"Honestly, do you think of anything other than video games, Layla?" Rory grimaced.

"Yes," the word rolled off her lips as she winked and wiggled her hips at him. She burst into laughter as his grimace grew into a mock-horrified disgust.

After a few minutes of gearing up and becoming familiar with their equipment, the group made for the slash of light in the distance. Erin took the longest, and needed a bit of help cinching all the bindings on her armor. The cave was roughly egg-shaped, and almost two hundred yards from the door to the rectangular shimmer of light they had mistaken for daylight. The doorway cascaded and danced with light, like sunlight on the surface of an ocean that wasn't made of water. It was disorienting to look at, like something that shouldn't be real, but floating like an oil slick on the surface of the not-water was the same circular serpent emblazoned on their hands.

"We all ready?" Jack asked.

"Good to go," Erin replied and smacked her thickly leathered palm with the brutal knuckles of her gauntlet, "Oww... I shouldn't do that."

The other three chuckled, laughed, and snorted, as she made a grumpy face, then turned her nose up and strolled into the shimmering door.

"Did she just-" Rory gaped.

"Yep. She did," Layla stood open-mouthed.

"NEXT!" Jack shouted as he dove through the doorway.

"No, me-" Layla was cut off abruptly as she tried to elbow Jack out of the way and disappeared through the portal.

"Madmen. Absolute fucking madmen. I'm right fucked," Rory complained as he tested the portal with a hand. Finding he hadn't lost any fingers, he cautiously stepped through and found himself under a starry sky, staring at four moons.

-----

"Are there... are there... are... four..." He stood next to Jack, both of them wondering at the sky above.

"Yeah, four moons. Blue, white, red, and green. All different phases," Erin stared up.

"Are you guys cold?" Layla shivered.

"You're in a dress, El," Erin looked down from the sky, "Did you notice this place has four moons? We're on another world. Another actual world, El!"

"Yeah, no, I noticed. It's just, I'm cold. Where are we?" she turned to look around.

Beneath their feet, an enormous circular stone platform, some twenty feet across, swirled and pulsed as the black serpent symbol turned slowly on its slate surface. As Jack watched the obsidian symbol revolved, another green panel appeared.

Seal of the Blood Brothers (17/31)

This seal grants the trait Mindlink: You can communicate with your fellow Chosen without speaking. As you grow more powerful, the range of Mindlink will increase. Seek out additional Seals to unlock their powers.

"Did we just get a quest?" Jack laughed.

The others simply stared out over the gently sloping valley beneath them, nestled at the foot of what was clearly the mountain range they were currently standing on. The circular slate of the Seal was surrounded by food, sealed clay pitchers, bowls of various seeds and plants, trinkets, and other offerings in various states of disrepair and exposure.

“This looks like some kind of shrine,” Jack offered.

“I mean, if you can zap people from another world and deposit them on your weird black animated gif plate, you probably deserve at least a little worship. Clearly some kind of intelligence at work,” Layla mused. She seemed distracted, still shivering slightly and gently chafing her arms with her hands.

“You’re still cold, El? It’s gotta be 75, even up here,” Erin seemed concerned.

“Mmm? Yeah, cold. Maybe Jack could warm m-,” she suddenly shook her head, sending her auburn hair flying in the mountain breeze. “Guys. I’m sort of having, you know, a problem,” she paused a moment, bringing up a green panel. “Yeah… I have a stat penalty. I, um, gotta… ya know… uh… eat.”

“Are you shitting me, Layla?” Rory snapped. “You’re thinking with your genitals right now?!”

“Look man, you’re gonna have to eat and drink and poop sometime in the future. I gotta get laid,” she seemed less confident about it than she sounded.

Rory growled and stomped off toward the edge of the flat, where the landscape stretched out in front of him to the horizon. To his left and right, miles and miles of lush green forests stretched out as far as he could see, but directly ahead, a massive city glowed in the night, lit up in mostly a clear, luminous white, but punctuated with brilliant colors that burned steadily, unlike the flickering of fires. The city stretched further than the forests, it’s steady technicolor radiance visible over the horizon.

Rory stood at the edge, shocked into silence, his brain slowly turning over, until he whispered, “We’ve got to be, three, four thousand feet in the air. Sixty or seventy miles to the horizon. That city has to be twice the size of Tokyo. Look at the shite laying on the ground round here: clay pots, wooden bowls, horn fuckin mugs. It doesn’t make any sense,” he shook his head to clear it.

“What do you mean, Rory? So the city is big? I don’t underst-,” Erin stepped up beside him, then abruptly fell silent as she looked down over the edge of the flat. “Oh my god,” she whispered.

“Holy fuck,” Layla broke the reverent silence, “They have lights, like real lights.”

As Jack finally joined them, his breath went out in a soft whistle, “Wow. It looks like Houston at night from the top of a highrise. I thought this was a fantasy world.”

“It did say they had some kind of magical technology,” Erin was still nearly silent, rapt in the glow of the city below, “What was it called?”

“Alabastris, the White Empire,” Rory replied, “It certainly lives up to it’s name. I hope it’s not too white.”

“They have elves here, Rory. I don’t think they’re gonna care that you’re black,” Layla chuckled, “Did any of you notice the other town at the bottom of the mountain?”

“What other- Oh, hell. It’s so small, and just a few lights. Almost like a little podunk outside the city,” Jack squinted at the town below.

“We should make for there first. Get a feel for the natives,” Rory’s eyes were hard as he looked down.

“Don’t worry bud, everything’s gonna be fine,” Jack layed his hand on the pad of Rory’s armored shoulder.

-----

The climb down the mountain wasn’t the worst, as they were for the most part, in good shape for their ages. Layla would’ve been hard-pressed to make the hike, but she’d gotten a shiny new body recently, and it was in far better condition than her old one had ever been.

However, the mountain was infested with monsters. Not wolves, or bears, or badgers, or wolverines, or even particularly aggressive deer. Actual, literal, fucking monsters. A green slime had schlorped out of a tree and landed on Layla’s head, immediately attempting to digest her face, hair, and horns, and smothering the titanic, echoing scream that bubbled out of her mouth.

“Shadow Dart!” Jack called as he stretched his hand out in front of him. A blast of writhing black flung itself from his hand, impacting the slime engulfing Layla’s head and shoulders from just a few feet away. A massive amount of the creature’s undulating plasmic body decayed into greenish ash, and the rest slopped down Layla’s shoulder and back in separate halves.

Critical Hit! Green Slime (Level 1) has been afflicted with Wither.

Green Slime has died.

Night Magica Skill Level Up

Your Mark of the Chosen has absorbed additional experience from Green Slime. Additional experience has been assigned to Night Magica.

“Holy shit! Did you see that?! I did magic!” Jack shouted.

Layla turned, slowly, the creak of her neck almost audible as she wiped slime and ash from her face, neck, and chest. “No. I was distracted.”

“Well it was awesome!” Jack laughed.

“You one-shot it, yeah mate?” Rory asked.

“Yeah, the status panel said it was only level 1, though. I wonder if that means we’re as squishy as the slimes,” he replied.

“What’s this?” Layla’s bodice squelched as she pulled a small, round, green stone from inside.

Green Slime Crystal (Rare, Level 1)

A rare resource harvested from Green Slimes. Grants the Acid property.

“So, we got a rare drop on our first fight?” Erin laughed.

“See, I told you everything is gonna be fine,” Jack joined her.

“I’m not amused,” Layla muttered, still coated in grit and quickly drying grossness.

They would hold "Everything is gonna be fine" against Jack for a quite some time.