Six hunting goblins emerged from the surrounding forest, swinging their stone hammer and charging toward the party. Mitch taunted the goblins. An aura vibrated out in a 10-yards radius, but failed to capture the goblin's attention. It was too late, the goblins had already locked onto their targets, double-teaming to take down their nearest archer and spearman. The two members retreated, followed by the other members scrambling to get out alive. The fight spiraled into a chaotic cacophony of yelling, grunting, and banging of stones on iron armor plates, which ended with Mitch alone to deal with the gang of goblins.
Ian sidestepped out of his hiding location, lifted his knee upward, and accelerated his body forward as he threw a small pouch to the north. The pouch, weighed down with a rock, drove through the air at speed reaching 85 miles an hour. The goblins followed the pouch, greedily pushing each other out of the way. While the goblins were distracted, Ian dashed toward Mitch, picked him up, and carried him toward the south. In the midst of their escape, Mitch fainted and his entire weight dropped over Ian. Ian grunted, his right foot stumbled forward and nearly tripped. He gritted his teeth as his muscle and every vein on his reddened face bulged as he kept balance. He discarded a cargo bag to lighten his load and lugged the unconscious Mitch toward the checkpoint. After what felt like eternity, Ian spotted the black iron gate peering in between the blue-tinted birch and alder trees. The other members also made it back, with the sack of borpine they had retrieved on their way back.
Ian set Mitch down on the grass near the gate. Red signs posted around the fence displayed a simple warning, 'Danger! Electric Fence.' The two checkpoint guards by the gate glimpsed inside.
"Do you need us to call the ambulance?" One of the guards asked.
"Not… yet," Ian responded, breathing heavily and barely speaking coherently. He grabbed a stethoscope from the medical kit box and wriggled it underneath Mitch's chest plate from the neck opening. The cool round metal diaphragm over Mitch's chest amplified the sound of the beating heart. It beated rapidly, but weakly. Lup dup, lup dup, lup dup… The combined beating of Ian and Mitch's heartbeat messed up his concentration. He breathed slowly to calm himself down and focused on the sound from the earpieces.
The surrounding party grew restless as they waited for a response. They were in the middle of a commission run and their contracted time within the otherworld was about to end. There was a hefty fine if one of the party members remained inside the otherworld realm for too long. However, being inside the otherworld realm gave Mitch the best opportunity to recover.
"Come on, why is he still unconscious?" Kramer asked in an impatient tone.
The other party members chimed in to rush Ian, but he ignored them. He was a doctor, not a ranked healer with spiritual power. Healer could summon spirits and perform spells. Whereas, he could only dress wounds and hope that Mitch's enhanced regeneration ability was strong enough to cure himself. Mitch was still breathing and his heartbeat was stable. There were several small artificial wounds and one deep gash on the upper right arm. The chest plate, a ranked D enhanced item with the value of $100,000, absorbed the majority of the damage. Mitch had leased it begrudgingly for $1000, but he should be thankful it had saved his life.
"Shhh!" Ian impatiently hushed the party to remain silent. He looked toward the gate nearby where two guards were standing. "How much time do we have left?"
One of the guards looked at his phone and replied, "you have 10 minutes left for your time slot."
Kramer and the party exited the checkpoint gate dividing the otherworld realm and the real world. As soon as they arrived into the real world, everyone turned on their cellphones. In the meanwhile, Ian sutured the deep gash. The small wounds were already slowly closing on their own, aided by the mana within the realm. With a minute remaining, Ian took out the smelling salt from the kit box and waved it underneath Mitch's nose. Mitch reacted almost immediately.
"Ah!" Mitch screamed frightfully like a child waking up from a nightmare.
The other party of five sighed in relief and then dragged Mitch back into the safe zone. With everyone accounted for, the guards released everyone's contract from their mobile phone.
[Party of six with one support is officially dismissed. Contract is completed. As a free agent, you may enter a contract with other members. Loot and carcasses may be turned in at the checkpoint. Rental equipment should be returned within 30 minutes.]
"Hey, give me back my equipment bag," Kramer demanded.
Ian, as the porter, carried all the spare equipment. He unlatched a sheathed sword tied to the large backpack and chucked it toward Kramer. He was still pissed off about what had happened. If Kramer and the rest of his crew stopped to think for one moment, they would have made it out with two goblin carcasses. Even worse, he had to throw away his personal cargo bag. Just thinking about it made him want to punch Kramer's face. Too bad there were too many witnesses and cameras at the checkpoint station.
Kramer caught the sword, but almost fell down on his knees. Without his superhuman strength, he felt the full impact of the twenty pound sword. His face flushed, but he stopped himself from snapping at Ian. In the real world, he was no better than a regular athlete. He couldn't take on someone with Ian's reputation and background.
"Good that you're fine even after running out of there like a rat while the rest of us had to carry all the load," Ian said in a steady but bitter tone toward Kramer.
"The escape plan was simple, two were in charge of retrieving the borpine and three were in charge of the goblins," said Kramer, gritting his teeth through the insult. "Without Mitch and with those monsters attacking us, it wasn't like I could bring back those carcasses back with only Shirley."
"A little help with Mitch wouldn't hurt. Not only did you risk a penalty by abandoning him, you didn't even think it through when you jumped at the treasure."
"You shouldn't even be yapping your mouth when you didn't even participate in the fight!" Kramer raised his voice, causing the people around them to look.
"Wait! Are you asking a porter to help you fight!? You're a pathetic excuse for a leader."
"If you ask me, you're the pathetic one, pretending like you're of any use in there. With all your connections, you don't even have a single spiritual relic with you."
Ian clenched his fist, but Mitch pulled Ian aside and reminded him to return the rest of the equipment. Meanwhile, Shirley pulled Kramer back. Kramer grumbled and walked toward the weapon rental counter to return his equipment. The other party members ignored them, it wasn't like they hadn't seen them bicker before. Excursions into the otherworld realm were stressful and letting out a little steam was common. Kramer was a hothead, but he wasn't a complete bad guy. He apologized to Mitch in the locker room afterward, knowing that he should have been there to help him out. The fear of being chased down by the goblins was too much to handle.
The two spearmen deposited a brown sack with blood stains next to the checkpoint guards. The guards weighed the borpine carcass and deposited the money to the party, a total of $35,000. From the phone, everyone clicked on a gray orb that represented the Otherworld Realm App.
The app was developed by the Otherworld Realm Association (ORA) to manage the influx of interest in the otherworld realms exploration. As a global organization with representatives from 165 countries, it was the leading authority that enforced the law relating to the otherworld realm. The ORA app main function was to place interested rankers and supports into a list and queued them up for entry into the otherworld realm. Mitch and Ian signed up together, and applied for positions in a party with five other people. Mitch was the registered tank and Ian was a registered porter and doctor.
Inside the app, everyone reviewed their cut of the loot, varying between $1,800 and $2,000. It was the total after dividing the $35,000 by six members, minus the taxes, administration fees, and rental fees. Ian, as a porter and the only person without rental equipment, received a flat rate of $1,500. Kramer and his crew changed out to their regular clothes and left as soon as possible. With the others gone, Mitch and Ian took their time resting inside the checkpoint's locker room.