Kai and Sheila finished their meal in silence. The attack of the meat-covered golem soured their previous conversational mood, and there weren’t any other pressing matters to discuss. That wasn’t to say that the “gory” surprise spoiled their food; the large margherita pizza they shared was the best meal Kai had ever eaten in his life, and he’d be damned if he wasn’t going to enjoy it!

“That hit the spot,” said the young man as he leaned back with a sigh. The paper napkin in his right hand moved between his fingers, absorbing the residual pizza grease. “So what’s this ‘surprise #2’ you have planned for me? I know #1 was the arcade, so what could possibly top that, let alone this.” He motioned towards the empty tray.

Sheila took a gulp of her cup of orange soda and wiped her mouth with her own napkin before responding. “We’ve got a monthly delivery coming up that one of our agents is going to make and I was planning to have you accompany him!”

“A delivery?” asked Kai, somewhat dejected. “Well, I guess it’ll get me outside…”

Sheila curled her lips and cocked a single eyebrow.

“I’m going to a fantasy world?!”

“That’s right! We’ve got a really important delivery to a dwarven stronghold in a Heroic World.”

“Heroic, that’s the second best type of World, right?” asked Kai. “The one right below Fairytale but above Noblebright?”

“Hanna’s been teaching you well,” commented the rainbow haired woman with a smirk. “There’s an Earther who was about to finish her degree in metallurgy before she ended up there, and she gives us a lot of raw materials and research we use to equip our own soldiers with. So this isn’t some kind of fun run, this delivery really is important.”

“I guess that really is a surprise then!” chuckled Kai. “I didn’t expect to be allowed to start exploring so quickly. So when do I go?”

“Hey, you said it yourself that you need to start getting out there, so why not start early? And you’ll be headed out as soon as…”

“Sheila!” came a shout from inside the kitchen. Mario, the portly chef, ambled out of the hole that used to house the teal double doors to the kitchen and waved at the woman. “Your package is ready!”

“Now!” she exclaimed to Kai as she waved back at the man. “Go get washed up in the nearby bathroom and you can head out immediately. I’ll take you and the delivery to the portal room and hand you off to Rory.”

Ten minutes later, Kai and Sheila made their way into Portal Room 6, down the same hallway the young man had run through earlier that day. Behind them followed a square wooden crate 3 feet on each side resting on a floating dolley a comfortable foot off the ground. While he expected it to be making the old cartoony sound effect used for hovercraft, the device remained completely silent.

The space they entered was a nearly exact replica of the one Kai had come through with Artyom on his first day at TOAL. Dully painted metal panels covered every surface, and a small group of armed and armored guards stood in the station at the back with full visibility of every inch of the room. Set into the wall was a circular indent 7 feet tall, with square panels placed in a ring around it, without any trace of the actual portal Kai had seen the day before.

Besides him, Sheila, and the armed guards off in their corner, a lone pair stood beside the portal, consisting of both a man and a woman, both in their mid to late twenties. The gentleman could only be described as that; a gentleman. He wore a long, tan wool coat, black dress pants, and a colorful scarf whose hues ranged between purple and red. On his head sat a long, messy tuft of brown hair and a pair of wire rimmed spectacles framing a kind, grandfatherly facade, despite his apparent youth.

The woman on the other hand was dressed in denim jumpers over a plain, white T-shirt. Her shoulder-length black hair was neatly tied into a ponytail, and combined with her disinterested expression over light brown skin, made her look more like a moody teenager than her real age.

“Hey Rory, Sofia!” exclaimed Sheila with an excited wave.

The two returned it with milder enthusiasm.

“Lovely to see you this afternoon, Sheila,” replied the dapper man in a thick, British accent. “And I see you’ve brought a guest along with the delivery.”

“Yup! This is Kai Freeman, the one I told you about.”

“Just one second,” interrupted the denim-clad woman. “If you already told him, why is he acting so surprised?”

“My dear Sofia, what joy is there in life without an occasional surprise? That is why I choose to treat Mr. Freeman’s accompaniment as one!”

“Oh that’s right, I forgot you love surprises. Maybe you’d like it if I accidentally tuned the portal to a Grimdark World? Quite a surprise that would be.”

“I feel it would be an excellent opportunity to train the young man here in the art of survival while we await rescue!” he exclaimed back.

“Of course you would,” sighed the woman from under her breath.

“Kai, I’d like you to meet Rory Weatherford and Sofia Herrera,” said Sheila, turning to Kai while completely oblivious to the banter. “Rory’s one of our diplomats who we send on trade missions or first contacts. He’s really got a way with words.”

“At your service, Mr. Freeman,” he replied with a light bow.

“Kai’s fine, Mr. Weatherford,” replied the young man.

“As is Rory.”

“And Sofia’s our lead portal technician,” continued Sheila. “Normally we only need a single technician for Worlds we visit regularly, and it just so happened that her schedule lined up with today, so you get to meet her too!”

“Mmhm,” she replied slowly with a raised eyebrow. “What a coincidence indeed that when I’ve got those tier 5 runes to help study, I get pulled over on regular portal duty when any other technician could easily fill in.”

“Just one of life’s many surprises, love!” exclaimed Rory with a smug grin. “I’d say, take it with a smile.”

“Sure, why not,” shrugged Sofia. “You seem like a good kid, Kai. Stay in school and visit the labs some time, we might show you something cool. And nice to meet you.”

“Same,” he nodded back. “Hey, can you show me those runes? I swear, everyone’s been talking about them.”

“Sorry, those are guarded pretty tightly. Maaaybe I could show you some tier 8s or 9s if you can keep it a secret?”

“Uh…”

“Sorry Kai,” interrupted Sheila. “You’re not supposed to see any of them until you’ve studied the theory behind them for months. TOAL policy!”

“That’s just Gus’ policy,” retorted Sofia. “And it keeps all of the new finds away from the academic and engineering fields! I mean, how will they see how fun it is unless they actually get to take the magic for a test drive? Nobody’s going to want to learn only theory for months when the promise of magic is right at their fingertips!”

“You have every right to be frustrated, Sofia,” replied Rory with a sympathetic smile. “But you do get plenty of engineers and those already in-training who already know the theory from university. And we are on quite a bit of a deadline, actually.”

“Oh right, sorry,” Sofia huffed in apology before walking over to a side panel and inputting several key presses into its number pad.

Several runic symbols began to light up along the indents of the circular frame, and before long, a tear in space-time was born at its center. The rip began to grow, before the swirling mass covered the entire radius of the outline.

“Alright then, Kai,” said Rory with a fist raised to his side and the package now following just behind him. “Let us make haste, for there is much to see on the other side! Simply walk through the portal and we shall both be taken to our destination.”

“Oh right!” exclaimed Sheila, grabbing everyones’ attention. “Kai, you still have that flip phone I left in your room this morning, right? If you get lost, we can use it to find you, or you can use it to call any of us, even across Worlds! There’s an amnesia spell on it that makes it so only people from Earth can see it, so don’t lose it, since nobody except one of us can help you find it!”

The young man searched his pockets and found the phone. He probably pocketed it on the way to breakfast, and promptly forgot about it until now. He nodded back at Rory and Sheila, and followed the posh man through the hole.

“Have fun, Kai!” shouted the rainbow haired woman. “And try to get back in time! There’s still all of that cake that’s being made for dinner you don’t want to miss out on!”

On the other side of the portal, two lone lamps forged of wrought iron stood tall to light the granite floor in their warm, orange glow. The flames within them extended a few feet farther to illuminate the very air around them, but not much more.

As Kai exited the portal, he found himself standing between these lamps, with Rory and the floating, wooden crate to keep him company. Around him, past the warm glow, was a frigid darkness. One that not even the moon or stars could pierce, as they were not even present here.

“Woah, where are we?” asked Kai as he stared into the omnipresent darkness surrounding them, slowly turning his gaze around the room in a futile search for even the smallest shred of light beyond. His voice echoed off the rest of the room he could not see, bringing forth an expression from him that held concern and fear.

“Worry not, my young Kai,” replied Rory with a soothing voice. He turned to face forward, such that the lanterns were perfectly on either side of him, and shouted. “Friends of the mountain home return to greet their brethren of spirit! Would you have us?”

Before Kai could ask him what he had meant, the ground began to shake. It wasn’t an earth-tearing force, but strong enough to be felt and to make Kai pause and observe. He turned in the direction Rory had made his address, and looked. There was, of course, blackness. But then there was less blackness. As seconds ticked by, the darkness faded and was replaced by a third glow. Then a fourth, and a fifth, each new light coming closer and closer to the duo.

“And there is our answer,” softly chuckled Rory, in what sounded almost like a whisper. “Come now, Kai. We mustn't keep our hosts waiting!”

The young man nodded along, and followed his new chaperone through the now fully illuminated path towards the first of the new sources of light. It didn’t take long, and at their destination awaited a relatively straight tunnel carved into a granite wall. The simple path did little to impress Kai after the speech and light show, but for what he saw once he exited, it blew all of his experiences so far out of the water.

Before him lay a gargantuan city. Stone buildings reminiscent of skyscrapers in their imposingness rather than height, rose into the air to blot out the sun. Men and women bustled through the streets, their footsteps on the stone-paved floor and loudly exchanged words drowned out any other sounds in the environment. And… no, that wasn’t right. Kai rubbed at his eyes and took an even closer look.

The buildings weren’t merely built of stone, that would imply they were constructed with laid bricks bound with mortar. No, these buildings were entirely hewn from stone, carved out of a single, continuous block of the material! And there was no sun to blot. What Kai thought was a bright, blue sky wasn’t that at all. Many fat specks and streaks of cyan light filtered through from above them, and only with a keen eye could anyone make its source out to be a bioluminescent plant or fungus.

The hustle and bustle wasn’t because of how many people there were, it was because of the echoes of the sounds of life cascading off the impenetrable walls and ceiling around them. And those weren’t people. They were much too short, and their beards much too long and intricate.

“Kai Freeman,” began Rory. “I welcome you to the Dwarven Stronghold of Stony Braids! I promise you, it sounds much more impressive in their native language.”

“Uh huh,” replied a wide-eyed Kai with little regard to his escort’s apology. “Don’t worry, this place is already impressive enough.”

“It most certainly is. I don’t believe I’ll ever get used to seeing this place myself. Now come along, we do have a mission to get to, and you can ogle the sights along the way.”

The senior of the two started down the street they’d found themselves on, with Kai trying to quickly catch up once he noticed he was being left behind. The two made their way down many winding avenues that didn’t require paving, as they were hewn from the very stone as the rest of the town and its structures were, though with various patterns to mimic a laid brick-like pattern. Despite the blue bioluminescent glow on the ceiling illuminating the otherwise rocky sky and the orange street lamps brightening their path, the entire world around them felt dim.

Perhaps it was the fact that they were underground, surrounded on all sides by sheer granite walls and a ceiling of stone? Kai gulped. It felt more like an oversized coffin, than anything else.

“You alright there, old bean?” asked Rory, placing a reassuring hand on Kai’s shoulder. “You look positively claustrophobic!”

“Not me,” quickly replied Kai, puffing out his chest.

“Very well then, but if you do feel a little cramped in, simply stare ahead and look away from the ceiling and walls. The city is big enough that it should get rid of the sensation if you can tune everything else out.”

The teen nodded in response, keeping his eyes fixed ahead of him. As the two continued towards their destination, Kai’s self-imposed blinds forced his attention away from the grandioseness of the dwarven stronghold and onto the more mundane happenings at street level.

At first he didn’t notice with his eyes so high, but the people around him were… short. Really short. Rory had said that this was a dwarven stronghold, after all, and that must’ve meant that these people were dwarves. As in the actual fantasy race! Kai stared at them with wide eyes, trying to wrap his head around the physique of the creatures walking around him.

“Don’t stare like that,” softly snapped Rory. “It’s quite rude, you know. I’m sure you wouldn’t like to be sized up like a piece of meat.”

“Oh, sorry,” replied Kai with a slight frown. He blinked several times to force his eyelids back under his control, and into a more polite configuration.

Of course, he didn’t stop taking in the strange people around him. Most of them, men and women included, only reached up to his shoulders at their tallest, and that was only thanks to heads full of flowing hair. Hair of all colors! Orange and light red being some of the most common, followed by black, tan, and a few dirty blondes thrown in the mix, most of them free-flowing or tied in intricate braids.

And that wasn’t to say anything about their beards. It was a feature exclusive to the men, the luxurious manes flowing almost as long as their head hair, also woven into a series of small locks amongst masses of loose strands or one massive plait. While the women had relatively clean chins, they made up for it by tying their existing hair around their heads, such that the braids reached down and were tied together at their jawlines.

From Kai’s perspective, their hair was the defining feature of the dwarves here. Taking his focus off the numerous colors and designs, he was able to take in their other physical characteristics. The faces of these people held an inner strength and pride he’d only seen back home in the members of his school’s varsity sports teams whenever they won a game, and their bodies were built like his school’s varsity football team’s linebackers, incredibly stout and muscular, even with the occasional layer of fat on their stomachs. The dwarven women, on the other hand, generally had leaner builds with a thin yet tightly wound layer of muscle and occasional fat over them. Kind of like the cheerleaders from his school… Wow, Kai really needed to get a better perspective of the world beyond school. Or Worlds, to be precise.

He shook his head to dismiss the awkwardness from the sentiment. He was here for exactly that reason, after all. From now on, his comparisons would probably be based around these dwarves! Yeah, like how the two dwarves blocking the road with their carts stood straight as they screamed at each other angrily, like… a pair of angry dwarves! Right. Well, this was just his first foray after all, there’d be more in the future.

“What the ‘ell do you think yeer doin’?” shouted the first dwarf standing beside the cart collision, in what could only be described as a thick, Scottish accent.

“What am I doin’? What the ‘ell are you doin’?!” shouted the other in a similar elocution as he puffed out his chest and tried standing over the first. “I was only gettin’ outta the way from yer pet mole!”

“Mah pet mole? The damned thing is yours! I saw it jumpin’ out from under yeer cart!”

“My cart?! It was obviously comin’ from under your’s!”

“My fist is gonna come outta your rear end if you don’ fix my cart!”

“And my boot’s gonna do the same to your mouth if ye don’ do somethin’ about mine!”

Kai stared at the two as they continued their tirades and began rolling up their sleeves. Were they really going to-

The second dwarf threw a speeding punch at the first, and connected with his jaw. Kai could swear he felt the impact from where he was standing 10 feet away. The victim of the sucker punch reeled back and stumbled half a step, but quickly caught himself and lifted his foot just as quickly as the other’s fist had come. The kick connected, but was blocked by a burly forearm.

The exchange of blows continued for some time, long enough that those who’d paused to watch the sudden brawl began to grow bored and wandered off back to their previous business. Even Kai and Rory, who’d been taken by surprise at the violent spectacle, were beginning to feel the dullness of the event wearing out its welcome.

“Very well then, Kai. I do believe we ought to get back to work,” whispered Rory in a dull voice.

“Yeah,” replied his young ward. “I’ve seen fights go down before, but they usually don’t last this long.”

“Those are levels for you. Once attributes such as fortitude and defense get high enough, fights tend to drag on quite a bit. Sure, attack can scale with them, but as far as I’ve seen, it tends not to do so much unless you focus on a combat class. Thus, this is what most brawls tend to devolve into.”

“Oh right, Ms. Neal said it was like an RPG from back home, but I didn’t get anything about the specifics. So what are we talking about here? Old school tabletop or modern video games? If those kids from back at school were able to get to the 60s, it’s probably going to be something more modern with the difficulty set to easy.”

“Well, it depends, actually,” shrugged Rory.

“What? How does it depend?”

“It appears your teacher has left out a very important detail. Every World tends to have its own System in place, each with its own unique quirks, Attributes, Skills, Classes… my goodness, I could just keep on going!”

“Seriously?!” asked an incredulous Kai. “Then what’s this place like?”

“Hmm, it has all of the above I’ve listed, though I don’t happen to be too knowledgeable on the specifics, on account of how little time I spend here. I for one happen to be a [Diplomat], level 23 to be precise. I have a small selection of Skills to go along with it, both passive ones that are always in effect as well as active ones I need only call by thought to activate.”

“Hey, how did you do that thing with the brackets?” asked Kai.

“I’m sorry?”

“When you called yourself a [Diplomat], it had some kind of an effect on it; I just did it too! Seriously, how does that work?”

“I… don’t believe I know what you’re talking about.”

“It’s like there’s some kind of weird emphasis when either of us say [Diplomat] that wasn’t there on the other side of the portal.”

“Hmm, I don’t think I’ve really noticed such a thing. Could it simply be the acoustics of the stronghold?”

“Who knows, maybe? [Diplomat]. Dip-lomat. Diplo. Mat. [Diplomat]. Eh, whatever,” shrugged Kai as he decided to change the subject. “So how did you end up here, anyway? At TOAL, I mean.”

“Well it all started when I was back on Earth. I was crossing the street one day to get to work, I was interning at the parliament building in jolly old England, and I was about to be struck by a lorry! But as I closed my eyes, I found myself in a completely different World!”

“Well, I understood some of those words,” replied Kai with a frown.

“Oh, my apologies! I forget you colonial upstarts aren’t fully versed in the Queen’s Proper English, and whatnot.” chuckled the posh gentleman. “To put it in ‘American’, I was on my way to my part-time job at the British equivalent of the Capitol building where Congress does its business, and I was almost hit by a truck!”

“Holy shit,” responded Kai, not sure how else to express his surprise at Rory’s apparent origin story. “Did it hurt?”

“Luckily for me, I happened to be spirited away right before impact, so there was not a scratch on me!”

Kai breathed a sigh of relief.

“Your sympathy is much appreciated, nonetheless,” the chaperone said with a smile. “Anyway, I found myself brought to a Noblebright World where I was tasked with defeating the resident Dark Lord. They’d turned the whole place topsy-turvy with an incessant war, both physical and informational, keeping the threats against them separate thanks to the might of the pen.”

“And you showed him the might of your sword?” asked Kai with a laugh.

“Aha, of course not! Why do you think I’m a diplomat for TOAL, instead of a soldier? I used my words against the Dark Lord’s, in a battle of propaganda! Eventually, I was able to break through to the rest of the Kingdoms and create a united front against our common enemy, while weakening our adversary’s own power base thanks to the same medicine they were used to dispensing so flippantly!”

“Sounds a lot like what Gus went through.”

“Perhaps, but his feats were all in the realm of political manipulation, rather than spreading words of kindness and unity. Of course he had the bigger challenge, what with being sent to a Gilded World, but not even he could brag about being responsible for changing an entire World’s classification all by himself!”

“So it’s no longer Noblebright?” asked Kai.

“Not anymore!” Rory beamed with pride. “The alliance I was able to form of the major Kingdoms continues to this day, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity for all! The World I called home during my stay is now a Heroic World.”

“Damn, you influenced an entire World? And here I am trying to just get a high score at the arcade,” replied Kai with a frown.

“Worry not, old bean,” replied Rory with another shoulder pat. “One does not need to play hero to change the world. If you choose to settle down in a nice Fairytale or Heroic World yourself, I’m sure you can put your mind and experiences to use in order to find something to improve! Could be the general way of life, such as by introducing indoor plumbing or electricity! Or perhaps communication with the radio? The possibilities are endless!”

“Mhm,” Kai nodded along, having lost his interest in the conversation after it turned away from Rory’s battle against his Dark Lord. Kai wondered what he had to do to get some kind of big bad for himself? Maybe he’d find one eventually, but for now, he figured it would be best to start with what he had. And what he had was the dwarven stronghold around him.