Chapter 5

The world continued to spin around me for several long seconds then suddenly I felt solid ground under my feet. I staggered slightly and opened my eyes, for the first time since coming to this world I looked upon something other then dense forest. I was standing in what appeared to be a town square. A few feet away a fountain was burbling away while shops all around the square started opening for the day. It reminded me of going to a Renaissance Faire back on Earth. The shop owners hawking their wares while performers acted on various stages, and somewhere in the Faire there was always that on guy shouting vaguely Shakespearean insults at random people. The town square didn’t have quite the same jovial atmosphere, but I found it strangely comforting.

A sound behind me drew my attention and I turned to see Serk stepping through the portal. He had a massive grin on his face, which was still a little unsettling with his tusks. He slapped me on the shoulder “Portal travel is rough the first couple of times through, but you’ll get used to it.” He said with a chuckle. Alvor and Zavra followed a few seconds later and the glowing portal vanished. Behind the portal I noticed a strange obelisk, it was about 6 feet tall and had a faintly glowing rune on each of its four sides. Before I could ask what it was Zavra cut in.

“It is a portal stone, each of the major cities has one. You can buy town portal scrolls at certain shops to teleport back here or to a different town. They are very useful if a quest goes badly, and you have to make a quick escape.” She said happily.

“What’s to stop monsters from coming through once the portal is open?” I asked still eyeing the obelisk.

“Only the creatures the caster designates can pass through the portal.” she said. I jumped back as a bolt of electricity shot through the obelisk. One of the runes started glowing brighter and there was a tearing sound. A portal opened a second later on the side of the obelisk and five wounded humans staggered through. They all looked a bit rough, and one seemed to have a broken arm.

“Run into some trouble Joffrey?” Serk said to one of the humans. He turned and gave Serk a friendly smile.

“Ran into a pack of hyena men in the foothills south of Brookside, nearly had us till Avery opened that portal,” Joffrey said.

“Sorry to hear that Joffrey, better head for the healer,” Serk said as the group gathered themselves together and headed further into the city.

“Are they going to be ok?” I asked.

“They will be fine, there is a healer a few blocks away that can set them straight.” He turned towards me with a smile. “Now than I think it’s time we turned in our quest and got you setup at the adventurers guild.”

“That sounds awesome.” I said with a smile. Serk turned and led the way through the streets. The city was a massive sprawling labyrinth of streets all crammed with Tudor-style buildings, some had two or even three floors. I saw multiple taverns, hundreds of shops and even more homes and everywhere there were people. It was oddly familiar having grown up in a bustling city. Though it was strange to see more than just humans moving about the streets. Pointed eared Elves, short stocky Dwarves, even shorter gnomes, and the occasional Orc all going about their daily business.

I watched several of the people as we passed by them, I noticed a few of people shied away from us and I looked down at myself noting the dried mud and black blood staining my armor. I could also smell a less then pleasant scent coming off me, a full day of trudging through a forest in armor, as well as the numerous fights I had, certainly hadn’t done wonders for my hygiene. I really needed a shower, a sobering thought hit me, did this world have showers or indoor plumbing for that matter? Everything I knew about medieval life, which came from fantasy books, movies or tv shows, said that they didn’t have that sort of technology. If you wanted to bathe maybe you could find a lukewarm tub to soak in. I suppose that will have to do, I just hoped the toilets weren’t too awful.

Serk continued leading us through the streets. Eventually we reached a large lavishly decorated building. As we made our way inside, I noticed the large sitting room with several people lounging about. What immediately caught my eye was not the large fireplace at the far side of the room, but what was hanging over the mantle. Above the mantle mounted on a plague was the head of a massive lizard like creature. I instantly knew it had to be a Dragon; its mouth was large enough it could have swallowed me whole. Its head was easily 14 feet wide and just as tall. It was covered in thick red armor like scales, long sharp horns curled back over its head, and its teeth were the long and sharp like daggers. I starred in wonder at the beast who loomed over me.

“That Dragon was slain my Horgrim and his group nearly 400 years ago.” Said Serk as he came up beside me.

“I can’t believe Dragons are real.” I said still starring at the head, Serk laughed and gave me a slap on the back.

“Of course, they are more than real alright. There are several types of Dragons, some good, some bad, all deadly.” He spoke.

“How can you tell the good ones from the bad?” I asked turning to Serk.

“Usually by the color, evil Dragons are usually chromatic colors. Crimson, like this guy, Azure, White, Onyx, and Green. Good Dragons are usually metallic. Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Copper. Dragons aren’t seen very often though. If you ever do see one, probably best to just run.” He said then gestured to a desk on the far side of the room. “Come on let’s get you registered.”

We moved over to the desk which was nearly as tall as I was. Perched on a chair was a short bald man with the most outrageous mustache I had ever seen. It stuck out several inches from either side of his face the ends curling back on themselves. I wondered if he was using some sort of facial hair-based magic to keep it in place or if this world had hair gel. He looked up at us and scowled, deep lines appearing on his forehead.

“So, you’re back then? I take it our goblin problem has been resolved?” He asked harshly his scowl somehow going even deeper.

“It has, and I would like to introduce you to the man who helped us in clearing out the goblins. Master Ardwin this is Derek Erlan, and he would like to join the adventurer’s guild.” Serk said gesturing to me.

“Hey,” I said with an awkward wave. The little man, Ardwin, leaned over the desk to look down at me as he did his eyes went slightly unfocused; I had the feeling he was reading my character sheet.

“Hmm, not much too him,” Ardwin said sitting back in his chair with a huff, “Level 2 and he only has untrained combat. If he wants to join the guild then he will need an actual combat skill. We can’t send people out on quests who aren’t properly trained, it’s too risky and makes the guild look bad.”

“Of course, I plan to get him trained up soon as I can. Just wanted to make sure you knew he had helped with a quest so you can get him fast tracked to join the guild,” Serk said with a sly grin.

“Yes, yes get him trained up and I will mark it down that he has completed his introductory quest.” Ardwin responded with a wave of his hand, writing something in a ledger. A moment later he pulled a satchel from thin air and tossed it to Serk who caught it with ease. Serk gave a small bow and turned to me handing me 20 gold coins, my reward for completing the quest.

“Alright boy, follow me, it’s time I introduced you to a friend of mine.” Serk said with a sly grin. He led us all out of the guild hall and down several more streets until we reached a large stone building, for a moment I thought it might be some sort of cathedral from the large stained-glass window set high above the door, but when we entered, I noticed the hundreds of bookshelves and the quiet polite silence. This was some sort of library; the ceiling was easily 60 feet high and almost every wall had tall bookshelves on it, a second-floor balcony curved around the room with more shelves lining the walls.

Serk spoke quietly with a man dressed in robes, then waved us on. We passed through the library's main hall and into a side passage. This passage led off to other rooms whose purpose I didn’t know. We reached a door at the end of the passage and the robed man knocked before a voice inside told him to enter. We followed into a small office, the tall windows of the room were all closed off by heavy curtains, and the office was lit by several flameless lanterns. A particularly small man was sitting at a desk at the far side of the room he was balding which made his already large ears look even larger and had a long-crooked nose, a pair of glasses were sitting at the end of his nose. He was leaning over his desk furiously writing something with an overly large, feathered quill.

“Yes, what do you...” He started to say then abruptly stopped as he took in the sight of us. “Well, Serk it's been sometime. What brings you here?” he said in high pitched slightly croaky voice.

“Pleasure to see you Artix, we were hoping to learn a bit about Realm Walkers. I know that is a favorite subject of yours,” Serk said.

“A favorite subject!” Artix snapped, “A favorite subject, I will remind you I am the foremost historian of all things related to Realm Walkers. I have made it my life's work to find out every bit of lore out there, and you know that.”

“Of course, Artix I meant no disrespect. We merely wish to learn what we can from the master,” Serk said placatingly.

“Hmm,” Artix scoffed, “Why do you want to learn about Realm Walkers?”

“Well, what would you say if I told you I had met one?” Serk asked. Artix’s eyes went wide, and he leapt from his chair. Standing Artix was only about three feet tall.

“What do you mean, you met a Realm Walker? There hasn’t been a Realm Walker in Elseria in close to 200 years, at least according to all my research,” Artix snapped stepping closer to Serk. Serk merely grinned and pointed at me. Artix turned and stared at me, his eyes were a blue so light they were almost white which made his penetrating gaze unsettling. He starred hard at me, and I got the impression he was reading my character sheet, then he turned his head to Serk then back to me and back to Serk. He kept opening and closing his mouth like he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words.

“It's nice to meet you Artix,” I said softly offering him my most charming smile. Artix burst out laughing and wiggled his finger at Serk.

“You all most had me with that one Serk,” Artix said turning away from Serk and striding back towards his desk, “A good joke but I am very busy, I don’t have time for jokes. If there is nothing else, you know the way out.” He started climbing into his chair before he realized that none of us had moved. He glared at us. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe that, that human is supposed to be a Realm Walker. He is barely level 2,” he said in exasperation. I narrowed my eyes curiously; I could clearly see that my character sheet said Realm Walker it seemed others couldn’t.

‘Only you can see the Realm Walker on your character sheet’ Shadowfire said mentally in answer to my unasked question. ‘Is there a way I can make that visible to others?’ I asked Shadowfire.

A small window appeared giving me the option of who could see the Realm Walker title on my character sheet. I selected Artix as well as the rest of the group. Mentally clicking accept I looked up at Artix “Why don’t you try reading my character sheet now,” I said confidently. Artix scoffed and put a pipe in his mouth he glanced at me as he moved to light the pipe and his hand froze. His eyes went wide, and he simply starred at me until the match in his hand reached his fingers and he yelped in pain. He flailed about and fell off his chair landing with a yelp of pain as he hit the floor a second yelp came a moment later as the chair fell on top of him.

I desperately tried not to laugh, and a quick glance told me Zavra was doing the same, Alvor was stoic as always. Serk moved over and pulled the small man out from under his chair. He brushed himself off and combed over what little hair he had left on top of his head; his pipe lay forgotten on the floor. His eyes fell on me and went slightly unfocused as he reread my character sheet.

“This is incredible, I-I-I never imagined in all my years of study that I would actually meet a Realm Walker,” he said eyes wide as he approached me.

“Well, here I am, not sure why that’s such a big deal though.” I said awkwardly.

“My dear boy Realm Walkers are chosen by the gods and sent here in times of great need. They are often great heroes with incredible skills.” Artix said almost reverently.

“Hang on, are you claiming I am some sort of chosen one?” I asked in growing horror.

“Well, yes in a way,” he moved over to a large tome on one of the shelves. He pulled it free and thrust it into my hands. “This book contains stories on Realm Walkers I have collected over the years. Nearly every time one of your kind has appeared they have been instrumental in stopping some grave threat.” He opened the book and flipped towards the end. “The last known records of a Realm Walker were nearly 200 years ago. She was a powerful wizard who came from a world called Earth. She and a group of adventurers helped destroy a powerful Archlich who was trying to become a God. They destroyed him and his cult, according to the records she survived the fight, but no one knows what happened to her.”

I stared at the book, on the page was a picture of a woman with flowing blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Her robes whipped about her as she cast some sort of spell, I noticed a black raven sitting on her shoulder and my eyes shot to Shadowfire perched on my own shoulder in much the same way. I dropped the book and began pacing, “This is a mistake…. I-I-I’m not a hero. I’m just a shy nerd who works in IT. Only time I have every used a sword was when I went LARPing. How the crap am I supposed to save the world?” I said panic rising in my voice. Zavra was suddenly standing in front of me, a reassuring look on her face.

“No one is expecting you to save the world,” she said softly, “you are just starting out, sure others who came before you might have been great heroes, but those are the ones we know about. Who's to say many others have not come here before you and lived quiet simple lives.” Her words calmed me slightly and I took a deep breath trying to still my raging heart. She placed a reassuring hand on my arm and gave me a soft smile. I gave her a half hearted smile, my thoughts still racing.

“Now why’d you go and scare the poor boy Artix, we just wanted to know what you could tell us about people like him. Did they have any special skills or unique abilities that your history books mention?” Serk asked.

“Well, um...” Artix thought for several long moments “It does say that most seemed to learn skills far faster than a normal Elserian.” My ears perked up at that and I turned to look at Artix. “How long have you been in Elseria?” Artix asked.

“Since yesterday, roughly 24 hours I think” I said with a shrug. Artix’s eyes went wide again.

“You have been here since yesterday and you already know four skills?” he said in disbelief.

“Is that weird?” I asked hesitantly.

“Weird? Yes, it is. My boy you don’t honestly think that someone can just pick up a sword and swing it around a couple of times and learn the Untrained Combat skill, do you?” he asked incredulously.

“That’s what I did, I thought that was normal,” I said with a shrug.

“That’s not normal at all, it takes time to learn skills even something like untrained combat can take a few days of practice with a weapon to pick up, otherwise every farmer with a pitchfork would know the skill.” Artix said in amazement.

“It did take me a few minutes to learn how to use Analysis,” I said hoping maybe this was a little more normal. Artix starred at me.

“You learned how to channel your mana to activate Analysis?” he responded he jaw falling open in astonishment.

“N-No, am I supposed to know how to do that?” I asked awkwardly. To my amazement Artix’s already wide eyes somehow went wider and took on a look of horror.

“You’re using a Mana based skill without properly knowing who to channel your Mana? Do you realize you could have accidentally blown yourself up?!” Artix said in alarm.

“Wait! that could happen?” I said eyes wide with horror. I looked at Shadowfire and asked, “Did you know that could happen?” he simply shrugged “You’re useless you know that.” I shot at him. “Ok so how do I learn how to channel my mana? I like using Analysis but the idea of accidentally blowing myself is horrifying.” I said to the room.

“I can have a wizard friend of mine stop by sometime this week, he can show you how to channel your mana, who knows maybe you will be able to pick up some other mana-based skills,” Artix said, “in the meantime I would refrain from using it too much, just to be safe.”

I grinned at him “That sounds awesome dude.” I said in excitement. Everyone starred at me in bewilderment.

“What is a dude?” Zavra asked.

Several minutes later Artix was leading us through another passage. He’d apparently had an idea and wanted us all to follow him. He led us to an ornate door that he unlocked that opened to a spiral staircase going down. The staircase was dark, so he lit a flameless magic lantern and led the way down the stairs. At the base of the stairs was a landing that we all crammed into as Artix unlocked another door. This one opened onto a large balcony with stairs descending into some sort of larger chamber. To my surprise the sounds of grunting and wood striking wood could be heard from down below. I looked over the railing and starred in wonder. The room below us looked like some sort of medieval dojo. It was a roughly rectangular room somewhere between 50-60 feet across. Complete with wooden training dummies and spots on the wall were wooden swords hung, passages lead off the dojo to other parts of this strange underground place. In the center of the room were several people wearing what appeared to be karate uniforms swinging around wooden swords in slow practiced movements.

A larger man was watching them shouting out corrections, I was surprised to see he wasn’t human. In fact, he was the most inhuman person I had seen thus far, including Serk. The man had well-toned muscles and was covered in gold-colored scales. His head was elongated like that of a lizard, and a pair of horns curved over his head jutting out a couple inches behind his head. He looked like a bipedal dragon human hybrid. I had to know what he was and used Analysis on him.

Name: Vorjun

Race: Draconian

Level: ??

Experience: ??

To my amazement I couldn’t see his level, I realized he must be a much higher level than me. Even from this distance I could tell he exuded power and respect. I shivered a little at the sight of him, this man was intimidating. We watched for several minutes until he called a halt to the lesson. As one his students bowed, turned, hung up their wooden swords, and began filing out of the room to some other part of this underground place.

“You have an underground training dojo?” I asked Artix in amazement.

“Of course, we believe in training the body and the mind,” he said as a matter of fact, then looked puzzled, “Do the libraries in your world not have them?”

“Not that I knew of,” I said with a shrug. A low throat clear sounded a few feet away and I jumped seeing Vorjun standing there, somehow, he had approached without making a sound. This close I could see he stood well over six feet tall, and his eyes were silver.

“Ah, Master Vorjun a pleasure to see you. I was hoping to speak with you about Mister Erlan here. I think he would benefit well from you training,” Vorjun starred hard at me, and I once again had the feeling he was reading my character sheet.

“He does have some small skill with a blade,” Vorjun said his voice was deep and commanding and had a vague hint of a Chinese accent. I seriously wondered whether this world resembled Earth at all. My map only showed me black outside of the areas I was familiar with. I really needed to find a map shop. My thoughts had wandered, and I realized Vorjun was staring at me again evidently, he had something which I had totally missed. I cleared my throat, “Sorry what did you say?” I asked sheepishly.

“I said I would be willing to give you a chance to earn a place amongst my pupils if you wished to try.” He said sternly.

“I would be honored. Thank you.” I bowed awkwardly. He scoffed and turned away heading for the stairs down into the dojo. “Come with me boy,” he said sharply, and I hurried behind him. “This dojo has been in my family for three and a half centuries. People from all over the world have come here trying to earn a place of honor amongst my pupils, few do. If you manage to impress me, you will live in the barracks and train with the other pupils. You will refer to me only as Master,” he said sternly turning to face me. I gulped slightly, holy crap this dude was intimidating, and I wondered if he had some sort of intimidating aura skill. He shouted for someone and a moment later a young woman entered from one of the side passages. She approached and bowed reverently.

“You summoned me, Master.” She said head still bowed.

“I want you to spar with Mister Erlan here, he has some small amount of skill and wishes to train with us.” He turned towards me gesturing at the young woman. “This is Sarah, one of my youngest students, she has been with me for nearly two months. If you can beat her, then you will earn a place in my dojo.” He said flatly then turned away. He sat crossed legged on a raised platform several feet away. I turned to face Sarah and was surprised to see she looked no older than 14. She was a couple inches shorter than me with blonde hair pulled into a neat braid behind her head. She had deep green eyes and a hard stare.

Without a word she turned and walked away from me. She moved to the wall and pulled free a couple of simple looking wooden swords. She tossed one to me and I awkwardly caught it nearly dropping it. It was heavier than it looked much closer in weight to my normal sword. I gave it a few test swings and turned to face Sarah. She was standing a few feet away sword posed and ready for a fight. Her stance reminded me of something out of an old Kungfu movie, the kind where they run up trees in clear defiance of the laws of gravity.

I raised my sword taking a deep breath. She shot at me like a cobra striking with speed and intensity. I had to back away to not get hit by her, barely managing to bring my sword up to parry her attack. She struck again and I awkwardly parried her sword leaving myself wide open. Her sword lashed out at me smacking hard into my hand, nearly making me drop my own sword. She struck out again but rather than try to block her attack I tried to duck under and come up under her guard. This was a bad idea, and I got a solid smack in the middle of my back for it.

I staggered back slightly panting, Sarah however didn’t look winded in the slightest. She struck a defensive pose and wiggled her fingers at me goading me to charge her. This was not going well; I was going to have to do something if I wanted to beat her. I thought back to all the old sword fighting movies I had seen. I flourished my sword like I had seen in the movies, and she starred at me curiously. I charged at her swinging my sword towards her arm, her blade moved to block mine, but I changed direction aiming for her face. She barely dodged it taking a step back. I darted in again striking twice in quick succession, she easily parred my attack and lunged at me. I barely sidestepped and brought my sword around finally managing a solid strike on her arm.

She seemed unfazed and twisted her sword around striking me hard in the gut with the pommel. I staggered back and she came at me again. I dropped to my knees, playing up the gut check she had just given me, and she lunged in blade headed for my chest. I knocked her sword away and stabbed upward hitting her hard in the chest. She staggered back and glared at me. “Halt!” Vorjun said in a commanding tone. Sarah dropped her sword and bowed. I attempted to do the same though my bow was far less graceful than hers. Vorjun stood crossing his arms behind his back and stepped slowly towards us. Neither Sarah nor I moved. He stepped between us still not speaking then turned. “Rise” he said, and we both stood turning to face him.

“You have fought with honor Sarah, replace the weapons and leave us.” She bowed and took the sword from me. Her soft footfalls disappeared a few seconds later. I stood as still as a statue not daring to lock eyes with Vorjun, this dude seriously terrified me.

“You have fought well,” he said simply after a few seconds, “your technique is terrible; it is as if someone trained you how to wield a sword in the worst way possible.” ‘Thanks Hollywood’ I thought venomously. “Still, you show promise.” He continued unaware of my thoughts, “Something about you intrigues me. I shall train you.” I looked up at him a large smile on my face. His face was stern as ever and he narrowed his eyes at me.

“Thank you, Master,” I said with a small bow. He nodded at me and brushed past me.

“Your training will begin at dawn tomorrow. I will have a bunk prepared for you in the barracks. I would suggest you change and wash up. No student of mine is going to walk around smelling like goblin blood and sweat,” he said without looking at me, then left the room. I stood there in shock my brain processing all that had just happened. A hand slapped down onto my shoulder, and I turned to see Serk who was smiling at me.

“Well done. I knew you had it in you. We are going to head out, find ourselves a place to get cleaned up. If you feel like it, stop by the Lucky Gnome Inn. That’s where we usually stay when we are here.” Serk said with a smile.

“Thanks,” I said sheepishly, “I really owe you guys for saving me back in the forest.”

“You helped us take down those goblins, so I consider us even. We will be around for a while, if your Master allows it, we would be more than happy to have you as part of the group,” he said holding out his hand.

“Thanks dude that would be awesome,” I said and shook his hand as he eyed me curiously. They left with a final wave leaving me standing alone in the dojo. A moment later a young man approached and led me off to my room.