When in doubt, try dynamite.

  - UWO Major Blaire -

  It’s been thirteen hours since the Gates started spawning again.

  “ETA 3 minutes!” Staff Sergeant Mwangi yells down the line, repeating it as he goes, tapping everyone’s helmet one by one. Double-checking everyone’s gear. Except for the WHA people, he just gives them and their shiny ass gear a nod. We lucked out with them, one of them is a Cleric. I think that Dorliac pulled that string to compensate for me not being able to heal.

  The Cleric we got, for once, doesn’t look like a complete and utter douche. She actually seems friendly. Green hair and green eyes. I think she’s an elf, her helmet makes it hard to tell. There are a couple of races that look like elves but aren’t… well, they are, but they don’t like to be called elves. It’s a whole thing.

  Anyway, she probably got picked up by the WHA and avoided regular off-worlder treatment because she rolled a decent class. Feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before, or maybe she just looks kind of like someone I know. Brushing it off, I look at the mage we got from the WHA. Not sure what his class is, but he looks solid. He’s definitely human, with dark hair, and muddy brown eyes. He has some kind of staff with him that looks like a gnarled root of a tree. Even has a few leaves on the side, maybe he’s a specialized druid class or something. The last guy, or girl, can’t really tell which, they’re wearing full plate armor. I’m not sure what their deal is, but they haven’t said a word. They’ve barely moved too. They give off a vibe though, just not sure exactly what it is yet.

  The Gate we got assigned spawned above a mountaintop. Which usually means that we’ll be in for a gate with a similar biome. Gate over the Ocean? Water world. Gate floating high above the ground, probably floating islands. Those can be fun, but at the same time, really unpredictable. One thing is certain though. Gates don’t spawn you into solid structures. It’s always a large open area.

  There isn’t a good way for us to really enter this gate, besides just jumping right in with parachutes, or flying in aboard massive planes; which is what command opted for. It would take a long ass time to hike up, time we don’t have. These types of gates are the worst. No ground support besides a couple of Humvees we crammed in with us.

  We do get the air support package though, one long-range fighter jet, a couple of helicopters, and troop transport planes. Oh, and some UAVs, drones are nice. When they actually work. Sometimes, magic just fucks with electronics. Different worlds, different magical circuits, so I’m told. Above my pay grade. Anyways, all the planes and helicopters have backup manual instruments too, just in case.

  “Get ready!” Mwangi yells.

  The plane that’s transporting us crests the gate horizon, that old familiar fucking with reality feeling smacks me in the gut. Almost through.

  There.

  The first thing I see is light, lots of light. Two suns. Looking down from the window, I don’t see any land, just massive clouds of swirling colors. It looks like a cotton candy factory mated with some jellybeans.

  “Yo, check it out!” Tran yells over the loud engines, pointing below us.

  Large manta ray looking creatures are gliding in formation through the clouds around us. Bioluminescent lights scatter across their bodies in beautiful patterns. Kind of reminds me of the flowers that were in Ulana’s temple. Which also reminds me, I should probably pray.

  “Goddess, thank you for everything you do for me, I am extremely grateful to you. Your works are a wonder to behold,” I say, laying it on thick.

  A golden box appears in my vision.

  [ Minor Blessing Status Effect Gained ]

  [ Tier: 5 ]

  [ + 5% experience gain ]

  Guess not thick enough, that used to get me up to seven percent.

  Clearing my throat, “Oh beautiful and wondrous Goddess who is sublime, I…”

  A new box appears.

  [ Minor Blessing Status Effect Gained ]

  [ Tier: 10 ]

  [ + 10% experience gain ]

  Okay then. That’s as high as I’ve ever gotten it before. Do I need to finish the prayer or was that good enough? I’m sure it’s fine.

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  “Were you praying?” Barlow asks.

  I nod. Only because the last time that I said no when someone asked, she took the blessing away.

  “Wow,” he says, almost stunned. He’s the only religious one in our friend group. Hopefully he doesn’t try dragging me to church now.

  Looking back at the gate in the distance, I pull up its information through the system interface.

  [ Gate Classification: Green – C ]

  [ Threat Level: Low ]

  [ Temporal Instability: Minimal ]

  [ Clear Quest: Rolling… ]

  [ Reward Grade: Low ]

  The Gate hasn’t decided what quest it wants to give us yet. That’s fine, we need to set up a base of operations so we can land the planes and conserve fuel. You never know how long a gate is going to take.

  About twenty minutes later we get the quest pop up.

  [ Quest: Retrieve the Mace of the Ardent Flame and place it upon the altar of Aloka. ]

  A retrieval quest?

  “Oh snap!” Tran yells.

  Everyone starts cheering, so loud it almost muffles the engines, almost. Retrieval quests are some of the easiest ones we can get. Plus, there’s a standing UWO policy, whoever finds the item gets a special reward. Usually time off, pick of a lesser item, or money. Most just take the money.

  “Why don’t you look excited?” Tran yells to me.

  The last time we had an easy quest, I saw him and Barlow cut to pieces. I can’t tell them that though.

  “I am,” I say, which isn’t a lie, I am excited to level up. It’s been driving me crazy waiting around. Witherbrand is going to be powerful in the higher levels. Really powerful. I can feel it. Plus, after getting that Ultimate ability, I need to hit one hundred for it. Can’t do that without quests.

  Barlow leans forward to yell at me and Tran over the noise, “Same deal as last time?”

  “Split three ways if one of us finds it!” Tran confirms.

  They both look at me, I nod, but I doubt it’s going to be us that finds it. There are over two hundred people on this mission. Chances are slim. Although… my luck might be higher than most people here. I think the only ones who could have me beat are Lieutenants Dorliac and Tenny. Both of them are over level twenty. Maybe also Mwangi. I don’t know his level, but he’s probably around fifteen if I had to guess. He’ll be getting promoted to Sergeant First Class pretty soon. If he doesn’t opt for green to gold and become an officer.

  Besides them, it would only leave the WHA people. They almost never help us with quests unless we absolutely need it though. I doubt they’d be interested in a low-gate reward anyway. There might actually be a chance for me to find the item then. If luck really does make one lucky.

  A new box shows up, a system generated map of the area with a quest marker, highlighting where we will find the mace. It’s a square kilometer-sized grid, but with two hundred people, it shouldn’t take more than a day or two at most. Once we get the Mace of Ardent Flame, it should give us a popup of where the altar is.

  So far it seems like a normal Gate. I wonder what got recalibrated.

  ***

  It took more than a few hours to set up base camp. Owing to the fact that where the Mace is supposed to be, had no flat areas to land on. That’s okay though, the helicopters are working overtime transporting people to it. So far so good, nothing out of the…

  A purple text box appears in my vision. Dread slaps me in the fucking nuts.

  [ System Notice: Recalibration… Complete ]

  [ Good Luck ]

  Everyone’s looking around like a bunch of deer in headlights. Fuck. What does that mean? Didn’t it already recalibrate?

  “Oh, fuck,” Tran says.

  Cortez jogs up, breaking off from her squad, and coming close to me.

  “Any notes from…” she looks up toward the sky with an eyebrow raised.

  I’d somehow found a way to hint that my performance might have garnered reviews. Ever since then, she’s been trying to coach me on how to utilize Ulana more effectively. The only problem is that I haven’t quite told her that Ulana hates when I’m around her now. Especially if she talks about using Ulana for anything. A pop-up comes across my vision.

  [ Blessing Lost ]

  I shoot a look up at the clouds and roll my eyes. Petty-ass Goddess with possessive tendencies. Whatever, a ten percent exp boost isn’t insane anyway.

  “Well?” she asks, giving me an impatient look.

  “I’ll check,” I sigh.

  I pull my interface up, just in case Cortez is right and maybe she left me another addendum note.

  “Anything?” Cortez asks.

  “Nope, nothing new,” looking over her shoulder, “Looks like everyone’s forming up though.”

  She nods and we head over, both joining the formation with our respective squads. Tran and Barlow look like they’re worried. In front of the formation is Lieutenant Tenny. Dorliac was in the first group that headed to the grid, I wonder how they’re doing.

  “Listen up!” Tenny barks, walking down the front of the formation, “Just got confirmation, the Gate has not changed its classification or the clear quest.”

  A couple of breaths of relief in the formation.

  “I don’t know if it will change while we’re in it, or if we got lucky and we get to finish it out as is,” she explains, moving back to the center, “Stay vigilant, and if you notice anything out of the ordinary, immediately…”

  She stops talking, blinking fast and squinting in the distance. Her mouth closes and her jaw flexes.

  “Fuck,” she curses, pushing her glasses up, then louder “Get ready, incoming!”

  We all turn, there’s something coming from the clouds. Like a lot of something, a fucking horde of something. I can’t tell what they are either. Flying through the clouds, their bodies glimmer with frightening lights basking them in red intent. As they approach, I see they have a double set of wings, like dragonflies… big fucking dragonflies.

  “Get ready!” Tenny yells.

  I feel the stir of mana in the air as Tenny’s eyes turn glacial blue, three arrows of ice rising above her, aiming toward the incoming creatures.

  Everyone scrambles, good thing we set up some rudimentary defenses. Cortez finds Tran, Barlow, and me in the scramble.

  “Over here!” she yells beckoning us behind some recently filled sandbags.

  We slide into the small natural divot in the ground next to her, I put my rifle on the edge of the bag, aiming down the sights. Waiting.

  “Open fire!” Tenny yells, her arrows leading the charge as the first comes. Her aim is true, one shot one kill, until it shatters into more shards, almost like she’s bird hunting with an ice shotgun.

  A torrential rain of lead follows her command. Gunsmoke and guts follow. It’s carnage incarnate. Purple goopy blood splatters as giant frenzied dragonflies kamikaze us. I’ve never seen wildlife so hellbent on dying. It’s nonsensical, they’re getting mowed down in waves. The few that make it past… oh shit… clawing, biting, gouging, blood, lots of blood, and screams.

  “Fall back to the planes!” Tenny yells. The sergeants echo her order. It’s chaos.

  There’s no end to them… and there are more hordes on the horizon.

  “Medic!”

  Shit.

  I don't write harem stories ?? That doesn't mean that it won't be filled with lots of messy situations and drama though, that's fair game. Now that I have dissuaded some of your fears, let's get on with the next thing ??

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