Adam appeared on the edge of a flat circular area made of stone approximately 100 feet in diameter. He was still frozen as notifications appeared.
Welcome to your Classification area.
Partaking in Classification is not Mandatory. You may choose to decline Classification.
If you decline Classification the following will happen.
You will be teleported to a world in a universe that is compatible with your physiology with others that have also declined Classification where you will be grouped with the elderly and young of your species and those that are similar to you to serve Masters of domains as laborers. This could include tasks like farming, babysitting, accounting, cooking, etc.
You will be locked out of combat progression within the Multitude and may not gain experience, levels, or treasure by participating in combat of any kind. Instead, you will be offered support classes to assist in constructing and maintaining various domains. All support personnel are paid for their work and services at the standard wage grade through a contribution point system. Additionally, should a support role not appeal to you, you will be able to attempt Classification again in 5 of your Earth Years. Additionally, special opportunities may become available if specific criteria are met.
If you accept Classification you will remain on the floor you now stand on. Racial and Class abilities will be unlocked and you will face challenges. Once you succeed, are defeated, surrender to an opponent, or accepted an opponent’s surrender that round will end.
When you have completed the Classification process, provided you survive, Step 3 will commence.
Process of Classification
After you have successfully defeated your first challenge you will be returned to your starting point unable to move your next opponent will appear. You will have 10 seconds to accept the challenge or withdraw.
If you accept, the next challenge commences in one minute.
If you withdraw, your classification will be based on the last level you completed.
If you are defeated, you are dead.
If your surrender is accepted, you become a vassal to the being you surrendered to. They become your Master unto their death, or yours. Surrendering during combat affords one the ability to gain any class they qualify for, including combat classes.
NOTE: Should you kill the individual you surrendered to, your vassal status is automatically transferred to another Master who ranked higher during Classification. You may be released from your status as a Vassal by your Master at any time.
If you accept an opponent’s surrender, they become your vassal and are placed in a holding area until your classification is complete.
Classification is a test of Strength, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence, and Wisdom.
Would you like to begin your Classification, Yes or No?
Adam chose “Yes.”
A giant snake, approximately 20 feet long appeared on the other side of the concrete platform and a 60-second timer began to count down. during the 60 seconds, Adam double-checked his Personnel Information and then used Scrutinize on the Snake
Scrutinize has failed.
The snake launched itself at Adam. Adam’s Soul Core was probably equal to that of the snake and their level was probably level 1 but unfortunately for this snake, his attributes were as if his Soul Core was level 31,908,761, multiplied by his Soul Core level of 193 which actually put his Soul Core comparative level at 61,583,908,730. While the snake was doing 579 base damage against him per strike, it would have to break through a defense of over 287 million. Added to that insurmountable task was the fact that his healing rate was much higher than the damage output the snake, or its poison could ever dish out.
Adam knew his own ability-based attacks weren’t going to work against anything here as they were all above Soul Core level 50, so he didn’t bother. Instead, he sidestepped the snake and tapped it on the head just hard enough to knock it out. Then he grabbed its tail and threw it out into the darkness, just far enough away that he could see what happened if something touched the darkness. When the snake disintegrated upon contact, he had his answer.
Over the next two hours, Adam encountered some exotic creatures until a woman appeared across from him. Like him, she was naked and beautiful. Also, Like him, she chose to take on the challenge. When the timer reached zero she flashed across the room suddenly to appear before him with a strike for an instant kill. A moment later she was on the ground unconscious. While he couldn’t use scrutinize he guessed she was right at Soul Core level 237 or so and knew that she probably had a defense of around 2,133 and no more than 100 hit points. As long as he struck to cripple for about half that amount he shouldn’t kill his target.
Also, this was a great way to practice the skills that had been reset to zero to make sure they still worked as he remembered. As far as he could tell the various martial art styles he knew seemed to be working as advertised. He quickly created nanites with Mold Chaos, only to find that the Universal density destroyed them as soon as they entered her, though they seemed to be fine in the arena. They just didn’t work in living creatures. It must have something to do with the Ability Level versus the Universal Density of the target. He knew they’d deteriorate; he just hadn’t thought that they wouldn’t work at all. He was going to have to increase that ability if he was going to continue using it in the higher Density Universes.
Adam did use his nanites to create a smelling salt and locked his right hand around the woman’s neck while putting the smelling salt to her nose with his left hand. A moment later her eyes darted open and she tried to escape. This time Adam didn’t resist and let her try everything she could think of to get free while his body continuously healed the scrapes she was making. She even tried to poke out his eyes only to cry out when one of her fingers broke.
After a full ten seconds of her trying to break free Adam said “Surrender or Die,” in multiple languages until she responded to his words when he spoke common.
“I will not be your sex slave!”
“While you are quite beautiful, don’t flatter yourself, my wife would roast my balls if she found out I was trying to turn women into my sex slaves. I mean I don’t think she’d have a problem with sex slaves in general. If I had sex slaves, yeah, that probably wouldn’t go well.
“What are you talking about?” she said as he saw her furiously thinking about how to get free.
“I don’t have time for this. The rules were explained to you yes?”
“Yes?”
“You accepted this battle when you could have declined?” Adam asked.
“Yes”
Then either You kill me, not gonna happen. I kill you, I’d prefer not to but whatever. I surrender to you, not going to happen, or you surrender to me. Only one of these options results in you living through this,” Adam said as he activated Flight and carried her over to the edge of the concrete where he held her dangling over the darkness.
The women looked into his eyes then resignedly nodded and vanished out of his grip.
You have completed 61 Rounds.
You have acquired your first Vassal!
You have acquired a Vassal in the lowest round It is possible to do so.
Title Unlocked – “First to Rule.” You are one of the first creatures during this Unification to acquire a vassal. Wisdom +5
Title Unlocked – “Natural Leader.” You have acquired a Vassal in round 61 of a Classification. Skill unlocked Leadership. +10% to all Leadership skill checks.
Adam was immediately reset to his starting position, and another being appeared. Over the next two hours, Adam only killed 3 beings that refused to become his vassal. One was a Dark Dwarf, another was a Dark Elf and the third was a Dragonkin with Red scales. That combat had been interesting. It had actually breathed fire at him. Adam had teleported behind him and snapped his next then threw him into the darkness. The other 37 Vassals he acquired were of various races, though at least 50% had to be human or variants of humans. None of them were from his Earth though. He had all of them within his memory and knew that he’d started at a much higher Universal Density.
At the four-hour mark, he received a new notification between rounds.
You have gained the title “Sustained Effort” – During Classification, you have continued for four straight hours. Endurance +1
Adam continued round, after round. He didn’t know what having vassals would do for him, but he made the offer to every being. Those that were smart enough to surrender quickly he filed away from those that more likely to be set free at a later date. Those that fought tooth and nail he filed under kept a watchful eye on them and perhaps give them an avenue to freedom if they could prove their loyalty. This went on for another 8 hours before he tried to drop into his Mindspace. He wasn’t tired yet but he figured he should try because if he could automate this process he’d be able to keep it up a lot longer than anyone else could. While he had been locked out of his Mindspace before he started the Classification process, he found it quite easy to drop into it and even change the temporal flow within so he had more time to ponder things.
The Aspect of himself that he left in charge came over, “So Hal is gone.”
“Yep, don’t know what did that. Do we have any contact with the aspects overseeing the Soul Core?” Adam asked.
“ None, we’re locked out, and we don’t even know how we’re locked out. The Multitude, whatever, or whomever it is quite powerful.” The Aspect said.
Adam looked at the Aspect and then said, “Take over on this next couple of rounds. Do everything I’ve been doing and let’s see if we can rest while we continue with Classification. I know we’re not even close to our breakpoint. I just want to check while things are still pretty safe.
“As you wish,” the Aspect said.
Adam found a place in the middle of his Mindspace next to a garden that had been planted and sat down to meditate and rest. He watched as his Command-and-Control center flawlessly controlled all of his abilities and continued to kill or accept the surrender of those placed against him in the Classification. He also tried to contact Thor and the others but found that the device he could have used to do so was gone. It had been removed. Adam hoped that Cedrik still had everything inside his storage space though Adam didn’t think it was going to matter for any of the others. Adaline wouldn’t have anything, nor would Pandora. Her storage space was on an item.
These thoughts brought Adam out of his meditation, and he checked his notifications. His last one informed him of the number of vassals his last acquisition made.
You have acquired 1,110 Vassals!
Adam thought about it for a moment and also found a notification that filled him in on how he’d gained so many Vassals in just 16 hours. If he was acquiring a vassal during every round he was earning two vassals just about every 3 minutes which would earn him about 40 per hour. After 16 hours, at most he should have only 640 vassals. One of the notifications he’d received explained what had happened and a few other notifications showed that other titles were busy upgrading as well.
During Classification, surrendering transfers ownership of your vassals to your new Master.
In addition, all title rewards gained by those conquered during this classification are transferred to their new master.
You have gained a third instance of the Title “First to Rule” Wisdom increased by +20 total.
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You have continued through this Classification for 8 hours, The “Sustained Effort” title has been upgraded to “Continual Effort” Total Endurance bonus increased to +5
You have continued through this Classification for 16 hours, the title “Continual Effort” has been upgraded to the title “Unceasing Effort”. Total Endurance bonus increased to +10
The bonuses would be very useful to any low-level people that were undergoing Classification but for powerhouses like himself, not so much. Adam left his Mindspace and directly engaged in the Classification rounds again. He needed to find out what happened if someone had vassals and they died. Did the vassals go to their killer, or were they released during this classification process? For that matter, if you have a huge number of Vassals and one of them killed you, would all of the other vassals be freed, or would they also be reassigned to a new master? Which brought up an additional question. How did the new Master know where the vassals were coming from? That question answered itself though. If a Master could acquire vassals from a process other than Classification that Master would be involved so if a new Vassal just arbitrarily showed up and was assigned by the system, they must have killed their previous master, which meant they were untrustworthy. In a society that allowed a Master over a vassal, or slave, relationship, such vassals would have to be well worth the risk of keeping them. So, Adam was going to take over handling the rounds for a bit as he looked for the perfect candidate to learn some things about this classification process.
Over the next six hours, Adam was challenged by various creatures and humanoids. Almost every time he acquired a vassal the number he increased by was more than 1. In fact, the last vassal he’d acquired had been some type of living metallic humanoid that had been quite benevolent. The time had counted down and being had sat down. Adam walked over and said, “Hello, I’m Adam, what are you doing?”
The being had looked up, smiled, and said, “Greetings, I am Ziterithax, do you wish to surrender to me”
“Not especially. Will you surrender to me?” Adam said.
“No. I guess we will wait for the nine-minute warning. Biologicals always give in when faced with an impossible choice. You cannot kill me, and I will not surrender. Logically you must surrender to me.”
“Why would you think I could not kill you?” Adam asked.
You have no way to completely destroy my body,” Ziterithax said.
“Adam used Mold Chaos to create a bowling ball-sized sphere of aluminum and rolled it so it went off the edge where Ziterithax could see. They both watched as the ball rolled to the edge of the pavement and then disintegrated as it hit the darkness. Adam looked back to Ziterithax as he said, “The Darkness could destroy either of us.”
“True, but you can’t get me to the darkness, I am far too heavy to be moved,” Ziterithax said.
“With the understanding that I do not wish to destroy you, I could touch you and teleport over the darkness allowing you to fall to the darkness then fly back down and land. Or I could simply pick you up and throw you into the darkness.
Ziterithax looked at Adam quizzically and then said, If you can lift me one inch off of this floor I will surrender to you.”
You will remain solid and not liquify so that I can’t maintain a solid grip on you?”
“I will remain solid.”
“Very well, I will lift you at least one inch off the ground. If I do you will surrender to me. If I do not, I will surrender to you, are these terms acceptable,” Adam asked.
Ziterithax nodded as he said, “The terms are acceptable.”
Adam walked behind the metal man, grabbed him gently by the back of the neck and easily lifted him off the ground, and held him so that his head was equal to his as he stood up. Ziterithax unfolded his legs and put them beneath him. Once Adam knew he was standing Adam released him and stepped back as Ziterithax turned to face him.
“As agreed I will now surrender to you,” Ziterithax said then vanished. Adam acquired 41 more vassals. That brought him to a total of 1560 vassals.
Adam learned a lot from that encounter. There was a time limit of 10 minutes. That had been his 800th classification round. The next hour went by rather quickly as he went through 40 more rounds, finishing on average every 30 seconds with the 60-second wait between rounds. Eventually, he ran into someone that was a talker and evil. A perfect candidate to help him answer a few other questions he had. As soon as the timer ended the want-to-be King started talking.
“I am King Bradley. If I were to allow you to surrender to me, what can you do for me.”
“And why would I take orders from you?” Adam had asked jovially
“The ‘King’ had smiled and conjured a metal spear as he said “Because I have the power to do whatever I want, as he teleported behind Adam and stabbed him in the back with his spear. At least that’s what he tried to do.
Adam had seen the malicious glint in this King’s eyes and waited. No one would talk so much bullshit if they weren’t going to try some crazy stunt. As he started to disappear Adam went full defensive and blocked the thrust of the spear and the next 5 blows. After four more teleports to various locations around Adam to try to break through his defenses. None did though. Finally the ‘King’ said. “Why do you resist, just surrender and join me. I’ll make you one of my generals.”
“So, you have earned other vassals?” Adam asked even while he blocked and dodged various attacks.
“Ok course. Plenty of pretty lasses too. If we get to do what we want with our Vassals once we’re done, I expect I will have plenty of company at night for the foreseeable future,” the ‘King’ said as he tried an especially complicated combination that also failed to land a single blow.
“And if they don’t want to spend the night with you?” Adam asked as he barely dodged another attack.
“It’s always more fun when they struggle,” King Bradley said.
“How many vassals have you added so far?” Adam asked.
“1,810. The ability to create weapons makes this completely unfair unless I run into an unarmed combat master, such as yourself. Unfortunately for you, I am also a master and he who has a weapon always has the advantage,” the ‘King’ said before a onehanded thrust was turned into a feint as a dagger appeared in his second hand and was thrust at Adam’s gut.
Unfortunately for King Bradley, Adam had been toying with him to get the information he need. Additionally, he fit the criteria of being an individual most people wouldn’t miss. Adam figured King Bradley had a Soul core around level 1033 which was equivalent to having attributes right around 10,321. High compared to humans on Earth but not compared to Adam.
Adam moved and suddenly and the King lay dead with a broken spear and neck a moment later, the spark of life quickly fading from his eyes. Adam checked his vassal count and noted that he had gained zero vassals. This meant that those vassals that surrendered to another might not end up vassals if their Master continued their Classification challenge and ended up dying. That was good to know. That most likely meant that no one could be forced to do something if they didn’t agree to it or they weren’t being punished for breaking a contract by the Multitude System Interface. It would have been nice to acquire 1811 more vassals but not that guy. Adam would have eventually had to put him down.
So, if he killed someone who had vassals, their vassals didn’t go to the person that beat them during the Classification. That was good to know. They might be given to someone else but Adam doubted it. The only other question he had was whether dying and coming back also freed the vassals. That was something that would be unique to a couple of people and races. Since the spirit didn’t technically move on did that mean he would get to keep his vassals if he died?” Better not to find out.
Adam’s location was reset the next contestant stood across from him. As the timer started counting down the final thing he wondered was whether this would end before he reached a point where his damage equaled the Soul Core of the individual. By his calculations getting to that point would take approximately 357, almost 358 years. Even then, he could probably one-up anyone at that level by quite a bit. He sure hoped these challenges were being conducted inside temporally fluid zones, else it was going to be a while before he was free from these Classification challenges. What he thought was more likely was that he would get to a point where the challenge didn’t have any new beings to throw against him because who in their right mind would be so powerful and be on a planet in a place with such a low Universal Density? He thought there was a good chance that some sort of Administrator would step in.
Adam hoped his wife and daughter and all their friends and family were doing well during their classification. He did not doubt that Adaline, Mom, Dad, Amanda, Abi, Desirae, and Clarence would do fine, he made sure they gained levels so they should be able to go for quite a while before they declined a challenge and ended up wherever they ended up. Amanda, Abi, Mom, and Dad might not have been able to handle anyone like the King but Desirae and Clarence probably would have put him down as soon as he teleported over, with his own spear most likely.
The countdown reached zero and Adam went to work.
***
When the world went dark, Sarah Conner appeared on a dais, naked like everyone around her, and frozen in place. She’d read the notifications and declined Classification. She wasn’t a fighter and wanted no part of that. A moment later she teleported again and found herself standing on a floor with, she paused for a moment as she looked around, she had no idea how many other people she was with, but it was a lot.
As Sarah looked around she saw a flashing sign that had the words “Earth Holding Area 1” scrolling across it in various languages. Sarah was about to ask the person next to her a question when a pleasant voice started to speak from the air around them.
“Everyone in this area is either too young, too old, or has declined to participate in Classification. Your attributes and skills have been recorded. As Classification continues during this Unification process, individuals from here will be teleported away. Do not worry this is normal. As those that participate in Classification earn achievements and titles they will earn domains that they will oversee. Those that declined classification will be the support staff of those domains.”
Moans of dismay and cries of how unfair this was went out to no avail. The voice continued without pause.
“Your task today is to remain calm and await your first assignment. Feel free to mingle with others until an assignment is determined. You will be given a 10-second warning before you are teleported to your new home.”
Sarah watched as there was a shuffle as far as she could see in all directions as everyone, including herself, was shuffled around the room and areas with places to sit, lavatories and a place to get a drink of water appeared. She couldn’t even tell how people were being moved. As quickly as it started, it stopped though. Some people appeared scared but the children she saw thought it was fun and cries of “Weeee” could be heard with calls for “again”
Whatever was going on, that man Adam that she’d met didn’t seem to have any power here so they were on their own. With children and the elderly around, then she stopped. As she looked around she noticed that the elderly that had looked frail moments ago seemed to be gaining strength by the second. The scars of aging seemed to be fading right before her eyes. They didn’t look like they were getting younger, just like they were probably the fittest version of a person of their age she’d ever seen.
Another thing she noticed, there didn’t seem to be any personalities that were natural bullies. Almost everyone was pitching in to look after the children while they waited to wake up from this nightmare or to be sent off on their first assignment, wherever that was.
“Hey voice, where are we, What is going on?” someone called from a little way away. Everyone else went silent but when nothing happened everyone started talking again.
Five minutes later Sarah received her 10-second warning and then appeared small room that had a bed and a closet with a single blue robe. There was a single door and a light switch next to it.
A notification appeared in her vision and the words “Report to Farm 2,345.”Blocked her vision
Then a blue line appeared on the floor that had an arrow for her to follow. Sarah wondered what she should do until she felt a low-level electoral spark zap her left butt cheek. A new notification appeared in her vision.
Instructions will be followed immediately, Intensity, duration, and location of stimulation will change as required to achieve the desired result. Additionally, failure to comply deducts from daily contribution points.
Sarah didn’t want to be shocked again so she got up, put on the robe, and started following the path that appeared in her vision. As she neared the door, it automatically opened. As she walked, she wondered what contribution points were and then noticed a window opening that didn’t block her vision but that she could read while she continued walking.
Contribution points
Contribution points are earned by performing the tasks you are assigned efficiently. Lack of efficiency reduces your contribution point awards for the day.
Contribution points can be spent to improve your quality of life and also to purchase special meals, items, and equipment that will help you become more efficient at your assigned tasks. The more efficient you are the more contribution points you will earn.
This Contribution system sounded like Socialism 101 except her living area was a closet with a bed and a place to hang her robe. Sarah bet doing anything fun cost Contribution points as well. As Sarah walked toward the exit she heard a muffled scream, “I’m not going anywhere!” an unknown female declared which was immediately followed up by a scream then another declaration, “I am not going!” which was followed by a higher pitch scream that kept intensifying until it the scream was cut off when Sarah exited the building.
Sarah followed the arrows in her vision down a street that looked like something humans could have built but that she didn’t recognize from anywhere on Earth. She walked to a train station and then rode the train for 15 minutes out into the countryside around the city. When she arrived she saw fields of vegetables and farms with cows, chickens, and other livestock. Her arrow took her to a small cart that she sat on which drove her to one of the farms. As she stepped off the cart, it backed up, turned around, and sped off back toward the train station. She also noticed a few carts sitting around. She walked up to a barn door and entered. There was a desk with a monitor and a chair. As she looked at them she received a few more notifications.
Caretaker Sarah Conner, Welcome to Farm 2,345. Please sit at the terminal, review the functioning of the farm, and prepare to act as the human manager for this facility. The food produced on these farms feeds the population of this world, which includes the workers and you. So long as you do not leave the farm until your shift is over, you may walk around the farm as you wish.
Please note, for the first 7 days, you will be assisted getting to and from work. After that, you will only be assisted should you fail to arrive at work on time. Additionally, you may utilize the assist feature as a navigation system to get to this farm and back to your residence. Please note that being forced to comply is a loss of efficiency and directly impacts the contribution points you receive daily.
You will work for 6 days a week and may rest for one day.
As all vassals are kept in perfect health and the environment is controlled, you are expected to report to work every day on time.
Please review the instructions provided on the terminal in front of you before the rest of your shift arrives. Breakfast has been provided for you.
Breakfast consisted of a breakfast bar and a small cup of juice that materialized on the desk. Sarah sat down at the terminal and began reviewing what she was responsible for as she ate her breakfast. It didn’t look too hard and there was nothing required that she didn’t personally know how to do already. An hour later her crew began to arrive and she went to work.
***
Adam was startled out of the pattern he’d been following when new notifications appeared in his vision.
Classification Complete
You have Completed 100,000 Classification Rounds
Titles have been combined if possible. You have been awarded the following Titles:
“Unique” – Throughout the Multitude, You are the only being to have completed the Classification Challenge.
Reward:+100 to Physical Attributes (Strength, Agility, Endurance, Perception, Wisdom, Willpower, and Luck) and +100% to all Physical Attributes after all other bonuses are added from other sources
“Founder” – You have acquired 28,656,489,167 Vassals
Reward: Starting Domain has been increased to a world and you have earned the Rank of Emperor, as recognized by the Multitude.
“First to Complete Classification Challenge” – Throughout the Multitude, you are the first being to complete the Classification Challenge.
Reward: You have received an Administrative Support Staff capable of overseeing your domain whose upkeep is paid for by the Multitude.
Adam had blocked out the number of Vassals he’d acquired. Truth be told, for the last day he’d been relaxing in his Mindspace while other aspects of his consciousness had been running things. After five days straight, he’d decided to take a break. Only when the Challenges had stopped had he brought his full attention back into play. 28.6 billion. That was more than the number of people that had been on Earth. Also, they were all had different Universal Densities. How was the multitude going to give him a single world to handle Universal Densities that ranged from 1 to 100,000?
A moment later he received his answer after he was teleported to a room that overlooked a planet below him through a clear substance of some kind. A moment later he was notified of pending notifications
You have entered the Outer Core Layer of the Multitude.
Universal Density unified
Soul Core stabilized to unified Universal Density
Attributes adjusted due to titles
Welcome to Multitude!