Strong had asked them to help with moving and organizing a shipment of some material that none of them even recognized the name of. So John and his team spent their next hour moving boxes inside the warehouse and sorting them one by one. They were also instructed to do this entirely manually, despite other workers in the warehouse using mundane trucks and forklifts.

Some others used various forms of magic. Floating platforms carried boxes to their destination, and conveyors made out of metal were created and moved around by some of the other mages. The ingenuity of it all made John and his team frustrated, though he himself was curious why none of them were using telekinesis.

“What’s the point of making us do this so inefficiently?” Yan was the first to complain, but her annoyance was shared by all of them.

“There probably isn't even a real reason,” Bass shrugged, “but if they want to make it hard on us, they would never tell us that anyways, so best to do what we can.”

“Bass is right, at least this isn’t too difficult,” John had noticed something strange about himself. Even with his relatively small increases to Strength, these boxes were far easier to move than he expected to. It was, however, not entirely trivial work.

“I-I need some h-help,” Charlotte shouted out in half panic, her voice and knees clearly shaking as a box began slipping from her hands. She was a few aisles ahead of them, but still in sight. John dropped his own box clumsily as he started running to help her. Only a second later he saw the box fall from the healer’s hands, and she collapsed backwards onto the floor.

“You ok?” he asked, leaning down to check on her when he reached there, hoping to see she wasn’t hurt. Luckily, that was the case.

“I’m fine,” she said confidently, in an almost uncharacteristic way. The look on her face was almost one of anger. Then in the blink of an eye, it was gone, hidden behind an unconfident smile. Just glad she was fine, John reached out to help her get back up, “t-thank y-ou…” her stutter suddenly returned. She took his hand and stood slowly, but he could see she was off-balance.

“I’ll get the box, I’m sure you can help her John,” Bass walked up to them, hoisting the box that Charlotte had carried from the ground and taking with her along with her own box. After that, she continued on her way. Yan passed them by as well, and John thought he heard the two whispering. Now him and Charlotte had been left alone, and he sensed that was on purpose.

"You sure you're alright?" John asked the healer, concerned. He had let go of her hand but she was still clearly shaking.

“I just misjudged my limits… Like always,” she mumbled, her tone grim, John could only barely make out what she had said.

“What limits are you talking about?” he was curious, but he immediately knew that it was a terrible idea to ask.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” her confidence shone through again, but it was clearly from a sad sort of certainty.

"I didn't mean to pry, but if you want to tell me at any point, I will happily listen," John said, as kindly as he could. He went back to his box and picked it up before leaving Charlotte in the aisle. Something told him she wanted to be alone, and especially after her response he did not want to hurt her by staying any more. As he left, he heard Charlotte mumble something to herself again, but this time, he didn’t try to catch it.

It only took Charlotte fifteen minutes to rejoin them after she had gotten back up, and she looked to be alright afterwards. So John focused on the job at hand instead, and only an hour later they had finished with the shipment Strong had assigned them. Once they all met back at the entrance to the warehouse, the Gamer noticed a popup had appeared in front of him.

One point of Strength gained

’Wait, I can gain stat points from mundane tasks like this? Then why haven’t I gotten anything before this, did something about my system change?’ it was confusing and even more inconsistent, but before he could think about it further, he noticed Bass was waving her hand in front of his face.

“Earth to John?” she asked, seeing the glazed look in his eyes.

“Yeah, sorry, I was just a bit lost in thought,” he looked around, to see Yan and Charlotte were looking at him.

“We’ve noticed, don’t worry boss,” the sound mage laughed in turn, and then pointed towards one of the Gateways on the other side of the warehouse. Where John could spot Strong standing, “Strong said he had something for us, and we shouldn’t keep him waiting.”

“As usual, you’re right Bass,” John shook off the thoughts in his head and walked towards the quartermaster with the rest.

“I have a proper mission for you guys!” he shouted as they got closer, and once they were close enough, he spoke in a lower voice, “one of the guys from R&D has a mission for you in the second plane. Something about an infested helium mine. I don’t know all the details, but he’ll update you once you get there. If you want to take it I think I can requisition one of the generators we use to give to you guys,” he explained, looking at John seriously the whole time, “so, if the answer is a yes, just go through the Gateway behind me,” he pointed backwards.

“I’m not sure that’s a great idea… It’d be putting us all at risk, again,” John was hesitant to throw all their lives into risk again. Despite his doubt, a quest popup appeared, promising reward within his powers as well.

’I guess this isn’t part of the required training so I get a brand new quest… The rewards are pretty good. Maybe I should consider it,’ John thought to himself, still hesitant. That didn’t counteract the danger they might be in, but it was more incentive, and he had a feeling there was more to it.

’It would give me another level… But shit, that means putting them all in danger again,’ he looked to Bass, Yan, and Charlotte especially. They were his team, he didn’t want any of them to get hurt, again.

“It’s your decision. But it’s no more dangerous than what you’ve faced already. ‘M sure of that,” Strong cut off his line of thought with a response, his tone understanding but confident.

“It’s whatever boss, risking our life is part of the deal in the Abyss,” Bass saw his look and told him gently, giving him a bump on the shoulder with a smile on her face, “and I think we should do it, those reactors can last forever, and we might need to power some of our gear.”

“No arguments from me,” Yan stated.

“I-If you guys want to d-do this... “ Charlotte said, her gaze averted away from Strong.

“Fine, can’t hurt to see what the mission is, I suppose,” that much John was sure of.

One after the other, they headed through the purple portal that made up the Gateway. John went first, and the second he stepped in the world broke into darkness again. The last thing he saw was Ember appearing behind them.

An eternity later the world reformed around him, somewhere completely different. The first thing he saw on the other side of the Gateway was a popup.

You have now arrived at a new planet, map generating…

Planet designation by the Council: Mining world of New Lapetus**

When John looked around he saw the beauty of this new world he was on. Green skies and blue grass spread out to the horizon. In the distance he could see a mountain carved in shades of white he didn't even know existed. Ivory white crystals shone in the sun, covering the slopes of the mountain like a mirror of giant crystalized snow. To the east and west the portal was flanked by two wide rivers, filled with a red-tinted liquid. Behind them was the Gateway they had come through, which was made out of some blue stone and not marble, like he was used to. Hidden by it was what looked to be a forest, but it was impossible to tell through the thicket of yellowish leaves. And above them stood an ever more impressive sight. What looked to be a pulsar, a small blue sun, surrounded by rings of shining matter and spreading out light up and down in beams that crossed the sky. John wasn’t in Kansas anymore and even in comparison to XR2 it looked utterly bizarre, yet also hauntingly beautiful.

The world was habitable, that was immediately obvious, as John heard a strange chirping noise come from all around him. Small critters he couldn't recognize scuttered around the open area to his back and sides. But more important to him was the group of men and women dressed in military garb waiting before the Gateway, only some twenty meters away, in a hastily organized camp of sorts.

Despite the clear haste in which it was made, it was also sleek in a way that John didn’t know was possible. Each building was made of the same blue and white metals as each other, in the same organized patterns that almost reminded John of capsules from Dragon Ball. Like they all had been assembled from clear pre-manufactured parts minutes after being deployed. They had the look of sci-fi shelters and houses, but also had the same rugged design that one would expect of a military. Various weapons he didn’t recognize hung on walls and roofs, and jagged corners deterred the aesthetic nature of the materials.

’I never imagined something like this could exist…’ John thought, shocked by everything that his own senses brought him.

Slowly, the rest of his team appeared behind him. First Bass and Yan, and following closely were Charlotte and Ember.

“Ember? Why are you here?” John asked, so surprised by her appearance that he regained his composure for a second. It was almost getting frustrating to keep track of her.

“I'm here to help you. And because Ingrid wants to see how we mesh when working as a team. That's my purpose in this whole assignment,” she said, her tone flat but John could see the honesty in her face. He also saw her look around, but it was clear she wasn’t as shocked as him by any of it. The expression on her face didn’t change almost at all.

Yan and Bass were far too engrossed in her surroundings to respond, And Charlotte was far too disoriented. She was barely able to keep standing as John could visibly see her shaking. Trying to balance herself, she clung to the blue stone of the Gateway, and soon enough the shaking disappeared.

“T-this is the s-second p-plane? I-i’ve n-never c-come h-here b-before,” the healer said, her voice quiet and her stutter worse than usual. John wasn’t sure he should help her, but she spoke again before he had to decide. She was looking directly at him, “I’ll be fine,” her face suddenly changed, then the stuttering came back, “I j-just d-don’t use the G-Gateways m-much,” she wasn’t shaking as much as before.

For a second he wasn’t sure she said the first part at all, ’sometimes she seems so different… I wonder why,’ John thought to himself, only Ember noticed what Charlotte had said. The spy placed a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. Charlotte didn’t recoil, but it was clear she was no more comfortable.

“This is awesome!” Bass shouted, her eyes darting across the whole area around them, "oh, guess we have company," she said as soon as she saw the camp near them, her tone slightly annoyed, “no time for fun,” she said more somberly.

A group of four people dressed in green military clothing, which was obviously not from the Council, started heading towards them. Yan was also broken out of her shock by their appearance.

She looked at John for a second, then spoke, "first time I've been here, definitely not what I expected," she said, before turning to the people approaching them.

Ember was the first to speak, "we're from the Council," then she walked up to the group and said something John couldn’t hear, then continued at a more audible level, "we heard you have some trouble with an infestation?" she sounded even more serious than usual.

A man appeared from behind the group, wearing the same sort of military uniform but with a badge that had “Science Corps” written on it.

“Yes, your information is correct,” he looked over the whole group and then turned to John, "this mountain,” he pointed to the one John had spotted earlier, “contains a giant helium three deposit which we are responsible for mining. We then transport it back to the main fleet for refueling. It's also transferred over to the Council's warehouse as part of your cut," he looked at Ember for a while instead, and his tone turned more serious, "a few days ago, we blew a new shaft to expand the operations of the mine, but the team responsible quickly lost contact with us. It wasn't long before the rest of the mine was filled with those things…

“They're some kind of mutant spider, we've been able to tell that much. Though we're not sure why they appeared where they did.”

“So you want us to go in, find their source, and clear them out?” John asked, he had many more questions, but those could wait for now.

“No, we want you to recover a specific piece of tech. We can clear them out on our own, but we need to extract that beforehand. It’s very important and we can’t risk harming it by going into the mine with explosives while it’s in there. Of course, we’d appreciate any help with killing them, but that’s not your main priority,” the man responded. His tone sounded suspicious to John.

“What are we talking about exactly?” this was far too important to let go, something here seemed off, like he'd heard this before.

“A Gundam.”

“There's an actual Gundam here? We get to see one?” Bass was excited, but how normal her statement sounded was insane.

’A Gundam? Did I hear them both right? There's no way, what the hell does that have to do with the Council or the Abyss, that's an anime!' John's mind tried to process what they had just said, but there was no thread of logic to grasp, it made absolutely no sense.

“What the hell are either of you talking about? Gundam is an anime. It's not real,” he said, completely confused.

“John, it's real!” Bass looked at him, smiling at him knowingly.

“Somebody please explain, right now!” this was far too much for his already fragile psyche.

’First magic is real, now anime? There’s no way,’ he was certain, it should have been obvious. Yet, it wasn’t.

“When the Council first passed through the Gateway into the second plane we found ourselves on another version of earth. It was filled with advanced technology no one had ever seen before. Giant robots, advanced guns and even more advanced space flight and colonies. You might know this world as the universal century version of Gundam. We don't know how it leaked out into the Mundane world, but it did and their history was codified and modified into the multiple anime series-"

“Seeing our own history told in that way was quite entertaining, I assure you…” the scientist laughed.

“Please don’t interrupt me,” Ember said flatly then continued, “as I was saying, after the first encounters several skirmishes took place between us and earth forces. No side was obviously superior, our magic matching their tech. But eventually a treaty was established, which is what we have been operating under ever since. The Council would use their magic to explore further into the galaxy, providing the knowledge of it if necessary. And in return the Earth Federation would provide technology, a portion of the resources mined from whatever outposts are established as part of the arrangement, and one Gundam every ten years.”

“I'm surprised you didn't know John, wasn’t it one of the documents you had to sign when you became an explorer?” Yan said, her tone genuine.

“Well, nobody told me I should expect Gundam to be in the legal documents! I went over them in a rush!” John was frustrated, somewhat with the absurdity of it all but mostly with himself.

’I got too comfortable with thinking I knew everything there was to know about the Council, and the Abyss in general… I won't make that mistake again,’ he decided in his mind.

“If the explanations are over, can we get back to the mission at hand?” the scientist asked.

They all waited for a minute, looking at John, but he didn’t say anything, so Bass spoke instead.

“Yeah, let's go.”