Luke followed the power loaders, trying not to think about the fact that he was about to walk to another world. All too soon, the shimmering purple field was directly in front of him. It was partially translucent and he could see the power loaders continuing on without him. Before he could second guess himself, Luke pushed through.

  Strangely, he didn’t feel the film at all as he walked across the boundary. There was about twenty feet of black corridor before he came up to the exit side of the portal. Twenty feet to walk across the universe.

  Inertia kept him walking as he exited the portal and took his first steps on Kalibutan. He slowed to a stop as he realized he was surrounded by orcs. Luke’s eyes darted around. He started breathing heavier. Every instinct in his body was shouting at him to run back through the portal.

  He stubbornly stayed put. He wouldn’t let his fear win.

  With a supreme effort of will, Luke started walking again, away from the portal. He looked around, understanding what he was seeing for the first time.

  Just like on Earth, there were guards around the portal. These ones were heavily armed and armored orcs with a dozen dwarves marching around the perimeter. All of them wore plate metal with full helmets and held naginata, scimitars, and chakram. Some of them faintly glowed with magic.

  The aliens looked a lot like orcs with green skin and seven foot tall muscled frames. But there were differences between fact and fiction. These people weren’t known for their anger and had comparable intelligence to humans. The clearest difference from fiction was their skin. They had raised bumps and long grooves on every inch of their green skin. It looked similar to scarification that certain people on Earth practiced, but these people had been born that way. Supposedly, the patterns that the skin formed gave hints to their heritage.

  The portal on the Kalibutan side was outside, stationed atop a flat expanse of stone. There were runes carved into the stone around the portal, but they were obscured by something. Probably magic. The natural platform was raised above the surrounding landscape. There was a dense forest around the stone outcropping, with trees reaching over a hundred feet tall.

  The vegetation was similar to Earth’s with some divergences. The forest was made up of tall and wide trees that were reminiscent of redwoods. A major difference became apparent when the tree’s branches moved against the wind. They were like tentacles with pine needle fur.

  Luke took an involuntary step back. The tentacle trees surrounded them on all sides. He grit his teeth and took a step forward again. If he was going to work here, he couldn’t be scared of the trees. He kept looking around, trying to find the meeting spot the guard had mentioned.

  A cool breeze gave Luke goosebumps across his skin. It was much cooler on this planet than on Earth. Either that or it was just a cool morning. It was 10AM in Colorado, but it would be 6AM in Kalibutan. Maybe it would warm up later. A glance at the azure sky showed that the sun had peeked up over the horizon behind him. At least he had worn a light jacket and cargo pants so he wasn’t too cold.

  There were three roads leading from the platform, each going in a different direction. They started out as paved and turned into dirt paths as they entered the forest. Each road had people around it loading or unloading stacks of crates, baskets, and smaller metal boxes. Further on there were tents and small booths, a mini market on each road.

  The people in the power loaders he had followed through the portal had kept walking, heading directly towards the road on the left. Luke wasn’t sure if he should follow them, he didn’t see anything that looked like a shrine on that road. Then again, he didn’t see shrines on any of the roads. Maybe one of the booths had shrines inside?

  He had just decided he needed to ask someone when he was distracted by the patrolling dwarves. They were similar to the Earth fiction in that each one was under five feet tall and very stocky. They differed by having long ape-like arms and pearlescent skin that glittered in the dawn light. The dwarves had been marching around the perimeter of the platform since he got here, but they had suddenly stopped. They were all staring into the forest.

  “Celu orienten!” One of the dwarves shouted and pointed. “Nebulvulpo!”

  Luke’s cell phone caught the shout and automatically translated for him. There had been alien translation apps for a few years now, so he downloaded an offline version yesterday. He had it set to relay the translation to the bluetooth earpiece he was wearing. A woman’s voice said, “Target east... mist fox.”

  Off to his left, the squad of dwarves were all focused on the forest to the east. Movement revealed something walking through the forest. It was a large white fox, at least six feet tall at the shoulders. Wisps of white smoke curled up from its fur.

  A woman piloting a power loader yelped and turned to scramble back towards the portal. The other four people in exosuits stepped to the side of the road, but didn’t flee. Seeing their lack of panic, Luke decided to stay put and see how this played out.

  Three orcs marched over to the edge of the platform while the rest of the guards stayed put. They shoved the dwarves to the side and looked down to the monster down on the forest floor. One of the orcs was holding a ring blade, a chakram. He tapped it and it started glowing bright blue. With a sudden sweep of his arm he sent it spinning towards the fox. The blue chakram sliced through the air, hitting the monster two hundred yards away an instant later.

  The magic weapon sliced a wide hole through the monster’s midsection. A puff of mist blew out from the point of impact and the fox reformed itself from mist. It burst into action, running towards the platform.

  The orc on his left smacked the chackram guy upside the head and said, “Nebulvulpo, stulta. Uzu venenon.”

  Luke’s cell phone translated, “Mist fox, idiot. Use poison.”

  The first orc grumbled and pulled out a second chakram. While they talked, the monster was racing towards them. The dwarves formed up and pointed their swords and spears over the top of their shields.

  The chakram orc scoffed at them and tapped his blade. This time the ring glowed purple and wisps of purple smoke curled up from the edges. He flicked the ring blade towards the fox, intercepting it midair as it was jumping towards the platform.

  The purple chackram sliced through the monster’s spine, just like last time. However, this time it didn’t instantly reform. The fox tumbled to the ground and rolled. Purple magic ate away at the monster, slowly widening the hole. It yipped in pain and anguish before the poison magic ate away its lungs. A few moments later, all that was left of the monster was purple tinged bits of flesh and a small round ball. A monster core.

  The orc grunted and slapped a nearby dwarf. He pointed down towards the core and said, “Kolektu tion por mi, nano. Nun.”

  Luke’s cell phone didn’t pick that one up, but he got the message. The greenskin was sending the stout guy down to do his dirty work. There was a clear hierarchy here. The orcs had the magic and were in charge. The dwarves looked well armed, but none of them had glowing weapons. They were probably fodder if the orcs were ever attacked en-mass.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  A shout sounded from the other side of the stone plateau. A single dwarf was standing and pointing a long arm into the far forest. He yelled again, “Celo Okcidento, junula hidruro!"

  The three orcs spun and raced towards the other side of the plateau. Luke had to jump out of their way lest he be trampled. They shouted something, instructions or curses, Luke wasn’t sure. He was too distracted by the translation of the dwarf’s shout: “Target west, juvenile hydra!”

  A pair of serpentine heads peeked up above the stony edge of the plateau, followed by a couple more, then another two. The creature’s body followed, all six heads connected to a stout four legged monstrosity. It scrambled across the loose scree on the cliff edge, just barely having enough grip to lever itself up to a stable position.

  Luke took a step back as sparkling dwarves rushed past him, spears out. The translation might have been wrong. That didn’t look anything like a juvenile, even though it was clearly a hydra. It was huge. It was forest green with mottled black spots all over. Each one of its six heads pointed in a different direction. All at once, the heads screamed and opened their mouths in a simultaneous breath attack.

  Each head spat out a different colored cloud of magic. Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, and Black. The three orcs had just arrived and jumped back from the attack. The hydra struck forward with three heads, each one aimed at a different orc. They warded the hydra off with a few well placed attacks. Then the orc with the huge scimitar glowed blue and jumped forward. He moved fifteen feet in an instant, trails of blue following him. The hydra was caught off guard and the orc was able to slice off a head before he had to jump backwards again.

  Luke winced and shouted, “No! Don’t cut off the heads! Go for the body!” Didn’t they know how hydra worked? His cell translated for him, but they ignored him. The orc with the naginata hacked off another head.

  The headless necks spouted blood for a few moments and then healed over. Luke watched as the necks proceeded to shrivel up and fall off. Once they did, the remaining four heads grew bigger, almost twice as big as they were before.

  The orcs jumped back as the four headed hydra unleashed another breath attack. This time with Blue, Orange, Purple, and Red. Luke could see that they weren’t fire attacks, they were more like magical mist. The orcs avoided the attack, but two of the dwarves flanking the monster got hit and fell to the ground screaming. They were carried away by their fellows and the remaining dwarves redoubled their attack.

  Luke started to wonder if he should be running by now. He wasn’t sure if they had this handled. The people in the power loaders he had followed through the portal had already left the plateau, maybe he should too. There were other people atop the plateau that weren’t freaking out though. Another two orcs, a few dwarves, and even an elf stood there passively, just waiting for the monster to be dealt with.

  The hydra screamed out in pain. While Luke had been distracted, it had lost another three heads. The final hydra head was much bigger than the previous ones, more like a dragon head than a serpent. It opened its mouth for a breath attack, one that was sure to be magnitudes bigger than any previous.

  The orc with the chakram threw his ring weapon into its mouth. It was glowing red and exploded in the back of the monster’s throat. The hydra made a strangled gasp and clamped its mouth shut to avoid further attacks. The orc with the naginata ran with a yell. As he ran, he separated into four clones that spread out. The clones sliced their weapons down as one and decapitated it with a single strike. Reddish green blood spurted out from the corpse. The clones dissipated into mist.

  The sound of rushing blood filled Luke’s ears. He tried to get his breathing under control. He realized he had moved closer than he had started. He must have run up when they started cutting off heads. He should have known they had things under control. It was just unexpected that Earth mythology would be so wrong.

  The magic on display was equally heart pounding. The hydra’s breath attacks were potent, the runed weapons were impressive, and that one orc had a magic class that created clones. So cool.

  The orcs left the cleanup to the dwarves and stomped past Luke. Their carved skin rippled over heavy muscles. One of them muttered to his friend, “Stulta malforta esta?o. Mi ne scias kial ni lasas ilin vivi.” The translator app helpfully provided, “Stupid paper person. I don’t know why we let them live.”

  Luke’s ears burned and he turned away. Then he changed his mind and spun and loudly said, “I’m not a paper person. And you better hope that I don’t die because the Seneschal needs me. Do you know where I could find him?”

  As he talked to them, they sneered at him. But when his cell phone loudly translated for him, the looks changed from disgust to confusion. They heard the robotic voice say, “Mi ne estas papera homo. Kaj vi prefere esperu, ke mi ne mortos, ?ar la bienadministranto bezonas min. ?u vi scias, kie mi povus trovi lin?”

  They stared at him for a few moments before one of them pointed to the northwest road. The orc said, “La human renkontas trans la sanktejoj. Kaj se vi laboras por la bienadministranto, vi ne vivos longe.” After which his cell helpfully translated, “The human meet across the shrines. And if you work for the Seneschal, you aren’t going to live for long.”

  Luke nodded in thanks for the directions and said, “We’ll see. I have a feeling you’ll be disappointed.” His cell loudly said, “Ni vidos. Mi havas la senton, ke vi estos seniluziigita.”

  He confidently walked away while he was inwardly sweating. That was the second time he had heard that working for Seneschal Cormac was deadly. It didn’t matter how much the orc was paying if it was going to get Luke killed. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be the case. He was guessing that Cormac wanted Luke for his rune carving skills, and that couldn’t be too dangerous, right?

  Luke walked down to the edge of the stone plateau. A carved set of too tall stairs curved down the sloped sides. The dwarves must hate getting up and down.

  Something happened while he paused at the top of the stairs. A sudden headache hit him behind his eyes. The pain washed over him in a wave, but then disappeared as quickly as it came. Luke blinked in surprise at the unexpected event.

  A blue box appeared in his vision, filled with blurry gibberish that slowly resolved into words he could understand.

  Luke blinked a few times, struggling to understand what he was seeing. It was clearly magical, and it reminded him of video game stat screens. The few humans that had gotten magic powers mentioned that they had an interface like a video game.

  His first thought was that he was about to gain magic powers himself. He stood there waiting for a few moments, eager to see what kind of magic he would get. Maybe he could throw fireballs, or fly. He had seen youtube videos of this one guy that could teleport through mirrors. That would be pretty fantastic.

  Luke wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he was really hoping for healing magic. If he could regenerate his leg himself instead of spending millions on a greater healing potion, that would be truly fantastic.

  When the progress bar at the bottom didn’t change, Luke realized it had been serious about the assessment taking a long time. Apparently the magic system of Kalibutan was running on dial-up or something. Luke would have to go about his day while he waited for the verdict.

  As soon as he had that thought, the screen minimized itself and a tiny progress bar appeared on the upper left of his vision. He nodded to himself. At least the system was convenient.

  Luke carefully stepped down the huge stone stairs, heading towards the spot where the three roads came together. According to the orcs, he was supposed to meet across from the shrines. The three roads looked identical, stone paved roads with small piles of cargo along the sides. There were booths a bit farther on, people haggling in front of most of them. There was a train of handcarts heading away on the road to the west.

  The northern road had small pavilions without people in front, probably not market booths. Luke started walking that way, hoping they were the shrines he was looking for.

  As he walked that way, the fantasy of gaining a magic class wore off and reality set in. The system message didn’t say it was giving him magic power, it said it was assessing him. It probably assessed every new person that walked through the portal. Thousands of humans had walked through that portal, and only a few dozen had gotten magic classes. It would be ridiculous to expect he would be part of that one percent.

  He shook his head and refocused on his job. He was still going to be working with magic, it would just be in the form of runes he carved instead of lightning from his fingertips.