The Dreamer initiated the Pioneer Tutorial shutdown protocols as their team, floating around them in space, briefed them on things the Dreamer already knew. It was dull work, but procedures had to be respected to prevent issues.
The thirty-seven C-ranks and three B-ranks were proficient in administrative work and liked money more than they disliked being associated with the Dreamer. The Dreamer had long ago given up on making friends. They had associates, hierarchical relationships, and beings with aligned political interests, nothing more.
| Bounty complete: ??
| Reward: +1,000,000 AP
As soon as Feng Shen disappeared from the tutorial world, they got the reward. That was good. They immediately took the B-tier monitoring from the boy and recovered the spent system favor. That was something only those who had ever earned two or more favors could do.
The Dreamer was tempted to undo the protections they had created around the human but left them for extra goodwill with the Primordial Bridge. They would need every last bit of goodwill for what they had in mind after the tutorial was truly over.
However, they did remove the blockade on the information about Feng Shen being a first-class talent, as it would be guessed anyway, and his meddling would do more harm than good. It was the worst beings who would first realize the truth. The way the Dreamer did it, the information would be sent as soon as the Pioneer Tutorial formally concluded.
"...tiny world and small population, so the mana expenditure was within tolerable limits," a big larva that recoiled on itself said through the system. He was the strongest B-rank under the Dreamer in this tutorial. "The revivals took ninety percent of the budget, and running the rest took eight percent. We will return two percent to the Alliance, which should net us a nice bonus."
"How?" the Dreamer asked for everyone's benefit. Some were suspicious of those astonishing numbers.
"The Dreamer suggested I push all costs associated with the Void at the Void Research Institute," the larva replied, "including psychological assistance, reviving those who died in the Void's hands, and fixing the world seals after the Void invasions. To my surprise, the Institute accepted it."
Another B-rank, a tiny wisp of light that had acted as teacher, snorted despite having no respiratory system. Most beings in the Alliance used biological means of non-verbal communication when dealing with other races. It was easier, as biological expressions were somewhat shared among all biological races while non-biological ones varied greatly.
"They used the Pioneer tutorial to do research that would be illegal everywhere else in the Alliance; that's the least they could do. I'm on my way to joining the voices against what happened here. They broke almost two hundred million Guardians under a technicality about psychological disorders and accepted hazards on fights against the Void. Humanity is surprisingly resilient, but half won't pull back from the trauma. That is against everything the Alliance believes and fights for."
"I second you there," a C-rank hydra said. She had benefited from some of the Dreamer's ploys, but now that they would part ways, she was looking for opportunities elsewhere. As a C-rank, she usually wouldn't have a voice on such matters, but she had worked in the Pioneer Tutorial, so her opinion would carry extra weight. "I never liked the experiment."
"I'm more worried about what humanity will go through next," a being that looked a lot like an amoeba said. "They produced a D-rank. That isn't supposed to happen because it messes with their next challenges, and the System Admin refuses to calibrate it unless the A-ranks reach a Radical Majority. The last race to produce a D-rank was the drow, coincidentally on the last Pioneer Tutorial overseen by the Dreamer, and we all know how that turned out."
The amoeba had the political savviness of... an amoeba. It was saying things everyone already knew to gather a strong enough reaction against the Dreamer, who snorted. "I see I shall once more be blamed for being too good at my job. Finish the reports, get paid, and leave." The Dreamer was long past having the patience for playing politics with their subordinates. If they were the Dreamer's subordinates, they simply didn't matter.
They obeyed and soon teleported away. The Dreamer finished the remaining procedures, then delayed the final shutdown for one last purchase.
"Purchase B+ strength," they said. At long last, they would have all stats at B+.
| Purchased: Strength Up (B+) | -16,384,000 AP
| Remaining AP: 780,980 AP
The Pioneer Tutorial was a Special AP Area, and everyone who entered it paid the reduced prices, Dreamer included. Unfortunately, only trainees could gain AP through killing in Pioneer Tutorials, and those prices couldn't be abused by bringing extra AP from the outside. The system prevented that by creating two distinct AP pools when anyone entered it, the external and internal ones.
The external pool contained said AP someone brought with them. It was adapted to the local prices upon entering the area and reverted upon leaving. The Dreamer's over hundred and fifty million AP had become fifteen million when he came to the Pioneer Tutorial because everything cost 10% here. Whatever he didn't spend would be multiplied by ten when he left.
The internal pool was the AP gained in the area. AP gain suffered no changes; killing a D-rank in the area netted the same 1,000 AP from outside. That's what made the Special AP Areas so good; things cost less, but Guardians earned the same while staying there. On the other hand, the internal pool wouldn't be multiplied once they left. They had to spend their AP there or lose a lot of its value once they left.
Whenever there was a purchase, the internal pool was used first, then the system subtracted the remaining AP from the external one. So, when the Dreamer spent sixteen million AP for a stat upgrade, the system took the one million they had gained from the Bounty first.
That meant that the Bounty's one million AP was the same as if it had rewarded ten million outside the tutorial. If the Bounty hadn't been related to the Pioneer Tutorial, its reward would've been added to the external pool and automatically adapted. However, the Primordial Bridge had created a Bounty about the tutorial, so it went to the internal pool.
For a Bounty that required one to merely protect an E/D-rank to pay ten million AP... Many would go crazy if it was made public.
And yet, the Dreamer cared about it much less than the connection they had made.
They sent a message while their strength stat was upgraded. It became an entire conversation that took a long while, much longer than the stat upgrade, but the Dreamer emerged victorious in the end. They had been right; the connection to the Primordial Bridge was worth much more than the mere AP they had received.
| Transfer accepted. 3 favors sent.
| Favors remaining: 0
They relaxed. They had never thought they would accomplish that before reaching A-rank, but they did. That would significantly increase their chances of reaching A-rank too. Everything was perfect.
They ended the Pioneer Tutorial.
At the exact same instant, space twisted around them. An enormous world surrounded by and releasing dark mist teleported right beside the Dreamer. A gigantic magic formation of countless runes of power came to life around them. All thirteen hundred twenty-seven B-ranks the drow had appeared around them.
The Dreamer was startled for an instant, then fought back.
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Liya sat in her bedroom, a small underground box made of dark metal. It contained a single table and chair and had no door on the frame leading to the corridor outside.
She was lucky to have B-rank privilege due to being a Maiden. Everyone below B-rank had no personal space, not when there was no need for sleep and private property was deeply respected.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Her attention was on the yellow titled message she had received when the Pioneer Tutorial concluded and the Autharcs ordered the attack on the True Enemy.
FIRST-CLASS TALENT SUMMIT
It has come to our attention that you have a first-class talent registered as your charge:
Feng Shen, Human Rising Star, D-rank, cultivator.
In about two drow months time, around one year and two months in your charge's planet, a new First-Class Talent Summit will be held to make connections, share experiences, and determine how the First-Class Talent Budget will be split.
Your presence is obligatory.
Her immediate reaction was pure shock. Despite all her training, she froze for a long while. Most of the message didn't matter much—she knew how those things worked already—but a single word mattered more than anything to her:
D-rank.
Flashbacks of a terrifying childhood constantly running from cruel monsters came to her. The Dreamer had done it again; they had condemned an entire race to the same fate as the drow.
When Liya woke up from her stupor, she screamed in absolute rage. She was only a C-rank, but she already had a domain, and the metal room twisted as the Laws of her Path contaminated the surrounding mana and forced the world to bend to her furious will.
She took her ritual dagger from her inventory, a gray handle made of drow bone and a red blade created with solidified drow blood, and put it through her hand. She willed her very blood essence to be spilled, and it immediately faded in contact with the air, absorbed by the Bloody Mists that weren't visible underground but still ruled over the entire planet.
A moment later, the entire Tar'Shalon shook in rage.
All the souls in the mists felt as she did. They all remembered the terror brought by having half their people brain dead and the other half emotionally scarred by what they had gone through in the Pioneer Tutorial. The survivors were incapable of holding against the horrors that came from the rifts, which contained the scum of the Alliance. A single D-rank could never hope to stop that evil flood.
She bled until half her blood essence was spent, one drop away from permanently crippling herself. What she had given would already affect her power for years to come.
Yet, it was a price she had willingly paid to rekindle the flame of outrage against the one who had taken everything from them and now proved to never have repented.
A screech came from the very depths of the Shar'Talon.
The Triarchy cried in anguish and injustice.
It hurt Liya's very soul, and in her weakened state, she fell unconscious.
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The Dreamer uncoiled completely.
Their three thousand tentacles, half of them black, the other half white, came from a moon-sized blue gem filled with swirling stars, though they had no direct connection. The tentacles just seemed to appear out of nothing some distance away from the gem. Their fully extended form dwarfed the mega world that had hosted the Pioneer Tutorial, yet they were still smaller than the world the drow used as its headquarters.
Many complained about the Stat Store's prices being the same to all beings regardless of size. The mana cost to bring the Dreamer's physical stats to B+ was incomparable to the cost of doing the same to a human. Now, as the Dreamer sent their three thousand B+ strength, agility, and resistance tentacles against the thirteen hundred drow B-ranks, they had the undeniable brute force advantage.
Or should have.
The magic formation used by the drow flared to life, limiting the Dreamer's physical stats to B-. Even some A-ranks wouldn't be able to pay the cost to do that to such a giant being, yet the drow not only had the means but also were willing to pay for it. That's how much they hated the Dreamer.
The drow threw spell after spell against their foe. The Dreamer split their focus, and each tentacle got its own willpower and sent even more spells back. Mana saturated space, giving everything a slightly blue tint.
The willpower on each tentacle was individually weaker than each drow, but they had higher numbers. More importantly, the Dreamer was a hivemind, which allowed them to link different wills together to defend or attack.
The drow couldn't do that.
So the tentacles' won every clash of spells. The Path of Dreams turned incoming attacks into harmless dreams that couldn't exist in the real world. Every enemy spell got snuffed into oblivion while the Dreamer's spells hit true, also turning dozens of drow into dreams in an instant. They were killed without leaving even a body behind.
The Dreamer recalled the Human Rising Star guessing higher ranks should give extra soul protection against a B-rank, but it was the opposite. No soul could protect one against someone at B-rank or higher. It became a matter of sheer will against will, Path versus Path, and unless you could actively defend yourself, your soul would serve for nothing. That was why the drow could survive despite declaring war against some races with A-ranks. Numbers started mattering even more.
The Dreamer alone had higher numbers and the advantage of a hivemind.
The drow had brought a formation to decrease the Dreamer's stats, but it merely affected the Dreamer's physical prowess. It didn't affect their most important advantages. The Dreamer didn't regret one bit culling such a bunch of fools in their cradle. If anything, they wished they had done worse, so they would already be gone instead of wasting precious mana.
The flies released their domain to suppress the Path of Dreams and strengthen their spells. The Dreamer released theirs. A strong enough domain could ignore countless inferior ones, but the drow also had a few peak B-ranks, and their domains denied his. Reality cried as Path met Path, twisting absolute Laws under different wills that often pushed it in opposite directions.
The Dreamer's spells disappeared when they entered the three strong enemy domains, just like every drow spell disappeared when entering the Domain of Dreams.
Fortunately, the domains of the three peak B-ranks only covered a fifth of the battlefield—another advantage of having such a massive body. The weaker drow tried to escape to the domains, but the tentacles reaped at least a hundred lives before they were protected.
The two sides reached a stalemate. The parties would have to approach each other until their domains overlapped, and then the Dreamer would have the advantage again. Victory would be theirs.
Instead of approaching, the drow realized their inferiority and ran. They rushed toward their headquarters, the massive world that started twisting in space. They were preparing to teleport it away.
The Dreamer released a biological laugh. They had contemplated attacking the drow directly many times, but their dreams weren't strong enough to see the result of such a fight. There were too many B-ranks in their world all the time, and the Dreamer guessed the drow did so on purpose, precisely to prevent the Dreamer's dreams from seeing too much. The Dreamer could dream about any threat to their lives, even from B-ranks—which spoke of A-rank involvement in that sneak attack—but it was different when they tried to attack someone else.
That had made them wary of such a fight. However, it seemed the drow had hidden from the Dreamer out of fear. The drow knew they would lose if they ever fought. It was evident the Dreamer had done too much of a good job in the drow Pioneer Tutorial, permanently crippling them.
It was now time to finish the job.
The Dreamer entered the dream world, phasing through time and space as if it wasn't there. In the physical world, it was as if they had teleported without using the Laws of Spacetime, an ability that also put him above many. When they appeared again, their body was already embracing the enormous world, occupying a third of its surface.
They realized too late that it was a trap designed over six hundred drow years ago and perfected ever since.
The massive magic formation in space flared to life again, revealing new rules, symbols, and matrices that had been invisible. They complemented the previous ones that had lowered the Dreamer's physical stats, yet their stats were given back while the formation did something else.
The Dreamer felt Reality tear apart as every Law that made their Path of Dreams was removed from that place.
That shouldn't matter. With their strength and size, they could destroy that world with ease. Or so they would've thought if their mind wasn't crippled by overwhelming agony.
The Bloody Mists of Tar'Shalon covered the Dreamer's massive body slowly, crawling like myriad insects, caressing it like a lover. The Dreamer's hivemind had been overwhelmed as soon as it had touched it. What were a few thousand wills against billions?
Everyone knew the drow war machine spit Guardians like a machine gun. Countless were born and sent to dangerous places to become strong Guardians or perish trying. The D and C ranks that were produced were sent to die in their wars at a rate that impressed most races. Even most B-ranks who had fought the Dreamer were less than a hundred standard years old because the older ones had already died on a battlefield. The drow were bred for war and died for war.
And now, the Dreamer found out where their souls went when they could be recovered.
The Dreamer got a vision of the three Autharchs who had created the mists. They were standing in a black metal room amid a very thin dark fog, looking straight ahead at their True Enemy through time and space. Two were male, one was female. They alternated in talking to him.
"We'll lie to our children," the female dark started. "We'll tell them we want to give them a new life, and thus we need their souls."
"That's not the real intent. It's all for you. To kill you."
"You became our heart demon. That is the reason we can't produce an A-rank. We can never stop fearing you, and it cripples our Path."
"We fear your machinations such that we don't believe even our collective will can defeat you unless we empower it further. So we'll use that fear as strength. We'll weaken those who strand too far from home just so our collective will can be reinforced here."
"If you one day sees this, know that your death will be doubly glorious for us, for it will be the demise of our True Enemy and the heralding of our first A-rank."
"Know that despite your best efforts, you'll be the catalyst of our ultimate ascension."
They each took one dagger from their Inventory, ugly things with grey bone handles and red blades, and pushed them into their hearts, killing themselves and adding their will to the Bloody Mists of Tar'Shalon.
When the memory faded, the mists finished covering the Dreamer's central gem. Pain consumed their body and soul. They realized in that last moment that they had been wrong.
The drow were a most formidable and obstinate foe.
Unfortunately for them, they had failed.
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A moon-sized blue gem floated among countless beings, all of them B-ranks at most as large as the gem, all of them rotating around a black hole.
That prison hole, known only by A-ranks, rested on a galaxy that officially didn't exist, in a universe that was theoretically so hostile the Alliance would never explore.
The gem cracked.
The swirling stars inside immediately lost their luster and started moving much slower. The Dreamer released a painful grunt, as losing their Dream Body hurt them severely, but they were still alive, and that was all that mattered—
They felt Reality twist as the defenses around the prison galaxy were shattered.
An enormous world surrounded by and releasing black mist appeared beside the gem.
"How?!" the Dreamer roared, confused.
The answer they got was the eleven hundred B-ranks who had survived the previous fight leaving the world, aiming to kill them once and for all.