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Book 2: Chapter 46
🕑 Added 2024-06-17 11:17:28 +0000 UTCShaun experienced the same feelings during the time he had travelled to the fae as he was on the way back. This time however he wasn’t being deposited in the palace of one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, instead his end destination was Earth. That apparently made a big difference to his arrival. Unlike the feeling of being forced through a tiny hole and ending up a mess on the ground, when he arrived back on Earth he felt just like he had when he had left The Alliance.
The moment he appeared back on Earth he barely recognised where he was, it was clear he was in a building, one that somewhat resembled a bar. But it wasn’t till more people appeared around him did he figure out he was exactly where he was before he was taken into the tutorial. Around him he saw Eric and Gabe as well a Michael, Jessica, Danielle and Richard. It was the weirdest feeling being surrounded by all these people again, people who he had started his journey through the tutorial with.
“Shaun, nice to see you still alive. You caused quite the stir with your disappearance.” Shaun looked over at Michael who had spoke.
“Shaun we need to talk, privately.” Eric said before he could reply to Michael.
“I cant believe you are all here! It has been too long!” Richard said to them all. Shaun identified Richard and found he wasn’t even at level 20, so far below him that he thought if he patted him on the shoulder too hard he would break.
“We need a group hug! The gang is all back together!” Danielle practically jumped towards them, although to him it was as if she was moving in slow motion, giving him ample time to step away. The others all spent time giving her a hug while he looked around at all the other people who had appeared. There were people there still in single digit levels, the highest was barely into level 40. It really showed the gap between what his tutorial had been capable of vs some of the others. “Come on Shaun, its been so long don’t I deserve a hug?” Danielle was walking up to him now, the only one who had yet to hug her.
*Tutorial Completed**
Congratulations on surviving Stage 3 of the tutorial and being crowned champion, citizen of Earth. In one year today a leader must be chosen to rule your planet. To be eligible to compete for this position you must hold at least a majority of a cluster of dungeons by the time the year is up, this can be either directly or through other holders declaring themselves under you. In 6 months time an event will be held for all citizens of your planet, this event will be chosen by all who hold a dungeon through a majority vote. Please claim a dungeon to find out more information.
Note: Reward already chosen for completion of the tutorial.
He didn’t pay her much attention to Danielle while reading the message, although it didn’t provide anything new information to him outside of the event being voted on by dungeon holders. He did send out his echo skill to its limit, testing to see if he could pick up on any aura’s that showed anyone of a high level. Nothing stood out to him which was good but he also didn’t feel any dungeons in the vicinity, which was both a good and bad thing. Even within the radius of his skill, which now covered over a kilometre, he could feel thousands of people around him which put him on edge.
“Leave him be Dani, Shaun is not someone you want to get close too if he doesn’t want you to.” Michael gave her the warning and she stepped back, she tried to identify him, but she had yet to reach the E rank so he would have come up as question marks.
“Viv joined The Empire.” Shaun whipped his head around so fast, staring at Eric who had just dropped that bombshell. “We are behind her, but what Xavier declared against you in the tutorial, the death sentence, it is put on hold, indefinitely for us. We have other priorities, our goal is still the same.”
Quicker than anyone could react he was on Eric, easily overpowering him and forcing him to the ground. “You choose to side with someone that put a hit out on me? I shouldn’t be shocked, power before all else right?” As quickly as he could he took one of the stones out of his inventory, one of the ones that King Shrakein had given him and he slipped it into Eric’s armour making sure that he stabbed into Eric skin enough to draw blood, disguising it as true attack. “Speak to me again. And it may be something you regret. Or not, only time will tell.” He stood up letting Eric go. The commotion had drawn everyone in the area to look at him, seeing two people fight wasn’t a rare occurrence in the tutorial yet some of the people present looked on with shock.
“Shaun, just calm down and we will explain.” Gabe started to come towards him, looking pained at what he had just seen.
“No, let him go. Shaun has made his opinion clear. Speaking now will not help our cause.” Eric said as he also came to stand, as he did he raised an eyebrow and tapped on his armour, right where Shaun had placed the stone.
“Listen to your boyfriend Gabe, he is a smart guy. This conversation is over.” He turned and made his way out of the bar, no one getting in his way as he left. When he made it outside he was shocked at what he saw. The city had gone form being a metal playground to being in complete disrepair. Much of the road had been swallowed up by the Earth, including some buildings and nature was growing uncontrolled through the city. The cars that would usually have been lining the streets were gone, in fact anything that had been technology based seemed to have been swallowed up during the terraforming. The air smelt cleaner, the sky brighter and there seemed to be more birds and animals around. As he took it all in he found a lot of people in what had once been the streets doing the same.
There were reunions occurring as well, people who had not seen each other in months now reunited, but what shocked him most was just how low level everyone was. It was as if they had done nothing the last 3 months. He had assumed the average level to be much higher but it seemed that for the vast majority, F grade was where they chose to stay. Shaun shook the thoughts away, it was not what he should be focusing on. He needed to find dungeons and quickly if he planned to have any hope of succeeding here. Instead of walking through the city and encountering more people he chose to take to the sky. Shaun shifted into the air without a second thought and made his way a few hundred metres into the sky before changing back to his corporeal form and looking around. He barely recognised the city around him and he didn’t see anything in the distance that stood out. With no real understanding of where a dungeon could be he decided to go to where he had been planning before the tutorial, the mountains.
He had the general direction of where he wanted to go, the only downside to this plan was that the mountains were not that close. If he had been driving it would have taken him a good few hours, but even with running through the air or shifting into the air he wouldn’t be able to match this speed. If he had to guess it would take the better part of a day, if not nearly two days to make it to where he wanted to go. The upside of this plan was that the mountain range was rather secluded, there was not really any towns nearby and it was never very popular with people visiting, so if there was a dungeon nearby he would hopefully be able to be the first one there.
He continued to use his echo skill as he ran above the city, keeping an eye on everyone and everything to make sure if he picked up on anything suspicious or out of the ordinary he would know. Even at the pace he travelled through the air it took him nearly an hour before he made it to the edge of the city, the amount of people located on these outer edges had reduced but it was still more populated than he was used too.
It didn’t take long once he cleared the city for him to start noticing changes in the area from what he remembered. Where their used to be a small clearing with a few trees there was now a fully established forest, one where it looked like humans hadn’t interfered or touched for hundreds of years. The trees grew tall and thick and instead of spreading out a few hundred metres like the clearing had before he now couldn’t see an end to it. The mana density in the area also seemed to be higher than the city, when he switched to his mana sight he could see in the distance that the forest emanated the nature element more densely than the surrounding areas. Shaun decided to change course a little so he would travel along the edge of the forest to get a better idea of what had happened. The closer he got though the more he felt reluctant to enter. The tree didn’t look like anything he had seen before, they had visible green veins running through them and seemed to pulse of their own accord. The entire area seemed foreign to his old planet, that led him to believe that this was part of the terraforming of the entire planet, a part of another planet that had been combined with his own.
He was curious as to what he may find further into the forest but just because it had come from another planet didn’t mean it had what he was looking for. Besides that the area was too close to the city, many people would eventually start to wonder and explore and this place was going to be found sooner rather than later. A big part of him wanted to explore but after a few moments of debating the benefits with himself he turned around and started to move back into the direction he had chosen towards the mountain range. He did stay closer to the edge of the forest though so he could still feel a few hundred metres in with his echo skill. He never picked up on anything but he did start to notice some connections that he hadn’t before. It seemed, if he was right anyway, that all of the trees were in some way interconnected, either through their root system or something more magical, he didn’t know for sure, but it was an interesting observation.
When he finally moved past the forest he came to an area that he though used to be a suburban neighbourhood, only now there was nothing left but collapsed houses that had been reduced to rubble and overgrown by various plants. He felt a few people around the area but much less than had been in the city, so he moved on. For hours he continued to push himself, moving at a speed he could sustain without the need for long breaks. It wasn’t the most exciting journey he had ever made and a apart of him was getting bored with nothing to do but look for a dungeon. The changes he observed on his planet were interesting but they didn’t keep his attention for long, that was until the sun started to set and he got his first glimpses of the night sky.
When he first caught a glimpse of the moon he thought it seemed larger than what he was used to before the integration, not to mention that he saw many more stars in the sky. What really caught his attention though was that he was able to clearly see what looked like other planets in the night, although they were not as prominent as the moon or stars. Shaun decided to stop for a while, dropping down to the ground to give his body the longer rest it needed. He ate until he was full and just took in the new night sky, as if he was seeing it for the first time, which in a way he was. There was an upside to this integration, one that he didn’t think many people would agree with though. Through the terraforming and removing all humans from the planet, pollution was practically gone, the air clean and the world reset to new. This was a chance for the human race to start over and do right by their planet rather than slowly destroying it. He had always been an advocate for nature and respecting the world, many others were not of that mind though. He hoped that now that they had magic, skills and a system, that just maybe they could be something more than what they were, something better.
