Delvers LLC: Welcome to Ludus

by Blaise Corvin

  "So not only did we luck out with the language issue, but we're still alive and nobody has stolen our stuff. We also have a little bit of time before making a decision on how to use these orbs. That said, I think we should do so as quickly as possible."

  "What if they do something messed up to us, like change us into lizards or something?" asked Henry. He really didn't trust Dolos and didn't like situations where he had to make important decisions with so little go on.

  Jason said, "That's a fair point and why I think we should pump our hosts for as much information as possible after they get back. We did save their lives, and they seem like pretty nice people. At the very least, they should be willing to answer a few questions."

  "Okay, that makes sense, but what else are you thinking? I know there has to be more, or you wouldn't be making such a big deal about this."

  "Yes," said Jason. He looked oddly excited. "Think about it, Henry. Magic. Real life magic. We've actually seen it. And the note implied there are different types of magic we could choose.

  "This is the part I've actually been thinking about the most. Based on what we've seen so far, this world is similar in some ways to RPG games I've played on Earth. The monsters have seemed similar so far; the entire setting is a variation of things I'm familiar with. If this is a sword-and-sorcery world, there are going to be several types of magic. This jives with what the note suggests too."

  Henry frowned. He hadn't seriously thought about that portion of the note yet despite witnessing Mareen use healing magic. The whole situation was fucked up. He realized he needed to be more flexible and more open-minded. He could do that.

  He said, "Okay dude, I get your point. Now where are you going with this?"

  Jason grinned, tapping the ground near where he was sitting. "I think what type of magic we choose will be critical. So before we make that decision, we need to know what types of magic there are and how popular or common each is."

  "Why?"

  "Because we want to choose uncommon types."

  "Okay, you lost me."

  Jason's expression got more serious, and he said, "Look, our goal is to pretty much take over the whole world. That's nuts. It's crazy. But I'm trying to focus on the solution. Realistically, in order to accomplish anything even close to that amazing in our lives, much less avoid getting killed, we need all the advantages we can get. Right now the greatest advantage we have is that we are humans from twenty-first-century Earth."

  Henry shook his head. He was willing to hear Jason out, but nothing was making sense yet. He said, "Yeah, but we just heard there are other people from Earth here."

  "No, you don't get it. Technology and culture has advanced exponentially in the last 40 years on Earth. The odds of there being that many modern earthlings here is slim, or we would have heard about more disappearances back home. I think we can definitely think of this as an advantage because we are going to think about things differently than other people. It gives us an advantage. Just trust me on this."

  Henry slowly asked, "Alright, so what about the magic?"

  Jason smiled and said, "What's more surprising than choosing one of the least popular magics on purpose? Furthermore, any kind of power is only limited by one's creativity. Think about it, man. Before someone invented the waterwheel, a stream couldn't be used to grind wheat, could it? The ancient Chinese turned fireworks into a weapon."

  "I dunno dude. I still don't get it, but I don't have any better ideas, so I'm going to trust you on this."

  "Okay, good to hear. Now there are only two other things we need to find out from our hosts ASAP, and they're both obviously important. One is the other races. I'm guessing this means species, not human races. I've seen several ethnicities of people in this village. I need to know where humans fit in in this world. As for the other one... Did you notice there weren't any metal tools in this village?"

  "Yeah," replied Henry. "I saw a bunch of wooden and stone tools but not really any metal. It was weird."

  Jason gestured behind him through the doorway in the cabin. "If you look around, you won't see any steel or iron anywhere. Just a little bit of tin and some copper--you can tell by the green oxidization."

  Henry thought about the inside of the cabin and realized Jason was right. "Okay, what do you think is going on?"

  Jason answered, "I have no idea, but I bet it's related somehow to the fact we haven't seen any technology. We should be seeing at least some crude electric tools if people have been brought here from Earth in the last few decades. Dolos made it sound like he's been doing this forever. It doesn't take a genius to run a magnet around a wire."

  "You're right." Henry was impressed. Jason may have been a goofy bastard, but he had a good head on his shoulders in stressful situations. "Okay, let's recap what we need to find out."

  Jason ticked off the listed items on his fingers. "First we need to find out about the orbs that Dolos gave us. Then we need to learn about magic in this world. Next we need to ask about the different races of people on this planet. Last we need to ask where all the steel is at and why there is no technology."

  "Okay, dude, sounds like a plan. Now all we have to do is wait for our hosts to get back."

  Sitting on the front steps of the cabin, they did exactly that. Henry was looking forward to making sense of the strange new world they were in. He was glad Jason had come up with such a simple but important list of questions to ask. He was lost in his own thoughts and rested in silence until George and Mareen came back.

  The World

  By the time Henry heard footsteps approaching, it was almost dark. He figured about an hour had passed. When he could actually see George and Mareen approaching, they both looked tired and frustrated.

  George slowed as he saw Henry and Jason sitting outside, and his face changed into a genuine smile. "Ag, shame. Sorry I had to be so short with you two earlier. I wouldn't even be alive here right now if it weren't for you."

  Henry didn't fault the man for taking care of his village's business. He replied, "Don't worry about it. It's not like you can just drop your responsibilities. Nobody should."

  George sighed as he walked past and waved them inside the house. "Yeah, but it's frustrating when people drag out things that should be obvious. Wanna give someone a snotklap. You probably saw the man in the meeting. Well, problem is I can't even be mad at him, 'cause I'm mad too. See, his name is Perry, and it was his son you saw dead in the cave yesterday."

  Henry thought to himself, Yesterday. Well, that proves this is a new day. We must have had a nasty case of interstellar jet lag.

  As Henry and Jason took seats around the cabin's main room, Jason settled his tall frame, running a hand through his unruly hair, and asked, "You said the meeting was about moving, right? Wouldn't Perry want to move away from the place where his son was just murdered by monsters?"

  "It's not that simple." George shook his head sadly. "Perry wants to find his son Tommas' remains to give him a proper burial. That happening's not likely, but it's impossible if the whole village leaves in the next day or two. Then there's that we all spent time and effort building this place. I'm not really happy about giving it up either. This place is my home. And I think Perry thinks we're giving up and disrespecting Tommas' memory.

  "I feel for the man, but the reality is this area has got too dangerous." George shook his head and hit his knee in frustration. "It feels bad, and it's bitter to all us living here, but we're not strong enough to protect everything. This area starting ta crawl with goblins, and most of us don't know much 'bout fightin'. Believe it or not, I'm one of the scrappiest boers in the village, and you saw the state I was in when you found me."

  Henry was curious and asked, "How did you all end up in that cave in the first place?"

  George looked off into the distance, and his face took on the cast of a man with many regrets. "I was teaching Tommas how to tend crop. His father asked me to do it because I have a good touch with growing things. We were in one of the fields w
hen Mareen came out to bring us water, and the goblins surrounded us. After that, the goblins took us to the cave, and you found us."

  Henry felt like an asshole for making George dredge up memories of his capture. "I'm sorry for asking."

  "No, bra, I would not be alive to feel bad right now if you didn't save my life." George snorted. "If answering questions is the price of my life, I'll pay it."

  Jason cleared his throat, "Actually, we do have some questions."

  Henry internally congratulated Jason. That was very smooth. He admired how Jason could slip into a conversation like that. Henry knew there was little finesse to his own conversational skills.

  George sat back and shrugged. "I figured you would have some questions for me. Blerrie, I remember how confused I was when I first came to Ludus."

  Without warning, Jason took the box with the orbs out from behind where he was sitting. He flipped it open and asked, "Do you know anything about these?"

  George's reaction was far more extreme than Henry had been expecting. When he saw the orbs, the old man's dark skin turned a shade paler. He immediately jumped up to shut the door and then hissed, "Jo, don't go waving those around! Don't let anyone see them! You should either use em quick or hide it away!"

  Henry spoke up, "So they're valuable, huh?"

  George kept his voice down but growled, "Ja, nee even the most cowardly person in this place could be tempted to do something stupid to get their hands on them. They all have different effects, but all of them make people healthier, live longer. Not all newbies to this world come with orbs, but they all give people abilities. Put that away. Caught a big skrik."

  Jason carefully closed the box and placed it behind him again. "What kind of abilities?"

  George shook his head. "I kind of expected you to already look through this thing, ja? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you're honorable." Then George grunted as he got up and retrieved the journal Henry and Jason had seen before.

  Henry glanced at Mareen in the corner while George headed back to his seat. The girl hadn't said anything yet, probably because she didn't speak English very well, but she looked worried.

  George seemed to deflate a bit as he sat back down and said, "I shouldda known I'd have to get this book anyway. It has thirty years' worth of Ludus information in it, and I would not want to give you the wrong information, especially since you saved me."

  Henry thought of something before George could continue. He asked, "If the orbs are so valuable and newbies to this planet can have them, why haven't any other villagers come near your house while we've been here, especially since we were passed out? Seems people might want to look through our stuff."

  "Well, for one, they're afraid of you. You killed a lank of goblins after all."

  "But we completely caught them by surprise," protested Jason. "If it was a fair fight, we wouldn't have stood a chance."

  George chuckled, "The people living here don't know that. Plus, none of them have ever killed a goblin. Despite everything, you two took out half a dozen, ja? Can you really not understand why they'd be nervous?" George gave a sly look. "Plus, why do you think I called the town meeting so quick? With everyone there, I could keep eyes on everyone. Couldn't let anyone do something dof when you two saved Mareen."

  Jason cleared his throat and said, "We appreciate that. So like I asked before, what do these orbs do?"

  "Let's see." George leafed through his book and said, "Some give strength, some speed... all of them make the owner healthy; most of them increase a person's life span..." He tapered off and flipped through a few more pages. "A few give magic of some kind. A few give energy powers... but these were mostly to nonhumans."

  Henry's ears perked up at that, but he kept his mouth shut. He trusted Jason to do most of the talking during this conversation.

  Jason pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "I'm assuming you did a lot of your own research over the last few decades."

  "This is my life's work." George pointed at the book. "When I first got here, not only did someone steal my orb in my first couple hours here, I didn't even know this was another world for almost a week. First few years were rough. You guys lucky you didn't wind up somewhere with people that would kill you for the orbs."

  Jason asked, "Wait, didn't Dolos tell you that you were on another world?"

  George looked shocked. In the corner, Mareen gasped. George leaned forward and softly asked, "Ag, you met Dolos?"

  Henry felt his expression souring, and he saw Jason about to answer, but he beat him to the punch. Before he could think it through he said, "Yeah, and I told him to go fuck himself." He saw Jason wince. Well, Henry knew he wasn't very good at keeping quiet when he should. Like now... and when he was talking to a huge man floating in the air. He shrugged.

  George's mouth hung open, and he blinked. Mareen looked like she wanted to run away. George stammered, "Haibo, not many love Dolos on this planet other than those that worship him, but he is rarely seen. He destroyed entire towns that pissed him off. He doesn't usually come in person to new people on Ludus, and it's usually only for people who end up becoming famous. Who are you, brah?"

  Henry shrugged again and said, "I'm an EMT, and Jason is a programmer. We like fencing. No big deal."

  Jason sighed and asked, "What can you tell us about magic?" Henry realized his friend was trying to bring the conversation back to the topics they wanted to cover, so he reminded himself to keep his mouth shut.

  George was still visibly shaken but asked, "Magic?"

  "Yes, we were shocked when we saw Mareen using magic. I mean, you are from Earth, so you probably know how we felt. What can you tell us about magic on this world?"

  George seemed to calm down and flipped through his book, "Ag, you sure are lucky, chinas. Most people will be able to tell you a little about magic, but to get good answers you'd usually have to buy an expensive book or talk to a mage. Lucky for you, I researched about magic in the past." George was quiet for a minute while he tried to find the right page.

  "Here it is. There are seven schools of magic and seven subschools, all organized in pairs. School and sub school. People usually only have a head for one school or subschool of magic, but they can use whatever school or subschool their magic is paired with. So like, the Life school is used for healing and is a subschool of Water. Mareen is good with life magic, so she can use a little bit of water magic but not much. She can't use any other kind.

  "All mages have different strengths and abilities. Spells are different too. Mages all do everything different. Nobody knows how people become mages either or why some people can sense magic and some can't."

  Henry was glad that George's English was getting better. He could only imagine how much harder that explanation could have been to understand if George was still talking the way he'd been when they met him earlier that day.

  "What are all the schools of magic?" asked Jason. "Also, do you have a piece of paper and something to write on?"

  Mareen got up and wordlessly handed Jason a piece of parchment and a small, crude pencil made from a twig. George consulted his journal and then listed off the schools of magic and their sub schools.

  School--::--Subschool:

  Earth-:-Metal

  Air-:-Void

  Water-:-Life

  Fire-:-Matter

  Consciousness-:-Time

  Light-:-Darkness

  Force-:-Attraction

  Jason scribbled madly on his little parchment, and when he looked up he asked, "Which schools are most popular? Which have the most prestige?"

  George closed his book and scratched his chin. He said, "That is a good question. There does seem to be some kinda choice or something with mages because most of 'em end up as one of the four elemental schools. It's not common to be a mage of one of the three higher schools."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well," George continued, "most mages have strongest magic with one of the four main elemental schools--Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
It's rare for anyone to be a sub school mage. It's even more rare for anyone to be a mage of a higher school--Force, Consciousness, and Light. You can probably guess that the sub schools for the three higher schools are pretty much never seen.

  "With most mages, the most common schools are Water and Air. It's very important to clean water and make water appear out of nowhere. It's also good to fly and control the air. The most common sub school is Life, like Mareen."

  Mareen smiled and gave a little bow with her head.

  "Okay," said Jason slowly, "how does magic work?"

  George looked serious, "Best I can tell, and I only got the idea from reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I think it has to do with probability. So like, fire mages have an easier time making fire if there is already a flame nearby. Water mages have an easier time creating more water if they already have water around. Life mages have an easier time healing a strong person."

  "That makes sense," said Jason. "Okay, my next question is about the races on this world." Jason paused and looked at another piece of paper. "I've heard that there are Areva, Mo'hali, Adom, Fideli, and Terrans."

  George nodded and said, "Ja, the Areva say there are actually other races out in the universe, but the most powerful and well known are all here. The Areva are like elves. Don't ever say that around them though. They get mal. They live really long, they are smaller than us humans, and most of them are smart and crafty as hell. Watch your ass around them just now, ja?

  "Mo'hali are animal people. Most of them keep to themselves. They good chaps, the ones I met. The different types are like castes in humans on Earth. You'll learn which ones have the power if you deal with them.

  "Terrans are us. From Earth, ja?

  "Fideli are like Terrans and Areva mixed a long, long time ago. Not many of them on Ludus, and most tune grief. Fideli are always in trouble. You can tell them because they all look like they could live in the dark. They have a white bit in their hair.

  "Adom... well you'll probably never see any of them cause they rare. But if you see em, they'll stand out."