No other pop-ups appeared for now, so I looked over my new class.

[Psionic Pyromancer]

[Pure Magical Class (Fire Element)]

Bronze

Base Attributes:

+5 AP to 2 attributes of your choice per floor.

+2 AP to 1 attribute of your choice per floor.

Hidden Magical Attribute is visible to you, and can be upgraded with AP.

+2 AP to Psych Attribute per floor.

Effect of Psych and Magic Power attributes +50%

Magic Power of Fire spells +50%

…+ 19 more. (Expand/Collapse)

Eventually a new pop-up appeared, and I closed the status window.

[Congratulations on completing your mission.]

[Mission Difficulty: High]

[You have received 8 AP.]

[Your class has responded.]

[+2 AP to Psych Attribute.]

[Select 2 Attributes to receive +5 AP.]

[Select 1 Attribute to receive +2 AP.]

First, I chose the previously neglected Intuition attribute. Then, after a few minutes of internal debate, I put the other +5 into Regeneration and the +2 in Strength.

[You have received a spell book.]

[You have received a spell book.]

[You have received a spell book.]

[Analyzing mission…]

[Congratulations. You have made an exceptional achievement.]

Description: Cleared 3 High Difficulty missions in the Tutorial.

Mission: Kill a

Mission: Kill 1,000 or more Wolves, then evacuate at least 10KM from

Mission: Ensure the successful evacuation of at least 20% of residents

Reward: Overall Mission Rating +0.5

[Congratulations. You have made an exceptional achievement.]

Achievement type: Mission

Description: Ensured minimal casualties of Bront City's civilian population through decimating the western front of the monster army together with Bront's forces before the final attack was mounted.

Reward: Class Trait

[Mission analyzed. Gathering data…done.]

[Mission Rating: 4.0]

[Mission Rewards]

White Grade Fire Mage Armor set

Bronze Grade Pyromancer’s Blasting Rod

Class Evolver (Common Grade)

Bronze Grade Spatial Compression Pack

0.1 G4 Coins (10 Brock Coins)

It took me quite some time to collect everything, don the armor set, and arrange my old clothes and everything else in the Spatial Compression Pack. Once I was done, I automatically began to fade from the .

I found myself in another room of palatial proportions, along with other people—although not nearly so many as last time. There were less than 100, though more were trickling in, occasionally appearing from thin air.

Also much unlike last time, the room was anything but plain. The floor was wall-to-wall red carpet, the walls had beautiful stained glass windows, and I couldn’t even make out the ceiling.

Soon, a uniformed man approached the area of this space where we had all appeared. He cleared his throat. His voice was amplified, though I couldn’t tell by what.

“New Challengers, I bid you welcome to the Area 1 Federation. You may call me Officer Polanski. Due to a recent series of complaints that the assigned District 1 Guide attempted to mislead and scam the new Challengers, it was decided that the Federation would assume direct supervision over the welcome process here until a more trustworthy permanent Guide can be found.

“Your current location is in Area 1 of the Tower, Planet Erkolls-13, Sector 79, Telmar City District 1. Currently, Erkolls-13 is the only planet in Area 1 where the Earthling subspecies of human, which I see you all belong to, arrives from the Tutorial.

I’m sure you all have many questions, but for now, please try to remain calm. Most if not all of you should be perfectly able to adapt to life here in due time.

You are currently located inside a Tower ‘safe zone’ where it is not possible for Challengers to come to bodily harm.”

Gasps of relief sounded through the crowd. Mine was not one of them. After all, there were oh-so-many ways harm could be inflicted to someone without bringing “bodily" into it at all.

These people seriously lacked imagination.

“A Federation approved itinerary has been prepared for you all, to quickly and smoothly integrate you into Federation society. First and foremost, you must all register as Federation citizens. Please follow me in an orderly fashion to the nearest Federation Office.”

Now my sigh of relief joined the others. After the intensity of the Tutorial, how boring things were now looking to be for the moment was downright relaxing.

Officer Polanski led us outside the cathedral to where 3 tour buses waited. They were gaudy on the outside, but comfortable and easy on the eyes on the inside. As we rode, it struck me how odd this place looked.

Anything technological sort of reminded me of Dream Zanarkand from Final Fantasy 10—for example, the tour buses hovered a foot or two above the ground—but the aesthetics of most of the buildings were much more old-fashioned.

The Federation Office itself broke this trend. Now this was more like it. As we arrived in a room used for group registrations, I approached Officer Polanski. “What else happens at this office?”

“Ask reception for a list of services on the way out,” he said simply.

A few minutes after I received my Universal ID (and bound it, which apparently required a drop of blood) a registrar approached me and bade me follow them to a part of the room where we wouldn’t be overheard. “Mr. Lheticus, it appears that your name was flagged prior to when you arrived at the Tower. A ‘Mewiabu' requested to be alerted to the location of anyone arriving at the Tower with your name as soon as possible.”

My heart skipped a beat. Mewiabu…that was his screen name. It was sort of like an acronym—it was short for “Mew In A BUbble.” He liked fantasy bubble stuff and other strange things, most of which I did too. He was also EXTREMELY into Pokémon—like, he could pretty much be considered a pro. And if the name sounded a little weird or girly, well, that didn’t qualify as a drawback to him. I still preferred to shorten it to Mewi, since it was very polysyllabic for only having 7 letters.

He had entered his screen name as his name, just like I did? And specifically anticipated my own arrival at the Tower, or hoped for it?

The registrar continued, “he only paid the base fee for the service, we can prevent that information reaching him if you would care to outbid…”

I almost choked on nothing, and sputtered, “What? No, no! I want that person to find me.”

Seriously? It was really going to be THAT easy? I had to make sure to thank Mewi for thinking of doing this.

“In that case, once you’re done with the guided welcome, feel free to return here and we can expedite the information reaching them for a small consideration.”

“I see…”

It turned out that money was incredibly important here. In fact, after a several-hour presentation in the Federation Office to give background information about Area 1 and its Federation, he second stop of the “welcome tour" was the local branch of the Federated Area 1 Bank, to set up accounts.

From what I could tell, I’d actually gotten more money from the Tutorial than most in my group—which I’d also learned was the most affluent group to arrive from the Tutorial.

When it was my turn, the clerk informed me that because my starting balance was above 5 million “Wasnachts,” I was eligible for a Federation Silver Account. Turns out the 10 little coins I’d placed in my Compression Pack's Wallet pocket were the Federation equivalent of million-dollar bills, or something! Only a fraction of the others in the group seemed to get the same offer.

However, I was far from being truly uber-rich. There were more prestigious account levels than mine—Federation Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Still, the services I’d have access to as a Silver member were impressive.

Shiny Silver account card in inventory, the buses took us to the main shopping area of District 1. That was where the tour ended, and we were basically left to our own devices.

I’d just gotten out from buying some more sets of clothes when I heard noise coming from a nearby electronics store.

“Welcome back to the opening bouts of the Constant Competition! That last featured fight really blew the roof off, and you’d better believe you haven’t seen anything yet!”

“What’s the Constant Competition?” You idiot, did you really just say that out loud?! Why not go ahead and scream ‘I’m a rich Tower newbie, come on and take advantage of me’ while you’re at it?!

The actual consequences of my outburst weren’t so bad. A salesman at the electronics shop was more than happy to tell me all about it. I wasn’t happy to learn that it was only held once every ten years, because the rewards definitely seemed worth trying for. Unbelievably, I had just missed any chance of entering myself!

But I love a good tournament, so I was more than happy to buy a pocket smart device and a 2 year plan for access to FedNet with it, the internet equivalent the Federation operated and maintained. I even good-naturedly lampshaded the fact that the window display was probably geared exactly to attract the new Challengers in the area.

Then I decided to head back to the bank. One of the special services afforded to even Bronze account holders was assistance in finding and purchasing housing.

The discussion ran long, but eventually we found a suitable solution for me. I didn’t need or want a luxurious home, but after learning about the Area 1 system of 100 Districts per city in descending order of affluence, some of which weren’t even inside the safe zone, I didn’t want to slum it just to hang on to the most cash either. I also wanted privacy.

I settled on a relatively modest 2-bedroom apartment in District 23. By that point the city was still rather gentrified, but it had lost the pretentious low-tech aesthetic.

What? Don’t look at me like that. I already mentioned that Mewi and I had never met in the real world back on Earth. We were able to defy the odds against long-distance relationships precisely because we never really NEEDED to make it a physical one, and I certainly wasn’t going to rush into proverbially “doing it” now!