Avarius waved his hand, and the furniture and other nice stuff in the cave levitated into the air and flew towards him, vanishing when they got within about a foot of him.He led Kellan to the mouth of the cave,and he saw a chaotic mess of light, color, and well, stuff, floating in what seemed like the void of space, if space were multicolored and full of things.He looked around, and he saw things he'd never expected could happen in a rational and orderly universe. There were floating pieces of land, ranging all the way from landmasses barely bigger than a boulder,to full on floating cities and continents! He even saw the blurry silhouette of what looked like a planet in the far distance, though he wasn't sure.

All of these things were floating in this impossible rainbow space that seemed to go on forever, and it was full of life. He could see fish jumping in a pond on one of the nearby islands,birds flying through the air, bugs buzzing in and out of the cave, all sorts of creatures, large and small. Kellan was pretty sure he even saw some mythical and fictional creatures. All sorts of plants covered the floating islands,ranging from trees miles tall and hundreds of feet around to delicate little mushrooms and flowers. Also, there was water everywhere, whether directly on the islands, rivers flowing through the weird rainbow space with no visible means of support, and at least one spherical ocean that roamed back and forth between a cluster of large island and the nearby continent.

How did this all work? Why didn't these islands plummet or get attracted to that planet in the distance? Why didn't the fish fall out of the floating ocean? Where the fuck was all this light coming from?

Were there people here? Where even was this place? As he stepped out of the cave, Kellan looked around, again noticing just how ridiculously attractive Avarius looked, but also noticing that he was on top of a mountain, near the edge of an island that,while relatively small, was at least as big as New York City. Avarius turned and saw Kellan's open mouth and expression of wonder, and smiled.

He remembered when he'd first entered this place and been entranced by it, and that had been with the benefit of a well-cultivated mind and thousands of years of life experience in a world filled to the brim with magic and weird, interesting phenomena. He let Kellan soak in their surroundings a bit more, as he stretched out with his soul and his senses to locate a good place to prepare Kellan for the boundless future that lay before him. He slowly calmed down, and his open mouth closed into a content smile. This place was super fuckin' cool, in his opinion.

"Hey, uh, Avarius? What is this place, and where are we going?" Kellan asked, nervously playing with his hair as he asked the question, his blue-green locks wrapping around his fingers as if they were bandages.”

“Oh yeah, I haven’t even told you the basics yet, have I. First things first, this place is… the space between universes, where natural law is flexible and allows for things the natural laws or Heavenly Daos of universes generally don’t. Those who know of it call it by a lot of names. The Primordial Chaos,The Between, Paradise, The Aetherium, and countless more. It doesn’t necessarily have a true name. The Multiverse is like a giant wheel, with the Well Of Origin at its center and the infinite amount of universes that circle it are like, the spokes and the outside of the wheel. This place is connected to every universe and ultimately, the Well of Origin itself. What I’m doing right now is finding a suitable place in it to get you set up to become a multiverse-traversing badass and explain to you what your duties and abilities are going to be.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense and isn’t any weirder than the other shit I’ve seen tonight. Wait, if the universe is infinite and keeps growing, and there’s a infinite number of universes, does that mean this, uh,between place is infinite and always getting bigger, or does it shrink as more universes are born and grow?” This was growing increasingly weirder, and Kellan’s list of questions to ask kept growing longer.

“It’s infinite, yes. It grows a bit faster than universes do, keeping them equidistant from each other to prevent non-deliberate collision or fusion of universes. The boundless energy and matter that continually pours from the Well allows that to happen, and it is that raw power that is the basic fabric of the Between. This particular area of the Between is the part closest to your universe, and thus was the easiest hiding place for Lamia after she created a minor spatial tunnel to go to and from your home with it. Unfortunately, she destroyed that tunnel as soon as she sensed my arrival.” Thinking about Lamia seemed to make him an odd combination of ashamed and angry, and it showed on his face enough for Kellan to pick up on it. He mentally filed that under the growing list of things he’d ask about later.

Avarius’s eyes suddenly lit up, and his right hand glowed with a silvery light as he drew a rainbow-colored door in the air with it. The door opened, and it resembled the portal that Lamia had pulled Kellan through earlier.It opened onto a sturdy-looking floating stone bridge that lead to a relatively small , subtly square shaped floating island, about 1500 feet long and 1500 feet wide. It was likely much deeper than that, as, from the vantage point of stepping into the portal, he couldn’t see where the bottom of the island was. What was the point of going there, and where exactly was it he was heading? All he was sure of was that it was a lot further from home than the place he was now. Ah well, he wanted a life of adventure, and Avarius had promised him he could go home, so he figured he may as well take the risk.

He stepped through the rainbow door, and onto the bridge.He noticed that the edge of the island was rapidly growing walls of sturdy-looking rock about 20 feet high, except a small gap where the bridge connected. Noticing a golden-brown glow around Avarius’s hands, he felt thankful that this mysterious dragon-man was concerned enough about his safety to create a way to keep him from falling off the island, Hell, now that he noticed it,there was no way to fall off the bridge, as the walls of it were high and made of stone like the walls around the island. The rainbow door had changed color and solidified into solid mahogany wood, , with a small stone shack forming around it and the words “Kellan’s Homeworld” inscribed into the door in English.

“You saw that, huh? Yeah, you can make visits home later, and i’ll figure something out about the time you’ll have been missing. But before that, there’s lots of stuff to explain and setup to get done. “

A simple shop appeared around the center of the island. It wasn’t very big, about 10 feet tall , 50 feet long, and 50 feet wide,made of simple oak wood with a sloped wooden roof, like an old-fashioned general store. There was a simple but well made wooden sign hung above the door that said nothing but the word “Shop” on it. As Kellan looked around the island, he saw a few ponds, pools, and a small lake forming, and a small forest spread rapidly, though it had a conspicuous lack of variety in the plants and only a few scattered berry bushes in terms of food. There didn’t even seem to be any animals bigger than bugs around!

“Ok, so, what’s the deal? What do I do? Why lead me to this weird little island that you made a bunch of modifications to all of a sudden? What does this have to do with the whole accomplishing my dreams thing?” Kellan asked, extremely confused by the entire situation.”

“Well, you’re going to be traveling from world to world as a traveling merchant. You’re going to buy, sell, and trade all sorts of things. You know those like, game system-esque things that are so common in certain genres of novels that help the protagonist accomplish stuff? Well, you’re going to have one, and it’ll be linked to your activities as a merchant. This place is your home base, where all your stuff is stored and you can use the various system functions and such more easily. When you touch an object or person, you can acquire a sort of…template to replicate the object with Merchant Points that you earn by selling things to customers, sending resources and items to the system warehouse, and acquiring new things to sell.” Avarius helpfully explained.

“Wait, does that mean I can clone people or like, mass produce Excaliburs?” Kellan asked, unsure if he should be excited about or terrified by the potential implications of that.

“Nah, when you touch a person you get, like, the template for their possessions, their genetic code, the ability to infuse living things with whatever unique bloodline they have, that kinda thing. Also, if you have a close bond with or a strong animosity with the person, you can get RPG-esque skillbooks that teach you their unique skills. You can sell those too, but it’s kinda risky and you’ll usually have to convert them into spellbooks or martial arts manuals unless the world in question has skill books, to avoid powerful beings trying to kill you for your secrets. As for the excalibur bit?You’ll find out how things like that work as you unlock more system functions. For now I’ve pre-loaded the system with some basics so that you don’t immediately die when you hit your first world. “ Avarius paused to let Kellan soak it all in.

“Ok, but what’s the benefit to you to set all this up for me? It seems like it just benefits me, mostly.”

“Well, like I said, I wanted to let you follow your dreams. I occasionally grab random , suitable people from different universes I visit and give them some sort of system or stupidly overpowered inheritance or whatever and see what they do with it,but in this specific case it’s because I want to research the magic systems, natural laws, and so on of all these different worlds but don’t want to do all the legwork myself. I guess you could consider yourself my apprentice, and you can call for me if needed.” The draconic man smiled in a somewhat self-satisfied manner.

“Well, it’s a relief to know that there’s mutual benefit here and you’re not just essentially granting me a brand new life without expecting anything in return.” Kellan said, and he did in fact feel relieved. Phew, this dragon dude probably wouldn’t want to call in favors and any worry he’d had about this being some sort of elaborate trick or trap was lessened,if not entirely purged. There could still be a catch, especially if he ran into those other apprentices that Avarius had mentioned.

“Well, there will be quests and missions and stuff, but they’ll mostly be either stuff to unlock system functions or generated by your interactions with any given world rather than arbitrary bullshit with excessive punishments or rewards that would force you to act in ways you wouldn’t otherwise. That kind of thing just leads to trouble and pointless drama you never wanted in the first place.” Avarius replied, something that looked like a gauntlet-style COMP from one of the Shin Megami Tensei games appearing in his hands. From what Kellan remembered, COMPs were wrist mounted computers that used the demon summoning program to summon and control demons, so what would this one do? It didn’t quite look like the one in the game though, the screen was a bit bigger, and it had a silver-colored dragon inscribed into it, with the dragon’s head on the palm and the dragon’s body on the underside.

“Here,take this. This thing is the system’s physical manifestation, and your way of accessing it while you aren’t here in your home base, as well as a token of your apprenticeship to me so that you and my other apprentices can identify each other.” He tossed Kellan the gauntlet, and Kellan caught it and slid it onto his left hand,which it’d apparently been made to fit perfectly. He grinned, pretty excited to try it out, and then his expression soured as he thought of something.

“Hey, how do I turn this thing on and what do I do if it breaks? Also, what powers it?” He asked, waving his newly gauntlet-ed left hand around, and then made a fist. Yep, it did feel like he was wearing metal on his arm, but the inside was soft and padded, probably some kind of cloth or plastic, it was light, and it didn’t restrict his movement. Even if it hadn’t been the key to living out his dreams, Kellan would have liked this gauntlet a lot.

“Hold your finger to the screen for thirty seconds and it’ll power on. You’re unlikely to break it, as it’s incredibly durable and if it does break you can repair it with Merchant Points. The gauntlet runs off absorbing ambient energy, usually sunlight or heat or electricity or whatever, but it can also absorb energies like mana, qi, chakra,the ripple, and so on to replenish itself. In an emergency, you can even convert Merchant Points into energy to power it.” Avarius explained, happy that Kellan was asking good questions.

“Neat. I’m gonna try it out. I assume the gauntlet has some sort of function that allows me to contact you if I need to?” Kellan asked, scratching his head. He enjoyed the feeling of slightly-warm metal against his scalp.

“Yeah, it’s got a chat function with pretty much multiversal range. I’ll add you to the apprentice group chat and I’ll always keep an eye out for messages from you. Prepare for some tutorials once you get that baby running. They won’t be super complex or anything, so don’t worry.” Avarius smiled and gave Kellan a thumbs up.

“Well, thanks for doing all of this for me, I’m gonna try this thing out now because I have nothing better to do.” Kellan held his finger on the screen, waiting for the gauntlet to turn on.

“Have fun with that, I gotta go set up your cover story and something to keep people from noticing where you go when you’re here. I’ll be in touch.” Avarius waved and disappeared in a flash of rainbow light, without even waiting to hear the goodbye that died before it made it out of Kellan’s mouth.

********

“That was weird. I guess I’ll see him again, though.” As Kellan spoke to himself, a loud bleeping noise was heard and the screen of the device glowed as it booted up. The startup animation was a small dragon rising out of a woven basket like a charmed snake, while a red-haired young boy played the flute..

After the start-up screen, a prompt asking him if he wanted to turn on accessibility mode popped up. He was about to ask what that mode did, before he saw a digital button marked with a question mark on the screen. He pressed it, and a video began to play.

On screen, there was a avery large multicolored ferret, at least the size of a mongoose. The ferret looked at the camera for a few seconds, then seemed to remember what the purpose of this was.

“Oh, yes! Accessibility mode on the boss’s system thing. It allows telepathic communication with the system! The system will read any thoughts you intend to send it, as if you’d spoken them out loud, and it’ll announce any system notification inside of your head! “ The ferret spoke, her voice surprisingly deep for a rodent and vaguely feminine. Pausing, as if to make sure Kellan had understood.”You can essentially access system functions mentally, though things like browsing the system shop or anything that requires your full focus are recommended to be done manually.” The ferret raised one of her paws at the screen and waved. The video started to fade out, as if it was coming to an end.

“Well, that’s helpful, but does that mean it reads my mind? That’s kinda creepy.” Kellan said, somewhat disturbed by the idea of the system reading his mind. What if it was recording them? Or worse, broadcasting them?

“The system does not read your mind and is incapable of doing so unless you allow it to. It will receive thoughts you intend it to hear in the same way cultivators of various worlds do when accessibility mode is turned on. If that’s all, this help session is over and I have other duties to attend to.” The ferret seemed vaguely amused, but he couldn’t be sure as he’d had little exposure to ferret body language, let alone sapient multicoloured ferret body language.

“Uh, yeah, that’s all , I guess.” Kellan said, shrugging. The video feed faded away, and he chose to turn on accessibility mode. A notification popped up on screen, telling him that accessibility mode had been turned on, and then he heard a strange, genderless voice that was neutral in terms of tone and carried no emotion. It seemed almost robotic, but it spoke too smoothly for that.

“Welcome, host! Would you like to initiate the Beginner’s Tutorials?” The mysterious neutral voice reverberated in his head, and given what it said, Kellan figured it was the system.

“Yeah, go ahead.” Kellan thought towards the system.

“Warning:Tutorials cannot be completed withoutbin binding the sysytem to the host and activating the preloaded Basic Package the creator left for the host. System requesting permission to carry out said actions.” The system’s emotionless voice seemed to grow a little panicked, as if it was afraid he would say no.

“Permission granted.” Kellan replied. He figured since it’d help him anyways, letting the system freak out about the situation would be pointless and kinda cruel. It did seem to have some emotion just then, didn’t it? That meant it was kind of like a person, probably an AI or something, and it’d be hurtful to mess around with someone who just wanted to help. Besides, he wasn’t sure how teasing it would even work. The system might just abandon him! If there had been anything he’d learned from sci-fi, it was that artificial intelligences were emotionally vulnerable and should be handled with care.

“Binding system to host…10%, 20%, 50%, 98%.. done!” The system announced , its now cheerful voice carrying a small hint of smugness. “Opening Basic Package. Shop Subroutine unlocked, host can now turn currency and items into Merchant Points and use merchant points to buy goods! Host gains access to the shop catalog to order shipments of registered items with Merchant Points, or to allow customers to directly use the catalog to purchase items with whichever currency their world uses.Host has also unlocked some basic options for consumables, daily necessities and gear, anything further will depend on the host.”

The system paused, then continued to speak. Kellan was sure it didn’t need to take a breath or anything, but he let the moment pass without complaint. ” Host should find these basic items quite familiar,as they are common to many of the games host enjoys.Certain items from Host’s homeworld have also been templated for the catalog and also be acquired by paying shop points if it is something host has sufficient knowledge of.Anything else must be acquired normally.”

Kellan looked at the screen of his gauntlet,seeing several icons, including a few that were grayed out. One was a leather bound book, apparently the shop catalog. Another showed a farm, and yet another showed some beakers and chunks of material, and was most likely related to Alchemy or something similar, he thought.

“Understood, I’ll keep all that in mind.What’s my beginner mission..thing?” He cupped his chin with his un-gauntleted hand, trying to look like he was deep in thought.

“Host will travel to a random world and complete a task. The specific task will be decided depending on which world the host arrives at and the host’s opinions , knowledge,and feelings about its inhabitants. Host will receive free basic equipment and skills suited to the world upon arrival so as to ensure host’s survival and the accomplishment of the basic mission. Rewards depend upon the world selected and the host’s actions in that world. Be aware that the ways in which you change a world will affect your rewards.”

“Alright, well, let’s get going.” Kellan said, impatient to go on his first adventure.

“Beginner Mission accepted. Activating world randomizer. Loading…loading. Scanning possible worlds where host should be able to survive with current abilities. Worlds that are too dangerous for current host removed from randomizer. World Selected: Primax Alpha 78.86. This world is very close to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but contains more mystical elements, including monsters from various folklore and the Belmont clan that were Dracula’s enemies. Beyond the effects of such changes,the history and setting of Shelley’s Frankenstein remains the same. Setting Dimensional Door to correct universal coordinates.”

The door of the small stone hut glowed, and when the glow faded the engraving read, in large, bold letters :Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein & Other Classic Monsters.Kellan approached the door, opening it to see yet another rainbow portal. He stepped through, waiting to see what was on the other side. He was puilled through yet another long, rainbow tunnel, and was spat out into an alley in what looked to be Ingolstadt, Bavaria during the late 18th century.

“Welcome to Primax Alpha 78.86, host! System recommends finding an abandoned shop, market stall, or other base of operations while the system scans the host’s memories to determine a suitable mission. System will dispense suitable equipment once the mission has been determined in two hours.”

He had two hours to kill,huh? Kellan figured he’d wander the streets and look for somewhere suitable before the mission was set. If he was lucky, he’d find a young Victor Frankenstein who hadn’t yet created life ,and if he wasn’t? Then he’d find a bitter, sad jerk whose thoughtless behavior had screwed up his life and ended others. He hoped he was lucky, or he might end up having to explain why a complete stranger had assaulted the eccentric but well-respected scion of the Frankenstein family. Though given that he wasn't in Victor's hometown, that meant that Victor had likely just entered college, and would probably be easy to find with a little searching.