Weeks passed. The dwarfs he’d brought back with him found a way to make their technology work in their home planet Rifa, beyond the waygate. They set up root way access in the other world. Taromi was one of the first to get chipped. John also sent in surveyor drones and miners. The more metals and minerals he got the better. He had teams of martial artists take turns guarding the drones. It was good training for them. High demons were a rare foe to encounter, and the weakened high demons found in that world were good practice opponents. His guardsmen were stronger than the average martial artist. They would have no problem dealing with the threats beyond the waygate. If they encountered a foe they couldn’t handle, they were smart enough to retreat. John had also laid the foundations for two forts and some surface to space weapons systems in the area of the waygate.

One day, Spiz entered John’s office carrying an elaborately decorated parchment.

“Spiz,” John said brightly, “take a seat. Let’s chat. It’s been a long time since we last talked.”

“That was yesterday,” Spiz scratched his head.

“No, I mean really talked. Not about work or anything like that.”

Luten rolled her eyes. “You just want to skive off work.” Luten was displaying more and more emotion lately. Fi had really changed her. Soon she’d be cracking jokes.

“Try your hypnosis on me. My mind’s become stronger. I don’t think it will work,” John said enthusiastically.

Spiz placed his fingers on his forehead and stared at John.

“See! Nothing! What were you trying to show me?” asked John.

“A dragon.”

“Hmm...A dragon. Why did you become a clown, Spiz?” John asked.

“It was just a persona I used in the Arena. Every gladiator needs a persona. You had yours with Wild Child.”

“Yes, but why a clown?”

“I like making people laugh. Most people underestimate clowns.”

“What about your family? Why didn’t you bring them with you to Fi?” He had already read Spiz’s file, but he asked anyway. He wanted to keep the conversation going.

“I was raised in an orphanage. It was destroyed in a war. I didn’t keep in contact with any of the other orphans. I guess I’m all alone.”

“No you’re not,” John shook his head vehemently. “You have Luten and me now. You’re one of the few people I can call a friend, Spiz.”

“Thank you John,” Spiz looked like he was going to cry. He was too serious a person to be a clown. “I’m touched.”

“How did you become the champion of Arar?”

“I fought for a living in the rings of Jiga. A duke found me and became my patron. I won many fights and eventually the emperor took notice of me and made me his champion for his contest with Oor. And that’s when I met you.”

John nodded. “It was a lucky day when we met. What do you have in your hand?”

“Oh this,” Spiz handed the parchment to John. On it were written several lines of weirdly shaped characters. “The native tribesmen have invited us for a festival called the Celebration of Moonlight next month. It is a great gathering of tribes. It happens every year of summer for two weeks.” This planet was odd. True summer lasted eight years and true winter lasted three. Spiz continued, “It’s a two week long celebration and it’s going to be especially grand this year to honor the chieftain of the new tribe...which is you.”

“They think we’re just one tribe? We’re big enough to be ten tribes. They should have held their celebration in John City. I don’t want to bathe in a river, or sleep in a tent.” Gone were the days where he’d sleep on the floor. He had grown accustomed to the luxuries of modern civilization.

“Grin and bear it,” said Luten. “We need to maintain a friendly relationship with them if we are to follow your plan.”

“What other plan is there? Kill them all? I’d rather do things the humane way but as baron I must show greater dignity. Let my engineers design a mobile house we can quickly assemble and disassemble. It just needs to house about a dozen of us who’ll be taking part in the festival.”

A month passed by quickly. John, Spiz and several of his officers flew by speeder to the gathering ground. There were tens of thousands of people watching them from the ground. John hovered in the air to get an idea of the layout. It was always good to have an escape plan in mind, just in case anything went wrong.

Once they landed, the chief John was familiar with, showed him around the gathering ground. They had built small huts to accommodate everyone. There were thousands of blocks, each divided by tribe. John would place his mobile house on a hillock above them all. Then there was the shrine, a tent with a golden idol placed within. There was the ancestral hall. The oldest ancestors were carved in stone, the later ancestors in wood. They had done a good job painting them. The backgrounds were all very vibrant and colorful. Then there was the banquet ground, a cleared patch of ground with tables set in the middle. The tables would hold all the foods and drink. There were no chairs, so people were expected to eat while sitting on the ground. There was a river flowing nearby where children were playing.

John watched the children play. They were playing a very interesting game. Each side had a fleet of canoes. There seemed to be five sides in all, painted in five different colors. The goal was to trap the other team and overturn their canoes. Once you were in the water you were out of the game. The game area was large, with many twists and turns of the river. Some parts of the river bed were rocky, filled with fast currents, and some parts were calm. Each side had six canoes. In this game, the four sides had ganged up against the fifth side.

A little boy was commanding the red team. He could not be more than five years old. Three of his canoes were surrounded by about eight opponent canoes. They seemed to be drifting towards the rocks. All of a sudden, two canoes from the red team came out at their opponents’ flanks and crashed into them. The three that were surrounded stopped drifting aimlessly and attacked one side. The other team’s canoes soon overturned, one after another. The little boy was a good tactician.

The red team went on to wreak havoc, using ingenious little tricks to their advantage. The little boy kept shouting out orders non stop. John wished he could understand him.

“Who is he?” John asked the chieftain.

“My chief warrior’s son,” the man answered through the interpreter. “His name is Abzulon.”

“Let me send him to the Military Academy on Oor. He will be trained to be the greatest admiral in all of history.” These native tribes were in the habit of exaggerating everything and John felt that his words would fit right in with their attitude.

The chieftain had a discussion with his chief warrior. “It will be good to learn more of your culture and technology,” the chief said. “You can take Abzulon for ten years. After that he must return to undergo his trials of manhood.”

“My own schools here on Fi are open to all your people,” Johns said. “The Academy however is on a different planet. You will not be able to see your son for a while,” he said to the chief warrior.

“He will enjoy being with new people in a new world. However, his father has some demands. He will return for three months during each true summer year to stay with his family. It will be his choice to continue going to your Academy after the winter years are over.”

“His family can go with him to Oor.”

“Their place is here.”

John spoke to the interpreter, “Teach his son Universal, and the customs and etiquette of Oor. I’ll leave him in your charge. Once he is proficient in these things let me know and I will send him to the Military Academy.”

“Are you sure this native boy has what it takes to be an admiral? That is very different from simply commanding five canoes,” the interpreter said.

“He has a talent. Let us nurture it.”

The chief warrior then said something.

“He is asking for a year’s worth of food in exchange for the years we’ll have his son. The tribe will lose a hunter after all.”

A year’s worth of food for a small tribe wasn’t anything much to John. He had expanded his agricultural land and built structures and machines to help combat the extreme cold that would soon plague this planet. He had set up ranches across vast plains and as more migrants came, the more he would expand. John’s land was far away from the native tribes’ hunting grounds, and only his communications towers trespassed on their territory. Hopefully, there would be no friction between their peoples anytime soon.

The native tribesmen held their celebrations. On the first day of the second week the chiefs held a gathering and started discussing various issues. It would be some time before John gained enough prestige and power to be called chief of chiefs, but it would happen some day. From what John gathered, numerous monsters would be stirred at the start of winter, which was almost upon them. The planet would turn into a hellish world, where survival was a constant struggle. John already knew of this. He had read the reports before arriving at the planet. With the defenses he had set in place his city wouldn’t have a problem.

“Winter is coming! My city has room for many people,” he told the gathering. “And it is well defended. You can bring your tribes there. My services however will not be free.” He couldn’t just let them into his city and eat his food for nothing. What could they pay him with? Not even with labor. Their primitive ways were not suited for his city. John would have to think of a price. “I will take a part of your hunting grounds as payment.”

The chiefs discussed it for some time and they began shaking their heads one after another. “The monsters gather more fiercely when they find a large human settlement. Things will be more perilous in your large city.”

“My men are strong and my guns are powerful. I even have guns in the sky.”

“Even so,” one of the chiefs said, “we would rather do things the old way. We thank you for your offer.”

John did not push it. They’d eventually come around. He didn’t want to take their land by force.

The chiefs soon finished their discussion and they watched the entertainment. A warrior was fighting against a monster they had captured. The monster was powerful, but the warrior had exceptional skills. John began to daydream of a near distant future. With a little bit of training he could transform these people into his elite commandos. With groups of elite warriors scattered all across the planet, ready to be mustered at a single call, he’d have a much better time defending the planet from invaders. He just needed more martial arts teachers and a big enough reward to lure these native tribesmen to his cause. He’d make sure there were safeguards so that the plan didn’t backfire on him.

The celebrations soon ended and John returned to his mundane routine of signing whatever Luten put in front of him. Then one day, it began to snow. Winter was finally here.