Chapter 33

Tom put the finishing touches on the Adventurer’s Guild Hall late in the evening. It had been a long day of practicing his skills. He had begun early in the morning, arriving at Other Westone, the core in the southwestern stretch of Profons, to Link it onto his network using the only Command Core that had survived linking one of the villages into his network previously.

Linking Other Westone into his network had come with a dungeon core outlet. After leveling both Cores, Tom was now at thirty percent of completing his system Quest. Most of the day had been spent preparing a massive dungeon for the city using the high level Core that was Other Westone. It was forty floors deep and designed with the needs of the city in mid.

That is to say that floor two was a Lake biome for fresh water, and the top ten floors were designated to generating wood and other resources for the city. The upper layers of the dungeon were intentionally designed to hold weak monsters, whereas the dungeon became progressively harder the deeper it went. This was a common theme to all of Tom’s dungeons, and the Cores in his network had so far cooperated with the design

Once satisfied with the dungeon project, Tom had moved Other Westone before the massive lot that Grant had acquired for the Guild Hall, then constructed said Hall using Customize to pull Dungeon stone out of the earth and shape it into a massive edifice.

He would be doing the same thing in a few days for the Magic School.

Right now, however, he was exhausted. And the day wasn’t over yet.

He walked out of the building that he had constructed. It was far from complete. For one thing, there were no doors, and the windows were simply openings in the walls. While his Customize ability had allowed him to construct the basic structure itself, the movable parts would require their own installation.

The progress that he had made in one day, however, was incredible. The massive building was three stories tall and loomed over the lot where it had been constructed. It would have taken months, if not years, of construction were it not for his abilities and the power of his network backing them up.

The Core had done all of the really hard work. Tom had just directed the flow of mana from the massive monolith outside. Physically, all Tom had really done was walk around all day and squint at stuff. Mentally and emotionally, he was drained from the constant concentration required to use Customize on this level.

So he sighed when Grant approached him and said “It’s time. Everything is ready for you.”

“I’m having second thoughts,” Tom admitted. “What if we end up making things worse? What if instead of more Heroes, we end up with villains?”

Grant considered the question, then shrugged. “If you want to call off the Summoning Ceremony, that’s your prerogative, Tom. I can’t force you to move forward with it against your will.”

“No, it’s not that,” Tom said. “I’m just having last minute jitters. I’ll be right there.”

Tom followed Grant outside, where the crowd was. While the exact size of the crowd had fluctuated throughout the day, it had been ever present since Tom had begun constructing the dungeon early in the morning. Fortunately Fenard had donated a large portion of his guard to the cause, and the guards had kept the onlookers from interfering with the process.

Tom ignored them for now and turned to the group of servants who were fumbling around with large stacks of clothes and cloth. Two large tents had been raised in the field surrounding Other Westone’s new location. One for males, the other for females. The idea was to bundle up the summonees and get them into the tents as soon as possible once they arrived, where they would be given proper clothes and allowed to dress themselves.

From experience, Tom had warned Fenard’s people to expect the summonees to be unresponsive at first. And naked as well, as the process did not transfer their existing body from earth, but rather took their spirit and encapsulated it in new flesh.

The captain of the guard stepped forward when Tom approached. “Is it time?”

“Unless there’s a reason to keep putting it off, then we might as well get started,” Tom answered. “Is everyone ready?”

“We did a dress rehearsal with volunteers from the crowd,” the captain explained. “We’re as ready as we can be.”

“Right, okay then,” Tom said, walking up to the Core Stone. He turned and looked at all of the people waiting for him to use his Summon ability, and he had a momentary flash of performance anxiety. Which was sort of silly, since all he had to do was flip the on switch and his ability would do all of the work for him. He wondered if he should say anything, or should he just do it?

Ah screw it.

“Here we go,” he announced.

He placed a hand on the Core Stone and activated Summon. The core lit up brightly as it began gathering the resources to pierce the veil between worlds. Throughout his network, all of the Linked Cores began gathering their own resources to lend power to the ritual.

Those Cores which resided in the center of cities and villages shown brightly, alarming their residents. In Caseville, the worst was assumed and a party was formed to begin the search for bodies, although this light show was decidedly different than the one which had marked the end of the three adventurers some weeks previous.

A flash of light from each Core, and a beam shot into the air above Other Westone. The sky was ripped open, symbols flashing through the air in a circle around Tom as he stood in the epicenter of the most powerful ritual to occur on Reus in centuries.

The bridge to Earth snapped into place. The Cores selected the souls of the fallen that they found worthy. The collective power of Tom’s network dipped as it began forming them worthy vessels.

Twenty-nine stars appeared in the artificial gap in space that blocked out the heavens. Each light a soul. As the magic coalesced, the souls took shape, signing no less brightly as they took on human forms.

His hand outstretched on the cool surface of Other Westone, Tom watched in awe as the ritual came to its climax. One by one, the flashing bodies took sudden gasps of air as they quickened. Some of them opened their eyes, others cried out in confusion. Slowly, they were lowered to the ground by gentle waves of magic.

Most of them immediately collapsed onto the cobblestones. Only a handful managed to keep their feet.

Something touched the edge of Tom’s awareness, and he jerked in surprise. He looked up at the ritual above him, and he saw an eyeball looking back at him. His ritual had gained the attention of … something. Something beyond his comprehension. He pulled his hand from the Core Stone and cut off his ability. The ritual ended, and the light show with it.

The bridge between Reus and Earth snapped as the forces supporting it vanished. The sense of being watched remained a moment longer, then dissipated. Tom exhaled a sigh of relief. Whatever had noticed him, it was something on the scale beyond anything he’d ever imagined.

The places and not-places between worlds were filled with things like that. They were fortunate that all that he had sensed from that being was a sense of idle curiosity. Had the entity been malevolent, the consequences would have been literally beyond his imagining.

As the lights faded and the ritual came to an end, the servants from the palace rushed into action. Armed with sheets and robes, they rushed to cover the summonees. The handful that were conscious were directed into the tents where their clothes awaited, while the remainder were gently carried by same-gendered staff.

The crowd of observers was suddenly cut off by a screen of Jessica’s Mirage skill. She stepped up to Tom, smiling nervously as she held the privacy barrier in place.

“I figured that nobody needs to see this part except for the people who are actually doing something,” she explained. “I didn’t do it earlier because I was worried my magic would interfere with the ritual.”

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“Thanks, that’s good thinking,” Tom agreed.

“How many came through?” she asked.

“I’m not certain,” Tom admitted. “I’m pretty sure that Summon isn’t like Level. It’s all or nothing. It looks like there’s almost thirty of them.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I’m kind of glad that when I appeared out of literally nowhere in my birthday suit it was only you and Sevin to see me in that state.”

The staff quickly got the new summonees inside the tents, and Jessica allowed the privacy screen to fade.

“I’m going to go help in the women’s tent,” she announced. “There’s a pretty good chance that some of them speak English and it might reassure them to hear it. I mean, they should be able to understand the staff just fine, but waking up with an entirely new language downloaded into your brain is a little disorienting. I would know.”

“Do you think I should help with the men’s tent?” Tom asked.

“Nah, you’d probably just get in the way,” she told him. “I mean, sorry. I know you’re like one of the most important people in the kingdom now, but you still look like some random kid. Unless you want to actually help the ones who are unconscious dress, I think you’re better off waiting until it’s your turn to talk to them.”

“Yeah, okay,” Tom said, sighing. “I guess you’re right. I just kind of feel useless.”

“Tom, you literally just breached a hole in the universe and pulled like thirty people back from the grips of death,” Jessica reminded him.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t feel like I did anything special,” Tom explained. “Meanwhile everyone is rushing to make the new people feel comfortable and all I can do is get in the way.”

“Man, we need to work on your self-confidence or something, Tom,” Jessica commented. “Remember when I said you’re like one of the most important people in the kingdom? Well, that means that you do things nobody else can. So focus on that and let other people handle the things that anyone can do.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Tom agreed.

“You know it. We’ll talk later, okay?”

“Yeah, later Jessica.”

Deciding to make himself useful, Tom went to wait outside the men’s tent to direct those that emerged to the next stage of their orientation to Welsius. Going by the previous experience from Jessica, Grant, Emil and Aisha, the new arrivals should understand the local language, but they wouldn’t have their systems yet, so Tom intended to direct them in how to acquire it.

It must be strange, Tom reflected, to live in a world without a system. He wondered what it would be like. How would one keep track of their abilities and Skills? How would they measure their growth? He supposed that the ‘internet’ that Jessica kept talking about must do those things for them, although it sounded very inconvenient to be forced to carry a ‘phone’ with them everywhere they went. Tom couldn’t even keep track of his keys or his coin pouch half the time.

Ten minutes passed before the tent flap opened and three young men came out. Tom perked up to greet them. They were wearing a simple set of tunics with leggings, a common outfit for commoners.

“Hello,” he said. “I’m Tom. I’ll show you how to get your system.”

Two of the men exchanged looks and said something in a language Tom had never heard before. The other man responded.

“Can you, um, understand me?” Tom asked nervously. “Is there a problem with--”

“They understand you just fine, they’re just being jerks,” the youngest of the three said. “I’m Yamamoto Akira. It’s nice to meet you Tom-kun. How do we activate the system?”

Tom relaxed. “That stone over there is a Core Stone. You should be able to unlock your system just by touching it.”

“Great,” Akira said. He was younger than the other two, little older than Tom himself. A full blooded Japanese, Akira was dressed in green. He promptly did as Tom instructed. He seemed a little too eager for the situation considering that moments ago, he had been dead.

The two men watched suspiciously as Akira walked over to Other Westone and placed both hands on the monolith. The Core flashed for just a second, causing Akira to jerk away in surprise.

“Oh wow! It really works!” he exclaimed. Then he began laughing. He began squinting and making funny faces, swiping at the air, and jumping up and down with excitement. “It’s just like a video game!”

“Yeah, Jessica says that too,” Tom said. “What class did you get?”

“Hold on, I’m still trying to figure out how to open my menu,” Akira admitted. He continued to make funny faces for a moment, and Tom had to struggle to keep from laughing at him.

“If you don’t mind everyone seeing, you can just say ‘Display Status,’” Tom informed him.

“Display Status!” Akira said.

Name

Akira

Health

100/100

Age

17

Mana

89/89

Race

Human (Outworlder)

Stamina

100/100

Class

Hero

Strength

10

Level

1

Dexterity

10

Subclass

Magic Swordsman

Constitution

10

Endurance

10

Akira laughed. “I am a hero?! Oh man, how cliché can you get?”

“I think Hero is a pretty broad term,” Tom informed him. “The more relevant piece of information is your Subclass. Congratulations, I think Magic Swordsman sounds pretty rare.”

Akira just laughed some more.