The transfer through the portal felt strange, but only mentally. There were no physical effects that he could feel. That was not entirely true actually; for Travis at least, one second he could feel the spirit of just those in the house, but then a split second later, and he felt a dozen or more.

They had to be reminded of something that Clyde said you do not hear in the books or games that include this type of magic. A person's instinct might tell them to step into the portal and wait to be transported to the other end. When, in fact, that would have been bad; no one was sure exactly how, and everyone hoped no one would.

What you had to do was continue to walk; one step carried Travis into the portal, and the next step took him out of it. It seemed to be instantaneous, so he figured the only downside would have been blocking the portal exit to the next person in line. Though they couldn't be sure that a person in the exit space wouldn't become intertwined with the person trying to get to that space, and by intertwined, they meant like conjoined twins or worse.

No one had to tell Travis twice, and he took his two steps. When he did, he came into what would be considered an average-sized bedroom if you considered how much space they had. Pretty soon, and it was packed in there.

Inside were two men, each wearing armor that was familiar to the former army Major. They wore blue vests with a large pocket for what would have been steel plates in the military; he didn't know what they used here. It was far more practical than the full sets of armor they used in the Middle Ages.

The two men also wore something similar to tactical pants but the same color blue; it was fair to assume that was some type of uniform. They also had belts that he had seen in his chest; they were magical and could carry scrolls and potions. No headwear was on them, at least in here.

For weapons, the men each had halberds, which were spears but much nastier. With a wider point at the end plus a hook, these weapons would be perfect for the type of quick stabbing action they would have to use if a monster came through. Each man also had a short sword in a scabbard.

It was wild to see what amounted to modern-looking medieval men at arms. There were three others, but they stood back either near the door or on the other side. One had to be a commander because he wore an imperious look on his face; that was always the first sign of an asshole or a squad commander in a garrison. The real skilled leaders would be in the field with the armies.

Then there were two others, one looked like a scout or woodsman type, and the other a mage. Though it was not obvious to tell a mage in this world yet. He did have his wand out.

As he said he would, Patrick spoke up, “These men are with me; they fought with us and helped to kill some undead and their demon master.” He seemed a little nervous, as if that might not be enough to warrant unmolested passage.

The commander came closer, “They don't look very dangerous,” he said in a dismissive tone. Being an army man, Travis had seen all types of self-important officers. It didn't seem to matter if it was in a real or fantasy setting.

They got lucky; this one read like the overconfident dismissive type. If they were the ‘I take my job too seriously and get a hardon making problems for passersby,’ they might be in trouble.

“Do you and the mage academy vouch for them, journeyman Patrick?” It was obvious that this guy loved this shit. He probably was a cosplayer before the changes, which was fine; plenty of cool people cosplayed. But not all of them were able to make it real and think their cosplay experience made them something serious.

Patrick hesitated for a moment before Cass elbowed him in the ribs; he shot her a sharp look but spoke up, “Yes, I do Vasarius.”

“Okay, then you know the drill; they must check in with the watch commander at the front and on the 3rd floor before being allowed to roam free.” He finally turned to speak to them instead of about them, “Welcome to Middle City; enjoy your stay.” His smile was the most punchable thing Travis had seen today, and he just fought a demon.

He held his tongue though, and they walked through the room, the scout and mage nodding heads as they did. They were in a small house in another rural area. As soon as they walked out, he could see the top of a huge white building. What looked like a former factory or office building, it was hard to tell. [see the picture next to the chapter name]

It looked to be about seven stories and was clearly a very old building. Surrounded by trees, but now they appeared to be in a residential area. Maybe this is where the workers lived back when that kind of thing happened in America. Now we ship those types of jobs overseas, well not now, he corrected himself, but before.

There were about seven houses on a street; he couldn't see what was on the east side due to a row of trees. With trees and then the huge building to the west, there was a dead end to his north. Some type of abandoned store seemed to be at the dead end, and to the south of where he was, there was a perpendicular road; he assumed that led to the building.

They were walking along a path through the woods though. “Who lives in these houses?” Travis asked no one in particular.

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“Everyone lives in the stronghold; this is where most of the security forces are based. Those that protect the stronghold,” Patrick answered.

“They all seem in good condition; did the besiegers not take them over?”

“No, as a matter of fact, they came from the other direction,” he pointed to the west. “It was a combined force of orcs, goblins, and some other monsters that no one had seen before. Honestly, the siege wasn't much of a threat; I'm surprised you even heard about it.”

Travis held back his questions, expecting to talk to people inside. Clyde had told him that in video games, you would question NPCs to learn everything you needed to know. He didn't think it would be that easy, but stranger things have happened.

They walked through the woods for about 15 minutes; there was a trail recently dug out. Occasional guards made sure everything was in order, but nothing too abrasive. When they finally broke the tree line, everyone who was new here was blown away.

Omar was next to Clyde and very quiet as usual; Anthony and Felix spoke to each other. Otherwise, you wouldn't even know they were there. But once they saw the huge structure, everybody did some variation of “wow.”

The place was huge, and out front there was much more bustle than where they had exited the portal. There were tents set up that seemed to be selling things; women walked along the exterior, also appearing to be selling, something. Felix seemed excited by that prospect until Anthony reminded him that they had no money.

But the thing that stuck out the most to Travis were the men in tactical gear standing in what resembled parade formation. They all had the same black tactical vest that the guards had, but the difference was that these men also had on identical black pants, shields, swords, and what looked like black tactical helmets—something you would see a SWAT team member wear. Travis wondered where they got all of this matching equipment.

He did a quick count in his head, and there were about 50 troops. Patrick saw him looking and with some pride said, “those are the soldiers of the army, well one company I think. After the siege, the mayor got really serious about defense and started to organize the various forces. Believe it or not, but many of the power players wanted to go with a form of feudalism; you know there would be lords on each floor who paid and trained their troops.

That was a bad idea from the start, of course. For those in a position to argue against it, like our master, it was said that the system would help get things in order. Then once that happened, we could turn to some form of democratic system.” The look on his face showed he didn't think very highly of that happening.

"I wouldn't talk too much about that, though; the mayor has pretty much taken over control of the entire building." Travis got the impression that they didn't know about PCs having an HQ with a laptop. He would find out what was going on, but for now, he just wanted to complete these missions.

“We are on the 5th floor; that is where the guild hall is going to be. For now, it's just us and one or two other groups. The first floor is security and administration, with the 2nd floor being the commercial level.”

This place really was impressive. There was a wall surrounding the entire complex on the outside with various other buildings either connected to or right off the main building. He would have to find out what this place used to be. Being in the military he had seen a lot of his country and couldn't remember ever seeing such a huge building out in the middle of nowhere.

There were multiple security checks before they could enter; once they did, they were in a lobby, similar to a hospital where you go to a main desk to sign in while others waited in the seating area. He couldn't imagine how they would screen all these people; it had to be chaos.

It was truly bizarre to see the melding of modern and quasi-medieval fantasy items used hand in hand. For example, there was still a regular desk in the lobby, and in order to keep track of visitors, they used leftover paper and pencils. Yet just to the side of that was a rack for scrolls made of parchment, and below that was a home for potion bottles.

They saw their first shop off the lobby of the base; it looked to be full of herbs and what looked like incense.

"What is that place?" Clyde asked pointing to the shop.

Cass took this one, "any shop not on the second level is controlled by the mayor. Certain "VIPs" get a discount and first dips. Its also where non-residents are supposed to go but that isn't enforced much."

She looked at Clyde, "you want to go check it out while they go figure out whatever they have too?"

He in turn looked at Travis who shrugged, "go with Clyde, Omar we will meet back up on the 5th floor", he said glancing at Patrick for confirmation who gave it.

Travis continued up the stairs, apparently, they could get the elevator to work with a mix of magic and existing technology, but only for emergency. He continued to pepper Patrick with questions, trying to learn the ins and outs of this place. Nothing too earth shattering was learned though, pretty mundane stuff once you got past the fact that this place existed at all.

They made it to the 5th floor; this is where all of the 'Orders' were based. For some reason someone did not want the groups to be called guilds or some other common fantasy name, so the journals referred to them as Orders, even before any were founded. That said as he walked down the large hallway, Travis got the impression that there were a lot of different 'Orders'.

The stairs and 5th floor were pretty bland. They had those white floors that you would find in an older supermarket, the one with the square tiles every foot or so. The walls were white and appeared to be brick but that was only on the surface. The hallways were long and at least on this floor the rooms were spaced out like a school would have been. There were people of all types walking up and down the hall, Travis could read most of them and he only passed one player character if his scenes were on point.

At one point he thought he saw a woman with pointed ears, so he pressed in his spirit magic to get a better read. She turned around and looked at him as if he tried to look up her skirt. He couldn't help but be embarrassed and kept walking without learning anything, assuming he had just seen her ears at a bad angle.

They got to what he assumed was the Magic Academy, there was a large room, again similar to a school room, but it had two doors on each far side. Patrick was just about to say something when a short man who appeared to be in his 50s walked briskly out of one of the doors. He looked at Patrick then bore into Travis. There was no aura coming from this man, finally after what seemed to be a long time he spoke, "so, this is the mysterious main character. Welcome to my academy, we have a lot to talk about."