I wanted to draw Masa's attention, but hesitated. He came all this way to see the bird, so maybe he wouldn't want to be distracted. Turning back to the shimmer, I noticed it becoming larger and more defined. It was rectangular below and rounded on top. That was the shape of a door, wasn't it? It definitely had the scent of magic, and yet magic shouldn't be able to work here. Was I witnessing the process of a portal being created?

Without hesitating this time, I tugged Masa's sleeve. After a pause, he turned to look at me and I gestured towards the shimmering door. "Do you see that too?" I asked in a loud whisper, in Japanese again.

His jaw dropped for a moment before he closed his mouth and gave me a nod. We exchanged glances before moving away from the photographers and heading towards the door. It was located a short distance off the path, in the forest itself, and as we walked towards it, the shape became clearer and clearer. And then, something small flew out of it. The thing made a soft rustle as it landed on the leaf litter and stopped. It looked like an ordinary stone?

Before I could wonder why a stone had been thrown, a stick emerged from the door. It looked surreal to see half a stick floating around in midair. The person (?) on the other end waved it around before retrieving it. Next, a gloved hand came through and waggled its fingers. I finally realised that they were testing to see whether the portal was safe. Masa was frowning in thought as he kept his binoculars in his backpack.

I assumed that the portals had been created a long time ago, but maybe they were still being created at different locations even now? But why? Did they need more "players"? When in Nevda Town, I didn't have the impression that the world was in danger at all, and that was the only contact we had with people so far, apart from Feyril, of course. Wait, in the first place, what proof did we have that this new portal led to Shyi'eld?

In the next moment, a person stepped through the portal and looked around. He spotted us almost immediately and froze, then waved his hand vaguely in our direction before leaping back into the portal. I ducked instinctively, but Masa crouched and then dashed right towards it. Caught by surprise, I stood there with my mouth open as I watched him disappear into it. Belatedly, I glanced around to make sure no one was looking before plucking up my courage to rush in as well. I really wasn't dressed for an adventure right now though!

The scene that greeted me on the other side was Masa squatting on the ground examining what appeared to be a magic circle. There was no sign of the other person who had been there, and when I asked him about it, he shrugged and said, "They teleported away the moment I entered. I caught sight of four humans, and an elf, or at least, a person with pointed ears and blond hair."

An elf! Could it have been Feyril? He was the only elf I knew, or had seen so far anyway. I looked around. We were in a grassland with some snowy mountains far in the distance and not much else. I tried taking something out of my Void and it worked, so this had to be Shyi'eld after all. Masa finally stood up, shaking his head. "I don't think they will be coming back as long as we're here. Maybe we should find somewhere to hide to wait them out."

"But why do you want to talk to them?" I asked him.

He looked at me as if I had grown a second head. "For answers, of course. They must be creating portals to our world for a reason. And it would be much more convenient if they could reopen this one."

Oh. Now that he mentioned it, I discovered that the portal we came through had vanished. I wasn't too worried, since we each had teleports leading back to our base in the old mansion. Still, it would be hard to explain to my parents how I ended up returning to Malaysia without them. "Uh, so what shall we do now?" I asked. "You can just go back to Japan, but I'm pretty much stuck without my passport."

Masa looked at me thoughtfully. "You're not the only one. I had some trouble at the customs too since there was no record of me entering Malaysia, but well, after some discussion, they let me go into Singapore anyway."

I stared at him in astonishment, but quickly regained my composure since he didn't seem too concerned. "Ahem, anyway...our best plan is to wait for the portal maker to return and ask them nicely to recreate the portal to Singapore, right?"

"I suspect they were in the process of making a permanent one here," said Masa as he pointed at the magic circle. "Perhaps if we leave and come back later, they could finish setting it up."

"Oh, we could go back to Nevda Town and complete some quests to kill time!" I suggested, my excitement level rising, "But first, I need to get a proper change of clothes. Hold on a minute."

I visualised four opaque folding screens surrounding me and then took out a pair of spare slacks I kept in my Void once they appeared. Unfortunately, I didn't have any shoes so I would have to make do with the sandals. Good thing I had chosen function over appearance when deciding what shoes to wear today. Once I was done changing, I uncreated the screens and turned to face Masa. He noted my change in attire and nodded.

"I'll have to go back to the old mansion to grab my swords first. Do you want to go too, or head straight to Nevda Town first?" he asked.

I pondered for a while, then decided it would be more efficient if I went to check out the quests first while waiting for him. Part of the reason was that I was embarrassed that I hadn't asked what his plans were before changing. If he was going back to the mansion anyway I could have changed there, right? Oh well, what was done was done.

"Right, then we'll meet at the Adventurers' Guild," he agreed with another nod.