I finished clearing the backlog of patients in Outpost Three, including those in the healing hall and those recuperating at home, and even managed to regrow a few limbs. There was still neither hide nor hair of House Pelmen. That was good in a way. I didn’t want to relocate yet, but on the other hand, I really liked the cool stuff we’d collected from the last group.

I took a couple of days off. Three of the local long weeks of nonstop healing had been good for my class and progress, but I needed a break, and the curiosity about the anomalous zone was killing me.

Rue was with Rabban and Sonak in the zone for the last two days, Mahya hadn’t come back yet from her sleuthing mission in the closest city, and Al was holed up in the alchemy lab, grinding levels. He’d gotten stronger and even hit level 20 in his Alchemist class a few days before I did. Not that he told anyone. When I mentioned my milestone, he admitted he had too and that he’d gotten something good. No, he didn’t say what. The secretive bastard.

Since everybody was doing their own thing, I went alone. Flying was still faster than driving or running, so I risked it, although all sorts of flying creatures crowded the sky above the zone. A few times, I had to swerve sharply or fly at top speed to avoid something toothy in the air, but all in all, the flight toward the center went by without too many adventures.

As I got closer to the center, more dungeons and mana portals appeared throughout the area. The colors of the portals grew darker and darker. In the last few kilometers, there were only black portals, and they were massive. Massive enough to drive through with a five-story building. The things moving below matched the size of the portals, and my whole body tensed. Even while invisible, with Stealth active and Malith's pendant engaged, some of them lifted their heads when I flew above them. At least they didn’t try to jump up at me. At one point, I passed above a group of creatures that looked suspiciously like Argentinosauruses, or at least I thought that was the name I remembered from school. The only difference was that these had shorter necks and larger heads with even bigger teeth.

I identified one of them to check if I remembered the name correctly, but, of course, the Guidance gave them a different name that didn’t tell me anything.

Gorgorut

Level 64

Yeah, I didn’t want to meet with one of those.

Closer to the heart of the zone, my mana channels first felt pressure, then it shifted to a pins-and-needles sensation, and then began to hurt. I unraveled one of my spirals, and it went back to pins and needles. Better. The amount of mana all around was insane. Even more than in Faerie. As far as I remembered, Faerie was close to 90, so the density here was unreal.

The mana density had another effect. Usually, I saw the mana in the air as gentle eddies that danced around. Here, it was so thick that there wasn’t even a hint of eddies. It was a dense mana fog in every color imaginable, and some I had never seen before. The mana fog didn’t hamper my vision. It existed in another dimension in a way, but it kept grabbing my attention. The various types of mana in the air also brushed against my senses. I canceled my mana sense. Otherwise, I would have gone insane from information overload. Even without it, they assaulted my senses by heat and cold, rot and sweetness, prickling and wetness, and every other sensation from the different mana types, all of them together pressing in from every direction.

A loud screech came from behind me. Turning back, a black and orange bird, the size of a bus, zoomed directly at me. I engaged in evasive maneuvers, rolling sideways and shooting forward in sharp bursts, the air humming around me. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t shake it off. I flew away from the center, hoping it would give up, but the stupid bird stuck to my butt like glue. I had to break left and right to evade its beak, twisting in a hard zigzag that made my stomach churn. When I was above the Gorgoruts, I got an idea and dove down fast. The monsters below all lifted their heads and waited patiently for me. I could almost hear their thoughts about a self-delivering takeout meal. The bird was hot on my tail, less than a meter behind me. When I was right above where their heads could reach, I banked left and up sharply.

Yes!

It worked. The bird flew right into their midst, and they did get their takeout.

The ungrateful Gorgoruts, instead of appreciating the effort I put into feeding them, decided the bird was only the first course, and I was the main course. The whole pack thundered after me, and they turned out to be good jumpers. But sadly for them, I was a better flier and shook them off quickly. A group of green creatures with spikes around their necks, the size of elephants, also helped. They got busy with each other, and I flew toward the center again, this time scanning my surroundings in all three dimensions.

Closer to the center, my channels hurt again, and I unraveled another spiral, then another, and another, cursing inwardly about the work I would have to do to recreate them. About two kilometers away from the heart of the zone, I saw it. Further out, it blended with the mana fog in the air, but now it was visible. A huge mana vent, about a hundred meters in diameter, shot a thick and dense column of mana into the air. Unlike other mana vents, this one didn’t have one or two specific aspects, but all of them mixed together. The pressure of the released mana was so high that it shot straight up like a geyser, and only about half a kilometer up, it started to break apart and spread around.

The mana density was so high I had trouble breathing, and my channels creaked. I didn’t want to unravel the last spiral, since I needed the mana for healing and had to regenerate fast, so I stayed about a kilometer from the vent and watched. My spot was perfect. Apparently, other creatures, monsters, or whatever, also had a problem with the mana density, so a perimeter of about four kilometers around the vent was empty.

I got an idea for an experiment, took out my core, and held it in my hands. I didn’t feel anything from it, but monsters started falling out of it. None of them reached the ground. They broke apart halfway down, and their polluted mana mixed with the mana fog in the air.

I stayed in the air for about half an hour, but then I started to feel strange. I wasn’t exactly dizzy, but I wasn’t fine either. The closest I’d ever felt to these sensations was after smoking pot, but without the pleasant part. Just the off-balance feeling and the smeared sense of reality.

I decided I had seen enough. Whatever the vent was doing, staying close to it was going to fry my brain. I angled myself away from the heart and pushed forward. Flying should have been as easy as always, but it wasn’t. The smeared, off-balance sensation didn’t ease up even as I moved farther out, and the mana fog pressed in from every direction. It felt denser now, and I had trouble seeing through it. My flight grew wobbly, and every correction felt sluggish, as if the air itself resisted my movement.

A shadow appeared from the fog, and a wide-winged creature came at me with its mouth gaping. A mouth with sharp teeth, not a beak. I tried to roll sideways, but my reflexes were bad, and its claws raked across my back before I shot past. Pain flared, and my flight wobbled even worse. I gritted my teeth, trying to steady myself, but another screech came from above me. A second shape dived at me, something lean with a needle beak. I dodged too late, and its strike hit me in the ribs.

The mana fog got better, and now I could see, but it didn’t help much. I was slower, and my control was shot to shit. My flight needed exact calculations about where I wanted to go to give the mana a clear intention, but with my foggy brain, I had trouble doing it. Sometimes I even flew at the things instead of away from them. I swerved, twisted, shot forward, sideways, or back in bursts, but I was slower than usual, and my movements were all over the place. One of them clipped my leg with a tail swipe, and the impact spun me sideways. I nearly tumbled before I forced myself upright, heart pounding. A few more of them bit or pecked me, and one slammed me with a wing and sent me tumbling through the air. I righted myself at the last second, right above a black furry thing with crab claws. Something from the ground shot needles at me. My armor stopped most of them, but not all, and every hit burned. I shook my head to clear it, cast Healing Touch on myself, and began to fall. Stopping the spell, I shot back up and collided with a creature with bat wings. The son of a bitch was the size of a horse, but at least I surprised it. We both tumbled for a while until I righted myself.

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I kept pushing, dragging myself farther and farther from the center. Slowly, the portals around me lightened to yellow. The general bad feeling eased a little, but not enough to stop the spinning in my head. I tried to keep flying, but something slammed into my back, and the ground rushed up to meet me. I hit hard, rolled through the dirt, and came to a stop on my back, gasping. The yellow glow of the nearest portal swirled above me, and a huge moth hovered less than a meter away, radiating bad intentions. I shot it with lightning, and it dropped right on top of me, shuddered once, and went still. I tried to push it away, but it was too heavy.

Groaning, I cast Healing Touch repeatedly and slowly got better, but my head swam even worse, and I had trouble concentrating. It took me a few seconds to remember to diagnose myself. I was suffering from severe poisoning. At least I remembered Neutralize Poison immediately. The confused, smeared feeling improved and returned to its original state near the heart, before the poisoning. Something dragged the moth off me, and I came face to face with a thing that had a slight resemblance to a platypus, only with teeth. Why do all of them always have teeth? It jumped in surprise and growled, and I shot it with lightning. Maybe that wasn’t nice, since it had removed the massive moth, but the teeth were too alarming.

I kept healing myself until I felt no more wounds, but I still felt like shit. Diagnose showed that I was healthy. I became visible and checked myself over. My body glowed, with black wisps of polluted mana rising from me.

Mana: 14,817/14,000.

Huh? How is it even possible?

I tried to split my mind, but was too unbalanced and couldn’t manage it. Instead, I channeled Heat into the air with the largest amount of mana possible. The mana of the spell was red as usual, but small black wisps threaded through it. While channeling, I kept an eye on my mana and watched it drop steadily. When it fell below eight thousand, my feeling began to improve. Finally, I managed to split my mind and channel Light Ball at its highest intensity from my second hand. Some things yelped not far from me. I looked around but only saw gray shapes vacating the premises with due haste.

Didn’t like the light?

I shrugged. It didn’t matter.

When my mana dropped below three thousand, I finally felt fine. Weak from the healing, thirsty, and starving, but my head was clear. My body didn’t glow anymore, and there were no more black wisps. I was filthy, covered in blood, dirt, and moth juice.

Yuck.

Only then did I feel Rue’s worry for me through the bond. He was headed my way, radiating concern, worry, and fear. I tried to reach him telepathically to let him know I was fine, but he was too far away. Instead, I sent him calming feelings. His worry eased a little, but didn’t disappear, and he was still heading in my direction.

I cast Clean and Purify on myself a few times until I not only looked clean but also felt clean, then found a better-defended spot in a deep gully with only one approachable direction, and settled in for a serious meal.

Rue came running at full speed toward me and almost slammed into me. He skidded to a halt at the last second, claws scraping against the dirt, then shoved his nose against my side. He sniffed every inch of me, pressing his wet nose into my arm, my chest, even my boots, and only when he saw I was fine did he lick my cheek.

“Rue was worried. John was hurt. Rue feel John hurt. Why John hurt? Who hurt John? Rue worry very very much.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face in his fur for a moment. “Relax, buddy. I’m fine. I went to examine the heart of the zone and had some misunderstanding with some birds. Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

His ears flattened, and he bared his teeth. Another toothy one. I was collecting them today. “John not fine! Rue feel John hurt.”

I petted him, hoping to soothe him. “Yeah, some of them pecked me, but don’t forget I’m a healer. I’m fine.”

He sniffed me again from head to toe and back up, his tail flicking in agitation, before he finally settled. Rabban climbed down into the gully and loomed above me.

“What happened to you?” he asked, his tone sharp.

“I went to examine the center of the zone and had some issues with some birds.”

Rabban looked me up and down, his eyes narrowing. “It looks like more than some issues.”

I inspected myself and sighed. Yeah, I could see his point. The spells had removed all the blood and dirt, but my clothes and armor were in tatters. My armor still had some of the poisoned needles sticking out of it. The poor thing spent more time self-repairing the damage than protecting me. I plucked out the needles and stored them. Al would definitely be glad to get a new type of poison.

I looked around and saw Sonak on the cliff above, standing between two Dunehoppers. He gave me a small, hesitant wave, his hand lifting and pausing midair before finishing the motion. I nodded at him.

“Are you hurt?” Rabban asked, his eyes narrowing as he scanned me again from head to toe.

“No, I’m fine. I healed myself.”

He circled me slowly, inspecting every angle, and even stepped behind me. “Need help getting up?”

“I told you I’m fine. Relax. I needed some energy after the healing, so I sat here to eat. I’m fine.”

Rabban studied me for another moment, then finally nodded.

I stored the food away and rose into the air.

Rabban and Sonak both stared, their mouths hanging open.

“You can fly?” Rabban asked.

“Yeah? I flew out when we were attacked. Didn’t you know?” I tilted my head at him.

He frowned. “You were invisible, remember?”

“I told you about flying."

He gestured vaguely with one hand. “Yes. But I thought like Mahya on a sword.”

“Where did you get the spell?” Sonak asked, leaning forward, his eyes narrowing. “There’s nothing on the list.”

“It’s wind magic, not a spell.”

Both of them drooped, shoulders slumping in obvious disappointment.

“Elemental wizards have the best options,” Rabban mumbled under his breath, his gaze shifting to the ground.

I couldn’t argue with him and had no intention of even trying.

They went back to hunting for unregistered portals, Rue in tow, and I flew back to the outpost.

Back home, I rested for another day before getting back to work. I spent most of my time regrowing limbs, with occasional breaks to heal new arrivals. Mahya came back two days later and dropped an enormous stack of books on the table.

“I see you got lucky,” I said.

She flipped her hand from side to side. “So-so. I couldn’t find anything about cores or working with them.” She waved at the books. “Those are all engineering books, and the level is much lower than Earth, not to mention my bought skills.”

“So why did you get them?”

She shrugged. “They might have something I don’t know.”

Everybody joined me for dinner, and I told them about the center of the zone, the vent, and all the creatures there.

Mahya set her fork down and fixed me with a stare like she was trying to drill through my skull. “I hope you’re not going back there.”

“No. I saw all there was to see.” I lifted my cup and took a slow drink, not breaking eye contact.

She nodded firmly. “Good.”

We ate in silence for a little while longer, the clatter of utensils and Rue’s heavy chewing filling the gaps in conversation. Then Mahya suddenly sat up straighter, her eyes lighting with excitement. “Oh, I almost forgot. You won’t believe what I read in the paper.”

We all looked at her, forks pausing midair.

“Archduke Jook and Archduke Pelmen met at a ball,” she said quickly, her words tumbling out. “Jook accused Pelmen of attacking his territory and destroying his property. Pelmen shot back that Jook was harboring a criminal who encroached on their house's domain. Jook called him a greedy bloodsucker who profits from the suffering of others, and then he said if the healer Pelmen was accusing”—she jabbed her finger at me—“was still in his outposts, he would have granted him noble status as a lord at least. Their argument turned into a duel, Pelmen got stabbed in the stomach, and now the two houses are at war.”

“Poor Jook,” Rabban said with a shake of his head. “Fighting with two houses at once.”

Al set his cup down with deliberate care before speaking. “No. A group of Cleaners from Outpost Ten relocated here a week ago. While purchasing potions, they informed me that the war with House Tubar is over. Jook killed him. The son now heads the house and has already paid compensation to House Jook.”

They all snickered. I stared at them, my fork paused halfway to my mouth. Yeah, I got Al’s point about letting go of my preconceptions, and I had every intention of doing it, but it wasn’t that easy. This conversation sounded crazy, and their reactions even more so. I pressed my lips together, didn’t say anything, and sighed inwardly while thinking about the insanity of others. Nobles and my fellow Travelers alike.

And they say wizards are weird. We’re the sanest bunch around. Well, maybe not the wizards I’ve met, but whatever.