“I’m not going to hand over my leg,” Luke said, exasperated. “The tax on the mana core makes sense, but this is my leg, you can’t take it.”

  “I’m not asking for your leg, this is a customs inspection. If you bring back magical items, the value must be determined and a tax assessed,” the taxman said, equally exasperated.

  “And your little magic detector is beeping on my prosthetic leg because it’s runed. But I made it myself, I didn’t buy it on Kalibutan. I walked over there with this leg, and I’m walking back with it. You aren’t going to charge me a tax for walking around with my own leg, are you?”

  The woman in the black suit had wandered over, interested in the conversation. She tried to be unobtrusive and held her device near Luke. Whatever information it gave her made her lose interest and she walked back over to her station by the portal.

  “Let me get my supervisor,” the taxman said. “Stay right here.”

  Luke rolled his eyes and leaned up against the wall. He had been accosted right after walking through the portal. The taxman seemed to understand that his toolbox hadn’t been made by the aliens, but for some reason he was suspicious of his leg. The marines manning the guns in the corners of the portal room were giving him crusty looks.

  Fifteen minutes later, the attendant returned and said, “My supervisor said you can go now. But you need to declare your leg before you leave next time so we are expecting it when you return.”

  Luke shook his head, “Yeah, fine, whatever. Am I free to go?”

  The attendant nodded and Luke hurried off. Leaving the portal building took just as long as entering it. The security maze might make some expert feel safe, but Luke was just tired and wanted to go home.

  On the drive home, Luke noticed that the system’s progress bar had disappeared. It must only work on Kalibutan and near the portal. The mana out here was probably too thin.

  His cat, Jinx, scolded him as soon as he walked in the door, probably for being gone so long. Jinx still accepted pets though, so she wasn’t too mad. Luke made a mental note to look into petsitting while he was gone.

  He made himself a few hot pockets and told Jinx all about his day as he ate them. She was attentive and appreciated the laser pointer breaks in his narration. He went to bed early, exhausted from the day.

  The next morning, Jinx woke him up at the standard time. He briefly considered going back to bed afterwards, but an idea kept him up. Cormac had promised he could build his own mech suit. He wanted to design one, a suit that was better than the ones Kruro had made. Her design was clearly not up to the rigors of monster fighting because the mech suits required constant repair.

  Luke wanted something badass and durable. The first change he would make would be to inscribe the runes on the inside of the suit instead of the outside. That way the suit’s magic wouldn’t fail from a random claw strike. He would have to horizontally invert the connections on the outside of the movement runes. That wouldn’t be hard though. He could do most of that work in his head, let alone when he had time to sketch everything out.

  He didn’t know what options he had for materials, but he hoped that he could get something more durable than chitin. The monster insect carapace was stronger than Earth steel, but clearly not as strong as the monsters they were fighting.

  The next change he wanted to make was to improve the suit’s legs. After designing and crafting his and Jinx’s prosthetic legs, he knew a thing or two about the process. They didn’t have the same constraints as organic legs so he could make big changes. He wanted the legs to work for quick repositioning as well as efficient long distance movement.

  Ideally, he would also mount miniguns on the shoulders like War Machine, but bullets that could hurt Kalibutan monsters were expensive. A dozen rounds would cost more than the entire suit. It just wasn’t practical. He would have to ask Kruro if there were magic arrows or something like that. He would have to ask her about flight options while he was at it. Luke seriously doubted that true flight was easy, but hover cars existed on Earth and Kalibutan. Some sort of middle ground should be possible.

  The rest of the day slid by with excited diagramming and watching TV for inspiration. Everything from Iron Man, to Avatar, Edge of Tomorrow, Gundam, Pacific Rim, and Evangelion were all plumbed for inspiration. It was a lot of fun. Not incredibly productive since the mechs were designed for their cool factor instead of practicality, but fun nonetheless.

  By the time he was packing up the next day, he had dozens of design ideas he wanted to run by Kruro. He hadn’t nailed down any one direction yet, but he had several promising avenues to explore. It all depended on what runes she could give him and what materials they had to work with.

  The next day, Luke made sure to register his runed tools and leg so they wouldn’t try to charge him when he returned. Apparently there were forms he should have filled out the last time he left Earth.

  The light above the Portal turned green and it was his turn to walk through it. He followed a group of humans wearing identical purple jackets. Researchers. Since contact had been established five years ago, the government and various corporations had been sending their people in. Over time, the various human groups had come together to protect each other and share the costs of hiring protection. The purple jackets were there so the orcs and dwarves knew which humans to protect.

  Luke was fairly sure he could do anything he wanted if he wore a similar jacket. For a day or two, anyway. Once the researchers caught on, he would be banned from Kalibutan entirely.

  He made a mental note to never wear purple on the other side of the portal.

  The shimmering field over the portal felt just as weird as it did the first time. As he walked down the corridor between planets, he noticed something he hadn’t the previous time. There were pinpricks of light dotting the black surface all around him. The shapes and groupings reminded him of stars and galaxies.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Before he could consider the implications, the corridor ended and he was on the other side of the portal. The alien air assaulted his senses. It was full of fresh forest scents and the sharp tang of body odor.

  The researchers headed off to the left together where a group of dwarves stood ready with long spears. Luke watched them take the path off to a different city than his own. He only now realized he hadn’t learned the names of any of the three towns surrounding this portal. He would have to ask at some point.

  A familiar notice popped up in his vision before he got to the edge of the plateau. It was faster this time.

  Only thirty percent complete. He told himself that was a good thing, it meant he had more days to do something impressive. Still. He wanted his magic class sooner rather than later.

  Luke walked straight ahead towards the benches across from the shrines. He was once again struck by how lifelike the religious icons looked. He sat down and pulled off his walking leg. He left the right shoe on his prosthetic as he tucked it away in his backpack. He wouldn’t need it for his next leg.

  He pulled out his running leg, a prosthetic that people called a blade. It didn’t really look like a blade to him, it was more like a bent crowbar. Instead of a foot on the end, it had a rubber stopper. It wasn’t as good for walking around, but it would make jogging through the forest with the others much easier. The design was also a shock absorber so his stump would be fine this time around.

  This time he hadn’t gotten to Kalibutan quite so early, so he only had time to switch his prosthetic leg before the monster hunters got there. Just like Sandwich had said, this was a new group of fighters.

  Four of them arrived together, each wearing the same blue padded pilot suits. They were clearly military men, from the way they carried themselves down to their tight haircuts. All four were white. Unlike the overweight Cuddles and Rooster, these men were in excellent shape.

  Luke stood up and held out a hand to shake. “Hey there. Name’s Luke. I think we’ll be working together. Seneschal Cormac hired me to repair the magical mechs.”

  The lead guy’s expression brightened and he took his hand. “Thank god. I’m tired of operating with broken suits. You any good at your job?”

  Luke smiled back and said, “Probably. I’m the best human runewright I know. Kruro is much better, of course, but she promised to teach me.”

  “I hope she does. Anyway, introductions. I’m Shepard, that’s Green, he’s Davis, and that sombitch is Barrow.”

  “Good to meet you all,” Luke said as their names slowly faded from his memory. “You guys look like you are former military. You know each other from the service?”

  “Yeah, Navy. The four of us met in basic and stuck together afterwards. What about you? Didja lose that in combat?” Shepard said and pointed at Luke’s prosthetic.

  Luke nodded. “National Guard. I lost it to an orc during the invasion. Not too far from the portal, in fact.”

  “No shit? An actual combat vet,” Shepard said and gave him a nod of respect. “That’s actually what brought us out here. We all served our tours in combat zones, but none of us actually saw combat. All that training, buildup, wasted. Like a wedding night with no pussy. Fighting monsters scratches that itch.”

  Luke nodded, not sure what to do with the fact that they all admitted to being bloodthirsty.

  “What’s it like, being here with the greenskins? Did the leg give you trauma, or are you itching for payback?” Green or Davis said. Luke wasn’t sure which was which even though they didn’t look alike.

  Luke tried not to bristle about a stranger asking about his deepest traumas. “Neither, really. I’m not mad at all orcs, and the one that got my leg had his face blasted off a few seconds later. As far as how I feel about being here? If they continue to pay me well, I’ll continue to repair mech suits.”

  They didn’t ask follow up questions, which was good because Luke wasn’t going to tell strangers anything more. Everyone had questions when they saw the leg, but he didn’t need to tell people he just met his whole life story.

  Cormac arrived a few moments later and they set off into the forest. Luke was glad for the interruption. Unlike Sandwich and his friends, the second shift crew weren’t people he wanted to get to know better.

  The large orc said a few words to everyone and they headed off. Cormac walked at a fast pace and everyone else jogged to keep up. Luke was relieved to find he could easily keep up with his blade leg.

  “Hey Cormac,” Luke said. He gave him a look and Luke corrected, “Seneschal Cormac. What are the names of the three cities around the portal? I realized I never asked last time.”

  “They are not cities as you know them. Each one is the country estate of a Thubanian. Lord Edobar Falodun owns the estate we are walking towards. There is a village built up around it, but every one of us ultimately works for that one man. Even you. We call it Bona Urbo.”

  “So these are like villas for the rich nobles? Does that mean we are far from civilization?”

  “Very far. A true city is much more advanced.”

  Luke nodded. He added seeing a big Kalibutan city to his bucket list. “Bona Urbo is the estate village we are jogging towards. What about the other two?”

  Cormac said, “Each estate is built up around their duty. Every lord has the responsibility to provide a resource or service to the Thorn Crown. Lord Edobar provides healing potions made from the slimes we protect. They also have a warrior training camp north of his estate. In the past, the warriors have culled the undesirable monsters. There are currently few students, which is why we hired humans. I am still trying to decide if that was a good idea or not. Your people are strange.”

  Luke nodded. He thought humans were strange, he could only imagine what an alien would think.

  The orc seemed to realize that he hadn’t answered the question and added, “The other two estates are Monta Hejmo and Fekundaj Kampoj. The first is a mountain mine and the second is a very fertile farmland.”

  “Thank you, Seneschal Cormac. Is Monta Hejmo the estate that the brat elf came from yesterday? What was up with the unannounced visit?”

  Cormac laughed. “Do not call him that, but yes, that is where he is from. The Mountain Lord sent him to ask that Lord Edobar contribute more to the Malamon effort. They are forgetting the realities of our position here.”

  “What realities?”

  Cormac said, “The political lives of Thubanians are as complicated as a three day knot. But suffice it to say that my Lord Edobar has upset a centuries old balance. Your world has an unquenchable thirst for healing potions, something only our estate can provide through this portal. The extra riches that trade provides has given my lord unexpected power. There is bound to be friction from that for a few more decades until things calm down.”

  “Decades, huh? So are elves really as long lived as they say?”

  “Yes. All of the Kalibutan peoples are much longer lived than humans. Those with classes live even longer.” Cormac said, “I believe it has to do with-”

  Cormac cut himself off and stopped walking. He turned and stretched his hand out, pointing at something through the trees. Luke couldn’t see what he was pointing at. A moment later, a small glowing ball appeared on the tip of Cormac’s finger. It rocketed across the forest and exploded on a bush a few hundred feet away.