A male elf stood on a stone slab with an intricate design on it. He was called Crow after a bird of the same name—though that was its translation, it was not the same bird as on Earth. With him were the rest of his team: another elf named Bob, and a pair of twin devils who went by Sunshine and Rainbow.

  The stone slab they were standing on was a transporter. The newest planet to come out of the ether less than a month ago was finally secured by anchors, thus allowing these transporters to operate. The various factions treated these new planets as the gold rush they were. A new planet would have untapped resources that the natives would never know about—something the factions wanted to control. That made the competition fierce!

  Crow and his team were but one of many. They’d been hired on as mercenaries by the Xithral Collective—a loose confederation of planets. There was—supposedly—an overarching framework of law all worlds were supposed to follow, but that was only wishful thinking. The reality was that laws varied significantly from world to world depending on the local ruler’s whim. It wasn’t Crow’s first choice, but they’d been the ones to discover the new planet and bind it. So that’s where he—and his team—went.

  The contract was fairly standard—twenty-percent to the local ruler of anything they discovered. Crow was thankful it didn’t include anything too strange. The only negative was that—as a mercenary company—his group would have to wait an extra day compared to the local ruler’s personal groups. It sucked, but that was the life of a mercenary.

  “Bob, Rainbow, Sunshine, you ready?” he asked.

  “Affirmative, sir,” Bob said.

  “Always,” Rainbow and Sunshine said at the same time.

  “Alright then. Let’s go.”

  The intricate design lit up as soon as Crow sent energy through his feet into it. Second later, it was done charging. In a flash, the four of them were transported to the new, unknown world. Like a bubble popping, a thin dome of energy dissipated, depositing the team on the planet.

  Crow readied his energy rifle—just in case. You never knew what might be waiting on the other end. The others did the same with their weapons. Sunshine and Rainbow were a cold mage and a dark mage respectively, while Bob was a spearman. Ranged was always best—or so Crow thought—which is why anyone who got up close and personal usually used a weapon with a long reach. Most opponents they would face would be monsters—natives were considered cannon-fodder at best—so they were kitted out with them in mind.

  That didn’t mean other parties couldn’t be a problem. Sapients were always liable to jump at shadows. Not all of them did—in fact, most groups they might encounter were cordial. The dangers of exploring a new world gave them a sense of camaraderie. There were some groups that were much less positive. Usually, it was the groups directly funded by someone rather than a local government. Those groups were tasked with finding and holding land for their investors… and they did not like to share. Even witnessing what they’d found was liable to end in a fight to the death. Crow wanted to avoid that—if possible.

  “Wow, this place is a shithole,” Bob commented.

  The twins agreed, as did Crow.

  The world they were in was a muddy, ashy wasteland. There were signs that this hadn’t always been true. There were dead trees here and there amongst the ruins they’d found themselves in. The ruins weren’t made of stone, but rather of metal and a pourable stone.

  Clearly, what had been here had used a strange sort of magic he didn’t understand. There was a standard way to build, and this was not it. Even on other world explorations, Crow had found that this standard was followed. The magic used to build—and the formations that were built into them—were universal… or so he had thought. This place was clearly different.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Let’s see if we can find a native to tell us what’s going on here,” Crow told the team. “Rainbow, I’ll need you to do your thing.

  “’Kay!”

  Crow made for the nearest of the ruined structures, keeping his energy rifle at the ready. There was a doorway with a rusted metal door that was barely attached. He pushed his way inside. The interior was a strange, boxy shape reminiscent of dwarven architecture. It was decorated with yellowing paper and strange materials he’d never seen before.

  “Bob, please catalog what we’re seeing for the higher-ups.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Crow saw a table made of wood in the middle of the room. It wasn’t grown into shape with magic, nor was it perfectly melded, either. Instead, it was roughly cut to shape before being secured with metal fittings and some sort of bonding agent.

  He discovered that this sort of construction remained consistent elsewhere. Sometimes the material was wood, while other times it was metal or something else he didn’t recognize. What Crow noticed—above all else—was the lack of magic. Not like some poorer worlds where magic was used sparingly or only the domain of the elite… there was not even a trace. Even commoners on those worlds had at least one or two magical items or items made with magic.

  This home was clearly something different than that. It made him reevaluate how the building they were in had been made. A liquid that hardened to stone, supported by a metal lattice inside, with glass to let the light in. It was ingenious for a world without magic—if that’s what it truly had been.

  “Boss!” called Sunshine, breaking his concentration.

  “Yeah?” Crow replied.

  “C’mere. I found something strange… and bring Rainbow with you!”

  He found Rainbow inspecting a rectangular object made of the weird substance he’d been unable to identify. He could see that the inside was made of a mess of small metallic wires and crystals beyond his understanding.

  “Your brother needs you,” Crow told him, noting the object for later examination.

  Rainbow nodded and the two went through a hallway and into a room with a functional door made from wood with a metal latch. Inside was an animal of some kind laying atop a bed. That it had two arms, two legs, and opposable thumbs made it a great candidate for one of the natives they were looking for.

  “Ah, good, you’re both here,” Sunshine said.

  “So what’s going on?” Crow asked.

  “I think it’s dead,” she said. “But the problem is that I can’t find the cause. That’s more Rainbow’s thing, you know?”

  “Mmm,” Rainbow nodded. “Let me have a look. Might take a minute, so I’ll call you back when I know something.”

  Crow shrugged and left with Sunshine. He looked in the other rooms of the house. The house had several curiosities—like the rectangular object near the entrance. Nothing worked, but that was expected with the state of the world outside. If they had been made with magic, they might have… but they used some other means he didn’t know. He picked up some of the items to put in his storage ring. He figured that at worst they would be interesting for a researcher to look at… but maybe they would be worth a pretty penny to a collector. That was worth the small amount of space they took up in the ring.

  “Crow!” came Rainbow’s call.

  Crow put down the object he was inspecting—a goblet made of thin glass—and marched to the bedroom where Rainbow was. Rainbow had a grim expression on his face.

  “What’s going on?” Crow asked.

  “This one was killed by a curse. Definitely magic as well. Early tier 2 in strength, if I’m not mistaken.”

  “So there is magic here?”

  “Looks that way,” Rainbow shrugged. “It’s a nasty curse—one that’s still active, by the way.”

  He held up a hand to stop Crow.

  “But I’ve disinfected this body,” he continued. “I’ll wipe it from you and the rest in a few minutes. It’s not a quick killer, but I would say it’s one of those forbidden plague-type curses.”

  “Oh no,” Crow gasped.

  “I’m afraid so. This place is a lot more dicey than expected. But that’s why I’m here!”

  “Exactly.”

  “Oh, before you go. I think the curse is why the body is so well preserved. The level of dust inside speaks to this place having been wiped by the curse at least a decade ago. A body doesn’t survive like that normally.”

  “I’ll get the others and let them know. Then you can do your thing.”

  Crow got a nod from the devil as he left.

  “Bob, Sunshine, come here for a moment,” he called out.

  The two stopped what they were doing and gathered near him.

  “So there’s something more going on here than we expected,” he told them. “Rainbow discovered that the body in the other room was a victim of a plague curse.”

  “Damn!” Sunshine exclaimed.

  “Yeah. He’ll come deal with it on us when he’s done with the body. So sit tight. It’s not a fast killer, so you don’t need to worry much about it.”

  Minutes later, Rainbow came and cast his magic to remove the curse. He tried to do it one person at a time but found the curse was very quick to infect. Instead, he had to cast it on all of them at the same time—more costly, but ultimately effective.

  “This curse is a danger,” Rainbow explained. “I’m not sure we should continue our exploration much more if this is what we’re running into already. The world is a cursed one… and if the virulence is anything to go by, there’s nothing left living on it. Other than the monsters, of course. And they’ll be infected without a doubt.”

  “Let’s at least fulfill the terms of our contract,” Crow said. “Namely, fight some monsters, catalog the state of the world, and meet the natives. I think we’ve checked off items two and three, but we’ll need to do the monster killing before we’ll get paid. I agree with you, though. I want to be gone from this place sooner rather than later. So let’s go find the monsters and leave!”

  A group of shouts came in reply.