“So, you’re absolutely, positively sure we’re ready for something of this magnitude?” “You were the one that picked out the flyer, Small Fry. I didn’t want to go near it, but you’re the one who made that ‘great risk, great reward’ speech like some bigshot executive. You’re getting cold feet even after that? The way your courage fluctuates, I’m beginning to wonder if you have some kind of disorder in that head of yours down there.” “I suppose we have accomplished a lot relative to the time we’ve been here, but it would only be polite to let Nick have the final say.”

Yohan and Alzolami rounded another corner before reaching the hall with their room. After passing a few more doors, they arrived and opened the door, only to meet the open jaws of a guillotine gar.

Yohan squealed, took off in the opposite direction, and slammed face first into the wall. Alzolami’s eyes dimmed as she shook her head in a condescending manner. “It’s just Nick, you tiny spaz.” Yohan picked himself up and rubbed his sore nose. “How was I supposed to know that? It’s not like he was the one that killed it!” Alzolami turned back to the room with her eyes glinting in curiosity. “Yeah, what gives? You said you had to kill the monsters to assimilate them, right?”

Nick de-manifested the gar’s head from his arm and stepped into the hall. “Honestly, I’m just as surprised as you guys. Well, maybe not as much as Yohan.” “Hey!” “Just being honest Yohan! Anyway, I was a little confused by the fact that I was able to assimilate the iron rook from back then, since I couldn’t kill it without Yohan’s help. But I just assumed it was because I was the one that made the final blow. I was really surprised that I was able to get that guillotine gar. All the monsters I’ve ever assimilated before I came here were ones I’ve hunted myself, so I’ve never been able to experiment with cooperation. So, I started thinking that maybe it doesn’t matter whether or not I make the final blow as long as I have a hand in the kill.” Alzolami huffed. “Sometimes PK makes things simpler and easier, other times it makes things more difficult and complicated. I can’t tell you how many hours it took me to hammer out the basics of Black Shadow Girl, and I can’t help but feel that I still have a long way to go before I can call it complete.” Yohan walked up to them. “You told me that the best way to go about learning PK is going with gut instinct and what feels right. It seems to me that what you like, what you dislike, what you experience, who you meet, and where you go also play a big factor in developing Powers.” Alzolami gave him a staggering pat on the back. “Now look who’s an expert!”

Eight days had passed since their mission to Kudrougul. Despite sustaining the worst injuries in their encounter with the guillotine gar, Alzolami had been able to self-heal using Aura and was able to resume the mission herself on the last two days. Taking into account the reward of a successful mission and the profit of the one hundred eighty F-ranked gars, four D-ranked monsters, and the half-ton C-ranked guillotine gar they turned in, their total profit for the mission was twenty four thousand three hundred HCs, which divided evenly among the three of them, left Nick with fourteen thousand three hundred HCs, Yohan with thirteen thousand nine hundred HCs, and Alzolami sixteen thousand eight hundred HCs. The people of Kudrogul, impressed with their progress and the fact that they had the existence of a lethal new species of C-rank monster recorded, had also given them The Aquinator as a bonus. Alzolami explained that they could have anything they couldn’t carry stored in an area in the academy that they could request to have transported to a dimension that they had a contract with.

“It’s good that you’re more heavily armed, because a particularly risky contract with a big payoff just happened to catch our eye.” Nick, his curiosity piqued, approached Alzolami. “You got the flier?” Alzolami nudged Yohan with her elbow, prompting him to reach into his pocket take out a flyer, hand it to Nick, and rub his aching shoulder.

Nick unfolded the flyer and gazed at the text covering it. One of the oligarchs of Ualiqula humbly requests a team of highly skilled student Masters for work during a delicate political period. The party must have the capability to deal with any manner of danger from any manner of assailant at any time or place. The rate is eight thousand per party member. Expect more details after acceptance.

“Well, I suppose a student is expected to take bigger contracts as they accumulate more HCs if they expect to graduate in their lifetime, and any Master is supposed to carry out tasks even with the most minimal information. I say we go for it. Even if we fail, we obviously have the capability to come back in one piece.” Alzolami made a thumbs up as her eyes flashed in admiration. Yohan looked him in the eye and smiled, but in his head he thought: Speak for yourself, Mr. Adventure Enthusiast.

***

The tunnel they appeared in was dark, the only light coming from the exit at the end. The floor, walls, and ceiling were pure hard soil held up by wooden beams and rafters.

“What’s with the rough welcome?” stated Alzolami as they traversed the tunnel. “The office said to expect this kind of thing when we arrive. This dimension has a very naturalistic culture that rejects most modern conveniences for the sake of physical and spiritual enrichment. They don’t have any technology beyond the purpose of remaining connected to the rest of the universe.” Yohan kept an even pace behind them. “Huh, that’s kind of like my dimension, except for my uncle’s mansion. Nobody seems to care though.”

When they reached the opening, they met with a majestic sight. The land below the hill they stood atop was a series of green plains studded with patches of crops in all directions with multiple rivers crisscrossing throughout. Between the farmlands were long stretches of grass dotted with patches of woods with birds and deer roaming between. To the east was a series of plaster-walled houses with clay shingled roofs surrounded by a log and iron wall with a large gate providing access to the village.

Alzolami inhaled, contorted her body back and forth, and gently exhaled. “It’s a nice view I’m sure, but where’s the welcoming committee? Weren’t we expected?” Nick scratched the back of his head. “I suppose it’ll take a while for them to reach us after receiving word of our arrival from the office, given their lack of auto-mobiles.” Yohan sat on the ground cross legged. “I suppose we have to wait. We’re already contractually obligated to carry out the mission, and we definitely don’t want to lose all those HCs.” Alzolami tilted her head and started grinding her heel into the ground after crossing her arms. “I suppose that’s a good reason to stay, but if I’m forced to wait until sundown, I’m gonna spar with one of you whether you like it or not.” Yohan attempted to make himself seem small by curling up like a ball while Nick just rocked back and forth to the tempo of a song in his head.

A half hour later, after Alzolami morphed her hand into a shape disturbingly similar to a spiked brass knuckle, a wagon pulled by a yoked ox driven by a man wearing a wide brimmed straw hat and dressed in black and beige robes with leather strip boots came upon the base of the hill. He walked up to them and bowed in greeting. Upon closer inspection, his entire body was made of straw with rope tying off his joints and his face was made up of moving gaps in the straw forming eyes and a mouth with green light coming from within them. "Greetings and good day! You must be Mr. Xed, Mr. O'Mann, and Ms. Ender."

The three of them just stared for a moment. It had been a very long time, if at all, since they had beheld such etiquette. The man gestured to his wagon behind him. "Please, allow this humble farmer to take you to Lord Tomahk The Younger's villa where he shall give you a proper welcome along with a more detailed explanation of your assignment."

Yohan stood straight up. “Come on guys, we wouldn’t want to keep our employer waiting.” Yohan proceeded to the wagon in a dignified manner. Nick and Alzolami, after recovering from the psyche out, followed behind him without a word.

***

The cart ride was uneventful, though it was interesting to see people carry on with their lives by such primitive means. In the farmlands, the farmers fertilized the land by using actual shovels to shovel manure and scythes and sickles to weed and harvest the crops, all made of hand-forged iron and hand-carved wood. Beyond the gates to the town wasn’t much different. People swept their porches with bamboo and straw brooms, transported large goods by oxen drawn carts on gravel roads, carried smaller goods in woven straw baskets lifted by rope straps they looped their arms through, and wore clothes made of loom woven cloth and hand tanned leather.

After a while, they reached the large estate in the center of the town. The house itself was quadruple the width of the others and three stories tall. A couple rows of trees flanked the sides of the property, along with patches of flowers and a small pond.

“Thank you for being so patient during the long ride. Please, go up to the front door and a servant will see you in.” Nick, Yohan, and Alzolami disembarked the cart and approached the sliding paper door. A man in dark robes with tanned skin, a long beard, dark brown eyes, and shoulder-length brown hair opened it ahead of them and gestured for them to enter. “The master is expecting you. Right this way please.”

After following the servant, they came to a spacious room with shelves full of books and intricate ink paintings on the walls with a figure in bright purple robes sitting on a cushion with three separate cushions before them. “Please have a seat.”

After sitting on the cushions, the three of them were able to behold their employer. They had a horizontal rectangular head made of wood with a perforated section at the bottom and a glass pearl glowing with a purple light on top. They had hands made of wood with square block palms and rectangular knuckles, and had feet made of simple wooden planks with treads in the shape of horizontal rectangles cut into the bottoms. All of their joints were hand-forged steel.

“My name is Tomahk The Younger. I am honored to make your acquaintance.” Tomahk bowed until his head nearly touched the ground. “The honor is ours, your Lordship.” Yohan, sitting in the middle, bowed in a similar fashion and nudged Nick and Alzolami with his elbows to do the same before they followed his example. While their heads were low, Nick and Alzolami looked at each other and silently agreed to let Yohan do all the talking.

After Tomahk raised their head, Yohan raised his with Nick and Alzolami following. “Pardon my inquiry your Lordship, but I believe it would expedite our mission’s success if you would explain the circumstances of your dilemma.” Tomahk maintained their posture, but Yohan couldn’t help but notice his eye dimmed slightly.

“I suppose it would be most informative to start at the beginning then. My father, Tomahk the First, was the founding leader of Ualiqula and established all of the traditions we maintain to this day. Our lifestyle is far from an easy one, but even the statistics have shown that people in dimensions like ours tend to lead happier and healthier lives on average. Tomahk the First adopted my brother and I and gave us our names when our parents died in a landslide mere days after my birth. Upon his deathbed, he divided the dimension into two territories and gave the northern half to my brother and this southern half to me, this brought unforeseen issues.

“My brother always blamed our naturalistic lifestyle for the deaths of our parents because the incident could have been prevented if non-natural measures were implemented. This led them to believe that we must abolish the traditional ways and he has already constructed numerous industrial sectors across his territory and invited several unscrupulous and conniving advisors to streamline their efforts. The effects of industry reached as far as our southern half and caused numerous problems with our natural resources such as extended droughts, acid rain, and water contamination.

“I pleaded with my brother to cease their efforts and they in turn demanded me to adopt his modern lifestyle. Eventually, their advisors conceived an idea to solve our dispute once and for all. They proposed a one round, one-on-one war game between the most powerful warriors we can find with the winning party receiving sole dominion over the entirety of Ualiqula.”

Yohan kept his cool, but on the inside, he was panicking. “So, you would like us to participate in these war games, your Lordship?” “No, I posted a contract worth several hundred thousand HCs for that mission and have already received confirmation of a taker. The reason I have called you here is entirely different, but equally vital to our cause.

“My brother may be aggressive, but they are still a mortal of honor and would never go against their principles even if it meant forsaking their ambitions, but his advisors are not nearly as virtuous. I have heard from refugees of the north that my brother’s advisors, unbeknownst to him, have committed countless atrocities to acquire land, resources, and manpower to advance their wealth and even have plans to abandon them and this dimension once they wring it dry, yet my brother refuses to listen to me or anyone else on the matter out of spite. I have received multiple anonymous threats to forfeit the war game or suffer painful consequences. If they intend to follow through on these threats, then I must choose between my two great loves, my people or my daughter.”

This took Yohan aback, yet maintained his composure. “You have a daughter, your Lordship?” Lord Tomahk’s eye dimmed even further and they began clutching their hands. “Yes, but I did not bear her. They found her abandoned in the fields. I decided to raise her to be my heir, but over time I grew to care for her more than I care for my own life. It would destroy me if I must make a decision with my daughter’s life in the balance.

“My brother’s advisors have weaved an extensive network of spies throughout both territories and I fear they are too familiar with the Powers of my Aura Guardians, so I decided to reach out to a wild card element that any assailants can’t possibly plan for. Please, I beseech you as both a leader and a parent, protect my daughter against those that would do her harm!”

Yohan slammed his hand down on the floor in front of himself. “You have my word that my friends and I will guard your daughter with our lives!” After a few seconds, Yohan’s sense returned to him and he regained his posture. “So... um... may we see the child, your Lordship?” The light returned to Lord Tomahk’s eye and he unclenched his hands. “Yes, of course. Laquil, please show my daughter in.” The servant that greeted them before bowed and left the room. A few minutes later, a series of taps filled the halls as the door slid open and a small child entered.

“Daddy!” The child ran past them and threw herself into the arms of Lord Tomahk. “Daddy, can I have some jerky? Mr. La-kil won’t give me any.” Lord Tomahk chuckled and gently tapped her on the nose. “Maybe later, my little flower. Right now, I want to introduce you to some very special friends!” Lord Tomahk stood her on her feet to face them.

She wore pink and white robes, had green skin, a chubby face dusted with slightly darker freckles and had long hair with an emerald hew with light pink flowers growing around the crown of her head. “Rosey my dear, these people are going to stay here for a few weeks to play with you. Why don’t you go say hello?”

Rosey walked up to them, looked right at Alzolami, darted over, grabbed her hand, and gazed curiously at her face. “My name is Rosey Toe-mock, who are you?” Alzolami, in response to the unfamiliar situation, slightly stretched her upper body away from Rosey. “Um... I’m... Alzolami Ender. But if it’s easier, you can call me Alzy.” Rosey smiled. “All-see... I like All-see!” Alzolami’s eyes glinted with a fractured light, displaying her discomfort at the current situation. Rosey giggled. “All-see has pretty eyes! Let’s be friends!”

Alzolami worriedly gazed at her associates for aid. Yohan looked curious, if not a little jealous. Nick could only hold up his hands and shrug.