Even with Mike's new ability to transform, it took us another ten grueling days to reach Uldaman. However, the whole unwanted and unneeded adventure had a consolation prize: by the time we arrived, Mike had reached level five.

Though still a low level, the change in him was noticeable. He had shed some of his extra weight, and there was a new determination in his eyes. He had become proficient in fighting with a staff and could fend off a hog or a wild dog if push came to shove. Achieving this level of progress in just ten days was highly unusual, and I suspected the transformation ability was helping in ways I didn't yet understand.

As surprising as it might be, we ran into the Trewars again.

Despite their snail's pace with two oxen-pulled wagons, they had managed to keep up with us.

Emerging from the jungle, I was surprised to see them on the road. I thought their destination had been Guaranga, but as we sat by the evening fire, I learned otherwise. They were traveling through the land in search of the best place to spend the long winter, a place that promised the best survival chances. Guaranga didn’t fit the bill.

After we decided to go meet and greet them, it resulted in a bit of a cumbersome situation as Mike had to appear dressed in my bathrobe. I could not find anything else in my wardrobe that would fit him, except him wrapping himself in a blanket. Thankfully, Netor later provided him with a pair of trousers, a shirt, and a pair of shoes.

Mike rewarded them by recounting his fall from the zeppelin—what they call a flying ship—our fight with the avians, the sybrexes, and the struggle we endured until we reached the road, including the spider’s web he got caught in.

As they continued discussing our epic journey, I began nodding off, my head drooping from tiredness and my eyes closing involuntarily. I stood up, excused myself, and went to sleep in the tent. I left Mike with the Trewars, as their reunion seemed to have surprisingly energized him.

I don’t know if he finally told them about his transformation; he didn’t mention it during the story about the sybrexes. I wonder if he’ll keep it a secret from Elenia too. But it's his transformation, his secret, so it's up to him to decide when and to whom to reveal it.

Speaking of transformations, interestingly, in the morning I woke up in my lynx form and almost exited the tent like that. For a moment, panic surged through me as I realized Mike wasn't in the tent. But then I spotted him in my domain: he was already up, standing near a wagon where Tehia and Elenia were preparing breakfast.

After breakfast, we walked with the Trewars to the next village, chatting along the way. It was a relatively large village with over three hundred houses and even a post office. These post offices also functioned as subunits of the adventurers' guild, so the two of us headed there.

The post office clerk, a young girl of sixteen working part-time, was excited to meet us. She even offered us tea on the house while we browsed through the quest lists. Although we could buy messages to send, unfortunately, this post office was not linked to the overall adventurers' guild network due to its small size.

These small one-silver messages are, in fact, very complex spells introduced with the adventurers' guilds. Messaging existed before, but not in such a standardized and accessible way. Now, all you needed to do was register with the guild. Once registered, you could buy these message scrolls, write your message, and even opt for upgraded messages that could contain voice mail. Upon sending, the scroll would transform into a small magic bird that would attempt to reach its destination.

The logic is simple: the bird flies to where you 'think' the addressee is and searches the area. If it doesn't find them or starts approaching exhaustion, it heads to the nearest post office and registers there.

You can check any post office for your message, and the message will automatically find you through the internal network.

As we were both now penniless, our first priority was to earn some money. Then, we could write a message to Alice and, in the next bigger village, find a mailbox where we could check for any replies or messages from her.

I could have asked the Trewars to lend us some money—they might have agreed—but I didn't want to impose on them too much. They were careful with their finances, and who knows if we would meet again. They were heading to Uldaman now, but we would be leaving as soon as I got the nomination for my future fief.

Questing was a good and easy way to make money, especially with my level and our flying ability. Plus, we could use the earnings to pay back Netor for his clothes.

As I sifted through the list of quests, I took a sip from the teacup and casually asked Mike, "You didn't come to sleep in the tent last night..."

The clerk, who was about four meters away, suddenly seemed very engrossed in reading a book, while Mike's face turned red. I wondered why that was.

"Ahm... I thought it would be improper to sleep with you in the tent," he finally mumbled.

I raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"We already did that several times in the jungle, and you didn't seem to find it improper then," I pointed out.

He sighed, his cheeks turning an even deeper shade of red. "Well, theoretically, we took turns to stay on guard outside," he replied.

So that's what he told the Trewars? The idea of him guarding me from jungle beasts was laughable, but I kept a straight face. There was something more he wasn’t saying.

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“So, where did you sleep then?” I asked.

His answer came like a shot from a shotgun.

“I slept with the juniors in the open, between the wagons. The two families sleep in the wagons with the smaller kids, and the adults sleep by the fire in the open where one keeps watch. That's where I slept.”

“And did it just happen that Elenia slept there too?” I asked.

He looked alarmed as I brought it up. He sighed.

“True, but we didn’t do anything, I mean...”

His cheeks couldn’t get any redder. He took a deep breath, which seemed to stabilize and calm him.

“She was just there, near me, that’s all,” he said finally.

I watched him, half amused, half alarmed. He was clearly fond of her, and after our conversation in Guaranga, it was obvious Elenia was very fond of him too. This was probably the first "love at first sight" I'd ever witnessed. Was it really so? Did she have any interest in pushing this further? But she seemed genuine when we talked about him and his curse.

I sighed. Maybe if we hadn't met them again, it would have been just a random happening. But looking at him now, it seemed to be getting serious. I shrugged. It wasn't really my business.

“Did she register with the guild? Once we're in Uldaman, you could send her a message...” I suggested.

His eyes, dreamy and full of hope, turned to me.

“May I?” he asked.

The memory of me asking for permission to go out when I was four or five flashed through my mind. "Mama, may I go out and play with Lola?"

I sighed. Why does he feel the need to ask for my permission? It was the perfect occasion to make fun of him, and I almost did, but I only shrugged.

“Of course you may!” I turned back to the list, considering the chapter closed. “Now, this quest about a pest invasion on the Holmark farm seems like a good one, or what do you think about this fox burrow in the vicinity?” I turned towards the clerk. “Which quests could be completed the fastest?"

We had the firepower to tackle most of them, but I didn't want to waste too much time here. We just needed enough silver to send some messages and continue our journey.

*

Two days later, we had enough money to sleep and eat in an inn. We then flew towards Uldaman, catching up with the Trewars once again. This time, it wasn't a surprise. I kept an eye out for them as we advanced. We could have shortened our route, but I wanted to meet them again and repay Netor for the clothes he had given Mike.

We slept by their camp once more but left very early in the morning. This time, Mike embraced and kissed Elenia goodbye before we walked off and disappeared into the morning fog, ready to take flight.

My spell to delay the curse on Mike seemed to work fine, but I had to "rewind" it at least once a day. I couldn’t precisely describe how it worked, but I could visualize it. It was like a dark cloud of magic accumulating above his head, triggered when it gathered enough energy. My rewind worked like putting it back to a previous state, removing that energy.

It helped, but it wasn’t a perfect solution. The curse sometimes triggered randomly at lower power, depending on the circumstances. It was like a continuous spell accumulating energy to do some mischief; the more energy it had, the worse the results were. Sometimes, even a little energy was enough to trigger something. At least it wasn't a sickness spell-curse or a life-consuming one.

Now, thinking about it, the curse was crafted as I would make them. It was clearly my curse. What worried me was why it did not cease after a certain time. Was I so vengeful and unforgiving?

*

Ethea had already set and Gomer was just following; it was late in the evening when we finally arrived in Uldaman at the address Alice had sent us.

We found a very bored Lynx and a confused Ju, who had just woken up and thought she was still on the flying ship. Unfortunately, her enslavement ring was putting her in this kind of magical sustained coma whenever she was away from it.

Despite this, she refused to take the ring from me, fearing what it might do to her sanity if she were to carry it. Oh, well!

A few moments later, Alice arrived with the others, and our meeting quickly turned into a spontaneous group hug.

"Wow, you made it, you made it!" Tina exclaimed, rushing forward to embrace me tightly, burying her head against my chest. "You made it!" she whispered again, tears brimming in her eyes.

It did shock me to realize how much I was missing them! I looked at them in surprise; they had all changed and evolved. Tina was now a level nine mage, closing in on level ten. Hew was only at level one but had established his magical foundation. Tom was identifying as a martial fighter, level two. Did that mean that some of his karate skills were now supported by magic? How and what? I was curious to find out.

To put the cherry on top, Michael had reached level three! He was still identifying as just plain 'human' but level three!

“Wow!” Tina said, interrupting my thoughts. “Mike is butler level five! How did you do that?”

Butler? I turned to look at Mike. Indeed, he did identify as a butler! How? What skills did he gather? This must have happened in the last few days. I opened my mouth to ask him, but then refrained with an effort.

“Next time I’m the one to fall from the zeppelin to get my levels up, OK?” Tom said.

“Hey, what about me?” Hew protested.

"What bothers me," Lynx said, "is why Mike is wearing Netor's clothes and where are his blue jeans?"

"They must have fallen over a new species of blue jean moths in the jungle," Tom acknowledged.

As they continued their banter, Alice asked me about the curse.

“What about the curse? Is it still active? Did you have any problems with it?”

“Oh, well...” I sighed, then raised my eyes. “We know now where it is coming from and how to suspend it for a while...”

At this, Alice raised a brow, looking intrigued.

"What's the problem? Why does it sound like you don't like it?"

"I am... I mean, I was the one who cursed him."

Tina's jaw nearly hit the ground. "You're not serious," she said.

"But I am!"

And I told them about that day at Hew's cabin when we took an 'innocent' vow.