Chapter 5

First thing I did when I got home was have a long, hot shower. I was thinking in the shower that this wasn’t really my home, it was the in-laws. I was going to have to do something for them.
Ted and I had a long talk, and he had sure moved fast. It seems my idea to corner the market on used containers and sell-off the services of keeping the portals locked away was already taking a goodly portion of his company’s manpower. He’d even called friends (business friends. Not real ones) and clued them in to what could be a great moneymaker. Earning a lot of valuable favours for the future.
I was glad that it worked out, I was just the idea man, he has the assets, and contacts to make it happen.
I also spent time reading up on what other information was freely out there. It wasn’t much, and I was beginning to understand more clearly why, and how we were put in such an unusual position. There had to be others using these portals, but they had to do it covertly since admitting it by spreading their knowledge was tantamount to admitting publicly to committing a crime.

Anything that saved lives was a valuable act in my books, but many of those in power were not of the same opinion. I recalled a joke from many years ago “What do men who already have both money and power want?” of course the answer is: “More money and more power.” At the time, I laughed, but now I was in the position of being a powerful pawn in the games of these powerbrokers the joke wasn’t all that funny.

I asked to go to the rental house to have another go at that portal, Ellen’s response could be politely be translated as “No.”

I persisted using the argument that either it was still empty, so no threat, or it was reset and the whole team would be with me, so not much of a threat. She wasn’t happy, but drove us there. I bet her Mom never expected her minivan to be carrying her daughter, granddaughter and 6 twenty something fighters to some magic portal in the garage of a rental cottage.

So many things about that were funny to me. I started laughing, then laughed more as April smiled and gurgled at me from her car seat bucket thing.
I have no idea what the rest of the team thought, but I had mostly settled down by the time we arrived.
We were pretty used to this, and to be honest I was expecting to arrive alone and go for another long boring walk. I arrived alone, but a quick glance at my Status screen quickly showed me that it wasn’t going to be boring. Where it had earlier read “Complete” it now read “MK II”. I hoped without really hoping that it meant anything but “Mark Two”

With nothing else to do, I drew my spear, loosened the straps on my backpack and walked down the stairs to the grey portal at the bottom.

I appeared in the same (or very similar) treed glade. I was expecting more of the Crabs, and I wasn’t disappointed. I managed to get my bag off and my spear flipped around before the first one was close enough to engage me. Using the stone pommel end, I circled first, then ran in and flipped it over, quickly turning the spear end for end I delivered three fast jabs to its midpoint. I twisted the point once it was past the thin bottom carapace to inflict maximum damage with minimal effort.
Withdrawing the point, I stepped back quickly as the crab tried in vain to right itself and scanned the immediate area. I caught the next one a lot further away and put it down in a similar manner, glancing back at the first one to see if it had managed to get back on its feet. It hadn’t, but kept trying weakly.
It seemed that two at a time was the new pattern, and I faced off against 5 other pairs that kinda-sorta-almost worked together. At one point, I swung around and jumped on top of one Crab, as its partner was way too close to ignore. A number of its legs broke, and it was basically stuck in place. I led its partner off a ways to tackle it before returning to finish the job on the immobile one.
Needed a break, I worked my way back to my bag for a drink of water and a snack. By now the team would be aware that I wasn’t simply walking through an empty forest. Water and a granola bar perked me back up, and I was ready to go.
The tree/hill area was basically the same as the first time I went through. I approached with great caution, wondering what would be different, if the “Regular” ones worked as a team (kinda) what would this Boss crab be like? It was a bit of a letdown actually. The crab was big, but still slower than the others.
I had it flipped, jabbed and bleeding heavily in the first few seconds.
Things were going too well, and like somebody once said “When everything is going along just fine, you are obviously missing something” I backed off quickly, spinning around, looking for the ambush I couldn’t locate. Getting more and more paranoid as the seconds went by, I glanced at the Big Guy. He’d flipped back over and was coming at me, with a weird staccato step and a clacking of his larger claw.
I actually saw the ambush before it happened. Two smaller ones were buried in leaves and dirt, and the big one was herding me toward them. I rushed backwards to engage the big one as fast as I could, taking a swipe toward my torso that just brushed my overalls. I flipped him and just ran past. Doing my best to look for more hidden ambushes. I didn’t find any and circled the flipped big one, trying to engage the smaller two separately. I didn’t manage it and had to flip one, then flip the other and jab it a few times. The big one was on its feet, once again but it’s injury and lack of speed meant that it wasn’t in attacking range as I got back to the last of the smaller crabs for a flip-n-jab session.
The big one died quickly after that, without any others supporting it.

I took another breather, my arms and shoulders ached from prying those crabs over and over again. I needed a training schedule to build more muscle and endurance.
I decided to jump out and let everyone know I was ok.
The exit was once again in a cave, one blocked up and one open which I took.
There were a lot of concerned looking people in the garage when I popped out.
“What happened?!” was the consensus as everyone spoke at once.

“Look, I have no idea what happened, or why only I entered the level ... I’m fine, it was a little different from last time and I came out as soon as I could to tell you that.” Looking at my sweetie and smiling.
That calmed the group down, and I sent them out in pairs to tell the Chief what happened, and to correlate what they new about the gates and their availability for entry. We needed to figure out what the rules were, fast. If I went into the forest with Spiders by myself, I’d probably be a dead man.
“I’m going back in to collect my stuff, I’ll be another few hours” I said as I stepped back in and walked through the Green Room and back into the glades.

It’s difficult to describe walking through a portal, there isn’t a transition, when you’re partly here, partly there, and you feel in both places at once. You are simply all there, right now. This should have caused some vertigo, or disorientation of some sort, but nobody ever said anything. Something to ponder.

I hefted the bag and took another drink. Spear in hand I went wandering until I found the first carcass. Nothing disturbing it.
Continuing without my pack, I went looking for the dried up wash. It was different from how I remember it but I found it, and using some information I picked up from a MeTube prospector I shoved big rocks out of the way and dug around the base of them, looking for heavier materials that would have collected here while the water was flowing and washing them downstream. There didn’t appear to be any difference in the material there, no gold or silver, iron sand, garnets. Another thing to ponder.
I cast about the wash more, finding more rough sapphires (4) and a large chunk of flint (which I kept). Back to the trees area I looked for nests or any other indication of life. There was nothing, not even flies. Looking through sites where the Crabs had been digging, I found one more sapphire and called it quits. Collecting the Crabs and my pack I staggered to the exit and entered the green room. There I looked over my “Status” screen. I could see my inventory reading the number of items I had in it (77) as well as my slowly climbing experience (253/1000). Two levels beaten by me alone, and I took part in two others ... I bet I had more than most of the other explorers.
I’m not sure how I should deal with that. Nobody (even the Team) was mentioning their experience. Perhaps just wait it out and see was the best path here.

There was a new title and award also “Wanderer: first to complete two gates solo, and two gates with a full team. Reward: Wayfind”

Under the Skills tab on the screen, there in green letters was “Wayfinding”. Nothing else, just a title. I tried to touch it, swipe it, nothing additional popped up. I focused my mind on the term ... nothing. I thought about a map, tried to draw one on the ground, nothing unusual. I thought about the crabs and immediately I knew that there were two live crabs a long, long way off to the right of me. Bingo!
I thought of sapphires in all sorts of colours, and I knew there was one more back in the wash that I hadn’t seen. This was going to be amazing.
Closing down the screen, I grabbed my bag and walked out. I’d been 4 hours at least, and Ellen was nowhere to be seen. There was one young kid sitting in a lawn chair, with a cellphone at his side.
“Hey, you’re back. I supposed to call for a ride for us. I’m Blake, and I have a weapon and I really want to go with you sometime. I can help, I’m strong and I can follow orders...” it all came out in a rush ... I smiled, recognizing “Fan-boy” behaviour though I was a little worried that it was directed at me.
“Ok, make the call, I’m just going to jump in the shower. Please leave my bag alone” I said politely, I realized that this encounter was going to be spread over the net the moment he got to his phone.
“Um ... actually there’s a group staying in the house, they aren’t Weapons, but they’d love to talk to you about it, in fact your Wife told them to interrogate you all they’d like.” He looked a bit sheepish.
I laughed “By all means then, we can talk until our ride shows up”.
I ended up speaking to 3 older men. They weren’t exactly locals, but were all from Eastern Canada and all had a child with a Weapon. I hope Ellen was getting a great rate from these guys, they picked my mind for about 30 min, and extracted a promise to come back in two days so they could watch me enter and exit the portal. (They’d been playing cards when I came out this time).

Hopping into the van I was very relieved to exit what was a very thorough inquisition and even better was when I found April in the back seat. My Mom was driving, a pleasant surprise and we talked of inconsequential things for the half hour. I played with the baby, while Blake pretended not to be listening in.
As we pulled into the yard I switched tacks “What’s your weapon?” I asked the young lad (heck, he was basically my age, but a fair bit smaller) “Umm ... I’m not exactly sure. I saw a staff but I don’t know what kind of mage I am, but I hope it’s a Fire Mage!” He replied.
“I know a fire mage, she is very powerful but has the ability to do great damage to her teammates. I think she underused her staff as a physical weapon and over-relies on the fire attack she has. We all should practice with our weapons, it will make us all safer, and stronger too” I put it out there, knowing that these messages would be broadcast far and wide.
“But I can’t access my Weapon until I get in there at least once, that’s why I need to go with you, at least once! Please!”
As I was pulling April out in the baby basket I said “You know, you could easily exercise and practice stick work. If you do enough, you might even get a few free points in your status. You could be a test case ... get some training, work out, listen to the fighters, and the elders, and older soldiers. I plan on doing the same thing, although my weapons requirements are a bit unusual...”

Thinking of Ellen, using my new skill, I knew she was in the office off to the right. While this was awesome, I needed to keep it quiet and that was going to take some effort not to accidentally disclose this ability. I was definitely keeping this one secret.
“Mom, do you know where Ellen is?” I asked out loud, wondering what I’d do if she said anything but the office.
“Office, she’s got plans that girl. Make sure you don’t screw them up” she laughed as she slammed the door closed. It was really nice to hear Mom laugh, even if just in passing

Walking over to the doublewide trailer that served as the office, I unerringly found my sweetheart speaking on a phone headset and typing into a spreadsheet “No, it won’t work that way ... look I didn’t design it, I’m just telling you how it seems to work, he can’t just take your team in every day ... Best we think we can do is two different portals, in two or three days, then back in two weeks to do it again ... October 2nd and 3rd, then the 15th and 16th ... Pink only, and you arrange access, not us ... those are in the contract I sent you ... I can book her too, but the rates are in the contract. Yes she is available ... Ok, sign it and send it back with the deposit. Thank you, you too” She sighed and sat back, looking me over.

“Phew! I thought I was hard at work in the Portals, and here I find you battling as fiercely as me out here in the world of business.” I smiled as I pulled out our daughter who was wiggly and had a big bottom. I walked her over to a washroom with the bag and changed a diaper that was only wet.
“How about Lunch?” I asked.
“It’s 3 pm!” Ellen countered.
“How about Dinner?” I responded with a waggle of my eyebrows.
“I swear! ... All you think about is...” She looked around.
“You?” I finished, helpfully ... I may have scored a few points with both her, and the ears I knew were listening in.
“30 minutes! Leave her with me and go talk to Dad” she said, pointing towards his office.
I walked in, knowing full well that he wasn’t there, but keeping up expectations. I slipped out the side door and found him watching a truck-trailer being reversed into an impossibly thin double row of pylons.
“Good, now counterturn while slowly backing up. Don’t let go of the brake ... Ok stop and get out” he said into a phone in his hand.
“One of yours Grant...” he said gruffly. “They all want to meet you, he’ll, they all want to be you!” He chuckled. “I don’t have a problem getting new recruits now, they hear your name, and your Street Cred pulls ‘em in. Can’t decide if that makes ‘em mine or yours” he said with a sigh.
A thin, small guy with light brown hair hopped down and walked back to us.
“Hi, I’m Grant” I said, putting out my hand.
“Robert! Pleased to meet you Sir!” Said the newcomer with a mainlander accent “I’m glad to be here, job, adventure, and it sure beats slugging it away driving a forklift”
“Robert signed up as part of your idea to hire young Weapons as drivers” Ted said. “Three are here already and there are 5 more coming next week. This guy doesn’t have his DZ designation yet, but he can drive already”
“I’m glad to hear that it’s working out, getting drivers who are willing to stay has been a chore, I know.” I said to Ted.
“Robert, I’ve got a few min to kill. Why don’t you show me the basics on this thing, and I can ask you about your weapon” Ted smiled, happy to get out of the dusty wind, and the kid smiled too. I knew he came for the Hunting, but would put up with the driving work to get access to portals. I just hoped my plan would work...
I got a lot of clarification on some things I did know about in the cab, and got to learn a little about our “dagger man”. Rob was another guy that had seen his weapons, once but never gone into one of the rifts yet. From what he described, I feared him facing anything alone. Without backup, he’d be crab food.
I climbed down when I saw Ellen walking out with the baby and we went out for a late lunch, or early dinner maybe. It was great just being with her. Her excitement was infectious as her father had put her in charge of what he thought was going to be a small part of his company but we could all now see it exploding into something huge. The minnow might just eat the whale.

She had already basically conquered the islands “portal protection industry” (which she jokingly referred to as a Protection Racket) and had her eyes on the mainland, through her Dads trucking business contacts.
Additionally, she was contracting out add-on services such as having an experienced Weapon guide a group into the portal on “their” property. The fees were staggering. A team leader was 10k per trip, minimum of two trips. Only 8k each if you contracted the company to deliver and drop off a shipping container (Sea Can) to protect your portal. A second (junior) fighter was an extra 5k. The Healer was 20k... “I have to drive that cost up, too many people are trying to book her” Ellen said when I whistled appreciably at Linday’s “Per Diem.”
So far the only takers were those wealthy (enough) people who had a portal on their property and a family member with a weapon who wanted to use it (they were buying safety, knowing that the kid was eventually going to go anyway.)
We had 30 inquiries in the first 48 hours, with 5 bookings already (!)
Seems that I was travelling to Chicoutimi with a driver from the mainland on Wednesday. Pink portal with two possibly 3 newbie’s.
Thursday would be Bas D’Or with the same driver guy, then another pink portal with a team of 5, all men.
Friday back to the Chicoutimi area with the first team, a different portal (still pink) then back down the river
Saturday to the coast for the 5-man teams second run.
This would be repeated in two weeks time, Ellen had a reliable source that stated the portals would reset after a fortnight. News to me...