His Frustration finally winning, Administrator Dilyard exclaimed to the heavens, “What a mess!”

Those near the Administrator ignored the man as he continued to walk down the boulevard of The Nexus, toward the main building. Everyone and everything had a purpose in this place. Most attributed the outburst as necessary for some reason that The System had deemed it necessary and went on about their business. Besides, the Administrator, whom everyone knew of, at least in passing, was right. The absorption of The Multitude, as that offshoot had identified itself, was a mess. Everyone within earshot was working that SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fucked Up) of mess. No one responded as the Administrator continued walking toward his office building.

As the Administrator entered his office building he calmed down enough to chastise himself for the outburst. He couldn’t understand why he’d felt the need to make that outburst but he had to admit it had felt great to just shout out and watch as everyone around him was surprised. He’d ignored their stares of course but that didn’t keep him from smiling to himself as he walked into his office. The one place System Space that was completely ordered and run by The System and he had disturbed that peace and tranquility with three loud words.

The Administrator shook his head, as if to clear his mind, smiled, and then walked to the elevators. Yes, the absorption of the Multitude was a mess. Yes, it was larger than any other offshoot that had ever existed. That had made it quite easy for the System to Detect the surge of Primal Chaos in a sub-layer near its border, surge forward, and arrest its growth before it had spread into the physical universes.

In addition to the Primal Chaos problem, the Multitude was much larger than any other offshoot that The System had ever absorbed. The sentients had been transferred to the Fringe while the area the Multitude occupied in physical space was repurposed and distributed throughout the various realms and locations within The System.

One thing the System was very good at was imposing its will or programming. He really wasn’t sure which word fit better in this case. Regardless, the populations had been redistributed to where they would be able to test themselves. The Administrator had been reviewing a particularly insane report where a group from the Multitude had somehow commandeered a ship, no groups had commandeered ships that had no business being in any navy within the System from assets that had just been absorbed. Someone had recognized the technology as ultra-advanced and had taken it upon themselves to confiscate and sell all of it at a markup. A quick trip through a portal to a Dungeon in the Purple zone had handled that issue, for now. The idiot could survive, though the Bookies gave him less than 1 in 100 odds of doing so. The Administrator wasn’t even sure what The system had hidden away there and one in a hundred odds was as good as saying that he was about to die. Speak of the devil, a message came across his vision stating that the idiot had died. Yep, he was really glad he hadn’t put any money on that idiot.

The other mess the absorption had caused was the interdimensional Stock Market, or ISM had fluctuated so badly that interstellar business had every communications device, be it magical or technological going off in The Nexus. It was one of the reasons he was heading in on his one day off. Some interstellar big shots were screaming bloody murder and trying to get answers when ultimately they knew as much as he did, The System did whatever the hell it wanted.

The function of his class, Administrator to the System, never changed, though its rank did evolve through the various levels as he found himself at the Legendary level currently. Level 49 to be exact. Just one more level and then he’d get to see what was beyond the Legendary level, which as far as he knew, didn’t exist, though he knew the trains had a station they could stop at that connected to something.

He had to admit, when he’d received the choice as one of his evolutions as a 25th-level mage and then chosen it, he’d been surprised when he’d received a second choice.

Congratulations! You have chosen to Evolve your Basic Mage class to Administrator for the System. You now have a choice. You may choose to Evolve to a Level 0 Advanced Administrator of the System, or you may choose to convert your Basic Mage Class to Level 25 Administrator of the System. Regardless of your choice, the Attributes, Abilities, Skills, and Spells you have earned as a Basic Mage remain.

As a Basic Administrator of the System, your Attributes per level will increase, however. From levels 26 through 50 you will earn 8 Attributes per level, +1 to Intelligence, +1 to Wisdom, and 6 points to distribute as you see fit. Additionally, you will be given access to System Specific spellings and technologies not available to any other class.

If you choose to evolve to an Advanced Administrator of the System you will earn 8 Attributes per level, +1 to Intelligence, +1 to Wisdom, and 8 points to distribute as you see fit.

He had of course chosen to change his class and work up the additional 25 levels through the Basic Rank. His Attributes per level had doubled from 4 per level as a mage to 8 per level as an Administrator. Overall, if you averaged the attributes he’d received, he’d earned 6 attributes per basic level, which was 100 more attributes than most people had by the time they reached Advanced level 0. Then 10 attribute points per level for his 50 levels at Advanced, Master, and heroic ranks He knew most classes only received six. His class was one of the better ones out there seeing as there were only 11 primary attributes. He opened his Status Screen just to check and wasn’t at all dissatisfied with what he saw.

Strength 72

Agility 72

Dexterity 69

Endurance 69

Constitution 220

Perception 220

Intelligence 455

Wisdom 438

Willpower 247

Charisma 246

Luck 238

Considering most Basic 1st levels only had 1 to 5 in each attribute and his lowest attribute was 69, he thought he was doing quite well. At least he’d thought so until The System had notified him of something that had happened on Bounty. He’d been notified because someone had been tagged by the system for excessive XP awards for Skill growth. Not because that wasn’t unheard of. No. Because 1,124 skills had been logged and increased in a matter of minutes for 2,248,000,000 XP in the System Market on Bounty. He’d had to check but that was enough XP to level someone all the way up to level 371 in the category above Legendary which was only represented by an “*”.

One Thousand, One Hundred Twenty-Four Skills all leveled to their maximums. How the hell did something like that happen? It was his day off and he had to head into the office and find out what had happened to allow such a thing to happen. A hacking attempt to steal XP and level artificially hadn’t happened during his time as an Administrator. He remembered reading something in one of the lore books about something like that happening a long time ago, so long ago, in fact, that no name was recorded nor were there any records other than the System had created safeguards to prevent such artificial leveling, what it deemed cheating, from ever happening again.

Administrator Dilyard entered his private elevator after the Security guard waved him through as he ignored anyone that tried to say hello or strike up a conversation. He needed to see what had happened on Bounty. As he rode the elevator up his Personal Assistant, housed in his office greeted him through the elevator’s speakers.

“Good morning Administrator Dilyard, how may I assist you today?” The monotone male voice said.

“I have a message in my inbox concerning an award of 2,248,000,000 XP to an individual on the Dungeon World of Bounty in the Fringe. Please pull up all information concerning that individual and the specifics of the awards granted,” The Administrator said. He could pay the credits to receive an implant that would allow his Assistant to always be able to respond to him but he rather liked the ability to step away from the office and just relax without work intruding.

“As you wish. The data is being gathered and will be waiting for you on your terminal,” his personal assistant said.

Administrator Dilyard exited the elevator and walked into his office. As he made his way to his seat he thought about the possible ways The System could be tricked but none of them could lead to the amount of XP he had been messaged about. The most common exploit was for someone of high level, usually a member of royalty or high society, depending on which world or plane they were on, would purchase soul-bound weapons for an heir and set them against monsters far outside their range limit. Sure, they’d get a good XP bonus and level quickly through their Basic Class but the System made sure to penalize their evolutionary choices. The System wanted beings to struggle and work for their levels. Why? No one had figured that out yet, but every study showed the same thing. Those that struggled harder did better within The System.

The Administrator brought his thoughts back to his monitor and started going over what he saw on the screen.

“1,124 Skills, 562 to Basic level 100, 562 to Master level 100.”

He continued to read the Status Screen of Johnathan Bennard before he asked aloud, “What? Over 200 languages, all mastered?”

“It would seem so,” his Personal assistant responded.

“Do not respond to any verbal comments or questions for the next five minutes starting now,” The Administrator said as he began speaking to himself again, “562 combat-related skills to Master level 100, how?” he asked as he pulled up the information on how The System had validated the Skill levels and XP it had awarded.

The Administrator skimmed through the virtual recordings of Johnathan proving his prowess with just about every type of weapon known of, including ships, ship weaponry of all types, melee weapons, and every possible spell there was to cast, including time magic which was on the restricted list. The System was especially impressed with the time dilation effect he’d created. If all of his demonstrations were timed and added together there was well over three years’ worth of material. so that everything he’d proved he could do. Using time dilation, he’d showcased all of his skills and knowledge within a half hour, in the System Market on Bounty.

As The Administrator started to watch each weapon usage and demonstration he could not find any fault in The System’s determination. This man seemed to have learned all of the techniques because his demonstrations showed that his movements and attacks were fluid and interchangeable. He also showed a level of mastery that was on par with the requirements to attain the levels granted. How did someone get that much knowledge and experience? Had The System found one of the purported Ancients?

The Administrator refocused his attention and activated his Administrator ability Know Target Abilities which allowed him to delve into the truth of a being. He could use the ability to investigate the abilities of other beings at range. He had never encountered another ability like it. Almost every other ability that could display the target’s abilities required the target to be touched. When he’d reached his Legendary rank that ability had evolved to allow him to do that by calling up the code on anyone he’d seen or interacted with. Another ability he had, Commune with Nexus, allowed him to use any ability he had inside a Nexus or Nexus hub on any individual he was investigating through The System Interface. Administrator Dilyard pulled up Johnathan’s Information.

The first thing the Administrator noticed was that Johnathan had 24 abilities, all of which could be considered extremely rare. Then he noted the ability Perfect Memory. No wonder he could remember all the skill knowledge he had. It wouldn’t be hard, especially with that ability in one of his two Primary Core Slots. It still didn’t explain how he had all of that knowledge.

Administrator Dilyard pulled out a small skull cap from his dimensional storage and attached the one wire that it had to a port in his desk, and leaned back as he put the skull cap on. Another ability he had, Know History, allowed him to review his target’s memories from the copy that The System had on file for everyone within its influence. His ability also allowed him to review the memories at an accelerated rate.

Administrator Dilyard set the playback speed to 400% faster than normal, a pace he could easily withstand, and then started. He watched as Johnathan Bennard grew up in New Mexico on a variation of Earth. He watched as Johnathan found a ring that gave him 1,000 XP per second. Later, Abi, an artificial construct that had been sent by a sentient labyrinth informed him of this because the location he was in didn’t have magic, an interface system, or System Screen for Johnathan to know what the ring was doing to his body…

The Administrator’s Personal Assistant (APA) noted the vacant look that came over the Administrator’s face. The APA activated the body support functions of the chair the Administrator was sitting in which would provide for waste management and nourishment. The APA had checked the size of the file the Administrator was reviewing from the System. Even at 400% faster than normal it was going to take years for him to finish reviewing that file. With the needs of his master seen to, the APA placed itself in stasis until it was needed again.

***

High Magus Augustin Munoz, or Oz, as he preferred, so as not to give away his true name, left the train and turned right as he watched Adam follow the crowd out of the station into the city. As a newcomer, Adam was about to be surprised, delighted, and appalled by everything that was available in the city of Astrix. Yes, the area leading up to the city was beautiful and covered in oceans, lush jungles, and floating islands all around that were much the same. The entrance to Astrix was at the center of that paradise. One only had to travel through an Arch of marbled white and black granite to find themselves entering the System Market which was directly above where he now stood.

The trains entered and exited the city subway by other means. Also, the trains usually used entrances into the Labyrinth as their attachment points. In this case, the node room was below the three connection points for the trains. He was currently on the Green Level. Yellow was one floor down and the Red Line was below that. Through a set of double doors on the Red Line platform was an entrance to the Node Room. Once there he could use the Node to go elsewhere, or he could exit the Node Room on the other side and physically make his way through the Labyrinth.

Unlike the trains, which only traveled to green, yellow, and red locations from Astrix, the Nodes could connect to any other node you had ever touched. Using the nodes also lets you travel into and out of regions that normally didn’t touch because those areas that were physically close to each other stayed around the same level. Node Points allowed one to travel to any other location within the Labyrinth, regardless of the levels of creatures in the area.

Oz strode into the Node Room and stepped into the queue that had formed. The creature in front of him disappeared and Oz stepped forward. He placed his hand on the Node, a floating silver orb, and thought of the Node Room on his home planet, Evlandervil. The city was on the Blue. It was off the normal paths and relatively remote which made it perfect for his research.

A moment later he appeared in an empty node room and made his way outside. Unlike Astrix, this Node point didn’t attach to a city. In fact, it was one of only two node points that came to this planet well within the heartland of the System. Getting to this Node Point, either through the Labyrinth or by ship was incredibly hard to do. Evlandervil orbited an orange sun within a universe that only had one star. Though some scholars believed that the star might be within a void of dust that was blocking all other starlight from reaching it. No one knew, however, because the only individuals that had ever visited Evlandervil had arrived via the Labyrinth. Of course, once someone had the Node Point here as a destination it was a simple thing to transport to and from but, no one could follow. His colleagues had tried repeatedly. Any attempts to follow or locate him were impossible because they received errors stating that he was outside of their teleportation range.

He had discovered a train station for the blue line, or he should say for a blue line on the other side of the planet. He’d ridden it for a year and never found a connection point to any other location he’d ever been. Then he’d headed to Astrix and made his way to Nexus to catch the Blue Line there. He’d ridden that Blue Line for another year and never come across one stop that he’d traveled to on the Blue Line that left his home.

Nexus was a city, much like Astrix where Orange and Blue lines intersected. It also wasn’t a long jaunt from Astrix. Just get on the Red Line in Astrix, ride it for about a week, and then transfer to the Orange Line in the city of Orgalon. Another week was found in the city of Nexus, which for all intents and purposes was the center of the System, though some argued that the center of The System was on the Purple Line, which could only be accessed in one city the Blue Line stopped at, Suigen.

Unlike Evlandervil, Suigen was a trade and adventure hub where parties traveled into the Labyrinth. Adventuring parties could go back along the blue legendary routes or test their luck by heading into the unknown that very few returned from. Asterix and Orgalon were both larger but the truly unique items, if they could be found, were either in Nexus or Suigen. Well, it was better to say if the item you were looking for couldn’t be found in Nexus then Suigen was the only other place that might have it.

That’s why Oz thought his day had been most fortuitous. Finding an Adamantium ring and also receiving a bar of the stuff he could have made into even more rings… When he was done, he was going to be rich enough to do whatever he wanted. He didn’t know what Adam was going to do but with his ability to create anything someone else might need, either he was going to be a powerhouse to be reckoned with, or the powers that be would absorb him and turn him into a resource. Most likely the latter.

High Magus Oz stepped through the curtain of energy onto the planet of Evlandervil. The entrance to the Labyrinth was on a rocky plateau. Also, there were no modern conveniences on this planet. No taxis, air cars, or any other technological luxury methods of travel, yet. Oz pulled a flying rug out of his dimensional storage and tossed it into the air where it hovered a couple inches above the ground. He stepped onto the rug and established mental control as he sped north toward his home.

The rug was rather nice and allowed him to race along at incredible speed while protecting him from air resistance and blowing wind. He could fly into the middle of a tornado and neither he, nor the rug, would be affected in any way. The Estate he’d built was on a southern cliff that looked north over a jungle that raced off to the east and west along the shoreline of an inland sea. A freshwater river went over the cliff just a little way from his residence and supplied all the energy and water he’d need as the river came down from snow-covered mountains farther south than his estate.

The trip from the Node Point to his estate only took about 15 minutes, though if he were to walk the same distance it would have taken a couple of weeks due to the rough terrain and mountain ranges between the Node room and his residence. As he landed, he pulled up his interface and checked all of the automatic defenses and spells to ensure no one had visited then made his way inside and downstairs to his workshop. It would take a little while but Adam had given him the one thing he needed to finish a ring that would make his name known throughout the System. He sent a thankful thought out into the ether for Adam then put his mind to the task at hand, and went to work.

***

When High Magus Oz had gone in the opposite direction of everyone else leaving the train, Adam had gone up into an open market of sorts where anything and everything was for sale. Also, humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings weren’t the only races he ran into. One person he saw could have been a Klingon while he could swear he saw a Yautja, one of the Predators from the movie Predator. Luckily most were speaking common or a combination of English and common that was so close to normal English that it was easy for him to follow the conversation.

The market was made up of clearly defined walkways and rest areas. One of the street signs drew his attention with destinations labeled very neatly. Luckily he found the sign he wanted most of all and headed off toward the System Market. Unlike the last System Market he’d visited, this one had a very simple sign over a door. People wouldn’t even be able to make it out until they were almost at the door.

Adam opened the door and stepped into another high-tech interior. Immediately a floating metallic sphere started floating toward Adam, “Good day, I am Vendor 7Z-675. In accordance with your last visit to one of our System Market locations, I have disengaged the neural interactive system. How can I help you today Johnathan?”

“I would like to purchase information on a few of my friends and family. For now, I would like to simply know if they are alive or dead. How much will that cost?”

“With no other criteria or update upon a status change it will be 50 credits per person,” the vendor said.

“And if I wanted to receive a simple update if their status did change?” Adam asked.

“Knowledge of their current status and a one-time update if their status were to change would normally be 50 + 500 credits or 550 credits per person.”

Adam provided the personal information and descriptions for his mother, father, Adaline, Pandora, Amanda, Abi, Desirae, and Clarence. He also checked on Pandora’s friends; Callum, Asling, Robert, Cedrik, and Pythias. 7,150 credits were subtracted from his account which left him with 5,549.

A moment later, Adam’s peace of mind was satisfied as every individual he asked about was listed as “Alive.” Adam turned to the vendor and asked, “How much to learn about their locations?”

“Base cost is 1 million credits, Also, if you do not know how to get to the location directions via Train, if possible, costs 1,000 credits each,” The vendor said.

“Thank you, I’m going to go look around town for a bit, I may be back to purchase that information in the near future,” Adam said.

“Very well, Sir. Have a pleasant day, “ the Vendor said as Adam turned and left the store.

Adam walked around the market watching as individuals sold various items and bought others. He also tried to pick up on the various items that people were selling to try to figure out what was important. After about thirty minutes he came upon a vendor that appeared to be an aquatic elf of some type. She was purchasing light green fluorescent pearls.

“I’m giving the best prices in the Market, 200% markup. Just bring your Royal Oyster pearls to me and I will give you the best price in the market, Guaranteed!” the aquatic elf called out repeatedly.

Nearby Adam heard someone ask someone standing next to him, “Why is she doing that?”

Something moved into all the local oyster beds and is keeping the farmers from going in and getting them. Those specific pearls are very useful in making Stamina and Health potions. Seeing as there’s a shortage of each of those potions, even on the System Market, she’s trying to get pearls so she can make a profit. A big profit,” he said as he turned away when he saw Adam listening to their conversation.

Adam just smiled and walked over to the older gentlemen, “I couldn’t help but hear what you were telling your companion. Now I know I could probably go get the location of the oyster fields from the System Market if I wanted to but seeing as you are right here, I’ll give you 100 credits if you tell me where the field that is having problems is.

“I thank you for the offer Sir, but you really don’t want to be going down there. If it’s not a monster of some type keeping the farmers away then it’s gotta be some royals or their heroic or legendary goons keeping the pearls all to themselves. Either way, someone will go down there and clear whatever the problem is in the next couple of days and Lizzie’s prices will drop back down to normal,” he said sincerely.

“Not to worry, I’ll still give you 100 credits to know where I shouldn’t be sticking my nose,” Adam said with a smile.

“That, Sir, I can do. The closest isn’t far. First, do you know how to tell directions here, which way is north, south, east, and west?”

“Can’t say that I do, I arrived just a little while ago,” Adam answered honestly.

“Okay, well, you go off in that direction, the man said as he pointed down a street that seemed to go on for a while,” That’s west by the way. After about a mile take a right to go down to the docks. There’s a sign, so just watch for the sign to the docks. While you walking to the docks, that’ll be north. Once you’re at the docks, the smaller boats can get you out to the area you need to get to or you can fly or swim. You need to head north off the dock, out of the inlet, and into the ocean for about a mile then just head down. It’s not too deep but, not too close to the surface either so make sure to take something that lets you breathe underwater. Did you get all that?”

“Sure did, head to the docks and then north out into the sea for about a mile then down. Is there any reason I can’t fly in that direction in the city?” Adam asked.

“Nope, there’s no restrictions out here in the outer city. People be flying around all the time. No restrictions in the middle city either. That’s the area inside the 10-foot wall all the way up to the 20-foot wall. There are restrictions inside the area enclosed by the 20-foot wall though. Only individuals that have a permit can fly in the inner city.

How do I get a permit to fly in the inner city?” Adam asked.

“You buy it of course. They sell them here in the market or the System Market. Same price in both places so it doesn’t really matter where you go. They can also be given out as gifts from various merchants, companies, or important individuals,” the man said.

“Well, my names Adam, and I’d like to thank you…” Adam said leaving an opening for the man to give him his name.

“Geob, my names Geob. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself,” he said as he held out his left wrist.

Adam touched his wrist to Geob’s and transferred 125 credits, “No issue, put a little tip in for all the help you just gave me. Think I’m going to head off now, Adam said.

“Good luck to you Adam!” Geob said as Adam headed south through the market.

Adam walked a couple of blocks away from the docks, rounded a corner, activated Obscure and Flight, and launched into the air. He headed North east toward the docks. A moment later he was over the dock and heading out over the ocean. The docks were in a short inlet that acted as a break against the ocean waves and protected any ships that were docked. As he was heading out into the ocean Adam noticed what could only be described as a 20th-century yacht with typical attire for a party going on the upper deck and individuals diving into the ocean off the lower deck

Adam slowed down and headed toward the upper deck as he used Mold Chaos to change his attire to match others on the upper deck. All of them seemed to be wearing swimming suits, bikinis, or nothing at all in some cases. Adam opted for a black pair of swimming trunks and a simple white T-shirt. He landed out of sight of the other passengers, dropped his Obscure ability, and walked back to the party as if he had every right to. Adam wasn’t surprised at all when no one gave him a second glance as he walked up to the bar and asked for a drink.