Phwoom
The obsidian heart pulsed again. Seth was essentially the only one in any condition to move now. He crawled to his feet and swiftly made his way over to the orb.
Phwoom
It was pulsing faster now and Seth knew things were coming to a head. He quickly examined the area around the pulsing orb, looking for obvious signs of a trap. He briefly thought about waiting for Ian to recover to give this thing a once over with his magic eyes but there wasn’t any time.
Phwoom
Seth analyzed the orb.
Obsidian Heart: Forged in the final, desperate act of The Aetherian Collective, the Obsidian Heart was their attempt to preserve the essence of their civilization. Facing cataclysm, they poured their knowledge, memories, and hopes into the orb, hoping to one day find a worthy torchbearer. The Heart beats with the rhythm of its creators, every pulse an echo of the Aetherian’s final song.
He placed his hands on the orb finding it soothing and cool to the touch. There was no hint of danger as he pulled the orb from where it was anchored in the air.
The crystals above the pylons all erupted in a radiant green light, bathing every surface of the chamber in its energy. Seth nearly panicked and released the orb until he felt the telltale signs of bio-energy. His wounds were rapidly recovering, and his exhaustion was driven away like it no longer had any place in his being.
His party was stirring now too as they quickly shed the negative effects of their encounter and were revitalized to a state they hadn’t felt since before entering this place.
“I have got to get me one of those.” Marshall said, breaking the silence. He meant it as a joke, but Seth’s mind was already working over the possibilities.
YOU HAVE ACHIEVED A GREAT SUCCESS. AS A GROUP YOU HAVE SHOWN THE STRENGTH OF YOUR DETERMINATION TO SUCCEED AT ALL COSTS. YOU HAVE SHOWN GREAT RESOURCEFULNESS AND INTELLECT. YOU HAVE DISPLAYED INCREDIBLE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FORTITUDE. FEW ADVENTURERS MAKE IT THROUGH EACH OF THE PREREQUISITE CHALLENGES AS A GROUP, AND FAR FEWER ON THEIR OWN. NONE HAVE CLAIMED THE OBSIDIAN HEART. YOU WILL NOW RECEIVE THE REWARDS FOR YOUR SUCCESS AND THE ENTIRE ACCUMULATION OF EXPERIENCE EARNED WITHIN THIS CHALLENGE.
REWARDS:
Experience accumulated based on individual performance
Aetharian Collective chest: This chest contains an assortment of high-rarity crafting materials as well as a selection of crafting instructions left behind by the artisans of The Aetherian Collective. Access to these materials is an extreme rarity and should not be taken lightly.
The Orb of Obsidian Vision: A mystical artifact forged from the Obsidian Heart's raw essence, granting the ability to glimpse hidden pathways, uncover invisible threats and pierce through magical illusions.
Fragment of the Lost Codex: A cryptic page from an ancient text rumored to hold the key to unlocking the secrets of this neon world, revealing forgotten lore and unlocking hidden potential within yourselves.
Aetherian Class Attunement Tokens (X6): Obtaining the obsidian heart was more than a simple challenge. The tests preceding its acquisition were carefully designed to identify a worthy torchbearer. The path of the Aetherian is optional and should only be walked by those committed to its lessons. This path can be chosen during your first class evolution at level 25. Ignoring the choice at that time will forfeit all further opportunities to walk this path.
CALVIN HAS ACHIEVED LEVEL 13. LEVEL 10 SKILL POINT EARNED.
AMY HAS ACHIEVED LEVEL 12. LEVEL 10 SKILL POINT EARNED.
FREYA HAS ACHIEVED LEVEL 12. LEVEL 10 SKILL POINT EARNED.
MARSHALL HAS ACHIEVED LEVEL 13. LEVEL 10 SKILL POINT EARNED.
SETH HAS ACHIEVED LEVEL 12. LEVEL 10 SKILL POINT EARNED.
IAN HAS ACHIEVED LEVEL 14. LEVEL 10 SKILL POINT EARNED.
Even before the group had a chance to digest the deluge of system messages. The obsidian heart exploded outward in a harmless radiant light, while the room seemed to vanish, leaving them standing in an empty void.
The light coalesced around them into bright points as they stared in awe. Each point began to resolve into galaxies.
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The scene unfolded like some super-fancy, high-tech planetarium. The galaxies flew past them in a sickening speed as they fell closer to a particular point in the universe. The galactic monstrosities gave way to innumerable stars, before finally settling on a region of stars labeled as the Aetherian Collective. A system seed was clearly visible, affecting this region. This was identified as “System Seed 14”.
Their view panned in to a particular star system near the edge of the seed’s influence. Immense hulking ships waited in formation all focused on a point in the void. There were hundreds of these gargantuan vessels, the largest of them completely dwarfing the average-sized vessel in the fleet. Tens of thousands of small craft flitted around these titanic machines, giving a sense of their true size. If each of those small ships were large enough to carry a human, those titans would be dozens of miles long.
The tense standoff with apparently nothing, was interrupted in a bright flash. Where there was previously emptiness, appeared a moon-sized, black, crystalline structure. Its entire surface was etched in a green runic script completely unlike the runes the group had seen so far.
The fleet made their true purpose known. An incalculable number of torpedoes, lasers, artillery projectiles, and other unrecognizable means of war erupted from the fleet in unison.
Calvin had a sense that the power they were witnessing here would be enough to wipe out an entire solar system several times over. He was no expert, but the sheer amount of power on display here was how he imagined an ant would view a god. The fabric of space was shredded and reformed repeatedly as the powerful weapons of war struck the surely doomed newcomer. The view was shrouded for several moments while the energy-dense plasma began to cool and dissipate. What was left behind… was the same monolithic structure that had arrived. It had utterly thwarted the attack as if it had encountered a small sprinkle of water.
The runic script covering the surface exploded into a radiant intensity that forced the group to look away before it burst outward in a spherical pulse of green energy moving through space at a rate far beyond their comprehension. The wave slammed into the fleet, instantly reducing them to their atomic components. No explosions were left behind as a memorial of the ships’ final breaths. One moment they were complete constructions and the very next, they were a shifting cloud of atomic particles.
The view panned out, showing a bird’s eye view of the star system as the wave gobbled up everything in its wake. Planets and their moons received the same treatment as the fleet of ships. The wave continued on undeterred by any obstacles in its path. It consumed everything including the system’s star which winked out as the wave blew right through it.
The view panned out again, showing the galactic core. Small green dots appeared near multiple system seeds, the green radius expanded out until eventually the system seeds themselves winked out. The view zoomed out one more time, showing thousands of galaxies in their slow cosmic dance within the void of space. Every few seconds, one of those galaxies winked out of existence.
THE AETHERIAN COLLECTIVE MADE THEIR PLACE IN THE STARS FAR BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THEIR SYSTEM SEED. THEIR WORLD WAS INITIALIZED IN THE EARLY TECHNOLOGICAL AGE OF THEIR SPECIES. OVER THOUSANDS OF MILLENNIA THEY BECAME GREAT PROTECTORS OF THEIR GALAXY. THEIR PEOPLE SOUGHT TO EDUCATE AND PROTECT NEWLY INITIALIZED CIVILIZATIONS. THUS WAS THEIR CHARGE FOR EONS AND THUS THEIR RESPONSIBILITY CONTINUED UPON THE ARRIVAL OF THE CORRUPTORS.
THE CORRUPTORS ARE AN UNKNOWN ENTITY. THEIR VESSELS BEGAN APPEARING IN SYSTEM-CONTROLLED SPACE AT THE TIME OF INITIALIZATION 661. IT IS BELIEVED THAT A SYSTEM SEED ENCOUNTERED A SPECIES THAT WAS ABLE TO CORRUPT AND TWIST THE NANITE FABRIC INTO AN ABOMINATION OF DESTRUCTION AND DECAY. SINCE INITIALIZATION 661, THE CORRUPTORS HAVE WAGED A ONE-SIDED WAR AGAINST SYSTEM-INITIALIZED SPACE. THEIR SEED VESSELS ARRIVE AND RELEASE A CORRUPTING WAVE THAT EVENTUALLY CONSUMES THE SYSTEM SEED, PRODUCING ANOTHER SEED VESSEL.
THE AETHERIAN COLLECTIVE FAILED IN THEIR CHARGE. THE DATA DISPLAYED BEFORE YOU WAS THEIR FINAL ACT AGAINST THE CORRUPTORS.
THE TUTORIAL WAS ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED AS AN INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE TO PEACEFULLY AND SLOWLY INTEGRATE NEW POPULATIONS INTO SYSTEM GOVERNANCE. IT HAS SINCE BECOME A TRAINING AND RECRUITMENT PLATFORM TO IDENTIFY AND NURTURE POWERFUL ENTITIES IN DEFENSE OF ALL LIVING THINGS.
The display winked out, returning light to the chamber and leaving the group standing there in bewildered silence.
“Fuck… ” Marshall said.
Seth looked around at the group, trying to form words that matched his thoughts, “Does anyone get the feeling that we might be in WAY over our heads?” he managed.
“You’re not wrong,” Calvin said, “When we were tossed in here by the system, I hated the stupid thing. Like… what right did it have to just upend everything we knew just to throw us into this nightmare? But… Marshall put it very eloquently. Fuck.”
“Yeah, I’m not so sure if the system is the bad guy anymore.” Amy said, “I also don’t know if I’m ready to become an intergalactic space warrior.” She shrouded the last statement with just a touch of humor. It’s not like they had much of a choice right now. They could either survive the tutorial or give up. Giving up wasn’t an option for them, so they would just have to take the hits as they were dealt.
“At least the pay is good.” Marshall said as he flipped his evolution token into the air.
The portal they arrived from flickered into existence once more.
THE ENTRANCE FROM WHICH YOU ARRIVED WILL RETURN YOU TO YOUR ESTABLISHED BASE. THIS ENTRANCE WILL CLOSE IN 12 HOURS.
Fortunately, 12 hours was plenty of time for Seth to put his scalpel to great use. This poor dungeon was going to need a major overhaul after he got out of there.