I put away my sword. My training session was over because I had achieved my goal of learning a new sword technique. I looked around but I couldn't find my magic instructor. I turned toward Kalistra and asked, "Do you know where Rijana is?"

The cat girl shook her head. "She left the dojo without my permission," Kalistra hissed. Her tail lashed out behind her.

I raised my hand to placate her. "Rijana has a magic item that allows her to return home. She likes to go back and spend the night at her mage tower," I explained.

"Even so, she should have asked for my permission to leave. Hmph!" Kalistra turned her head away from me. Her tail swayed dangerously from side to side.

"May I meditate until her return, Headmaster?" I asked politely.

"You may," she replied with a slight nod.

"I'll go sit next to Mof," I said.

The cat girl grinned. "Yes, you should definitely pay Mof a visit." Kalistra walked away from me; her attention had been diverted to a group of students practicing in the courtyard.

I weaved my way across the courtyard, ducking at times to avoid strikes from wooden blades, and finally reached the stone pond which held the electric catfish. When I arrived, I peered into the water.

Suddenly, Mof jumped out; the catfish opened and closed its mouth rapidly and created a "mof-mof-mof" sound. The pet whacked its tail against the water, dousing my face and chest.

"Ugh!" I blurted out in frustration as I spat water out of my mouth. I had forgotten how mischievous Mof was.

The big, chubby fish swam lazily around the pool, daring me to enter.

Unfortunately, I wasn't angry or stupid enough to chase after it in its own turf. The catfish was undoubtedly prepared to discharge electricity into the water and deliver a big shock to me. No, thank you! I waved my hand as if in surrender. "I'm going to meditate," I said and then sat on the ground next to the pond. I closed my eyes, adopted the lotus position, and began to meditate.

Some amount of time had passed when I felt someone patting my cheek softly. I opened my eyes and saw Rijana. "Welcome back," I said with a smile.

"Are you ready to leave?" the mage asked me as she helped pull me to my feet.

I gave her a quizzical look. "Did you learn the Gate spell already?" I asked.

Rijana smiled. "I reached Level 17 yesterday and returned to my mage tower for a good night's rest. I copied the spell this morning," she explained with a bright smile.

"Congratulations!" I said. I was very happy for her. After all, Rijana was my magic instructor and this meant that I could request to copy the Gate spell from her spellbook.

"Are you ready to leave?" she asked again.

I nodded.

"Okay, I'll cast Gate now." The mage walked over to an unoccupied section of the courtyard. She closed her eyes and started making weird hand gestures while whispering the incantation. Beads of sweat began to run down her face.

A hole, the color of gray-blue, appeared in the thin air before the spellcaster. The oval-shaped hole began to expand until it became the size of a door. Finally, Rijana took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She smiled with relief at the appearance of the portal.

"I'll go first," Van offered. It was a dangerous task because this was the first time that Rijana had cast the spell and therefore, the chance of placing the Gate at the wrong destination was high. He peered his head through the shimmering portal to check the other side. He pulled his head back and looked at us. "It looks like the spell worked," he announced. The paladin then stepped through the Gate.

One by one, my companions began to walk through the portal until it was just me and Rijana remaining in the courtyard.

By now, the students of the dojo had gathered behind Kalistra.

I turned to face the Headmaster. "I'm going now." I bowed deeply to her.

"Have a safe trip, Lawrence," the cat girl replied with a nod. While Kalistra was sad to see me leave the village so soon, she realized that I had my own timeline to complete my missions. Therefore, I couldn't stick around and spend more time to train at the dojo.

My fellow students bowed respectfully to me. After all, I held the rank of Journeyman in the school.

I finally entered the portal and Rijana followed behind me.

When I stepped out, I discovered that my party was standing on a small hill. Downstream from us, there was a castle on a moat. Nearby was a town with many buildings.

"That's Oxford Castle," Van said. He had visited the place as part of his Pilgrimage of Paladinhood. "Should we enter the town?" he asked.

I thought for a moment. It was still morning. My objective was to locate the Ph'laen Ruins. Was it truly necessary for me to enter Oxford to find a guide? Or should I attempt to find the ruins on my own? I decided to try my luck. I shook my head. "Let's try to find the Ph'laen Ruins ourselves. If we have no luck, then we'll seek a guide in Oxford," I replied.

"But how will we find the ruins?" Bjoukia asked. She was eyeing the hills nearby. It could easily take an entire day to visit each hill and check for the entrance to the ruins.

I raised my hand to placate her. "Let me try something." I sat down, took the lotus position, and began to meditate. I leaned heavily on my senses as a Spirit Magi to read the flow of the ley lines. At the Ph'laen outpost near London, I realized that the purpose of "unlocking" each ruin was to permit the energy to flow freely between the outposts. The energy flowing from the Londonian outpost was "Matter." Wherever the flow of Matter stopped would be the location of the Oxfordian outpost.

I expanded my senses and sought out the flow of Matter. Once I grasped it, I simply followed the flow and soon discovered where it stopped. I opened my eyes and stood on my feet. I looked around until I found the corresponding hill. It was to my southeast. I pointed at the hill and said, "There!" I quickly read my pop-up notification. "Matter detection SUCCESSFUL. +100 XP."

My companions looked at the direction I was pointing toward. They saw a hill similar to others nearby.

"How can you tell?" Bjoukin asked out of curiosity.

"The flow of Matter stops at that location," I replied.

The elven ranger nodded. He knew that I had extraordinary senses. And he trusted my word. He began to descend the hill that we were standing on.

Unfortunately, there was no trail to follow and our clothes kept getting snagged by a branch here or a bush there. In fact, it took a good portion of an hour to reach the bottom of the hill. Furthermore, we had the misfortunate to walking into a bunch of stinging nettles.

Bjoukin noticed and identified them right away. But he saw no way to walk around them. "Walk through them quickly and try not get to get stung," he warned.

Since Van and Bjoukia wore metal armor, they took the lead and try to hack the tall nettles in their path.

Rijana and Waverly walked immediately behind the two warriors while me, Bila, and Bjoukin were the rearguard.

However, I still got stung on my legs. "Status: POISONED. -5 Health, -10% movement." Ouch. Nonetheless, I persevered and continued walking through the nettles despite the burning sensation running up and down my legs.

When we were clear of these annoying plants, I raised my hand to catch the nun's attention. "I got stung and I've been poisoned," I said.

Waverly walked up to me and pressed her palm on my forehead. She cast Cure Poison on me.

My inflammation immediately disappeared and my poison status was wiped away. "Thank you!" I said.

"You're welcome," the healer replied. "Does anyone else require healing?" she inquired.

Bila raised her paw.

Waverly cast Cure Poison on her.

"Thank you," Bila said.

"You're welcome," Waverly replied.

"Let's take a quick break," Bjoukin suggested. He took a drink of water from his waterskin.

The rest of us did the same.

I used this opportunity to munch on some dried fruits and nuts. We still had many miles of walking ahead of us before we could reach the entrance of the ruins. And the area was filled with big oak trees and groups of nettles. I soon realized this would be an ideal area for an ambush.

As a precaution, I activated my Spirit Sense to check our current environment. I discovered that the forest was filled with animals! There were dozens of squirrels inside the tree trunks. There were hedgehogs and dormice hidden underground. There were also some deer wandering peacefully and grazing on leaves and vines a few miles away. Unfortunately, they were located to our north while we were headed south. Oh well.

I finally released my Spirit Sense. I checked my in-game notification and saw that I had received 400 XP for my detection. This was understandable given how many creatures were in the area and I had to discern their individual auras.

"Are you ready to leave?" Bjoukin asked. He had noticed that my eyes were closed and he surmised that I was using my detection ability.

I nodded.

The elven ranger walked ahead of us. Our formation had changed slightly. His sister, Bjoukia, was immediately behind him and served as his backup. Rijana and Waverly were in the middle as before. I walked behind the two while Bila and Van took the rearguard positions.

Bjoukin chose to walk at a slower pace. The ground was unsteady and there were vines and roots which could easily trip an unsuspecting traveler. The ranger made sure to point out these dangers and thus, we couldn't walk very fast through the forest. By the time we reached our destination, it was already late afternoon.

With the guidance of my senses as a Spirit Magi, I was able to locate the entrance after a 10-minute search. The entrance was behind another oak tree, whose trunk was enormous and blocked our line of sight. Without my ability to detect the flow of Matter, I would not have found the entrance to the ruins.

I held up my hand to signal for my party to stop. I closed my eyes and used my Magic Sense and Spirit Sense to detect any sign of creatures inside. My detection field managed to reach ten feet past the entrance. Beyond that, my sense was blocked. Well, this confirmed that the passage will indeed lead to the Ph'laen Ruins.

I cast a Light sphere and sent it into the entrance. Inside was a small chamber with enough room for only four persons to stand within. At the back of the chamber was an opening wide enough for only one person to walk through at a time.

Bjoukia and Bjoukin switched positions and the elven fighter led the expedition. Since I was the controller of the Light sphere, I was the third person in our formation. Waverly was behind me, followed by Rijana, Bila, and finally Van.

As we walked through the tight passageway, I kept the ball of light ten feet ahead of Bjoukia. Suddenly, the fighter raised her hand. "There's something ahead of us," she warned.

"Snakes," Bjoukin identified with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

I peered over their shoulders and took a look. I saw a bunch of snakes on the ground some 15 feet ahead of us. While I personally didn't have a fear of snakes a la Indiana Jones, I didn't want to be poisoned for a second time today, either.

The ranger turned around and looked at me. "Do you know the spell, Flaming Sphere?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I could cast Firestorm," I volunteered.

It was Bjoukin's turn to shake his head. "That spell is too risky. The splatter could catch on our clothes and set them on fire," he noted.

"I'll cast the Flaming Sphere," Rijana offered while looking at me since I was the party leader.

I nodded my approval. "Please do it."

"Lower your heads," the enchanter requested. She wanted to make sure that she could control and direct the rolling sphere once she summoned it.

The four of us ahead of her in the tight passageway obeyed and ducked.

Rijana cast the spell and a rolling ball of fire appeared under the current position of my Light sphere. She then directed the ball to move forward and attack the snakes! Her spell managed to engulf the majority of the snakes.

However, some of them managed to avoid her attack. They immediately started slithering toward us!

I cast Magic Missile while Bjoukin shot his arrows at them. Each of us picked off a handful of snakes.

Rijana methodically rolled her flaming sphere along the ground to ensure that no other snakes escaped her magical attack. She allowed the sphere to burn for several minutes before extinguishing her spell.

I recast Light again because I had been forced to drop it to cast Magic Missile. Rijana's magical fire had provided sufficient illumination during the encounter with the snakes. I directed the Light sphere over the former snakepit and pushed it as far ahead as I could.

"The passage looks clear," Bjoukin confirmed. As a ranger, he had the best pair of eyes in our party.

Bjoukia took it as a signal to continue moving forward.

As we walked, I took the opportunity to clear up my pop-up messages. I received a total of 225 XP for casting my magic spells. I gained another 100 XP for killing the snakes.

The passage led us to a balcony with a descending staircase which spiraled while hugging the wall. The stairs were similar to those in the other Ph'laen Ruins.

I sent the Light sphere up. I was glad to learn that there were no Giant Bats hanging from the ceiling.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Bjoukia entered the staircase.

We took our time climbing down the steps. I personally kept my hand on the wall because I remembered nearly falling to my death while using the stairs at the ruins near the Balmore Farms.

At the bottom of the stairs was a familiar looking door. I looked at the right side of the doorway and found the groove with a black stone inside. I inserted my right hand and pressed my palm on the cold stone. My status as a non-native of this planet was recognized. Two small panels caught my wrist. I turned the stone clockwise and the door began to ascend. When the door was completely gone, my wrist was released.

My companions waited for me to enter the room.

As soon as I stepped into the room, the black ball on the ceiling shot a beam of light at me. My body became digitalized and then disassembled a la Tron. I was transported to the control room of a Ph'laen base hidden on the moon. I looked around to confirm that it was similar to the other control rooms I had previously visited.

The room was pure white and circular with many panels, buttons, and blinking lights on the walls. There was also a map which depicted the locations of the four Ph'laen outposts on the continent of Britannia. Only my current location was still marked with a red dot; the other three locations were marked with green dots. This meant that I had not connected to this base yet.

I waited patiently for the rest of my companions to arrive in the white room. When this occurred a few minutes later, I walked to the center of the room. There was a nozzle on the ceiling and also a corresponding nub on the ground. When I stepped over this location, two beams of bright, blue light struck me from above and below.

A force field surrounded my body, which started floating in the air. A screen appeared before my face and it read: "Neural link connecting. . . Connecting. . . Established. Access to Outpost I-Kappa-8 confirmed. Command access granted. Command level: Captain."

YES! I was elated to finally unlock access to the last Ph'laen Ruins. Now comes the hard part. I disconnected my mind from the neural link and the force field vanished. Once I landed on the ground, I made eye contact with Sister Waverly and said, "Let's go back down."

I walked across the white room until I stood under the black orb. A beam of light struck me. I was digitalized, disassembled, and transported back to the base near Oxford. When I arrived, a bunch of pop-ups appeared on top of one another. Suddenly, I felt searing pain throughout my entire body. Here was the last thing I saw before my mind turned black: "YOU HAVE DIED."