Chapter 113: Back to Step #1—Gathering Information (Patreon)

After I finished engraving the first mask, I called Al over.

"Please spray some potions on me; I want to check that the mask works."

To be safe, I sat down on the couch. Al took out a small vial and splashed some potions on me. I was perfectly fine, but Rue, sitting on the couch watching TV, fell asleep on the floor.

Shit! I didn't think about him.

After visiting the pet store, I now had three leather muzzles.

At dinner, a thought crossed my mind, and I leaned forward slightly, asking Sonak in a measured tone, "Sonak, do you have the Telepathy skill?"

He shook his head, his expression serious. "No," he replied firmly.

I nodded, considering my next question. "Do you have any spare skill points?"

Sonak's demeanor shifted subtly, a hint of a smile appearing. "Yes, I do," he said. "While you were immersed in learning runes, Al took me to several workshops." His eyes lit up as he spoke. "We both managed to collect nine skill points."

I glanced up from my plate, impressed. "That's excellent," I said, genuinely pleased. Sonak's smile broadened, and he looked proud.

"Buy the Telepathy skill. We don't know who we might come across on the base we're headed to, and speaking out loud might give away our location."

He nodded, and his eyes lost focus for a minute. "Bought it," he confirmed.

"Good. Don't worry about the points. Right now, on Earth, you can collect a lot of them."

"Yes, I discovered this fact. This is amazing!" he said, excitement in his voice.

It took me another three days to finish the engravings of all the masks. I called the Alamo Inn again to reserve rooms, but they were full.

I called the entire group into the living room. With everyone gathered around, I took a deep breath and explained, "The inn is full, and there are no available rooms."

Their faces showed a mix of disappointment and frustration. I continued, "The distance as the crow flies is 83 miles, but by road, it's 150 miles. It will take about three hours to get there by car, assuming there are no surprises along the way."

They nodded, absorbing the information. "So, our options are to drive every day from Vegas or wait five days for rooms to become available," I concluded.

Mahya raised her hand slightly, her face thoughtful. "Why don't we stay at your house instead of taking rooms in an inn?" she suggested.

I shook my head firmly. "That's impossible. The entire area is an open desert. They would see us right away. Even if the soldiers don't see us, the satellites will," I explained, my voice tinged with concern.

Mahya's eyes lit up with confidence. "The poles I made will hide us," she promised, her expression earnest.

Curious but skeptical, I asked, "Can you explain exactly how the poles work?"

Pulling out one pole, she nodded. She held it up for everyone, revealing three rows of runes engraved around it like a snake. She pointed to the first row and explained, "This row bends the light, so the entire area between the poles becomes invisible."

Her finger shifted to the second row. "This row duplicates the surrounding area and creates an image in the viewer's mind of what is around the poles, so there is no invisible dead space in the middle."

Finally, she pointed to the bottom row. "This row sends into the observer's mind the impression that nothing is interesting here and gives a small nudge to their mind to remember something important they need to do."

She confidently said, "Even the satellites wouldn't see the house because of the bending of the light."

She pointed to three specific runes. "When someone's blood is applied to these runes, it unlocks the formation. Then it has no effect, and you see the truth."

I nodded slowly, absorbing her explanation. The group looked relieved, and Mahya's confidence was reassuring. This could work.

We rented a jeep and drove close to Area 51. I didn't want to get too close, so about ten miles from the base, we got off the road and started driving through the desert, looking for a good place to park the house. After two hours, we found a perfect spot between two hills. Mahya first took out the poles, took measurements with a tailor's measuring tape, which made me laugh, and positioned the poles. I removed the house and thought Sonak's jaw would hit the floor.

I telepathically told Mahya, Al, and Rue, "Don't tell him anything about the dungeon core." And they nodded slightly.

After the house was situated, we started with the next step of preparing the potion. Al gave each of us a pot full of the potion, and we started filling the balls. I concentrated on the potion and created a mental image of the empty orbs in the bag, put a finger into the potion, not wanting to take chances and do it with just my mana field, and gave the order to the potion to store in the orbs. I took out the first bag and checked. 90% of the balls were now filled with a cloudy green liquid.

Yes!

I took out the empty balls and repeated the process until I filled all 1,000 balls, which were my responsibility.

We decided to go and scout the area that night, waiting for it to get dark. I opened my Profile and reviewed my entire list of abilities. I had already learned that I had a strange and inexplicable tendency to forget my abilities, so I wanted to go through the list again to remind myself of all the tools at my disposal.

I noticed a new item in my wizard class: Wind. It wasn't wind control, communication, magic, or anything else, just Wind. It also didn't have the classification in brackets [].

I tried to click it with my mind to open an explanation window, but nothing happened.

"This is a shitty user interface," I complained out loud to the world at large.

I felt a rebuke directed at me. "You can get upset as much as you like," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "It doesn't negate the fact that this is a shitty interface. Maybe standardized help files with a table of contents and an index are too much to ask, but a small line of explanation or direction regarding the next step or level is the minimum."

"Who are you talking to?" Sonak's voice was a low growl, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

I felt a warning directed at me. "Relax, I won't say anything. I promised, didn't I?"

"To whoever designed the Guidance interface," I replied, exasperation dripping from my words.

Sonak's face twisted into a murderous look, his eyes darkening with rage. His entire body tensed, and he seemed to grow taller, more imposing. "This is blasphemy!" he shrieked, his voice rising to a pitch that echoed off the walls.

"No, it's not. If somebody designs a shitty product, they should know about it so they can fix it. Right now, the Guidance is more of a hindrance than help," I countered, my frustration giving my voice an edge.

Sonak looked like he was about to hit me. He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and then he made a strange motion with his hands. Holding his thumb and index finger together, he touched his heart and forehead like reverse wings with his three free fingers. "I will not work with an Infidel. I am leaving," he declared, his voice trembling with barely contained fury. He turned to Mahya and Al, his eyes blazing. "You should leave too, or the Spirits of Old will punish you."

"What about your friend?" Mahya asked, her voice a mix of concern and confusion.

Sonak's expression softened momentarily, torn between his anger and loyalty. He nodded, his resolve hardening again. "I will stay to rescue him, and then we are leaving. I will not travel with an Infidel and a sinful person," he spat, the words laced with venom.

His rigid posture and stiff shoulders spoke volumes of his outrage as he turned away. The air was thick with tension, and I could feel the weight of his anger pressing down on me, a palpable force that made the room feel smaller and more oppressive.

After dark, we snuck towards the base while invisible and reached a four-meter-high barbed wire fence. Of course, Sonak felt the need to touch the fence!

God, he's an idiot!

He got electrocuted and fell to the ground, unconscious. I bent down and sent a Healing Touch through him, even though I didn't want to do it. He stood back and looked embarrassed.

We saw lights coming towards us from inside the base, so we turned and ran back quickly to the house.

When we were far enough away, I asked him, "What exactly were you thinking when you touched an electric fence?"

He looked away. "I didn't know it was electric."

We returned to the house but saw lights in the distance.

"Shit!" I said, "They're looking for us. Let's quickly store the house and the poles and get out of here."

"They won't see the house," Mahya said.

"True, but the formation will fall if they drive straight and hit one of the poles. Or at least that's what I think will happen based on my understanding."

"You're right. Let's get out of here." She said, nodding her head firmly.

We packed everything and ran for half an hour away from the base. After half an hour, we arrived near a high hill; I climbed it and took out my binoculars. I looked at the base and saw Hummer vehicles driving around the base but not coming towards us.

"Okay, we're far enough," I said. "Let's find a new place for the house."

The next night, Mahya and I went alone to scout. Sonak tried to argue that he should come too, but I wouldn't hear of it. When we got within fifty meters of the base, I sat down. Mahya put her hands on my shoulders. I reconnected to the wind and went through the sequence of emotions again. "Searching, please help me; I've lost a friend, sense of a Traveler, need to find him, this is the search area, looking for a friend I've lost, sense of a Traveler, sense of a Traveler, searching in this area, please help me, searching for a friend." Again and again, until I felt an understanding.

We sat there waiting, and ten minutes later, I got a response: Sense of a Traveler, bad buzzing, the air is buzzing, sense of a Traveler, deep underground, the air is buzzing, don't like the buzzing, an impression of a low building with a lot of motion around it, people? Bad buzzing, disruption, low building.

I sent a questioning feeling, encompassing the entire base and then zeroing in on the building. Where is the building?

I got confusion in return.

Again, mental images of the base on the Map, sense of searching, building? And repeated it three times.

Happiness, a direction—southeast, open space, low building, and motion around it.

I sent the wind my admiration, gratitude, appreciation, and love.

She ruffled my hair, and our connection broke.

"Found him," I sent to Mahya.

"Where?"

"In the southeastern part of the base, after an open area, a low building with many soldiers patrolling around it."

"We need to scout it. I can jump over the fence."

"I don't want you to go alone; it's too dangerous."

"I'm not Sonak. I won't approach; just look from afar."

"I'll buy the Jump skill and come with you."

"Won't work. At level one, you'll be able to jump maybe a meter and a half."

"I don't want you to go alone." Talking with an invisible person without seeing expressions or physical reactions was so strange. It felt like communicating into the void.

"Relax, I'm not stupid and have invisibility and stealth."

"Fine," I exhaled in frustration. "But do it fast. If you're not back in three hours, I'll find a way to follow you."

I sat there, my entire body coiled like a spring, vibrating with anxiety, waiting for Mahya to return. After what felt like an eternity, she finally appeared. "Let's get out of here," she sent to me. "We'll talk at home."

My tension and worry for Mahya had been building up for hours. Every passing minute without her felt like an eternity. When she finally returned and sent that message, relief flooded me, mixed with a sense of urgency to leave the place immediately and find out what had happened.

Sonak, Al, and Rue eagerly awaited us when we returned to the house. We settled down in the living room and reported our findings.

"The wind tracked him down for me," I started, my voice tense. "He's in some kind of bunker deep underground. There's a room there where the air hums. I'm not sure, but I think it might be a field that cancels out mana. The building is heavily guarded."

Mahya added quickly, her tone serious, "I managed to observe the building from the outside and eavesdrop on the soldiers. They're aware that someone is attempting to rescue the Traveler. Although they're not certain, they have connected Sonak's incident at Nellis Air Force Base and yesterday's fence incident to the Traveler. Security around the building has been increased. They didn't specify how much, though—no numbers or percentages mentioned."

"I think we should go back to Vegas for a week, or even ten days, and let the extra security die down," I suggested, breaking the tense silence. "Right now, they're jumpy and on high alert."

I turned to Sonak, trying to reassure him. "My intuition is quiet; your friend is in no danger."

Sonak looked frustrated but nodded reluctantly, acknowledging the practicality of the plan.

So, back to Vegas.