TravelingDreamer

Chapter 120: Getting Things in Order for The Final Push

Rabban approached me. "Where can I exchange gold coins or jewelry for local money?" he asked, his voice gruff.

"I can exchange it for you."

He nodded and handed over ten gold coins. The coins felt heavy in my hand. I took out the scales I had bought in China and weighed them carefully. Each weighed 36 grams, totaling 360 grams. Pulling out my phone, I checked the current price of gold online. "It's sixty dollars per gram," I said, looking up at him. "So, that's $21,600 total."

John's Updated Profile

Name: John Rue
Age: 20
Familiar: Rue Level 8
Display Class: Healer Level 11

Healer Spells:

• Heal Muscle - 22

• Diagnose - 10

• Stop Bleeding - 3

• Heal Bone - 9

• Control Blood - 12

• Healing Touch - 25

• Neutralize Poison - 5

• Purify - 17

• Clean - 20

• Anesthesia - 8

• Regrow Flesh - 2

  2024-06-29 16:30:43 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 119: Parade of Shame

After what felt like an eternity of driving, the visibility finally improved. I sighed in relief and asked Mahya to take over the wheel. Pulling over on the side of the road, we switched places, and I could finally focus on the blinking dot.

You have learned the skill [Firearms]

I gave the message a thumbs-up and moved to the next.

Level up
+3 Perception, +3 Vitality, +2 Creativity, +3 free points...

2024-06-29 16:07:08 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 118: Elemental Wizard

Mahya and I decided to "milk" Vegas, but we did it differently this time. An internet search revealed that the smallest country in the world after the Vatican and Monaco is Nauru in Micronesia, known for its phosphate mining operations. With only about 10,000 inhabitants, the chance of anyone discovering our bullshit was zero. We looked up popular names in Nauru, changed our profile names, transformed our look to a middle-aged couple, and conjured up Nauru passports. Now we were Mr. and Mrs. ...

Rage of the Elements

Wind, rage through the dunes,
Swirl the sands in wilder tunes
Fire, burn bright and high,
Paint your passion 'cross the sky
Water, surge and flow free,
Carry whispers to the sea
Earth, tremble and quake,
Ancient slumber now awake

Elements, heed my song
Join your voices, wild and strong
Answer the bard's mystic call
Nature's power, enthrall us all

Wind, howl through canyon deep,
Secrets long forgotten, keep
Fire, dance in primal might...

Sand Storm

Call of the Sand Storm, heed my call
Stir the sands, rise and fall
Desert dunes, begin to sway
Let the storm have its way

Oh mana, ancient and free
Listen to this bard's plea
Gather now, with mystic might
Bring the sandstorm to life tonight

Grains of gold, dance on air
Swirling patterns everywhere
Veil the sun, obscure the sky
Let the desert spirits fly

Oh mana, ancient and free
Listen to this bard's plea
Gather now, wi...

Link

Chapter 117: Final Preparations

After yet another failed attempt to connect to the earth, I had to concede defeat and search for another solution. With a heavy sigh, I sat in the middle of the yard for over half an hour, racking my brain for new ideas. Finally, a spark of inspiration struck me, and I knew what to do. However, I had to return to the books to bring this idea to life. Although I had learned a lot of magic script symbols, I realized I was still missing some crucial ones to accomplish my goal.

I lounged in...

Chapter 116: Who Said Training Needs to Be Boring

I never thought I'd be excited about getting shot at, but here I was, grinning like an idiot as I hefted the small paintball gun in my hands. The Nevada desert stretched out around us, a sea of sand and scrub brush with the glittering oasis of Las Vegas shimmering in the distance. The weapon felt alien yet familiar, like a distant cousin to my bow. Its weight was reassuring, a promise of messy vengeance to come.

"Alright, John," Mahya called out, her voice tinged with amusement. "Let's ...

Chapter 115: Know Thyself

On our second evening back in Vegas, Mahya made a grave tactical error: She sat with Rue to watch the movie Max. Rue discovered that the dog's role was to guard and patrol. From that moment on, he decided he was our watchdog and walked around the house's perimeter, sniffing the air and barking at everything that moved. And when I say everything that moved, I mean it literally. He protected us from birds, ants, one poor butterfly that flew into our yard, and, of course, cats. Fortunat...

Chapter 114: Al is the MVP of This Mission

When we returned to Vegas, I didn't want to book a hotel suite, so I found a private bungalow on the south end of Las Vegas through Airbnb.

Over dinner, a question lingered in my mind, refusing to be ignored. I turned to Sonak, my curiosity evident in my eyes despite the tension between us. "Say, what's your friend's name? We keep calling him 'your friend' or 'the traveler.' It would be nice to attach a name to the mission."

Sonak paused, a flicker of reluctance crossing his face ...

Chapter 113: Back to Step #1—Gathering Information

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, a...

Chapter 112: Mission Step #2—Equipment

After the soldiers left and Mahya and I stopped laughing, Sonak went to his room and disappeared until the next day when Al came back. I thought he felt embarrassed and didn't want to show his face. Mahya opened all the windows, and I cast Clean on the room again and again until we got rid of all the whiskey smell. It took hours for the room to stop smelling, but we didn't care. We were in this together, and the shared humor of the situation kept us going. While working, every few minutes, on...

Chapter 111: Sonak Is an Idiot

The next day, I did another search online, looking for a place where they could have transferred the Traveler. Area 51 stood out from the start, but it was such a cliché that I couldn't believe they'd move him there. I kept looking and found more bases in Nevada, but they were much further away, and when I read the articles about the earthquake that hit Nevada when the Traveler sent the message, it was clear that the tremors didn’t reach them. Cliché or no cliché, that left Area 51. The ...

Chapter 110: Mission Step #1—Gathering Information

After Sonak stormed out, I turned to the others and commented with a raised eyebrow, "Even for a redhead, that was excessive."

Al's brow furrowed in confusion as he tilted his head slightly. "What is the correlation between his hair color and his actions?" he asked, looking genuinely puzzled.

I chuckled lightly, trying to ease the tension. "On Earth, there is a consensus that redheads are temperamental."

Mahya rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "That was not temperamental...

Chapter 109: I Don't Like This Guy

When I woke up, my throat felt raw and scratchy, as if someone had rubbed it raw. I experienced a piercing pang in my throat with every cough, and swallowing became rough and uncomfortable. It didn't feel like the onset of illness, but a persistent irritation that lingered despite my efforts to soothe it. The discomfort gradually eased after casting two Healing Touches, allowing me to breathe and speak more easily again. I couldn't make sense of what was going on.

When I greeted Mahya a...

John's new Toy - Magitech IP

Chapter 108: Luck + Vegas …

We landed very close to Sloan but outside the settlement limits. It was so small that I didn’t even know if we could call it a settlement; it was tiny. Luckily, it was predawn, and everybody was asleep. After deflating and folding the balloon in the basket, Mahya could store it without witnesses.

I asked them both, “What do you think? Should we order a cab from Vegas, or maybe someone here drives a cab?”

Al scratched his head, his brow furrowed in thought, and shrugged. Mahy...

Chapter 107: I Have a New Friend

In the morning, Mahya and I first sat at the computer to find a place where we could take off in the balloon. Quickly, we discovered we were optimists.

Our first challenge was finding a suitable take-off location. The dense urban environment of SF and specific aviation restrictions made it impossible to launch from there. We considered Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley as alternatives, both about 60 to 90 minutes from San Francisco, depending on traffic.

Second, a hot-air balloon flew...

Chapter 106: San Francisco

Authors Note

Maybe I just started publishing a story recently, but I have been writing all my life. from short and children's stories for fun, to articles for my blog.

This chapter was the hardest one for me to write in all my history. From writing the lyrics and figuring out the cords for the songs, to working with the Suno AI to create the song with my exact lyrics and chords without alterations.

But the hardest part was writing about San Francisco. This i...

Waves of Wanderlust

Through the misty morning, I set my sail,
On a path unknown, where dreams prevail.
The ocean's whisper, a call so deep,
In its gentle embrace, my heart finds peace.

Chorus:

Waves of wanderlust, they carry me,
To distant shores, where I'm meant to be.
With every stop, my spirit's free,
In the dance of the sea, my soul's decree.

The cello's hum, like a seabird's cry,
Echoes the longing in the endless sky.
Each step a story, each not...

Chapter 105: I Wish There Was a Manual

On the first day of sailing from Hawaii, we had perfect conditions: smooth sea, good wind in the right direction, but not too strong, and excellent visibility. Al took the helm, so I sat on the back deck, took out my guitar, and began composing the songs I had written in the poetry workshop. I was in a jovial mood and wanted something rhythmic, so I played and stomped my feet to give myself rhythm and played the guitar to build the song.

When I was in the final stages of working on the ...

Joy of the Sea

From Shanghai's bustling quay, we embark on the northern sway,
Where the compass needle twirls, our sails unfurl to play.
Past the isles of Japan, where cherry blossoms lay,
A whispering sea breeze carries us, on the Pacific's grand ballet.

The isles of Japan fade, a memory profound,
As we chase the horizon's line, where sky and water compound.
Through the Marshall's tranquil realm, our memories are crowned,
With tales of ocean's past, where nature's bounty is abound.<...

Whispers of the Pacific

 In the vast blue expanse where the sky meets the sea,
Lies a trail of islands, ancient and free.
From the shores of Nippon to the atolls so grand,
A seafarer's passage through time's shifting sand.

 Marianas' guardians of the deep ocean floor,
Caroline's jewels, Micronesia's lore.
Isles of beauty, where spirits still dance,
Echoes of history, in each wave's advance.

Chorus:

Oh, sing me the song of the ocean's...