Side Story 4: The Danger of Very High Mana Worlds (Patreon)

Lis fell through the Gate and just lay there, wheezing. He made it out! He got out of that awful, awful place. Thank you, great beings of the cosmos. He will find a temple and light incense in gratitude.

After he got his breathing under control, he looked around. He was in a circle of standing stones, two of which were the Gate anchors, with more standing stones branching in a few directions. There were many people around, and they were holding strange apparatuses to their faces. He checked and saw he had two more minutes to his Invisibility, so he cast it again, just in case. By their motions with the strange contraptions, he suspected that the purpose was photography, but the gadgets looked like nothing he had seen before.

One woman was heading in his direction and was sure to trip on him, so he got up quickly and put his back to one of the Gate stones. It was like she was following him; she headed directly to "his" stone. He moved aside, and she struck a pose when she reached "his" stone. Her male companion lifted the strange apparatus to his face, and there was a soft click—yes, definitely photography.

Lis snuck quietly away. There weren't any trees around he could hide in, so he looked at their clothes, took out the most similar things he had, and changed. He walked some distance away, and when he saw nobody looking, he dropped his Invisibility.

He was starting to relax and think clearly. That place was just horrible. He wrote the name Tír na nÓg and resolved to run far away from any Gate leading there.

There were creatures of nightmare; one of them, a Bánánach, literally caused him nightmares and fed on his fear. Its ghostly wails echoed through the night, paralyzing Lis with terror. The only thing that saved him was falling down and hitting his head, which briefly knocked him unconscious and broke the creature's hold.

There were blinking creatures called Will-o'-the-wisps that tried to lead him into treacherous swamps. Their eerie, floating lights danced enticingly before him, nearly luring him to his doom in the murky depths. Half-human, half-farm animals known as Pookas played music that confused his senses, their melodies twisting reality around him until he could barely tell up from down.

Every fruit he identified carried the warning that if he ate it, he could never eat regular food again. The vibrant, tempting berries of that world promised eternal youth, but at a terrible price—one bite would bind him forever to this realm. The trees had green humanoid creatures called Dryads in them that attacked him with magic, their bark-like skin camouflaging them until the last moment when they unleashed their nature-based spells.

He washed his face in a lake, not realizing it was home to a temperamental water spirit. The lake got angry at this intrusion and almost killed him, its waters rising in a massive wave that threatened to drag him down to the depths. Only his quick reflexes and Luck saved him from a watery grave.

The denizens were the scariest of them all. They were beautiful with long hair and pointed ears, possessed powerful magic like he had never seen before, and were relentless. They chased him for days and kept saying that the trees, the land, and the lakes told them about an intruder.

To escape, he had to cast Glamour and Invisibility repeatedly and rely on his Luck. The only saving grace was that the air was so rich with mana that he regenerated hundreds of mana units every minute without actively regenerating.

It was a truly dreadful experience. Going there again is something he will never do.

He did not know what world he was in, not having the time to check the Gate from the other side. So, he opened the world's information and started reading.

A Traveler native to this world posted the first entry a day before he left on his journey. It was a very detailed and thorough account, maybe a little too thorough. Lis didn't care about the political landscape or that gold coins needed proof of ownership, but the rest was pure gold. He wished the world information had the same comment option as the General Archive so he could post a thank-you note, but alas, it wasn't so. He wrote the Traveler's name, "John Rue," and decided to shake his hand and buy him a drink if they ever met on the road.

The following account was by a new Traveler who had never visited tech worlds before; he got confused and left. But in his account, he had some excellent information. The bicycle sounded interesting, the copper coins idea was brilliant, and he mentioned he came from a boring place called Shimoor. Lis needed boring after that horrible experience.

He decided to check that "bicycle" invention, buy copper coins, stock up on cheap, mass-produced goods to sell, and go on a vacation in Shimoor.