One step was all it took to travel from Tellus Nova to Earth. As soon as the last of the horse made it through, I saw the Gateway close. It was located in the wall of a minimart. The physical structure was still there, but the portal was gone. Then the messages hit.

  “Welcome to the Rebital Collective System. Error. Recalculating. Error. Resetting. You are from a different System. Class level set to 1. All previous system spells will be disabled. Previous system magic will be disabled. Skills unknown to Rebital Collective System will be disabled, similar skills will be made available at level 1. Gifts remain unaffected. Talents remain unaffected. Titles remain unaffected. Magic items remain unaffected.

  That was unexpected, but I believe that I now know what is the cause of the anomaly. A competing System. Malentine won’t be happy about that.

  But my first priority was to check out my situation. I brought up my basic stat screen:

  [Name: Trevor Ervine Johns]

  [Race: Human] [Nephilim]

  [Class: Champion of Life]

  [Life: 400]

  [Mana: 500]

  [Stamina: 400]

  [Level: 1]

  Stats:

  Strength:   30

  Agility:     30

  Dexterity:   25

  Endurance:  40

  Constitution: 40

  Intelligence: 25

  Wisdom:   25

  Perception:  30

  Luck:     25

  Charisma:  20

  So far so good. I kept my stats, and I can see my Life, Mana, and Stamina points rather than as bars. The only thing that changed was my level. It seemed that Rodof and Medirre were the same. I moved onto my skills:

  Skills:

  Combat 10

  Magic 1

  Weapons 10

  Sword 1

  Dagger 1

  Spear 1

  Unarmed Combat 1

  Identification 1

  Partitioned Mind 6

  Slow-Time 1

  Explorer 3

  Intimidation 3

  Nullification 2

  Negotiation 1

  Unbroken Mind 5

  Take Me Home 1

  Second Chance 1

  Harden 1

  Armor 1

  Shield Breaker 1

  Sneak 5

  Stealth 1

  Danger Sense 1

  Magic Sight 1

  Party 1

  Far Sight 1

  True Sight 3

  Dark Sight 1

  Healing Aura 1

  Rune Crafting 1

  Okay, now this was terrible. A lot of my skills were disabled. Everything else was reduced to level 1. Thank goodness that I still had Slow-Time. It saved my life multiple times on Tellus Nova. I expect it will here too. I pulled up spells, next.

  Spells:

  Divine:

  Cure All 10

  Heaven's Heal 10

  Cleanse 10

  Mana Dart 5

  Wind Blade 5

  Fireball 9

  Malentine Universal System:

  Close Wounds 3

  Minor Life Regenerate 3

  Minor Healing 6

  Teleportation 5

  Chained Lightening 3

  Meteor 1

  Minor Ranged Heal

  Medium Ranged Heal

  Fire Stream 1

  Eldritch Protection 1

  Flame Shield 1

  Cone of Ice 1

  Water Gun 1

  Create Food 1

  Create Water 1

  Water Breathe 1

  Portable Light 1

  Start Fire 1

  Minor Repair 1

  Earth Spike 1

  Cone of Cold 1

  Blizzard 1

  Ray of Arcane Destruction 1

  Snowball 1

  Stone 1

  Portal 4

  I expected to lose all my spells, so I was ecstatic to find my Divine Magic was unaffected. My companions weren’t so lucky. They had no spells, not even minor ones like Cleanse.

  It took a minute to check our status, so now we needed to check out where we were. The field of wildflowers were in front of us, but behind us was a small building. It looked like the back of a store, but the Gateway was embedded in the wall.

  “Let’s investigate the building first? What do you think?”

  “Yes, my lord” they both said.

  “Okay, let’s get this straight. Do not call me ‘my lord’ while we are here. Just call me Trevor. They don’t use that term on this world. Can you do that?”

  “Sure. But can we should call you ‘young master’” Rodof asked.

  “They don’t use that term either. Afraid you will have to call me Trevor, or if you absolutely can’t, then Sir is acceptable.”

  “Yes, sir” both men said and nodded.

  The building was abandoned. It used to be a Quicky Mart type store. One large open area, with a small enclosed bathroom (employees only sign still there) and a cramped office. It had already been looted and the front windows were all busted out. Basically, this place was a mess. Shelves were over turned overturned. Broken glass and empty food containers were everywhere, and it smelled. Some animal had crawled in here and died. Its decaying body in laid in a corner. Out front, there were gas pumps. Now, I really was convinced I had returned to Earth.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  We went out the front door this time. Mainly to get away from the smell. I tried to bring up my mini-map, but without the Explorer skill, it was unavailable.

  “Do either of you have a mini-map?”

  Medirre said “I do”.

  “Can you mark this location?”

  “Done.”

  According to the road sign, this store was on the corner of Amba Way, and Miller’s Highway. We started toward the road in front of the store, Miller’s Highway. It was very quiet. Normally, there would be cars on the road and the associated noises they make. Just the wind. It was like a ghost town. Medirre went and brought our horses around front. We mounted up and started down the road. It was time to start exploring.

  As we rode our horses into town, I kept looking around for any sign of humans. Nothing. It was as if no one lived here. Many of the buildings were heavily damaged. I noticed one build that looked in good shape and we headed towards it. It was a two-story red brick house. Square, like they made in the 1960s.

  “I think we should look inside that building. It looks to be defensible.”

  Both men nodded. They weren’t the most conversational people, I noticed.

  We dismounted and made our way toward the building. Ten yards in front of the building, I called out “Is there anyone in there?” No reply, so we moved forward. I was keeping an eye on the windows as I approached the front door. When I got to the front door, I knocked, just like I was visiting friends. Still no answer, so I tried the handle. Locked. I sent Rodof and Medirre around the sides of the building, looking for a way in. Rodof called out he found an open window.

  Rodof was the first to go in, followed by Medirre and then myself. We did a quick search of the house. No one was home, but we did find a spare set of keys. There was no electricity, so none of the appliances worked. But there was a barbeque grill in the back yard. At least some of our meals would be hot.

  I saw a large gardener’s shed on the back line of the property. I made my way to the shed. There was noise coming from the inside. Someone or something was inside.

  “If there is anyone in the shed, can you please come out? I am new to this area and am just looking to ask a few questions. I promise I won’t hurt you.” I heard movement inside the shed and some rather loud whispering.

  “It really is okay. My name is Trevor. I am just looking for my wife and daughter. Can you please come out?”

  The door to the shed slowly creaked open until a young woman’s head popped out. “What do you want? We don’t want any trouble, just leave us alone.” She said then popped her head back in.

  “Look, can you tell us where we are? I am totally lost. I don’t even know the name of the town. I can share food if you need it. At least tell me your name.”

  I heard a child’s voice say “Sharon, they have food.”

  “My name is Sharon Tyler. The town is called Brentwood. Now you can go away.”

  “I think we will be here a few days, while we get oriented. You are welcome to share our food. You and your child. I guarantee your safety while I am here. My friends Rodof and Medirre will also keep you safe.”

  “What about the monsters?” the child’s voice asks.

  “No worries. We are in the monster hunting business. Here, I will leave some homemade bread and go back into the house. If you need more, please come to the house.”

  I turned around and went back into the house. I watched through the window as the young woman peaked out the shed, then grabbed the bread and ran back into the shed. Rodof and Medirre decided to look around the neighborhood. I stayed to see if the woman could come to the house.

  It took half an hour, but the woman and child came out of the shed. They came to the back door and knocked. “Come in” I yelled.

  I had seen them coming to the house and set out food on the kitchen table. Meat, vegetable, and potatoes. I also poured two glasses of fruit juice.

  When they came in, I said “Please eat up. But take your time, you don’t want to get sick. There is plenty more where that came from.”

  They both sat down and started to eat. The bread had been enough to take the edge off their hunger, but they still needed to eat. I waited while they got more comfortable.

  “As I said before, my name is Trevor and I am looking for my wife and daughter. Last I heard they were in Hollis, New York.”

  “That’s only 25 miles from here. But there are monsters everywhere. It might as well be 500 miles.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that. As I said, my friends and I are in the monster hunting business. We call ourselves Adventurers, but it’s the same thing.”

  “My name is Rhonda” the little one said.

  “Good to meet you, Rhonda.” I smiled when I said it.

  And that was when Rodof and Medirre returned. They knocked on the door and said they were coming in. Apparently, they didn’t want to get mistaken for a monster, so they announced themselves. Smart.

  I made introduction and then asked them what they found.

  “Sir, there are quite a few small slime pigs, and other low-level monsters in the area. The highest level we saw was 5. I suggest that we take a few days, clear them out and level up. We need the levels before we go further. We are lucky this is such a low-level area” Rodof reported.

  “I am anxious to get to Hollis, but what you said make sense. Let’s clear the area. First, do you have any spare weapons we can give to Sharon? I would like her to be able to defend herself. What do you think Sharon?”

  Sharon just sat there. First, I gave her food, now weapons. She really didn’t expect this. She hoped for food for her sister. Now they are willing to teach her how to fight and defend herself. She started to silently cry, but still managed to agree.

  Rodof came forward with a well-made spear. “It’s nothing special, but spears are the easiest weapons to use and learn. It also keeps the monsters further away than a sword.”

  Medirre came next with a leather chest piece. “This is good leather and will protect your body from lesser monsters. Luckily, that’s all there is in this area. Besides, we will be with you, so you don’t have to worry.”

  I brought out a ring of protection and gave it to Rhonda. “This ring will protect you from the monsters. It has a magic barrier spell that keeps the away as long as you don’t attack them. When we go to fight, you just stay in the middle and everything will be alright. Okay.” I said solemnly.

  “Okay,” Rhonda said and put the ring on her finger. The ring shrank down to fit perfectly.

  “One more thing before we go.” I said and cast Heaven’s Heal, Cure All and Cleanse on both of them. Sharon noticed the difference after Cleanse and said “What did you do?”

  “Oh, I cast a couple of heal spells and a cleaning spell on you and Rhonda.”

  “Magic, magic?”

  “Yes, magic is now a thing on Earth. It came with the monsters.”

  Sharon just stared at me like I was crazy. But hey, the world is the world now.

  We made our way out of the house, which I locked up, and toward the nearest set of monsters. Medirre has the mini-map and its red dots showed the monster location. I told Sharon and Rhonda that I was activating a skill called Party. It would allow us to share in the experience from the monsters. I activated Party and everyone joined. Rhonda had a star next to her name in my party list. I think she was too young for this normally.

  Sharon was nervous when she saw the slime pigs, which were just undersized Slime Boars. I did a quick Identification on them. There were 3, and all were level 2. Easy, even at our level.

  Rodof showed Sharon how to keep the spear in front of her and jab. She tried it a few times, then gasped. “I just got a skill called Spear.”

  “Congratulations, hopefully the first of many.” Rodof said.

  Medirre pulled out a large shield. “I will taunt them to me. Once they attack me, you can attack them. Don’t attack them until after they attack me or they will go after you. Okay?”

  “Okay” said a very nervous Sharon.

  Medirre activated his taunt and the pigs came running. They slammed against his shield but he didn’t budge. “Now attack” he yelled.

  We moved toward the pigs, Sharon moved with us. When she got close, she jabbed her spear at the nearest pig and stuck in its shoulder. That was enough for Rodof and me. We attacked and easily killed the pigs. Even though we were level 1, we still had our higher-level stats, so it wasn’t much of a fight at all. The important thing was that we all got essence, or experience as it was called here. Even Rhonda got experience, but it was being held until she reached 14 years old.

  We moved on to the next group of monsters. A nest of large spiders. Identification said they were called Acid Spiders and were level 5. Tougher than expected, but still doable. I didn’t want to let the spiders get close to us. This time I was going to start with my spells. I started with Fireball. I cast Fireball and it zoomed to the nest, where it exploded. Now, I might have underestimated just how much damage the Fireball was going to do. But needless to say, it killed all the spiders and obliterated the nest and everything in a 10-foot radius. Oops.

  The experience was a lot. Enough for us all to hit level 2, and then some. Surprise, surprise, I got 5 stat points to allocate as I wished. Rodof and Medirre got 4 each. That was twice as much as they would have gotten on Tellus, plus there were no caps. They could exceed the 15 stat cap here. Sharon received a list of classes, of which she had to choose one: Spear Bearer (c), Fighter (c), Amazon (uc), and Guardian (r). Medirre, being a Guardian himself, advocated for her to choose that. I said that it was her choice, but since Guardian was a rare class the stats would be better and she would have a better path going forward. She chose Guardian, and got 4 stat points to allocate. Rhonda would have to wait until she was 14 before she would get her class and levels.

  We were gradually making a circle around our base house. Clearing each mod as we found them. Our team work got better and better, as I wasn’t going to just throw Fireballs at everything. Sharon needed to build up her confidence and we needed to adjust to any idiosyncrasies of the new System. It was a learning experience for all of us.

  After 3 hours, we stopped hunting monsters and headed back to the house. Rodof and Medirre were satisfied with their progress. Sharon was getting a little fatigued and Rhonda had fallen asleep more than once. When we arrived at the house, I cast Cleanse on everyone, and then set out some food. We were all hungry after our hunt. Then I set a watch schedule. I would go first, then Rodof, then Medirre. Sharon and Rhonda went upstairs immediately after dinner to sleep. That’s how we ended our first day on Earth.