With great enthusiasm, Mahya and I tested all the new electronic devices. I connected the crystalline disc to the stereo system, and we listened to music. The crisp and clear sound filled the room with vibrant melodies that danced in the air.

Yes!

Mahya plugged another disc into the TV, and we saw the movie’s credits start. The screen lit up with vivid colors, and everything worked as it should.

Double yes!

We tested the game consoles one by one, and each sprang to life, the games stored inside the consoles displaying their titles with bright, enticing graphics. It was just amazing!

While we were fiddling with the electronics, Rue bounded over, his tail wagging furiously. “Rue need new toy to play with wind,” he said, his eyes wide with anticipation.

“What happened to the paper airplanes?” I asked, glancing at him.

In response, a pile of chewed paper appeared on the floor in front of him. Rue looked up at me with a mix of pride and innocence.

I scratched his ear and said, “Well done collecting all the paper.”

“Mahya said no dirt. Rue picked up dirt,” he replied, his tail wagging even harder.

“Good boy,” I said, smiling at his earnestness.

I rummaged through my Storage, searching for something that might serve as a suitable game. Despite everything I had “collected” along the way and all my shopping, I found nothing appropriate. It baffled me how, with such an array of items, I was still missing something Rue could use. The laws of physics behind this impossible situation made little sense.

I wish I had bought kites.

After going through all the contents of my Storage—a task that took more than half an hour—the only suitable thing was the origami penguins I had picked up in Las Vegas. I handed one to Rue and said, “See if it works for you.”

The penguin disappeared into his Storage, and Rue ran outside, wagging his tail excitedly.

I continued to check the house. When I turned my attention to the reservoir under the house, I realized it was much larger. Not only did it extend the length of the house, but it was also deeper. Its growth meant it was almost empty.

“We need to fill the reservoir,” I told Mahya.

“Let’s fill it with the water we collected in the dungeon,” she suggested.

“I don’t want to shower in magical water. What’s wrong with normal water?” I asked, puzzled.

“Not for showering. Let’s move it to the reservoir and tell the house to do something with it. I’m curious to see what will happen,” she explained, her eyes gleaming.

“You’re treating my house like a science experiment,” I remarked.

“Of course. This is the first time I’ve had a chance to work with a dungeon core. There are many things I want to learn.”

“You worked with the previous core.”

“Yes, but it was a baby. This core is huge. Besides, this dungeon was very ancient and had a sentient guardian; it’s not every day you find something like that.”

Reluctantly, I agreed.

We removed all the water tanks we had filled with water from the dungeon, placed the hoses in them one by one, and instructed the house to pump the water into the reservoir. I didn’t want to risk losing the containers by placing them on the floor and telling the house to absorb them.

After the house had absorbed all the water, I ordered it to do something with it. At first, I felt something was happening but couldn’t figure out what. I had to sharpen my senses and spread them throughout the house to understand. The core extracted the mana from the water and infused the entire structure of the house, saturating it with more mana than before.

“What’s going on?” Mahya asked, her curiosity piqued.

“The house took the mana from the water and saturated the entire house with it,” I explained.

“Cool!” she exclaimed.

“What’s cool about that?”

“The more mana-filled the wood and stones the house is made of, the faster they will regenerate from damage or adapt to climate conditions.”

I had to agree with her. It was indeed cool.

In the next step, we took the hose, placed its end in the nearest lake, and instructed the house to fill the reservoir. The water level in the lake dropped an inch or two, which surprised me. Although the reservoir had grown, it shouldn’t have significantly reduced the water level in a large lake.

“Doesn’t it seem strange that the lake level has dropped? The house’s water reservoir isn’t that big,” I asked Mahya.

“Don’t try to understand your house by using physics laws from Earth. You’ll go crazy and won’t get any answers,” she replied.

“I don’t understand.”

“We fed your house a lot of materials. Some were used to build it larger, some went to shelves, etc. But if you compare the amount of materials we fed the house to the amount it created, you’ll see that the amounts don’t match. If you look for those materials around the house, you won’t find them,” she explained. “Where are they? I have no idea. Just accept it as fact and don’t try to apply any laws you know. Magic works differently.”

I scratched my head, completely confused. This whole thing was one big mystery. Conservation of matter or conservation of energy are supposed to be fixed laws, aren’t they?

The next thing we checked was the pontoons. I instructed the house to inflate the pontoons, and it was immediately apparent that this would not work. There were enough pontoons for maybe thirty percent of the house. I instructed it to make more pontoons of the same type and inflate them, and it only made two more.

“Hey! It ate a load of plastic from all the devices we fed it. How come it only made two more pontoons?” I asked, frustrated.

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“I have no idea,” Mahya replied. “Just accept it, and let’s give it more plastic.”

“I’m not sure how much more plastic I have left,” I said, thinking about our remaining supplies.

“Let’s check.”

I collected different tires in Vegas. We went through them one by one, setting aside the ones we could use for our motorcycles or jeeps and feeding the rest to the house. This created four more pontoons—still not enough.

We went through all our Storage, and I also asked Al to go through all his storage and give us all the plastic and rubber he could spare. Then we fed the house again—three more pontoons—still not enough.

“Maybe we cut down trees, give them to the house, and tell it to make a big wooden platform to stand on with pontoons around?” Mahya suggested.

“I don’t feel like cutting down trees. It’s hard work.”

She laughed and said, “Yeah, but your house will be more amazing after this. It’s worth the effort.”

I had to agree with her.

We enlisted Al for the task and went to cut down trees.

On the way, he said, “I find it intriguing that you have no qualms about felling trees for the construction of the house, yet you advise against gathering mushrooms.”

“Because they are beautiful,” Mahya answered, smiling at him.

He gave her a sideways look and rolled his eyes.

“Besides,” I added, “All the mushrooms we collected in the dungeon weren’t enough for you? We collected a lot.”

“At the moment, yes. But I have an opportunity here to harvest many quality raw materials. I am very unhappy to give up this opportunity,” he said, looking around the lush valley.

I had to admit he was right. We were a little selfish in limiting him.

“Okay. You can harvest as many mushrooms as you want. Leave the two beautiful mushrooms by the house until we leave. Before we leave, you can harvest them, too,” I said.

Al looked delighted.

“How many levels have you gained from all the potions you’ve made? I’ve seen you work almost non-stop,” I asked him.

“Not many.”

“Why?”

“I am an alchemist by profession, not by class. If it were my class, I would have attained many more levels. Since it is a profession, I must initially distribute or provide the potions to individuals for their usage, and subsequently, I will attain levels,” he exhaled.

That was the first time I had heard something like that.

“Seriously?” I asked.

He nodded and sighed again. “I achieved a level increase due to the sleeping potion I crafted in Las Vegas, as well as another level increase for the potions I concocted to restore the life force you expended in the dungeon and mend your magical channels. I am keeping the remaining potions I create. Once we reach a densely populated area, I will sell them and significantly increase my levels. Or, at the very least, numerous levels until level ten. The progression is noticeably slower, and advancing to higher levels becomes more arduous.”

“Yes, I have noticed this phenomenon of level ten. I gained my first levels in the healer class very easily. Since reaching level ten, I have only gained two levels in the last five years. And I had to perform some very complex healings.”

“Stop whining,” Mahya remarked. “From level ten to twenty, it’s still relatively easy. After level twenty, it gets even harder, and after level thirty, even more. All the fighting I did in Tuonela, Rat Island, Vegas Base, and Dungeon only gave me one level.”

Wow! It was depressing.

“This system is very stingy,” I commented.

I felt a rebuke directed at me.

“Yes, yes, you can protest as much as you want. It doesn’t change the fact that you are stingy,” I thought.

This time, I felt no reaction.

“You have nothing to say?” I asked.

Still no response. Of course.

For two days, we cut down trees and stored them. After two days and over fifty trees, we placed them one by one on the first-floor porch—the only place big enough for the trees—and I told the house to absorb them. After the house finished sucking in all the trees, I gave it instructions to create a large wooden platform under it and surround it with pontoons.

The three of us looked at the result, which was pretty clear wouldn’t work. The surface was large, seven times the surface of the house. This made sense because the house was tall, not just long, so it needed a large surface to stand firmly on the water. The problem was that there were not enough pontoons.

“Maybe we’ll go to Earth and buy more tires?” Mahya suggested. “The Gate is right here. This is our opportunity to fill in all the gaps. Fortunately, we discovered it early.”

“I don’t feel like going back there. I’m mentally ready for a new world, not going back.”

“We don’t have to go back there to stay. We’ll go through the Gate, collect tires, and come back. It shouldn’t take more than a day or even less.”

I sighed and accepted the inevitable.

Al and Rue didn’t want to come with us. Al went to harvest all the mushrooms from the valley, and Rue had too much fun playing with the wind. He just asked for more penguins.

“What happened to the penguin I gave you?” I asked Rue.

A pile of chewed paper appeared in front of him.

“Got you,” I said, smiling.

I gave him all my penguins, and he stored them before running off to play.

I fed all the chewed paper to the house, hoping it could do something with them.

Before we crossed the Gate, I checked the mana level on Earth—still eight. Mahya and I crossed the gate while invisible. Luckily, it was night.

“It’s a shame we killed the last jeep,” I said, glancing at the empty road ahead.

“We can run; it shouldn’t take us long,” Mahya replied confidently, stretching her legs as if preparing for a sprint.

“It took an hour and a half to drive here!” I exclaimed, rubbing the back of my neck.

“If we run as fast as we can, it should take us even less,” she said, bouncing on her toes, eager to get moving.

“Maybe you can; I’m not that fast,” I admitted, crossing my arms and looking down the dark highway.

“I’m not sure you’re right. When was the last time you ran as fast as you could?” she asked, tilting her head and raising an eyebrow at me.

Hmm, she had a point.

We ran on Highway 1, and I felt like I was flying. It was late at night, and the highway was relatively empty. I could run as fast as I could, and I was fast! Very fast! I didn’t time it, but it took us less than an hour to get to Calgary.

“Did you keep your phone?” I asked Mahya. “I fed mine to the house.”

Mahya laughed and handed me her phone. I opened it, and after it turned on, I stopped in shock. It took her a second to realize that I had stopped, and she came back to me.

“What happened?”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t make sense?”

“We left on August 7, now it’s August 8. We’ve been on the other side for over a month, and only a day has passed here. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Same year?”

“Yes.”

“It happens sometimes. The time jump moves on Lumis instead of on Earth. You had something similar in Tír na nÓg, didn’t you?”

“Hmm, I didn’t think of that. You’re right.”

We ran back to the gate, crossed to Lumis, and informed Al and Rue that the time jump was on Lumis’ side, which meant we’d only be on Earth for one day, but more time would pass on their side. They both wanted a stock of food and wished us a pleasant trip. During the hour we were on Earth, a whole day passed in Lumis. Those time jumps were crazy and confusing.

We ran again towards Calgary. After an online search, I found three places that sold used tires for recycling. My original plan was to buy the tires, request a delivery, and only store them. But with the time jump, I didn’t want a year to pass on the other side. We approached it differently. A high fence with barbed wire on top surrounded the first place. We used the trampoline—always lovely to use skills—ran through the entire area and stored the tires. I applied force to the door handle of an office, opened it, took five gems from the gem bag I had from Vegas, put the gems in a pouch, and placed them on the table with a note.

Thanks for the tires. That’s the payment. These are real gems. Appraise them before you sell them. They are worth much more than what we took.

We ran to the second place and did the same, including the note and the gems.

Dawn started to break, so we gave up the third place. Anyway, I was sure we had enough tires. I checked on the phone for a toy store on the way to the gate, and indeed, I found one. I neutralized the store’s security system with mana, applied some strength to open the door, took all the kites they had, and placed three gold coins with a note on the counter like in the tires’ places.

After all this “shopping,” Mahya and I returned to the gate.

When we crossed the gate again, we checked with Al, and a week had passed on the Lumis side. Those time skips were crazy. Rue was not happy that it took us so long, in his opinion, but he immediately forgave me as soon as I gave him the first kite to play with the wind. In return, I got a stack of chewed papers and a lick from chin to forehead.

We fed all the tires to the house, and I told it to create pontoons.

Yes!!

Now, pontoons surrounded the platform, three to five deep. Mahya and I high-fived, grinning at each other like loons.

I love it when everything comes together.