“So, we were discussing the Infinite Nexus, which is, of course, the cube in the center of the image before you,” Professor Thim continued. “Now, when we say the Nexus is infinite, there is, in fact, an end to it. But you could walk in a straight line from one edge of one of its faces, and even after a lifetime of walking you wouldn’t have reached the opposite edge. In fact, you would not even have reached the halfway point. Or even a quarter. You would have only walked an infinitesimal tiny, tiny, tiny part of it.”

Murmurs rose at this revelation and the professor nodded with a slight smile.

“Yes, it's that massive! Which is why it’s called the Infinite Nexus,” he continued. “Now, we’ll expand on this in our next lesson, but for now, let’s move onto the lines you see surrounding the Nexus. Can anyone tell me what they are?”

“The Endless Labyrinth?” someone ventured.

“Correct!” the professor said, extending his arms in a dramatic way. “The endless Labyrinth, as created by the Holy Crystal, the Great Radiant Above All and Supreme God, and the 24 Radiant Gods and Goddesses, or the 24 Radiants.”

And here, he chuckled, taking in the various states of blank confusion that met his words. “I see you are confused.”

Nar nodded slightly.

What in the pile is a Radiant now? Didn’t the Crystal create everything?

“You’ve most likely heard from your priests that the Holy Crystal created everything, correct? The Nexus, the Labyrinth, the Sentients and the non-sentients, as well as the Source and the System that governs it all, yes?” the professor asked, beaming at them, like he was proud of sharing with them the greatest of secrets. “However, the truth is a lot more complex than that. And in more than just one way…”

The screen above them changed and now, it showed an image that was white on one side, and covered with twenty-five symbols, and simply black on the other half. Of the symbols, the largest of them was easily recognizable as the one representing the Crystal, and which was surrounded by the other 24 symbols. It was a very similar image to the one that Nar had seen before the Ceremony of Final Atonement.

“This might sound a little complicated, but bear with me, yes? We need to layer our understanding so that we can give you all a firm basic idea that you can then go on to continue building upon,” Professor Thim said. “And for that, we’re starting from the very beginning. And to do that, you must understand that what you think of as the Holy Crystal, is in fact the Holy Crystal and 24 other gods, the Radiants!”

Say what? Nar thought, stunned.

“So, in the beginning, there was the Holy Crystal and the 24 Radiants, seen here represented on the screen by their respective crests. Below them, are the countless hosts of spirits created alongside Creation. Together, the Holy Crystal, the 24 Radiants, and the spirits, form the Radiant Hierarchy. And don’t worry! We’ll come back to the spirits. First though…”

And his finger circled the darkness. “... we look to those opposite the Radiant Hierarchy. Their counterparts. We do not know their true name, as it is forbidden, but they are known as the Abyssal Ones.”

Wait… What? Nar thought, feeling a shiver running down his spine.

“Now, it is very much frowned upon by the Church to spread the knowledge of the Abyssal Ones, as that might lead to blasphemy and temptation, both of which are punishable by death… Therefore, I will only tell you the safe little bit that is allowed,” the professor said. “The Abyssal Ones came to be at the same time as the Holy Crystal and the 24 Radiants. It is forbidden to speak the names of the Ones Who Dwell in Darkness, or to draw, hold, or display anything that depicts their names or sigils. And in truth, I do not know any such. All I can say is that the leaders of the Abyssal Ones are called the Elders, and the countless legions below them are named the Formless. And leading them all, is the Eldest.”

“Holy shit…” Mul whispered, loud enough that he could hear him past Viy and Kur. “What in the pile is he on about?”

“I don’t know,” Cen whispered back. “But I don’t think I like it.”

Whispers spread across the auditorium, and Professor Thim raised his hands to ask for patience.

“Let me continue. It will make sense,” he said.

It will? Nar wondered, his head swimming at the revelations.

“In the beginning, there were the Radiants and the Abyssals, living jointly in the Primordial Emptiness. That is to say, the nothing. And there they lived in harmony,” professor Thim said. “However, the Radiants dreamed! They dreamed of more… Of filling the emptiness! And from that dream sprung the Source, a joint manifestation of will that created the well of infinite aether from which all of Creation originates from. The Nexus was the first thing created after that, to house and protect the Source. But why stop there? More could be done with the Nexus, and more still with the vast emptiness surrounding it!”

Nar listened, enraptured, to the orange man below, his breath forgotten.

“So, sentients were created! But they need sustenance, and goals to strive for in life, so society was created, and so were the great dominions from which it could sustain itself!” he said, throwing his arms wide around him. “The Source powered everything, and so they created and created. And eventually the Spirits came into being, to help manage and govern it all! And further and further they reached, the appetite for Creation being inexhaustible…”

Professor Thim paced the podium, as if suddenly unsure of how to proceed, and the whole auditorium followed him with rapt gazes.

“The next part is… Unknown. To us mortals at least. Lost to time. All we know is that eventually… Eventually the Abyssals began the rampant destruction of Creation,” the professor said, his tone lower. “They had created their own legions of Formless, counter to the Spirits, and the Radiants, Spirits and Sentients rose to defend their Creation. The great and terrible War of the Light and Dark thus began. It was the end of the Eras of Gold.”

Nar leaned back in his seat.

What. In. The. Pile?

Gods? Evil gods? Creation? Spirits and Formless? By the Holy Crystal, what in the pile was going on?

“Creation was ravaged. The destruction and death toll were beyond our understanding,” the professor continued. “It is said more sentients died in that Great War than there are alive today. And the war raged for countless Lost Eras. On one side, the Abyssals trying to reach the Source and destroy it, and with it, eradicate all of Creation. And on the other side, the Radiants fighting to keep it all safe.”

“Crystal…” Viy breathed.

Nar could only nod in agreement.

“Eventually, our side won. The Abyssal Ones were pushed back. But being gods, they could not be killed… And on our side, the Holy Crystal and the 24 Radiant Gods had exhausted themselves in the long war,” the man said. “But to ensure the safety of the surviving Creation, they embarked upon one last, great act of creation and protection. The Labyrinth.”

Nar blinked and shook his head slowly. Things had gone far beyond him.

“The Labyrinth was formed to act as a barrier between the Nexus, and the Source within it, and the Abyssals. All the vast domains sustaining the Nexus were re-shaped into dungeons and housed within the impenetrable walls of the Labyrinth. And the twisting, massive corridors of the Labyrinth were filled with ravenous beasts, to counter any approach by the Formless and any encroaching by their masters. Beyond the Labyrinth, the Abyssals created the Abyss, for which they are named. It is a place of darkness, nightmare and madness. A cruel, evil mockery of all that is Creation, and which ever seeks to spread into the Labyrinth, pushing into the Deep Deep…” Professor Thim said, his eye dark and lost, as though he was staring at that dark place. “It was also then that the System was created as well, and classes came to be. Of great importance was the creation of combat classes, to protect and delve into the Labyrinth, now filled with ravenous beasts and monsters, but which was still critical to feed and sustain the Nexus. And the greatest of the Sentients who had aided in the war became the very first Named Few, tasked with defending all of Creation. And this task, the Great Calling, is one they still carry out to this day, as the Abyssals have never given up on their goal, as depleted as they are, and they never will.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“No way!” Nar whispered.

“Well, isn’t that something,” Gad rumbled.

“And there you have it. This is called the Great Telling of Creation and it is how everything came to be,” the professor said, his tone tired. “Of course, there’s a lot more I can go on about. The creation of the System, by the Radiant God Systemis, the Many Eyed One, is one such topic… And there’s much more than you can imagine or believe. But, it’s best to let you all slowly discover these things on your own time. All that we intend with Nexus 101 is to give you a foundational knowledge, upon which you all are responsible for building upon. As high as you want, or as little as you care. Regardless, the truth is that there is much to be learned in the Nexus, and for the vast majority of the knowledge you carried up with you from your cubeplants, you can consider it… Lacking at best.”

“Lacking? This is nothing like what the priest told us!” Viy said, her eyes wide. “There’s an evil Crystal out there! And it wants us dead!”

Gad shrugged. “We wondered why the Named Few were needed. Now we know.”

“Still…” the spear woman said, looking down at her hands. “Gods and spirits and-and…”

She sighed, apparently unable to come up with the words.

“This is insane,” Kur said, leaning in from her side. “But in the end, the Holy Crystal did create everything. It just had help, and It just happens to lead over 24 other gods. And we now at least understand the why of many things… As incredible as they are.”

“Hmmm…” she said, exhaling sharply.

From his other side, Nar felt a nudge.

“Still want to be a Named Few?” Gad asked. “Great Calling and all that?”

“I…”

He didn’t know.

He had thought that the Named Few were just the strongest combat classes in the Nexus. And while they were that, the whole defenders of the Nexus hadn’t really meant much until that very moment, where everything, or at least the beginning of everything, had been laid bare before him.

“Well, nothing to worry about now,” Gad said. “But maybe, we can become as strong as needed to save your dad, without reaching the level of having to fight against evil gods? Just something to consider, hmm?”

“... yeah. I-I guess,” Nar mumbled.

The whole thing was still spinning in his mind, and he needed some time to think about it. But maybe she was right. Maybe he didn’t need to become a Named Few if all he wanted was to save his dad. All this talk of Radiants and Abyssals… That was probably nothing he ever wanted to find himself tangled in. He just wanted a happy life with his dad and party. That was all.

Professor Thim clapped for their attention.

“Alright, alright!” he said. “I know that was a lot to take in, but there’s still more I want to cover before lunch. So, returning to this image here, who can tell me what these lines are?”

Nar frowned in stunned confusion at that same image of the Nexus and the lines of the Labyrinth around it that the teacher had shown them.

That’s… The Labyrinth? Isn’t that what started all this craziness?

However, the professor simply smiled up at them, without any apparent care or signs of having confused himself.

“Oh, and by the way, the etiquette in most establishments of education is that you raise your hand when you want to answer or ask a question, and I will let you know when you can do so. So, any answers to my question?”

A number of hesitant hands rose up in the air.

“Good, good! Answering questions leaves you at risk of sounding dumb, but I assure you, there are no dumb questions or answers when it comes to staying alive. Now, how about you?” the professor asked, pointing at somewhere higher up in the room. “And no need to stand up. There will be plenty of time for discipline in some of your other classes.”

“Isn’t that the Endless Labyrinth?” a voice asked, confusion evident in his tone.

The professor smirked. “Yes, it is. But what exactly is it? And by that, I mean what part of the Labyrinth is represented on the screen?”

The professor chuckled when the same voice did not answer. “Rather than make fun of what you do not know, I want you to understand and accept that you do not know much of anything. This is not to put you down. This is to inspire in you a healthy spirit of questioning things and always looking to fully understand the place, people and situation before you.”

He tapped on the screen and a very bright, tiny red dot showed up on the empty space between the Nexus’s left and the beginning of the lines that represented the Labyrinth.

“This is us, currently, give or take a few million miles, and as best as can be done in a 2D representation,” the professor explained. “Oh, by the way, did the System just grant you all the understanding of “miles”? And “million” too?”

Nar nodded slowly, blinking at the concepts.

“Finally,” he heard Kur mutter from beyond Viy. “I knew there had to be something bigger than feet!”

And a hundred thousand, Nar thought, shaking his head at the two heavy concepts.

“That’s good! The System can be a bit whimsy sometimes…” the professor said. “Now, all of this around the Nexus, is a tiny, tiny, tiny part of what we call the Outer Reaches of the Labyrinth.”

The image on the screen changed, and now, it showed two circles. The first circle was a lot smaller than the second one that surrounded it. And the center of the image lay a very tiny black dot.

“That dot you see there is the Nexus,” the professor said, eliciting another round of gasps across the room. “That first circle is the area comprising the Outer Reaches, and the bigger circle are the Deep Zones. And surrounding that, in an even much, much greater size, is the Deep Deep, where there’s no light, and only the greatest of expeditions dare to delve into. And again, we'll talk about this a little bit more in the next lecture.”

“This area,” the teacher said, circling a portion of the visible Outer Reaches directly to the left of the Nexus. “Is where we’ll be focusing on for the first year of our delve. Any further in than this, and you would not be able to fight the beasts and monsters that you would come across. That is because you are, for all intents and purposes, still extremely weak in the scale of power of a combat class. Though that will rapidly begin to change under the tutelage of our excellent, and prestigious masters and instructors.”

Then he moved his finger further to the left. “In your second year aboard, we’ll head a lot deeper in, eventually skirting the boundary between the Outer Reaches and the Deep Zones, but never actually going into them.”

The professor rested his finger on the screen, and another blue circle appeared, still to the left of the Nexus, and just touching the boundary between the Outer Reaches and the Deep Zones.

“It should be mentioned that 50% of all delving is carried out in the Outer Reaches, and that by the time your two year’s apprenticeship is over, you will be squarely in what is considered the average in terms of power amongst other delvers, which around level 95 to 105,” he said.

“What?” Tuk gasped.

“That’s so high!” Cen whispered, amongst the startled hubbub.

Professor Thim smiled at them. “You heard right! 95 to 105 is usually the upper level that most delvers reach in their lifetimes, most starting to stagnate around the upper 70s or 80s. Anything less than 70 is not taken seriously, and anything above 110 is reserved for those striving for the elite ranks or the nobility. As elites yourselves, of the 6th ranked guild in the Nexus, you are expected to reach these levels well ahead of the norm, and then leave them well behind you as you continue to grow! After all, you are meant to operate far beyond the Outer Reaches.”

Nar shook his head slowly. The thought of level 100 was wild enough for him, at his current level 26. He could scarcely imagine the attributes and strength at his command at such a high level as 100. And to go beyond even that…

“For now, focus on making sure you are invited to stay aboard the Scimitar at the end of the Intensive Pre-Delve Training period, and then, on surviving the two year delve, before thinking beyond that,” the professor said. “I can guarantee however, that you will not recognize yourselves, or your paths, by the end of your two years with us.”

And with that said, the professor waved his hand over the screen in front of him, and both screens vanished. Nar blinked in the sudden brightness as the lights came back on with their full intensity.

“Over the next two weeks, the Scimitar will continue making its way to the gateway that will take us deeper into the Outer Reaches. In the meantime, as we continue to carry out our micro-jumps from beacon to beacon, I’m afraid you will continue to feel each and every jump. However, by the end of Pre-Delve Training, you shouldn’t notice them as much anymore,” the Professor explained. “For now, you will all be guided back to the canteens you were in this morning, which happen to be the ones closest to your party rooms, and have lunch. After that, it’s the quartermaster, affinity assessment, and your first class with the Master of Aura, all of them exciting in their own right! And so, thank you for your attention today, and I will see you all again in two days’ time, to go a bit deeper into some of the stuff we learned about today, and a lot more we didn’t have time for. Have a pleasant day!”

And with a meaningful wiggle of his one, big and bushy eyebrow, professor Thim marched off the podium and out of the door.

“What’s a micro-jump?” Nar asked. “And a beacon?”

Gad shook her head. “I’m sure we’ll find out. One way or another.”

“Yeah. Let’s just go get some food for now,” Viy said, slumped over the table. “My brain is melting, and I’m starving! Maybe I should’ve eaten more this morning.”

“And then, onwards to whatever is waiting for us,” Kur said, from Viy’s other side. “I’m guessing the day is far from over.”

“Yay!” Tuk said. “More to learn!”

“Yay!” Cen echoed. “That was all so awesome! Although, what do you think he meant by affinity assessment?”