Back on earth...

As the numerous people of Earth selected their tutorials, so came the avatars of the System.

Many had tried selecting a tutorial option whilst driving. In great flashes of light those individuals were transported to their assigned normal tutorial zones. Thanks to a safety measure put in place by the system, when individuals were transported away, Avatars of the system spawned in their places. When necesity called for it, that was.

Car's whose drivers had vanished in bright flashes of light were suddenly replaced by golden figures. Those system avatar's now drove, as gently as they could, bringing the car's to a stop along the roadside. All around the world car's pulled over, driven by golden figures made seemingly of light.

Some car's however kept going, be they individuals who had yet to select their tutorial or system avatar's that needed to get something to its destination. This world had to keep running after its people had completed their runs through the tutorial zones. Semi Trucks carrying cargo still needed to arrive on time. Emergency vehicles needed to arrive at their destinations.

There was the occasional occurrence where an individual that had been slain by the system had left important business unattended. Thus an avatar of the system was summoned to attend to it.

Those system avatar's who had been spawned to replace individuals piloting planes kept the planes from crashing, they alerted their passengers to select a tutorial.

Around the world mother's and father's selected their tutorials and in a flash of light they too were gone. However, their children were not left to fend for themselves. Children appeared with their parents in the tutorial zones assigned to them.

Individuals under the age of 18, under most circumstances could not select a tutorial. Instead they were transported alongside their parents to more specialized tutorial zones. Some teenager's were exempted from this rule. The reasons for their exemptions were varied. From a lack of parents, to abusive or overly controlling parents.

Most people would be gone for several hours, on earth anyway. To those who had been transported however, it would likely be month's before they saw their world again.

In a geostationary orbit of the Earth's moon, the colossal system ship that served to bring the system to earth now turned its attention to a new problem.

Estimated time to system resource depletion: 12 hours...

Devising plan of action...

Sorting through assimilated media for possible solutions...

181 viable solutions found...

Prioritizing immediate needs...

Initiating process of elimination...

Two Options remaining...

Solutions have been chosen...

Operation, Star Forge, will now commence...

Operation, Eclipse, will now commence...

The system laughed for a moment at its small joke. From the sleek metal exterior of the system relay ship seams began to emerge. The otherwise sleek exterior was interrupted as a dozen colossal hangar doors opened wide. Each hanger door was more than a mile high and wide. Behind each door were multi floored hangers and in them countless ships laid in wait for this moment.

From these hangers emerged countless worker drones or varying sizes. Each drone seemed to resemble some form of insect. Within the grip of each drone it carried the materials to accomplish a portion of its task.

The drones flew away from the system ship towards their intended destination. When the drones reached about a mile from the main ship they began to congregate. They began to build the foundations of what appeared to be a ship.

The system ship watched through arcane sensors as the hoards of its drones rather quickly expanded their materials and returned to the ship for more.

The frameworks of two ships began to take shape. On the left a ship bound to land upon the moon and begin resource extraction to supplement the ship's needs.

The ship on the right would be the base upon which a new construction facility would be created. However, this alone would not solve the problem. A factory was useless without the necessary materials to build with. This factory would take advantage of the most abundant source of material in this solar system, the sun.

After an hour the two colossal base ships had been completed and fueled. The large sleek white, almost T shaped ship had been made in the image of another. A ship named Destiny. These humans had never actually built the ship depicted, and likely would have been unable to do so for several millennia. This however, did not stop the system from using its concept and design.

The system watched as the good ship, Star Forge, lit up its engines. The large band of thruster's at its back end glowed blue as the ship ran through its startup process.

The ship, Star Forge, completed its startup and pointed itself towards Sol, this systems star. This part of the greater system could not help but smile in its digital environment. The ship turned on its drive. The ship, Star Forge, was half a mile in length, a quarter mile in width, and more than 1000 feet in height. Even given all of that, this ship went from idle to beyond the speed of light in less than 3 second.

Within the Star Forge many construction drones had taken up residence. They had been instructed to accompany the ship to its new destination and aid in the construction of the Star Forge base. A multipurpose space station that would allow for near infinite production of new items for the system. It would siphon material from the sun to enable its own construction and then the construction of other items once the station was finished.

As for the other ship the system had dubbed, Eclipse, it had no such light speed engines built into it. Its journey would be far longer than that of its sister ship. The sleek black system ship, Eclipse, lit up its engines, angling its nose downward towards the lunar surface. The Eclipse then proceeded to enter the atmosphere of the moon, beginning its descent toward the lunar surface.

Back with Dante...

Dante was drifting through the darkness of his dreamless sleep. His eyes closed and his mind unaware of its surroundings, that was until that voice crept back in. The voice of the abyss. "Wake up..." Dante opened his eyes expecting many things but what greeted his sight was something new and unexpected.

He had found himself sitting upon a grassy hill under a shade of lush tree. In the distance before him, he saw a multicolored, multi tiered tower, along with several forests and lakes. One of these lake seemed to be a perfect circle and within it was liquid of several colors.

Everywhere he looked the air was filled with floating motes of light dancing in the wind. Dante felt that wind upon his face, closing his eyes he took deep breaths of the fresh air. He knew it would be rational to be concerned by his situation, but with what the world had become, he had already experienced similar things several times. He was just emotionally tired.

"Yeah sure this is cool and all, but for fucks sake man can a guy just sleep in a magical world!" Dante exclaimed to noone in particular whilst raising his fists. Taking another deep breath he lowered his hands and continued to inspect his surroundings.

The air surrounding the large tower seemed to emanate lines of mana in varying colors. These bands of mana reached up to form an aurora that danced across the sky. That was when he first noticed it. The bands of light didn't seem to go as high as they could have.

The more he looked the more he noticed that something was certainly wrong with the sky and the horizons. The sky seemed to almost curve around this valley as if forming a dome. Gazing behind him he saw what seemed to be more grassy hills but as he walked towards them he was meet with an invisible wall. He felt around but the invisible wall barred his advance away from the tower. Dante turned back and watched as a dozen motes of light had begun approaching him.

When they arrived he felt no hostility from them, instead he felt their joy and amusement. Some slowly and others quickly danced in the air around him. Dante smiled as he watched them race each other, dancing and playing at their own rates.

Dante extended his hand trying to touch one of the motes of light. Though he found little success as it darted away. Then he had an idea. Dante held out his hands cupping them and spoke, "Light!"

The air around his hands vibrated as liquid light formed in his cupped hands. When the spell was completed the air ceased to vibrate. A few motes of light made their way to the small pool of golden light in his cupped hands. Some dipped themselves into the light while others sat at its edge dipping down and almost seeming to drink in the light.

Dante spoke again, "Dancing light." The pool of liquid light began acting as if gravity had been inverted. The liquid light dripped upward to form several torch sized globules of golden light. Dante watched as the lights began to dance around what they perceived to be new friends. He smiled but then he felt something in the world shift. He lost his grip upon the cantrip but to his surprise the lights remained.

He reached out to touch one. The second his finger touched its surface the mote darted away, coming to a stop several feet from him. Several of the light motes began to encircle and dance around the now "free" dancing light. Slowly as he watched the dancing lights began to move on their own instead of as a reaction to him. He watched as the golden orbs of light began to dance and race their smaller, more colorful siblings.

One by one the dancing lights raced up into the sky to meet more like them. Each taking a number of light motes with them when they left. They raced away until only a single orb of golden light remained. This orb had yet to move. As he approached it, he felt the cool green grass and the soft soil beneath his feet. When he was before the still orb of golden light he could feel what it felt. Curiosity. Worry. Fear. These emotions all too new to it caused it to freeze. It was unable to make a choice for itself.

Reaching up his hand he palmed the orb of light. Though it didn't resist he could still feel its fear. "Fear not little one. The world is bright, and you have nothing to fear of me." Slowly the orb lifted from his palm its sense of worry fading as it slowly began to orbit him. Faster and faster it raced until it shot forward at great speed racing through the air to rejoin its siblings.

Dante smiled as a sound greeted his ears. Something all encompassing and yet seeming to be right in his ears. The metallic chirping sound of a system notice.

Inner World Tutorial has begun Summoning guide, Virgil

Nothing happened at first so he waited only to jump and yelp as someone tapped him on the shoulder. Dante spun around to find the familiar golden form of Virgil standing there with a warming smile. "I see you have reached this point in the tutorial. Shall we go then?" Virgil asked.

"Go where?" Dante replied. Instead of answering Virgil simply stepped aside and pointed toward the large tower that stood in the distance. 'It will take an hour to get...' Dante's train of thought was interrupted as the tower that has once been so far away rapidly began to advance toward them. He looked toward Virgil and then to the ground only to find it racing by beneath them. No sooner had he looked back up had they arrived at the base of the tower.

Dante looked around at the grasslands that came up to the base of the tower. About 100 meters from the base of the tower where they stood was the beginning of a forest. The tree's seemed unremarkable, and just like any other tree you could find on earth. He turned back to Virgil and asked, "What is this place?"

"This is your class tower. You might call it your tower of Babel. As for where we are currently this is your soul space. You can also call it your inner world." Virgil said with his near trademark smile. Instead of immediately responding Dante elected to look back towards the direction they had come from. There in the distance he could barely make out the siloet of the tree he had been standing under just the moment prior. "All the soul stuff aside, why call it Babel?" He asked with a tilted head.

"You remember the story of the tower of Babel do you not?" Virgil asked innocently. Dante's expression becoming somewhat disgruntled. "Of course. A bunch of guys a long, long, time ago tried to build a tower to get to heaven. God looked at it, and not appreciating their desire knocked it over. Then he made everyone speak a different language so they couldn't coordinate themselves and try again. Why name this tower after that? It's not like..." Dante paused as he thought that through.

"It's not like this tower can let me get to heaven right?" He asked, his face becoming one of uncertainty. Virgil's smile grew ever wider as he spread out his arms, as if to indicate toward the entirety of the massive tower. "You are correct this tower doesn't allow one to reach heaven. However it is the means by which one may reach ascension. Which means to become a god of your own making!" Virgil declared with great enthusiasm.

He opened his mouth to speak but found he had not the words. 'Upward bound system sure seems like an apt name now.' Dante thought as he began to look over the tower. Then a detail struck him, "You said this is my class tower, my babel? Does that mean that there's a floor to this tower for every one of my level's?" He asked Virgil.

"That is correct. You may have also noticed that the base of the tower is considerably larger than its top. Any guesses why, other than the obvious?" Virgil asked almost teasingly as he closed his eyes and grinned almost ear to ear.

Though the top of the tower was hundreds of feet above him preventing a more thorough inspection it did seem to him that the base was indeed considerably bigger than the top. The base and first several floors of the tower seemed to be made from some form of white marble. This marble however had a mix of crimson and gold colored materials mixed into it. After those floors the rest seemed to be made of more muted colored materials, with the primary color being grey.

'My class levels...'Dante thought for a moment as he rubbed his chin. "It's not like this tower actually represents my classes. For that to be it would have to be..." Dante paused as the realization hit him. Off to the side Virgil patiently waited for him to speak knowing he had realized the answer.

"The top of this tower is my first level, and the base is my most recent. There are 30 floors. One for each of my level's going in reverse order of obtainment." Dante stated as he looked upon Virgil who was beaming with joy.

"You did it, that's the answer. Now here is a hard question: How many floors do you think this tower will need to be before you can ascend?" Virgil asked as he held up one of his golden index finger's.

"100?" Dante asked, taking a shot in the dark only to elicit laughter from Virgil.

"No it is much higher than that i'm afraid. While that point varies from person to person and race to race, the average for this galaxy is about level 467." Virgil stated as he mimed wiping away tears.

Dante's jaw nearly hit the floor. "I can't live long enough to get that many levels!" He declared, holding his hands out in front of him trying to emphasize his point. Virgil looked at him quizzically for a moment, his arms outward with his palms up, before nodding his head as if he had remembered something.

"Please take a look at your status." Virgil stated, taking him aback. He did so anyway wondering where this was going.

Strength

88

Resources

Total

Regen.

Constitution/Vitality

103

Health

(1,865+10=1,875)

(93.1x2=186.2

/min)

Endurance

102

Mana

(2,663+10=2,673)

(71.4/min)

Dexterity

81

Stamina

(1,608+10=1,618)

(81.7x2=163.4 /min)

Willpower

114

Road Points

106

Intellect

100

Stat Points

51

Wisdom

102

Charisma

104

Luck

44

Perception

80

Spirit

63

Dante noticed he had missed his Con reaching 100 from his leveling.

Congratulations! Your Endurance has reached 100!...

You already possess skills of a sufficient nature relating to this stat at its current value...

'What a rip off.' He thought thought for a moment.

"You see that your Con is a very respectable 103. Especially for your class and level. While the exact amount differs from one race to another, each point into the Constitution stat increases a person's life span by anywhere from a few weeks, to a few months, to even a year or more. Though in the case of humans i think it is somewhere in the range of several weeks per point of Con. All that aside you have forgotten something." Virgil stated plainly this time.

"What did I forget?" Dante asked worriedly. Virgil approached him and placed his hands upon Dante's shoulders. "You forgot you have a robe that gives you everlasting life!" Virgil declared practically screaming in his ears while shaking him vigorusly. He covered his ears as Virgil released him. He began fidgeting with his ear trying to alleviate the ringing in them. If his hands weren't busy with his ears he would have probably face palmed.

The more he thought about it he remembered he had the road of everlasting life. 'Though now that I think about it that road might close to me if I lose the robe.' Dante's gaze found its way to the ground as he began weighing the pros and cons of everlasting life. Dante stood in silence for a moment before Virgil once more placed a hand upon one of his shoulders. He looked up to meet VIrgil's gaze. "Don't worry so much about your life span now. Both you and your parent have plenty of time." Virgil stated, with a reassuring smile.

However he could only muster a small forced smile that instead better showed his internal distress. "Can I just wake up now?" Dante asked, just done with the whole situation. Virgil's smile waned.

"In a moment but first a little more information." Virgil said as once more they began to move once more. The soft ground and grass retreated beneath them as they quickly moved to the top of the tower granting them an excellent view of the entire valley below them. What caught his attention however was that the top of the tower was colorfully painted. It looked like a map of the entire valley spread over the entirety of this circular top of the tower. It had to be no less than 20 feet in diameter. The map was actually rather poor for detail but served well as a rough map.

Dante looked up to the sky seeing that it still didn't look right. So, he reached up and to his great surprise his hand brushed the top of the invisible dome that created the illusion of a sky. 'WTF!' He thought as he began looking off in one direction trying to take his mind off the shallow sky. Once more his eyes made their way to the large pond of multi color liquids. "Hey Virgil why is that pond like that?" He asked whilst indicating toward the pond. Virgil turned to face the pond.

"That isn't a pond it is a manifestation of your skill, Sacrificial pool. Elsewhere you can see your other skills having taken a form in this place. Dante looked at him in shock for a moment then back to the pond, and then began looking around with fervent curiosity.

Down near the base of the tower on the side opposite where they had arrived he saw a small orderly field with what could have been small trees growing in it, an orchard. Dante looked down the the map that had been painted upon the top of the tower. "Is this an accurate map and why does it look like such a shabby piece of work?" He asked.

Virgil turned before responding. "This map is only as accurate as someone of your skills could make it. Why it is of less than ideal quality is due to the level of your cartography and drawing skills." Virgil stated whilst indicating downward to the crude map.

"I don't have a drawing skill though." He stated eliciting a chuckle from Virgil. "That's right you don't. You would have it however, if you took the time to make even a crude map with your cartography skill." Virgil stated, still chuckling a bit.

Dante put forth his hand about to speak, he had this enormous canvas why not just draw here? No sooner had he thought of this did a piece of chalk appear in his outstretched palm. He looked upon it with mild confusion and awe. Turning to Virgil he said nothing, only giving Virgil a questioning look.

"You wanted to improve the map and so your cartography skill activated. Here your skills can be made manifest and as so, chalk." Virgil stated as he pointed toward the large stick of chalk currently clutched in Dante's hand.

For a moment he pondered this new information before he acted. He reached out his other hand and with a small exertion of will a familiar medieval dagger appeared in his hand. 'This place is awesome!' Dante thought as his face became one of appreciation. Next he tried out his recently obtained telekinesis. Dante released the dagger and the chalk only for them to remain hovering in the air. He pointed to each one with each of his index fingers slowly waving them back and forth. In response the dagger and the stick of chalk slowly began to swing back in for while remaining in the air.

He moved the chalk stick over to the area before him where the depiction of his sacrificial pool skill was. Slowly he used the chalk to make mild corrections to the drawing. What amazed him nearly as much as the usefulness of telekinesis was that the chalk was changing colors at his will.

Congratulations! You have obtained the Common sub skill, Drawing Lvl. 1!...

You have taken the first of many steps down the road of the psion!...

Skill, Telekinesis, has leveled up! Lvl. 2!...

"Can I come back here anytime or just when i'm sleeping?" Dante asked hopeful as to the answer. Virgil smiled, "You can come back here anytime all you need to do is look inward. It would help if you used meditation to get back here but that is not a necessity only an aid. As for leaving this place. Like many other things here you need only will it. I was suppressing your ability to leave for a moment so now you can leave." Virgil stated as he took a step back.

Dante looked upon this world and Virgil once more then in the blink of an eye he was gone from that place.

-------------------------------------------

Dante awoke to find himself once more in the brothel, being cuddled by the four armed Ysdaltan women. He smiled as he gave her a kiss on the cheek, and slowly began pulling himself out of her grip. Sitting up and letting his legs hang off the bedside. He remembered his words to her the night before and with a small gesture he produced a blank blue box. Staring at the box it filled with the text he desired. 'One free casting of the Regenerate spell from Dante A. Stone.' he said in his mind as he read the blue box no bigger than a business card in his hands.

Leaving the card on the pillow he stood and got dressed. He was made sure to pick up his disguised crown from the night stand. On his way out the door however he turned back to her. With a wink he received the notice.

Friend request sent...

Dante smiled as he quietly closed the door on his way out.

It was when he had exited the room that he received several notices.

You have exited an area that was disabling outside notifications...

Your contributions to the temple of "Ender" have been duly noted by said divine entity...

Items obtained from Follower's of the Crimson King you have slain will be sold on your behalf...

All corrupted items have been disposed of...

You shall receive 100% of the profits from the sale of said items...

For the slaying of 16 Follower's of the Crimson King your Financial rewards have arrived!

You have received 6,000 small gold coins!

You have received +25% gold as token of appreciation from "Ender"

Total = +7,500 small gold coins

'Small gold coins, WTF!?' Dante thought for a moment not wishing to continue on to the other notices before he found out what it meant. "Virgil." He stated. This time Virgil appeared far more quickly than he had previous times. There was a small flash of golden light and there was Virgil with his usual smile. "What may I assist you with?" Virgil asked.

"Why does it say small gold coins? It never made that distinction before." Dante asked and commented.

"The system has taken to referring to small gold coins, as just, gold coins. This is due to them being the most widely used of the system coinage." Virgil finished his rather brief explanation. Dante checked his status to see his money and there it was.

Gold: 13,465 small gold

"How do the denominations go? No one told me that yet." He said wondering how absurd this amount of money is.

"First there are small copper pieces, 10 of them are equal to a large copper coin. 10 large copper equals one small silver... I'll just show you." Virgil stated, clearly showing was better than telling here.

Currency conversion Table

10 small copper= 1 large copper

10 large copper= 1 small silver

10 small silver= 1 large silver

10 large silver= 1 small gold

10 small gold= 1 large gold

10 large gold= 1 small platinum

10 small platinum= 1 large platinum

Basic knowledge of currencies has been provided. You have yet to discover further currency denominations.

After some quick math Dante nodded his head at how much money he actually had. '1346.5 large gold, 134.6 small platinum, 13.46 large platinum. I don't want to think about what this would be in lower denominations.' he thought as he saved that blue box for later. "Thanks Virgil. You're dismissed." Virgil's form dissipated into the air and the mana that had made up his form also dissipating into the environment. Continuing onward he examined the remaining notices. The next one seemed to be a message from...Rosana?

A message has arrived from your Patron do you wish to open it?

Yes/No?

Dante clicked yes and the message popped up.

A new follower

Hello Dante I know you will be reading this after your bit of fun. Anyway, the human you brought to my attention has passed my tests and will thus be brought into the fold. Sorry I didn't tell you about this earlier. He had yet to complete the tests then.

He is a rather interesting individual. You see he is a reincarnator from earth. His name is Henry Lumber.

Sincerely, Rosana

Upon reading the part about the guy being a reincarnator he then proceeded to wave his hands in front of himself. Almost as if he were chopping the air. Before face palming, and dragging his palms against his face. "Why? Why does he have to be a reincarnator?! I swear if this guy is from Japan im..." His voice trailing off leaving his statement incomplete. After a moment it seemed that message was the last notice he had received and so continued down the hall and down the stairs.

Passing through the waiting room he saw the Equitaur and goblin woman from yesterday but every other face was different. 'Maybe they are the least popular companions. So sad I would...' Dante's eyes widened for a moment as he remembered just how rich he was now. 'I'm definitely coming back here later.' he thought with a smile as he walked back through the doorway into the main room of the Golem's Menagerie. Stepping through the doorway on the right wall from him he entered Oscar's other shop, the Workhorse.

There he found one of Oscar's simulacrums attending to the counter. "Ah there you are! Did you enjoy yourself my friend?" The Oscar copy asked him. This Oscar wore what appeared to be a brown leather tunic over a white shirt with black dress pants. "Have I met you before?" Dante asked, raising arching an eyebrow.

Clone Oscar took the question in stride, "No we have not had the pleasure but some of the others including Oscar Prime have told me about you. I must say it is astounding to see that crown worn on a friend's head." Clone Oscar stated with genuine praise.

"Nice to meet this one of you guys. Anyway I could use some help. Do you know where any weapon shop would be that sell guns?" Dante asked eliciting a look of confusion from Clone Oscar.

"I am sorry friend. I am unfamiliar with that term. What are guns?" he asked his normally choir-like voice bending and twisting in was none too pleasant to the ear as he said "guns". Before Dante could even begin to explain guns to him, Clone Oscar spoke again. "Why not look through the system store. It may be a bit more expensive than one of the shops but it would certainly be quicker."

"What do you mean more expensive?" He asked curiously. Clone Oscar looked at him like he was stupid for a moment before remembering that the man before him was still new to the system. "The system adjusts the prices for items depending upon where you are. For example if you try to buy high quality food from the store while delving deep into a dungeon you will find the price to be raised a fair amount." Clone Oscar stated.

Dante thought that through for a moment. "So it's cheaper to buy items from actual merchants rather than the store, at least in general right?" he asked Clone Oscar.

In response Clone Oscar waved a finger forward and backward in front of himself before stating, "Right you are. The system does this to encourage people to interact with each other for commerce rather than just buying everything from the system store. There are however still advantages to buying some things from the store. Those things would namely be the near instant creation of custom items, in most cases. As well as the availability of most things you could ever need at almost any time."