Ralph could have sworn he had only taken two steps through the portal, and he was already on the other side. There was no surreal experience, no navigating through some form of limbo... no, he literally walked through it like it was a door. Gripped in his hand was the journal that David had given him, and Ralph knew he'd be opening it soon enough. He had a lot of questions that he wasn't able to ask David. The poor guy was inches from death, so he didn't want to risk killing him.

"Wait."

A wave of nausea suddenly washed over Ralph as he made a realisation. Closing his eyes, he tried to blank it out of his head, but the thought was already there... gnawing at him. What would happen if David were to die prematurely before Ralph got him summoned to this world? Would it result in him being transported back to earth? Would he have to stay in this new place?

"Fuck, what's the name of this place?"

Ralph looked around himself, but all he could see were open fields of silver grass, faintly reflecting the moonlight... of two moons. There didn't seem to be any form of civilisation around him. It was just grass as far as the eye could see.

"Okay, lets see. What did Davi- Ugh, Davros, have to say about this?"

Taking a seat on the ground, Ralph opened the journal on the first page and positioned himself so that the moonlight would illuminate the writing for him. The familiar scrawl of his cellmate's handwriting was oddly reassuring to him as he read.

> I can't believe he didn't come with me! A magical portal appears in front of you, and he goes back to sleep?! Ralph, you are missing out. As far as I can tell, it has transported me to a completely different plane of existence. The first sign was the difference of constellations in the sky. None of them match any astrological pattern that we have at home. A single moon raised into the air, later joined by another moon after a few hours. The strangest sensation came over my body. I feel... good! Almost as though a foreign power was slowly coursing through my veins.

Ralph smiled as he read through the decade old notes from his friend. The first thing he had written had been about Ralph going back to sleep. That said, for the passage about the constellations... It served as a reminder to Ralph that he was not as observant as David had been. Before he flicked across to the next page, Ralph spotted a handful of words written beside that passage, in a darker tone of ink, as though it was a more recent entry.

> I was right! Second Moon was funnelling Mana through my body! I still have my theories on what happens during the day with the sun, but I was right about the Mana Moon!

>  

> Page 54!

Glancing around himself, Ralph still couldn't see any forms of life in the vicinity. He knew that he probably should have a higher sense of urgency, but right now, he only wanted answers. His current dilemma was if he should read the passages in order, or instead skip to find out what the Mana Moon was all about. It really was entertaining to him, how his priorities had changed so drastically in the space of a few hours.

"Page fifty-four it is."

Ralph flicked through the pages quickly, grateful that he didn't need to count as David had already numbered them by hand at the bottom of each page. David had been a successful accountant by trade, who took meticulous notes for practically everything he did. It was a boon for Ralph who needed all the information he could get. Ralph was almost certain that this notebook was one of many that David had completed over the years.

When he finally reached the correct page, he started reading the passage.

> Sometimes I think back to when I first arrived here. If the Knights of the Sigil hadn't been there to whisk me off to the Kingdom, would the Stalkers have killed me? Truly a horrifying thought. I came across this thought when I thought back to the sensation that occurred in my body, at the appearance of the second moon.

>  

> Now that I've officially become an Acolyte in the Kingdom of Aze's Mages Guild, I can say with confidence that the second moon was nourishing my mana. When I first discovered how to meditate and channel my mana, it was the exact sensation that I felt when I first arrived! No wonder the monsters from those planes are so horrifying, they're enriched with mana every night the moon rises!

Ralph could pinpoint the exact moment he unconsciously stopped breathing. It was when his eyes found the words, in no particular order, 'killed', 'monsters', 'horrifying' and 'stalkers'.

Never in his life had he read through pages so fast. There were no prompts telling him where to go next in the book for information on the stalkers, so Ralph went back to the second and third pages, hoping it would uncover some information about the monsters.

> The Knights of the Sigil seem to be a religious order. I thought it would be rude to ask about the Gods, but I'm excited to find out if they're real and how much they differ from the beliefs of earth. The Knights themselves have been respectful and courteous towards me...

Ralph flicked past that page and quickly scanned the next one.

> Since they knew exactly where to find me, I'm certain that the portal was no accident. This was predetermined, which means several things. They were expecting me or Ralph, and judging by how polite they're being, they want something from us.

Suppressing an inward groan, Ralph flicked through the next page and the next. But all they contained were facts and observations about the Knights of the Sigil. Just when Ralph was about to curse David's name aloud, his scanning eyes found the word he was looking for. It was on Page eleven.

> I'm convinced that they have an Aura style sensory ability! One of the Knights swung his sword into the air and impaled a Stalker! How else would he be able to sense that monster? They're invisible and make no sound while they're approaching their prey! I'm certain it's a kind of magic!

Ralph's face went white as he re-read the passage a second time, just to make sure he understood how fucked he was. He got to his feet slowly, looking around himself as he did so... now completely wary of his silent surroundings. One hand clenched in a fist, while the other held the book at arm's length. If he was going to get attacked, he wanted to be standing for it.

David wasn't the type that would just leave an unsolved puzzle, so Ralph chanced the next page in the hopes it would give him more information. A part of his brain was screaming at him to throw the book away and defend himself against a potential attack, but the other side of his brain demanded him to find a solution in the book. Since there was no minor note that told him to skip to another page, it meant that David found an answer he was happy with.

> Looks like some of them have aura like abilities, so I guess I can take half points for that one. The Knight that killed the Stalker was tossing grass into the breeze and would attack anything that hung in the air for too long.

>  

> Not the most ingenious of plans, but it turned out to be effective. I was still holding out to see some interesting magic, though. One of the younger Knights called me a Hero, and it took everything in my power not to laugh in his face.

>  

> He asked if my prisoner jumpsuit was some kind of Heroic attire. God, I wish Ralph had been here to hear that one!

Ralph dropped to his knees and immediately started pulling tufts of grass from the ground before flinging it up into the air in different directions. His eyes watched each of the blades like a hawk as they slowly glided back to the ground. He had done nothing but train his body in the yard for the last five years, so the exertion didn't faze him in the slightest, it was the anxiety and emotional strain that was taking its toll on his body.

Ralph had to force himself to blink in between his throws, with the only variation in his pattern being a quick glance at David's journal at his feet. If he had a belt, or a pocket, he'd have secured the book away, but they had designed the prisoner’s jumpsuit to be impractical.

After a few minutes of constant grass throwing, Ralph felt a peculiar numbness forming in his palms. He forced himself to look at one of his hands and groaned inwardly when he saw a series of small silver cuts on his fingers. It was an odd sensation, but it didn't cause him any significant pain, so he ignored it and continued to pull the blades of grass, turning his body to make sure that he was constantly throwing the tufts in a full circle. The numbness transformed into a dull ache, and Ralph was about to look at his other hand when a single blade of grass caught his eyes. Suspended in midair four paces away from him.

A surge of relief coursed through him as he launched forward with all of his pent up anxiety and rage. His arms raised to protect his upper torso and face as he led the charge with his right knee. As his body lunged forward, his knee met only air, so Ralph twisted his waist and turned the momentum into a round-house kick, which rewarded him with an impact to the shin.

Adrenaline pumped through Ralph as the creature hit the ground, its invisible body pressing against the silver grass. It was all that Ralph needed to see, as he burst forward into a second attack. He clenched his numb and aching palm into an iron fist that throttled into the downed creature. Ralph was in such a frenzied state that he could barely identify if he was hitting scales, fur or something completely different. All he saw was his target, and his body, fueled by fear... set out to destroy it.

Ralph's breathing intensified as his punches found more purchase in the target. If it was making any type of attempt to counterattack, it was failing miserably. After another flurry of punches, Ralph noticed that a blue liquid covered his fists and a small part of his brain told him he had punched the creature to death. Ralph didn't listen to that voice and continued to punch the creature until it satisfied him.

What finally broke Ralph out of his trancelike state was a glowing light that emerged from the Stalker's corpse. It was a perfectly circular ball of light that hung a few feet above the creature's remains. Ralph watched the ball for a few seconds before he glanced back at the journal on the ground. It was thankfully safe and sound. He idly wondered if he should look up what the ball of light was.

Having David's journey and experiences would be invaluable, because it would allow him to learn about the world much faster... but there were going to be situations that Ralph would find himself in, where David's experiences would not be of any help. The Stalker situation was a prime example, where those Knights escorted David off to a nearby Kingdom while he watched them dispatch the creatures.

Ralph looked at the ball of light again and weighed up his options. It looked inviting, but he knew better than to just touch it without first knowing what it was.

Just as he was about to reach for the book, the light flickered and fade... which signalled to Ralph that it was about to disappear. There was no chance he would find what he was looking for in David's 'Knights of the Sigil' appreciation book before it vanished, so Ralph did what anyone else would do.

He poked the light with his finger.

Or at least, that's what he tried to do. The moment his finger came near the ball of light, it exploded into countless fragments of glittering light that floated all around him for a moment before converging into his chest.

The numbness that he had felt in his hands dissipated, and Ralph could see droplets of silver leaking out from the shallow cuts that had decorated them. His frenzied breathing had calmed down too, and the slight throbbing sensation from his shin disappeared too. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the ball of light had somehow healed him of his wounds. If he was honest with himself, he felt calmer too. Another attack wouldn't send him into a frenzy like last time, he felt like he'd have better composure if the situation happened again.

What Ralph couldn't explain was the fact that he knew that there was another attack coming. From behind him, which would impact in less than four seconds.

It wasn't like back in Prison, where he relied on his intuition and his senses. This was a cold, hard fact, and Ralph was ready.

Pivoting on his heel, Ralph clenched his now healed fist and launched a vicious right hook to the area he expected an attack. Much to his delight and shock, his punch made contact and sent the creature sprawling backward onto the grass... only this time, something different happened.

It wasn't completely invisible. He could see vague outlines of its horrifying features, but instead of studying the creature... Ralph reverted to his trusty adrenaline, and bludgeoned the Stalker to death.

Between the squelching of his bloodied fists smacking against its body, Ralph could see when it stopped moving.

It had the outline of a giant mosquito, and its face had that same long scary straw thing that it probably wanted to stab him with. What confused Ralph was why the creatures didn't fight back the moment they hit the ground. Did the silver grass somehow poison them? It seemed pretty idiotic for a creature to hover over something that kills them if they land. He pushed those thoughts straight out of his mind as a vibrant ball of light raised again out of the corpse. Since he didn't suffer from his last experiment, Ralph didn't hesitate in prodding the ball of light this time.

When it burst into a sphere of sparkling fragments, Ralph noticed it covered a much larger space than last time. It seemed to be more powerful if that was the word, maybe more potent?

It proved his suspicions right when the fragments converged once again on his torso... where his body readily absorbed the light. It was like he had absorbed the creature's essence. It was hard for him to describe, but his senses were evolving with each ball of light he consumed.

Ralph reached down to the ground and grabbed David's journal. Surprise attacks didn’t concern him, because he somehow knew that there were no Stalkers in the vicinity. It took him a few minutes of flicking through the pages before David referenced the balls of light, but it wasn't to do with a Stalker.

> I genuinely can't believe it. The reason that they want to bring over Heroes from other worlds is because we can absorb the essence! From the monsters we defeat and the enemies that we slay. This world is essentially a well of exponential power! How the hell do they regulate the growth of the Heroes? How have they not been overrun by some others that arrived before? It makes no sense to me. Ahh, but the essence! It's incredible and I cannot wait to study it further.

>  

> The Mages killed an insignificant creature called a Woodling in front of me, apparently they're passive spirits of the forest, that becomes important later. When the Woodling died... a small ball of green light appeared from its corpse. The Mages held the ball of light in front of me, showing that they couldn't absorb it. But... when I merely came close, it exploded! I absorbed the essence into my body and I could sense the surrounding plants. They said if I killed enough Woodlings, I'd be able to use their powers!

>  

> Imagine? Being able to communicate with nature, goading a crop into giving a larger yield! The possibilities are endless, and the growth rate of Heroes sounds ridiculously overpowered. What is the cost of being able to steal the abilities of our enemies? There has to be a price, and if there is, I'll find it.

Ralph looked back at the corpses at his feet. He had taken down two of the Stalkers and already consumed their essence. Was that the reason he could sense their approach? And was it the essence that showed him the outline of the Stalker?

"How many do I have to kill before I can turn invisible and move silently?"

Ralph muttered out loud as he scanned through the next paragraph or two.

> I found the price of this ability.

>  

> Go to Page 138.