Since I had just attempted- and failed- to cast Gate to get back to Earth, I needed a moment to recover. Nothing was trying to kill me at the moment, so I sat down next to Comhghall in front of his house.

All around me, orcs were busy and yet… unhurried. Unlike humans back home on Earth, they were moving at a casual pace as they carried jugs of water, baskets of food, and various planks and other building materials about the village. From one spot, I could see almost everything that was going on. Among everything else I noticed people greeting each other, quick brawls that ultimately had both parties continuing on their way. I noted that they did make sure to put down whatever they were carrying first, or if that was too difficult they simply went on by with a nod.

Even as I did nothing, I could feel the mana flowing into me. It was a shame so many places had to live with the minimal rate of mana flow. I only took a short break and I had a handful of mana recovered, it could have taken me easily an hour back home. Even with New Bay’s ambient mana levels creeping upward, it was still not that much.

The entire time, Comhghall said nothing, simply letting me watch the village. I didn’t really know what to make of it. Orcs were clearly violent but…

“I think I’m ready,” I said. After a pause, I continued, “Should I bring my friends in case I succeed?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Comhghall said. “If you can do it now, then you can do it again in an hour or two.” His initial words led me to believe he didn’t think I could do it. And… I had no reason to doubt him. He at least seemed to know more than I did. “Focus on somewhere memorable on the material plane.”

That was easy. I thought of the last place I had been. I considered the desk overflowing with papers and the shelves stuffed full of books in Master Uvithar’s office in his tower. I gathered mana, releasing it as I went to begin forming the portal. At least, that was the intention.

Instead of anything forming in front of me, I actually felt a sort of pressure pushing back against me. Like I was trying to reach my hand through a wall. Instinctively, I pushed harder… and the force pushed back. A wave of blackness poured over me, all too familiar.

Sunlight filtered through a blue sky was the first thing my eyes were able to comprehend. There was something blocking the center of my vision, which slowly resolved itself into the pitted and scarred face of Comhghall, wrinkles and gray hair coming into focus shortly thereafter.

“Well now, I think you might have picked the wrong place,” Comhghall said. “Looks like something fought back, didn’t it?”

“... I guess so,” I sat up. “But there was a portal there before…”

“Where?” the old orc asked.

“The office of Master Uvithar.”

“And he wanted that portal there?”

“Well… I don’t think so.”

“So it’s perfectly reasonable for him to have taken precautions such that it would not happen again.”

I should have thought of that. Or even used a Sending to let him know I was coming. Though he seemed a bit hesitant to respond to some things via magical communication.

“... Can people steal Sendings?”

“What do you think?” the old orc asked.

“I haven’t heard of a spell that does that,” I said.

“Does that really give you an answer?”

I shook my head. “No. Not really. I thought I was aware of what spells did, but it seems the list available from the system is incomplete.”

“Of course. Magic is not so tightly constrained as to fit into a list of mere hundreds of distinct applications.”

“So you can do anything?”

“Me personally? Or anyone in particular? No. There are limits based on which direction one approaches magic from. For example, your friend Ceira will be able to do very different things from yourself, with only a small amount of overlap. Learning won’t change that.”

I bit my lip, feeling my opposite tusk squeeze against my skin. “So we are constrained by our classes?”

“Do you think so?”

“If I didn’t have a class, couldn’t I learn… anything?”

The old orc shrugged, “Could you? Perhaps. But you couldn’t learn everything. In my opinion, classes are more permissive than they are restrictive. Nobody gets far without a class.”

“Has anyone tried?”

“Oh yes,” Comhghall said. “Though very few, given how they can be chosen with just a little bit of willpower. Often before people fully understand.”

“It seems unfair,” I said.

“Do you regret your choice?”

“Not particularly,” I shook my head. “Not of class, at least. Perhaps my first spell.”

“Storage is very useful.”

“No good for experience, though.”

“That’s a problem of your upbringing,” Comhghall shook his head. “If people don’t have a suitable environment, they won’t learn optimally.”

It annoyed me that such well reasoned words came out of the mouth of this shirtless, overly muscled and violent old man. And I was annoyed that I noticed it annoyed me, because I would have to tell Doctor Patenaude about it. Assuming I ever got back to Earth and my therapist, instead of just dying out here somewhere. I didn’t feel like I was in danger at the current moment, having survived all the way here. But every step we took made it seem like it would be more difficult to return home, as if I were getting further away instead of close.

“Should I contact Master Uvithar?” I asked.

“Should you not?” Comghall asked. “You did just attempt to get into his office.”

“It was never that secure anyway…”

“Not against his apprentices, at least,” Comhghall shrugged.

I shook my head, “I don’t know it it really matters. I’ll just plop us down somewhere outside. I have enough mana to cast Gate twice when full, so after making sure I won’t be overloading myself we can be out of there in half an hour at most, and back to Earth. So maybe there’s no point.”

“You would not speak to him, then?”

“Well…” I frowned, “I guess I did have things I wanted to ask him.”

“Returning to Earth from the material plane won’t necessarily be easier than going from here to there. It is another step, but many factors influence the difficulty of planar travel. Like the cycles of seasons.”

“Really? Why didn’t anyone…?”

“It is not so common, is it?” Comhghall said. “Even this Master Uvithar of yours likely doesn’t travel between planes with any frequency.”

“Well he’s only…” Only what? I had the vague idea of him being in his 30’s or 40’s. A reasonable level for an adult, at least in my mind. But even then, it wouldn’t be strange for him to have 20th level spells. “I’m not sure if his knowledge outstrips his level.”

“It could,” Comhghall shrugged. “But you’d have to ask him about that. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to rush back to this Earth.”

“I could just come back, though.”

“Unless people are tired of some sort of madman breaking into their plane…” Comhghall said.

“You can’t be sure they’d be taking measures like that…” I frowned.

“I know people,” he said. I couldn’t really disagree. I… didn’t really know people. They still made no sense.

-----

My time in the village didn’t start and end with punching people and sitting around chatting and testing magic. There was more intentional training- sometimes self directed, and sometimes guided by Comhghall.

And then a couple days later, we were no longer in the village. That is to say, we were out on a ‘practical excursion’. Combat training in the wilderness, in other words.

“It’s just the right season to find a Rainbow Lotus,” the old shaman had said. “So go find some.”

More details were available, but it seemed that Ailen knew most of them as well. Speaking of which… “Why are you still here? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to have you assisting us but… I assumed you would go back home. You said you’d only be staying at the village for a short time.”

“It has still not been long,” Ailen answered.

Midnight was the one who ultimately got things cleared up. “This is the same thing as before, right? For Ailen, a month or more is a short trip.”

Ailen seemed to agree with that.

“Oh, okay,” I nodded. “When are you planning to return home, then? So we can plan around it.”

“I will return home after you do the same,” Ailen said.

“I thought you didn’t like us,” Ceira commented. Depending on our group, it was actually easier to just have Ailen be the one with Translation active.

“Why?”

“You don’t really talk much.”

“But you do,” Ailen said.

“... Do I?” Ceira asked.

“All of you speak abundantly,” Ailen stated.

“I think it’s just you who does not talk much,” Ceira said.

“I speak a normal amount,” Ailen replied.

“... Maybe for elves who live centuries,” Ceira said. “Do you split your words up between all that time?” Then she grimaced. “Sorry, that didn’t come out right.”

Ailen shook their head. “You may be correct. At least in relative terms, I speak less.”

“Well, you also had to be ordered to take us here,” I pointed out.

Ailen denied that quickly. “I was instructed to escort you to Comhghall. But I could have refused the wise one. But I do believe that it was understood I wished to go with you.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you are likely the only extraplanar visitors we will receive for centuries.”

“Well, with Doctor Doomsday still at work…” I shrugged. “I feel like there will at least be more robots here.”

“I imagine the wise ones will be in the process of sealing the plane from such attempts.”

“Uh, how big is the plane? And… how many of them are there?”

“Enough,” Ailen said. I couldn’t tell if it was secret, or they didn’t know. Or perhaps there was another option- they didn’t even care about numbers. That was weird to think about.

It was strange, to be casually chatting while traipsing through a dense forest. But so it was. We walked upriver, away from the orcish village. “Hey, uh… we’re not going out for days again, are we?” I asked. “Because I think we left behind some of our stuff.”

“Do not worry,” Ailen said. “I would have informed you of what you require should you be gone for so long. And the Rainbow Lotus should be easily carried in magical Storage.”

“Oh, okay,” I nodded. “So how far can we expect to go?”

“It should be a matter of but a single hour or two of travel, then the same in reverse.”

“So half a day?”

“More or less. The combative sections should not take long.”

“Right, we should be expecting to fight… what?” I shook my head. “I’m not familiar with Rainbow Lotus so I don’t know what would covet them.”

“Any creature inclined to grow stronger,” Ailen said simply. “And of course, those who do not mind the rain.”

“Rain…?”

The sound of lightning in the distance coincided with the moment heavy droplets began to pour over us.

“Of course. How else would one expect to have a rainbow?”

A good point.

“... You could have warned us about the rain,” Ceira said as she began to shiver. “We could have gotten something in the village.”

“... Oh,” Ailen said. “Right. Humans like to be covered from the rain.”

I held out my jacket to Ceira. “You should probably take this.”

“Uh, thanks,” she said, covering herself. “What about you?”

“The rest of my clothing is still made by Francois. It is quite comfortable even in inclement weather,” I said. “I probably should have given you the jacket before, to bolster your defenses…” It only covered the torso and arms, but that was where most of the vital organs were anyway.

Suddenly, Ceira snorted as she began to laugh.

“What is it?”

She shook her head. “Oh, nothing. This is… exactly what I should have expected, thanks.”

“You are welcome. Ailen, if you could inform us when we are approaching dangerous territory… I have conserved enough resources to apply Stoneskin to our most vulnerable members. But if we can have a warning or ten or twenty minutes, we can recover expended mana.”

Normally, with Stoneskin’s duration it cost more mana than one could recover over that same time. But here, with mana recovering five times as fast as normal or more, it could actually be very useful if there was forewarning. We hadn’t had that before, but since we were now searching for trouble it was best to make use of what we could.

“I will have to obtain more diamonds if we do this more than a few times, though,” I continued. I didn’t want to waste resources, but I also didn’t want anyone to get hurt or killed because I was conserving them. I needed to ask the orcs about it. Surely they had need of material components themselves.