Five months was only a month more than Lance remembered them being allowed to collect Kuthendium for. Lance knew that they could not wait for that long to go up floors in search for Kuthendium.
“Thirty-seventy is still better odds than fifty-fifty, we will have to take that chance,” Gerry said as he released his grip on Lance.
“Where is the portal?” He added as he also motioned for Nathan and Martin to release Lance.
“I still can’t…”
“It’s to the west of here, in the Forixniu forest.” The giraffe hybrid interrupted the elephant hybrid. A glare was exchanged between the two.
“I still can’t let you go there,” the elephant hybrid finished its sentence. “It’s a risk that you shouldn’t take, you could lose your lives. It’s a miracle if you made it through the other portal if you came within the last few weeks.”
“I would like to thank you for your hospitality however, I feel like we have no choice, and the decision has been made by our party,” Bill said as he sighed. Martin and Nathan had released Lance who now stood rubbing his arms from where he was held. He walked over to Bill and grabbed his glaive back but did not brandish it against the elephant hybrid.
“We will now take our leave; Giraffe do you have a map we can use?” lance said politely before he made his demand. The giraffe hybrid adopted an annoyed look before he pointed towards the shelf which contained many books and scrolls. Lance walked over and grabbed scroll after scroll, and he tried to find a map.
“Also… my name is Braliuk so thank me using my name thank you,” the giraffe hybrid said with annoyance. Lance had now grabbed a map which he inspected to see if he could see where Braliuk had said the portal would be located. He made his way to exit the small room without a word, which he was followed by the rest of the group.
“Thank you for your help, Braliuk,” Bill said as he exited the small room where he shut the door behind him before the elephant hybrid could follow along.
“I suggest we head there soon, we don’t want to waste any time, who knows we may even run into other Kuthendium items along our way,” Martin said as he almost skipped along as the now exited the large castle like building. Not looking to spend another moment in the town, the group used the map as reference and started to head westward. The Map showed the forest being located slightly northward on top of the western direction that the group had decided to follow.
The map was well made but seemed to be aged and there were tears in the scroll and some of the ink used to draw the lines had smudged either from the original drawer of the map not being careful or from bleeding of age. Despite the ageing of the map and no real indication of how far places were in relation to each other, the group decided that they would have to be careful.
The map had listed multiple forests that they would need to pass through. Thankfully there was a river that cut through the land which indicated fresh water. Lance, however, knew that Bill had been studious and prepared for this journey by learning how to purify water for consumption from natural sources.
As they walked back through the village to the edge of the town to exit, Lance overhead the whispering of the hybrids that would continue to stare. He heard whispers about unusual creatures, weapons that they carried. To his surprise some even found some of their group handsome, but in a cute animal sense. They hybrids they passed continued to chatter amongst themselves, which now Lance only just realised that he could now understand them all.
His first though when had first been able to understand Braliuk and the elephant hybrid was that the magical broth had connected them and translated them, but now it seemed that the broth had made it so that the two languages they spoke was now understandable to both parties. This was not really a concern for Lance as they did not stop their line out of the town. As they entered the western forests the distant chattering of the hybrids faded from their ears.
Not even two days had passed, Lance and the others were readying themselves to ascend another level. This forest differed a little from the forest they had originally entered on the first day on the second floor, this difference was primarily found with the trees. The type of tree changed as this forest’s tree’s trunks were thinner than the last which caused the height of the tree to not be as large. There were also a larger number of trees squashed into every square metre of the forest.
This caused there to be some routes the group were not able to take because of the clustering of trees. The shrubbery of the forest also cluttered along their path and before Lance or any of the others had realised, rain poured down. Bill took this opportunity to collect water to disinfect for later which would be additional to the water they got from the river.
They came up across a small opening where they would be able to set up a tent for a few of them. From the looks of it, they would need to share a tent between two or three of them as there was only enough for two tents Lance noted. With the rain still pouring down, the group set to setting up the tents with great efficiency as two people held up a tarp to keep the rain off the area where they could place the tent while the other three quickly put up the tent.
They were able to get the tent and tarp up in what Lance felt was a record time as they set up the second tent within fifteen minutes after the first tent had been set. They repeated the process but as their clothes seemed to soak up the rainwater, the pot that Bill carried filled completely.
Bill and Lance then scampered into one tent with Gerry, Nathan, and Martin scrambling into the other tent. Bill handed Lance a towel which he had kept in his bag and wiped himself dry from the water.
“Do you know what the time is now?” Lance asked Bill who looked at his watch.
“It seems like it’s around seven pm.” Bill replied as he let out a light yawn. This caused Lance to Yawn in tandem. Lance could almost swear he could hear the others yawn as well. Despite the early time, they would probably do better if they slept now after they had finally dried off, Lance thought. He did find himself feeling more sleep deprived than usual. He chalked it up to the excitement today and yesterday where he thought back to the events that had happened.
Despite the lure of sleep that weighed on Lance, he still thought about the portal and how they had seasons of being almost unusable by inhabitants that know the portal with familiarity. While thirty-seventy was better odds than fifty-fifty, there was still a larger jump of danger, the portal could take them anywhere. The knowledge that they got lucky when they first entered was a terrifying thought for Lance. His mind continued to ponder on these facts as he drifted off to sleep.
***
The next morning Lance awoke to the sound of running water and rain hitting the top of the tarp. It was a lot softer compared to the previous night, so he looked out the tent door. The light shown through the canopy along with the rain drops that still fell. The light from the sun hit the clouds which created an orange-reddish colour of sunrises. This caused a though to flow through Lance’s mind, he knew that the sky was seemingly fake on earth so it must be on this floor as well since it is only the second and they know of three floors above earth. He wondered if all floors had the exact same time zones as on earth or if they operated on different ones. He felt that it was the former option due to them feeling tired when the sun had set.
The other tent started to stir, and he could hear Bill rustling around in their shared tent. The sound of the rain continued to follow a rhythmic pattern that made any who heard it want to continue to sleep. Lance put his hand on the ground outside the tarped area which was now muddy, and Lance could feel that underneath the muddy surface the ground was still solid enough that they could continue without a hinderance, although packing the tents back up would be a pain. However, Lance knew at the back of his mind that they would need to get started as despite not being told, he knew that portals do not appear in the same place.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He let his mind think back to when they first came out of the portal, he remembered the empty space that they others had come out of. It seemed that portals were all in one direction so the portal they would go into would be a huge risk as they couldn’t send anything or anyone through to check if they other side was safe.
“Wait, could we have just fallen into those valley’s if we weren’t careful?” Lance said, not realising he spoke aloud.
“Huh, what was that?” Bill asked still half asleep.
“Oh nothing, come on we should get going,” Lance replied with his attention retained by the surrounding forest and the rain that fell through. He began to hum to himself as he packed and stretched out his muscles that had grown stiff from sleeping on an uneven ground.
It took almost a full hour to pack up the tent and tarp. None of the group wanted to have a mud-covered tent for the next time they needed it, so a large amount of time was dedicated to washing the mud off the bottoms of the tents with the rainwater that was still falling and accumulated on the tarp. When the group passed by the river that was shown on the map Martin cursed under his breath realising that they could have used the water there to wash their tents as it was not far away from their camping spot.
Bill collected water from the stream ready for purification at their next camping site which he had done the night before to ensure they had enough water for their journey. Each of them had a water bottle of their own in which they kept them in their bags. Bill still carried Lance’s bag on top of his own and the storage device.
On their journey they passed multiple small towns which contained different animal human hybrids. Most were friendly which the whole group was thankful for. Despite the fact that five days had now passed since the fight with the lion hybrids occurred, they were all still mentally exhausted each day and would much rather go without a fight. Even Lance shared this desire as the continuous walking started testing both Lance’s patience and cardio.
With no excitement that showed up along their three-day journey from the first village they discovered, when the reached the village just before the Forixniu forest they were extremely relieved to be done with walking. They had discussed resting for an extra day before they entered the portal so they all could rest from the walking considering they would most likely have to do more once they crossed into the portal. The village was filled with lion and tiger hybrids which did cause bill to worry. Each village they had passed they were required to drink a broth like the one they had at the first village which allowed them to communicate with the locals of each village.
Lance looked forward to trying each broth, and Bill also gained a large interest in the broths to find out what they required. They made their way into the village and found a tiger hybrid that seemed to make broths of the magical kind which they were able to sign and talk in a broken way to get what they wanted.
Lance did find it interesting that there was some overlap between each of the hybrid’s languages in which they were able to understand some of the lion, tiger hybrid’s language. A lot of the language that they could understand came from the common sounds that all the hybrids were capable of making while the more unique sounds were almost unintelligible to Lance’s ears. After having drunk the new broth for this grouping of hybrids Lance once again found himself being able to understand the speech of the hybrids they now met with.
Conversations between Bill and the hybrids, in which they discussed the idea of letting the group stay the night before heading into the forest to meet the portal. Through the conversation, Bill found out that the portal was only a twenty-minute walk into the forest so as long as they left at dawn, they were allowed to stay the night at a local inn.
The inn was located close to the forest with its back facing the forest. It was one of the only buildings that had more than one story to its structure. Inside was that of a large common room with stairs situated at the back wall. To the side was a bar where many hybrids sat chatting amongst themselves. Now being able to understand these hybrids, Lance could tell that their conversations changed to himself and the groups appearance.
The sun had started to set by the time they had bargained for a place to sleep for them all. They found they could only get one room between the five of them as any money they had was worthless here, so they traded for the room with what little they had. Bill avoided using the Kuthendium due to how valuable it is and considering it was lion hybrids they got it from.
Nathan spent some time listening to the conversations that happened around them, he let the group know that they thankfully none of the chatty hybrids were seemingly related to any of the hybrids they had killed days earlier. Lance had noticed this as well, to which his thoughts concluded that the hybrids they came across were most likely that of an independent group and the hybrids that they now visited were the equivalent of ordinary people.
To get away from the behind their back talk, Bill, Lance, and Martin went up to their newly bought room which turned out to be fairly large. It contained two single beds, each with a chest at its feet, there was enough space on the floor for three other people, but it would still be slightly uncomfortable. Bill and Martin called the beds as they placed their belongings on the beds. Bill put their more important items into the chests which included Lance’s bag.
“Make sure you don’t forget that,” Lance said to Bill as he turned back out the room.
“Yeah, yeah don’t worry I won’t” Bill replied dismissively. “Let the others know where the room is if you’re going down to the common room.”
Lance nodded as he walked out of the room. He made his way down to the common room where he saw Gerry and Nathan both playing a game with a group of 2 lion hybrids and 1 tiger hybrid. From the looks of the game, it seemed to be a card-based game, similar to that of poker. He hovered over them as he watched the game continue on. They would constantly go back and forth, rather than in turns like in poker, they would constantly call out numbers which made it hard for Lance to follow along on how to play the game.
After a few minutes of back and forth between the hybrids and Gerry and Nathan, laughter was exchanged between the group. It seemed that they had just been playing the game for fun and no money was being bet, which made sense to Lance as they had no money to bet anyway, and he was sure that Nathan would not bet anything of his on a game he did not know how to play.
Once they had gotten up Lance told them that where exactly their room was, he also told them he would explore the town more. They gave a glance down to the glaive that Lance still held much to his own astonishment.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on doing anything with it.” Lance told them as he gestured for them to go on their way. After which, Lance left the inn and scanned the area. Night had finally fallen on the village and torches lined building that still had people inside. As he looked around at each of the building, seeing how their structure reminded him of the images of medieval era peasant buildings that he had seen in school textbooks. He continued to wonder the town before he reached the entrance of the Forixniu forest. While he did take note of this he still went into the forest, which after twenty minutes of walking straight he stumbled upon the portal they would search for.
He noted that it was now likely to be close to midnight if not afterwards. He found a large rock near the portal and took a seat. He watched the portal for a what felt like a full hour, he watched as it seemed to swirl around with the colours that came from the black centre of purple, green and red. He saw the unnatural way that the portal seemed to exist within the space it occupied by not seeming to have any edge point where Lance could go to. He found it quite mesmerising and made his mind wonder through all the possibilities it offered. To think that there were so many stories of portals appearing in the world and now they were something that could actually be witnessed and experienced.
Lance heard footstep behind him, he turned around to find Gerry who had come to see the portal himself. Gerry put his hand up to say hello to Lance who now had his glaive pointed at the other man, after he realised who it was, he lowered his weapon and sat back down on his rock.
“Hey Lance, so you wanted to see if the portal was the same as the one, we entered?” Gerry asked as he took a seat next to him. Lance stood up as Gerry sat down and took a couple of steps closer to the portal.
“Yeah, are the others asleep already?” Lance asked in reply. He looked to Gerry for the answer to which he received a nod from the other man. He noticed that there was a sombre look on Gerry’s face, one that came from someone who knew knowledge that was a burden to carry.
“What’s wrong?” Lance asked as he turned to face the portal again.
“Did you know there are some materials that can help alter the feasibility of the portals?” Gerry asked from behind Lance. At the same moment something flew by Lance and entered the portal, which caused the portal to pulse in size a small amount, but the colours of the portal changed from the mix of purple, green, and red to more of a reddish purple. Lance turned back to Gerry with a look of concern.
“The watches we were given are also able to check the portal’s change, turns out we weren’t told everything as well,” Gerry said as he looked at the watch on Lance’s wrist, which he took in his hand. He looked into Lance’s eyes with a tired expression.
“You know you annoy me, your self-entitlement is similar to those of the first groups that went into the portals,” Gerry said. Lance saw a seeming guise of age dissipate, the Gerry he knew who he thought was in his early thirties now aged quickly, wrinkles appeared on his face.
“Also, the other requirement is a sacrifice to the portal to make it more manageable for us and we all agreed on you,” Gerry said before he added in a condescending high-pitched voice.
“Bye~”
He shoved Lance with his hand which struck with the force of a car slamming into Lance’s torso. This only made Lance stagger a little however, he realised Gerry had taken his watch from his wrist without him noticing. He was still struck with shock with the information Gerry had put on him, so much information filled his mind he didn’t see Gerry Kick him in the chest which caused him to fall backwards, right into the portal.
Lance’s sight grew red in anger as he could do nothing to stop his fall. One second, he fell with the image of Gerry waving goodbye to him with a sly smirk that changed into a maniacal grin, the next his vision seemed to shut off.