Toby squinted hard while his eyes adjusted to the bright light. From a perfectly blue sky, the sun shone invitingly. Like a perfect summer day, a quiet breeze caressed his hair. His eyes wide and mouth agape, Toby spun around taking in the view of the sky as he took his first steps outside in the Nexus. He was outside, while inside. Everything was really possible in the Nexus.

Looking back at the building they came from, He could see Alice smiling at him in front of the solid-looking wooden doors. The door was framed with dark timber beams, and hooded metal oil lamps hung on the wall flanking both sides. It gave a distinct feeling of being transported back into the past.

The front of the building was had walls made from cobbled stones, with small deeply inset windows. The wall gave way to a classic timber overhang as he raised his eyes upwards, reminding Toby of what he had seen in many a medieval themed game and movie. It even had the classic timber and white plaster look topped by a steeply slanted roof.

Taking another step, Toby turned around to look around the area. A large cobblestone plaza stretched out in front of him, with a raised ring of ten huge standing stones in the middle.

The stones were easily three times larger than himself both in width and height. Each pair of rough stone pillars had another huge stone slab resting on top, forming the pair into a roughly shaped square opening. Toby thought he could see a slight glimmer of multi-colored lights sparkling inside the stone squares.

They were easily large enough for a whole group of people to walk through at once if they wanted to.

Suddenly one of the stone portals lit up with a cacophony of colors followed by a blinding rainbow colored starburst. When Toby regained his sight, 3 short people with magnificent beards could be seen standing inside one of the square openings. They immediately started walking away.

“Woah!” Toby exclaimed. “I didn't expect the Nexus to look like this.”

“What did you expect then Toby?” Alice asked. “That everything would be appearing all gloomy and indoors?”

“eeehhmm.... maaaybee?” Toby replied. “I did not expect this at least.” Toby continued while sweeping his arm across the plaza to point out all the Medieval game themed structures wrapping around It. There were only a notable few houses that reached the third or fourth floor, The rest were generally only 2 stories tall, and more crudely built.

“This whole town is actually less than 4 hours old,” Alice pointed out. “People are just about getting settled in preparations for receiving more of your kind during the next few months. I bet there are still parts of it being spawned in as we speak.”

Alice's words made Toby take a closer look around. There were indeed not all that many people here, and the few he did see, seemed to be in a hurry to get wherever they were going.

It was far too easy to forget that this wasn't a real reality that was fixed, but a flexible virtual one where anything was possible. A town less than a day old looking like it had been there for a decade. This was indeed going to take some getting used to if this was how it was going to be from now on.

“We need to get moving though,” Alice said dragging Toby out of his distracted state. “We want to get our guild organized and registered as soon as possible, so we can grab a good location for our headquarters on the cheap."

"Being early matters a lot, and we have the chance to be really early.” Alice started walking even before the last word had left her mouth.

“Do we have the credits for that?” Toby replied trying to keep up with her brisk pace. “The only credits I have is the start capital I got as a reward for ascending after all.”

“That means you have whole 1000 credits in your inventory then since you got the 10x bonus for being first,” Alice countered. “More than enough for your half of the administration fees and guild deposit, you are actually quite rich with that much credits in your pocket.”

“you will have more than enough left to even get that sorry piece of cloth you call clothing exchanged for something decent,” she added while pointing at Toby's worn out jeans and T-shirt.

“It was the only thing that came with the room,” Toby complained.

He at least had something to wear, a far sight better than the pajama pant's he had on when he met Alice in the nowhere. So he guessed he couldn't complain too much.

“If we hurry, we might have time to get a guild hall sorted today as well,” Alice said, attempting to make Toby hurry up a bit.

“Alright.” Toby acquiesced. “Let's get the boring stuff out of the way then, because I really want to get better clothes, and maybe get myself a beer today as well. You have no idea how much I want a beer right now.”

Toby finished talking just as they stopped in front of an imposing Marble structure that looked like it could only be one thing, A temple to the gods of governance. The ultimate church of paper pushing, An imposing testament that could strike fear into any NEET ever born to the old, or any other for that matter, world. Toby fervently hoped that it didn't live up to its exterior image.

They entered through the imposing doors into a large hall with counters on one side. The whole thing had a clean, almost sterile décor that told anyone who enters it's hallowed halls that here there be no rushing of the paperwork, This was a place where government forms were worshiped, and woe be the one that had not dotted all the I's and crossed all the T's properly.

At first, the hall appeared completely empty, but then Toby noticed that there was someone behind one of the counters at the far end of the hall. Alice started walking towards the counter without a single word, and Toby had to take a couple of quick steps to prevent falling behind.

There was no way he was going to be wandering around this place alone. Bad memories of filling out form after form, turning them in, getting more forms, collecting documents from doctors, hospitals, experts, and the devil's grandmother surfacing. Toby pushed those dark days back down into forgetfulness where they belonged just as they were about to reach their goal.

Stepping up to the counter they are greeted by a cute cat-eared girl with sleek black hair, and mesmerizing yellow eyes that gradually turns to green around her vertical pupils. “I'm Tsu, how may I be of service,” She greeted them, surprising Toby by giving him a smile showing off a pair of sharp looking K9s.

“We are here to register a new guild,” Alice stated flatly while pulling out a single piece of paper from what appeared to be thin air.

“We can do that right here if you have all the preparations in order”, the cat girl replied, her face expressionless, as if set in stone.

“We have everything ready,” Alice proclaimed with a smile while setting the paper down on the counter.

Tsu appeared to be checking the registration form over carefully before saying another word.

“It's in order, So I can complete the registration right now if you have the 1500 credit seed money, and the 100 credit administration fee.”

Toby pulled out 800 credits from his inventory, and set it down on the counter. Alice mirrored his action giving him a beaming smile. “We're just about through with it. This is going to be great.”

Alice's eagerness shone through like the sun between clouds on an overcast day, bringing a pleasant feeling with it to Toby's mind.

“Just one final step,” Tsu said while pushing another document towards the both of them along with a pair of needles.

"I need the both of you to sign the basic agreement form, and we are done. It's the usual method with a drop of blood.”

Toby cringed at her words. Was everything signed in blood in the Nexus? Another thing he'd likely forget to ask Alice about later. For now, he would focus on reading the agreement form.

The form was simple, almost too simple. It simply stated that Toby and Alice had agreed to cooperatively run the guild “The first Ascendant of Terra.” He winced at Alice's choice of name, Of course, she had to choose something cheesy.

He should have known to stop her from pulling him along so fast until he'd had a chance to read over the initial forms.

It was too late now, So Toby pricked his finger with the offered needle, and pressed it down under his name. The form started glowing, and 2 notifications popped into his mind.

Guild:

The guild Ascendant of Terra has been formed.

Founding members: Toby, Alice.

As the first guild with a human founding member, the guild is awarded a 2x bonus on the seed investment. Current guild balance is 3000 Credits.

Guild level achievements awarded:

First: human member.

First: human founding member.

User:

User Toby has joined the guild Ascendant of Terra

Achievement get. The first human to join a guild.

Achievement get. The first human to found a guild.

Toby willed the notifications to go away and looked down at the paper as the last of the glow faded away. On the lower half of the paper there where now 2 badges placed underneath the names of himself and Alice. Hers looked the same as he had seen on display at home, but this was a new one with a quite familiar picture on it. It was the famous naked man used on the symbolic golden plaques attached to the Voyager probes. Probes sent on their way to become the first and last man-made objects to ever leave the solar system.

A strangled mewling sound behind the counter quickly drew Toby's attention. The cat-eared girl stood there with wide open eyes staring at him. “You are the human that ascended yesterday.”