“All clear ahead. Looks like we have another couple of miles of plains before the forest line.”

“Copy that. I’ll report.”

Cain rubbed his eyes and turned to Bronn, who had decided to lead the expedition to look for Plaguetooth. No one knew why exactly, but there was relief evident on everyone's face when it was announced. Bronn had evidently won over the hearts of those working under him, which meant that he was pretty capable.

“Sir, the scout reported an all clear. They said we had at least two more miles of plains before the forest line,” Cain said, dropping an awkward salute. He still wasn’t used to the military protocol, and he wasn’t sure he ever would be.

Pulling a small copy of the map out of one of his pockets, Bronn studied it for a second and nodded. “That seems about right from the reports. How far away was the scout from us?”

Cain thought for a second, before sending another message out.

“How far away from us are you?”

“About a mile and half. There isn’t much to use as a marker.”

“The scout is about a mile and half out, is that an issue?” Cain asked, sounding confused. As far as he knew, so long as there weren’t any combat issues, they were to keep the scouts out.

“A mile and half? God damn kid, how strong is your ability? Most communication users can only manage up to a quarter of a mile,” Bronn responded, surprise coloring his voice.

“Oh, that’s probably because I increased my intelligence after I got out of the first Gate. Ariana said it was an important ability to have, so I figured that would help. I did get six points from the Awakening as well, so I don’t know if that had any effect.”

‘Of course, there’s also the fact that I got this ability from a God, but let’s just keep that under wraps,’ Cain thought to himself, hoping that his answer was enough to dissuade Bronn from more questions.

“Hmm... fair enough. We haven’t experimented with mental communications that much because everyone has been too weak to be of use. The monsters in the Gates can jump people before they have time to properly prepare at a quarter mile.” Bronn seemed to let the topic drop after that, but Cain could see a slight glint in his eye. He would have to let Ariana know and try to avoid the military at all costs after this.

-----

“Hello, yes. This is Ariana Everdale. I’m calling to receive reports about the Yellow Gate disappearance. Yes, I’m located in Teford.”

Silence.

“I see. I’ll tell the receptionist to wait for the fax then. Thank you.”

Ariana set down her cellphone and sighed, rubbing her temples. There was way too much going on to process properly at the moment. Teford’s White Gate had a boss die in the Association’s custody, this Red Gate had changed colors, and Cavina’s Yellow Gate had disappeared. None of this had happened before Cain had Awakened, and she had a sinking suspicion that there was a higher power at work now.

When the first Gate had appeared, there had been a voice that resounded across the countries. Ariana shuddered slightly at the thought of remembering it, but the words were etched into her memory as if they had always been there.

“Welcome to the game mortals. I have been quite amused watching you lately, but it isn’t enough. Entertain me more!”

“Miss Everdale, the faxes you requested are here.”

“Thank you, Lily. Please set them on the table.”

“Yes ma’am.”

The door shut and Ariana made to pick up the papers, only stopped by a slight ping signifying the System had opened a window.

You have 1 new message. View? Y/N

“Open message,” she said, confused. They had often experimented with sending and receiving messages with the System, as this entire ordeal seemed to have roots in video games, and every game they had played and researched had a system to message people. They hadn’t achieved anything however, which made it all the more certain in her mind that there was something else going on.

The message opened, and a deathly chill spread across Ariana’s entire body, freezing her into place as she read it.

Sender: Unknown

Message: Do not interrupt my entertainment.

------

The forest in front of them had seen better days, that was for certain. Cain stared in amazement at the uprooted trees and destroyed foliage as Bronn signaled for the group to scout the area. It wasn’t hard for evidence of Plaguetooth’s passing to be found though, given how large the creature was.

“Cain, go help them set up the camp. We won’t want to get caught out at night in this mayhem,” Bronn said, moving forward to begin examining the evidence that had been found. Cain saluted half-heartedly as he left, and turned behind him.

“Inventory”

Inventory opened.

“Withdraw tents and lumber.”

With a pop, the items he had requested fell on the ground. Cain gathered the tent up, his and Boulders, and began setting them up. Thankfully he had been camping before, and the process was quite easy to remember. The tents were definitely more sophisticated than he was used to though, with a portable bathroom and bed built right in.

‘Obviously made by someone with a System. This is almost too much,’ Cain thought, hammering down the last post in the tent. Standing up as he turned around, he stared at the pile of lumber looming in front of him. He had made fires before while camping, but he had always had some way to light the wood.

“You look confused,” a voice behind him stated, causing Cain to jump slightly in place. “I’m Alice, part of the Assault team.”

Cain shook the out stretched hand, sizing up the girl standing in front of him. Short black hair, loose fitting pants that made it much easier to move, boots, and a light jacket. Fairly simple, but there was something about the clothes that made Cain think otherwise.

“Cain. And yeah, just a tad confused. How are we supposed to light the fires without...” Cain trailed off, noticing that he was being laughed at.

“Sorry, sorry,” Alice said, calming down and chuckling still. “I forgot you’re not part of the normal teams that come through Gates. There’s always someone with a fire ability here, so we don’t normally worry about carrying matches or anything.”

Cain rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, embarrassed that he hadn’t thought of that. “That makes sense,” he said, turning back to the logs sitting behind him, bending over to pick them up before an idea struck him. Turning back to Alice, he called out to her, catching her attention as she began to walk away.

“Is it hard to learn the basic fire magic?” he asked, causing her to stop slightly and look back at him slightly confused.

“Well, all I’m here for right now is communication with the scouts, so I figured if I can learn something else that would be useful, I might enjoy my time here a bit more,” he continued, praying that she would agree. Lighting a campfire wasn’t really his end goal, but everyone had to start somewhere. In the video games he had played, you always started off with the lowest level magic before you could advance to the fancy stuff, and this was his chance to get that.

Alice smiled and nodded. “Sure, that makes sense. Especially because you’re the odd man out here. It isn’t difficult, but most of the time people don’t have a high enough rating or stats to deal with magic. We can’t exactly teach it to one-stars; their stat pool is just way too low.”

“Well, I’m a four, so that shouldn’t be any issue, right?” Cain said, smiling slightly. For once, pulling his rating out held some actual benefits for him. If he hadn’t done so to get into the Association tent at the beginning, he might not be here right now and wouldn’t have to deal with all this stress. Sure, he was a four-star, but just a new one with no combat experience. He had cursed himself earlier in the day while they were travelling for being such an idiot.

“A four? Easy peasy then,” Alice said, laughing and waving her hand for him to follow. Cain dropped the logs and walked after her, excited to finally get a chance to learn a new skill. Ariana had spent all her time building his foundation, which wasn’t that big an issue, but Cain was still a child at heart. The prospect of learning how to make fire and use magic was too much to contain.

“Hey, Xander, got a minute?” Alice called out after a minute of walking. They had reached the other end of the camp site, and Cain had seen a lot more equipment floating around than he had expected. The weapons and armor were normal, but there had been a bunch of measuring devices and things that beeped that he couldn’t have put a name too.

The man she had called out to stood up from in front of a fire, and headed right over. “Sure thing Alice, what do you need?” He wasn’t that imposing in size, but there was just something about him that Cain couldn’t place; the same way he couldn’t exactly place the feeling he had about Alice.

‘Ah, I wonder if it’s the difference in experience,’ he wondered, watching the two talk for a second before moving closer so that he was included.

“So, you’re the newbie who wants to learn about fire?” Xander asked, turning to Cain and eyeing him up and down. “Well, you don’t look too bad, and Alice owes me a favor after this, so I guess I can teach you.”

Cain looked over at Alice nervously, unsure of whether to accept now or not. He didn’t want to make anyone owe anyone else a favor, unless he was the one doing the repaying.

“Don’t worry about it,” Alice said, clapping a hand on Cain’s shoulder and causing his knees to buckle slightly. “I just owe him a bottle of whisky when we get out, which is very easy to accomplish. Besides, we have a bet,” she finished, winking at Cain.

“Yeah, yeah, there’s no way you can win this,” Xander grumbled, motioning to Cain to follow him. “I don’t know why she always attaches to the strays of the group.”

Sitting down in front of an unlit campfire, Xander sat down, and looked at Cain. “Alright, so with fire magic the first thing you do is...”