Weapons of Mass Destruction

The Entrance floor of the Beyond dungeon is massive, and crowded with people. So far I’ve seen humans, lynthari, demons, and more of those smaller humanoids with scaly legs; I don't know what to call their race.

And many more. The different races seem to come in all shapes and sizes, some are men and women with wings growing from their backs, another one with hair that keeps glowing and floating around their head, I even catch a glimpse of a man twice as tall as me, and too many others to count. Sitting on the ground with my back against the wall of a nearby building well out of the way, I observe each of them as they move about.

None of them have text over their head. All of them are just as real as me, as real as Group 4, as real as Vega. Each one a person who managed to complete their Beyond trials to make it here.

It makes sense. Our round has seven people in Beyond. Earth should have at least five rounds, and if each round has around, let's say, an average of five people. That means there should be 25 from Earth alone, probably twice that if we have ten rounds. Even if some of them die, it means a decent number should manage to enter Beyond.

Now multiply that by the hundreds, maybe thousands of tutorials running at the same time, and you should get an idea of the number of people here. Well, probably not exactly here; from what I've seen, this entrance floor is huge but it’s probably not the only one. I would expect there to be a few more at least.

It's all so overwhelming and fascinating that I have to force myself to tone down my excitement.

Beyond, according to my handler, lies in between the real world and the tutorials. So what exactly does that mean? I want to know. I also want to know about Beyond quests. I want to know about the First Dungeon that Beyond is built on and the whole 1st floor I should enter for now.

Guilds, rankings, trading, quests, a small possibility of meeting some Beyonder from Earth. Hell, I might be able to meet our round's first Beyonder or even Victoria, I'm sure she would have found her way here.

Another big question is, are all of these people part of the tutorial, or is it possible to enter from the outside world as well?

“Hey,” I reply.

Everyone here is a Beyonder. The same as me, Tacita, or Savant. None of these people can be underestimated.

“You are probably new here, so if you want, I can point you to a place where they can restore your legs,” he offers.

“That would be nice,” I say, pretending to accept on the off chance he has some decent information.

He nods quickly and points in one direction, “If you go that way you’ll find a branch of Serene Circle. For the right price, they can heal you.”

“Is it possible to trade shards?”

The man laughs, “Yes, but only within Beyond, and the system always takes a 20% cut, so they generally prefer that you just buy items for them. Prices in the system shop are 10% higher here in Beyond, but it’s a bit better than trading. I have to go, good luck, man.” He waves, cutting off further comments as he leaves.

I watch as he joins a small group of other people, and they disappear together around the corner.

So the system takes 20% when you trade shards, and prices are 10% higher in the system shop.

There’s so much potential for abuse and every opportunity for someone very rich to make someone much stronger extremely quickly. Shards can be used for better passives, items, and information.

But the more I think about it, the less worried I become. In the end, it’s all about the user, and active skills are the most important.

I then make an experimental attempt to open the Community interface, but it seems to be impossible here, the same goes for the Beyond Community. Checking the other notifications, there are no quests or other information.

So I decide to check the Rankings as my handler recommended and find myself confronted with a number of categories.

Guild Rankings

Exploration Leaders

Individual Rankings

Crafting Rankings

The first one seems obvious, and I open it and check the first few guilds.

Guild Rankings

1. Bloodline

2. Frontier

3. Primordial Knights

4. Crimson Forge

5. Astral Brotherhood

...

The list goes on, showing hundreds of guilds, but these five seem to be the top ranked. There is no information regarding how the rankings are calculated.

Then I open another list.

Exploration Leaders

1. Adrian (6th Floor)

2. Voss (5th Floor)

3. Nyssa Volare (5th Floor)

4. Orion (5th Floor)

5. Zenith (5th Floor)

...

Looking at them, I guess the floor shows the First Dungeon's floor and not the tutorial’s. And there sure seems to be a big difference between 1st and 2nd place.

Is it possible to enter Beyond after the tutorial? Are these rankings limited to those set during the five years of the tutorial? There’s so much I need to ask. I’ll need to find someone to question. Hell, I can probably offer an item or two.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Onto another ranking then.

Individual Rankings

1. Adrian (Ivory Tower)

2. Lyraen (The Silent Veil)

3. Solae M’Karn (Bloodline)

4. Zarith K’Traal (The Darkmoon Collective)

5. Nyssa Volare (Primordial Knights)

…

This list also continues on listing hundreds of individuals up to one thousand. This raises still more questions: Are all the people listed in the rankings currently active in Beyond, or are they historical rankings updated over millennia or greater scales?

The more questions I have, the more shards I'm willing to pay. I really need to grab someone on the weaker end of things and try to bully them into answering.

And lastly, there are

Crafting Rankings

1. Eldrin (Crimson Forge)

2. Isolde (Crimson Forge)

3. Silverweave (Crimson Forge)

4. Vaelith (Frontier)

5. Orin (Stormrider Company)

…

Well, here it seems like Crimson Forge is kind of obliterating the rankings.

After closing the windows, I glance at my still recovering legs and send a bit more mana into my mana replacements, and stand up. It's a bit more difficult to keep my balance without any feeling in my feet, but it’s nothing I haven't dealt with before.

Walking on the cobblestone, I look around, examining people around me.

So far, no one tried to use mana to examine me, so I do the same. It was considered rude on the floors I’ve already visited, so it's probably the same here.

Most people seem to gather in groups, moving in the direction of what I assume is an entrance to the dungeon or a path to the surface. Each of these groups is bigger, often over 20 people, sometimes even 50.

There are also smaller groups of less than 10 people, but they seem very strong. It's hard to estimate just by looking, but they’re surely in their 300s, likely years into their tutorial.

I wonder how many of these weapons are arcane, how many of these people have arcane passives, and what level are their skills. It frustrates me to not know, I have so many questions. Was Savant right when he said that arcane was the limit of rarity in the tutorial? Could I fight some of the 3rd, 4th, or 5th year Beyonders? How many shards do they have?

As I stand there, I notice someone from the crowd move closer, a man dressed in simple clothes and a big bag on his back.

“Let me guess, you’re new here,” he says with a smile that immediately betrays him as an extrovert class.

“Did my looking around give me away?” I ask.

“Yeah, I passed by three times and here you are, standing in the same place, looking around while trying not to stand out.” He smiles, “My name's Duncan, I'm one of the locals.”

“Locals?”

“Oh, of course, you don't know. To say it simply, the earlier generations of tutorial attendees came to Beyond. Some of them had kids and they… Well, they left them here. So a few of the Rulers twisted the rules a bit and since then there have been locals. Would you like to know more?”

It's all interesting stuff so I nod. Maybe I’ve really found myself a truly informed guy.

I nod in answer.

“One epic item and I’ll be glad to answer your questions for an hour or two. Not all of them of course, that would cost a lot more, but some basic information should be fine. Things that everyone should know.”

I'm not even surprised.

“No, thank you.”

“Got it! I have to go but this one is free, beware the guilds. They generally like to make a push to reel in newbies with terrible contracts so don't sign anything yet. See you around.”

And with that, Duncan leaves.

For now, I will follow the advice my handler gave me, at least until my legs regrow. With the amount of concentrated thermal energy I’m feeding my passive and my body upgrade, it should only take a day or two.

In that time, I should be able to glean a bit more information for free, so there should be no need to waste 4 thousand shards or more.

As I walk through the crowd, everyone else seems capable, that's the word I would use. They often have an abundance of nice equipment and I even recognize a few voidsteel blades, the Housekeeper’s rapier, some of the items from the 3rd Floor, equipment from the 2nd floor though it’s higher quality than anything I was able to get.

Plenty of these people have stuff I do not recognize. Maybe even from the 6th, 7th, and higher floors of Hell difficulty.

It makes me feel like a rookie again, someone who just found themselves somewhere new, and I have to wonder if, in a few years, some new Beyonder will look at me the same way I look at these people.

Rather than demoralizing me, it fuels my competitive spirit. There are multiple rankings I can get onto. The surface and the dungeon to explore and all the information I can collect about the system, other planets, and any number of other things.

And there is hope the difficulty here is higher. Other than the "bosses" of the floors, I don’t really have much to worry about in Hell difficulty - well, maybe only if I decide to make things harder on purpose. Of course, I’m certain the higher floors of the tutorial will be much more difficult and dangerous.

As I walk into an area that reminds me of a town square surrounding a central fountain, I glance at the ceiling of the cave. There are dozens of crystal-like stones, radiating a light reminiscent of sunlight. There are probably inscriptions on them, but I do not send my senses towards them. Forcing myself not to use them feels like I’ve lost half my sight.

“Hey, you’re a Pride subclass, right? I recognize your clothes, they are 5th floor style, right?” A woman comes closer to me.

She is surprisingly friendly.

As an answer, I nod but she doesn't seem to be bothered.

“I'm Pride as well, I reached Adept not long ago so I could sense…”

She blabbers away and I listen with one ear, waiting for a catch.

“So, me and a few of my friends have this guild. We just started, but our guild master has huge plans. He is on the 8th floor of Hell difficulty you know. 8th already, just three years into the tutorial!”

“He must be really strong,” I say.

“Yes, he is and…”

“Listen, by any chance, do you know more about rankings and would you answer some of my questions?” I ask, trying to get some answers before she tries to scam me into anything.

With a sigh, her expression goes from cheery to neutral and she turns to leave.

“Fucking smartass rookies,” I hear her mumble under her breath before she disappears into the crowd.

Shrugging my shoulders, I continue to walk around, looking for answers. I locate a few buildings with guards in front of them, smithies, places for enchanters, and even a few inns. There are gardens, there is trading and a great number of exchanges.

Everyone seems to be energetic and rushed, and remembering the prices of Stay Tokens, it all makes sense.

In the end, I get invited to two more guilds. Someone offers to buy my ax. Another person tries to sell me a damaged epic item they say will have the performance of arcane when fixed.

A bunch of people as confused as me try to invite me on an expedition into the dungeons. I refuse and watch them leave.

And no one answers my questions. Most people just ignore me. It's something I'm really not used to, it's like they’ve pushed me aside as if I weren’t worth their time.

So when a few hours pass and I see Duncan passing by, I stop him. I don't even have to say anything as he smiles brightly at me, fixing his huge bag on his back.

Then he asks for the payment first, his price for answering my questions increasing from 1 epic item to 1 epic item and 1 rare item.

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