[The SYSTEM has arrived.]

Kai immediately cycled through the sensory skills he trusted. His eyes were closed, and he seemed to be lying down, but deeply ingrained habits enforced his stillness.

Nothing. There was no bloodlust, there was no Ki. There was mana, but only a simple light-projecting array, an illusion even a mortal could produce, writing words in his vision through closed eyelids.

[The SYSTEM has arrived.]

Kai snapped his eyes open, and then blinked at the sheer vibrancy of the skies above. Clear blue, with fluffy white clouds. Where was the blood-red?

As he slowly stood, and even as he continued scanning for threats he seemed unable to detect, he was further bewildered by the moisture he felt under his feet, and how soft the ground was. Little stalks of bright green surrounded him, stretching in all directions.

...grass? A dream, then?

He began overlaying onto his surroundings, but deploying his domain was so automatic that he found his thoughts wandering.

Was I careless, or is this illusionist so skilled?

He was not unfamiliar with the basics of dealing with such situations, even though they were habits from so long ago - despite the hundreds of years since his dreams were last hijacked, one didn't survive the Asura Worlds without at least some ability to deal with the esoteric.

His snapped into existence as a shimmering sprawl of runes barely visible, and then faded into invisibility as every detail of his current environment was fed to his mind. And as he focused on all the grass around him, he thought it was comforting, in a way.

No life. None at all.

An illusion, through and through. The ground was dead. The grass were ribbons of material, springy and surprisingly lifelike, yet his skills all agreed that it was no grass at all, and as inanimate as rock.

He looked at the locus of the light-projecting array, still beaming those annoying words into his eyes. His asserted that it was not trapped, nor possessing any external connections, so he snuffed it out of existence.

...perhaps someone would like to communicate? Such an odd means, but flawless technique.

There were few reasons one might traditionally use a dream as a medium for attack. The first was to analyze an opponent, find ways to get under their skin, dig up their insecurities, or make their emotional weakness work to your advantage. The second was to implant weaknesses in their fighting style, by conditioning them to be complacent against weaker enemies in their dreams.

Dreams could also serve as a direct attack to one's psyche, but that was easily defended - or so he originally thought. He had also originally thought that dream hijacking was something he left behind hundreds of years ago, as cheap vectors of attack rarely worked against the higher echelons of strength.

Caution, then.

He felt a stream of mana enter his domain and form a different array, a less intrusive variant of the light-projection he wiped. This new one merely projected words in a flat plane in front of him, like a newspaper, or more accurately a screen. He let it form, somewhat amused that such a rudimentary method of communication was chosen. Nevertheless, it was so rudimentary as to be completely benign, so Kai psyched himself up for social interaction.

[The SYSTEM has determined that you are an Anomaly.]

[The SYSTEM classifies you as a: Returnee, Asura Champion.]

[The SYSTEM would like to open direct communications. To accept, please retain possession of the NEXUS.]

Returnee, huh. So this dream is set in Terra, then?

Kai watched with slowly increasing amusement as more streams of mana entered his domain and started forming a golden gem - while he barely knew spell design and array formulation, he knew enough to know that it was exceedingly inert, and would only respond when significant amounts of mana were directed at it. Such a design was... carefully inoffensive. Kai thought it was a breath of fresh air from bloodthirsty combat.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Nevertheless, he reached out to interfere - he intended to cooperate, not to lower his defenses. So he added a few things in the gem to render it inoperable at will. He felt the mana streams take his own work into account, designing the gem to retain the kill switch rather than bypass it.

How... considerate.

[The NEXUS serves as the SYSTEM's primary medium of communication, but has additional functions. Please interact with the NEXUS at your earliest convenience.]

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage," he spoke lightly while inspecting the finished gem. "I am Kai, First Champion. Who walks with me?"

[Greeting detected. Replying with best approximation.]

[The First Champion is well met. This one is designated SYSTEM, and is a construct not entitled to walk the Path.]

Kai frowned lightly. The reply was polite enough, if a bit odd. However, if someone wanted to communicate with him, why did they choose a construct to do so?

[Terra is currently under SYSTEM development. Welcome to the TUTORIAL.]

[As a Returnee, your progression is not guided. The TUTORIAL's main objective is to introduce Terra's inhabitants to Mana. For Returnees, the TUTORIAL's secondary objective is to ensure your transition home is comfortable.]

[Please prepare. You will now enter the same TUTORIAL as the inhabitants of Terra. The difficulty has not been altered.]

Kai looked at the gem, and decided to crease it into the space around him. It would stay at a constant distance relative to himself, floating two meters to his right, which he decided was sufficient precaution without being rude.

He felt mana swirl around him and slowly coalesce into portals. Idly he wondered if he was being so patient as to be a pushover, but ultimately he decided to postpone his decision and let this dream played out. Instead, he watched as little green humanoids stepped through the spatial rifts, and noted the amusing discordance of spatial magic being used to transport mindless and magic-less piles of skin and bones.

[Objective: Eliminate the Goblins]

[Returnee’s Notes: This stage sets the tone for inhabitants of Terra unprepared for combat. As such, the goblins are weak.]

Kai chastised himself. Weak though these “goblins” might be, he needed to keep his guard up; it would be exceedingly easy to sneak in a real attack when he got complacent. Any amount of cannon fodder was a cheap, cheap price to make him lower his guard.

So he tracked these goblins visually while using his to pay attention to his surroundings. As they flailed their limbs to move toward him at mortal speeds, he mentally reviewed his Skills, and picked one that could not be considered revealing his abilities.

was a skill that he had long outgrown but could never really bring himself to part with. He swung a strand of Ki about him – the was not meant to be used this way, but it didn’t matter as the thin strand fluttered lightly towards the goblins, and then continued through. Even the portals were split in halves, the spellwork gradually dissipating.

[Stage 1 Clear.]

[Rewards: Human Disguise, Status.]

The NEXUS started receiving a stream of Mana, and Kai kept track of it as it started surrounding him like a cloak. However, it seemed like an illusion instead of an attack, so he watched as it smoothed out his skin, hiding his more monstrous augmentations away from sight.

All this seemed more troublesome than it needed to be. Regardless, the Illusionist had been polite so far, and Kai didn’t think that he had any lingering insecurities regarding his past life, so he let things proceed.

[Please interface with your NEXUS to bring up your STATUS.]

Kai poked the little gem and found its use surprisingly intuitive. In response to his request, two separate screens showed up.

TRUE STATUS Name Kai Level est 2700 Class Not Applicable Titles First Champion of Asura

Native of Terra Skills

Human Disguise [S]

False Status [S]

FALSE STATUS Name: Kai Level: 1 Class: None Titles: None

A shift in mana alerted him as a portal slowly formed, accompanied by a timely System explanation:

[When ready, enter the Portal to the next stage.]

Rather than stepping forward, Kai decided to take his time inspecting this NEXUS for its other features. It didn’t take long for him to find some sort of System starter guide. It included surprisingly thorough descriptions of what various levels meant, including helpfully visual demonstrations of their capabilities.

This System seems to be gearing me up to blend into mortal society. It didn’t say anything about mortals, of course, but the fact that level 1 corresponded to a level of strength lower than even the mortal farmers in Asura’s Lesser Planes wasn’t lost on him. Very well, I suppose I shall oblige. It wasn’t as if any of his combat ability was derived from his non-existent spy craft.

His mind thus made, he stepped forward into the portal, somewhat curious about what would come next.