The clatter of clawed feet and iron soles echoed through the mossy halls as the party passed under flickering torches. 

“... Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief?”  Lilly rhymed, “King or peasant or bandit chief?”

“What are you singing, Lilly?” John asked.

“I’m just bored. Is it me, or have we not seen very many monsters lately?”

“We saw some action about fifteen minutes ago.”

“Yeah, but aren’t these places supposed to be crawling with monsters? I thought we’d be up to our necks in grueling battles with horrors of the dark, grasping for every last breath.”

John turned around to look at Lilly. She leveled a wide-eyed look back at him.

“I thought you didn’t have monsters or dungeons back in your world.”

“We don’t, but we do write some pretty good stories.”

“Well, I’m not sure what your people think of dungeons, but they would be quite the hazard if they were always crawling with monsters. Even dungeons with higher mana-density will simply result in higher-level monsters, not more.”

“Aww damn. Here I was thinking this was going to be more exciting.”

They both sighed, though for very different reasons. While the two bickered lightly, Eli walked slightly ahead of the party to possibly spot out any traps or tracks, and Amy trailed behind, fiddling with one of her tomes. Lilly looked back curiously.

“Whatcha reading there, Amy? Looks magical.”

Amy rolled her eyes, despite her smile, and lifted the cover for Lilly to see.

“That’s because this is a magical tome. I can learn spell theory and advanced spells from this. This was written by Shensi, Thermobaric Booms and You: A Discourse on the Applications of Wind Magic for the Fire Mage.”

“Ooooh, let me see!” 

Lilly blinked over and peeked over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the text. For a moment, she saw glowing, multicolored text with intricate graphs and runic text. However, her amazement was short-lived as a sharp pain echoed through her head.

“Lils, wait-” Amy tried to pull the book away from her line of sight, but it was too late, as Lilly was already crouching on the ground holding her head.

“Aaagh, that’s worse than a math textbook,” Lilly groaned. 

Amy quickly closed her book and crouched down, sighing lightly as she pulled out a tonic.

“Silly rogue, your brain can’t comprehend the higher level magical constructs in this book.”

It was a common mistake for young mages to attempt to learn high-level spells in search of power or to impress their friends. What many learned, however, was that higher-level magical tomes were made to coax their mind into quickly learning the concepts written. Without the proper foundations, their mind would be overtaxed trying to learn topics it could not understand. Normally, mages would not react so quickly, but Lilly had not even started her pursuit of the arcane arts. 

Amy kindly explained the prior concept to her party members. Lilly laid against the wall with a hand on her head after having drunk Amy’s tonic. While Amy was a certified mage, even she was taxed if she spent more than a few hours studying the books, so she kept a few tonics handy.

“This magic business is more serious than I thought. How long would it take for me to learn how to do that fireball from the bandit attack?”

Amy’s face darkened slightly at the mention of the magic wielded by the bandits.

“That wasn’t real, proper magic.” 

“What do you mean?”

Eli walked back and explained for her.

“What she means is that none of the mages there were capable of casting that kind of spell, nor is that spell efficient by any means.”

As Eli and Amy explained, the mages of that group had used a workaround. By taking a staff preset to cast a simple Fireball, they linked together to overload the staff and create a larger, more powerful Fireball. 

“Oh. Then what do you mean when you say that it wasn’t efficient?”

Amy sighed.

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“Fireball is a low-tier spell to start with. It’s not designed to hold that much mana, so in the process of making it, they lose most of the mana in formation. Not to mention, a proper spell that is meant to do that much damage is more concentrated, smaller. That was just a flashy show, full of waste. Didn’t you wonder why none of the mages joined in the fight afterward?” 

Lilly started to reply to her when they all heard a rustle of stone down the corridor. Everyone jumped to attention, ready for anything that might come around the corner. They stared at the turn, but after a minute or two, nothing came. They relaxed, but only just.

“That was creepy.” Lilly mused quietly. 

The rest nodded in agreement. John signaled for Eli and Amy to trail behind as he and Lilly took point. They walked forward at a snail’s pace, braced to fight. That nothing stepped out to face them unnerved them more than any high-level beast could. Once they reached the corner, John signaled a countdown.

Three. Two. One. Go! 

Lilly and John jumped around the corner and quickly scanned the vicinity, but there was nothing there. Amy and Eli cautiously came around the corner but relaxed as they saw that the coast was clear. Amy laughed nervously, as everyone calmed down. Well, everyone except Lilly. The hair on her skin was standing up on end and she was breaking out in cold sweat.

“What’s up, Lils? There’s nothing here.”

Lilly turned to look at her and her eyes were serious. She went back to scanning the surroundings as she mused quietly.

“Back in my world, people would write books on every kind of story. Horror stories, fantasy stories, anything and everything you could think of. Believe it or not, this kind of situation comes up a lot. A group of adventurers or explorers hear something around the corner, or from inside a room, but when they go to check it out, there’s nothing there. But there’s always something there, hiding.”

But where? She scanned the walls and floor, but there was nothing to hide behind. Nothing back the way they came either. John turned to her.

“Are you sure, Lilly? I know this may be slightly rude to say, but those were simply stories, not reality.”

Lilly tried to come up with a response when a drop fell on her head and she froze. If not in front and behind them, where else? She slowly looked up, and the others followed suit. 

Something looked back.

---

“Hey Peter, you finished for classes today?” 

He looked up from packing his bag and found his best friend, Nicole, seated on a desk. She was a friend from high school, and they had ended up heading to the same university. They were cut from a very different cloth, however. Nicole was energetic and eccentric, yet a very hardworking student. Peter was a rather quiet person, who preferred to relax and cruise by on what minimal effort he needed to put forward. 

“Yeah, I’m done. What about you?”

“Ah well, I have some tennis practice. You wanna come watch?”

“Sure, let me go drop off some of my stuff at my dorm.”

He semi-jogged out of the room and headed towards the exit. A few people gave him a weird look or two, but he was used to that. He exited the building, jogged down the cobblestone path past the cafeteria and club buildings to the dormitories. He reached the quad and entered his dorm, a blocky brick building covered with windows. He climbed the stairs, stumbled slightly on the way up before catching himself, went down the hallway, and entered his room. 

After closing the door, he collapsed onto his bed in exhaustion. Despite the short distance of the jog, he felt exceptionally tired. He had a limp so this was to be expected. Not that it bothered him that much anymore, having dealt with it for over a decade now. It was old news by now, not that many people understood that.

He absentmindedly fiddled with the ring he wore on his right hand as he stared at the ceiling. He had to get to the tennis courts soon Peter let out another sigh. As he got up though, he felt extremely drowsy for a moment. His eyes were unbearably heavy, but closing them felt like it took a century. 

Just as his eyes closed, a loud voice boomed out, breaking him from his stupor. 

“Welcome, brave heroes from another land!”

The voice was accompanied by an older bearded man, wearing gaudy robes of purple and gold, and standing with his arms spread wide. He had a mystical presence about him as if he could create miracles at a snap of a finger. The most notable thing was not his ever-changing eyes, but the bizarre text that appeared in his view.

[Mage - ??]

“What the fuck?”

“Where am I?”

A cacophony of voices erupted, and only then did he notice that there were others with him, all wearing modern clothing. By his count, there were around fifty of them. All of them looked just as bewildered as he was.

Suddenly, an oppressive aura pressed down on them, making it difficult to move, let alone breath. Looking down on them with disdain was a man in his mid-fifties, wearing robes of deep azure, inlaid with gems and other assortments. No one needed to see the crown on his head, nor his tag to know what he was. Who he was.

A [King].

Peter shuddered, feeling the aura threaten to suffocate him. Just as he was about to pass out, a loud cough came from the [Mage].

“Please, Your Majesty, I implore you to spare them. They do not know of our customs.” 

Moments later, the pressure lifted from his shoulders and he collapsed on the ground along with everyone else. The [Mage] sighed tiredly before gesturing to the group.

“Now that I have all of your attention, please heed my words. We, the kingdom of Proana, have summoned you heroes to fight for us.”

Peter and the rest of the Earthers looked at him with varying degrees of shock, disbelief, and confusion. Heroes? Fight? They had no powers, no experience, nothing at all.

The [Mage] must’ve noticed their looks of fear and apprehension.

“Do not worry, heroes from another land. We will personally oversee your training and ensure you will safely progress in levels while having the appropriate gear. Now, let’s not dally any longer. Knights, please escort our guests to their rooms.”

Complaints and concerns were quickly quelled as the knights started herding them towards their rooms. When Peter took the first step to follow, he stumbled. Correcting himself, he tried again, only to stagger once again. This time someone caught him.

“You alright, bro?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

It only took him a few seconds to realize it, but looking down confirmed his suspicions. He was no longer crippled.