Chương 62: Chapter 54: Highway Robbery, Familiar Edition

After the ritual, I was utterly wiped out. Every part of my body hurt, and Rue also looked quite frazzled and drained. I regenerated and cast healing spells on myself until I could move. Not freely yet, but at least each step didn't feel like my whole body was screaming at me in protest, demanding a vertical position. After regenerating some more, I cast a few spells on Rue.

"Ready to move, buddy?" Another yes, but this one was colored with uncertainty and reluctance.

"Yeah, I know. I also feel like shit. But we need to eat and rest, and I don't want us to do it here." He sighed and got up slowly. It was such a human thing that I chuckled despite the pain and exhaustion. The clearing still smelled faintly of burnt mana and ash, like the ritual had burned the air itself. We hobbled toward Lis's house, every step creaking like my bones belonged to someone twice my age, had an enormous meal, and collapsed to sleep. Thankfully, Lis saw our condition, or maybe he expected it.

He congratulated us, kept the food coming until we were full, and helped me up the stairs to my bedroom without saying much. When I woke up, the sun looked like it was in the afternoon, but it felt like I'd slept longer. Coming downstairs, I found Lis in the kitchen cutting a large vegetable that looked like a blue cabbage with extra wavy leaves.

"Good morning," I said, stretching my arms over my head and letting out a long yawn. He laughed, the knife still moving as he chopped.

"Good tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, blinking at him.

"Yes, you slept for a day and a half." It surprised me. My body was drained from the ritual, but I hadn't expected to sleep that long. I opened my profile and almost choked on air. Mana: 623/8, 800 Wow!

"My mana jumped up 1, 200 points. How?" He stopped cutting and looked back at me with raised eyebrows.

"Impressive. Normally, it goes up 400 points after this ritual, but probably because of your tri-mana system, it went up 400 points per orb. That is the only explanation I can think of." He laughed again, shaking his head, a short, almost disbelieving sound.

"Did I tell you I am envious? Even if I did, I would repeat it. I am envious."

"Thanks, but that's not the issue. It doesn't make any sense. I checked my mana right after the ritual, and it didn't go up. It's great that it did now and everything, but shouldn't it have happened right after the ritual and not the next day?" I spread my hands helplessly, still frowning at the numbers. He turned fully around.

"Did you feel the bond settling for a time after the ritual, becoming more stable and substantial?" I thought about it, scratching my jaw.

"Yeah, when we ate. Rue didn't like that meat with the hot sauce, and I felt his displeasure stronger than before." He pointed at me.

"That is what I meant. Remember. Your souls established a connection through the ritual." He thought for a moment, tapping a finger on the counter in a slow rhythm.

"You might liken it to a surgery to attach a new part to yourself. Tell me, after such a feat, does the new addition settle immediately into place, or needs some time for the body to accept it?"

"I see what you're getting at. I just didn't know that magic works that way."

"In such complex circumstances, it does. Be happy for the rise in mana. Surely, with this jump, you should already be in the two or even three thousand range." I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Umm, I started with 7, 600… I'm now 8, 800." He looked at me wide-eyed, his mouth hanging open. The knife slipped from his hand and clattered onto the cutting board. After a long minute, he leaned forward and asked in a serious tone, "How much was your mana when it awakened for the first time?"

"Um, 3, 000…"

"I should have guessed." He exhaled sharply and pressed his palms to the counter.

"I already told you that your father comes from a very high-mana world. You should thank the cosmic entities for your mana." He shook his head slowly but smiled.

"Why?" I asked, leaning on the counter, still stunned.

"I started with 400 and reached 5, 200 after over 300 years as a Traveler."

"Remember when I told you about the Cleanse I did with four or five thousand?" I asked. He picked up the knife and continued cutting. The color of the vegetable was wild. Blue with green undertones, almost turquoise, and I wondered what such a vegetable would taste like.

"I believed you channeled it in increments while regenerating," Lis said. I threw my hands up, scowling.

"I'm not that crazy!" Lis laughed again, then nodded.

"Yes, I should have guessed by your reaction to the idea of doing it again." He set the knife down and wiped his hands on a towel. After a pause, he asked, "When do you want to go to the world across the Gate?"

"You mean Earth? Why did you put it that way?" He shrugged.

"Since I told you to look at it as a Traveler, I will no longer call it your home world." I chuckled briefly.

"I like your way of looking at things. About going to Earth, I want to regenerate fully, but I don't have anything else I want to do besides that." I looked around.

"By the way, where is Rue?"

"He woke up a short while ago, asked for a big meal, grumbled that the food I gave him was not rich in mana, and went outside." Lis pointed toward the door.

"Asked? Grumbled? How? He speaks now?! I'm totally confused." Lis chuckled and crossed his arms.

"No, he will never speak in the traditional sense of the word; he does not have a suitable vocal structure. But with time and progress, he will progress to telepathy, and over time master mana speech. Today, he communicated with me as he does with you, with emotions and impressions. Did you not read about it in the book about familiars?"

"It said his communication abilities will improve, but I assumed it meant with me, not others."

"Oh, I see," Lis said.

"He is a familiar now. He is tethered to a human soul, so he can communicate with others, as you can, but only with people or beings with mana."

"Awesome! My dog can talk! Or kind of talk? … hmm… Yeah…" I scratched my head, grinning despite the confusion. Lis roared with laughter at my confusion. He was having too much fun at my expense. But I had to give him his due; when he laughed, it never felt malicious or deprecating. With a shake of my head, I went in search of Rue. He was outside, stretched out in the sun. I crouched beside him, petted him, scratched behind his ears, and cast Diagnose. He was healthy and in excellent physical condition.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Diagnose only showed his physical condition, so I closed my eyes and sank my awareness into him to check mana-wise. It took a while. There was some kind of resistance, a barrier I'd never encountered when examining other things. Then there was a faint shift, almost like he gave me permission, and suddenly I could "see." He had three tiny orbs, no more than three millimeters across, maybe even smaller.

Four mana channels ran through his legs, but they were hair-thin, and he lacked the web of smaller channels that spread through a full system. I remembered the book saying a familiar's mana system started in its initial stages, but I'd still expected something more developed than this.

"We need to gorge you on mana-rich meat to help develop your mana system," I told him. He sent me a very enthusiastic agreement.

"Yeah, I thought you'd like the idea." I went inside to talk with Lis again. He was in the living room, settled in an armchair with a book in hand, snacking on the blue wavy cabbage. Curious, I plucked a piece for myself and popped it into my mouth. Huh. It wasn't a vegetable at all but a fruit, with a sweet and tangy flavor that reminded me of berries. Not any specific berry, just the general berry taste.

"Lis, you told me about a standard familiar package, but I don't remember all the details. Can you give me the list again? I'll write it down this time."

"Sure." He raised a hand and ticked off each finger as he spoke.

"Invisibility for crossing the Gates, Stealth for scouting, Storage for food and water, Telekinesis so he can have more freedom, One of the Crowd so you can hide his appearance and conjure identification, and Mana Shield for protection."

"Thanks." I took out a notebook and jotted down the list. He nodded and went back to his book. Curious, I leaned a little closer, noticing the familiar cover. It was the book I had given him about a mana apocalypse.

"What do you think about the book? Is the description of the apocalypse accurate?"

"It is ridiculous but very entertaining," he said with a smirk as he flipped a page.

"Why ridiculous?" I asked, leaning over the back of the couch. He turned sideways to look at me.

"First, the idea that the hero can get an AI. AI is technology; technology does not work with mana. I heard from other Travelers that there are advanced tech worlds where you can buy an AI, but to install it, you must undergo surgery to implant the AI in your head. And I assume it would stop functioning the moment you crossed into a mana world, or even during the crossing itself." He shook his head slowly.

"Also, the idea of a shop between worlds is impossible. The worlds are not connected, and as far as I know, even in the most technologically advanced worlds with several colonies on other planets, there is no communication between worlds. Communication can take months or even years to reach another planet. I do not understand how this idea can work when the physical world is built as it is."

"What about mana, can't it serve as the connection?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No. Mana exists on worlds, not in the emptiness of space."

"What about the Gates?" He nodded.

"You have a point there, my friend. But remember, Travelers are the only ones that can interact with the Gates, so my point stands." It was the first time he called me his friend, and it was nice. Maybe I was giving it more importance than warranted, but I never had a friend. Of course, I had Sophie, but she was so much more that the designation didn't apply to her. I shook my head to clear the stray thoughts.

"What else didn't make sense to you?"

"The idea that you must buy your house from the shop is also amusing. Your house is your house. It does not stop being your house because your world has been flooded with mana. Technology gradually collapses—that is true—but everything else remains the same. The world does not change. It simply begins to operate according to different physical laws —or, rather, with an additional element that has a far-reaching impact.

"Also, the Personal Information described here has similarities to the Guidance on some worlds, not Travelers' Personal Information. But I cannot understand the connection between intelligence and mana. These are entirely different things. And what is the connection between a trait and regeneration? Regeneration depends on the width of your channels and the amount of mana in the air, not some arbitrary number." His voice picked up steam.

"Furthermore, a dungeon world cannot exist. Dungeons are created when there is a mana pocket with a much higher mana level than the world's, or with polluted mana. It is a filter. But apart from these things, the book is very entertaining, and I enjoy reading it."

"What do you mean, Personal Information is like in other worlds, not like Travelers? I thought the system, or Guidance as you call it, was the same everywhere?" I asked, completely lost.

"No. There are worlds where the inhabitants have traits different from ours. There are worlds where the process of getting a Class is different. Many worlds, especially high and very high-mana, do not have the Guidance at all. And only among Travelers have I come across the fact that traits have both physical and mental aspects. It may exist elsewhere, but I have not encountered it. I have a theory that we have the additional aspect to help us deal with the differences between worlds."

He leaned back, book resting on his lap.

"Huh." That caught me off guard and altered my perspective on certain things. Yes, I read in the Archive mentions about cultivators and strange magic in very high-mana worlds, but I thought it was specific to them and that the rest of the worlds all had the same system. I let him get back to his book and went back out to spend my Ability Points on Rue. Returning to Earth sounded better and better every minute since I needed more Ability Points.

I opened the abilities list of the Gate Traveler Class to buy Rue the abilities Lis had recommended, but now it looked different. The abilities had a new section for familiars, and they were expensive! Hmm, a familiar is a costly business. Storage Unique Class Ability Unlock a storage space with an initial size of 8 cubic meters (2 m x 2 m x 2 m). Items in this space stay suspended. You cannot store living beings.

Expanding it by 2 meters in each direction costs 1 Ability Point, allowing storage growth from 8 m³ > 64 m³ > 216 m³ > 512 m³. Expansions are limitless, but can cause mental strain without increased traits. No mana cost, but accessing Storage on worlds with mana levels of 10 or below takes more time and concentration. Cost: 1 Ability Point for initial space + 1 Ability Point for each expansion. Familiar Version: Buy your familiar storage space of 1 m³ (1x1x1m). All stored goods stay suspended.

Cost: 5 Ability Points To expand the space, spend 3 Ability Points for +1 to all the dimensions: 1 m³ > 8 m³ > 27 m³ > 64 m³ One of the Crowd Unique Class Ability Everything a Traveler needs to hide their status as a Traveler. In many worlds, abilities or devices exist to view Personal Information. This ability lets you cloak or modify your details: Change your name to blend in with local norms.

Display one of your Subclasses or Subprofessions as your primary Class, or show a false Class based on your skills or spells. Hide parts of your information and replace them with question marks (Warning: This can draw unwanted attention). In some worlds, identification is required, such as paper IDs, badges, or ID chips. Use this ability to conjure suitable IDs. Mana Cost: 100 mana for standard ID creation; 500 mana for advanced IDs, such as central database-linked chips.

If the world doesn't recognize your race, apply a glamour to appear local. The glamour drops once you pass through a Gate to a new world. Mana Cost: 300 mana per world. To travel successfully, a Traveler may need extra documentation. This ability enables you to conjure any necessary documents. Mana Cost: varies based on specific requirements. Cost: 1 Ability Point. Familiar Version: Buy your familiar the ability to hide its nature.

In worlds with low to high mana levels, many Classes can view information or have runic or magic script artifacts to view a being's information. This Ability allows you to hide/edit your familiar's information. Cost: 5 Ability Points Various means of identification exist in technological and some mana worlds, such as identification papers, badges, identity chips, and more. Use this Ability to conjure the identification your familiar needs.

Note that if your familiar does not have enough mana, you will have to spend your mana to use this Ability. Mana Cast: A one-time cost of 300 mana to conjure identifications. If your familiar kind is unknown in the new world, you can glamour them to look local. The glamour will remain constant and drop when you pass through a Gate to a new world. Mana Cast: A one-time cost of 500 mana in each new world.

General Spells and Skills Unique Class Ability Travelers can learn any spell or skill from the integrated worlds, allowing for versatility and adaptability. Each new spell or skill costs 1-3 Ability Points and starts at level 1. Mana cost for use varies by spell or skill. Familiar Version: You can buy your familiar spells or skills from the lists. Cost: 3-9 Ability Points Note: Familiars without the required limbs cannot use a corresponding skill.

I started with 38 Ability Points, but the two Gate Traveler abilities cost me 10 points! My body actually contorted at the price. I paid it, of course, but it hurt, and I groaned out loud as if that could soften the blow. Invisibility, Stealth, and Mana Shield each cost 3 points, which I could live with, but Telekinesis cost 9. Nine! Points. I jabbed a mind spike at the number on the screen, glaring at it as if I could shame it into dropping lower. I'd had 38 points just recently, and now I was down to 10.

I looked up at the sky.

"Seriously? Isn't this highway robbery?" There was no answer. I sighed. Yeah, I'm definitely going back to Earth.