Waking up that morning, I immediately regretted it. I had the worst hangover. My head throbbed like a drum being beaten from the inside, and every little noise felt like a hammer to my skull. My mouth was so dry it felt like I’d been chewing on sandpaper. Without even opening my eyes, I cast Healing Touch three times in a row until I felt human again, but I was parched. After downing what felt like a gallon of water, I finally felt okay.

I was in the middle of making breakfast when Lis and Mahya came downstairs, looking annoyingly fresh.

“How come I woke up feeling like roadkill, and you both look as fresh as cucumbers? You drank as much as I did,” I grumbled.

“Higher Constitution,” Lis said with a shrug. “What’s for breakfast?”

“This is so unfair. Snake strips and eggs,” I muttered.

After breakfast, Mahya headed off to Zurich to get her money from the bank, and I dove into a book I’d been meaning to read: The Higher Echelon of Aspects—The Mark of a True Wizard.

It wasn’t what I expected. The first chapter explained that before continuing with the book, I needed to develop mana sight, and there was an exercise laid out in several steps.

First, I had to sit with my eyes closed, feel all the surrounding mana, and differentiate between the various aspects.

Next, I was supposed to open my eyes and, using my senses, locate different pockets of mana, imagining them as having a visual representation.

Finally, I had to develop the ability to see the mana by focusing my intention and building on the first two steps.

I couldn’t help but grumble, “Why can’t magic be simple? If I want something to happen, it should just happen!”

Lis chuckled, “If it worked like that, it would be boring. The effort you put into something makes the achievement so much more satisfying, don’t you think?”

“Hush, Sensei! I don’t want logic right now; I want to complain.”

He laughed and went back to his engraving.

I went outside, sat on the grass, closed my eyes, and felt the surrounding mana. For some reason, it was always easiest for me to feel the mana in water and fire, trickier with earth and rocks, and air was the hardest. I made a mental note to ask Lis about that later and focused back on the mana.

I sat there for hours, just feeling the mana. It was a surprisingly spiritual experience—I felt connected to the world and at peace.

I sensed Mahya approaching and opened my eyes, feeling refreshed, as if I’d had an entire night’s sleep and a hearty meal.

She handed me an envelope and said, “Thank you so much for everything.”

For a second, I worried it would be another situation like Lyura’s letter. My heart skipped a beat, but I quickly pushed that thought aside. Mahya would never do that. Taking a deep breath, I opened the envelope to find a cashier’s check for two hundred thousand euros.

I raised an eyebrow. “What’s this?”

“That’s what I owe you for the past two years,” she said calmly, her expression serious.

“You don’t owe me anything!” I blurted out, shaking my head. “You built me a magical house! Why are you also giving me money?”

“Lis and I built the house as a token of our gratitude,” she explained, her tone sincere. “He for helping him get his class, and me for saving my life and fixing my mana system. This money is for the jewelry you gave me and everything you spent on me over the last two years.”

I frowned, trying to recall the expenses. “I didn’t spend that much money.”

“Yes, you did,” she insisted, folding her arms. “You paid for all the flights, hotels, and rentals, whether a car or a house. You gave me a credit card, which you regularly topped up, along with a phone, meals, entertainment, workshops, and other expenses. It adds up. Don’t think I haven’t noticed Lis and Lyura slipping you gold coins now and then. This check is the gold coins I’m giving you to pay you back for everything you spent on me. Right now, I feel too indebted to you,” she added, her voice softening, “and I want to ask you something, but I can’t until I feel we’re even.”

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I sighed, realizing she was determined. “Okay. I agree,” I said, taking the check from her hand.

She immediately pulled me into a hug. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“So, what did you want to ask me?” I asked, curious now.

“Originally, I wanted to go to Shimoor to recover from my experience, but I don’t feel that need anymore,” she began, stepping back and looking me in the eye. “I’m perfectly fine now. The plan was to go with Lyura, but you know… So I want to ask, how about a companion for your journey?”

I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face as I pulled her into another hug. “You have no idea how happy you’ve just made me. For the first few days while you and Lis worked on the house, I felt completely lost. Even after that, being alone wasn’t fun; it’s much better with friends.”

“Excellent,” she said, clearly relieved.

“But I have one concern,” I added, pulling back to meet her gaze. “You’re stronger and more experienced than me. Won’t you feel you’re babysitting me?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m stronger at fighting, but you’re not interested in fighting, nor am I. If we find wild dungeons, we should clear them, but other than that, I also want to travel and study, not fight. You’re much more experienced on Earth than either of us, so you’re our guide. If we go to a world I’ve been to before, I’ll guide you. And if we go to a new world, we’ll discover it together.”

“Would you mind if the next world I want to travel to is in the lower thirties?” I asked, hopeful.

“No. Every world has something to offer,” she replied with a smile. “I’ve traveled to high-mana worlds with Travelers stronger than me, and I was terrified every minute. Medium mana sounds perfect.”

I hugged her again, feeling a wave of relief and happiness wash over me. “I don’t have words to express how happy I am right now. Welcome aboard.”

She patted my back, smiling warmly.

“By the way, what did you sell for two million euros?”

“Crystalline Memory Storage,” she replied, a hint of pride in her voice.

My curiosity piqued. “How does it work?”

“You can store fifty terabytes of memory on an external drive the size of a matchbox. I didn’t know how to explain the additional advantage, but the integration will preserve and not destroy all the stored information. But they’ll need a Magitech device to access it.”

I looked at her in amazement. “You can build a storage device that mana won’t destroy?”

She nodded confidently.

“How much would it cost to build one?” I asked, already thinking about the possibilities.

“I’m way ahead of you,” she said with a grin. “The drive I built as a proof of concept can hold two hundred terabytes, and it’s yours, along with two more like it. I also know how to upload all your information onto them. Lis and I are working on a Magitech device to access the information, but it still needs work.”

I couldn’t contain my excitement, so I hugged her yet again. “Most of the information is audio and video. Do you have any ideas for how we could see and hear the content with Magitech?”

“No,” she admitted, shaking her head slightly. “And Lis thinks he won’t be able to make one before we run out of time on Earth. He says you’ll have to figure that out yourself.”

“Boooo!” I said—loudly. But I couldn’t help but laugh as she joined in and hugged me.

When we went back inside, I turned to Lis. “I was outside feeling the mana and noticed it was easiest to feel water. Learning the aspects of fire and lightning was fairly easy; the earth was harder, and the air was tough. Do you know why?”

“Yes,” he replied, setting down his tools and looking thoughtful. “It’s easier to feel aspects when the corresponding power centers are more developed. Your mind’s power center is probably the least developed.”

I nodded, unsurprised. “Yeah, it is. How can I develop it better?”

“Studies, studies, studies,” he said with a chuckle. “One day, everything will click, and your center will progress. And by the way, the E-foils are ready, and Mahya’s done with her deal, so let’s head to France and find a sea to try them out.”

“There’s a Gate near Marseille; we can try it out there,” I suggested, already excited.

“Excellent. Let’s store the house,” he said, getting up.

“You know,” I said, smiling, “after everything, that sentence still sounds strange to me.”

We flew to Lyon and took a brief tour of the city. During our visit, we explored Parc de la Tête d’Or, Notre-Dame de Fourvière Basilica, and the Cinema and Miniature Museum. We didn’t linger too long; instead, we rented a car and drove to the Gate. The Gate led to Murinabla, just like the one in Milan.

From Lyon, we flew to Marseille, and we immediately hit the beach without even checking into a hotel. Lis laughed at our impatience, but Mahya and I didn’t care; we wanted to see how the E-foils turned out.

When we got to the beach, Lis slipped behind the changing rooms and pulled out the E-foils with no one seeing. I inspected mine and noticed that runes covered the entire top.

“It’s not a Magitech device,” Lis explained. “It has no power source. You have to feed it mana through your feet. As long as you’ve got mana, it’ll work.”

The E-foils were incredible. They were way faster than they had been before Lis modified them, and I quickly learned that I could control the speed. If I fed it a little mana, it moved slower; if I fed it more, it moved so fast I felt like I was flying.

Rue also wanted a turn, and we had to explain that the E-foil was too small for him to stand on. He was not happy.

I asked him, “How come you want to ride the E-foil, but you’re afraid of the boat?”

He raised his nose, straightened his tail up like a cat—this time, I felt the telekinesis he was cheating with—and walked away with an air of superiority.

This dog was hilarious.