I stepped out of the portal and appeared in a forest. I looked around, recognizing it as the same place that I’d left from. The bones of the dead bear also gave it away. Those things had been stripped clean of any meat and muscle. The bones had even been gnawed on.

  Whistling to myself, I walked over and grabbed some of the bones, figuring they’d make for a good Resource. Maybe an Alchemist could get something from grinding them down.

  Heading north out of the clearing, I sighed. Would have been nice of Stylo to tell me the portal would return me to where I’d left. I would have kept my armor on.

  Not that there was much in the Solace territories that could hurt me. Some of the dragons up in the mountains, yeah. A couple of the Elder Bears way deep in the woods. Couple other things. But I’d encounter none of them on the way back to Solacetown.

  I’d encounter none if I bothered walking back, which I wasn’t going to do.

  I pulled my Lexicon out of my Spatial Storage. Made out of clear crystal with a series of smaller colored crystals along the front, it was basically a phone. I was proud of this thing as it was one of Solace’s Crafters that had come up with it. Our biggest export as we’d made it so that only Crafters in Solace could make it.

  Subutei’s people had tried to steal the design. That hadn’t gone well for them.

  I had no idea how the thing worked, just that it did. I hit a combination of the colored crystals, infusing each with a small bit of my Arcanum. They lit up in sequence and I waited.

  Maybe we could sell these on Crossroads? Someone somewhere in the multiverse had to have come up with a phone design. Right? Or maybe not. From what I’d gathered, the other planets in the multiverse, when they’d been integrated their level of tech hadn’t been as high as that on Earth. There had to be something similar, but maybe we could still sell these.

  I’d have to talk with Kat, see what our production capabilities were.

  “Boss?” A voice said in my head.

  That was the nicest thing about the Lexicons, the conversation was all in the head. I could feel the Arcanum flowing through my body, in and out of the crystals that lit up as we talked.

  “Hey John,” I said. “I need a lift.”

  There was a pause as I assumed John was using his Portal Essence to gauge how far away I was from him, using the crystals of the Lexicon to zero in on. Portals were pretty common on the new world but they used a lot of Arcanum, which meant they were limited between the major cities and towns. Some of the smaller towns in Solace, we had a central Portal and then would have a day or less travel to the towns. Most of the cities in Solace were all connected. There were a handful of people like John that had a Portal and Teleportation Essence, which allowed them to open small portals over great distances.

  I was probably at the edge of John’s range. He came back a minute later.

  “I’m going to need to do two jumps,” he said, confirming I was beyond his range. “I’ll need to rest in between. So can be there in about thirty minutes?”

  “Sounds good. See you then.”

  I hit a white crystal, which stopped the flow of Arcanum to the device and shut it down.

  We had a lot of things that used crystals, taking a bit of Arcanum to activate. The crystals came from a couple mines we had and the Crafters, Runecrafters and Crystalcrafters. They hadn’t been stuff I’d talked with Jeriyan about. I had been surprised that Fred hadn’t mentioned them. He was always looking for a good deal on our crystal items. I’d have to ask him why he didn’t bring it up. I’d have to send someone around the shops, to see if there were similar and what we could compete with. The crystals were pretty rare, so that could be a limiting factor. They respawned, like pretty much every Arcanum-infused Resources, but the respawn rate was pretty low and there weren’t that many places they spawned.

  I walked over to the rock where Jack and Kat had been sitting a couple days ago. A leap and I was on top. Sitting down, I looked out over the forest. The rock wasn’t the most comfortable, but it would do for the short amount of time I’d be waiting. To pass the time, I took out another Gorituskio skewer. I really should have bought more.

  ***

  Almost exactly thirty minutes later and a light green door shaped portal appeared. I hopped down the rock just as John Argent walked out of the portal. It disappeared behind him. He wore a pair of pants with leather pads, a wool long sleeved shirt under a leather vest and had a cloak waving in the breeze. An older man, he’d been forty or fifty when the System had hit, like the rest of us he hadn’t aged since. Still looked forty or fifty with salt in his black pepper hair and beard, which he had let both grow long, since in his previous Pre-System career, he wasn’t allowed long hair or a beard.

  John had been a pilot for one of the major airlines. He’d traveled all over the world and when the System hit, he’d gotten the Essences that let him travel. He could also fly with his Gravity Essence. That was his main offensive and defensive Ability.

  Not that he was required to fight often. John was one of Solace’s most valuable resources.

  “Hey boss,” he said, reaching out to clasp my hand. “How was The Multiversal Nexus?”

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  “Crossroads was good,” I replied. “Already been into the first Floor of the Tower.”

  “Of course you have,” he said, rolling his eyes.

  Was I really that obvious and one track? Apparently I was.

  “Bring back anything good? Gotta wait a bit for my Core to regen.”

  I pulled out one of the skewers, handing it to John. He looked at the meat skeptically.

  “Smells good. What is it?”

  “Gorituskio.”

  “Gesundheit,” John said, taking a small bite.

  I laughed.

  “It came from a lizardman’s stall.”

  “It’s damn good,” John said, taking a larger bite. “Really good.”

  “Right?”

  “Set up a trade deal with that guy,” John said. “We need more of this meat. And the glaze? Wow…”

  I thought about giving John another one, but I was running low and really wanted Kat and Jack to get some.

  “Okay,” John said, after he was done eating. “Do you want to go straight back to Solacetown or stop somewhere else?

  “Solacetown. I need to report to Kat since she knows I’m back,” I said, glaring at John.

  He held his hands up.

  “Don’t look at me like that. Of course I told her you wanted a portal. You may be the strongest one around but you aren’t as scary as Kat.”

  I laughed. That was true.

  With a wave of his hand, John opened the Portal again. He motioned for me to go first, so I did.

  ***

  After another fifteen minutes or so for John’s Arcanum to regen, and stopping halfway between the clearing and Solacetown, I stepped out onto the square in front of the Town Hall. I kind of wanted to go back to the hunting lodge where the intermediate portal had opened.

  It’d been awhile since I’d gone out there and just hung out. But there’d be no time for that as Kat was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs.

  She looked relaxed, but I knew she wasn’t. It wasn’t like she was mad at me, just upset that I hadn’t contacted her first. Going to John first indicated that I wanted to avoid her as long as possible. Which was true, but she didn’t need to know that.

  The Town Hall sat on a hill in the middle of the town. Solacetown was big enough to be a city, but it wasn’t the largest in my territory. That was Aegis, about two days to the southeast on the coast. I worked hard to keep Solacetown small and cozy, but it was hard as a lot of people wanted to be there as it was the capital of the territory. No matter how much I’d tried to get the capital moved to Aegis. It never took.

  Stupid Celestial Challenge System.

  Solacetown’s Hall looked a lot like the Golden Hall from Lord Of The Rings, which kind of fit my preferred Viking theme. The giant log cabin sat on a raised pedestal made out of riverstones, all different sizes and shapes. Stone steps led up the hill to the Hall itself.

  “Welcome back,” Kat said, not moving. “Thank you John.”

  “No problem ma’am,” John said. He gestured and the portal disappeared. He leaned closer to me and whispered. “Good luck.”

  Without another word, John took off walking into the town, moving as quick as he could without looking obvious about it. I turned, acting like I was going to follow him.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Kat said.

  I turned and smiled at her.

  “So what kind of trouble did you get us into?”

  I walked over to her, Kat turning and starting up the stairs. I matched her pace, the steps wide enough for four people side-by-side.

  “Why would you say that?”

  She gave me the side-eye but it turned into a smile.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” she said. “I did talk with Fred so we have the list of stuff that you promised the elf. Was he an elf?”

  “I’m not sure. He never said one way or the other. Looks like an elf. You talked to Fred huh?”

  “Yes. He called yesterday saying. He thought you might forget or stay in the Tower too long and miss the deadline.”

  “Hey!,” I said, pretending offense. “I wouldn’t have forgotten.”

  “I know,” she said, as we reached the top. “Fred was just giving us more time to pull it all together.”

  For a guy that wanted to take over the world, Fred really was a good guy. I still wouldn’t let him take over the world.

  Two guards stood on either side of the double main doors. They grabbed the handles and pulled the doors open. I really hated when they did that but I’d given up trying to get them to stop.

  “Thanks guys,” I said.

  Both nodded. At least they didn’t salute.

  Kat led me through the lobby and up the stairs to the offices on the second floor. I had an office up there, a little bigger than hers and in the back corner with a window view looking out over the town. I avoided it as much as I could. Kat led me to one of the conference rooms.

  The interior walls of the Golden Hall, and yeah, I had stolen the name, who was going to sue me, were light colored wood planks. The doors were darker and had lots of carvings on them. The conference room had a long table and comfy wooden chairs down the sides. Large windows looked out over the town. There were paintings, tapestries and animal heads hanging on the walls. At the far end was the banner of Solace.

  Scattered along the table were a bunch of products that Solace made. The ones that I’d talked with Jeriyan about and some others that Kat had picked out.

  “Let’s talk about the stuff and what I think you can get for it,” she said, taking out a leather bound notebook.

  I groaned, looking for an escape. She glared at me and I sighed.

  No escape for me.