12 May: 5 days to Earth’s destruction

We cannot ignore the facts. The Elders were here: on this planet, Earth. We must know why. —Arustolyx, gnomish archaeologist.

I blew out a calming breath as the open purple windows disappeared and were replaced by a single golden one.

Thousands of Traits scrolled through the window.

I gulped. How was I expected to go through all that in fifteen minutes? I turned to Aurora in incipient panic. “Is there any way to sort the list?”

My ‘guide’ ignored me and stared steadfastly ahead. Growling softly to myself, I got to work rapidly scanning the titles.

There were so many Traits, and all of them had longwinded names such as: ‘raider of the hidden-most depths of the world,’ ‘holder of the sacred iron-tooth totem,’ ‘hoarder of all things shiny and small,’ ‘first conqueror of the underside catacombs,’ ‘valiant champion for the free rights of murkers,’ and so on.

Many of the titles were so arcane I could not even guess at what bonuses the Trait granted. I mean, what possible benefits could, ‘twirling rainbow under a midnight sky’ grant? Yet I dared not stop to read any of the descriptions. There were just too many to go through.

“Ten minutes remaining,” said Aurora.

I looked away from the list to scowl at her indifferent face. With difficulty, I bit back a retort. It would only waste time I did not have. I turned back to the golden window and forced myself to skim faster through the seemingly endless and nonsensical jargon.

My eyes began to burn, aching from the strain of keeping them focused for so long. Hundreds of names scrolled past my gaze. Most of them barely pinged on my conscious thoughts at all.

I couldn’t even recall words that rushed through my sight scant seconds ago. I was scanning the list that rapidly and in a manner that was, perhaps, wholly inefficient.

But trusting to my instincts, I let my gaze rove through the list and waited for my unconscious mind to spark at the right combination of words. What those would be, I had no idea, but surely something in the thousands of names would jolt my interest.

“Five minutes,” said Aurora.

I pressed onwards, even as inwardly I began to despair. Perhaps, I was going about this all wrong, I worried suddenly. Perhaps the smarter choice would have to forgo the list entirely, and pick Traits at random to inspect in detail. But it was too late for that now. I was nearly out of time.

“Three minutes remaining.”

The text in the gold window swam out of focus as the prolonged strain began to wear on my eyes. Unshed tears collected at their corners. Uncaringly, I let the glistening tears stream down my face and kept going.

It is no use, I thought dejectedly. I had failed. I had chosen the wrong tack.

But just as I began to reconcile myself to being forced to select at random, my eyes stopped moving—frozen by the sight of two short words.

I rubbed an impatient hand across my waterlogged eyes, and leaning forward, peered fervently at the Trait’s title. I had not been mistaken. I had read the words correctly.

‘Dragon’s Gift,’ the title of the Trait read.

A short, succinct title, so unlike the elaborate, longwinded names of the other unique Traits. I stared at it, transfixed.

“Two minutes,” I heard Aurora remark from beyond.

Not taking my eyes off the Trait, I willed the golden window to expand and show the Trait’s full description.

Trait: Dragon’s Gift. Rank: unique. Grants the player access to the dragon magic Discipline.

I leaned back and closed my eyes. This was the one. This was the Trait I needed. Never mind that the Trait’s description was uninspiring and gave almost no hint of benefits it would provide, I knew with bone-deep certainty that this was the Trait I had to choose.

Overworld’s Elders were dragons, I recalled, remembering the passage I had read seemingly ages ago on the Trials’ creators. And this Trait gave me access to their magic.

“One minute,” said Aurora.

I turned to face the purple woman, who despite her stated impartiality was beginning to look distressed. I smiled reassuringly at her. “I choose Dragon’s Gift,” I said.

Aurora’s eyes widened, and for a moment she appeared at a loss for words. But then she remembered the dire passage of time.

“So recorded,” she said finally, the words coming out half-strangled. She glanced inwards. “You have forty-five seconds left! Quickly, through the portal! You will have to choose from one of the neutral locations as your destination before the transition can be completed. Remember, you only have a few seconds before you lose control of the gate! Now go!”

I went.

Limping as fast as my crippled foot would allow, I hurried to the purple gate. Behind me, just before I entered the gate, I heard Aurora shout, “We will see each other again, Jameson Sinclair. When you have levelled up, enter one of the dragon temples on Overworld and you will find me there. Goodbye, and good luck!”

I lifted a hand in acknowledgement and stepped into the gate.

You have exited Wyrm Island. Initiation: completed. Current designation: Initiate. Resuming transfer to Overworld…

…

…

… transfer interrupted.

You have not selected a destination. Redirecting player to waystation 23,424. Location: Human Dominion void. Select a neutral location to resume your transfer. Gate forty-six will revert to orcish control in: thirty-five seconds.

I stepped out into a world of grey emptiness.

Whipping my head back and forth, I looked around. There was nothing to see in any direction. I was surrounded by billowing mists on all sides.

What now? I wondered frantically.

Before my worry could transform into full-blown panic, a translucent map began to slowly crystallise in the space before me. “Come on, hurry up,” I whispered, wondering how much time I had left.

After a full five seconds the map’s manifestation completed. My eyes raced across the magical construct. It was a map of the Human Dominion in Overworld. With no point of reference, I had no idea how large an area it covered, but humanity’s new territory appeared sizeable. On the Dominion’s eastern border was a region marked boldly in red and labelled: ‘the Orcish Federation.’

So, humanity had been placed next to its Patron, the orcs. My gaze flicked to humanity’s other borders, but the other territories lying adjacent to the Human Dominion were greyed out—as was the greater part of the Orcish Federation, I realised. Only the orcs’ territories bordering humanity were shown on the map.

There was no time to scrutinise the map in further detail. I had to select a destination—and fast. I scanned the many pulsing grey icons scattered throughout the Human Dominion. I assumed that they were the allowed neutral locations I could transition to. All of them were unhelpfully labelled, ‘unclaimed,’ or ‘unnamed.’

Damn it, I thought, where are the gnomish cities? Or even the elvish ones? It was my plan to enter one of the gnomes’ cities, and if I couldn’t do that, to choose a location as close as possible.

Yet with none of the gnomish cities appearing on the map, there was no way I could be certain of doing that now. It would take Eric and myself even longer to join up than I had hoped.

I was out of time.

Left with no other choice, I turned my attention to a grey icon, located on the far west of the Human Domain and as about as far as you could get from the Orcish Federation. I knew I would need time before I was ready to face the orcs again, and the distance between my selected location and the orcs’ territory might just give me that.

Gathering my thoughts together, I willed myself to my chosen location, a nondescript settlement on the banks of a river.

The map disappeared, and the billowing mist around me spun more furiously until they had transformed into a raging tornado with me at its centre. I closed my eyes and ducked my head against the winds whipping at me.

A second later, I felt myself being pulled downwards, spiralling out of the depths of nowhere, and hopefully into Overworld.

You have selected location seventy-eight as your destination. Exiting waystation 23,424. Resuming transfer to Overworld. Transfer will be completed in 5 seconds.

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