Chapter Eleven - Check Out

Chapter Eleven - Check OutI made it home, flung those damned shoes off, then swore to myself that I'd never wear them again.I had a few hours until that portal opened, which might as well be forever for me, but I didn't want to risk being mentally tired. I was certain that I wouldn't succeed on the first run-through.So, I set a new Save point, and decided to limit myself to no more than six hours of faffing around before I started to travel over. First, I spent a loop doing basic research, using a mapping and street-view site to get a feel for the area where the portal was. Then I did research.There was some good information on portals available online. Unlike information on magic itself, the government and corps were a little more open about portals. Not so much their composition and such, but there were guides to getting out of a portal, and more for people with magic sensitivity to be able to tell how relatively strong a portal was.The listed sensations varied, from feeling like standing next to a strong power converter to being next to a humid breeze, but generally, people were told that the stronger and more severe the feeling, the stronger the portal.The best was to experience it first-hand, otherwise it was tricky to place how strong a portal was. There were constant warnings not to stand close to a portal and to call the relevant authorities if one was found. The usual drivel.People flocked to portals if allowed. And I didn't blame them. There was a chance, every hour, that a non-magical person could become an E-ranker just by being near a portal. There was a reason the number of E-rankers grew year by year, and a lot of that was attributed to magic levels across the world rising very subtly.You'd think people would pay to stand near one... and they did. The rich-enough hired guards and went in themselves, where the chances were more like ten-percent an hour for a D-rank portal. Why not hire some C-rankers to keep your scions safe and camp in a portal for an afternoon?Usually the core formation would still take a few days, even with those higher odds, so it was always hit-or-miss.I'd become an E-ranker relatively young, without camping a portal, but others had become E-rankers that way.D-rank was a lot more random and as far as I could tell, impossible to 'farm' the same way.Every year, a few hundred people died because they were too close to an unprotected, unsecured portal. Lesser monsters came tumbling out every so often, and they tended to target the nearest living thing, violently.I sighed, then Reloaded. The next loop was spent napping.I had no idea if that helped at all, and returning to the 'real' timeline after feeling so refreshed was like getting slapped in the face with a fish. I felt somewhat mentally refreshed, but not physically so. It sucked.More time spent practicing with my knife, then looking up low-rank portal threats. It was always goblins.Obviously, there was no such thing as a 'goblin' but like... everyone called the weaker monsters that. The term covered a massive range of small, humanoid monsters, usually tool-users of some sort. Green skin, beige skin, skin as dark as pitch, short, tall, muscled or skinny. It didn't matter. There were real properly scientific terms for each one. Goblinus Vulgaris, or Gremlinoidea Obscura, or Hominiformis Ferox.Everyone called them goblins, even the more stuck up scientist sorts slipped up.Anyway, those were relatively easy to fight. They had blood in them, and skin that could be punched through. Break a neck, slice an artery, and bam, dead.Kobolds were another common foe, though they pushed into the D-rank more often. Dracohominis Minor, or Canihominis Minor, a cute name for what was essentially a two-legged, tool-using lizard that could sometimes spit fire, or acid, or poison. There were dog and 'dragon' varieties as well, which... really only confused things.Then there were other common monsters. Ants, spiders, imps, gremlins. A few plant varieties.I spent a solid two hours on Portalpedia just looking at 'stats' and common tactics. Most were geared for civilians, soldiers, or E-rankers and assumed that one had a gun and wanted to avoid being eaten alive, which... fair.With all that said and done, I Reloaded, then headed out once more. My destination was a laundromat place just three blocks from the outside of the Inner Ring area. Not that far from where I'd been earlier today, but still around a few larger buildings.Stolen novel; please report.I made a fresh Save point, then walked over to the laundromats. It was closed, windows boarded over so I started to look for a way around, and when I failed, I smashed a window open and went in. That got the cops called on me, but I had time to scope out the interior while I was within.The next Reload had me smashing the window again and looking through the office. I found a computer there, left unlocked, and found the password for the keypad for the rear entrance.The third attempt had me within without smashing a window at all. For that attempt I... pulled up a chair and waited. The portal appeared four hours later. At nine. A tear in reality that felt like a drop of cold water slipping down my back. The portal waved and stuttered, sparks flying through the air as if it was electric, and in a way, it was. I could feel my hair standing on end.I came to stand before it, looking into a shifting, twisting, funhouse mirror that led into a cavern of some sort. Old, natural. Rocks and... cavern stuff. The edges of the portal fuzzed and spat out actinic arcs of raw magic for another minute, then settled, and when it did, so did the image of the cavern within.The portal entrance. The most dangerous part. Stepping in often left one disoriented and confused, and there were often weaker monsters ready to pounce on the first in.'First in' was one of the most dangerous positions. It usually came with a hefty bonus as well.I didn't enter. Instead, I just soaked in the magic as best I could, closing my eyes and letting it wash over me. I could feel a few aches slowly, slowly being undone. It would take hours.And it did. I stood there, growing increasingly bored, for a solid three hours. By the end I was back in my seat, chewing on my lower lip.That's when the front of the laundromat exploded inwards and a team of four stomped in.I blinked and looked at the time. Two sixteen AM. The portal had opened at eleven nine PM. That was just a smidge more than three hours. Good response time.The team was surprised to see me, but I wasn't surprised to see them. I checked all four out with a quick scan. Three men, one woman. The leader was a shorter man with stubble on his chin, but in an artful kind of way. Behind him, a tall, lanky man with a long sword on his back, and next to him a woman just a bit shorter than I was who looked spitting mad. Finally, at the rear, a short guy with a heavy looking assault rifle.All four wore similar armour. All-white plate mail over the important bits and joints, open-faced helmets for three of them, though the lanky guy had a faceplate on. They had light augs from what I could tell.Storm Chasers, from the Bright Lightning guild. One of those guilds that was practically a corporation. They'd outfit portal delvers and try to get them to be the first in and out of a fresh portal. It meant steady, quick cash, and a high mortality rate for the unprepared or unskilled. Those that lived were tough as nails though.This team seemed junior, somehow. Younger. Though as four D-rankers, they might just have been young-looking.In a flash, the short angry woman was at my front, armour venting heat as she reached down and grabbed me by the collar. "What're you doing here, breathing my air like you belong?"I blinked. That was a strange question.A week ago, in either timeline, I would have been shaking in my boots and maybe pissing myself. Now, I just smirked, which had the air around me warming up as the woman's glare hardened."Mizu, enough," the leader of the group said. "She's just a civvy. We're here for the portal."I figured I wouldn't learn much more from this exchange, so I Reloaded.Then, back at my save point, I started to look around for a place to change in, and one where I could stash my clothes. I found a 24/7 gym with a back-door exit just a block over, paid for a locker, got changed, then snuck out through an alley.I was costumed up, ID hidden... moderately well, and ready to come close to dying a few times. I could do this.***