Excerpt from the second draft of An Earthling’s Guide to the Larger Universe

Invasion Portals

The simplest way to create an Invasion Portal is to use a properly-created Invasion Crystal. An Invasion Crystal can be created by an appropriate craftsman (a Crystal Enchanter with the appropriate Affinity and Concept - this is very rare) or found in a dungeon (more common, but still quite rare). An Invasion Portal can also be directly created by a Portal Mage (usually someone with a high Space affinity, though Void is well known to be nearly as good - this may be due to Affinity overlap, see the Affinity section for details). They can be used to reach (“invade”) a world, whether or not the traveler is permitted to go there, even if there is no linked portal in the portal network.

No matter how the Invasion Portal is created, they come in different grades; the lowest grade is used to reach worlds that have not established any form of a World Shield …

Serenity felt the mana flow into him as soon as he stepped through the portal. It wasn’t as strong as even a weak Earth ley line, but it was far stronger than the normal mana field on Earth. Some of the aches he’d been getting used to from being continually mana- and essence- starved eased a bit.

The other side of the portal was dry. If it wasn’t in a desert, it was probably close to one. Unfortunately, it was also inside a surprisingly large building. It had clearly not been built with Traa stature in mind; an adult dragon would probably have been comfortable, though he wouldn’t have been able to fly.

The walls were stone blocks and the floor was solid stone, covered in scrape marks and scratches. The ceiling was also stone, but it curved upwards in a vaulted shape; Serenity wondered if that was for aesthetic or practical reasons before he remembered why he was here and looked back at Longsight.

Longsight was already well ahead of him. Serenity stepped forward quickly, trying to catch up.

As they made their way through the large, apparently empty room, Serenity kept his senses alert. He noticed small movements several times; there were clearly other Traa in the room, but like Longsight had before, they were trying to stay hidden.

Longsight took Serenity to the left, then through an archway and down a corridor that was wide enough that Serenity would have called it a room if he hadn’t just come from a far larger room. They passed several more archways before Longsight led the way into another room as large as the first. The floor of this room was slightly lower and had an inch-deep layer of sand over the stone. Serenity looked around and saw a set of seats at the far end of the room.

It had to be a competition area of some sort, which meant it was probably the location for the “test” Longsight had told him about. “I hope all of our diplomats won’t have to go through this.”

Serenity didn’t even realize he’d spoken aloud until Longsight replied. “No. We are testing if you are worthy of making an agreement with. There are always weaker ones who are useful, but the leader must be strong enough to be worth trading with. You proposed this, you must be able to support it. Yours is a world under siege; if you are simply going to lose it or trying to trade because you are weak, we should take and not trade. Now, let us get to the trial.”

“You will fight until you yield, die, or complete the trial. Do not kill the beasts unless you wish to pay for them. When they are hurt enough, their beastmaster will call them back and we will send in the next beast.” Longsight scurried away towards the viewing stand.

Well, that definitely answered what sort of trial this was going to be. Serenity started to reach for his naginata, but changed his mind. He’d start with the throwing ax and his shield. It meant he’d lack the reach of the naginata, but he could throw and recall the ax and he couldn’t use the shield while also using the naginata. Defense seemed like the better option for a fight where he didn’t want to kill his opponent.

It was too bad he didn’t yet have a true magical shield he could work with, but the best he could build and maintain would be like the mental shield he’d build for Jacob - paper thin and not able to stop much. If he were in a ley line, he could probably pull enough mana in to maintain a shield, but even here the mana density simply wasn’t high enough.

A faint clicking noise drew Serenity’s attention and he saw a wolf pacing into the arena. As initial combatants went, that was almost too weak unless it was more than a simple wolf. With their enhancement caves, he certainly couldn’t count on it being just a wolf; it would probably have something special going for it, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Without being able to tell the difference from a normal wolf, he knew Basic Analyze wouldn’t give him anything useful, but he tried anyway.

Red Wolf

This small wolf is characterized by below-average size and a cream to reddish coloration.

Special characteristics are unknown.

Serenity supposed that finding out it was a red wolf might matter to someone, but it certainly didn’t matter right then to him. He needed to defeat it without killing it. He’d try for a disabling blow first; if that worked, it would be the simplest way.

“START!” Longsight’s voice rang out across the arena.

Serenity hadn’t realized the fight hadn’t started when the wolf walked into the arena, but he was now glad he’d needed to wait until the wolf was closer. Would it have hurt then to explain the rules?

The wolf seemed to know what they were. As soon as the gecko shouted, it charged towards Serenity.

It was a straight-line charge; normally, he’d prefer to catch the charging animal on a spear or even his naginata, but that was too likely to be deadly. Serenity threw his ax, aiming for the wolf’s legs. Any of them would be good enough.

The wolf went down a good ten strides away from Serenity and skidded in the sand on the arena floor. It yelped as it tried to stand. Serenity recalled his ax and moved away from the wolf. He kept part of his attention on the wolf in case it was faking it while watching the rest of the arena, alert for another opponent.

That really didn’t seem like enough, even for only the first round.

“Ah … well done. You can rest while we get the next beast ready. Catstooth! COME GET YOUR WOLF!” There was an odd note in Longsight’s voice. Was he upset at Serenity for making the first match so short or was he apologetic for it being so weak? Perhaps he was simply upset at Catstooth for the poor showing of his trained beast? Serenity wasn’t sure.

It only took a couple of minutes for another Traa to scurry over to the wolf, heal it, and be carried out of the arena.

Serenity kept a watch for the next combatant, which turned out to be not one but three birds. They seemed to each be about half the size of the wolf, but that was likely deceptive. Serenity didn’t know birds well enough to tell what they were simply based on their shape, but the Red Wolf had shown him that Basic Analyze would give him the visible information - even if he couldn’t actually see it right now.

Blue Coldwing

A magical predatory bird, the blue coldwing is known for its white body, blue wings, and temperature that is always below ambient. If a blue coldwing has magic, it is almost always cold-based.

They were probably stronger than the wolf and there were three of them. Unfortunately, they were probably even less sturdy than the wolf, so he’d have to be careful if he wanted to not kill them.

Serenity decided that an ax throw was simply too dangerous to the birds; he knew he could hit a bird’s body, but hitting the wing without hitting the body was a more difficult throw than he wanted to count on.

No, he’d wait for them to dive at him. If he did it right, he could stun them by blocking with the shield. It’d be like a bird running into a window; hopefully not fatal, but certainly uncomfortable. While it was stunned, all he’d need to do was hurt a wing; he wasn’t worried about them following him on foot. There was plenty of room in the arena.

It worked like a charm on the first coldwing. The bird dove for his head, Serenity blocked with his shield at the last moment, then felt the impact. The bird slid down the shield and to the ground; when he looked at it, it didn’t look like it was getting up any time soon. Good enough, though if this had been a real fight he’d have made certain of his opponent.

Serenity moved away from it and kept a little attention on it; it did get up after a bit, but it didn’t fly. Instead, it waddled to the edge of the arena. It didn’t seem to be permanently harmed; were there rules about being disabled? Some arenas counted “being stunned enough to have been killed” as a loss, while others required a more formal surrender or actual disabling injury.

Knowing the rules would really help.

The other birds seemed more cautious. It was too bad; he’d hoped the same technique would work at least twice. Instead, the pair seemed to be keeping well away from each other, with him between them.

It was too bad he wasn’t carrying a weighted net; he could have used a mix of Solid and SpaceTime to make sure it unfolded correctly and probably brought down a bird safely. All he had on himself was his standard equipment, and it wasn’t set up for nonlethal work. The closest thing he had to nonlethal was the pair of spells he’d infused that morning, but going faster and making others move slower weren’t directly helpful at the moment.

On the other hand, did he need a weighted net? It would be more expensive to do directly with magic, but his SpaceTime was high and did include a limited amount of gravity manipulation. If he simply made the birds heavier, it might work. It probably wouldn’t immediately bring them down, but tiring them out was also helpful.

Serenity threw together the spellform. It was simple enough, simply an adaptation of the lightening spell he’d used to jump the muddy patch in the wasp dungeon linked to a ranged trigger. The range would make it more expensive, but he actually had his full mana pool. It was worth trying.

Serenity aimed the spell at one of the two coldwings. It didn’t even try to dodge and the spell hit it squarely in the chest.

It immediately began to descend slowly before flapping more to try to rise to its previous height. It didn’t make it; instead, it slowly descended to the ground, flapping the entire time. The spell was even more successful than Serenity had expected, so he quickly built another and tried to aim it at the last bird.

As he was turning to target the bird, he saw a mana buildup on its wings. Serenity dove to the side as it discharged, and a pair of bolts hit the spot where he’d been standing a moment earlier. There was no obvious effect on the arena, but Serenity was confident that if he went over to the spot it would be noticeably colder than elsewhere. It was time to end the fight, so Serenity tossed his second spell at the last flying bird.

It also didn’t seem to see it coming. It seemed like at least one of them had some limited cold magic, but without a shield or any form of magesight, they didn’t have a proper defense against magic other than their Resistances. They clearly hadn’t been trained to resist gravity magic or space magic.

Even though they were grounded as long as Serenity kept the spell running, the two birds didn’t give up quickly. Instead, they chased him around the arena, occasionally throwing cold-bolts at him.

They ran out of stamina to chase Serenity on foot long before he ran out of magic to keep them on the ground. If there was another fight, Serenity would be starting out down a good chunk of his magic, but he still had most of it left.