Eric felt numb as he biked home. He had met new people, made friends, and found them murdered the next day. Who would do such a thing? Why? He made dinner, ate, and went to bed early, sleeping fitfully. The next morning he headed into work, and went to his boss's office. “Boss, I guess you can cancel that report after all. The foreign agents I talked to...Oh, sorry boss, I'll wait outside.
Eric had been so depressed that he hadn't noticed two people in well tailored suits in his boss's office. One man, one woman, both in their late twenties and fit. “Eric, actually we were waiting for you, please come back in.” His boss called. As he returned, the two newcomers turned to look at him, and he noticed the woman had a pistol under her jacket. “Eric, this is agent Peter Jenkins and agent Kendra Parks. They are with the FBI.”
Agent Jenkins was tall, lanky, with pale skin and dark blonde hair, he had a scowl on his face and kept his hand near his gun. Agent Parks had dark hair, almost black, and tanned skin, athletic build, and a sympathetic face.
“FBI? Did I do something wrong? I did my best filling out that form, but a lot of it was new to me, and some of it didn't seem to apply.” Eric stammered.
The woman, Agent Parks, reassured him, “Your report was fine, you provided the information we needed, but it sounds like there have been additional developments? Please, tell us what happened.”
Eric answered, “Well, I wanted to visit them again after work yesterday, and there were tracks from the entrance portal rift thing to...the bodies of my friends. Someone killed them all, even their wolves.”
“I see, and did you do anything in response to those who killed your friends?” She asked.
“No, I just...I just went home. I think tonight I'll go back and try to bury them. I should have last night but I just, I didn't think, I think I was in shock.”
“Understandable.” She seemed sympathetic, which made the man's next words seem jarring.
“So did you get a class, did you interface with this 'System?'” The male agent's words were accusatory.
Eric stammered, “Uh, yeah, yes I did get a class, Traveler, I kinda picked it on accident but I do like it, not sure how it is used though.”
Agent Jenkins continued his attack, “And what offensive abilities does the Traveler class give you, what threat are you to other Americans?”
Agent Parks interrupted him, “Please, Peter,” then turned back to Eric, “What can you tell us about your class, the rift, and the system?”
Eric did his best to remember, “Um, the traveler class gives movement abilities, and social skills? I think that was what I was told before I picked it.”
Jenkins scoffed, “For fuck's sake, don't you have some sort of 'status' thing you can look at? The other freaks did.”
“Status?” Eric asked.
Eric Brown, Traveler 1, 650/1000 XP to next level
HP 13, MP 15
Str 12, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 8>12
Skills Diplomacy 0, Insight 0, Perception 0, Wilderness Survival 4, Mapping 1, Pathfinding 3.
Abilities Escape, Bypass, Wind Slash
Unused skill points 4, unused Ability points 2
Unread messages 4
“Um, ok, yes, I have a status, I just, I never saw it before, but it just appeared, I can see it now.” Eric explained.
Agent Parks kindly asked, “Can you write down what is on it for us?” Eric shrugged and wrote it all on a piece of paper. Agent Parks asked him, “Can you ask the system for more information about your abilities, and to show you your unread messages?”
Eric shrugged, and thought about it.
Ability Escape, immediately transit to the opposite side of the nearest rift, cost 5 MP plus 1 MP per mile, may overcharge.
Ability Bypass, move past any person or obstacle, up to 100 feet, cost 3 MP.
Ability Wind Slash, send a blast of fast moving air at a target within 60 feet, force of wind is sufficient to damage steel and slice through flesh.
First unread message, Congratulations on entering your first Rift, you will receive a personal quest for this area, and may participate in group quests, you will receive experience and system rewards for completing quests.
Second unread message, Rift to world of Ba'ruq,, personal quest: befriend the orcs or kill 10 orcs. Reward 400 XP, Orc weapon.
Third unread message, Congratulations on befriending the orcs, Shaman Staff given as reward. Bonus 50 XP per Orc befriended.
Fourth unread message, Personal quest given: Revenge or Redemption, confront those who killed your friends and resolve the conflict. Reward 600 XP, defensive item.
With a clunk, a seven foot long wooden staff appeared next to Eric and promptly fell over, almost hitting Agent Jenkins. The top was decorated with a few feathers and a piece of obsidian that looked like a spear-point. Agent Jenkins actually drew his weapon but Agent Parks seemed unruffled, asking “Did you just get a quest reward?”
After Agent Jenkins put his gun back in its holster, Eric put the staff in a corner and said “Um, yeah, I did. I got it for befriending the orcs. The quest was to either befriend them or, well, to kill ten of them. But isn't killing them murder?”
Agent Parks gave Eric a troubled look, and Agent Jenkins scowled, saying “We don't even know if the beasts on the other side of those portal things are real. They could be some sort of computer simulation for all we know.”
The female agent added, “Yes, and so for now our guidance is that only killing people of Earth will count as murder-just until we determine the true status of the system.” I was gobsmacked.
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“Those...they were people, I talked to them, Grom was only just old enough to patrol with the other warriors, Lena had a crush on him, Mursha was his mother!” I protested.
I could tell I'd gotten to Agent Parks, she said “Be that as it may, it is our job to enforce laws, not set them. That area of law has not yet been settled.” I just glared at her.
“Are we done, is there anything else you wanted to ask?”
Agent Parks gave her partner a look and said “No, Mr. Brown, that will be all. But please don't kill any Americans, even on the other side of the rift. That would be murder under the current laws.”
The two agents left, and my boss looked at me and sighed. “Eric, how about you take the rest of the day off, I can cover for you. If you have something you need to take care of, well, please remember what that Agent Parks said.”
Eric was at the rift about forty minutes later, The sun was actually rising near the rift, almost perfectly centered between the rift and a large tan rock sitting in the sand. He found the area where his friends died a half hour after that in the dunes. The sun was high in the sky and the temperature was a lot hotter than it had been the last two times he entered. He quickly realized that he should have brought a shovel, and that slacks and a collared shirt are not the best clothes for digging in sand. After about an hour, a group of people who looked like a cross between rednecks and Mad Max extras walked up.
The leader, a tall lean man with dark, almost black skin, was wearing a motorcycle helmet and primitive leather armor, with a rifle on his back and a sword at his hip. Behind him was a big guy with red hair and a big bushy beard, in what looked like army surplus gear, with two rifles and three pistols. Next to him was a slightly heavyset woman in leather pants with a biker jacket. She had frizzy black hair, dark skin, and carried both a pair of pistols on her hips and a pair of hand axes on her belt behind them. Finally was an older white guy with graying, balding hair, glasses, wrinkled tanned skin, with only a rifle.
The leader shouted “Hey, what the hell are you doin?”
“Burying my friends,” Eric growled.
“Friends? Those were monsters, we had a quest for killin em and everything.” Said a big guy.
Eric bit his tongue, then said “Do me a favor, look at what your quest actually said. You could have befriended them instead of killing them.
To his credit, the leader guy looked guilty. “Hey man, I didn't know, I just thought they were monsters like the wolves we fought at the last rift.”
Eric stared at all of them, scowling. “I'm going to tell you their names, and tell you about them, and you are going to listen, ok?” He and two of his friends nodded, but the big guy just laughed.
“How much XP do I get for killin you?” He asked, drawing one of his pistols.
“You know, I talked to the FBI about your group. Killing orcs isn't murder, yet, but killing a fellow American is still murder, even on this side of the rift.” Eric warned him, not really expecting violence, thinking it was just a bluff.
“Only if someone talks.” he grinned. He pointed his gun at Eric and pulled the trigger.
“Escape!” Eric yelled, desperately. He vanished from in front of the group, appearing outside the rift, but feeling like he'd just run a marathon. Checking his status, he was down to 6/15 MP. He dialed 911.
“911, what is the nature of your emergency.” The operator asked.
“Someone just tried to shoot me, I got away, but they might come after me.”
“What is your location.” She asked.
Eric provided his location and about 10 minutes later a squad car arrived. Two patrolmen got out, an older overweight Asian guy and a blonde gym rat looking guy. At first they were a bit skeptical of Eric's story, but the rift was right in front of them, and they had been hearing about the rifts on the news. About the time they had gotten Eric to repeat his story three times, the group that Eric encountered exited the rift.
“Fuck, cops!” the big one yelled, and dived back through. We could all see him running away. The police looked at his friends.
“This man says your friend tried to kill him, can you confirm if this is true?”
The leader looked down, then nodded, “Yeah, I don't know what he was thinkin, but he pulled a gun and took a shot.”
“Can you provide the name of the suspect?”
“Cletus, Cletus Mourdin.” The leader answered. “He isn't going to get in trouble is he? We were on the other side of the rift, that is outside the US, right?
Eric glared at him. The older officer answered, “That is up to a judge, for now we have an armed individual who attempted to shoot a person. For everyone's safety, we will want him in police custody while we investigate.” The officer paused, “Do you have an address for Cletus?”
Obviously reluctant, the group answered all the questions the police had. To their credit, they were honest about what had happened, and gave police the address of the hotel they were all staying at.
The police sent the group on their way and offered Eric an escort home, but Eric didn't want to ride his bike with a police car following him, so declined the offer. He did ask them to tell him once Cletus was apprehended.
Eric was glad it was Friday. He wasn't sure if he would go back into the rift until he knew Cletus wasn't going to shoot him on sight. He decided to play a few video games, and ironically ended up fighting orcs in the roleplaying game he was playing. He turned it off in a huff, and turned on the TV, seeing a round table of talking heads discussing the rifts.
“Well what I'm concerned with is that this system means almost anyone can have the ability to kill without anyone knowing. Anyone I walk past on the street could have one of these 'spells' and just point at me and blast me with fire. How can I feel safe? We need to register these people, have them wear some sort of warning mark.” A blonde woman so skinny she looked unhealthy argued.
“It sounds like anyone who enters these 'rifts' gets these abilities though. Soon we may all have them. It will be just like everyone having a gun, an armed society is a polite society.” A black man with a mustache countered.
“Should the US military send all their personnel into rifts to gain this combat ability then?” A dark haired clean shaven man asked. “What if China sends all their troops into rifts, we could fall behind?”
Eric cursed, and changed the channel, finding a cooking show and watching that and similar shows until it was almost time for bed.
An unknown number called him. “Hello?” Eric asked.
“Yes, is this Eric Brown? This is Officer Stein, I talked to you earlier.” Eric recognized the voice and name of the other officer from earlier that day.
“Yes Officer Stein, this is Eric.”
“I just wanted to let you know that we picked up Cletus, he almost drew on us but his friends talked him out of being stupid. If you were feeling unsafe, you shouldn't have to worry any more. If we do let him out, I'll give you a call, ok?”
The next morning, Eric was through the rift again, this time with a snow shovel of all things-it was the only shovel he owned other than a small gardening spade. He made it out to where his friends bodies were still sitting in the sun. Their skin now leathery, flies swarming their bodies, and...something had been gnawing on one of the dead wolves. He had to scare away some large birds, they looked like a cross between vultures and crows, but larger than most vultures.
Eric had dug a trench about two feet deep when he saw dust approaching. He readied his escape spell and stood ready. A group of orcs on their giant wolves approached, spears out, but seeing him standing with his arms to the side, didn't attack. Then one saw the mark on Eric's left hand. “Orc friend?”
Eric nodded, “Yes, I am, I was, friends with these orcs. Before other people like me killed them for no good reason.”
“What are you doing?” The orc who asked was smaller, scrawny with green-brown hair, but all the other orcs seemed to respect him.
“I don't want the animals to get them, so I'm burying them. I'm sorry, do you normally burn your dead? I don't mean to disrespect your customs.”
The orcs laughed. “Human, it is good that you revere our dead so, but our custom is to let the animals have them. Their spirits will enter the animals who consume them, and thus will sooner find their way back to the tribe to be reborn in the next generation-or the one after that. Still, your effort deserves reward. What can we give you?”
Eric started to answer, “I can't really think of anything.” Then he had a thought, “Maybe...we don't know much about the rifts, are they new to you too?”
The orcs dismounted, and to Eric's disgust, the wolves started feasting on the dead bodies. Eric turned to not see it, as the orcs sat in a circle, the scrawny one speaking. “The rifts have been here as long as I have been alive, and my grandparents told me stories of them from before they were born. So no, they are not new to us. New rifts occur, and old rifts fade over time. Some rifts lead to monsters, others to trade. Look.” The orc handed Eric a gleaming steel hand ax. “Dwarven made, we trade meat and warriors with them for weapons. They also value our sand for some reason.” The orc gestured around as if to say 'how can something so plentiful be valuable?'
Eric handed back the ax. “So, your rifts don't just lead to Earth, I mean, what you just said, obviously, but that is news to us.” Eric wasn't sure his words made sense, but he was trying to grasp what he was learning. A lot of people had talked about the rifts as just leading to pocket dimensions filled with monsters to kill. If they led to other worlds...that was very different.