Dawn found Alyx sitting on a rooftop, the young shifter having escaped the empty streets below to watch the sunrise. Donnyville seemed to come alive with the dawn. The sound of someone opening a set of wooden shutters quickly turned into the hustle and bustle of a small but busy town that had work to do and knew its business.

From where Alyx had watched the sunrise, it was only a short walk to the wizard's tower. The place was impressive, sitting on a grassy knoll just outside of town and made of polished red stone cut into perfectly square blocks, it rose at least three hundred feet into the air. A small moat nearly covered in lily pads surrounded the tower. A quaint stone bridge led over it, clearly put in more for artistry than for defense, the bridge leading right to the tower's door, which was twelve feet tall and made entirely of polished brass. Thirty-six depictions marked the door, most of them symbols Alyx didn't recognize save for a crescent moon which reminded Alyx of the moon temple.

Belatedly Alyx recalled that the Wizard, Squeakers something or other, had mentioned being a high priest. He wondered if coming here was such a good idea. After all, surely a high priest would be able to tell he had a Nothing class?

'Eh, what's the worst that could happen?' Alyx asked himself as he knocked on the brass door, each rap of his fist sounding more like the ringing of a gong than the gentle wrap of knuckles on metal.

A booming voice, appearing as if from the door itself, responded almost instantly. Tinged with what could only be age and general surliness, it sounded like the owner was home and more than a little pissed off.

"Eh!?! Do you know what a day is?! Twenty-four hours! One thousand four hundred and forty minutes! I don't care how fast that courier thinks he is! Zack did not give you my letter before noon yesterday! I still have five hours of blissful uninterrupted work to do!"

Alyx furrowed his brows. " Your letter said to come back tomorrow, and it is tomorrow. Look, If you are busy, I'll just come back later. It's not a big deal."

Several moments of silence ticked by, before with a thunk and the ratcheting of gears, the door began to lift upward, revealing the inside of the tower.

"What, and have you disturb me again? You're already here. Let us be done with it."

Bustling up to the doorway of the tower was a grey-bearded dwarf, whose loose robes and disheveled look belied the intelligence in his eyes.

"Your Alyx, yes? Here to fight my latest creation? I swear if your here about my golems extended warranty, I will teleport you into the sewers! Don't think I won't!"

Alyx held up his hands placatingly." I'm not here about any warranty's I promise. You had it right the first time, I am Alyx, and I'm from the adventurers guild. I've heard a lot about your creation, but I haven't heard what it is yet. Mind telling me what kind of fight I'm in for?

"hmmm, Well, I suppose you'll have to do. Come on in, lad."

The dwarven wizard shuffled out of the doorway, and Alyx followed behind him, the great brass door lowering itself back down behind the pair.

The inside of the tower was cluttered with books, piles, and mounds of books, some stacked taller than Alyx. At what looked like a lone writing desk was a massive scroll hanging from a chain, the unrolled parchment spooling on the desk.

"Welcome to my humble home, Adventurer Alyx. Now If you don't mind waiting on the quest, I have a few questions for you."

"Nothing too prying, I hope, but I simply must know, how on earth did you become a nothing creature? Contact with them should be all but impossible due to divine mandate, and yet here you are, an undead, werewolf, fairy of all things, with a Nothing class."

Shuffling over to his desk, the dwarf picked up what could only be called a clipboard and some parchment, dipping one of his quills in a nearby inkwell and looking at Alyx expectantly.

Alyx blinked. He had figured if the dwarf had known about him, then he would have attacked Alyx guns blazing.

"Well, uh honestly, I'm not really sure how I got access to the Nothing Class. It was just one of the options available to me for my class evolutions, and I figured spitting in the eyes of the gods who cursed me seemed like a good idea at the time."

The dwarf snorted at that and ran a hand through his beard.

Really, lad? Come now, there must be more to your story than that! Here sit down and tell me everything and then I'll see if I can't answer some things for you.

And so Alyx took a seat and told Mr.Squeakers everything that had happened to him over the past three days. It sure felt like a lot more time had passed to Alyx than just three days.

When Alyx had finished the story of his arrival in this world and how he had arrived at the tower, the dwarf nodded to himself and blew out a cloud of smog from his cigar.

"Well, that is a lot to take in, but seeing as I can see you are a Nothing creature for myself, I suppose nothing is too farfetched. But you're from another world? and one without magic at that? I've dabbled in the school of dimension myself. I've visited other planes of existence, but this and that are not the same thing."

"No, I'm speaking of places like the elemental plane of fire or the great library near the center of the nexus. Your world sounds like it exists solely on the prime material plane, and yet...no magic? No classes? No race evolutions? A strange place indeed. It raises a great deal of questions as to whether magic of any sort would even work on your planet, let alone get you back to it."

Alyx sighed, hearing that, and combed his hands through his hair in frustration.

" I was more looking for a, yeah, no problem, have you back there in a jiff style answer."

Mr. Squeakers laughed at that and shook his head. Stuffing the last bit of the cigar he had been smoking into this ashtray.

"I'm sure you did. What your asking for may still be possible, mind you. Portal spells, which I use to step onto other planes of existence, take two points in space and fold them together so that I can walk through the portal in one place and out in another. Without the guarantee that there is magic on the other side of the portal, by Logos, who knows what would happen, nothing good I'd imagine."

"And, of course, there is the fact that we would need a mentalist involved. You are clearly no spell caster, so you couldn't make the portal yourself, and I need to have a destination in mind, which I would need to get from you."

Resting his head on the back of the chair, Alyx stared up at the ceiling and let out a small chuckle.

"So what your saying is there is a chance, though? I mean, we would need to find a way to test the portal, sure. But if you could get one open for me, then honestly, I'd be tempted to jump through even without a test run."

"Hah, sounds like an exciting project. You'd need a dimensional expert and a mentalist, though, Not to mention enough funds to attempt the ritual, probably several times at least. Plane hopping isn't cheap. Let us say one thousand gold per ritual in material components and probably 400 gold to hire the dimensionalist and mentalist for the day."

Alyx balked at the price.

"I sold an ancient Elven weapon for only a fourth the cost of one ritual! Was I ripped off, or is this just that ridiculously expensive?"

"Lad, these rituals literally tear holes in the fabric of reality. You expect it to come cheaply?"

The wizard laughed again and shook his head. "Ah, to be young and in a hurry. Your working as an adventurer, are you not? Surely you'll be able to put bread on the table! Though not any time soon if you keep taking jobs that only pay out fifty gold."

Alyx blinked. "Oh right! I was here to fight some kind of monster."

"Golem lad, not a monster. And I dare say you won't be walking away with my gold today, not if I've taken an accurate measure of you."

Alyx grinned at the dwarf and cracked his knuckles.

"We will see about that old man."

It was an iron golem; Alyx didn't stand a chance.

In fact, by the time Alyx woke back up, it was already growing dark outside again, and he had a pounding headache.

"Son of a bitch, that hurt."

The dwarf who had brought him back in the tower and was sitting down reading a book as he waited for the younger shifter to wake only cackled.

"No, no lad, you nearly had him, surely you're ready for round two, I'm sure you can do it this time. But say just for the sake of a little fun if you lose time, how about I make fifty gold, off you eh?"