I activated [Lost and Found] early the next morning. The evening, I’d decided, belonged to me and Ann.

The next day I woke up, hopped into the bath, and got myself ready for the day. While soaking in the hot water, I opened up the menu, and mentally flicked the switch for the technique.

It always took a little bit to figure it out the first time. When Cass activated [Mirror Mind] for me, she could have done so faster if we’d known how to properly do so. It genuinely felt like moving a new muscle, you didn’t know which way it would bend, and feeling out the range of motion took a couple seconds.

Once I got there though, it was just about executing the command, and the system took over from there. I immediately felt my sense of sight fade, as the world turned dark around me. For a moment, I almost panicked, but soon, threads of silver manifested.

They looked thin and ethereal, like the faintest touch could break them, and pointed in all kinds of different directions. In fact, I was pretty sure they seemed to be woven into a larger net, one which I could not make out at all, seemingly infinitely complex.

Just trying gave me a headache, so I focused back on the glowing strands I could notice.

Each and every one of them seemed frayed. Like it had been damaged. Some had knots in there, poorly tied together, others were thin as a hair at times, barely hanging onto the network at all.

I turned my head, and saw bits of silver hanging in the air all around me.

There were strong and faint connections, close and far ones, some seemed corrupted, and in the few minutes I spent there, one of the silver threads disappeared. It felt like someone broke something precious to me for a moment, but the feeling faded.

Slowly, one after another, I mentally tugged at the strings. As I did so, they rang out with a ghostly hum, the kind of sound you’d expect to come from a harp played by a skeleton. Yet, somehow, it resonated with me. Told me things that maybe the technique itself was unclear about.

I knew the type of damage the gateway had. Whether it was smashed, cut, shattered, abandoned, snapped along the middle, or anything in between. I knew how long they hadn’t been in use, and I could feel pretty well where it was.

One hummed and told me it was in a cave, not unlike the one I was buried in, hidden between fallen rocks. Another was overgrown with moss, in the ruins of where a city had once stood, and where a jungle of monsters had since grown.

Another, though, seemed quite a bit stranger. It wasn’t damaged too horribly, which meant it would lend itself to repairing, and it was stuck in a place without monsters. A broken pagoda, where some sort of cultivation sect had once lived, perhaps.

It was decayed, but their arrays still stood, warding it from monsters. The journey would be far, up into the mountains, but once there, we would have a respite, and with the arrays in place, maybe my gateway wouldn’t attract hordes of monsters.

Right, that was still something we needed to figure out for the journey. If I attracted too many monsters, there was a chance they’d just straight up kill us before we made any major progress.

Maybe I should have looked for an ability to suppress that, too.

I sighed. Having a secondary class this complicated was a hassle. Especially if it drew in monsters we weren’t strong enough to defeat. I’d need to ask Orvan about it, see if he knew any way to deal with the whole monster attraction bit.

Having made my decision on which gateway to go to, I ended the technique and dragged myself out of the hot water, dried off, and got ready for breakfast.

The mess hall was as full as usual, the chatter of the soldiers ringing out around us. We still got a few stares, but not too many. Most of them had gotten used to us by now, other than the time Orvan came down and sat at our table.

Apparently, the mage was usually a bit reclusive, hiding in his little chamber at the top of the tower doing research. I could hear some soldiers still talking about it, how much they’d seen him and how he was very different than they had imagined.

I smirked at the thought of the old man having little social presence. He may look like a wizened old wizard, but he sure didn’t talk like one.

The meal went by calmly. My party members looked better, finally having gotten some decent rest. I was happy to see them without bags under their eyes for once. Night watch did that to anyone, even when our bodies were beyond human “limits” by now.

We chatted a little as the minutes drifted by, and sat for a while longer after everyone had finished. There was a bit of a comfortable silence, eventually broken by Marie.

“Alright, everyone. With the decree done, I think we need to talk a little about our next job,” she said. “Because while I’d love to just go back to Renvil, I don’t think we’ll be doing so.”

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Renvil was the city we’d been operating out of. Our small guild hall was located there, and the last few years we’d been working as Reflectors had been spent largely coming and going from there.

It was a frontier city, pretty close to where monsters consistently popped up, and with the Black Sands nearby, it had quite a few alchemists, preparing potions and such from the monster bits.

Now, however, I needed to go somewhere else. There was a mountain range a decent bit of travel to the west, and a little north. Going back east to Renvil would just mean more travel time, and it’s not like we couldn’t stock up on supplies here.

“Why not?” Matt asked. He didn’t sound upset, just curious. I was expecting him to want the cushy life back most of us.

Marie turned to me and I nodded. “My gateway isn’t fixed yet. I need to find another fragment, a bigger one. I got something to find nearby gateway pieces with my contribution and found a target. Old monastery in the western mountain range, long abandoned but with anti-monster arrays still in place.”

“There you have it,” Marie added. “Anyone against going there?”

She let the silence hang in the air for a few dozen seconds. No one spoke up, no one raised their hand. I smiled.

“Thanks everyone,” I said.

Reya flashed me a kind smile, and Emilia punched me in the shoulder. “Come on, now. We wouldn’t leave you behind.” Her face fell for a moment. “Well. Not a second time,” she added.

I couldn’t hold back my snicker, punching her back a little too hard, still not entirely used to my level. “That was nothing, Em. Stop worrying about it.” I flashed her a bright smile, and received one in return.

With that, it was decided. They would all follow me. I did wonder slightly about why the twins were coming along so easily, but if I had to guess, I had a solid hunch who put them up to it. My goals and those of the divines still aligned, for now, and even if they didn’t, Lurelia most likely wanted a pair of eyes or two on me.

I shook my head and put the thoughts aside. The others were currently negotiating with captain Lirya for supplies, while I was headed towards Orvan. I needed some advice, and if anyone had been willing to give it, the old man was my go-to.

There were very few guards placed on the hallways to his tower. I suppose it made sense; it wasn’t like he exactly needed protecting. Really, if anything, this would probably be the safest post in the castle, having the archmage nearby.

I ascended the rather steep stairs, and knocked on the trapdoor to his study. There was silence for a moment, then a crash, some grumbling, a few footsteps, and the hatch opened.

“What is it?” the old man asked, making no effort to invite me in. I felt the high energy density from his room spill across the boundary a little, dancing on my skin like electric sparks.

“Is there any way to not attract monsters like a beacon?”

Orvan raised an eyebrow. “For you? With a gateway inside you? Tricky, tricky. Alright, fine, come in.”

With that, he fully opened the hatch and stepped aside. As last time, there were still papers messily strewn about everywhere, though now there was also a broken vial on the floor, dripping some kind of clear, glass-looking slime.

“Don’t mind that,” the wizard commented, noting where my eyes went. “I don’t get many visitors.”

“Right,” I said, taking a seat on one of his tables since he occupied the single chair in the room. “So, hit me with it.”

“Is that some saying? From your world?”

“Yes. Means I want you to tell me about the thing.”

“Right, right. So. Monsters can somehow tell you have a gateway inside you, from a certain range at least. The easiest way to stop that is not leaking any energy. Which is absolutely not happening with the state your gateway is in. And unfeasible anyway, because the energy in the air would eat at you,” he explained.

I nodded as he continued. “I’m guessing you don’t have an aura yet?” I shook my head. “Then that’s out, too,” he continued. “Shame, would’ve been easier. You could carry a suppression talisman, but that would break if you ever used too much strength and is horribly expensive. You could lay down runic formations on your skin, but that is even more ridiculously pricey and might take weeks to set up.”

“Which means you’re stuck with the annoying option. And you won’t be able to fully stop it anyway, just mitigate the range and type of creatures you attract. Essentially, keep your mirror Qi locked up tight in your body. Seal the core off, best case. Coat your body with just your metal Qi.”

How he was aware of my affinities I didn’t know, but I doubt I could hide a whole lot from the old wizard. “Okay,” I said, “how do I do that?”

“Fuck if I know.” He shrugged. “What? Don’t give me that look. Did you take me for a martial artist? I just told you the kind of stuff you’d do with general energy if this happened. You do know gateways can also run off Mana and Divinity, right?”

I shook my head at his antics and scoffed. “I do now,” I said.

“Well,” he said with some surprise, running his hand through his beard, “better late than never I suppose. But yes, you don’t need to be a martial artist to reclaim them. Qi works just as well as any other fuel, of course, and since the gateway merges with its user, they adapt to fit. So yours now runs off Qi.”

“Right.” I nodded, still thinking about how exactly I should stop mirror Qi from coating me. “Thanks, Orvan.” I turned to leave.

“Fio?”

“Yes?”

“Good luck,” he said, then tossed me three vials. “Health potions. Make good use of them.”

With that, he pulled his chair close to the desk again, mumbling and scribbling onto one of the dozens of sheets of paper. I lifted the trapdoor and stepped back into the castle, enjoying the feeling of not having the air try to suffocate me. How Orvan managed to live comfortably up there I had no idea.

I shook my head at the thought, then rejoined the party. They were already done with the shopping bit, and shared rations with me. It would be enough to last us the journey. We expected right around three weeks, maybe a little more, to get there. Then we would probably rest for a few days before starting the journey back.

After another goodbye to the captain, who clapped us on the shoulder, we left the castle.

I took a deep breath. The air buzzed as it touched me, a soft background static. It smelled like rain and grass and decay from the monster parts that hadn’t yet fully disappeared or been harvested.

Looking over the party, I saw faces full of smiles, each and every one of them just as eager to head out into the unknown as I was.

And so we set out.