Prologue

The glow of a strange liquid illuminated the insides of a warehouse sized room as it flowed through tubes, interacting with a plethora of scientific implements. The shadow of a man in a lab coat moved, ever changing, as he walked across the room. He came to a stop in front of a group of three cylindrical tanks filled with the glowing blue-green water.

The tanks held two differently sized young adult men. One of a middle eastern descent, and another of seemingly European heritage.

“Been a while hasn’t it?” A second man asked, motioning towards the tanks with a dagger. He was twirling the ornate knife between his hands as he moved in between the shadows. The man wore a set of leather armour, and all but the tip of his beard was hidden under a dark cowl.

“They will be released soon,” The scientific man replied in a monotone analytical voice.

“It is only a matter of recovering the small one’s injuries.”

A shuffling of tools drew attention to a man at the back of the room, he was leaning over a desk whilst fiddling with a small mechanical device. He stopped and leaned back, turning towards the others.

“Yes, it is quite notable that you have a fascination with these two. I do wonder if they would compare however to the specially organised individuals you had previously selected. Indeed, you have also mentioned the fragmentation of their memories. Which, to be frankly honest, does not seem to fare well for them even working with us.”

“The prof has a point,” commented the rogue. “Just give me a clean line of sight and I can finish this. None of this pussyfiddling around.”

The apparent doctor sighed, conflicted over if he should correct the soldiers use of the phrase *pussyfooting*to correct the soldier on his . “I assure you, breaking into the citadel is no easy task, and that is only the beginning. We will need a solid hold in the area before creating any significant change.”

“What, and these two are gonna help with that?” The dark figure added.

“They will be far enough away as not to interfere, we hope they will not be needed. They should build up strength and embed themselves in society along with the woman that has already left. When the alignment is right, then you will be able to return to your world and make a difference.

Now let me make myself clear, the three of them have proven themselves. They were found in one of the largest conflict zones, having taken out numerous high level enemies with little more than their own ingenuity. They may not be of any value to the cause, but it is of my humble opinion that they have earnt themselves a second chance.”

A silence hung in the area. Scepticism flickered across the rogue's face as if he doubted the story and even the scientists ability to make rational decisions. Furrowing his brow he moved on towards one of the tanks and stared at the man’s naked floating body.

The rogue tapped on the side of a tank before stating:

“Got a floater.”

The object he was looking at appeared as if it was a silver crystal moving in and out of itself as it steadily grew. It floated and moved within the battery tank, with some form of newly found sentience giving it coordination.

“Ach, not another.” The scientist said.

The scientist slammed his hand into a button on the side of the tanks. The bodies grew limp as their supporting liquid was drained. The crystalline manifestation moved out with the liquid before more arrived to refill the cylinders.

The rogue’s eyes did not stop following the thing, he gazed at the shapeshifting crystal as it moved through the tubes, until eventually flowing into a large container to the side. The scientist moved and then kicked some creature at his feet.

“Kurt, you have food,” he stated.

The creature lowered a tablet from in front of his face, showing the hint of a Cheshire cat smile against eyes like portals to the stars, before quickly disappearing in a puff of smoke.

The creature reappeared within the tank and grabbed at the shapeshifting crystal, the manifestation appeared to resist and wriggled as the creature munched and sucked it into his being. Then, in another puff of smoke, he reappeared by the doctor’s side. This time he appeared to be dangling his tablet as water seeped from it.

“The thing’s stopped working,” he chimed.

“It is not waterproof you fool. Get another from the pile. Then you can get back to watching your Netflix...”

The rogue looked on blankly, taking in what had just happened. Both creatures appeared to be beings of magic, formed from the strange equipment around him in this strange new land. He knew the process, it was like evolution sped up, a strange process where the mana forms intricate patterns through repeated trial and error at speeds close to that of light. That was how the ‘floaters’ emerged. Whatever strange changes the scientist was doing to them created this crystalline form of living mana as a by-product.

The strange dark creature moved on to a corner of the room, his abnormally wide grin growing wide as he appeared to have accessed the app he wanted.

“I ain’t ever gonna get used to that,” the rogue remarked.

“Fascinating, how you are connected to the other world from here,” said the man at the desk.

“What do you mean connected?! I thought you said the portal was closed!” The rogue shouted.

The scientist sighed.

“He is referring to the Netflix. And yes, I can pick up remote signals from your world, but I am not currently able to transmit matter. We have been able to send and receive radio transmission since ‘77.”

They waited until finally the sound of books falling could be heard from across the room. A bespectacled man in suspenders and a bowtie appeared from across the wall, he displayed a warm smile that appeared shyly as he quickly moved to pick up his books.

“Sorry, I’ll be just a moment.”

The scientist motioned for the others, the rogue and the inventor appeared to be waiting for something.

“Ah finally, this is your third member.”

“You’re kidding, another nerd? Do I have to do all the work?”

The scientist rubbed his forehead in frustration.

“Fred is a historian, political scientist and anthropologist. His is the best bet you have at creating a foothold in this land. These areas represent close to what you remember as the dark ages. Gareth will be your merchant and inventor - he will help you with equipment - and you, Mark, are the-“

“Muscle, yeah I know.”

“The help.”

“Sure whatever… Five years SAS and six months covert operations.” He mumbled under his breath.

The scientist pointed to a space in which shining runes coated the floor with intricate designs. Suddenly a shining white portal emerged and highlighted the green of trees coated by a slight shimmer of snow.

“Take your crystal from the side and don’t deviate from the plan,” the wizard-like scientist commanded.

“When you go through, the system will activate. I expect you to be level five within a week.”

The group grabbed their crystals and moved through the portal, to the other side, and as they did so the portal abruptly closed. The mystical scientist had been left alone with nought but his small creature. He rubbed the side of his sharply cut beard and looked at the battery tanks.

“I do wonder what you will do,” he said before getting back to his notes.

-------

Chapter 1

A searing light in a bright blue sky shone through crisscrossing arches of a cavern roof. Within the cavern there was a patch of grass and on top of that grass were two men lying on the floor wearing cloth clothes that seemed to be taken from the early sixteenth century peasantry.

Thomas, one of the two on the floor had just begun to wake up. Groggily he opened his eyes trying to adjust to the blinding light of the sun. He took a deep breath as he pushed away his sleep inertia.

After sitting-up, an icon appeared in the corner of his vision. Something so unusual he could not think of it as anything but his imagination.

LVL 1

0% progress

It disappeared in an instant, which helped his psyche reinforce the idea of it being little more than an errant thought. Still it felt as though after it had disappeared the information was still ever-present in his awareness; it was a feeling that he couldn't quite grasp.

Amidst his confusion he tried to remember how he got where he was when a feeling like a burst of motion sickness threw him back. Thomas felt sweat as his heart caught a beat. He soon replaced instead by the feeling of being well-rested.

As he took in the surroundings the sound of the wind brushed through the grass and brought with it a slight chill. Then slightly puzzling him, he noticed scattered across the floor were the remains of armour coating an assortment of semi-deteriorated skeletons.

Though it was strange, it wasn’t like a field of gory corpses. Instead, it seemed peaceful. Flowers and grass penetrated the cracks and chips in the scattered armour, mixing with the remains and almost bringing to it a sense of calm beauty.

Then, Thomas saw something move in the corner of his eye. He noticed someone else was lying on the grass. Looking at the person on the ground his head throbbed for a moment until he recognized the person. It was his friend Rob, a long-time friend, one he was sure he should have recognized sooner.

Rob groaned as he was beginning to wake up.

"Urgh," he whined.

Rob had grappled onto one of the bodies next to him and started spooning. Looking closer Thomas saw that the body was of a large skeleton coated in a silver-blue armour, its skull at Rob’s height as he slept.

“Hey, Rob,” Thomas asked, noticing that Rob had heard him but decided to carry on trying to sleep.

“Rob,” he repeated, giving a pause to see a response. There was no response.

“ROB!” Thomas shouted, leading Rob to become alert with a sudden jolt.

When Rob woke up and looked at what he was spooning, he let out a yelp and immediately scuffled back.

“What the fuck?” Rob exclaimed, looking around at the new place he was in.

“Yeah... I can’t remember, where are we?” Thomas asked.

“I have no idea,” Rob replied.

“Yeah. Also, is this French? are we speaking French?” Thomas added. Rob rubbed his head, he still wasn’t sure what was going on, he did realise however that he could now understand French. So well in fact, that he confused it with his native tongue of English... but then again... He wasn't entirely sure what either French or English was outside of how they were both languages.

Rob got to his feet and quickly wiped whatever dirt he’d gotten on his clothes from the decrepit corpse. In front of Rob was a wooden stick stuck into the ground which he noticed had a piece of paper nailed to it.

“Cool,” Rob said, moving to look at it.

The paper stuck to it appeared to be folded over, it conveyed a message that had likely not been there long, well, not as long as the corpses since paper would likely have withered away in that time and the paper he was looking at looked like it could have been freshly printed.

Rob took the paper and read it aloud:

"Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

–Kurt

He put the paper back where he found it.

"Odd," was the only response Thomas could give. He looked around at all the corpses and back to Rob.

“I think I have worked out one thing though,” he added his memory trying to piece together what was happening around him.

“I am confused,” he surmised, getting a nod of agreement form Robert as they both agreed that they were, confused.

They waited around for a while trying to appease whoever wrote the letter, but nothing came to visit them, the note just hung in the middle of the cavern. After a few more minutes they started exploring the area. At the edge, Thomas moved to the edge of the enclosure and attempted to see what was outside.

The path out appeared to be like a white shining light. As he approached and walked into the light it faded away, revealing a large barren red landscape. The stark contrast to the lush greenery within the cavern forced him to turn back, but behind him now was a red rock-wall.

After a few seconds, the space in front of Thomas began to shimmer and through a pulse of more blinding light, Robert appeared as if through a portal.

"Ah shit," Thomas stated. Robert looked back to similarly see how the way was blocked off. He came to the same conclusion; they could not return.

“Well... fuck. ” Robert remarked.

“Let’s see if we can find some food or people around here” Thomas ascertained. Rubbing his stomach.

“I’m going to sue someone if this is Derren Brown,” Thomas announced. Robert snickered.

"Whoever the fuck Derren Brown is..." Thomas added, slightly more depressingly.