Chapter Eight) Pick the lady, or the tiger. Or, the other tiger.

Going up a bit further, I was able to spot another second structure off at another angle, but the strain of staying up that high made it impossible to use Focus on it enough to get any information.

Believe me, I tried. I had that kind of time, and not being able to feel much in the way of boredom to any real degree meant I had the patience. I guess they had decided to dull down my sense of boredom since it would make my job harder.

I only gave up because I did want to deal with the dead goblin’s body before it got all waterlogged and started rotting in the pool.

That is if there are bacteria here to get that started, this place doesn't seem to have much of an ecology going on.

Oh good, the body looks to be in pretty good shape. I wasn’t up there that long.

Now what? I sure as heck ain’t going to use Focus on a dead goblin and end up getting sucked into it again. After all, Undead are a thing here. For real.

Instead. “Hey Panel. How do I get rid of a dead body?”

[ Fighter Trainees vanish upon death and are restored to full health and returned to the start of tutorial ]

“...Good to know since this place is not OSHA approved. But how do I get rid of a dead gobl… Starter Opponent?”

[ Do you wish to dismiss Slain Starter Opponent? ]

“Yes?”

The dead Goblin vanished. Leaving my stone sitting at the bottom of the pool.

“Well, that's done. Hey Panel, what going on with those other dungeons?”

And… nothing. Different attempts to get some information got me pretty much the same.

“Shoot.”

Going back to the fighting room, with plans to put in some sand squares since the movies with gladiators always had them fighting on sand, I noticed something.

The Goblin’s stick was still sitting right where I had dropped it…

I called up a Goblin and then dismissed it, several times, which told me three things.

One. I can dismiss my monsters even if they are still alive.

Two. The club in the goblin’s hand goes with it.

Three. Telling the Goblin to drop its stick, or pick up the one on the floor doesn't get it to do anything, it just stands there. Breathing.

Show off. "Go ahead and breathe. Feeling all big and smug just because you got lungs."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I dismissed it. And tried to bring in all the other creatures. I considered taking one of them for a test drive, but some of them didn't need to breathe so I couldn't get out of them by going for a swim.

Plus, being a bug. Even just for a bit, no thanks. Being that eyeless squid thing? Ew.

I called up a goblin again for the fight and made an alcove for the exit gate.

"Okay Panel. Show me the Grand Egress."

I guess the Panels might work on intent since it offered up an elongated transparent blue circle in the

air that I could think at to get it to spin around to face any which way, but only around on one axis. It had to stay upright.

Other than that, and not being able to make it go higher or lower than about three inches off the ground, I could move the eight foot tall by five feet wide, in the middle anyways, loop around wherever I wanted to.

At least over the floor. It wouldn't go over the water, sand, or the fire starter squares. Both the ghostly ones that I could up, or the ones that I had made real. Dismissing it and trying to make it go over some red Strata rocks I grew over the floor didn’t work either.

So back in the alcove it goes. "Okay Panel. That's a good spot. Make it real."

The circle, now made of the same silver metal as the panel popped into existence, and then filled up with a blue light that seemed to go off into a distance through the gate.

Just from the front. The back of the portal was a flat silver surface that showed me my reflection.

Giving it a good look popped up another panel.

[ Select destination ]

[ The Plain of Eternal Slaughter ]

[ The City of Tesero ]

[ The Eververdant Forest ]

“Well… Ain’t that a thing.”

Focus just showed me -

[ Unassigned Gate ]

The Slaughter place didn't sound good for someone who had only fought a single starter monster and being plunked down in what sounded like a wilderness sounded like a bad choice.

But starting off in civilization, that gave people options.

“Let’s give people the city life Panel.”

The blue light seemed to pulse, then go steady again.

This time focus gave me some information.

[ The city of Tesero ]

[ A city fallen to the Liche Tormetine. Adventurers are held back in the gate until an hour past dawn to give them a chance to fight their way past the weaker undead to escape the city and make their way to the blessed fortifications built around the city to trap the Liche's undead horde within ]

“Well. That don’t sound good.”

I tried to dismiss the gate. But no can do.

[ Gates may not be dismissed ]

Well… Shoot. “Thanks for the information Red Brackets." I wished the Panel would volunteer like that.

“Panel. Make another portal.”

To my surprise. That worked. After making another alcove off to the right of Zombie apocalypse city, I made it real and “Panel, let’s try the forest place now.”

And, Focus -

[ The Evergreen Forest ]

[ A living forest gone rogue. Adventurers are held inside the gate until an hour past dusk when the Arboreal Tyrants are dormant as long as they are not harmed. Adventures have until dawn to explore the deep ruins and then escape past the edges of the Forest ]

“Aw come on!”

I hope there was some kind of restart option out there like my dungeon had since the portals seemed to be sending people directly to their deaths. At least Focus let me warn people what they were up against, and making more than one gate gave them some options.

But if I had only made one gate, and didn’t try, or be able to make another one? Is this rigged somehow to kill people as soon as they get done with the tutorial? What was the point?

If the Plain of Slaughter is a plain old slaughter I’m not making an entrance gate. I will just sit here and wait for someone to show up and ask what I’m doing before I send people off to get killed.

So... Alcove. Portal. Make it real, and “Panel. Make it Plain.” to open the third gate. Then Focus.

[ The Plain of Slaughter ]

[ A starter city surrounded by ever increasingly dangerous zones filled with increasingly dangerous beasts to prepare Adventurers until they are high enough level for advanced worlds ]

“Why…?”

Why wouldn't the panel tell me to pick this one first? Or only offer this one? I mean, with the option to warn people to run for the exit in the city or the edge of the forest they sounded doable, but if I hadn't gotten that information with Focus, I would have been sending people off with no clue how to get to safety.

“Panel. I would like to talk to someone in charge.”

Nothing. Similar demands to make a complaint, contact customer service, or to submit a ticket got me pretty much the same response.

Red Brackets wasn’t in a helping mood either.

“Panel, you are not user friendly.”