Marie stretched her body carefully, from neck to fingertips, and felt the thrill as blood rushed every time a joint or vertebrae popped. She untied her leather belt from around her waist and jumped up and down a few times, letting her titanium maille bounce and fall naturally until it felt like it had settled and then retied the belt. She checked that her shortsword and dagger slid easily in their sheathes, and then picked up her pack and slung it over one shoulder.

The excitement was going to kill her if they didn’t leave soon.

“Alright, everybody, listen up! In a few minutes the portal will open and we will proceed through one at a time. No running, no pushing, single file. While the portal is open time will advance on the other side just like here so there is no point in rushing and getting someone hurt.”

The man speaking was tall, over 6 feet for sure, and the cold stare he swept over the crowd had not been developed sitting behind a desk.

“Once you reach the other side you will emerge in a basement store room in our Inn, the Adventurer’s Roost. Proceed upstairs and from there on you are on your own. This isn’t an MMO, we won’t assign you quests, it’s up to you to figure out what you want to do. All trips include paid return so when you are done, come to the Inn and you will be sent back in the next scheduled opening.”

The energy in the crowd waiting to go through the portal was palpable. You could cut it with a proverbial knife, of which there were many scattered around. Marie examined her fellow Travelers, clothed in many different styles and in many types of armor. Most of them were men, but there were a few women besides herself.

The majority of them were going in as their regular human selves, but she saw a couple who had had their ears surgically altered like her to appear elven. This was the trip of a lifetime for many of them, go big or go home, right? They were all waiting with bated breath.

“As you know, time works differently on the other side. One day on this side can be a day on the other side, or it can be a year. Time will seem to pass normally on that side, but you have no idea how much is passing on this side. This makes it difficult to control any kind of real life expectations or responsibilities over here from over there, so I hope you have that handled. You all have your initial funds you purchased, you can also purchase more through the Inn if you need but of course arranging funds can be held up by the time dilation so don’t wait until you are broke to get more. Or, you know, live your life on that side and make your own money. Going on an adventure is why you are all spending the time and money, right?”

A broad smile that didn’t touch his eyes appeared on the man’s face like a magic trick. Marie might have been worried by that if she hadn’t done all her own extensive research before deciding to take on this trek.

“Finally, the rules! I know, I know, you all have had to sit through seminars, sign documents, and discuss this ad nauseum but we like to hit the high points one last time before you go over. First, do not ever reveal that you are a Traveler. Your AI System should prevent you from speaking the words but some people have tried to get around that with pantomime or drawing or other shit like that. I promise you, you will not like what the locals do to Travelers. Second, what happens on the other side stays on the other side. You cannot and will not be held responsible here for what you do there. Earth laws don’t seem to have caught up with interdimensional travel yet. Enjoy it while it lasts! Third, Portal Adventures LLC is not responsible for loss of life, limb, sanity or souls on the other side. Before stepping through you have all signed off on waivers absolving us of all responsibility, but if you have changed your mind for whatever reason, do not go through the portal. Lastly, have a fuckin’ amazing time!”

All the waiting Travelers cheered, Marie included, and the crowd started excitedly talking amongst themselves. Some of them were already grouped up, having signed up for the trip together, and some of them were just now trying to find people to adventure with. Marie gracefully declined a few offers to join up with others, opting to find some people on the other side.

Why would I want to group up with people who have never been there before? I need to find people who know what they are doing. I’ve watched all the replays, interviews, and read all the background documents but that doesn’t prepare you for going to a whole other world. Nothing but experiencing it for yourself can do that.

A bright red light started flashing on the far wall in the room. There was a wide loading door there, and the man who had been doing all the talking was standing in front of it. Once the light turned green, he pulled it open revealing a blackness that had no equal in Marie’s memory. It was a black that reflected no light, it drank it in, and gave you no chance to determine shape or perspective. The man started beckoning people to walk through and the crowd began shuffling forward through the doorway.

Marie paused at the doorway, feeling an intense cold radiating from the blackness. She reached out to touch the blackness and it was like sticking her hand in to gelatin, and she felt herself getting sucked in.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

***

Marie came to on the other side, her body was being held up by a tall fellow with long braided hair and pointed elf ears. He was looking down at her with a slightly condescending grin, but Marie forgot to be insulted as he spoke.

“Welcome to the Adventurer’s Roost in Arles! Let’s get you upstairs, and get a bowl of stew in you.”

He helped her haltingly walk out of the storeroom and up a set of stone stairs which lead up to a huge room. It was the ground floor of the Inn and it had scattered tables of all shapes and sizes, and on the far wall was a long bar which quite a few people were sitting at and drinking.

That wasn’t English, so my implant must be working. I’m glad to know that letting them crack my skull open and implant a computer in my brain had some benefits. That trip really took it out of me though. I need to sit down.

The man helped her over to a long rectangular table which had long benches on both sides. There was a few people there eating stew, a few of which she recognized from the Earth side of the portal. They all nodded at her, but none of them stopped slurping down the stew to speak.

Her guide walked away to a room on the side of the hall and returned a few moments later with a stoneware bowl of steaming stew and set it before her. She dug in immediately, feeling the blessed heat slide down her throat into her stomach, and the ice began to melt from her body.

“Let the Innkeeper know if you have any special needs or questions, his name is Garret and he can help out. He works for the Company and is the main point of contact here. And with that, I’m done, so have a good time!”

The man smiled down at her again, as if he was chuckling inside at this noob.

Marie ignored the disdain because she was totally invested in the stew and didn’t even spare him a second glance as he walked away.

Here she was, in a totally new and foreign world, and she was still getting talked down to. It really sucked that people had to be that way. Still, this was a place full of opportunities that didn’t exist back home, and she was going to take advantage of them. This was a chance to make her own way, choose her own path and not have to follow the one her family had laid down for her.

But first, she was going to eat each and every drop of this stew.

***

The bed was nothing like what she was used to, being just a large cloth sack stuffed with straw on a wooden frame. Marie wasn’t complaining though, she had come here to experience something she wasn’t used to, and there was no point complaining that it wasn’t luxurious. It was not a coincidence that the word travel derived from travail.

The stress that the portal had put on her body was not insignificant, and despite the simplicity of the mattress it felt quite nice as Marie laid on it and stared at the knotholes on the ceiling of her room. It had seemed like the smart thing to do, just get a room at the Inn and get rested up before trying to make her way around.

I thought jet lag was bad, it’s nothing compared to traveling to another dimension. 

Marie considered the plan she had made before she came here, going over it to see if it measured up to the experience now that she was actually here. Tomorrow she would hire some experienced adventurers to go out with her and find some monsters to try her skills on. She had never had a life-or-death struggle before, and it would be interesting to see how her skills performed outside the dojo.

Once she had determined how her skills held up, she could make more concrete plans. She had already decided she wanted to get out and get involved with the locals rather than trying to play buddy-up with other Travelers. If that’s all she wanted to do, she could have stayed home and played a VRMMO. She would have to move away from the Inn, which was located in Bucks County of the Wyldra Kingdom, and actually ruled by one of the founders of Portal Adventures LLC. Not that the locals knew that, as far as they knew Count Pieter was a local who had become a skilled and famous adventurer and then received his patent of nobility for services to the Kingdom.

The County itself had been made in to what was essentially a large theme park for those Travelers who were not brave enough to venture out and explore the world. If she got in over her head she could always retreat here to rest and heal up, and in the worst case scenario evacuate back to Earth.

She mentally opened her implant’s GUI to examine her information, even though she had reviewed it a million times before. Every Traveler had an implant installed before they were allowed to come over, which served a multitude of purposes. It allowed the Travelers to store information, like maps and historical data for easy reference, and recorded the experiences of the Traveler for playback once they returned to Earth.

The ultimate souvenir for the ultimate trip!

It also allowed for foreign languages to be digitally inserted in to the Traveler’s brain, Marie had both the Common and Elven languages in her implant.

Of course the main reason it was required was to prevent Travelers from admitting they were Travelers. When Earth had first discovered this dimension they had not approached it in the best manner, and as far as the local were concerned, Travelers were devils in human skin.

If you were discovered as a Traveler it was likely you would die a very grisly death, and the worst part was you might implicate others, or even bring down the whole operation. Thus, the implant forced Travelers to not be able to admit they were Travelers or that they knew anything about them under any circumstances.

~PROFILE~

[NAME: Philadelphia Marie Ludwell]

[REGISTRATION: XTF2963]

[STRENGTH: 1.1] [AGILITY: 1.2] [VITALITY: 1.1]

[SKILLS] (Acrobatics IV)(Climbing II)(Dagger II)(Grappling III)(Striking II)

(Shortsword II)(Wilderness Survival I)

[LANGUAGES: Common, Elven]