The Outlands

Like he did every morning, Thomas laid in bed and stared at the ceiling, waiting for Ellie to come and get him. He could have just gotten up, but he relished those few minutes of hazy half-sleep, and this little interaction had long since become a morning ritual for the both of them.

Right on cue, Ellie poked her head into the room. “C’mon, get up! Grandpa says he’s taking us on a trip after breakfast!” She closed the door, followed by the sound of footsteps down the stairs.

Thomas yawned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He sleepily threw on some clothes, then stumbled out of his room and made his way down the stairs, emerging into the kitchen. “Morning Gramps, morning Ellie.”

Gramps was a man in his sixties and wasn’t actually Thomas’ grandfather. He was Ellie’s grandfather, and had taken it upon himself to raise Thomas and Ellie after their respective sets of parents had died in a plane crash. He was short but fit, with bright silver hair and an endlessly positive personality, with energy to match.

As for Ellie, she had just turned 18 and was only a few weeks older than Thomas. She had red hair that went down to her upper back and was about a head taller than her grandfather. When it came to appearance, the only real commonality she had with her grandfather was the striking purple eyes they shared. They were dark, enough so that at a distance they might be mistaken for a dull brown or an especially dark blue, but on closer inspection there was no denying that they were purple.

Thomas himself was of average height, but that still felt tall when compared to the two short people he lived with. He had short blond hair and hazel eyes, and…that was about it. There really wasn’t much more to him, at least in his eyes. He was sure that, were someone else to describe him, they’d point out something that he hadn’t listed, but he couldn’t really think of what.

As he got more visibility on the kitchen, Thomas found that Gramps had gone all out for breakfast that morning, a buffet of bacon, eggs, sausages, pancakes, hash browns, and other breakfast items were laid out on the counter, and Gramps was still making more.

“Morning, Thomas!” Gramps said with far too much energy for this time of day, “Eat up, we’ve got a big day ahead of us!”

Thomas began to load a plate up with food. “Ellie said we’re going on a trip? Where to?”

Gramps flipped a pancake, eyes sparkling. “Now that Ellie’s eighteen and you’re about to follow, it’s about time I show you youngsters where I work.”

Thomas nearly dropped his plate in shock, and Ellie looked similarly surprised. “I thought that was classified information!” He exclaimed.

“It is!” Gramps laughed. “But since I’m the one taking you, you’re cleared to know.”

“Alright, I get that this is a big deal,” Ellie said between bites of food, “But there’s no way we’re going to be able to eat all this. I think you’ve gone a little overboard.”

“Nonsense!” Gramps said, waving his spatula dismissively, “We’ll just take the leftovers to my coworkers. I don’t want you running out of anything you might want to eat.”

Ellie shrugged and went back to eating. The rest of the breakfast was relatively quiet as everyone was too preoccupied with eating or making the food to say much more. Once the two had finished eating, Gramps turned off the griddle, and had the kids pack the remaining food into bags so they could take it with them.

“Alright, everyone ready?” Gramps asked once the last bit of food was packed up, “This way!” He headed off down the hall, Ellie and Thomas following curiously behind him.

“Uh, Grandpa, we just passed the garage.” Ellie said.

“We’re not taking the car! You’ll see!” He gave them a wink and stopped in front of a featureless part of the wall. He touched it, drew a complex shape with his finger, and then…a door appeared. Not like some sort of false wall falling away or something; it wasn’t there one moment, and the next it was sitting there like it had always been there.

“Woah!” Ellie said, “How’d you do that?”

Thomas stood there in stunned silence. He had never so much as caught a glimpse of a door here, and even if there was, it would have just opened into the middle of another room. It was…baffling.

Gramps winked again and opened the door, pulling the two inside.

They were most definitely not in the house anymore. They were in a large, spacious office, and the windows on the walls showed a lush forest outside of a city, a far cry from the rural town in a wide open plain they lived in.

“Welcome to the Outlands!” Gramps said jovially. “Mael’s best kept secret. It’s a bit of a complicated story but think of it like this; there are a lot of other dimensions out there, and this serves as the hub for the lot of them. Of these dimensions, which we call planes, the one in which Mael is located is a rather new one and is a bit different compared to most of the established planes. It lacks the magical density other planes have, making it a rather safer place, at the expense of magic just…not really working there, outside of small things.”

He guided the stunned teenagers over to a couch and sat them down, then sat down on the couch opposite. “The League of Planes, which consists of the leaders of the various countries located across the various planes, have decided to not attempt first contact with Mael just yet, but they still want to have a presence there, so there are one or two of us that they let cross over. Me, Ellie’s parents, and a couple of other families were chosen for the job, so we moved out to various small places on Mael and lay low, keeping an eye on things. We kept Ellie out of the loop when she was growing up because…well, kids don’t have much of a filter, but that time’s over, so we get to finally bring you here!”

Thomas frowned. “What about me? My parents weren’t involved in this, were they?”

Gramps shook his head. “No, but I’m raising you, so no one has a case to argue against you. Besides, I’m expecting you’ll actually be my grandkid soon enough, eh?”

Thomas and Ellie both rolled their eyes but didn’t say anything. Gramps often teased them, saying they should “finally start dating” or “just get together already” or things like that, and they had found it was best to just ignore him when he did.

“Anyway, this here is the Freelancer’s Guild main branch, of which I’m the guildmaster! The Outlands are by far the plane with the densest magic, which comes with all sorts of dangers and riches, so the Freelancer’s Guild is…well, honestly, it’s basically identical to an adventurer’s guild. People submit jobs, freelancers take care of them. As the Outlands aren’t controlled by any one government, this was the League of Planes’ solution to the problem of a protective force. Instead of having a force comprised of people working directly for any government, they’ve left it up to the many intrepid fortune-seekers that come to the Outlands, and so far, it’s worked like a charm.”

He stood up and started walking towards the door, motioning for them to follow. “I believe you both have the makings of fine freelancers, so I’d love for you to give it a go. You’re not forced to by any means, but I can guarantee it’ll be a much more exciting life than just living on Mael will be.”

He led them through various hallways, eventually bringing them to what was obviously the main room. It was a bustling, noisy place, full of people of species that Thomas had never seen in real life. Beastkin, elves, dwarves, angels, demons, and more were going about their business, paying little mind to Thomas’ group.

Gramps grabbed their hands and tugged them through the crowd, towing them over to what appeared to be a receptionist’s desk. What appeared to be a minotaur was working the counter, his massive frame dexterously handling the comparatively small writing utensils like it was nothing. “Graham, I’m going to be cutting in line. I brought the grandkids I’m always talking about and need to get them registered as freelancers before I can return to work.”

The minotaur started, looking at the three of them. “G-Guildmaster Los!” He said, putting his hand over his heart, “Don’t sneak up on me like that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Gramps laughed, patting the burly minotaur on his arm. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Could you hand me the forms? I can take care of filing them myself, I just need the actual papers.”

“Sure thing, Guildmaster.” Graham said, “Ess will be your scanner today, room 201…” He trailed off, then looked away, apparently embarrassed. “Sorry, force of habit. I know you know what’s going on.” He mumbled.

Gramps laughed again. “I get it, I get it.” He took the sacks of food he was carrying and handed them to Graham. “Put these in the break room, will you? It’s leftovers from breakfast today, anyone can have what they want.”

“Will do. Best of luck, kids!”

And with that, Gramps dragged the two unresisting kids back towards the way they came. Once they were inside the strangely empty hallway, he turned on them. “So, what’d you think?”

“Um, it was…overwhelming.” Thomas said, Ellie nodding in agreement, “Is it normally this busy?”

“In the mornings. During the day people are generally out on jobs, so it slows down. This office is our busiest as well, and it also handles general paperwork and all the other overhead that comes with an organization like this, so you can expect any other offices to be much less crowded.”

He began to lead them through the halls once more. “These are the employee-only halls. Makes getting around much easier, let me tell you. No need to push through a million and one different people just to get to where you want to go. Feel free to use these whenever you want, you’ll have to walk through them anyway to get back home, so you might as well use them for general navigation.”

They climbed some stairs, and he stopped in front of a door, knocking. It opened to reveal a sleepy looking elf woman, her long black hair draping down over her body in an unkempt mess. “Oh…Guildmaster? Come on in, we’ll get your grandkids taken care of.”

Gramps led them into the room. It had a door on the other end, but the main feature was a table surrounded by chairs with a large ball of some glass-like material sitting on a stand in the center. “Go ahead and sit down. We’ll do this one at a time, starting with Ellie.” Ess told them, sitting down on the opposite side.

“How do you know my name?” Ellie asked.

“Guildmaster is constantly talking about you two. I’m pretty sure everyone on the staff knows your names by now. Once they see you with the guildmaster they’ll connect the dots.”

The two sat down, and Ellie obediently placed her hands on the ball.

Ess was silent for a moment, but then her eyes (or what they could see of them beneath the hair), opened wide. “My apologies, but I think this scanner might be broken.”

Gramps frowned. “I had them all recalibrated yesterday. Try Thomas.”

Ellie retracted her hands and Thomas placed his on. Ess frowned even more, then turned to Gramps. “I think it might be hypersensitive. Their readings are way too polarized. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Try it with me, then. We know what my readings are.” Gramps said, walking forward and putting his hands on the ball after Thomas removed his.

Ess raised an eyebrow. “They’re exactly correct. Um…I guess you just managed to get a couple of really…special kids there.”

Gramps took his hands off, smiling wryly. “Carry on as normal, then. I’ll grab the sheets for you.”

Gramps scurried out of the room, and Ess had the two go through the whole “hands on the ball” thing again. A couple of minutes later, Gramps returned with a couple of pages, handing one to each of them. “These are your Statuses.” He told them. “The little numbers next to your main Attributes are your growth parameters. You’ve got an even chance of your Attribute increasing by any of the numbers next to it every time you level up. These are the real barebones mass-produced sheets we give to everyone, but I’ll give you some magic tools that let you track your Status whenever you want, and far better than what we have here.”

“Is 10 a good growth?” Ellie asked.

“The best, aside from your Resources, where the growth values are ten times higher than the others.” Ess replied. “You hit the jackpot, girl.”

Ellie pumped her fist. “Nice!”

Thomas’ sheet was…far more underwhelming than whatever he imaged Ellie had.

Thomas looked down at his sheet, disheartened. “How important are stats?” He asked.

“They’re…kind of really important. Sorry, kid.” Ess said. “I’ve got to say, I’m…not sure how you’re even alive right now. I’ve never, ever, seen someone with Luck as low as yours, nor have I seen a 0 growth. I can only assume that whatever that title is is what’s stopping you from being hit by every possible piece of bad luck you can get.”

Ellie peeked over at his sheet, then winced. “Oh.” She said, deflating. “Uh, sorry.”

“How’s yours?” He asked.

“Well…I’ve got all 10s for each of my growths, and all my stats are starting at 15 or 150. I…don’t have any Titles, though, so you’ve got that on me.” She said, laying a hand on his. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out, though. For all we know that Title’s super awesome, right?”

Gramps nodded. “Titles the scanner can’t display are generally better than average. Come with me, I’ll get you the bands I’ve prepared, they’re top of the line, so they should be able to see it.”

He thanked Ess and led the kids back to the office. He rummaged around in the desk for a moment, before handing each of them a small ball of some smooth, peach-colored material. “Grab it and think about wearing it, it’ll sink into your hands and then you can conjure up your Status at will. If you ever want to take it off for some reason, which you shouldn’t need to, just thinking about doing that and it’ll pop out.”

Thomas grabbed the ball and thought about wearing it. There was a brief, comforting warmth, and then nothing. The ball was gone. “How do we show the Status?” He asked.

“Just think about it. It’ll pop up in the corner of your vision.”

He did, found the window, and looked at the Titles.

“It’s still not displaying.”

Gramps raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s not something you see every day. To be honest, you shouldn’t have a Title to begin with, let alone one strong enough to foil top of the line hardware.”

All of a sudden, the display fuzzed. The Status went away, leaving an empty window, save for the Title. The lettering suddenly rearranged, becoming legible, and a message began to write itself below.

“Something happen?” Ellie asked. “That’s quite the face you’re making.”

Thomas relayed the contents of the message to them both, prompting a whistle from Gramps.

“That’s fantastic.” He said. “Blessings from the gods aren’t particularly common in the first place, and their strongest ones are incredibly rare. It might just make up for your awful stats. Anyway, let me show you to my personal warehouse. We’re going to get you kitted up and then tackle your first dungeon!”

Fighterman481

The premise for this story actually came from a dream I had. We haven't fully worked through the dream so I won't go over it in detail, but the "main" details of it are here. Namely, Thomas (Unnamed dream viewpoint character) and Ellie (Unnamed dream girl character a 'sister' of sorts in the dream, though I altered that because I feel that this works better) are introduced by their grandpa to this other world. Grandpa, the guildmaster, shows them around and says they have a lot of potential as adventurers.

Ellie was a huge prodigy, and Thomas...wasn't. Then, other stuff happens that we'll get into later, when it's actually happened (next chapter, maybe next two chapters depending). There are a couple of worldbuilding elements that I like quite a bit, but they're not here yet so...

Anyway, the freelancers. I needed there to be an adventurer's guild, but didn't quite want to make it that cliche without a reason. I feel like this is a good compromise, and also feel like the reasoning behind it is sound. I had a lot of fun writing the staff, too. Especially Graham. I like Graham. Something about the gap in what a minotaur stereotypically is portrayed and how Graham acts.

Thomas' blessing is like...version 2.0 of what it originally was. Originally, it was that Thomas was amazing at timing. Like, supernaturally amazing to the point where he was able to get good results out of RNG in games without any visible indicators. I ended up reworking it into this, which I feel is both more and less broken, just in different areas, while working at the same broad things I need it to work for. 

Anyway, that's all I have to say so, as always, thanks for reading!