I barely slept that night.

  While I knew I needed sleep, I was too excited. Grandpa had been right when he said that I’d get the bug. When 5am rolled around, I vaulted out of bed and ran down to the basement. I grabbed the blue sword, the wrist pad, and a handful of coins.

  “Going somewhere?” Grandpa looked over my shoulder as I stuffed the coins into my pocket.

  “Would you not sneak up on me like that?” I grabbed the pendant and flipped the chain over my head.

  “I’m a hologram; I don’t make noise when I walk.” He chuckled. “Technically, I don’t even have to walk. I can just…” He vanished and reappeared on the other side of the room. “Show up wherever I want in the house.” He reappeared beside me.

  “I still have to get the armor on.” I gestured at the wall that hid the gate. “Could you send me to the ship?”

  “You’re going to get there way too early.” Grandpa clicked his tongue. “But if you’re this eager to meet up with that fiery Calor, I’m not going to stop you.” He snapped his fingers and the wall peeled itself back to reveal the ring.

  “You don’t have to do that, do you?” I groaned as he waved his hands at the ring.

  “No, but you’ve got to learn how to appreciate the little things.” The hologram smiled. “You should try it sometime. You’ll feel like a wizard.”

  “Sure.” I was glad he wasn’t in my head, because the only reason why I wasn’t doing what he was doing was because I didn’t know how to have the wrist pad open the wall or key in the coordinates for the gate. Yes, it was goofy, but who hasn’t waved their hand when approaching an automatic door so you feel like a wizard?

  Once I was on the ship, I went to the cargo bay and put on the gear. I’d tried it on the day before and it all fit well enough that I wasn’t worried about things being too tight or too loose. My grandfather had been about the same height and weight that I was, which made wearing his old armor a good fit.

  “What happens when I’m too early?” I slid the elbow-length leather gloves over the wrist pad, then checked to make sure the rest of the gear was on tight. I was wearing boots, pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a leather vest, with a hood on the vest that I could secure with a drawstring.

  “If Orina isn’t there, then you’ll have to find someone else to flirt with until she gets there.” A smile crossed his face. “Humans are exotic enough that there are lots of lonely women who wouldn’t mind your company.”

  “Not interested.” I grumbled. “Why don’t you stop trying to push me into the arms of every woman you see?”

  “So you want me to push you into the arms of men?” Grandpa wrinkled his face.

  I leveled a glare at him. “You know what I mean. I want an actual connection with a woman, like the one I have with Lean.”

  “Don’t repeat my mistakes!” He fake wailed. “You have a chance to be a harem king and you’re going to throw it all away for a pretty face from your past.”

  “Why can’t you just be happy that I can be happy?” I shook my head as I closed the lid on the crate.

  “I’ll be happy when you know the loving embrace of multiple women.” A smile covered his face. “If you need help approaching them, I have a ton of pickup lines that worked wonders for me back in the day.”

  I rolled my eyes. “And almost all of them were highly inappropriate, I bet.”

  “It’s only inappropriate if you say something to the same woman a second time.” Grandpa shrugged. “You’re wanting to do something inappropriate, so you’ve got to let them know you’re available.” He winked at me. “Lots of women like ‘inappropriate’ things at the end of the night.”

  “No, you’re wanting me to do something inappropriate.” I sighed as I walked to the door. “Look, I appreciate that you think this is coming from a good place, but I’ve got more urgent things to think about right now.”

  “Like what?” He followed me into the hall.

  “Like, is the magic Elf going to let me walk into town with this?” I patted the sword on my back.

  “About a third of the beings in the universe have some form of magic or elemental capability.” Grandpa shrugged. “And that’s not counting all the races that have fangs and claws. Nobody cares if you’re carrying a personal weapon.”

  “Good to know.” I stepped into the gate room. “Can you show me how to key this thing for Penca?”

  “I’ll teach you how to do that next week.” He promised. “You’re wanting to get to the planet early, aren’t you?”

  “I thought you said we had plenty of time?” I sighed as the gate sprang to life. “Fine, just try to keep the internal commentary to a minimum.”

  “I only tell you what you need to know.” His voice filled my mind.

  We have very different opinions about what ‘need to know’ means. I grumbled as I stepped through the gate.

  The room I walked into was very similar to the one that I’d entered on Rashka with the notable difference of a dogman sitting behind a desk in the corner. He wore the same black uniform as the Elf had, but he had three purple bars on his chest.

  “An Anubis, not dogman.” Grandpa corrected me. “And he’s Intermediate, so he probably went to the University.”

  Which means? I swallowed as I approached the black-furred man.

  “He’s decent at magic, but not so good that they put them on ships to use as soldiers.” The voice in my head grew excited. “But at that strength they get guardians, so don’t be surprised if a creature appears behind you.”

  I looked over my shoulder, but there was nothing there.

  “Nolan Lawernce of New Tera.” The Anubis didn’t look up from his screen. “You’re registered for the running game today as a free agent under the Stabury Group.” That got him to look up at me. “They’re farming out to Humans?”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Orina Taniel said she saw potential in me?” I shrugged.

  “One of the board members personally recruited you?” He nodded. “Good to know…” He waved at the door. “There’s a note in your file to direct you to a car. Follow the arrows in the hall to the exit; there should be someone waiting for you when you get there.”

  “Thanks.” I felt like a child as I stepped through the door into a well-lit hallway. The ceiling was at least twelve feet high and the hall itself was twenty feet wide. It was more like a room than a hall, but to really drive the point home, there were so many beings milling about that were at least a foot taller than me. On Earth, anyone who was six feet tall was one of, if not the, tallest person in a room most of the time. But here, I was in the bottom half as far as height was concerned. Other beings were moving to my left, not in numbers that threatened to sweep me up, but enough of them that I didn’t have time to place what races the various beings belonged to.

  “Aello, Kelpie, Sively…” Grandpa rattled off the races as they passed me. “Someone let a Kobold through? What is the universe coming to!”

  I watched the two-foot-tall, blue reptilian in a brown duster hurry through the crowd.

  What’s so special about Kobolds?

  “They’re almost all fanatics of the Leviathans. Little pests are always trying to set up a private gate to bring a Leviathan egg to a planet so their new master can hatch and eat everything on the planet. I thought they’d been banned from civilized worlds.”

  Maybe this is one of the nice ones?

  “Nice doesn’t have anything to do with it.” Grandpa grumbled. “I got to see an eaten world once. There was nothing left. No trees, no animals, no beings. It even flattened all the buildings!”

  I swallowed as I approached the exit. At least I’m just here to visit. I couldn’t imagine what I’d be able to do against a creature that could cause that level of destruction, but I couldn’t imagine that the guards would have let something through that was a threat to the entire planet. And I couldn’t see how something that small could have overpowered one of the guards.

  “Don’t underestimate something just because it’s small.” Grandpa rebuked me. “By that logic, a pistol is less dangerous than a warhammer.”

  Good point. I walked through the sliding glass doors. While the Portal Hub building on Rashka had been individual buildings in a cluster, the enormous glass building behind me rivaled the largest cathedrals I’d seen back home. The stone statues perched on each corner of the grand building looked just like the gargoyles from back home, which felt very out of place.

  “Those are actual gargoyles.” Grandpa chuckled. “The Authority can activate them if there’s an intruder who makes it out of the security rooms.”

  I eyed the winged statues for a moment. There were over twenty that I could see in all shapes and sizes. I felt a little safer knowing that if someone became violent, those sentinels would be there to handle it.

  “Mister Lawrence.”

  I turned to face a yellow man with jet black hair and pointed ears. His black suit looked expensive, though that was just me comparing it to Earth standards, but the gold cufflinks on his sleeves told me that it was definitely expensive.

  “I’m sorry, you are?” I swallowed as I turned to face him.

  “Rondore Gulonde.” He touched his right hand to his heart as he gave me a slight bow. “Miss Taniel sent me to pick you up.”

  “She’s here?” I looked at the skyline where the sunrise was just making an appearance.

  “Miss Taniel got in yesterday to set up the team.” He pointed his arm at the black SUV waiting at the curb.

  Considering the vehicle didn’t have any wheels and it hovered a foot off the road, calling it an SUV wasn’t entirely accurate, but it was around the same shape as the SUVs from back home. The rear door slid into the side of the vehicle as we approached instead of opening out. I stepped into the back seat, which had two rows facing each other. One was against the divider between the front row and the other was against the divider that partitioned off what I assumed was the trunk area.

  “It’s just me?” I leaned forward as the door began to close.

  “The rest of your team is at the staging area already.” Rondore touched the door to stop it halfway. “Miss Taniel did ask that I verify your token.”

  “Oh.” I fished the amulet out of my shirt and held the half-dollar-sized coin out for him to see.

  The yellow man angled his wrist pad at the token, then nodded. “It’s real and I’ve confirmed that you’ll be presenting it at the staging area.” He pointed at a white button on the ceiling just above the divider. “If you need something, you can push that to call me.”

  “Thanks.” I gave him a smile, but he ducked out of the door. A moment later the vehicle hummed to life.

  That was a little… I searched for the word to describe how I felt as I sat down.

  “Rude?” Grandpa chuckled. “Most Elves are snobs who think they’re better than everyone else in the universe. No doubt he feels like driving a Human around is beneath him.”

  That’s harsh. I sighed. So was he a pureblood too?

  “Nope. Fulmen have blue hair, but you won’t see many purebloods. The High Elves required all the Elf subraces to intermingle almost fifteen hundred years ago.” He sighed. “There were holdouts and the law got abolished about five hundred years ago, but most Elves you run into now are going to be mixed bloods, or just Elves. The few that managed to stay ‘pure’ are mostly because their ancestors were either rich enough to pay the fine or a mage that was powerful enough that an exception was made for them.”

  Gotcha. I leaned against the window. Compared to Rashka, this world was more of what I imagined an alien world to be like. There were highways of hovering vehicles, sleek metal buildings that rose hundreds of feet into the sky, and holographic billboards everywhere.

  We wove our way through the traffic, down to a part of town that was much less futuristic and more naturalistic. The road changed from paths in the sky to a cobblestone path. The buildings went from metal to stone and wood and the lanes went from wide enough for eight vehicles to only two.

  The building we stopped in front of looked more like a jail than an entertainment hub. Thick stones lined the walls and there were sturdy metal bars covering the windows and doors. I noticed over a dozen gargoyles perched on the ledge of the flat roof.

  The door slid open and I stepped out of the vehicle. “Is this the Casino?”

  “This is the Dungeon.” Rondore motioned for me to go to the door. “It’s a safety hazard, so the gobs have to keep the entrance outside the city.”

  “Oh…” I paused as he got back in the vehicle. “You’re not staying?”

  “If you survive, I’ll drive you back to the city.” He closed the door and drove off.

  It didn’t take long for the SUV to disappear down the street. Once it was gone, I turned back to look at the fortress.

  Is this normal?

  “Dungeons are usually housed in buildings outside the city.” Grandpa chuckled. “I’ve been in this one before, so you can trust me; it’s the real thing.”

  Where are all the people? I looked around. The streets were empty. I’d think there would be a crowd to watch or at least set things up.

  “This is an eight-lane Dungeon.” Grandpa scoffed. “Outside of the eight teams, there’s not much reason for there to be anyone else but the guards. It’s more comfortable to watch the runs from the safety of the Casino in town.”

  Okay… I swallowed, then checked to make sure my sword was still on my back. I wasn’t sure how helpful the weapon would be, but having it at least made me feel a little better. I guess there’s nothing left to do but walk in.

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