Immediately after the after ring of Pahan’s clap disappeared from Alex’s ears, he found himself in a sea of tents. He surveyed the surroundings further. He could only see a couple of them from where he stood as the rest was obscured from his sight by the same tents that were closest to him. He seemed to be in an open space encircled by the giant tents. He could see hundreds of people around him. Immediately he noticed that while the crowd was quite big, they were dispersed in a circle around him. Looking down, he could see he was standing on a grey stone platform with a radius of around three meters.

He took a moment to examine the crowd. It seemed as though all of them avoided the platform while still glancing over while passing by. Some were walking with intent, while some were seemingly drifting purposelessly. One thing that immediately caught his eyes was that most people assembled around at least one giant tent. In the distance, he could hear different sounds coming, but the language was alien to him.

Taking a moment to calm down, he started to examine the tents in his vicinity, which by his count numbered above thirty, at the very least. Each tent was gigantic, at least by tent standards, and stood as tall as a three-story building—some higher. What caught his attention, though, was how different the tents were. For starters, none of them had the same form, shape, or colour. Some were pointy with a variety of images emblazoned on them, and some were of darker shades and with various accessories ornately assembled on the outside.

While mesmerized by a tent seemingly made entirely of peacock feathers, he heard a sound behind his back. As soon as he turned around, Sarah’s lithe frame appeared in his line of sight.

“That’s right, mindscape time. Two hours of induction in there should be about 12 seconds outside.” thought Alex.

“Are you okay?” asked Alex with a worried look on his face.

“Yeah, it’s just a lot to take in, you know,” replied Sarah. “Interdimensional invaders. Just…wow.”

“I know, but at least we’re safe now.” Alex tried encouraging Sarah.

Sarah didn’t look convinced, but Alex didn’t feel the need to attempt being someone’s emotional support anymore.

“If the rest touched the obelisk, they should be here in a couple of seconds,” added Alex, hoping that the prospective thought of seeing Claire and the others would provide some peace of mind for Sarah.

“What do you mean? Didn’t you wait for an hour while I passed induction? replied Sarah incredulously.

A split moment later, Claire popped out of nowhere near Sarah with the same confused look both Alex and Sarah had on them seconds earlier. Taking another moment to look at Claire, she immediately turned her head at Alex and almost barked the words.

“Explain!” Sarah angrily spat the words at Alex.

“What the hell is her problem? Is her go-to response when faced with something new or unexpected always to lash out? thought Alex to himself.

You should watch your mouth-“ As soon as Alex was about to chastise Sarah for her rudeness, he felt the pain in his shoulder flare to life. It took a colossal amount of will to stop himself from entirely collapsing onto the grey platform. A groan did escape his mouth as it was impossible to endure the pain altogether.

Immediately Claire rushed to his side and started supporting Alex so that he didn’t accidentally fall over. Immediately both Harry and Michelle appeared behind Sarah, and the first thing they saw was Alex, wounded and leaning on Claire’s frail body, while Sarah was frowning at him the whole time.

“We need to get him to a doctor, and fast,” worriedly said Harry at seeing Alex’s physical state.

At this point, the crowd around them started to part, creating a small path from the tents to the grey platform, though all the people currently on the stone platform were too preoccupied to notice anything.

Coincidentally, the first one to notice this was Michelle.

“Guys, it seems the welcoming committee is here,” said Michelle.

Everyone on the platform turned to the newly created path in front of them. Focusing, Alex noticed someone coming over. It was a woman dressed in a crimson red robe with white flame-like patterns embroidered on it. Alex looked at her face and was slightly surprised when he didn’t see a set of five eyes, as was the case with Pahan; she seemed perfectly normal. As soon as she reached the group, Harry tried to address her immediately.

“Hello, our friend requires medical assistance,” exclaimed Harry at a frantic pace, but as soon as the words came out of his mouth, the new arrival lifted her left hand as if to say ‘Wait.’ and started rummaging in one of the oversized sleeves of her robe. While she was searching, Alex noticed that the white flame-like patterns on her robe were moving. Not only did they look like flames, but they moved like flames as well. Alex wondered whether they’d be warm like a flame but decided it was a matter for another time.

A moment later, the crimson robed woman finally fished out five fist-sized bags and threw them at the group's feet with an annoyed face. Then, seeing that no one was reacting, she said something unintelligible in the same foreign language Alex heard earlier. Another second passed before she started to motion at the bags in an irritated fashion. She did a pretty good job of expressing opening the bag.

The group each reached for one of the identical black fist-sized bags and opened them warily. Inside, Alex found only two things, a black plaque, the form of a rectangle, and a ring, the same shade of black as the plaque, but with a glossy surface as opposed to the plaque’s matte surface.

As soon as she saw the group opening the bags, she made a coughing sound to get everyone’s attention again, and, as soon as she received it, formed a ring with her big and index finger on one of her hands, and motioned to the fingers on the other hand.

“I think she wants us to put on the rings,” said Claire meekly.

A moment later, all five of them had the rings on. Alex placed it on his left hand’s index finger and felt how the stone shaped itself to fit the finger perfectly.

“Finally! Took you a while, too!” bellowed the robed woman.

“How come we can understand you now?” incredulously asked Harry.

“Ugh, why did I have to piss off the sect elder right before our arrival? Now I get the first shift on arrival duties.” muttered the woman under her nose.

“Listen up, as I’m not going to repeat myself. You are now new residents of the outpost. Those two things in the bag will be vital to you for quite a while, so make sure not to lose them. The ring is standard issue gear for inter-world travel, as it helps comprehend other sapients' speech regardless of language. At the same time, the plaque is something like identification around here.” explained the woman.

“Speaking of the plaque, take it out.” She almost barked at the group.

Another awkward moment later, everyone was holding the plaque in their hands.

“Now, drop a little blood on the plaque to have it recognize you as the owners.” intoned the woman.

“What do you mean, blood?” asked Sarah, still fuming from earlier.

“Are you going to do it, or do you want me to lend you a hand?” coldly asked the woman. And at that moment, Alex could have sworn he felt intense heat coming from the woman.

Sarah’s face paled immediately as the heat made it hard to breathe for the group, and her, especially.

“We’ll do it, just turn down the heat; it’s hard to breathe” half spoke half groaned Alex.

Content that the group before her got the message, the heat dissipated immediately, leaving only the woman with an expectant look on her face before them.

The first to do it was Alex, not because he was the most eager, but simply because he already had an open wound on his shoulder. He let the plaque touch the mangled shoulder and smeared some blood on it. Immediately, Alex noticed how the blood that he spread on the plaque moments earlier was soaked into it.

“Great, one down, four more to go. Get on with it.” said the woman, clearly irritated at being stuck with her duty.

Soon after, the rest of the group pricked their fingers and let a few drops of blood fall onto their plaques. The same thing happened again; the blood soaked into the plaque, which, Alex speculated, meant that the plaque acknowledged them as their owners.

“Great, with this, my duty is done. You’re free to explore the outpost by yourself.” hurriedly said the robed woman.

“Wait! Our friend needs help. The guy outside said we’d get it here.” pleaded Harry.

The moment the words flew out of Harry’s mouth, the smouldering heat returned along with the annoyed look on the robed woman’s face.

“Watch your tone, lest I boil your tongue in your mouth.” curtly said the woman.

Feeling a certain tension settle over their surroundings, no one moved. A moment later, the woman tiredly sighed. Immediately she waved her hand, and a small bird made of fire appeared and landed on her forearm. The woman whispered something at the bird and sent it flying. She decided that the faster she helped solve the group’s request, the quicker she would get away from her duties.

“And now we wait.” grumbled the woman.

A few painfully silent minutes later, another individual approached them. He walked towards them with a brisk but constant pace. After arriving, Alex could finally take a better look at the man before them. He wore white leather armour, with a short black cape behind his back. However, what caught Alex’s attention was the man’s alabaster white skin along with the small pitch-black horns coming out of his forehead.

“You can’t just call me whenever you’re bored, Neyesme,” the new arrival addressed the robed woman, Neyesme.

She looked at the man with the same irritating look she seemed to wear on her face perpetually.

“Oh, shut it, Al,” replied Neyesme.

“That’s Alaric for you Neyesme, how many times do I have to tell you. And no, I won’t shut it. Some of us, unlike you, actually take our duties with a modicum of seriousness.” rebutted the man.

“Good, you have the perfect opportunity to show me how seriously the Healer’s Guild takes its duty. Enlighten me, Alaric.” sarcastically said Neyesme.

The man seemed exhausted from merely listening to Neyesme, but the stoic look on his face indicated that it was not the first time he was subject to this specific torture method.

“Where is the patient?” asked Alaric.

“Turn around, and take a guess, o’ mighty healer.” continued to goad Neyesme.

Alaric turned around with a swift motion and immediately approached Alex after taking notice of his maimed shoulder. He carefully touched the shoulder before taking off the gauze covering the wound to take a better look. A few moments later, he lifted his gaze from Alex’s shoulder to his eyes and made eye contact.

“A mundane wound, though heavy.” said the healer as if in thought. “Two hundred contribution points.”

Hearing the peculiar reply from Alaric, a confused look took over the group’s faces. While the group was pondering on what contribution points were, Alaric already pieced everything together. He immediately turned towards Neyesme.

“You didn’t explain anything, did you?” addressed Alaric in a half disappointed half accusing tone.

“I told them about the ring and plaque,” replied Neyesme defensively.

Following Neyesme’s reply, Alex could have sworn he saw blue veins bulging at Alaric’s neck. The man was clearly angry at the woman’s lackadaisical attitude. Taking a deep breath in, he addressed Neyesme again.

“I will make sure Elder Eastfire hears of your conduct while on duty.” threatened Alaric.

“Yeah, right. I don’t think that old spinster is going to care about some wounded mortal.” haughtily replied Neyesme.

“No, what she is going to care about, though, is how you tarnished the reputation of the Crimson Blaze Sisterhood in front of someone belonging to the Healer’s Guild,” triumphantly replied Alaric.

Following those words, all colour seemed to drain from Neyesme’s face. She took another look at the group and then addressed Alaric.

“You wouldn’t dare!” hissed Neyesme.

“That remains to be seen. For now, I suggest you take your leave and go suck-up to Elder Eastfire before she hears from me. Who knows, maybe she’s going to lessen your punishment.” gloated Alaric.

Taking a moment to consider Alaric’s words, Neyesme bit her lip and immediately turned around and started to flee from the platform at a brisk pace. Following Neyesme’s departure, Alaric turned to the group with all irritation gone from his face.

“I’m sorry for Neyesme’s conduct. She’s been a little frustrated for a while since she reached a bottleneck in her cultivation. I ask you on her behalf not to hold it against her.” said Alaric in a soothing voice.

“Now then, your wound. I said earlier it’s two hundred contribution points to heal it. Since your previous guide shirked her duties, it falls to me to explain. Contribution points are the designated currency around the outpost.” said Alaric while pointing at the black plaque in everyone’s hands.

“Every new arrival receives a thousand contribution points upon binding the identity plaque.” further explained Alaric.

Alex felt a small frown form on his face before asking.

“How do I pay you? The shoulder is starting to take a real toll on me,” said Alex feeling exhausted.

Alaric took out his plaque and brought it closer, reaching towards Alex’s hand, which was holding his plaque.

“The points are accumulated in the Darkstone, which is what we call the plaque around here. Original, I know,” replied Alaric with a genuine smile on his face.

“To pay, we make contact between the Darkstones, and you think hard about transferring two hundred points from one Darkstone to another. Try it,” added Alaric.

Alex touched his Darkstone to Alaric’s and concentrated hard on the matte black surface of the thing. A weird feeling entered his consciousness, and he instinctively knew he had a thousand contribution points on his Darkstone. With another effort, he willed two hundred points to move from his Darkstone to Alaric’s. An instant later, Alex felt his current contribution point number lessen to eight hundred.

“Great, now it’s my turn,” chimed Alaric.

Alaric extended one hand and placed it on Alex’s shoulder. A moment later, a word resounded across the platform.

“Mend!” forcefully said Alaric.

A white light washed over his shoulder and immediately started to remake the torn flesh. It was weird, feeling his flesh growing back so fast, thought Alex. About five seconds later, Alex found his shoulder in perfect condition, though the mental fatigue caused by all the events leading up to this still took a toll on him and made him feel incredibly tired, if not wounded.

“Well then, my task here is done. I’m afraid I must leave you. The Healer’s Guild is swamped as is right now with all the people that arrived before. Some of them were in an even worse condition than you. One last thing I should probably tell you. As I mentioned earlier, contribution points are the designated currency around the outpost. You use them for everything, from healing to living quarters, to food to clothes and so on. You get a thousand of them initially, but they won’t last you long, which is why you’ll need to earn more if you want to survive. The way you earn contribution points is, well, by contributing to the outpost. But. You can only start earning contribution points after joining a faction, and trust me when I say you don’t want to remain with no contribution points around here, which is why the next thing you’ll do if you listened to me is search for a faction to enter. It shouldn’t be hard, considering they’re all recruiting right now, even the more influential ones.” explained Alaric while pointing at the gigantic tents around them.

“Now then, I have to go, but I wish you all the best. Who knows, perhaps we’ll see each other around the outpost when you settle down.” cheerfully added Alaric before taking his leave.

“I didn’t even get a chance to thank him,” said Alex while rubbing his newly reformed shoulder.

“Yeah, why couldn’t they send him initially instead of that insufferable bitch?” added Sarah.

“What should we do now?” asked Claire.

“I think we should listen to Alaric’s last words, and look for a faction to join, whatever that means. Look at all those tents and all the people around them. I’m sure they’re all rushing to get recruited as well, which means he was not kidding when he said we want to join a faction as soon as possible.” replied Harry.

“Well then, let’s go try our luck,” added Alex.

Everyone nodded, climbed off the grey platform, and took their first step into the outpost, leaving behind their old lives and stepping into the unknown.