtle yet valuable enhas to the wearer’s abilities. It offers a minor boost to magical resistance, helping to deflect harmful spells, and slightly enhances mana regeion, allowing for quicker recovery duriended magical use.

  Mahya and Rue used one pair of pendants because they he mana regeion, and decided to sell the other pair. Al and I just added our pendants to the “for sale” pile.

  After another week in the valley without a single crocodile showing up with a toothache—yes, I double-checked—we were finally ready to head out. We decided to use a balloon to reach Al’s s, but before we took off, I figured we needed a proper send-off. So, I put together a huge dinner, loaded with winter dishes to mark the end of the season and gear us up for the leg of the journey.

  Steaming ptes of roast venison, spiced root vegetable stew, and thick slices of herb-crusted bread covered the table. There were bowls of creamy mashed potatoes swimming in rich gravy, along with roasted winter squash drizzled in honey. I even threw in a ptter of crispy fried fish, caught from the ke, and a spiced apple tart to finish things off. It was a feast that was as much about celebrating as it was about fueling up for whatever craziness y ahead.