Chapter 74 – Deal With Your Issues

That evening, I prepared a big dinner for us in my new kitchen.

It was simply amazing!

I couldn't stop getting excited about every little thing:

The water pressure was great!

I had perfect control over the temperature!

The drinks and the vegetables for the salad came out cold from the fridge!

The toasted bread came out perfect from the pizza oven!

It was just perfect!

Rue was adamant about bringing 'his' beanbag to the living room, refusing to settle for anything else. He kept shouting in my mind, “Mine! Bed! Mine!”

Every time he yelled it, Lis’s and Mahya's faces twitched. Ha! They twitch after five minutes; I lived with it for five weeks.

After dinner, Lis led me to the stone pillar that contained the fireplace and said, "Tell it to open."

The pillar opened, revealing a chamber with intricate runes and mana crystals. Lis explained, “Whenever you come across a spare crystal, simply press it against a rune, and it will adhere. This is the house's mana reservoir. Even if you need to recharge a crystal, place it here, and it will replenish.”

He pointed to a small magic circle on the floor and continued, "At some point, the dungeon core will be too big to disguise as a lamp, so put it here and put a neutral aspect crystal in the light fixture, and it will work. If you find a wild dungeon and take the core, hold it against the core you have, flow mana through both of them, and they will fuse. That way, your core can grow faster without depending on the ambient mana. The more mana it has, the more functions it can perform. At some point, you will be able to move walls, add floors, expand the house, and maybe even sail with it. There's a reason why dungeon cores are so valued. But not yet; the house isn't there yet."

I slept in my new bedroom, albeit on the floor on a yoga mat and sleeping bag, but in my new bedroom!

I showered in my new shower in the morning, and it was perfect!

Lis and Mahya thought my enthusiasm was very "cute."

I felt a slight strain as I stored the house, but it was fine, far less than the mental strain it took to pick up a snake and cut it into steaks.

We drove to Toulouse, and I first insisted on buying a huge double bed with an excellent mattress, two nightstands to put next to the bed, a wardrobe, and a chest of drawers. I also bought two regular double beds, two small nightstands, and two chests of drawers for the guest rooms. After that, I also bought eight different sets of porch furniture, three for the balconies on the second floor and five for the porch around the house.

Unfortunately, I couldn't just store everything in the store, so we had to rent an apartment for three days until everything arrived, receive the shipments, and only then store everything.

Mahya and Lis teased me for three days non-stop, but I didn't care. My new home was perfect, and I made it even more perfect.

We booked a flight to Naples and tried to call Lyura, but she didn't answer. On the flight, Rue again decided to sit on me, and this time, too, I melted the entire flight. I threatened to shave him, but he didn't seem particularly scared. He probably knew I was full of shit.

We arrived in Naples and again tried to call Lyura without success. I felt a slight nudge from the system, an urgency.

I told them, "My intuition tells me something has happened to her. We need to go to Sicily."

Mahya said, "Maybe she just left her phone in the Storage."

"No, something's wrong. I feel it. We need to go to Sicily and do it fast. It's urgent."

We booked a flight from Naples to Catania, and during the whole wait and flight, I was restless and jittery.

When we got to Catania, we rented a car and immediately drove to Mount Etna. There were many guided tours on some of its slopes, but it would be impossible to go up to the main crater that emitted smoke. We hid behind some jeeps of the guided tours, cast Invisibility, and climbed towards the crater. I activated my luck and felt a direction.

I said, "She's that way."

We continued a few more meters, and I started to feel her. We located her under a pile of stones and ashes. I took my binoculars and looked around to ensure no one could see us. When I saw that everything was fine, we started moving the stones and ashes with telekinesis and found her buried under two feet of rubble.

I diagnosed her, and she was in bad shape. Many bones in her body were broken, and her lungs were full of ash - she was barely breathing. She also had internal bleeding in several places and a severe concussion. I started healing her on the spot, and the first thing I did was take care of the lungs, the internal bleeding, and the concussion. I drained my mana to almost zero, but she finally opened her eyes and coughed.

Mahya hugged her and asked, "What happened?"

"I’m stupid."

"What did you do?"

"I thought about my mother, and my anger got stronger and stronger; I forgot she warned me that our element increases anger. At some point, my anger got so strong that my magic burst out of me, causing an avalanche. I don't know what happened after that."

We came down from the mountain while invisible. Lyura changed clothes, and we removed the Invisibility in a hidden place. We returned to the car and drove back to Catania to the hotel. She was still not one hundred percent; she had bruises all over her body that I still haven't healed and several broken bones, but she faced the pain bravely.

In the hotel, I sat to regenerate, and every time my mana went above 500, I healed her a little more until she was okay. All this time, Lis seemed thoughtful, and when he heard she was perfectly fine, he told her they needed to talk.

He asked her, "Where is the Gate you came through?"

"France, near Lyon."

"I think you should stop traveling with us and go home to handle your problems with your mother. You can't keep traveling like this."

"I'm sorry. It was a one-time thing, I promise."

"I'm not angry, and it's not a punishment. I'm not your parent, and I have no right to tell you what to do. I promise I won't argue with you no matter what you decide. But hear me out.

“You're a new Traveler, and every new Traveler I've ever met had a lot of questions. John, here, bombarded me with questions for a whole day, and after four years together, he still asks me questions. Mahya keeps asking for stories about exciting worlds I visited or people I met. You've been with us for almost a year and haven't asked me a single question.

“When we go sightseeing, you interact with us, but when we're sitting at home or the hotel, talking and laughing, you’re glued to the TV or watching YouTube videos on your computer; John is a newer Traveler than you, and he already has three sub-classes, you don't have any at all. We're all constantly learning and progressing, but you aren’t doing anything.

“You also constantly look angry and lost in your head. You don't really travel. To be a Traveler is to discover new things, admire the beauty of the worlds, learn exciting things, create, progress, grow as a person and as an artisan, interact with people, and enjoy life.

“Otherwise, what's the point of traveling?

“Go find a corner to watch TV for a few years until the integration starts, and then relocate to another tech world. In addition, your anger flared up, and you hurt yourself. Next time, you might hurt one of us. Rue is fifty percent fur; he’ll ignite in a second, and most places we stay in have a lot of fabric and wood; it’s dangerous.

“If you want to be a real Traveler, you have to handle this anger, or it will eat you from the inside. I think what your mother did was wrong; I’m not blaming you. But you have to handle it before you can be a real Traveler.

"And if you are quick about it, even if we already left Earth, through the Archive, you can contact either of us, get a Gate chain, and join whoever you want. Earth is an amazing opportunity not only because of the easy acquisition of ability points and classes but also because of the abundance of Gates. We can pick and choose, instead of being limited to five-eight-ten Gates on the whole planet, with no way to travel fast or a dangerous sea crossing to reach some of them. But you must hurry; soon, planes will be too dangerous.”

Lyura just sat there and cried.

Mahya hugged her and said, "You're my friend, and I'll always be happy to travel with you as much as you want and wherever you want. But Lis is right; you have to handle the situation. You can't go on like this."

Rue walked up to her, put his head on her lap, and shouted, "Friend!". Unfortunately, he shouted into my mind, too.

I just put my hand on her shoulder in support. I could understand her; I also left Earth in a bad place. I healed and found closure elsewhere, but I wished I didn’t have to. She had a chance to confront her problem, and Lis was right; she needed to do it.

When she stopped crying, I took her to her room to recheck her and ensure she was okay.

I told her, “I left Earth in a bad mental state and, initially, just wandered the wilderness until I healed emotionally, or at least partially healed. I healed completely only after a few months with Lis. It was the first time I had a real friend, a brother, you might say, that taught me the true value of human connections. Before that, I had only my wife, but that was a different type of relationship. Here you have three people and a loud dog that consider you a friend, a dear friend, so you’re already in a much better place. Deal with your issues, leave the mental baggage behind, and join one of us for an amazing adventure.”

She nodded, hugged me, and said, “Thank you. Mahya told me your intuition led to my rescue, and she also told me how you rescued her. If you’re not careful, you’ll get offered the Knight in Shining Armor class.”

We laughed, and I knew she would be okay. Maybe not today or tomorrow. But she would be.