For a while, they mostly sat there and looked at me. They didn’t say anything, which made me a little nervous honestly.
Eventually, Fiona just smiled, “I think that protecting other people is a cause they would’ve been proud of.”
“You know this shit is going to be hard though, right?” Kaylith interjected.
“Kaylith,” Fiona hissed, swatting at her arm.
Kaylith chose to ignore her, staring me straight in the eyes.
“It’s going to be hard. Really hard. I don’t think I need to tell you how cruel this world can be, just because you can get stronger, doesn’t necessarily mean life gets any easier. People are going to see you trying to save them and believe you’re trying to destroy the world, simply because they can’t understand you. They refuse to understand you.”
I shrugged, “I could argue philosophy on this with you, talking about how doing the right thing is more important than being well-liked. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Either I will do it, or I won’t. All I can really say is just watch. Watch me.”
Kaylith nodded her head slowly, she gave me a small smile as well. I knew she wasn’t necessarily trying to dissuade me from what I wanted to do, she just wanted to make sure I fully understood the implications of what I was trying to get into. Which I felt like I did.
Probably better than most.
“Alright then. I doubt I need to say it, but if you ever need help you have us. Not that we hold much power or sway with other people, but we’re pretty strong as a team. So if you ever need someone to fall back on we’ll be here to support you.”
“Absolutely,” Fiona agreed, “we’ll be behind you every step of the way. But we can worry about all that later, right now you should take time to enjoy yourself. You haven’t really gotten a moment to rest and just do things for yourself since you’ve woken up. Commander Mortimer said you had a week to come up with a decision, so let's just take another few days to relax.”
I nodded, picking up my spoon again to eat more of the soup.
“Alright, I think that’s a good idea.”
I shoveled some more of the soup into my mouth. I felt better, my shoulders didn’t feel so tense anymore. The past few days still weighed heavily on my mind, but I felt better, in a way.
“So you managed to get all the way up to third tier then?” Kaylith asked.
“Yeah, while I was in Alixia they made me fight for bloodsport. Most of the people were higher level and tier than me, but they just didn’t take me seriously for a long while. Or rather they kept underestimating me.”
Kaylith frowned, “Isn’t that just the same thing?”
I shrugged, “Maybe. To me, it’s the difference between not trying to win because you don’t think you can lose and losing because you didn’t believe the other person stood a chance against you. Same result, different problems.”
Kaylith nodded slowly, “Interesting, I guess that makes sense in a way. I’m guessing you got a lot of those fights then?”
Next to us, Fiona and Marcie were embroiled in a deep, fascinating conversation about different types of cakes. Which ones had better flavor profiles and which type had the better texture?
I nodded, “It wasn’t until I was closer to the third tier that people started taking me seriously, and at that point, it was too late. The person in charge of me also made sure not to put me against people who directly countered me. Or if they did, they were closer to my level and strength so I still stood a chance.”
“Directly counter you? In what way?”
“I’m an agility fighter, normally you’d think the best way to fight someone like me is either with lots of range or with high defense. Well, the problem with range is that there was only so much range in the arena, so they couldn’t stand far enough away to gain a total advantage. And back then I had the sword Illes- Ili’kithari gave me, so it cut through defenses like butter.”
“Right, so the mages and rangers were at a disadvantage because you could easily close the gap and the high-defense warriors didn’t have good enough defenses to stop a high-tier artifact,” Kaylith hummed thoughtfully. “So then the only remaining option would be to put you against another agility-based fighter?
I nodded, “Pretty much, anyone faster than me with a good teleportation ability? I don’t have much I can do against that. If they can dodge my attacks and make it a battle of attrition, they’d probably easily win. One person almost did, the only reason I managed to beat him was that he didn’t have mind-enhancing general skills like I did. So while his stats were all higher, I was making better use of my movements than he was since I could process what I was seeing faster than he could.”
Kaylith opened her mouth to say something but was suddenly interrupted, “Are you all done eating? There’s this bakery nearby I wanted to go try out, supposedly they make some really good cakes!” Marcie interjected with overwhelming enthusiasm.
Kaylith frowned, “It’s not even noon yet, why do you want to eat cake?” She asked incredulously.
“Uhhh, because it’s delicious? Duh. Come on, sister, surely you knew that,” Fiona said teasingly.
“Sure, that doesn’t mean you should be eating so early in the day. And aren’t you starting to get a little pudgy around the sides anyway? You’re the last person that should be eating cake, especially since you aren’t going to work it off later as you should.”
Fiona just blew a raspberry at her.
“Marcie and I are eating cake, you can either join us or you can be stinky and stay here by yourself. Your choice.”
I watched the exchange with fascination. Up ‘till now they’d been fairly polite and demure when dealing with me or around me. All of a sudden all such reservations were now gone.
Kaylith glanced at me and smirked, “Are you sure you wanna be doing something that puts on more weight, though? Weren’t you just telling me last night tha-umpfh”
Kaylith was stopped from spilling what seemed to be something on the level of state secrets by Fiona as she lunged forward with a yelp and slapped her hand over her mouth.
“Not. Another. Word.” Fiona whispered menacingly.
Kaylith’s eyes twinkled mischievously, but Fiona removed her hand as Kaylith nodded in agreement.
I just chuckled, Fiona’s face going slightly red as Kaylith’s smirk grew wider. Marcie had a bright smile on her face, but she usually did, so that wasn’t anything new.
“Anyways, onwards!” Fiona declared triumphantly.
“To cake and glory!”
***
Several Days Later
I walked down the streets, retracing my steps to the NSA facility.
That name was still rather amusing to me. Every time I thought of it I had to remind myself that it wasn’t referring to the alphabet agency from the U.S.
I mean, really though. What were the odds of them coming up with the exact same acronym? I guess it was more likely to happen in a world that didn’t have any direct relation to Earth. There are only so many combinations of letters to use, this was just a rather amusing coincidence.
It didn’t take me long to find my way back to the same gate we had gone through the other day. The guards out front gave me a sort of wary look as I stepped up to them, their grips on their weapons tensing as I approached.
“Prithantico.”
I spoke the magic word, and for a moment nothing happened and I wondered if maybe I had said it wrong or misremembered the word. The guards eventually just nodded and stepped aside, the gate opening for me.
“Step inside the gate and wait for further instructions,” The guard commanded.
I nodded and did as he asked, stepping through the gate and then off to the side to wait for someone to tell me what to do.
In the meantime I watched all the hubbub happening around the open areas.
Just like last time, people were practicing against training dummies in the fresh air.
When I first arrived in this world, it was late spring. Maybe early summer. The temperature was still relatively cool, but you could feel it slowly getting warmer. When I had first tried to break free from The Pit, it was winter. I hadn’t really noticed because I was more focused on trying to make a successful escape, but it had been rather cold looking back.
But when I actually managed to get away? It was rolling back into spring again. The temperature was warming up, there wasn’t any snow.
Currently, it was around the low 60’s maybe? Fahrenheit. I wasn’t sure what kind of temperature measurements they used here. Maybe they just used Imperial all the way? They already used miles for measurement…
Which, now that I was thinking about it, that was kind of strange. What are the odds they would come up with the exact same measurement system as where I had previously come from?
My frown deepened. They also had the NSA… this was starting to be too coincidental to be accidental anymore. They were also speaking English as a language. Although the written form wasn’t the English I wrote with.
Strange. Very strange. I’d have to start looking into this, perhaps there was someone from Earth here as well, with Ili’kithari ripping people through space-time, it wasn’t entirely impossible for her to grab two people from the same place… Just completely and absolutely statistically improbable it would ever happen.
But not impossible.
I was pulled from my thoughts as someone stepped in front of me coming to a halt.
“With me, Commander Mortimer will meet with you now.”
The boy in front of me looked no older than 16.
[Level 15²]
His level confirmed his relatively young age. Either that or he was older than he looked and was just not very interested in gaining levels. However, that just didn’t seem realistic.
People chose classes that followed their life professions, working in your profession got you experience which caused you to level. Working at it, even lazily, would net you a lot of levels.
No, definitely just young. The boy turned around abruptly and began marching away, clearly expecting me to follow.
So I did.
I was led through the compound in a different way than we had gone before. The training fields slowly gave way to well-trimmed grass, decorated with flowers and bushes.
The administrative section I assumed.
There was a single building set in this area, and it was massive, about six stories tall, compared to the other buildings two or three stories.
I was led into the building by the boy. I assumed he was an errand gopher or maybe a receptionist, considering he was the one who came to fetch me and bring me to Mortimer.
How did they know to come get me? I didn’t see the guards do or say anything that might’ve sent an alert out. Technology also wasn’t all that advanced from what I could see. It’d be one thing if my entering had sent an electronic alert out so the people in the know would… know.
But there wasn’t anything like that here. So how…?
“How did you know to come get me?” I asked.
“I’m not allowed to discuss NSA operations with non-employee entities.”
Oh, he was good. Textbook government response. Even had the monotone drone down perfectly.
I decided not to press him further and just looked around the building as we walked through. Activity was a lot calmer here than it had been in the other buildings, people walked places rather than running.
I was led up several flights of stairs and taken down another long hallway filled with offices. Most of the doors were closed and on them were plaques with different names on them. No titles, so I wasn’t sure what exactly the people inside handled.
Some of the doors were open, inside usually was a person sitting at a desk with lots of papers handling typical desk jockey stuff. Marking things off, writing down, compiling reports, etc.
It all seemed so… mundane.
In a way, it relaxed me.
Eventually, we reached the end of the hallway which presented us with a door facing perpendicular to the hallway instead of parallel. The plaque on the door read ‘Donivus Mortimer’.
My guide stepped up to the door and then knocked on it before stepping back and waiting. After a few moments, we heard a voice call out from inside, “Enter.”
The guide opened the door and stepped aside to allow me to go in.
I stepped inside and the door was closed behind me. Mortimer looked up from his desk where he was handling several sheets of paper.
“Ah, Alex. Welcome back, take a seat. Give me just a moment to finish reading through this, and then I’ll be able to focus my attention on you.”
He gestured to the chairs set in front of his desk. They looked rather expensive, like the kind of chairs you’d see in a lawyer's office. Leather and sturdy looking.
I sat down in front of his desk and waited for him to finish whatever paper he was reading. I didn’t have to wait long as he quickly shifted through the pages, his eyes rapidly going back and forth as he read, eventually, he set them down and picked up his… thinnil.
I did not like that word.
He marked a few things down on the papers, then organized them together, set them off to the side, and looked up at me.
“Well then. Now that I have that out of the way. I assume you come bearing an answer for me on the offer to join our organization?”
I nodded, “I’ve made up my mind.
“Ili’kithari is a threat. Not just to me or to Seltas. But to the entire world, and even to worlds beyond this one. Nothing is stopping her if she comes into power, nothing that says she’ll be content ruling just one world, or two, or even five. She needs to be stopped.
“The problem is that I’m not strong enough to stop her. No one that I’ve seen so far in my short time here is strong enough to stop her. The gods supposedly didn’t even fully stop her. So I need to get stronger. If no one else will stop her, then I will. But to do that I need strength. And I believe you are the best option for me to gain strength while also having the backing of a large-scale government entity to support me if I need it.”
I took a deep breath and held it before slowly letting it out.
“I plan to join the NSA to gain strength with the end goal of killing Ili’kithari.”
For a while, they mostly sat there and looked at me. They didn’t say anything, which made me a little nervous honestly.
Eventually, Fiona just smiled, “I think that protecting other people is a cause they would’ve been proud of.”
“You know this shit is going to be hard though, right?” Kaylith interjected.
“Kaylith,” Fiona hissed, swatting at her arm.
Kaylith chose to ignore her, staring me straight in the eyes.
“It’s going to be hard. Really hard. I don’t think I need to tell you how cruel this world can be, just because you can get stronger, doesn’t necessarily mean life gets any easier. People are going to see you trying to save them and believe you’re trying to destroy the world, simply because they can’t understand you. They refuse to understand you.”
I shrugged, “I could argue philosophy on this with you, talking about how doing the right thing is more important than being well-liked. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Either I will do it, or I won’t. All I can really say is just watch. Watch me.”
Kaylith nodded her head slowly, she gave me a small smile as well. I knew she wasn’t necessarily trying to dissuade me from what I wanted to do, she just wanted to make sure I fully understood the implications of what I was trying to get into. Which I felt like I did.
Probably better than most.
“Alright then. I doubt I need to say it, but if you ever need help you have us. Not that we hold much power or sway with other people, but we’re pretty strong as a team. So if you ever need someone to fall back on we’ll be here to support you.”
“Absolutely,” Fiona agreed, “we’ll be behind you every step of the way. But we can worry about all that later, right now you should take time to enjoy yourself. You haven’t really gotten a moment to rest and just do things for yourself since you’ve woken up. Commander Mortimer said you had a week to come up with a decision, so let's just take another few days to relax.”
I nodded, picking up my spoon again to eat more of the soup.
“Alright, I think that’s a good idea.”
I shoveled some more of the soup into my mouth. I felt better, my shoulders didn’t feel so tense anymore. The past few days still weighed heavily on my mind, but I felt better, in a way.
“So you managed to get all the way up to third tier then?” Kaylith asked.
“Yeah, while I was in Alixia they made me fight for bloodsport. Most of the people were higher level and tier than me, but they just didn’t take me seriously for a long while. Or rather they kept underestimating me.”
Kaylith frowned, “Isn’t that just the same thing?”
I shrugged, “Maybe. To me, it’s the difference between not trying to win because you don’t think you can lose and losing because you didn’t believe the other person stood a chance against you. Same result, different problems.”
Kaylith nodded slowly, “Interesting, I guess that makes sense in a way. I’m guessing you got a lot of those fights then?”
Next to us, Fiona and Marcie were embroiled in a deep, fascinating conversation about different types of cakes. Which ones had better flavor profiles and which type had the better texture?
I nodded, “It wasn’t until I was closer to the third tier that people started taking me seriously, and at that point, it was too late. The person in charge of me also made sure not to put me against people who directly countered me. Or if they did, they were closer to my level and strength so I still stood a chance.”
“Directly counter you? In what way?”
“I’m an agility fighter, normally you’d think the best way to fight someone like me is either with lots of range or with high defense. Well, the problem with range is that there was only so much range in the arena, so they couldn’t stand far enough away to gain a total advantage. And back then I had the sword Illes- Ili’kithari gave me, so it cut through defenses like butter.”
“Right, so the mages and rangers were at a disadvantage because you could easily close the gap and the high-defense warriors didn’t have good enough defenses to stop a high-tier artifact,” Kaylith hummed thoughtfully. “So then the only remaining option would be to put you against another agility-based fighter?
I nodded, “Pretty much, anyone faster than me with a good teleportation ability? I don’t have much I can do against that. If they can dodge my attacks and make it a battle of attrition, they’d probably easily win. One person almost did, the only reason I managed to beat him was that he didn’t have mind-enhancing general skills like I did. So while his stats were all higher, I was making better use of my movements than he was since I could process what I was seeing faster than he could.”
Kaylith opened her mouth to say something but was suddenly interrupted, “Are you all done eating? There’s this bakery nearby I wanted to go try out, supposedly they make some really good cakes!” Marcie interjected with overwhelming enthusiasm.
Kaylith frowned, “It’s not even noon yet, why do you want to eat cake?” She asked incredulously.
“Uhhh, because it’s delicious? Duh. Come on, sister, surely you knew that,” Fiona said teasingly.
“Sure, that doesn’t mean you should be eating so early in the day. And aren’t you starting to get a little pudgy around the sides anyway? You’re the last person that should be eating cake, especially since you aren’t going to work it off later as you should.”
Fiona just blew a raspberry at her.
“Marcie and I are eating cake, you can either join us or you can be stinky and stay here by yourself. Your choice.”
I watched the exchange with fascination. Up ‘till now they’d been fairly polite and demure when dealing with me or around me. All of a sudden all such reservations were now gone.
Kaylith glanced at me and smirked, “Are you sure you wanna be doing something that puts on more weight, though? Weren’t you just telling me last night tha-umpfh”
Kaylith was stopped from spilling what seemed to be something on the level of state secrets by Fiona as she lunged forward with a yelp and slapped her hand over her mouth.
“Not. Another. Word.” Fiona whispered menacingly.
Kaylith’s eyes twinkled mischievously, but Fiona removed her hand as Kaylith nodded in agreement.
I just chuckled, Fiona’s face going slightly red as Kaylith’s smirk grew wider. Marcie had a bright smile on her face, but she usually did, so that wasn’t anything new.
“Anyways, onwards!” Fiona declared triumphantly.
“To cake and glory!”
***
Several Days Later
I walked down the streets, retracing my steps to the NSA facility.
That name was still rather amusing to me. Every time I thought of it I had to remind myself that it wasn’t referring to the alphabet agency from the U.S.
I mean, really though. What were the odds of them coming up with the exact same acronym? I guess it was more likely to happen in a world that didn’t have any direct relation to Earth. There are only so many combinations of letters to use, this was just a rather amusing coincidence.
It didn’t take me long to find my way back to the same gate we had gone through the other day. The guards out front gave me a sort of wary look as I stepped up to them, their grips on their weapons tensing as I approached.
“Prithantico.”
I spoke the magic word, and for a moment nothing happened and I wondered if maybe I had said it wrong or misremembered the word. The guards eventually just nodded and stepped aside, the gate opening for me.
“Step inside the gate and wait for further instructions,” The guard commanded.
I nodded and did as he asked, stepping through the gate and then off to the side to wait for someone to tell me what to do.
In the meantime I watched all the hubbub happening around the open areas.
Just like last time, people were practicing against training dummies in the fresh air.
When I first arrived in this world, it was late spring. Maybe early summer. The temperature was still relatively cool, but you could feel it slowly getting warmer. When I had first tried to break free from The Pit, it was winter. I hadn’t really noticed because I was more focused on trying to make a successful escape, but it had been rather cold looking back.
But when I actually managed to get away? It was rolling back into spring again. The temperature was warming up, there wasn’t any snow.
Currently, it was around the low 60’s maybe? Fahrenheit. I wasn’t sure what kind of temperature measurements they used here. Maybe they just used Imperial all the way? They already used miles for measurement…
Which, now that I was thinking about it, that was kind of strange. What are the odds they would come up with the exact same measurement system as where I had previously come from?
My frown deepened. They also had the NSA… this was starting to be too coincidental to be accidental anymore. They were also speaking English as a language. Although the written form wasn’t the English I wrote with.
Strange. Very strange. I’d have to start looking into this, perhaps there was someone from Earth here as well, with Ili’kithari ripping people through space-time, it wasn’t entirely impossible for her to grab two people from the same place… Just completely and absolutely statistically improbable it would ever happen.
But not impossible.
I was pulled from my thoughts as someone stepped in front of me coming to a halt.
“With me, Commander Mortimer will meet with you now.”
The boy in front of me looked no older than 16.
[Level 15²]
His level confirmed his relatively young age. Either that or he was older than he looked and was just not very interested in gaining levels. However, that just didn’t seem realistic.
People chose classes that followed their life professions, working in your profession got you experience which caused you to level. Working at it, even lazily, would net you a lot of levels.
No, definitely just young. The boy turned around abruptly and began marching away, clearly expecting me to follow.
So I did.
I was led through the compound in a different way than we had gone before. The training fields slowly gave way to well-trimmed grass, decorated with flowers and bushes.
The administrative section I assumed.
There was a single building set in this area, and it was massive, about six stories tall, compared to the other buildings two or three stories.
I was led into the building by the boy. I assumed he was an errand gopher or maybe a receptionist, considering he was the one who came to fetch me and bring me to Mortimer.
How did they know to come get me? I didn’t see the guards do or say anything that might’ve sent an alert out. Technology also wasn’t all that advanced from what I could see. It’d be one thing if my entering had sent an electronic alert out so the people in the know would… know.
But there wasn’t anything like that here. So how…?
“How did you know to come get me?” I asked.
“I’m not allowed to discuss NSA operations with non-employee entities.”
Oh, he was good. Textbook government response. Even had the monotone drone down perfectly.
I decided not to press him further and just looked around the building as we walked through. Activity was a lot calmer here than it had been in the other buildings, people walked places rather than running.
I was led up several flights of stairs and taken down another long hallway filled with offices. Most of the doors were closed and on them were plaques with different names on them. No titles, so I wasn’t sure what exactly the people inside handled.
Some of the doors were open, inside usually was a person sitting at a desk with lots of papers handling typical desk jockey stuff. Marking things off, writing down, compiling reports, etc.
It all seemed so… mundane.
In a way, it relaxed me.
Eventually, we reached the end of the hallway which presented us with a door facing perpendicular to the hallway instead of parallel. The plaque on the door read ‘Donivus Mortimer’.
My guide stepped up to the door and then knocked on it before stepping back and waiting. After a few moments, we heard a voice call out from inside, “Enter.”
The guide opened the door and stepped aside to allow me to go in.
I stepped inside and the door was closed behind me. Mortimer looked up from his desk where he was handling several sheets of paper.
“Ah, Alex. Welcome back, take a seat. Give me just a moment to finish reading through this, and then I’ll be able to focus my attention on you.”
He gestured to the chairs set in front of his desk. They looked rather expensive, like the kind of chairs you’d see in a lawyer's office. Leather and sturdy looking.
I sat down in front of his desk and waited for him to finish whatever paper he was reading. I didn’t have to wait long as he quickly shifted through the pages, his eyes rapidly going back and forth as he read, eventually, he set them down and picked up his… thinnil.
I did not like that word.
He marked a few things down on the papers, then organized them together, set them off to the side, and looked up at me.
“Well then. Now that I have that out of the way. I assume you come bearing an answer for me on the offer to join our organization?”
I nodded, “I’ve made up my mind.
“Ili’kithari is a threat. Not just to me or to Seltas. But to the entire world, and even to worlds beyond this one. Nothing is stopping her if she comes into power, nothing that says she’ll be content ruling just one world, or two, or even five. She needs to be stopped.
“The problem is that I’m not strong enough to stop her. No one that I’ve seen so far in my short time here is strong enough to stop her. The gods supposedly didn’t even fully stop her. So I need to get stronger. If no one else will stop her, then I will. But to do that I need strength. And I believe you are the best option for me to gain strength while also having the backing of a large-scale government entity to support me if I need it.”
I took a deep breath and held it before slowly letting it out.
“I plan to join the NSA to gain strength with the end goal of killing Ili’kithari.”
