Excitedly, I watched the blue glowing portal on the top of the tower. It worked again, instead of a lengthy and dangerous march through the unknown mountains, I could travel through the portal in seconds. Of course, it wasn’t quite that simple. First, it was unclear whether the fire salamanders would even let me back into the tower. And even if I did reach the portal, where would it take me? I had no idea how to navigate a portal, and if I just went in, I’d probably come out at the last destination that was set, putting me directly into the hands of the expedition leader. I didn’t feel like doing that, plus I didn’t want to rush into another portal that would take me into the unknown.
Still, I would rather use the portal than spend days or weeks wandering through the wilderness. Then I remembered the book on dimensional magic that was waiting in the storage ring for an interested reader. Perhaps I could learn more about portals from it? I exchanged the telescope for the book and began to read.
From the point of view of modern earthly physics, the book seemed rather backward. After all, the ancient magicians were aware of the existence of other dimensions and they had also found ways to access them, even if their research was more empirical than theoretical. Since I was just looking for an instruction manual for portals, I preferred this approach to pages full of formulas.
According to the book’s title, the focus was on the possibilities and limits of dimensional magic. Well, what could I say? The possibilities were really impressive, from portals between worlds to private dimensions of gigantic proportions, my storage ring being only a modest example. There were also limits. To open a portal specifically to a place, you had to have been there and be able to imagine it in detail. In addition, there had to be a source of magic at the destination, otherwise the energy requirement increased exponentially with distance and quickly overtaxed the strongest mages. After a portal connection was established, it could be anchored (whatever that meant), which made it much easier to reestablish.
Portals to unknown places and other worlds could only be opened blindly, it consumed vast amounts of mana and carried high risks. In the book, it was compared to casting a fishing line into an ocean full of sharks. There was a chance to catch a tuna, but often there was a shark on the hook, which could make short work of the angler.
Well, since the portal was working again, I could theoretically set it to another destination, a place I knew and where there was a source of magic. In itself, there was only one place that met these requirements, so the choice was not difficult. Unfortunately, the book did not say how exactly this setting was made, I could only hope to find out experimentally. But for that, I had to reach the portal first.
Determined, I got up and packed the book back into the storage ring, along with the chairs. I wanted to use the rest of the day to get back into the tower and to the portal.
At that moment, Qu Ji stepped in front of me. He had made himself ready for battle, he wore intact leather armor again and on his back three spears were sticking up into the air. Next to him on the ground was a packed knapsack with a bedroll attached to the top. Apparently, he intended to accompany me.
Only a few hours ago, he stood here with twenty of his comrades, all of whom were now dead. Didn’t he mind? I looked scrutinizingly into his bruised but otherwise motionless face. He stared back. Did he want something from me? I remembered how the uniformed men in the formation lit up in Magic Sight several times before they went on their way. Was Qu Ji expecting me to cast a spell on him?
I activated Magic Sight and noticed a faint purple glow on his chest, otherwise there were no abnormalities. I pointed my finger at it and made a questioning face. After a few seconds he seemed to understand, briskly he took off the leather armor again and unbuttoned the top of his uniform. A complex pattern was tattooed on his chest, in the heart area were three unknown magic symbols arranged in a circle. When Qu Ji realized that I couldn’t figure it out, he started a pantomime.
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He tried to lift his satchel, pretending that it was incredibly heavy. Then he tapped one of the magic signs on his chest and lifted the satchel with ease. Good, that had to be the symbol for strength. I nodded in affirmation. Qu Ji put the satchel down again, then took a few steps, walking exaggeratedly slowly. After tapping the next symbol, he jogged on. All right, that was speed. I nodded again. He stopped and indicated a fist blow to his head, which sent him to the ground. Then he stood up, pointed to the third sign, and repeated the punch, which now had no effect. Hmm, was that... protection? I looked in my symbol library and the three characters were listed there in grayed out form, so I had understood their meaning correctly. I colored the new symbols purple and then cast them on Qu Ji. His tattoo lit up every time one of the symbols was filled with mana, which looked cool, but also kind of creepy.
When I was done, the man bowed again, buttoned up his uniform, and put his leather armor back on. I looked at my mana supply, each of the buffs had used ten mana. After a moment’s consideration, I cast Strength on myself, followed by Speed. I felt much more energetic and full of drive afterwards. To test it, I ran once from one end of the camp to the other; running didn’t strain me at all, even though I was very fast. I liked that!
How good was the protection spell? I cast it on myself and then took a glowing coal from the fireplace with my bare hand. I could still feel the heat, but it didn’t burn my skin. I got an idea and cast the symbols of fire and protection as a combination on my hand. After that, the coal didn’t even feel hot and even when I blew on it, causing small flames, I only felt a slight warmth. So you could specifically protect yourself against elements, that was valuable information.
Satisfied, I looked around. Even though Qu Ji seemed to be ready to leave, I was far from it. There was still plenty of room in my storage ring, and I didn’t want to take on any more hardships on my travels than absolutely necessary. So I jogged to the storage tent (running was really fun!) and packed all the food I found there into my ring, followed by various cooking utensils and dishes. Thoughtfully, I looked at the tent. What if it rained on the way? Two people fit well in such a tent and even three in case of need. I looked at Qu Ji, who had followed me, and gestured for him to take down the tent. My pantomime was certainly not as good as his, but he understood me and collapsed the tent with practiced movements, then folded it into a compact bundle, which I also stowed in the ring. From another tent, I took two more bedrolls.
Now that there was nothing useful left in the camp, I was ready to go. I remembered the direction in which the tower lay and marched off. Qu Ji accompanied me and soon we left the open area and entered the forest.
In the forest, he took the lead and silently moved a few steps ahead of me, I could tell by his head movements that he was carefully observing the surroundings. I had also activated Magic Sight and was watching for magical dangers. However, there were none to be seen and no other enemies were attacking us. Qu Ji seemed to be orienting himself very well and soon I could see the tower through the trees directly in front of us. Just before we reached the edge of the forest, Qu Ji turned right and led me about a hundred meters in that direction until he stopped in front of a large dead tree. At the base of the tree, an intense red glow indicated the presence of magical objects.
Qu Ji placed his knapsack on the ground, pulled one of his spears from his back, and with a few movements of the spearhead, uncovered a depression in the ground, then stepped aside and bowed once again. Curious, I knelt down and looked at the contents of his hiding place.
The first thing I noticed was the fist-sized magic core from which the intense red glow came. Next to it were two stacks of hexagonal black plates, varying slightly in diameter but averaging about eight inches, for a total of two dozen. They also exhibited fire magic, although the glow here was much fainter. And then there was a cluster of large... claws? That’s when a light came on. Qu Ji must have dissected the dead fire salamander. Apparently, he knew what was useful or valuable from it, or at least suspected he did. The claws weren’t magical, but maybe there was a use for them anyway? Either way, it was his prey.
I rose again, pointing to the stuff on the floor and then to Qu Ji, “This is yours, buddy. I had nothing to do with the salamander’s death.”
He shook his head, also pointing at the stuff and then at me. I shrugged. “If you insist, I’ll be happy to keep them in my storage ring for you, but you’ll get them back as soon as you want them.” As the items disappeared into my ring, Qu Ji bowed slightly again, turned around, and led me back to the patch of woods closest to the tower.