After closing the house in the m, I couldn’t store the core. I tried again and again without success.

  Bummer.

  I was worried this would happen because I had live people “at home,” but I hoped I was wrong.

  Looking up at the sky, I told the system, “As a level ten ability, I want the ability to store living things in my Ste.”

  There was no response, but I hoped it would eventually happen if I kept saying it.

  I told the core, “Disguise yourself as a sturdy backpack.”

  A nice browher backpack grew around the core, with shoulder straps and a strap around my waist. I put it on, and it was very fortable. Good enough.

  We got ba the road, and I tio drive. After forty minutes, we reached the own. What I loved about Lumis was that the towns and cities differed from each other. In Shimoor, the towns looked like carbon copies of each other, and the cities were very simir. Here, each town or city had its own character.

  We arrived in a town lined with rows of stone houses, standing like soldiers with perfectly straight alig and streets betweehe sight of the houses, made entirely of stone, including roofs covered with thin stone sbs that resembled tiles without a pattern, surprised me. When I asked for the town’s all made sense—Ruchur’s Quarry. No wonder everything was built of stone.

  My ATV caused an uproar, and half the town gathered, shouting questions at me.

  “Where did you get that carriage?”

  “Where I find such a carriage?”

  “How much does a carriage like this cost?”

  And more and more questions. I realized I couldn’t trade here—nothing ied them except my ATV. After a quarter of an hour of incessant questions, and my only question receiving an answer was the town’s name, we tio drive. I had no patience for all those questions. The residents weren’t happy that I ighem, and some even cursed me. Two teehrew stones after me.

  Assholes.

  All the hubbub about my transportation got me thinking. How did the assassination squad reach the ambush site? And it was an assassination squad—they didn’t try to catch me. They aimed straight for my head. That thought made me pull a U-turn and head in the opposite dire.

  I blew through the town again and headed to the ambush site. Whe close, the sound of axes reached me, so I stored the ATV. Rue and I turned invisible and approached on foot. Oher side of the tree, teams of people were swinging axes, chopping away at it.

  I stood, thinking about how to locate their equipment. There was no way they had arrived on foot and brought nothing with them. We went into the trees and wandered around for at least an hour without success.

  “What John looking for?” Rue asked, tilting his head.

  “Their camp or something,” I replied.

  “John silly! Tell Rue what you look for.” He stuck his nose in the air, sniffed, and said, “Follow Rue.”

  After ten minutes of fighting with the underbrush, Rue led us to a trail wide enough for a cart, but only that. After another five minutes of walking, we arrived at a cleario the trail with horses, carts, and two guards. Unsure if they were ected to our attackers, I quietly approached and eavesdropped on them. For over an hour, they rambled about uhings like girls and food, but finally, one said, “We o get the gear ready to move. Lord Damarion said to wait only one day.”

  As far as I was ed, that was enough. I hit them both with a weak lightning bolt, knog them unscious, pced the core on the ground, and ordered it to open the house. Fog with my senses, I felt my uests. They were talking among themselves. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they were awake. This roblem. If I opehe door, I’d have to shoot them with lightning again, and I wasn’t keen on that.

  I thought about it for a moment and came up with an idea. I went up to the sed floor, to my bedroom, and ordered the core, “Open a chute at an ao the room with the prisoners.”

  The chute appeared, and I sensed one of them approag and stig his head in. That was a mistake. Two seds ter, one of his “buddies” collided with him, throwing him back, and fell on top of him. At least he cushiohe fall of his first friend and, a few seds ter, the sed one as well.

  To prevent them from starving, I searched through my Ste, found some less iing takeaways, pced them on the floor, and instructed the core to move them to the prisoners’ room. I monitored with my senses a when the food appeared on the floor he toilet.

  I dare Mahya and Al to tell me the core isn’t se. It told them exactly what it thought of them!

  After taking care of the guards, I turo check the rest of the loot. There were twenty-one horses, two carts, and two wagons. One cart tained only barrels and the horses’ tack. When I examihe barrels, I found that ten tained water, and four had food for the horses.

  The sed cart tained spare ons and armor, folded tents, bs, and wooden crates with metal boxes. When I opehe first box, I discovered a meat stew with vegetables ihe stew was still hot.

  Hmm, iing.

  I examihe box with my senses a nothing. There was no spell on it, and when I exami from all sides, there were no runes or anything else. I checked another box a a spell on it. As soon as I opehe box, the spell dissipated. I examihe third box, fog on the spell itself. There were familiar parts—I had felt them in the Restore spell—so I guessed it had to do with time, but I couldn’t make sense of it. This aspect was fusing and strahe feeling I got from it was of “nothing” or “ent,” yet there was “movement” in it, or perhaps “motion” was the better word. The “nothing” was also a cept—there was something there, but it felt like “nothing.” fusing and unclear. I put it aside to examier.

  Meanwhile, Rue ate the stew from the metal boxes I opened, huffed, and said, “John cook better.”

  I ughed and replied, “Thanks, buddy. We’ll keep those boxes to feed our prisoners.”

  The wagons were more iing. The first wagon was retively narrow. Inside was a narrow bed with drawers underh and a straw mattress. The drawers held only clothes and some ons. In front of the bed was a table attached to the opposite wall, with a chair and some papers oable. The top page was a drawing of my face.

  I checked the desk drawers and found only papers. I skimmed through them but found nothing iing—just shift times, sary details, and other dots reted to the ma of the guards who attacked me. And they were indeed Lord Damarion’s guards.

  The sary breakdown made me think—if there’s a sary breakdown, where’s the money? I searched the whole wagon and found nothing. Besides the bed and table, there was a barrel of water, another crate of food, and another crate with camping equipment.

  The sed wagon was much wider, with two beds oher side, both with feather mattresses instead of straw. There were drawers uhese beds as well, but they only held clothes—more luxurious than iher wagon.

  This one beloo mages?

  Besides the beds, there were two boxes with higher-quality camping gear, a water barrel, and another crate with food boxes. Both wagons got a thh search, even using Luck to hunt for valuables, but nothing turned up.

  Given that they surely brought money or other valuables, I wondered where it could be. I facepalmed. Before, I didn’t examihe bodies I stored. Looting corpses didn’t sit well with me. As Al kept saying, “It would be undignified.”

  I told the core, “Open the deck.”

  When the deck en, I pced all the bodies on it and told it, “Absorb everything and theurn all their stuff.”

  I got back a rge pile of clothes, armor, boots, and several pouches of money. After ting the mohe total was fold and thirty-one silver, in silver and copper s. Besides that, I got fs. Three were gold, and one was bck, like obsidian, but ly. I told the core to absorb everything except the money and rings.

  I identified the bck ring:

  Manawell BandImproves regeion by twenty pert and reduces the cost of spells by twenty pert.

  Not bad.

  The other rings looked like pin gold bands, simir to wedding bands from Earth, but when sed with mana sehey were clearly not ordinary. In fact, they were bursting with mana.

  I identified them. Two were:

  Small Void BandStores items in a total volume of one cubic Migur (1.36 cubic meters).

  The third was:

  Medium Void BandStores items in a total volume of three cubic Migur (4.08 square meters).

  Nice!

  I tried to look ihe rings, but no luck. I remembered that in a book I read, the MC smeared blood on the ring to bind it. So, I pricked my finger, smeared some blood on the ring, and tried to look inside again. Nothing.

  Hmm, annoying!

  I tried flowing mana into the ring—still nothing.

  How the hell do you operate this thing?

  Maybe Appraisal has the answer?

  Small Void BandValue: 100 gold

  I grumbled to the ability, “That doesn’t help me!”

  Rue sat there, head tilted, watg me.

  “Do you know how to turn it on?” I asked him.

  He blinked a few times, looking fused. For a moment, I thought I’d broken my dog. After ten seds, he shook his head.

  I sighed deeply.

  What else could it be? Blood didn’t work, mana didn’t work… maybe spit? It made no sense, but it was worth a shot.

  Of course, that didn’t work either. Luckily, the ring wasn’t se, or it would’ve ughed at me. I scratched my head, trying to figure it out. I remembered Lord Damarion giving his guard a ring like this before I made my deal with Adi. He put the ring on without prig himself or eling mana.

  Worth a try. I slid the ring on a a small pri the inside. Suddenly, a new awareness appeared in my mind. I couldn’t immediately see what was ihe ring, but knew I could look.

  The first small ring tained:

  A small pouch taining herbs, silver powder, and mana crystals.One folded set of ented robes to protect from heat or cold.A slim leather-bound book that burned in my hands when I tried to open it.2 Health Potions and 5 Mana Potions.A Pouch: 25 silver s and 10 gold s.When I put on the sed ring, nothing happened. It took me a while, but I figured I had to take off oo put oher.

  The sed small ring tained:

  A pact, leather-bound spell book with notes on basitments and elemental spells. Unfortunately, nothing iing, just notes about aspects.A pouch with mana crystals.A lightweight traveling cloak with minical resistance.A small bag taining dried medial herbs.A short wooden wand with basitments for amplification.3 Health Potions and 3 Mana Potions.A Pouch: 15 silver s and 8 gold s.The big ring tained:

  Armor Pieces: A spare pair of gaus and greaves, crafted from light steel.A longsword with minor entments for durability.A small leather journal with notes on guard schedules and orders from Lord Damarion. The orders were, “Kill that bastard and capture his wolf for me.”A bedroll, a small tent, and a basic flint-and-steel kit.Two heavy pouches: Oh 97 gold s and the other with 450 silver s.Three metal food boxes.A tube taining maps of the surrounding region.It was nothiing but a niough pensation for my wounds during the battle.

  I didn’t feel like messing with the carts and wagons. I stored everything from them, then pushed them onto the ded told the core to absorb them. While I was doing this, an idea came to me. Ohe core finished, I said, “Disguise yourself as a wagon. Create all the normal spaces inside.”

  The house folded into the core, and three mier, a wagon that looked just like the mages’ wagon stood in its pce.

  Yes!

  It took me almost an hour to figure out how to ect the horses to the wagon, but in the end, I got it. After attag the wagon, I put the bridles and reins on the horses. At least I knew how to do that from our riding lessons oh. The setup here was slightly different, but simir enough not to be a problem.

  I asked Rue, “What do you think, buddy? We have two options: keep riding the ATV and store it before every town we e to, then tinue on foot. o with this wagon and horses, but we’ll have all the forts of home everywhere.”

  Rue looked at the horses and said, “Horses slow.”

  “Yeah, it’ll be slower. But oher hand, you’ll be able to watch TV while traveliween towns.”

  He cocked his head to the side, thinking for a few mihen he said, “Horses. If Rue not like slow, sell horses.”

  “Yes, boss!” I said with a salute, and Rue rolled his eyes at me.

  I tied the horses to the back of the wagon, Rue went to sleep on his beanbag in the living room, and I led the horses along the trail until we ected to the main road. Just before reag the main road, I ordered the core to ge the wagon’s appearand adjusted my gmour.

  Wheuro the town, I sold five horses, and we tinued on our way. I didn’t want to stop there long, remembering the stohey threw at me. After leaving town, I whipped the reins to see eed we could reach. It was definitely slower thaV. The ATV easily hit 45 km/h, while the horses only managed about 15 km/h. I suspected Rue would want us to sell the horses after a town or two.

  Oh well, we’ll cross that bridge when we e to it.