Children of a Lesser God

"Now you all know, so pay attention. But try to keep things reasonable. If you see a human size diamond... leave it. There is no way to take it. Riches are good, but they won't keep you alive. Keep that in mind,"

"So then...?" Dwayne asked, looking for some guidance. In truth, everyone was. Looking around at the Ivy's, Helen, Jennia, Dwayne and even Remi, they all looked to Laz for what they should do.

Laz was afraid to admit that he really hadn't thought that far through either, he just knew that big things were bad.

Luckily, he wasn't alone this time.

"Look for things with world based energy which should be mostly what you find here. Looking around, this place seems like a giant metal city so I highly doubt they have much in terms of natural energy items like special plants or such, but if you find some sort of a lab, that isn't out of the question. What you really want are small, easy to carry items like the cores Laz found. These looked like simple door guards so who knows what kinds of cores you can find in other places. I've never been here so I really don't know what to look for. It's not like there is a guide for this kind of thing. If it seems special and it's small enough, bring it. We can always figure it out later. If you find something bigger and either myself or this guy is around, we might be able to take it with us due to some special means, but don't get hung up on anything. And don't get too caught up in exploring around. We will designate a meeting spot and we want you all there at a certain time. Just remember that if we find the way back and leave and your still wandering around, you're probably not getting back in this life time. There is a time gap where five minutes out there is 60 minutes in here. So if it takes two months to open the gate again, that's three years in here. I highly doubt you will find enough food or whatever to survive that long." Ruby gave a warning at the end of her message. It was only through this that people started to realized that although there might be great fortune to be found here, there was a ton of risks as well.

This was a sobering thought for everyone gather. Even then, Laz could see a fire in their eyes and he couldn't blame them.

How many people would ever be put into this kind of situation? How often in life would you get to have an experience like this? Maybe it was because they still didn't understand exactly how dangerous things were, mostly because they hadn't been attack thanks to the rune Laz put on everyone. But that was going to wear off soon. And when that happened, each of them would experience the real dangers of this place.

Of course there were some who were already prepared for this. Looking at everyone's reactions, Laz could easily tell that the group sent by Freya was in a league of their own. Just the way they moved as a group, one could tell that they were at one hundred percent preparedness.

"Any other questions? Everyone have a group ready for themselves?" Laz asked finally.

Everyone ended up grouping up with each other, showing that they had at least taken some time to figure this out. Basically, everyone was going around with people from their own original organizations. Dwayne was leading a group of guys and girls he was comfortable with, Jennia had her own squad while there was two other groups set. Remi was basically leading a group with Damien and all of the stronger members of the former council while the rest of them had formed a group of their own. As for the members under Helen, she had set up a group by herself while giving orders to a subordinate that was in charge of their second group. The four Ivy's were going to head off by themselves.

All in all, they had a plan for who was going with who at least. This just left Laz with Ruby, something that he was totally ok with.

"Excellent," Laz said to no one in particular. Ruby then went on to point out where they would be meeting in around six hours from now. Once there, they would discuss what they would do next and see if anyone had any luck discovering a way out.

As everyone broke up and moved along, Laz couldn't help but wonder about how many of them would be returning. It was a mind numbing thought, but one that had to be considered, especially when he thought about how he was being trusted to lead this whole thing.

No matter what though, anyone who came back alive from this would be far stronger than when they came in.

"You look worried?" Ruby said, watching the others leave.

"How many of them are going to return? And how many of them are going to die here?" Laz asked in all seriousness.

"Would you like the truth?" Ruby responded.

"Always."

"We will be lucky if half of them make it to the meeting spot. By the time we leave, we will be lucky if a quarter of them are still breathing," Ruby replied back in all honesty.

"That's all?" Laz asked, knowing the death rate would be high, but not that high.

"This is the third realm I've visited. In the first one that we found and Kennedy lead, it was an abandoned ship on a desert island. The island wasn't big and there was strangely no life on it either. Just some strange plants that weren't dangerous. Despite that, in the wooden, ship like structure, we found dozens of skeletons strewn around like they had all gone crazy and attacked each other. And although they were roughly the size of a human, that's were the similarities ended. I have no idea what went on, but it looks like very few of them had a peaceful death. In that place, we found a bunch of these storage items and other goods that still seemed to be in tact. Honestly, it was a good harvest. But when we tried venturing into the ocean to see what it was about, we were attack by giant sea monsters that ate up a dozen of our people in one bite. That sent us running. It was only after careful consideration that we discovered that they didn't care anything about the island itself as their entire world was contained under the ocean. And there was no way to probe the area down there.".

Laz, listening to the story, was shocked. Compared to the large, forest like area with massive creatures he found before, this was a completely different environment. Being stuck on a small island with no food and surrounded by death, he could imagine why the people from that strange ship ended up killing each other.

"What about the second realm?' Laz asked, curious.

"There were large open plains as far as the eye could see. And rings of mushrooms were everywhere, especially on hill tops."

"That seems... uh...?"

"When we checked out the the closest ring of mushrooms, we found this strange fairy like creature just sitting there on one of the largest mushrooms. The mushrooms themselves didn't look special, but the moment a group of us walked into the perimeter of the ring, the mushrooms seemed to shake and let off a whole bunch of spores into the air. They then quickly stuck to the team, growing all over them and paralyzing them in seconds. Then, before we could do anything, that strange, fairy type creature jumped up from where it was sitting and attacked our team members, draining their blood before discarding the bodies. As we watched on in horror, it drained each and every one of them before jumping back to it's mushroom and sitting down. It then looked at us with blood still dripping from it's lips and smiled while the now bloodless bodies decomposed at a rate visible to the eye. Before long, the bodies had become soil that the mushrooms then stuck their roots into and sucked on. It was a nightmare."

"Fuck..."

"The island was mostly safe, minus the water. But the other gate? After that incident, we put off exploring any more until our people got stronger since there was no way to tell just how strong that strange fairy was."

"You're not giving it up altogether?" Laz asked, amazed.

"Each gate represents a world with resources and things that can't be found here. They are a basically the only way to grow stronger in a short period of time... You like video games right? Well, both of those worlds represent a higher level area than what we are capable of dealing with now. Therefore they will be helpful in the future. Imagine if we are able to find just one weapon within a world like that? Considering the strength of the creatures in it, how powerful would the weapon be? And what if a body of one of the sea creatures washed up on the island? Imagine what kinds of things we could use it for? Every gate and every realm is a strategic resource that can't be allowed into someone else's hands."

Laz understood what she was saying. Even if all they found were leftovers from some other adventurers, those leftovers could be the most amazing items when brought to this world. They would be worth almost any risk in the end. But what if those things used the gate to come over into this world? At present, who could stop them?

"Don't worry so much baby. Kennedy is much smarter than you could imagine. No matter what the situation or how weird things get, she comes up with a plan that everyone can agree on. That's why everyone follows her whole heartedly, including me," Ruby said, snuggling into Laz's arms.

"I thought you were a part of Black Rose?" Laz asked, thinking back to what he used to know.

"Time's changed. People changed and Kennedy offers us far more than just a few jobs here and there," Ruby responded, not really explaining. She wasn't the leader of Black Rose like Kennedy was the leader of the Blood Moon group, or what was globally know as the Hearn Group. Instead, this was all her bosses choice. Sure, Ruby pushed for it. But in the end, it was the Mistresses' choice.

"Anyway, what do we do now?" Ruby asked. She was going to follow Laz no matter where he went. It was going to be the first time they operated together since taking out the gang in the factory and she was looking forward to it.

After hearing her, Laz was going to say they would just stumble around until they found something of note, but right before he did so, he had a funny feeling. To him, it felt like his stomach was sinking like he was going down a huge hill at high speed. After that feeling left him, he body's jolted as though he had been electrified, before that passed as well. Then, all he was left with was a haunting sense of yearning. The sense was so powerful, he felt himself move without even wanting to.

Without even communicating with Ruby, he started to slowly make his way forward, half in a trance and half awake. He just barely managed to urge his arm enough to grab the sleeve of her military jacket before pulling her with him.

Laz didn't know what was happening, his body didn't seem to want to listen to him. The feeling of being dragged was uncomfortable, but not painful.

Something wanted to find Laz, but it didn't want to hurt him.