Chương 23: A Whole New World

As she made her way back to the portal she thought about the Guide's description, about what it meant to enter a Tier 1 portal. The place beyond the prompt. Especially when she didn't quite know what Tier 1 really meant in general. When she'd queried the guide before it had given her some trite response about how it was a level of advancement above Tier 0, which, yeah…

She knew she was Tier 0, only what was Tier 0 How did it measure against Tier 1 Was it an insurmountable difference, and if so, by how much She was a Tier 0 entering a Tier 1 portal, and she had no clue what that meant, and no way to find out until she went in. She had no way to verify the scale of potential danger, nor the potential rewards. The only real consolation she had was that so far, the System was fairly balanced with its risk-reward ratio.

If the pattern held consistent with everything she experienced so far, then if she succeeded - whatever that looked like in this instance - the material gains alone would probably make it worth it. She thought about Maus, who was currently tucked away in her shirt. About how if he wanted popcorn she'd make him perform a trick or do a complex task. Something to prove he'd earned his prize.

"Mother fu-" she cut herself off, took a deep breath, and ruthlessly choked down the emotions that were simmering under the surface. Such invectives would be a sign of lost control. Scarlet didn't lose control. She'd stopped walking the moment she realised the System was treating her like a performing animal. Why else give rewards. If this whole System only offered people an opportunity to grow, then there would be no need for material benefit.

Each person would rise or stagnate on their own merit, their own innate drive to progress. However, that was not the case. These 'rewards' were just that. Little treats for completing a task. A pat on the back. A cosmic 'good-girl' from an entity (or force or law, or whatever the hell the System was) so profound that she couldn't even begin to form conjectures about why it felt the need to offer rewards at all. The worst part was, she would keep performing. To stop would only be to her detriment.

Even if she weren't swayed by the promises of wealth, knowledge, and power, it didn't mean other people wouldn't be. If she didn't push herself to succeed, she wouldn't just be actively hindering her own growth, she was accepting that she would eventually end up subordinated by a greater power, by someone who took the reward, asked no questions, and progressed. By then she'd have no recourse, no way to catch up without some sort of miracle.

She would have wasted the greatest opportunity she had to reclaim her own agency, to truly take advantage of this new era before everyone else realized that the past day wasn't even the tip of the iceberg – that the world hadn't finished changing, it had only just begun. And she'd do it out of what, petulance? Some juvenile delusion of justice, or righteousness? Her grip shifted slightly on the cane, fingers tightening on the handle as she began to cautiously make her way forward once more.

In the end the why didn't matter. Not when she was still so weak. Yes, she had her strengths, but in the grand scheme of things, if literal push came to shove, Scarlet would be flattened. That needed to change. Scarlet slowed well before the trees began to thin. She didn't step into the clearing immediately. Instead, she stood at the boundary's edge, her gaze fixed on the space ahead. She could feel the otherness of the air around here. That subtle increase in the density of the world around her.

Maus poked his head out of her collar, his small paws clutching the top of her shirt as he looked around. Through the bond she could feel that he was alert but not distressed. That was good. Her eyes flicked once more across the clearing, and into the tree line around it, confirming with her eyes what her senses had already told her. She and Maus were alone. Just them and the portal to another world. She checked the contents of her storage bag.

Then checked that she had both water, and some food outside of the spatial storage. Better safe and all. She gazed into the ever-shifting energies, traced the colours and their patterns, felt the air thicken and warp as she put forward first one foot then the other until she was boot to border with the portal. She allowed herself a moment to consider what she was about to do. To remind herself why she was doing it, and to make sure she was truly ready.

Had she crossed off every item, checked every box, set the foundations she needed to before she left? Closing her eyes, she sighed. No. She hadn't. Stepping back a pace, Scarlet pulled out one of her burner phones from a pocket. She looked at the screen, opened her messaging app, paused, typed in a number that she hated she knew from heart, and paused again. Finally, she typed out a message. Her thumbs felt like they'd been filled with cement as she tapped away at the screen.

She must have stared for a minute before she mustered the resolve to press 'send'. Then, while she still had momentum, she tapped out a follow up and pressed 'send' once again. She watched to make sure the messages made it through, then dismantled the phone, broke all the important bits, put those into a resealable plastic bag, and disappeared that into her spatial storage. No signal would be picked up from in there. She'd checked. There.

Now she could enter without second guessing if she'd done everything she could to prepare, both for entering the portal, and for what came when she returned. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. She felt like an observer in her own body as she raised a hand and pressed it into the haze of energy. [Enter Tier 1 Portal?] [Yes | No] [Yes] Then she was elsewhere.

There was no flare of light, no resistance, no sensation of passing through anything tangible. One moment she stood at the edge of the clearing, one hand past the boundary the next she just, didn't. She felt intense vertigo, euphoria, and profound pain all at once, and for a moment so brief she wasn't sure her unenhanced mind would have even registered it. Then it was over, and Scarlet had maybe a second to realize that she was no longer on solid ground and brace for impact as she dropped the short distance.

She braced just before she hit the ground, landing on the balls of her feet, her knees bending with the momentum, and a dull pain shooting through her injured leg as she absorbed the energy of the short fall. Straightening out, Scarlet stood in place, not even letting the but of her cane touch the loamy ground as she took in the space around her. She wasn't sure what she expected, yet for some reason she still found it surprising that she was in a forest.

It was quite obviously different from the one she'd just come from, but it did make her wonder if all portals had some relationship to the places they were formed, or if this was just a coincidence. Perhaps, if she survived this, she would find out. Tall, straight trees stretched upward around her, their trunks pale and dusted faintly with what looked like chalk dust, despite there being no visible powders or dust in the air. Perhaps a type of spore? She reminded herself to be careful as she summoned – summoned!

Just one moment no mask the next – a mask from her storage bag, which she strapped over her face. The ground beneath her boots was both firm and brittle. The forest itself was a disorienting inversion of the usual ocean of green broken up by loamy browns and greys. Instead, this forest was all earth tones broken up with some greens and sparse sprinkling of other colours. It was like perpetual autumn, only the reds and oranges were made up of shades of grey.

At least the sky looked somewhat normal, partially obscured as it was by the trees. In the distance, something rose above the line of the forest. A structure of stone, perhaps? Or crystal? It was tall and narrow, and unnatural against the otherwise organic surroundings. Scarlet took it all in, letting her senses expand outwards to tell her what her eyes couldn't. She wouldn't say that she was expecting an ambush, but she wouldn't have been surprised if one happened. Okay, it would seem she had been overly paranoid.

Nothing– [Trial Initiated: Vixen's Vice] [Phase One Objective: Obtain the Key Failure Penalty: Immediate expulsion from portal world] She stared at the words that had just popped into view. Individually, she understood each one, but together? She tried to focus on the words like she had done with her quest. Nothing. She tried to Inspect it. Tried to query the Guide. Nothing, nada, crickets. There was no elaboration, no clarification, and most frustratingly, no direction beyond 'Obtain the Key'.

Whose key, for what, from where? Also, what was with giving her a failure penalty, but no failure conditions. How was she meant to know what actions might cause her to be ejected. She wondered if the System would give her any forewarning at all, though the words '… Immediate expulsion…' did not give her much optimism. Well, fine then.

She supposed she'd just be walking on eggshells, hoping beyond all hope that she didn't do anything, or fail to do something, that would see her forcibly removed from the portal world. Scarlet shook out the tension in her legs, took a breath, and let it go. No use lamenting the information she didn't have. She would work with what she did. Her eyes drifted toward the distant structure. The only real landmark in this portal world. Should she start there?

With the limited information she had, she supposed it was as good a place as any. Shrugging she prepared to head off when another prompt appeared. [Quest: Fully Clear Tier 1 Portal World] [Would you like to accept this quest?] [Yes | No] She did not immediately focus on the words that had popped into her field of view. Instead, she took a more thorough scan of her immediate surroundings.

She didn't want to get lost in thought only to be sliced to death by some air-bending squirrel or something equally absurd and dangerous. She took a step forward, then another. Tried to acclimatize to the way this new space felt to her much newer, and less trained senses. She peered into the canopy, still marveling at being able to see so clearly without her glasses. As far as she could tell, there was nothing hostile in her immediate vicinity. Just a weird forest, and the expected forest critters; bugs and such.

Okay, she thought trying to Inspect this new quest like she'd done with that first quest. To her relief it worked. [Quest: Fully Clear Tier 1 Portal World] [Description: The Portal World Trial Vixen's Vice has been triggered] [Time Limit: End of Trial] [Objectives: Complete all phases of the Trial: Vixen's Vice. Complete all sub-quests] [Sub-Quest 1: Uncover the History of the Vulpian Empire] [Time Limit: End of Phase 1] Additional sub-quests to be revealed based on progress and performance] [Base Rewards: Portal World Management* Additional Rewards: Variable based on progress and performance *All Base Rewards are contingent on full quest completion, and adequate individual advancement] Scarlet's lips curved faintly. The quest details had given her more information than just the quest details.

First, the Trial and the Quest were separate, but connected. The quest objectives appeared to be optional, though clearly relevant to the main trial. Accepting the quest would not only give her the opportunity to gain more rewards, but could also serve as a potential secondary source of information about the portal world in general. For example, she now knew there was likely more than one phase to this 'Trial'.

She also knew that she might not need to fully complete the quest's objectives, as the description stated that 'progress' would be factored into reward distribution. Considering she hadn't been threatened with any type of penalty for failure; she couldn't see any downside to accepting the quest. While the little footnote was somewhat ominous, it didn't change the way she would approach this new challenge. She glanced once more toward the distant tower, looked at the prompt then sent a question through the bond.

When Maus replied to the whole ordeal with indifference, Scarlet took that as tacit approval. [Quest: Fully Clear Tier 1 Portal World] [Would you like to accept this quest?] [Yes | No] [Yes] With that, she set off towards the distant tower, querying the Guide as she went.