Logan had Tumor wake him up at what was estimated three hours before sunrise. Apparently at 91.72% certainty. Logan had to remind Tumor to not use decimals. Having suffered from blood loss and needing to recover from the previous adventure meant that it wasn’t actually all that bad to have Tumor zap him awake. It actually worked like coffee.

Hey. How did you wake me up specifically?

[This one manipulated the signals that prompt cortisol production. This one also sent false signals to the part of the neural network, specifically the ones regarding your bladder capacity.]

That checked out. Logan did need to pee. More importantly, Tumor could do that? Holy crap. Logan had just been using the corkscrew of his swiss army knife. Speaking of which, he really wished they would figure out wine soon.

Logan stifled a yawn and crept out of the den. He had positioned himself close to the door, as not to wake anyone up when he moved. He couldn’t help but to throw a fearful glance at his father, but Malcolm Specter was snoring lightly.

Logan clenched his fist. He wasn’t sure this would work, but hell, why not try.

Malcolm had placed Logan’s satchel in the care of the two night guards. Logan had to give credit where credit was due. His old man had predicted Logan would try to pull some bullshit.

Indeed I will. I still have some Numa tucked in my pocket.

Near the den in a blackened hole in the ground surrounded by rocks, were the remains of a fire. Now there was only charred wood and softly trailing smoke. Logan heard Some distant screeches of monkeys in the jungle. Logan looked up at the sky.

There was indeed a moon. It was larger, much larger than the one on Earth. It also had a strong orange tint, just like the sun of this world had. Other than that, the sky was as bright and blue and as amazing as it had been on earth. Logan had once visited Hawaii to see the true night sky. The one without light pollution. An amazing sight worth every dollar spent on that.

Stolen novel; please report.

The milky way was there. For some completely foreign reason, that made Logan feel better.

Ah yeah. Still in the same galaxy. That’s like living next door to Earth! What’s a few light years here or there?

Logan asked Tumor if it could identify how far Earth was. It tried and failed. Logan shrugged and went onwards with his life.

The two goons on night watch were standing next to each other. They leaned on their spears, chatting idly. The moon provided enough light for Logan to see them clearly, as well as the satchel that was bulging with Numa.

Logan didn’t know much about jungles. But he had lived in one for some days now. And what he had learned was that finding sand was actually impossible. As an idle thought, that would make glass-blowing really tricky in the future. Maybe they could grind rocks…

Logan, however, had always had a mind for unorthodox solutions. Thus he crouched at the remains of the fire and scooped up a pile of white ash in his cupped hands. He threw a quick glance at the night watchers, and was relieved to see they were still chatting. Logan crept closer to them.

Logan crouched behind a pile of lumber left behind Simmons. Because the goons were chatting, Logan had been able to creep fairly close. He was just a few yards away from them. He’d need to act quickly and just hope this would work. He was too afraid to whisper the spell, so he intoned it subvocally.

Make this ash make anyone who inhales it fall asleep for five minutes.

There were no notifications for any level ups. Nor did Logan have a Numa crystal in his hand to verify the [Enchantment] had worked. On second thought, he should have checked the charge from his pocket first. He thought he saw a slight blue hue appear upon the ashes, but it was too dark to tell for sure. He shrugged mentally. It was go-time, hell or high water. What else was he going to do?

Oh man, I’m going to look really foolish if this doesn’t play out well.

Logan took a deep breath, careful not to inhale any of the fluffy ash. Then he turned his cupped hands into fists. Some of the ash fell on the ground. He ran towards the goons.

“Hey,” Logan said. They both turned, faces in surprise.

Logan held his breath as he ran towards the ex-agents and chucked the fistfuls of ash at both of the goons.

“Wh—” The other one managed to say, before his eyes rolled up and he collapsed to the ground. Logan grinned in triumph. The snores of his conquered foes sounded like applause.

But he had no time to waste. Five minutes was all that was reasonable to give. He’d rather they wake up and continue their watch, lest not some damn beast eat Freya.

Logan grabbed the satchel of Numa-crystals, hoisted it over his shoulder and neck, and ran into the night.