Arthur raised his arm to cover his eyes. It was bright like he was under a noon sun. He sat up slowly grimacing from the pounding headache he felt throbbing behind his eyes. When his vision cleared, he stared at the vast open grass field with pockets of wildflowers. "Where am I?"

"If I were to make a guess, I would extrapolate that you are within your mind's eye, but something is different. I know I am dead and my memories passed to you, but somehow I retain my consciousness. How are you doing this Arthur?"

Arthur turned to look at an elf who was staring back at him. The long flowing blond hair rested midway down his chest and it didn't even hide the elongated pointed ears. The elf appeared to be around the late 40s or early 50s if he were gauged by a human's age. "I... don't know. Are you Kelrick?"

The elf nodded, "Introductions are probably a good thing. My name is Kelrick Shatterstorm, a warrior mage from the Order of Storms. I am from the Lawbound realm. Do you know what Lawbound means?"

Arthur squints and grumbles about it being too bright and clouds appear to lower the brightness to his surprise. "Did you do that? and no I don't know what that means. I've only been learning from the orcs for about two weeks."

"Maybe it's how your mind works. When you went unconscious, I couldn't access your body at all. Unlike your grandmother when I was cohabitating with her body. Is your mother from the realms perhaps?"

"I don't even know what you are talking about. What realms? I know we are on earth. I know orcs exist because I saved Longtusk when I hid him from adventurers who were trying to kill him. I tried to infiltrate the group and they took me on one of their labyrinth hunts. I was betrayed and pushed into a crevasse. I didn't expect to survive. I remember feeling pain and my leg and arm felt like they were broken. I remember a warm feeling surrounding me and numbing the pain. I remember seeing a glowing round gem that looked like a diamond but it was pulsing with different colors. I remember it was saying something but I didn't understand it. I remember trying to ask it a question and it flew into my mouth and swallowed it reflexively. I remember waking up at home in my bed. That's when I looked for Longtusk and I found him when I followed my feelings when I felt a weird electrical current like static electricity that raised my arm hairs. After that, Longtusk took me to the orc mage and she wanted to teach me spells to see what I could do even if my magic appeared weak."

Kelrick looked at Arthur with a perplexed expression, "You said you swallowed a glowing diamond? Biologically after a few days, you would have expelled that in your feces. Did that happen?"

"I don't think so."

"I wonder if where we are sitting now is a construct of your mind or if it's something to do with that diamond. My memories should be in your mind. I was a master of sword and bow as well as an accomplished mage though my spells would be different from the orc mage. I have a few self-created spells. I want to see if you can remember what they do. There is a spell I call Lightningdart. Can you tell me about it?"

"Lightningdart... depending on the aptitude of the caster, it can conjure up one or more darts that can be used to attack your enemy. The dart itself doesn't do much damage but shocks the creature into unconsciousness. One dart can knock out a normal non-magical human, two darts for a weak warrior or mage, and two darts can knock out a normal untrained orc. Is this what I learned from you? You made a spell version of a tazer?"

"Technically, the tazer was made from that spell. It seems my memories are inside of you and you can direct your thoughts to find the information you need. I guess I should count myself lucky that my consciousness is not obliterated into the void."

Arthur stood up and stretched. "The headache I am feeling is localized to my head. It's like I have this pressure building up like a balloon and my brain might explode."

Kelrick leaned back onto his hands and looked at the young human. He wondered if the knowledge was not assimilated. He decided to fill Arthur in on the basics that an adventurer should know to pass the time as Arthur seemed not in the mood to talk. The elf started with the information he had shared with Cynthia and then continued to expand the information.

There were many realms and each realm used portals to earth. These portals are normally sealed but due to nuclear tests and nuclear device detonations, they opened. These portals were located within labyrinths. Sometimes the portals of multiple labyrinths lead to the same realm. Some realms are Lawbound, these were races that have a high code of honor like elves and dwarves. Some realms are Chaosborn, these races are usually more aggressive and chaotic like orcs and goblins. Just like humans, each individual or group would have variations for good or evil. There are realms of the undead whose purpose is to fight and destroy the living. Those realms tend to be carefully guarded against. There were also supposed to be realms of giants and dragons but Kelrick has not seen signs of them.

The world has two sides. Earth as Arthur knew it and the Veiled which is hidden from the humans by use of subterfuge and magic. Races travel among the humans either with illusions or shapeshifting. It has been this way for about 300 years from what Kelrick can remember.

Kelrick noticed that Arthur's skin was starting to be reflective. The young man had his eyes closed facing the sky while he was listening to him. The young human's appearance looked like a faceted statue. It was as if he was absorbing the light or maybe the knowledge he was imparting. It lasted a few seconds before Arthur's skin was back to normal.

"My headache is gone. I wonder how I get out of this place." Said Arthur then looked back at Kelrick.

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"I wouldn't know. Maybe you need to wake up?"

Arthur's body shook which startled him. The brightness nearly blinded him.

"Arthur, wake up. It's grandma. Can't you hear me? Please wake up. It's been a week since you became unconscious," cried the woman shaking the shoulders of her grandson.

Arthur groaned, "I'm awake. I'm awake. Can you stop shaking me? I'm still kinda dizzy."

Belrog grinned nearby, "Welcome back to the land of the living boy."

Arthur gets hugged by Cynthia. Arthur hugged her back and whispered, "Kelrick gave his spirit up because he was being tracked. He gave me his memories and told me to tell you he owed you for saving him. He told me you are sick and I will use his memories to try to find a cure for you."

Belrog's ear perked, "You have a small reprieve, Arthur. I gave your grandmother a potion from my great-great-grandfather. The orc mage confirmed with her limited sight that it helped your grandmother and extended her life at least a year."

Arthur looked at Belrog and mouthed a thank you. The one-eyed orc waved it off as if it were a small thing but pointed to his phone and grinned. Arthur knew that Belrog wanted to learn more.

Longtusk stood at the doorway, "Cynthia, please wait here. The orc mage wants to have a word with Arthur."

Cynthia finally released the hug and sat on the cot. "Can Arthur and I leave after they are done talking? I want to bring my grandson home."

"Yes, I will lead the way to bring you both to your grandson's home."

Arthur followed the tall orc. He stared at the axe on his back. He once feared it but strangely he had several ways of disarming the orc or even damaging or destroying the axe. He shook his head and followed silently.

The orc mage sat cross-legged on furs. She had her hood on like always even when indoors. "Have a seat, Arthur."

The young man sat across from the orc mage and waited.

"We have waited for you to wake so Longtusk can take you home. The tribe will be moving. Sight warning, danger coming. Tracking Spell. When a new home is found, we will find you. Labyrinth close. No in or out. Safe for the tribe to leave."

Arthur rubbed his temple and something made him ask the orc mage, "When you leave, can I have the labyrinth?"

"If you can protect it, the labyrinth yours. If you can't, someone else will take it."

Arthur looked at the orc mage, "I want to try. I think having a place that I can practice in would be a good thing. I know your labyrinth has two entrances. One where I live close to and one where that stall was. Can I close one of the entrances?"

The orc mage laughs, "Ok, you are clever. Labyrinth yours. We will close the entrance where the stall is. Longtusk will deliver key when it is done. Maybe I will be better with English when you see me next time."

Arthur smiled, "I'm sure you will. Maybe by then, I can speak orcish." He stood up and bowed, "Goodbye for now teacher. Thank you for trying to teach me these past two weeks."

The orc mage waved to dismiss the boy. She watched him leave the tent and pull two cards from a human tarot deck. The Magician and The Wheel of Fortune. "Boy will be powerful and lucky. Shieldtusk tribe will find him again when we have a new home. We will ally with him."

Cynthia and Arthur discussed their situation and decided to leave the car. Cynthia took her belongings and used the Shieldtusk's labyrinth portals to get closer to her son's home. Arthur led the way to their house. "Grandma, can we keep the orcs a secret from my parents? They already hate that I am a nerd and this would just freak them out more."

"Don't worry, I won't tell them about the orcs. We can tell them that I texted you and you met me at the bus station. And I was trying to surprise them."

Arthur grinned, "That works. Kelrick showed me something about software. Can I tinker with it?"

Cynthia handed him the external hard drive. "Just make sure you don't connect to the internet, I don't know if it is designed to reconnect to the main server or backup servers. We dodged a bullet by the orc mage finding out about the tracking spell. We can't bring danger to our family."

Arthur nodded, "I will be careful. I have an old laptop and I'll shut off the wifi on it before I do anything."

They walked towards Arthur's home. The driveway was empty which meant his parents were still at work. Grandma Cynthia put her stuff in the guest room and started to poke around in the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Arthur went up to his room. The walls were adorned with posters of fantasy movies. He kicked off his worn boots and walked to the bed. A sharp sudden pain stabbed his foot and he hopped and sat on the bed. He stared down and grumbled at the four-sided dice that was acting like a caltrop. He picked it up and put it in his pocket.

He laid down and closed his eyes. It was a good thing that he told his parents that he was spending time with Leon and his family. Leon was his best friend, but the family went on an RV road trip. It was an excuse to be away for several days while he had tried to learn from Longtusk and his tribe, especially after his rookie mistake of trusting people who supposedly were fellow adventurers.

He pulled out his phone and opened the Guild Ministry Registry app. He opened his profile and clicked on leaving the party of the jerks who left him hurt. He didn't hate everyone in the group, just the two assholes that bullied everyone else. He noticed that most of the group had already left. Maybe he can reach out to them and create their group.

He sent out two messages. One to Argent the knight, and one to Moonglow the healer. It didn't take long before Moonglow responded back, "OMG, you are still alive. I was so worried. The two assholes said you left in a huff. I'm glad you wrote. How are you?"

Arthur smiled and wrote back to Holly who was using Moonglow as an adventurer name. "I'm ok, recovering from a fall. My grandma is visiting from out of town but when I know what the schedule is like, I want to try to meet up. I reached out to Argent too. I want to try to form our own group."

"Cool, let me know. Argent got into trouble with his parents and was grounded. He might not be able to respond for a few days."

"Copy that. We'll discuss what we want to do when the three of us can meet. TTYL."

Arthur sat back up and yanked the bottom drawer of his computer desk to pull out an old laptop. He started it up and started to clean his room while waiting for it to fully boot up. He disabled the wifi and plugged in the hard drive. He copied the files to the local hard drive. It looked like it would take awhile so he plugged the power adapter in and left the laptop on the desk while he continued to clean his room. He didn't want his mom to remind him again about his roleplaying books were scattered across the floor. He already had the aftermath of random dice traps.

The sound of a car parking caught his attention. He looked at his room and nodded in satisfaction. He walked past the laptop and glanced at it. Two more hours according to the progress bar.

A happy shriek and sounds of running and hugging reached Arthur's ears as he walked down the stairs. He watched as his mom hugged grandma tightly. He stayed there observing and nearly tripped over his feet when he noticed that the gray hair on Grandma's hair seemed a little darker. "Was Belrog's potion from the fountain of youth?" He smirked.

"Mom, I'm home too!"