Luke’s heart beat faster as he looked at the enormous hand holding him in place. He couldn’t move. It was one thing to hear that orcs were strong, quite another to feel it himself. He was powerless to resist, so he looked up to the owner.

  It was a younger orc, one that was only a foot taller than Luke. He was draped in red and blue sashes, woven together into a long tunic. He was wearing plastic sunglasses from Earth. His grooved face was twisted up in a grimace. He shouted, “Vi malrespektas niajn vidvinojn. La patrinoj de orfoj meritas vian respekton!” the cell phone was able to translate. “You are disrespecting our widows. The mothers of fatherless sons deserve your respect!”

  Luke held up his hands. “I’m sorry. No disrespect meant.”

  The orc grabbed his shoulder tighter and started to lift him up. Luke went up on his tiptoes and cried out in pain. The orc paused for a moment as Luke’s cell phone spat out, “Mi beda?ras. Nenia malrespekto signifis.”

  The greenskin teenager looked confused for a bit and looked around. Their argument had drawn the attention of most of the market and they looked at Luke with varying expressions of disapproval and interest. The man juggling shoes let them fall to the stones, one after another.

  “I don’t know what I did to offend, but I’m sorry. I’ll just go, ok?” Luke said.

  After the translation, the young orc got in Luke's face and said in orcish, “You know our language, but sneak about without announcing yourself. Are you a spy for another lord, come to disrupt us all?”

  “No, I - that’s stupid. A human would be the worst spy ever,” Luke said without thinking. He had time to regret the words as his cell phone repeated them in orcish.

  As soon as the translation finished, the guy drew back his hand like he was going to slap Luke for insulting him. Luke watched the hand, knowing that if that dense hand hit him, he might break a bone.

  Someone placed a hand on the guy’s shoulder, just like he had done to Luke. The new orc was taller still, muscles bulging even more than the first. He wore white leather armor and a red tie. It was Cormac.

  “Luke of Runes, that market spot is reserved for mother widows. Step away and all will be fine.” Cormac said in English and pointed to the ground.

  For the first time, Luke noticed that there was a flowing script carved into the paving stones. Apparently everyone had their own spot in the market and he had inadvertently taken a widowed mother’s spot. Luke was quick to back off the spot and away from the market.

  The two orcs had a quiet conversation. Luke couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they clearly knew each other. The young orc was angry, but Cormac was patient with him and calmly responded. Their conversation ended when the young guy gave Cormac a little bow and walked away. The seneschal walked over to Luke.

  “Sorry about that,” Luke said. “My translator doesn’t work well when there are too many people speaking at once.”

  Cormac waved away the concern. “I apologize for the crowd. They are on edge because of the Malamon. There are no widows in the eastern market. They wanted an outlet for their anger. Let me know if my grandson hurt you and I will punish him.”

  “That was your grandson?” Luke said and looked back.

  “Yes. He does not like humans. Change is difficult for some people, and humans are the source of almost all change on the estate,” Cormac said.

  "I guess I'm lucky you happened to come by." Luke said. "Thanks for that."

  "It wasn't luck. Lord Edobar sent me to break up the disturbance. Normally he doesn't care, but he saw some people approaching the estate and didn't want us to make him look bad. Speaking of which, how did you end up out here already? I did not expect Kruro to ban you from her workplace on the first day. I had hoped that you would be able to work with her for several days before I had to mediate a conflict.”

  “What? No. She didn’t kick me out. In fact, I think she’s happy with my work. She said I finished a task faster than she expected.”

  Cormac looked surprised. “Truly? This is good news. She has driven away every assistant I have offered her. She wishes to work alone, but there is too much work to be done.”

  “And you didn’t think to warn me that she didn’t want an assistant?”

  “That is correct.”

  Luke rolled his eyes. Conversation lapsed as they walked back to the workshop. He thought back to the kerfuffle at the market. He could have been beaten or killed if Cormac hadn’t been there. Or Luke could have lucked into a win if Kruro was right and he had fate on his side. The market had been an opportunity, for greatness or ruin, and Luke had sidestepped both.

  He decided that’s really what he wanted. He didn’t want a luck class or a bare knuckle fighting class. He wanted a runic class. It was a branch of magic that made him happy. He resolved to do something noteworthy with runes so he would be offered classes in that direction.

  They were almost to the edge of the city. The road towards the runic workshop was on his right. Luke was about to turn down the road, but Cormac keep walking forward.

  On the other side of the low wall around the city stood a contingent of heavily armed people. Unlike the brightly colored clothing of the market, these people wore drab black and green clothing and armor. Nothing they wore shined in the sun, not even the metal spearheads. There were a half dozen elves surrounded by three times as many hulking orcs.

  Cormac slowed down when he saw them, unsure for a moment. Then he strode forward, an angry look on his face. Luke decided to follow him, wanting to see what this was about. He made sure his translator app was running before they started talking.

  “We are honored to be received by the Seneschal himself. I had feared we would wait here much longer before we were admitted,” an elf in the center of the group said. He stood on the other side of the entry gate, carefully not stepping over yet.

  “Lord Edobar sent me here to greet you. My name is Seneschal Cormac Gobnait. May I hear your name as well?”

  “Imohi Minoho, nephew of Momoh Evbusogie,” the elf said with a shallow bow.

  Cormac narrowed his eyes. “The Mountain Lord is always welcome, but usually he arrives in person. What business do you have with my Lord Edobar Falodun?”

  Imohi gestured widely and said, “That business is fit for his ears, not the grains outside or the gutter rats inside.”

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Cormac frowned and said nothing for a moment. Then he gestured towards Luke and said, “I must return this gutter rat to his place first, then I would be honored to escort you and one of your followers to visit Lord Edobar. Please wait here, it will only be a moment.”

  The elf looked like he wanted to say something but Cormac spun on his heels and sped away before he could. Luke caught on and hurried alongside Cormac as they headed towards the runewright’s building. He tried to ask what that was all about, but Cormac didn’t answer until they arrived at the workshop.

  “He should not be here. It is an insult to arrive unannounced,” Cormac said as he leaned up against the round doorway. “I am Lord Edobar’s seneschal, he should have told me what he wished to discuss so that I may prepare my lord. But he is not the only one that can give casual insults. Kruro, I am in no hurry. How are you doing today?”

  The naga looked up from her work with a wry smile. “Well, I was given a useful assistant. Earlier today I was upset with the Seneschal’s unrealistic demands. However, with the help of my talented assistant, I may just meet his insane timeline.”

  Luke smiled as he listened to the exchange. Cormac was wasting time here to annoy the elf outside the city gates. Kruro was complimenting Luke while getting a dig in at Cormac. The fact that this conversation was happening in English made it all the more delicious.

  They chatted about inconsequential things for another few minutes before Cormac sauntered back towards the delegation. Luke happily walked back to his workstation and organized his tools to make an attempt at the new rune.

  “Could you tell me more about the Adept Agility rune? I’m not sure I understand the intent yet.”

  “No,” Kruro said in elvish. “Your first day is not one for new runes. You have to earn that. Put the first armored suit aside and repair the second one. I will handle the adept runes for now. Continue to repair the novice runes you know well.”

  Luke grumbled but did as she asked. She had a point, it was his first day. He just wanted to do noteworthy things while he was still in his assessment period. Thankfully, the assessment period was long, so he would have a chance to learn new runes later.

  He carefully levered the heavy mech off the table and replaced it with the other one. This rune mech had its limbs intact, but only barely. Three of the joints were broken, and its left leg had cracks all through the outer chitin.

  It was an interesting construction. Each suit was a mix of magic and technology. The mechs were constructed of half monster parts, and half cutting edge Earth technology. Its mana core provided months of power and the runes let it move in ways that human technology couldn’t match. At the same time, the pistons and gears made it possible in the first place. Machining perfection from Earth wasn’t possible on this world. Luke had heard that Kalibutan had rune golems, but they were clunky and weak.

  The end of the first day arrived before he finished repairing the second mech suit. But the parts were all working now, so it was only a matter of inscribing a few more runes. Luke expected he would have everything repaired tomorrow. Hopefully that meant Kruro could teach him that new rune soon.

  His hopes were dashed moments later when Sandwich and his crew hobbled in. Of the four magical mechs, only one was undamaged. Two were limping, and a third couldn’t lift its arms. Each one had blood spatters across the legs and chest. Their swords were pristine though.

  They all sat down along the back wall of the runewright’s workshop and slowly climbed out of the suits of magical armor. Surprisingly, none of them had visible injuries.

  “You guys alright?” Luke asked.

  Sandwich ran a hand through his sweaty hair and said, “That was a rough shift, but I think we’re all good. Right, boys?”

  Rooster, Cuddles, and Bumblebee all mumbled that they were fine. Apparently the padded pilot suits were more than just for looks. Their mechs had taken a beating, but they hadn’t.

  “What happened? It looks like you took your mechs through a blender,” Luke said and started looking over the suits. He knew he would have to repair the damage before Kruro would let him learn a new rune.

  “This is nothing,” Bumblebee said. “Sometimes we have to drag them in, just like parts and stuff.”

  Sandwich gave him a look and said, “But that doesn’t happen often. Usually we are just a little dirty, but today we got ambushed by kobolds. The blind shits can’t see us coming, but they always seem to draw us into a trap.”

  Bumblebee said, “That’s why we need bigger mechs. The monsters are always gonna attack, we need to be able to put the beatdown on them without falling apart.”

  “That costs money. If you would just practice your sword forms more on your days off, you would be better with the sword and we wouldn’t need repairs.”

  Cuddles grunted in assent.

  Luke looked between them. It seemed like this was a longstanding disagreement. Cormac arrived shortly afterwards and cut off the discussion. Sandwich gave a detailed report on monster kills and herd movements and they headed off towards the portal.

  This time Luke wasn’t able to keep up as well. It had been a long day, ten hours in total, and his leg was still a little sore from this morning. Sandwich noticed and dropped back a bit to stay with him.

  Luke nodded in thanks and said, “Sorry I’m slowing y’all down. I know you just want to get home. I’ll bring my running leg tomorrow so I don’t hold everyone back.”

  “Shit, I never even noticed you were a gimp,” Sandwich said.

  Cuddles spoke up for the first time since they met. He growled out, “Sandwich. Say sorry for calling him names.”

  Sandwich looked up with wide eyes and said, “I didn’t mean nothing by it, Cuddles.” He turned to Luke and said, “Skywalker, I just didn’t notice before. Sorry.”

  Luke nodded but said nothing. He didn’t want to say it was fine because it wasn’t. He couldn’t stand it when people called him that. But he appreciated the apology.

  “Anyway. You won’t have to worry about your leg tomorrow. We only work on Kalibutan mornings. That’s when the monsters are the least active. That means every other Earth day. And since there are two shifts of monster hunters, the four of us won’t see you until four days from now,” Sandwich said.

  “Huh. That’s a pretty good deal,” Luke said with a smile. He hadn’t realized he would be getting every other day off.

  “Yeah, the pay’s pretty good, only working once every four days and we still get paid full time. The only sucky thing is that Earth and Kalibutan time doesn’t match up perfectly. You end up spending a third of the year working a night shift.”

  Luke made a mental note to download an app that would keep track of the time for him. He would be arriving for work at a slightly different Earth time every other day. He didn’t want to have to try to remember an ever shifting start time.

  Cormac arrived then and led them back towards the portal. As they walked through the deep forest, Luke kept a closer eye on the surroundings. After seeing the blood on the mech suits, the danger seemed more real than ever.

  The jog was worse this time. His stump was throbbing after the first ten minutes and started to hurt after twenty. He almost stumbled into a weird ball bush before Cormac reached a hand out to redirect him. They moved a bit slower after that.

  Luke tried to keep his mind off of the pain in his leg, but that only had him focusing on the forest around him. He kept seeing things out of the corner of his eyes but there was nothing there when he turned his head. Seeing the mist fox and hydra attack this morning must have given his imagination ammunition.

  When they arrived at the benches below the portal plateau, Luke sat down immediately. Sandwich and the others kept going, but Luke needed a minute to rest before he tackled the stairs.

  Cormac paused before he headed back to the city. “Luke of Runes. I am pleased with your work today. Unu Kruro is a strict runewright and her praise is rare, particularly after only a single day of work with her. You will return tomorrow for duty at the same place.”

  “Thanks.” Luke said and scratched his cheek. “I wanted to ask for a favor. During my downtime, could I work on a replacement for the suits of armor? I have ideas on how to make a magic mech better suited for combat.” It was an idea he had on the run over here. It would be a perfect way to show the System of the World the type of things he wanted from a class.

  Cormac sliced his hands down. “No. I need all six suits functional and available for monster hunting. Focus on that for now. However, if you can keep them all functional for a week, you have my permission to use resources to build your own suit of armor.”

  Luke thanked him. He could probably make that work. Based on how slow the assessment was progressing, he might have time to complete his project before the progress bar completed. The system was going to be impressed. He could make a badass mech, maybe one that could fly. He would be a knock-off Iron Man in no time.

  “It’s a deal. I’ll see you here tomorrow morning, two Earth days from now.”

  Cormac gave him jazz hands and said, “Until then.”