00:00:00:11:25

  The bear’s paw swung down, easily bigger than my head. I held my arm up, wooden tonfa alongside my arm, feeling the kinetic field only an inch from my arm. Huge claws, thick pads covered in gray and brown fur, slammed into the invisible field. I felt the energy of the blow transfer through the field and into my Core where it was stored.

  Even though it outweighed me by a couple of tons, and had a whole lot of force and power built up on the swing, I held my ground. The impact didn’t stagger me.

  Of course I had to manipulate some of the kinetic energy into negative inertia, keeping me locked in place. I knew that wasn’t a real thing, but in this day and age of the Celestial Challenge System, old world physics were thrown out the window.

  Along with a lot of other stuff from the old world.

  The bear took a step back, rearing up and ready to swing again. It looked a bit confused that I wasn’t a bloody pulp after that swing. I think it had even had some Arcanum infused into it. Nothing that I couldn’t dissipate and deal with.

  It was a big mofo. Three times the size of an old world grizzly but still looking the same. Except the coloring. Arcanum infusion tended to change the coloring. I’d loved bears as a kid, went to Clark’s with the family numerous times. This bad boy was nothing like those cuddly bears had been.

  Mostly gray with brown streaks. There were a couple of scars marring the thick fur, signs that this guy had been through some crap. That was the way of life in the CCS, or System as we just called it. There was always something else. Some other fight. Some other challenge.

  It never ended.

  Not even when I was stuck at the threshold of Level 100. One of the strongest people on all of New Earth.

  The bear roared, the sound echoing across the woods.

  I wanted to roar back, to play with this guy. It looked like it could be a fun fight.

  But I was in a bit of a time crunch.

  I had less than eleven minutes until Earth was opened up to the Multiverse and I’d be going on a bit of a trip.

  No time to play.

  I sheathed the two tonfas. They were good for helping absorb kinetic energy, and decent at slamming it back, but for this fight I decided to go with the old standby.

  I pulled the kinetic energy out of my Core, channeling it into my hands. Flexing my fingers, feeling the strength, I curled them into fists. Shifting my feet, I faced the bear.

  “Sorry about this Yogi,” I said, hearing a couple chuckles behind me.

  A couple of the folks back there wouldn’t even get the old Earth reference. I was showing my age. Fifty years on this planet, though I still only looked twenty-five thanks to the Arcanum in my body, and twenty-five of it before the System had awakened our world and reset the entire thing back to a more primitive era.

  And killed over half the world’s nine billion population at the same time.

  The bear settled back down on all fours, rushing at me. A paw swung and I ducked under, swinging an uppercut into the bear's huge head. It snapped back, stunning the monster. I followed up with a solid left jab to the temple.

  The head swung to the side, opening up for another punch.

  Each of my swings was infused with Force Arcanum and powered by the absorbed kinetic energy. Every movement of my body and the bear’s created more kinetic energy that I absorbed and redirected into my punches and increasing my speed. I stayed right in front of the bear, slamming its head repeatedly, not giving it a chance to bite at me or think about its next move.

  I was hitting the poor thing too fast for it to react. I could have ended the fight quicker if I’d aimed for any vital organs. Heart, lungs, that kind of thing. I could easily punch through the thinner hide of the bear’s underbelly, but I didn’t want to damage any of that. This guy was huge. That was a lot of meat, hide, fur and the organs would be decent alchemical components.

  If the last twenty-five years had taught us anything it was that all the parts of a monster had a use.

  And I had to pause in the relentless attacks to keep my hat from falling off. The damn thing was enchanted but sometimes all the wild Arcanum flowing around interfered with the enchantment and it wanted to fall off. No way was I ever going to lose that, not after twenty-five years. The one thing that had survived the Integration.

  After another half dozen Arcanum infused blows I felt something give in the bear. It gave one last groan and then collapsed. I had to jump out of the way so the body wouldn’t fall on me.

  YOU HAVE SLAIN ELITE ARCANE GRAYRAGE KODIAK

  I had figured it was an Elite but it had still only been around Level Eighty-Five or so. Might have been a challenge for the gang waiting behind me, but was nothing for me. Those Fifteen Levels were huge in terms of power.

  Most of Solace’s elite hunter squads had been busy. There were Dungeons, rampaging monsters and all the usual stuff to deal with. This poor guy had wandered into my semi-tamed territory from the wild beastlands outside our borders. Might have been a bit much for the locals to handle and since I was just wasting time waiting for the countdown, and it was only a hundred miles from Solace Town, I had leapt at the chance to take him on.

  I was bored. After all this time pretty much constantly fighting, politics, dealing with growing the territory and Clan, I got bored pretty easily.

  The others had come with me just in case Yogi had friends we didn’t know about.

  It was like that. Sometimes these Elite Arcanebeasts ended up having a pack with them. I probably would have been able to handle them all, but not in the time I had.

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  I stepped around Yogi, moving to where his Core would be. A couple of small crystals, the size of footballs, were hovering just above the body. They glowed with an inner greenish soft light. Three Essence Crystals.

  Let’s see what we got.

  I reached out and grabbed the three, feeling the different types of energy they gave off. Darkness, Force and Creation. The only one I could use was Force. Since I was maxxed out in all my Essences and Level, I would save this with the Leveling Crystals I already had stockpiled. The Force Essence went into my Spatial Inventory.

  Turning to the others, I held the two Essences in each hand.

  “Darkness and Creation,” I told them. “Anyone need them?”

  Six people either sat on the large rock or leaned against trees. Three men, two women and a teenaged boy. Thirteen, still three years away from getting his Tutorial.

  Jackson sat on the rock. He would have been watching the fight intently. Not yet able to enter the Tutorial, Jackson didn’t have a Path or Essences yet. He was going to be taller than my six foot when he was done growing, already only three inches or so shorter. And probably weigh more. He kept saying he was looking forward to our first spar.

  I’d found the kid about eight years ago, his parents had been killed in a monster surge. Been kind of raising him ever since. He truly was the byproduct of the village, as everyone had a hand in his raising with me being so busy. But he was my ward, so in the end I guess he was mine. The little brother I never had.

  His blond hair contrasted with my brown. Bright blue eyes against my brown. So no one would ever mistake us for related, but family wasn’t blood in the new world. It was bonds and the two of us had them.

  Four of the rest wore armor. One leather, one medium, one with heavy metal armor and the last wearing a robe just like a wizard from the old stories. Because that’s what Harry was. A wizard. If he’d had glasses, the ‘yer a wizard harry’ jokes would have been endless. But Arcanum had erased the need for glasses. He also wasn’t technically a wizard, even though what he did was basically what a wizard did. His Path was Stormmancer. They had an assortment of weapons. Swords, axe, bow and arrow and a staff.

  They were part of my Bannermen. It was supposed to be an honor guard, stalwart companions, that kind of thing. They were my A-Squad, my Tier One operators, all Adventurers like me. The elite fighters of Solace. Not just these four, there were another dozen scattered around the Clan’s territory. Not all of those elites were Adventurers.

  The last was Katrina Anderson, my Assistant. It wasn’t her official title, but that’s what she was. Scheduler, organizer, the one that kicked me in the ass when I forgot an important meeting. I was the strength behind Solace, but she was the one behind my strength.

  Not that way. Strictly platonic.

  She was cute, but I had no time for relationships, and definitely not with Kat. Leveling and all the other crap on my plate kept me way too busy for that. Not that I didn’t have one-night stands or short term casual relationships. I was the most eligible bachelor in Solace afterall.

  Long blond, almost silver hair, that she kept in a messy bun. About five foot three, and athletic even though she wasn’t a fighter. That’s just what Arcanum did. It was pretty hard for someone to be fat nowadays. Some people still managed it though.

  Kat was also about ten years older than me. Where Jackie, he hated that nickname, was like a kid brother, Kat was like an older sister. The two were the only family I really had.

  “I could use the Darkness,” Tracy said, raising a hand.

  Dressed in black and gray leather armor, bow and quiver over her back, Tracy had a kind of hunter Path. She had a Secondary Stealth Essence to go along with a Primary Markmanship one. It created a Path called Shadow Stalker.

  I tossed her the Darkness Essence. It threw over the forty yards, an easy catch for her. The old NFL quarterbacks would have been jealous of the toss and catch, how easy it was. I’d met one. He’d played for the New York Jets, but I hadn’t held that against him. The stuff he could do with throwing now was crazy, and he’d been pretty damn good before the System.

  I threw the Creation Essence to Kat. She’d see that it got to someone that could use it.

  “Time’s almost up boss,” Nathan said.

  He was a big man. A very big man. Wearing medium armor, he carried a giant waraxe. I’d seen that thing chop the head off a T-Rex with one swing. It was vicious.

  Gary was the one in full metal armor. The silent type. The armor was made of a dull gray metal, interlocking plates that left barely any joints exposed. He had a long sword strapped to his back, no shield as that was the main thrust of his Essence Abilities.

  “Yeah,” I said, feeling excited and sad.

  00:00:00:06:05

  I walked over to the stone, Jack and Kat jumping off the rock. I went over to the others first, giving hugs and fist pumps. These were my people. My closest friends in the world. I outleveled all of them by a lot, but that didn’t matter. They had my back and I had theirs.

  This wasn’t goodbye but none of us knew how long I’d be in Multiversal Nexus for. It was the first time anyone from Earth would be entering the Nexus. A whole new world.

  Kind of.

  From what the System had told us in the tutorials, the Multiversal Nexus was a huge city with access to the Multiverse. But more importantly it had access to the Tower.

  I gave Kat a hug.

  “We have Solace under control,” she said, stepping back. “See you soon.”

  Then it was Jackie’s turn.

  As a teenage boy, he didn’t want a hug, holding out his hand for a fistbump. He didn’t get a choice. I pulled him in, hugging him tight.

  “Love you Jackie,” I said.

  “You too Nick.”

  He tried to sound tough but I could hear it in his voice. Of course he was worried. Crossroads was something new. Something far more dangerous than Earth, which was pretty damn dangerous. And I’d be starting off essentially as a noob again.

  Who knew what would happen.

  It was scary but also damn exciting.

  00:00:00:00:00

  EARTH IS NOW OPEN TO THE MULTIVERSE.

  ACCESS TO THE MULTIVERSAL NEXUS HAS BEEN GRANTED TO THE ADVENTURERS AT THE LEVEL 100 THRESHOLD.

  The words appeared in the vision of everyone on Earth, no matter which of the supercontinents we were on. Not even if we were in a Dungeon. Like me, there were probably a hundred or so people getting ready to make the journey to the next encounter.

  I stepped back, hearing the familiar whine of a portal opening.

  Turning around, I saw the shimmering green portal in the basic shape of a door. It appeared about ten feet away. I could feel the Teleportation Arcancum coming off it. This wasn’t one of the portals that hopped us across the planet, this was something else. I hadn’t felt anything quite like it since the Tutorial Portals twenty-five years ago to the day.

  I walked forward, turning back for one last wave. Kat was standing next to Jack, her hand on his shoulder. The other four stood behind them like protectors. It was a good image to leave on. They, and Solace, were in good hands.

  “You guys got that right?” I asked, pointing at the giant bear corpse.

  There were some groans from the group. I laughed.

  Turning to face the portal, I walked through it.