“Hello,” I replied. “I’m Nick Howell.”

  “I know,” Stylo said with a smile. “I was told that your full name is Nicholas Marcus Howell and that you are the Clanchief of Clan Howell. What is your preferred method of address?”

  I had to work my way through his stilted and formal style of talking. His voice had that mechanical tone like a computer but there was some warmth and life to it.

  “Nick is fine.”

  “Lord Nick or just Nick?”

  “Nick.”

  I had almost replied “just Nick” but knew how that would go.

  “Greetings Nick, welcome to Clan Howell’s Faction Compound in the Multiversal Nexus. I am your Guide to the Nexus and will serve as your interface with the greater Nexus.”

  He held out his hand, a small token appeared in it. The token looked like a coin about an inch in diameter. It was a silver color and had the Clan’s symbol etched into it. I picked it up, seeing the symbol on both sides. It had some weight to it.

  “That is your Nexus Token,” Stylo said. “From now on, you will use that to open the portal between your world and the Nexus. It will bring you here. It also serves as a way for me or someone else in your compound to contact you on your world.”

  I thanked him, putting the token into my spatial storage.

  “Now that your compound has been created, all upgrades and interface will be done through me,” Stylo continued. “I will also serve as the interface from your shop in the Market District to your compound coffers. Multiversal Points, or MPs, are part of your System Interface and are not a physical construct. As such, a guide is required to facilitate transfer between Adventurers.”

  I nodded, figuring it would be something like that.

  “So when I want to upgrade, I contact you?”

  “Yes sir. But you do not need to contact me. Just say my name and I will appear.”

  “Got it,” I said, starting to walk toward the longhouse.

  Stylo followed me.

  Reaching the longhouse, I sat down on the steps, Stylo stayed standing. He stood straight but still managed to look relaxed. Formal, but relaxed. I wanted to go inside and look around, do that with all the buildings, but there was time for that later. I had questions and had someone willing to answer as it was his job after all. It was Q&A time.

  “What are the Compound ranks?”

  “There is no cap to the number of Ranks. Each is controlled by Multiversal Points and your Level of the Infinite Tower. As long as you keep climbing the Tower and have the Multiversal Points to spend, you can continue to upgrade your compound.”

  “There has to be a limit to how much space each can have,” I said.

  Stylo nodded.

  “There is but there are also decorations and other things that can be purchased to upgrade the compound.”

  Stylo waved his hand and a screen appeared. I could see things like fountains, decorative arches, wells and other objects. I looked at Stylo confused. I could have gotten a well for my compound without paying a cost, but hadn’t seen the need.

  “Anything you add from this point on will cost Multiversal Points,” Stylo said.

  I cursed. Figures the System would pull something like that. I should have filled the space with buildings and items, getting greenspace later. Stupid.

  Of course, Stylo hadn’t been around yet and there had been nothing in the interface about it. The System wanted Adventurers to gain and spend MP. It wanted us to challenge ourselves to earn it, as that just ended up benefitting the System in the long run.

  “Some of the more expensive options are Arcanum-Infused,” Stylo continued. He pointed at one of the images, making it enlarge. It showed a purple oak tree with a full bough. The leaves seemed to have a slight glow to them. “This is called a LESSER ARCANE OAK. When placed in your compound it gives a slight boost to Arcanum regeneration.”

  That could be useful.

  Everyone integrated into the System had their Core awakened and that gave them access to the Arcanum that was now ambient in the air. Each person’s Core could only hold so much Arcanum at a time, which could grow as we grew stronger. But there was still a cap to how much the Core could store. Each use of Essence Abilities drained that Core of Arcanum. The Arcanum would regenerate but it could take a long time depending on various conditions.

  Having a tree in the compound that helped with regeneration could be great for Crafters that infused Arcanum into their creations.

  “How much would something like that cost?”

  “100,000 Multiversal Points,” Stylo answered.

  I wasn’t sure if that was a lot or a little, so I asked Stylo.

  “As you know an Adventurer earns Multiversal Points by clearing Dungeons and Floors in the Infinite Tower. You can also sell goods through your store or by running an entertainment establishment like a restaurant.” Stylo paused, holding up his hand to stop my next question. “One subject at a time please.” I nodded, knowing I had a bad habit of jumping from topic to topic. “A Level One Solo Dungeon can earn up to Fifty Multiversal Points. A Level One Party Dungeon can earn up to One Hundred Multiversal Points per party member. A Level One Guild Dungeon can earn up to Two Hundred Multiversal Points per guildmember.”

  The Tutorial had explained what all that meant and it was similar to Dungeons on Earth. Dungeons on Earth were areas where the ambient Arcanum built up forming a Dungeoncore. That core created the Dungeon, its theme and monsters. Each Dungeon had a Level range associated with it and some were designed for solo Pathers, or a party of five members. There were rare ones that we called Raid, but apparently were Guild in the Tower. Those required multiple teams of five members.

  Those things were hell. Such a pain in the ass. Most of it was dealing with all the raid members.

  “So it takes a lot of points to get the pretty decoration items,” I said, after trying to do some math in my head.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Indeed. And remember that as an Adventurer you are also spending Multiversal Points on overall compound upgrades, crafting materials, items to send to your home planet and so on.”

  “So it takes a long time to earn that much,” I said, sighing.

  I had no team in the Nexus, it would take some time to build up a reputation to build one, so would be doing a lot of solo dungeons and biome quests to earn MP.

  “As you know you can only have two non-Level 100 Adventurer guests in the Multiversal Nexus with you,” Stylo continued. I nodded. “Every five levels of the Tower that you Clear, you can add two more guests to the Nexus. Other Adventurers at Level 100 can also join your compound as members of your Clan without forming their own Faction. They can of course form their own Faction at any time but would start at the lower ranks and need to use their own Multiversal Points to upgrade. Those other Adventurers can have two guests and gain two more guests with each five Levels of the Tower Cleared.”

  I nodded. It was all pretty basic.

  “The Infinite Tower is what caps each Adventurer’s progress. You will only gain so many Multiversal Points at each floor of the Tower. It controls how many upgrades you can make. It controls how much you can Advance before being required to finish a Floor.”

  “So like the Level Threshold pre-100?”

  “Correct,” Stylo answered. “Now that you are in the multiverse you will still have the Level and Essence thresholds at every Twenty-Five Levels but now you will have Floor Thresholds at every Ten Levels. This means that every Five Tower Floors, you will need to have advanced Ten Levels to keep climbing the tower. You can still gain Levels without entering the Infinite Tower but it will be much slower and harder.”

  That was how it was for non-Adventurers. Pathers could get to Level 100 and beyond by fighting monsters and Dungeons on Earth. So could I, but I’d Level a lot faster by running the Infinite Tower. And as an Adventurer, I had to keep Leveling fast and Challenging myself.

  The Celestial Challenge System hated when it’s Pathers, and especially it’s Adventurers, didn’t challenge themselves.

  “What did you mean by my MP income slowing down at the Tower caps?” I asked. That was something new that I hadn’t heard before.

  “As you know, the Infinite Tower has five to ten biomes per floor. Each of those biomes has multiple quests associated with the biome overland, along with Hunting Permits for specific creatures. There are also a set number of Dungeons in each biome. Some of the Dungeons can be repeated but each repetition gives less Multiversal Point gains. The overland quests are repeatable without the repetition point loss but the overland quests do not give as many points. Once you have Cleared all the biomes on a floor, you are given access to the higher floors.”

  “I can always go back to the lower floors though right?” I asked, thinking if there was a material I would want to farm or something.

  “Only two floors below,” Stylo said. “And you will earn significantly less Multiversal Points. The Celestial Challenge System encourages you to raise up new Adventurers to run the lower floors for materials.”

  That made sense. Adventurers were hard to raise up though. Once a few of us had survived the Tutorial, which still had a life expectancy of 25%, and told the others what we’d been through, not many of the un-Pathed wanted to run the Tutorial. Jackson did and I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to. It had been a nightmare.

  But the only way to mark someone as an Adventurer, which allowed them to come to Crossroads and run the Infinite Tower, was to run and survive the Challenge Tutorial. Guests couldn’t run the Infinite Tower.

  “That makes sense,” I replied, standing up.

  A shadow passed across the ground. Looking up I saw an eagle flying overhead. Neat.

  The whole thing was a scam. I was being forced to run the Infinite Tower to earn MP but was also going to need to spend MP, but there would probably be more to spend than to earn. Incentive to keep raising up Adventurers to run the Tower for the Clan. And it would require me trying to figure out the best use of my MP.

  I had no real desire to expand the compound. I’d have to grow it as more people arrived, but I didn’t have this overwhelming need to make a palace or huge compound just to have one. Or to spend MP on decorations that just showed off how much money I had.

  Most of my MP would go toward materials and resources to bring back to Earth and Solace. I was going to outfit my Clan with Nexus gear.

  Things had never really settled on Earth. Sure we were surviving and the multiple Clans across Earth were growing. But that was the problem. There were a lot of Clans on the planet, some stronger than others. Some were more expansionist than others.

  I was happy with Solace’s size, but as we got more people coming to join us, we had to naturally expand our territory. And our combat Pathers needed something to do, so they fought the monsters along the borders, which thanks to the System increased the territory as they claimed land. They also had to deal with the Dungeons and prevent monster surges.

  Other Clans, like Subutei’s Flowing Dragon Sect, was very expansionist. Last I knew, he had most of the eastern half of Pangaea as his territory and kept pushing west. The guy claimed to be an ancestor of Genghis Khan. I tended to believe him.

  Earth was now three supercontinents instead of the old seven. Pangaea was Asia and Australia. Ur was North, Central and parts of South America. Nuna was Antarctica and the rest of South America. They didn’t match the historical supercontinents but just the names they’d been given. Solace was in northeastern Ur. We claimed most of the eastern part of the continent, a good chunk into the west. The Flowing Dragon Sect were far enough away to be a distant threat. Still a threat but not immediate.

  That was Fred Douglas’ United American Alliance and his land of New America. He had pretty much the entire lower half of Ur, even if it wasn’t System-Official, it would be soon enough. He kept pushing north and would be a threat to Solace in a couple hundred years, maybe a little sooner depending on how he did in Nexus.

  What kind of contacts he made and how fast he climbed the Infinite Tower would have a great impact on my future and the future of my Clan and territory. He was my competition here.

  There was also the worry that Subutei or Douglas would someday conqueror the entire world. I wanted to prevent that. I just wanted Solace to live peacefully.

  That was my goal for my entire time on Nexus.

  I got along with Fred, who was pure Texan, even though we differed greatly on politics and aspirations, but he was a good guy to drink a beer with. I didn’t hold it against him that he had been a Cowboys fan.

  Subutei on the other hand, we did not get along. I was pretty indifferent to him but he hated me with a passion. And it had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with fighting style. The System classified us both as Martial Artists. Frontline melee DPS fighters. But Subutei was a true Martial Artist. He had the grace of form and movement. Subutei was a superhuman Bruce Lee. Not me. He called me an ‘uncouth, unrefined fighter with a complete lack of style’. It was true though and got the job done.

  I turned to Stylo.

  “Let’s talk about the Tower and how soon I can start running it.”