Lucas had barely managed to process the flying man he had caught a glimpse of when the gates were opening before he and his grandfather were being shepherded through the city gates and into the Imperium’s fortified city.
Lucas’ eyes went wide with wonder as he looked around him and saw a city unlike any other that he had ever seen. Every building looked like something out of a sci-fi TV show, with every wall and window looking sleek and minimalistic, with alien technology interwoven with it all that looked far more advanced than anything Lucas could remember.
The people who walked the streets seemed to mostly be soldiers, judging by the fact they all wore glistening plate armour and carried multiple weapons strapped to their waists and back. Even so, they were happily engaging in commerce, utilising a wide range of strange seeming amenities, and the boy swore that he even saw a group of green-skinned humanoids playing a game of blackjack on one of the street corners.
Yet something was strange about everything around him, he felt this strange abiding resonance with everything around him, it was as though there was an invisible force or energy running through all that surrounded him. And, something in his gut was responding to the force by subtly vibrating. It was very odd.
After Lucas had taken in everything around him, he looked up at his grandfather and noticed that the older man was currently conversing with the female pilot person from moments before.
Lucas wasn’t too sure whether he liked her, especially after the way the guards and she had treated his grandfather, but he kept those feelings to himself – not wanting to put himself or his grandfather in danger due to his feelings. Putting his feelings aside, he decided to just listen in on their conversation.
“Ah yes, may I ask your name madam?” His grandfather asked.
The woman nodded, “I am Corporeal Leah, sorry for not introducing myself beforehand that was quite rude of me.”
The old man shook his head and smiled, before saying politely, “Nonsense. Sometimes these things slip the mind when we are stressed.”
The two kept talking much in the same vein as this Leah person guided them to a large building that looked very much like a pyramid. Once they arrived, she took them inside and told them to wait in what was labelled a ‘conference room’ and so soon enough the two of them were sitting in a pretty bland-looking room in near total silence.
Arthur then turned to his grandson, and asked feigning excitement, “Did you see all those alien people flying above us?”
The question, which sounded remarkably like this was some tourist destination and what they’d seen was some kind of interesting expression of local culture, took Lucas by surprise. But he nodded, before replying quietly, “Yeah that was cool.”
Arthur ruffled the boy's hair a little, before saying, “Cheer up lad, the rough part of the journey is over.”
Lucas put on a fake smile, that Arthur knew wasn’t genuine but accepted for now. He’d known that the last few weeks had taken its toll on his grandson, as well as himself, and so it would probably take a lot more time before either one of them could be truly content again.
A minute later, Corporeal Leah walked into the room, followed swiftly by a man whose face resembled a squid’s. The two of them sat opposite Arthur and Lucas, and surprisingly the squid alien man was the first one to speak, his voice a thickly Irish accented one, “Greetings, Mr Goodman, and offspring, I am chief educator OIWEUQS, but you can call me Oliver. I am here to provide answers to any questions you may have about the multiverse as well as give you a basic manual at the end which should answer most basic questions.”
Arthur smiled and replied, “It’s good to meet you, Oliver. I must confess that I have quite a few questions in need of answering. Though, most relate to getting a grasp of common sense in the multi-verse, as I was informed by Corporeal Leah that my level of cultivation is uncommon, a fact of which I was ignorant, and so I was wondering if you could fill me in a little more about that.”
Oliver’s facial tentacles seemed to flap in excitement, before he said, “Ah you asked about a good subject, my favourite in fact. For you see, Miss Leah is correct, reaching the Foundation realm is truly difficult for most, so it is uncommon for one to be at that level of cultivation. However, when talking about the whole population of the multi-verse at large, which numbers somewhere in the hundreds of decillions, you will find that Foundation realm cultivators are more numerous than you expect, even if uncommon.”
Arthur nodded, absorbing this information, alarmed by just how many people lived out there in the multi-verse, it was actually mindboggling. Once he had absorbed the information, he asked his next question, his mind curious, “So, you are from the Grand Imperium of Hergalexy? Correct?”
The squid man nodded, “Indeed.”
“What other empires, powers, etc. exist out there in the multiverse?”
The squid man’s tentacles flapped once again, before he said, “Though the codex covers most of what you need to know in that regard, I shall provide you with a cursory answer to your question. There are an untold number of empires, sects, dominions, and autonomous states, out there in the multi-verse, but there are 8 dominant powers. These are called the 8 providences of heaven.”
The man paused for a moment before he continued, seemingly having made a decision, “They are, as follows: The Divine Sect of Existence, The Eternal Church of Life, The Lora Empire, The Dominion of Magic, The Merchants Republic of Caravos, The Imperium of Destiny, The Dusk Bringer Sect, and finally, the Abyssal Sect of Destruction.”
Arthur stored this information in the back of his mind for later use.
The squid man then received a bit of a glance from Leah, and he blurted out, “Oh yes, though the Grand Imperium is not one of the 8, that does not mean that it is weak or inferior in most regards. So don’t worry about that.”
Lucas mustered some amount of courage in his chest and asked, “W… What is the Abyssal Sect of Destruction?”
The Squid man Oliver turned his attention to Lucas and let out a slight chuckle, “Oh, it’s a demonic sect hellbent on destroying the multi-verse. Don’t worry about it, my lad, the other 7 providences, even the damned genocidal monsters at the Dusk Bringer Sect, help keep that particular hell-spawned sect in line.”
If the answer was supposed to reassure or inform Lucas, it failed entirely. His heart began thundering in his chest, his conversation with Jergas now taking centre stage in his mental space.
The demon had said that the world’s governments would hunt him down and it seemed the 7 of the 8 most powerful forces in the multiverse were indeed out to get him. Worse still, the demonic sect would still probably kill him if Jergas’ words were anything to go by, and Lucas had no reason to distrust the demon as his words hadn’t been disproven so far. Just what was he to do?
Arthur, unaware that his grandson was nearing a panic attack, barraged the educator with a number of questions – mostly with the aim of establishing what common sense in the multiverse was, though some were admittedly more aimed at finding himself a job after all this stuff with Earth settled down.
Oliver had proven quite the enthusiastic lecturer, his passion for educating newly integrated people seemed very clear. Apparently, the man had been quite depressed as of late because due to the ongoing hostilities, most natives were seen as uneducable and thus he’d been mostly unable to do his job. However, with the appearance of Arthur and Lucas, he finally had new pupils to flex his intellectual might too.
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They spoke for hours, with Arthur finding out that one was generally considered powerful in terms of their cultivation when they reached the ‘True Spirit’ realm and considered an overwhelming power when they were in or surpassed the Saint realm. Though, due to the nature of cultivation as a quite cerebral art, many found themselves totally unable to cultivate, yet may still be considered overwhelming powers due to their incredibly high level and stats.
Lucas found the conversation beyond boring to listen to after he’d calmed his nerves some more. He didn’t care about power levels, job opportunities, or even how many different types of aliens there were, all he wanted was to stay alive and sleep in an actual bed after over a week of sleeping on his back with only grass for comfort.
However, at a certain point, his grandfather’s face turned in such a way that made Lucas concerned, as the man’s face seemed to grimace harder than his young mind thought possible for a human face to do. Squid alien man Oliver noticed it as well. Asking, “Is something the matter?”
His grandfather quickly collected himself before saying, “Oh, it's nothing. Just system shenanigans, you get what I mean?”
Oliver nodded as though in understanding, but internally, the Octoid was wondering what this native was talking about. He didn’t know whether it was because the Imperium’s language module had yet to learn this term ‘shenanigans’ or whether the old man was speaking nonsense, but he decided to move past it regardless.
Arthur, on the other hand, had to force a smile on his face as internally he was panicking as he re-read over the most recent system prompt.
System Perk: [III] Automatic Cultivation, initiated the process to transfer 50 stat points to the Spiritual Stat.
Transfer complete!
Arthur wondered if he would soon be nothing more than a dead husk, if the perk upgraded itself that would also mean a greater burden on his mental faculties, which would be fatal if too much. And, as the damn perk had taken all his remaining stat points, he wouldn’t be able to do a thing to remedy the situation unlike when he had bought the perk, even if he tried.
His dread was slowly receding due to the reassuring fact that minutes later, he felt no different, so he suppressed his anxiety and resigned himself to checking on his Spiritual Stat and his mutinous perk later.
After another hour of asking loads of questions, and receiving long detailed answers from Oliver, the man said he had to go see to another task and so the education session for the day was concluded.
Once it was done, Leah guided them to a strange hexagonal-faced outbuilding, which had a number of different rooms, and she told the two of them to pick one out for the both of them and that they could stay at the base until their education was complete.
The two quickly found a room and entered it, a key seemingly falling out of nowhere into Arthur’s hands. Once inside, they looked around. There were two beds, two drawers, a wardrobe, and a hanging light. In other words, it looked very much like a very cheap double room at a hotel, but Arthur didn’t mind, as at least the view from the window was quite nice.
Lucas, barely constraining himself from leaping for joy, ran up to one of the beds and jumped into it – finding the mattress and sheets to be the perfect level of softness and comfort for his tired body. Soon enough, the boy was sound asleep, clearly trying to catch up on the sleep he had missed over the last few weeks of walking, killing, and crying.
Arthur, on the other hand, carefully placed himself onto the other bed and looked aghast at his Spiritual Stat point shop before sighing.
[II] Qi Breathing (Lvl:4->Lvl:5) | Cost: 2 Spiritual Point
[II] Qi Gathering (Lvl:4->Lvl:5) | Cost: 2 Spiritual Point
[II] Qi Condensing (Lvl:2 -> Lvl:3) | Cost: 1 Spiritual Point
[III] Automatic Cultivation (Lvl:3 -> Lvl:4) | Cost: 75 Spiritual Points
His spiritual stat was by far his greatest, and the Automatic Cultivation perk had apparently progressed him to a level of cultivation that would usually take the average reasonably talented cultivator at least 2 years to get to in only around 2 weeks. Yet, the fact he had wanted to save his stat points for a rainy day and that this choice had been denied to him yet again made Arthur rather angry.
However, as of this moment, he could do nothing about it and as long as it meant he got strong enough to keep him and Lucas safe, he really couldn’t complain too much about the perk. However, he would appreciate the perk not being so damn greedy all the time, otherwise, it would force him to always rush decisions where it related to stat point distribution, that way at least he wouldn’t have scenarios like this happen again.
With a mumble, he dismissed the system prompt and mulled over the details he’d heard from Oliver about monsters, classes, dungeons, and trials.
There were 8 tiers of monsters: Vermin, Pest, Minion, Elite, Chasm, Elder, Grand, and Cataclysm. Most monsters in the multiverse were in the first 4 tiers, meaning they were below level 250, but there were many worlds and dungeons where monsters far exceeded level 250 with the final, thankfully not very populous, tier consisting of monsters who were above level 1000. Just the thought of such horrendously powerful monsters sent shivers down Arthur’s spine.
In regard to classes, Arthur learned that the rarity of one’s class was generally an indicator of the potential that the system saw in you to become strong, with those who might become powerhouses usually being given better and rarer classes that gave out better class bonuses. Oliver hadn’t come right out and asked Arthur about his class, apparently asking for any information about another user’s system was exceptionally rude, but the Octoid man had been visibly curious.
In regard to video-game-esque dungeons, Arthur not only discovered that they existed, but that they were a common occurrence and soon enough he’d probably encounter one here on Earth if he stuck around for a bit longer. Dungeons were extremely numerous throughout the multi-verse and served as the lifeblood of the multi-versal economy. As, unlike traditional resource extraction, a dungeon and its mana-rich resources could theoretically be harvested an infinite amount of times without any adverse effects on the nearby environment.
In fact, those worlds with good dungeons were usually far better treated environmentally speaking than those planets that failed to generate good dungeons. What made a dungeon good or bad was mostly its level relative to the difficulty to get to and the average level of its surrounding populations and world.
If a level 400 dungeon appeared on Earth, for example, it would not be a good dungeon as it was far too high-level for anyone on Earth to use any time soon, and the planet was far too out of the way for anyone currently of that level to bother travelling to. However, if a level 400 dungeon appeared on the capital planet of the Grand Imperium of Hergalexy, it would be considered a gift sent by the heavens. It was all about the surrounding context.
There were certain rules surrounding who could and could not enter a dungeon. To enter a dungeon one could be any level below the dungeon's level, but you could not enter the dungeon if you were 100 or more levels above the dungeon's own level. However, social conventions within the multi-verse kept most people over 10 or so levels above the dungeon's own from entering as at that point the person should really be looking to find a different dungeon and it was seen as ill-mannered to abuse the system's generosity just so that a person could feel strong taking on much weaker monsters.
Then there were trials. Trials were a unique phenomenon to newly integrated planets, and according to Oliver, they’d all disappear exactly a year after the planet was first integrated. Their purpose was seemingly to test the metal of the new planet’s population, as well as give its inhabitants enough bonuses so as to help them quickly adapt to the new reality that had been forced upon them.
A perhaps unintentional effect of these trials only appearing on newly integrated planets was that all the pre-existing powers in the multi-verse were very much interested in acquiring and integrating new planets into their sphere of influence, so as to suck up as many of these trial rewards as possible. Unfortunately for them, however, only natives could partake in them, hence the empires often traded education and information with the natives in return for their assistance in retrieving the infinitely more valuable trial rewards.
Arthur had not shared the fact that he had himself received a trial reward, wondering whether he could eventually give Lucas the Adept Formations Mastery (Gravity) skill book. He certainly had no plans on wielding the power of gravity, but if he gave the ability to his grandson, then that would probably help the boy grow in power quite quickly. That had been, after all, one of Arthur’s key takeaways from all the education he’d received from Oliver today, as well as the conversation he had enjoyed with Leah before that.
Power in this new reality was everything and there were those who had been given far more advantages, time, and opportunities to become stronger than Arthur. In the vast scheme of things, he was weak, as was his grandson, and if they wanted to be anywhere near as secure in their livelihoods as they had been before the system arrived, they’d need to change that fact. Arthur had already suspected this would be the case due to the brutality of the system’s changes, but after learning more about the wider multi-verse, every one of his suspicions had been confirmed and even shown to be a little naive. So, his priorities were clear, find a position in some powerful person's estate, grow in power, and spend as much time and effort as possible helping Lucas to best adapt to the new life path that had opened up before him once his system was unlocked.
Arthur sighed as he rubbed the sweat from his brows. And, to his surprise, let out a slight yawn. After weeks of no sleep, he actually felt tired, which was odd. However, deciding not to deny himself the luxury after so long, he got under the covers and drifted off to sleep.