Safe and sound at Casey’s place, we finally relaxed. If the devs were going to do anything, they would have done so a long time ago.

The three of us immediately transformed into our true forms once away from prying eyes, much to Elyssa’s amusement.

“Alright, so, this is my place,” Casey announced, swiping her arm around. “It’s not much, but like I mentioned, my parents should be gone for at least another week so you are good to stay here for now.”

“Thank you, Casey. I appreciate it,” Elyssa said with a nod and a smile. “And I would hardly call this ‘not much’. To me, this is already more than I ever expected.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m glad I could help.” Casey turned. “So, let me show you where everything is.”

Casey gave us a quick tour, pointing out the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, and so on. The odd look on Elyssa’s face when talking about the bathroom didn’t escape me. Thinking about it, I hadn’t seen a bathroom anywhere in Elyssa’s hut.

Did… did she not…?

“Right sooo… What now?” Frank asked as Casey showed the television in her living room to the fascinated Elyssa. “Rescue mission successful. Great. Awesome. But what sort of counter-attack do we launch on the evil devs?”

I grimaced.

“I haven’t thought that far…”

Admittedly, we still didn’t know much about what the devs’ plans were. Or if they even had any nefarious plans. For all we knew, they could still just be regular devs completely unaware of the nature of their game. Personally, I doubted it, but it was a possibility.

“And this here is my room. It’s where I sleep, use the computer, do homework, work on my novel… Oh, right. I’ll get out some extra bedsheets and a pillow and you can sleep on the couch in the living room for now. I hope you don’t mind.”

“That is not a problem. Thank you,” Elyssa said with a nod as she stepped inside Casey’s room, still taking everything in.

I was the last to enter her room. And when I briefly looked around, I completely froze once I spotted… it.

“If you get bored, I can bring out some board games and… Renee? Something wrong?” Casey asked, noticing my wide-eyed form.

Two more sets of eyes focused on me.

I slowly raised my hand and pointed to the spot next to Casey’s desk.

“There is… a portal in your room.”

Elyssa’s and Casey’s eyes widened. Frank muttered “Oh shit…” and looked between me and the spot I was staring at.

A moment of silence later, Frank opened his mouth and suggested, “Welp, let’s go in then!”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“What?!” Casey’s eyes snapped to him.

“What? Didn’t we want to explore the other portals? This is the perfect opportunity! This one’s not even out in public, so we can check it out without anyone seeing us!”

“That… well…”

“I concur,” Elyssa agreed. “I think it would be prudent to find out what lies on the other side. If only for safety reasons.”

The excitement in her eyes told me she had other reasons for wanting to explore it, however.

“Yeah, we should at least check where it leads,” I agreed.

“I… I guess you’re right,” Casey agreed with some trepidation. “But if it gets dangerous, we’re coming back right away, alright?”

“Of course.” Elyssa nodded.

“Why are you suddenly so scared? You were jumping in excitement when you saw the first portal,” Frank pointed out.

“This is different.” Casey frowned. “It’s right next to my bed, and I don’t have the power to close it if for some reason it opens on its own.” She shivered. “I don’t want monsters coming into my room when I’m sleeping.”

“Oof… Uh, yeah, that’s a fair point, actually. Well, all the more reason to check it out then! If there are any monsters on the other side, we beat them up and put up a ‘no entry’ sign next to the portal!”

Casey snorted in amusement and I couldn’t help but smile at the imagery.

“Alright then. Let’s go.”

All attention turned to me. I finally properly stepped inside the room, walked to the portal right next to Casey’s desk, and grabbed it.

At the back of my mind, I noted that this portal felt slightly different to the touch from the one in my room. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what exactly was the difference, though.

Pushing that aside, I dug my fingers in and ripped the thing open. A damp and musty smell immediately assaulted my nostrils.

“Oooh shit, it’s really here. Damn, that will never get not weird, I swear.”

Ignoring Frank’s comments, I quickly scanned the other side of the portal but saw only a flat stone wall. I carefully poked my head closer to look to the sides, and the stone wall continued in both directions. I perked up my ears to listen for any sounds but couldn’t hear anything but a mild breeze.

Judging that there was no immediate danger, I stepped inside.

I found myself in a tall stone corridor. A mostly featureless flat wall faced the portal’s exit. The other side of the hallway had medieval-looking wooden doors dispersed along its length.

I looked back through the portal at the three people waiting in anticipation.

“It seems like… some kind of castle hall?” I murmured, briefly surprised at the echoes of my voice. “I don’t think anyone’s nearby…”

I stepped aside, continuing to perk my ears and watch the ends of the hallway as Frank and Casey made their way through.

“Whoa, it friggin’ stinks in here!” Frank exclaimed as he grabbed his nose.

“Shh!” Casey shushed him. “Medieval castles tended to be smelly. It can’t be helped.”

I frowned as I kept looking around.

“Frank, do you recognize this place from… the game?” I whispered.

“Huh… Umm…” He took a brief glance down the hallways. “Not really…? Looks different from all the castles in the game…”

I nodded.

“Me neither. Let’s explore for a bit then…”

“Is that really a good idea?” Casey asked with a frown. “What if we get swarmed with knights for trespassing or something?”

“I dunno, if that was gonna happen, it would have already. The place looks kind of abandoned, don’tcha think?”

“Let’s explore quietly,” I clarified. “If we hear anyone we can run back. Worst case scenario, we can use the ruby seeds.” I looked back at Elyssa who still stood in Casey’s room on the other side of the portal. “Uh, are you good to wait? The whole point was to get you out of here so…”

Elyssa gave me a smile and nodded. “Of course. I’ll be waiting here.”

I nodded back and glanced at Casey who still seemed unsure as she looked around the empty corridor.

A moment later, her tense shoulders slumped and she sighed. “Alright… let’s explore then. But if we run into anything even remotely dangerous, we’re running,” Casey agreed, still clearly uncomfortable.

With a round of nods, I put my hands on the portal and closed it shut behind us, leaving Elyssa still on the other side.

Time to explore a seemingly abandoned castle.