Chapter 32 - First Step into the Portal

Jamie stood looking at a large, red and grey road train, with four carriages. It was on a large, grey pavement, and their where military men checking through the compartments, while Ivan and some other Beastmaster's from Warpets Delux stood nearby. A black bag was slung across Jamie's back, and he was dragging a plain black travel bag. Emily stood next to him, wearing a plain grey, long sleeved shirt, and black pants, with a pink bag on her back and a pink travel bag at her side.

They were at a holding area before the portal, where they had to do one last check before they could enter. Emily turned her head, smirking at Jamie.

"So, exited for your first trip?"

"Exited, and slightly nervous."

"remember, when you exit the truck when we reach the other side, take deep breaths."

"Why would I ne..."

Ivan towards them truck, calling out "Everyone, were cleared. Get in the truck!"

Jamie and Emily picked up their travel bags and headed towards the truck, entering the last carriage. Inside it, was a plain white area, with two lines of black seats on either side of the carriage, with a small fridge placed in the middle of the seats, on either side of the wall, and a open cages, on either side near the entrance, filled with bags. Jamie and Emily took put their bags in a cage, then took a seat on the left side, taking strapping on their seat belts. Ivan closed the door at the back once everyone was inside, closing and locking the cages, then taking a seat. He took out his phone, typing a message. Shortly afterwards, the truck rumbled to life, and a blue tint started spreading, covering the entire truck and it's occupants, as it started moving forwards.

Jamie looked around. In total, there were seven people in the truck. Two of people were people from the Hunters Association, hired to help protect the Beastamer's. One of them, Amelia, was a slender female with thin eyebrows, that had glowing silver hair, tied in a ponytail, with pointed ear tips, and golden eyes. She was holding a slender, sheathed black sword in her hand, with a golden pommel.

The other, Nicolas, was a bulky male with a black afro. If one looked closely, they could make out a tip of a horn tip pointing out slightly from the afro, and he was wearing black tinted glasses. Resting on the ground in front of him was a sheathed, red and black greatsword. Both members of the Hunters Association were dressed in black, loose shirts and pants, with white stripes on the sleeves.

The last two occupants in the room, where other Beastamer's from the store. One, Lennox, was a chubby male, with a faint smile on his face, wearing a collared green, crisp shirt. And the last was Taylor, a lean female who had wide eyes, with short cut black hair. Silence hung in the room, with nothing being heard but the rumble of the truck.

In the carriage, where nothing but the rumble of the truck could be heard, Jamie could not help but thinking about what it would be like on the other side. He was exited, giddy with anticipation on what was to come.

Ten minutes later. Ivan's phone rang. He checked the phone, then put it away and unbuckled his seatbelt, saying as he did. "Everyone, we have passed through the portal safely."

Everyone started unbuckling their seatbelts as the truck turned off, and the blue tint started receding. Ivan unlocked the cage, and opened the carriage. Immediately, Jamie felt a tightness of breath. He leaned into his seat, closing his eyes, and taking deep breaths. Eventually, one minute later, he opened his eyes, to see Emily staring at him, and a yellow tinge coloring his vision.. Emily's eyes widened briefly, before a grin started to form on her face. "Told you. You adapted fast."

Jamie widened his eyes. "Do you have to deal with that every time you enter the portal?"

"yes. It gets easier when you constantly enter portals, but still, time is needed to adapt. The environments on these different worlds are completely different to what ours after all."

Jamie eyes widened. "Worlds?"

Emily started smirking. "Of course. Worlds. Where else did you think the portals led to? Most of them lead to different planets. Some are inhabited, some are not. A few colonies have started on some of these planets. Come on, lets go."

Jamie and Emily stood up, heading towards the exit, grabbing their bags in the cage. After they exited the carriage, Jamie looked around. Visible in the sky yellow sky was two dark yellow balls radiating light, giving everything a yellow tinge to it. The truck was stopped on a massive cleared and leveled patch of ground surrounded by a ring of large trees, with two drivepaths and two pathways, along with a building nearby. There was an assortment of trucks, cars, and vans spread around the area.

Emily tapped Jamie on the shoulder as he was looking around. "Come on, you can look around later. We are the last to leave the truck."

Jamie and Emily made their way to the first carriage of the truck, where his and Emily's bonded beasts were standing outside the carriage with Ivan and a man in a suit, having just been released from the carriage. The bonded beasts were looking around curiously at the world around them as Ivan and the man in a suit conversed.

"Has everyone in your group ventured in the portal before and understands the rules?"

"Only one hasn't. We will fill him in on the rules later."

"Very well. Make sure that you do. It would not be a good thing for him to die due to ignorance. The situation hall is in that building."

The man pointed to the large, one floor grey building in the distance, composed of concrete bricks in the distance, with an arch door. The man in a suit then walked over to another truck that was making it's way to the parking ground.

.Ivan called everyone together, and they started walking towards the nearby grey building with an arch doorway. Ivan glanced towards Jamie occasionally as he started speaking.

"When a new portal opens, the government usually guards the portals for a month. If no one comes out, the government usually sends a couple of high stage Martial Warrior's in as an ambassador to try to negotiate a trade pact, or at the very least, a NAP with the lifeforms within. These types of portals usually have more restrictions on who enters compared to this one, as the agreements tend to be more rigid."

"However, if lifeforms surge out of the portals seeking to kill, a completely different approach is taken. A war force is assembled, sometimes with a city guardian level entity at it's forefront, and venture into the portal, seeking to establish a military base, like that one...." Ivan point off to his left, and a large, glowing grey walls ringing around a blue and red glowing castle could be seen looming over the trees.

"...Once they are established, any hostile lifeforms are killed, while information abut the situation is formed. Usually, there are different lifeforms living on a planet with some sort of friction, or internal friction we can take advantage of. The military will form an alliance with the different lifeforms, or make an alliance with some of the different groups within a species, and side with them to wipe out the hostile creatures. After that, a treaty is made, and certain areas are agreed upon that humans can venture in, and what creatures we are free to try taming or kill."

At this point, Ivan gave Ivan a hard look. "In all occasions, the allied creatures are not to be touched, unless they provoke first, and a thorough investigation is carried out in each case. The death sentence has been carried out on people who have broken this rule."

Jamie gulped.

Ivan turned to look forwards. "Despite all those rules however, if you are provoked, self defense is allowed. Keep in mind though, the government doesn't want to spare too much manpower on a single portal. New portals are still opening up, and the ultimate goal is to ensure humans survival."

"The situation hall has an ambassador for each of the lifeforms we have established alliances with. Maps are in their marked with the areas we are allowed to explore, and the pictures of lifeforms we are allowed and not allowed to touch, along with any new updates of the hostile lifeforms and casualty reports."

They walked through the arch, and entered a large, spacious wall. Hung up on a wall was a massive map or a circular continent, with half of the map outlined in green with 'Alliance' written in the middle. The other half was outlined in red, with hostile written in the middle, and a key was at the bottom of the map.

A couple of tables were lined near the front, with three beings in front of them. One was a large bird, with it's wings, head, and top half of it's body covered with gold feathers. It's tail feathers, underbelly, and beak was white, and it had red wing tips, along with a white feather ring patch around it's neck. It was perched on top of a large rock in front of the table.

The second, was a large, scaly snake. It had blue, glowing scales, and green eyes, and it was sticking it's head out of a small rocky pool of water before the desk it was curled up in, it's forked tongue darting in and out of it's mouth.

The last, was a humanoid figure with green skin, with gray, feathered wings sprouting out of it's back. It was stretching behind a chair that was positioned in front of the desk.

Along the walls, wooden tables lined the walls, with black touchpads spread out, two to each table, and a wooden chair in front of them. In certain areas was the label was the There was a black tag on top of the tables, stuck to the wall, with 'Maps', 'Lifeforms', 'Casualty and hostility updates.' The areas labeled 'Maps' and 'Lifeforms' had paper on some of the tables underneath.