Tutorial days elapsed: 84 (336 Days in Trial time)

  With the end of the Tutorial drawing nearer and nearer, the hallway had turned into a crowded mess of commotion. With so many people around, Aaron had figured spotting more people from Earth was likely sooner or later, but hadn’t expected to run into the scene he did on his way to the trial dial.

  However, there was still quite a bit of time remaining in the trials themselves, since there was an extra month after the Tutorial finished.

  There were a lot of faces he didn’t recognize, and it was easy to miss people. But he couldn’t mistake Johan Svensson, the leader he had seen in the Tutorials. The man sounded a little too culty for his liking, and as such, his face had stuck in his head. But it wasn’t just Johan. The cult leader was talking to several others.

  However, what caught his eye was mostly the goblin. It was mostly because he hadn't actually seen any other goblins within the trials. If there were others through the sector, they hadn’t made it here yet, and immediately upon seeing her, he assumed it was the one who would be heading to Superearth.

  That’s, that’s Foulbreath something, right? She’s the one I saw being carried around, I’m sure of it.

  He wondered if he should avoid the group or introduce himself, but he wasn’t given an option, as a thick arm wrapped around his shoulder and yelled, “Hey!”

  It was Joseph Lefiti. He didn’t know where the big guy had come from, but he figured it was pretty hard these days to go completely incognito in the trials. He was going to have to get used to people spotting him and stopping him. Luckily, there wasn’t too much time left of the trials anyway.

  “You’re all from Earth, aren’t you?” Joseph said as he dragged Aaron toward the group. “I swear I recognize some of you from the Viewing Room.”

  “What are you two supposed to be, boy band brothers or something?” A small girl draped in oversized robes and a massive wizard’s hat said.

  Aaron groaned. He really wished Joseph hadn’t gotten the same cut. It was bad enough that he had to wear it.

  “Best fade I’ve ever had,” Joseph said with a beaming smile as he ran a hand through his hair. “There’s a hairdresser here. She’s amazing.”

  “You two are humans from Earth, I take it?” Johan interrupted, steering the conversation to more important matters.

  “We are,” Aaron said. He hadn’t been looking for a conversation, but anything was better than glazing his haircut.

  “How fortunate. We were just discussing important matters related to what comes next after all of this. Care to join us?”

  Aaron felt like groaning as he had planned on jumping straight into the next trial, but he had to be a little smarter than that. He couldn’t exactly just turn up the opportunity to meet the top-ranking humans of Earth. Not to mention the goblin. Were they friends? He wanted to know.

  “Yeah, I suppose. But there’s another with us. We should probably go fetch her first.”

  “Another human from Earth?” Johan probed.

  “Yeah.”

  “Lead the way, stranger,” a dark-haired man with a revolver hanging from one side of his belt and a dagger on the other said.

  With that, they all followed Aaron, making him slightly uncomfortable from all the attention.

  Once they had grabbed Talia and all gathered in one spot, Aaron discovered that there was yet another room he had no idea about. It was the Party Room, and all it required to enter was a group of over six. Which was handy as multiple members of their little group had yet to complete more than a trial or two, and hadn’t unlocked enough to share any of the standard rooms.

  In total, there were eleven of them gathered within the Party Room. Aaron, Talia, Joseph, Johan, Ernest Sheridan, Erdek Foulbreath the goblin, Kim Soohyun, the pint-sized Emmy Sharp, and three others Aaron didn’t remember seeing in the Viewing Room.

  They explained to Aaron and the others that some of them had been here for as long as a couple of weeks, counted in trial time, whilst others had only arrived in the last couple of days.

  The design of the Tutorial and trials meant that those who had been lagging level-wise in the Tutorial got a chance to catch up, since grinding within the Tutorial provided far more experience for Class levels than the trials.

  However, most of those who focused on their Class within the Tutorial had either a low Profession level or hadn’t even chosen their Profession. So, in truth, the trials provided quite the opportunity for those people to balance themselves out before the Tutorial finished.

  In fact, the Tutorial didn’t sound all that great for grinding Profession levels at all, and it made Aaron wonder what scarcity might be like after the trials were over.

  Thinking about it, Aaron realized that even if he had come to the trials halfway through, but at a decent level, he could have easily ground out a few Trial of Endurance stages, and then spent all his time grinding his Profession. With all those ingredients at his fingertips, hitting a high Profession level would be rather easy in the trials. And that wasn’t to mention the other rewards available, like god patronage, and whatever the trial points could be used for.

  Even if hanging out in the Tutorial for longer made it easier to hit a high Class level, the benefits of hitting the trials were plain to see. Hell, even a little casual discussion revealed how good the trial reward items were compared to what most got within the Tutorial.

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  “More may arrive before the Tutorial ends,” Johan spoke, interrupting Aaron's wandering thoughts. “But we have gathered here a pretty good representation of the talent that is likely to help usher in our world into the multiverse. And as such, I believe it is prudent that we arrive at some kind of agreement between ourselves. A framework that will allow us to work together with whatever comes next. If we get this right, we can have a massive advantage over others who leave this place to fight against one another. Our world could end up at the peak of the sector if we can work together.”

  “And what about the squids?” Ernest said, stroking his thick moustache. “Don’t see any of them around?”

  The group had already briefly mentioned Darius, and it was clear that several had attempted to talk to the necromancer with no luck. After that, some tales of his exploits had been shared, and nobody had any interest in working with him. In fact, his existence had only made Johan's speeches that much more impactful.

  “We tried talking to them,” Johan sighed. “Suffice it to say, they don’t have much banter on them.”

  “Maybe this’ll work,” Erdek Foulbreath said in her grinding, high-pitched voice. “But as long as everyone recognizes my right to rule the gobbos. Otherwise, you can get bent.”

  “Like we already said, Erdek, that isn’t what this is about.”

  “Then what’s it about? I thought you said there’ll be a framework? My framework is boss of the gobbos!”

  “So stupid,” Emmy Sharp groaned beneath her giant wizard’s hat. “We went over this like ten times or something. We agreed not to attack, steal, or incursion into each other's territory. What’s so hard to understand?”

  “Thanks, but that’s enough, Emmy,” Johan raised a hand. “The Tutorial gave us some glimpses into what we would face when we leave this place. And like Emmy said, this agreement is simply to respect each other’s territory, and to aid each other against those who don’t.”

  “All good and well until somebody breaks the balance of power,” Ernest said. “And still, nobody has told me what our plans are for the squids? They don’t seem too keen on working with us.”

  “It depends where they land. Most of us here have Waypoints and at least some kind of plan for how we intend to set up on the other side. How that turns out will determine how we deal with others outside of our little agreement. I also recommend setting up a communication network for those with relay stones, but I’m aware not everyone has enough Tutorial Points to purchase such luxuries,” Johan said.

  Aaron nodded along as they spoke, but he was starting to feel a little like an imposter. It seemed all the top rankers of earth had at least some kind of plan for what they would do after the trials, and how they would handle life after they returned to their world, or whatever was left of it.

  As for Aaron? Sure, he had collected a bunch of loot, but he was really just trying to get stronger and hadn’t put too much thought into anything else.

  He had thought about allies, but it was more because he figured he probably should, rather than because it was something he particularly wanted to do. It was more like a guilt thing.

  “Here, this is mine,” Johan continued, drawing a relay stone from a spatial bracelet he had around his wrist. “Anyone who wants to keep in contact, all we have to do is touch stones, and they will be linked for communication.”

  Aaron went along with it, pulling out his own stone and touching Johan’s. Then he did the same with Talia’s, Emmy’s, and Soohyun’s relay stones. None of the others in attendance offered up their stones. He believed that Joseph didn’t have one, and probably most of the others didn’t either. But Erdek seemed suspicious of the entire thing, and he couldn’t get a good read on Ernest.

  “Great. I shall make contact with all of you as soon as I have some kind of base up and running. As most of you should know, I entered the trials with a raiding party. As the nominal leader of our group, I have attended this meeting alone. But they are around, and I welcome any and all of you to introduce yourselves should you meet any. My people and I want to create something bigger than ourselves. An open invitation will always be available for anyone who wishes to join our project. Together, we can bring peace, harmony, and stability to whatever we face next. But divided, we are weak,” Johan said, making sure to capture everyone’s gazes and hold them for at least a second or two.

  “So, that’s it? We just pinky promise not to attack each other?” Ernest said.

  “I have a Sphere of Binding, and will be happy to form contracts with anybody who is interested,” Johan said. “This way, we can ensure that real peace is formed.”

  “I like you,” Joseph said, and Aaron tried to object, but got drowned out in the commotion.

  However, despite the big guy signing the contract, most others refused on their own. Aaron felt a little bad. If he were wrong about Johan, he would be missing quite the opportunity. But there was no way he was signing a contract barring him from attacking something he knew nothing about with the power of the entire System backing it up.

  “Disappointing,” Johan sighed. Only four people signed his contract. Joseph, Emmy, and two of the others he didn’t recognize. “I hope the rest of us can still come to an agreement before the trials end.”

  “Perhaps,” Ernest said, and turned to leave.

  Some slightly more casual chatter followed, but Erdek Foulbreath didn’t hang around for long either. He wasn’t entirely sure if that meant she had deadly intentions for humans, or if she just didn’t trust them. Neither of which he would blame her for, since Johan’s proposal came on too strong for even him.

  Not only that, but the more Aaron thought about it, the more he realized how difficult a position she was in. As far as he was aware, she was the only goblin to reach the trials so far, whilst there were many humans, and a decent number of thal’kesh around the place.

  In her eyes, things likely weren't looking good. And he understood why she would want to rule all of the goblins herself. Divided, they were almost guaranteed to end up as the weakest of the three races.

  And while humans also outnumbered the thal’kesh, there were still many of their elites in the trials, and they were still mostly at a high level. Not only that, but multiple thal’kesh had been in the trials for some time now. They also carried themselves with confidence, so if they were worried, they certainly didn’t show it.

  However, it was very easy to miss people from Earth, and Aaron couldn’t be too sure of anything. The trials were gathering the greatest warriors from across the entire sector, and there were hundreds, if not thousands, already within them, creating crowds you could easily get lost in.

  In fact, the only reason that the place seemed to hold so many people was that the hallway grew larger as more arrived, and yet it was still crowded. Not only that, but the arrival gate had essentially turned into a constant stream of new arrivals marching into the hallway.

  Aaron actually stopped to watch it for a while. All kinds of aliens walked through, dressed in all manner of fantastic gear. It was quite the sight.

  It shouldn’t have been too surprising, though. There was only a week of Tutorial time left. Anyone who believed themselves capable of taking out the Tutorial boss was probably going to take a crack at it by now. After all, there wasn’t too much point in trying to reach the trials if you weren’t going to have at least a little time to make something of it.

  He checked on Talia once more as they walked down the hallway, but she seemed fine now. Then, he waved a couple of others who had followed them out of the room, and said his goodbyes before heading back to the dial.

  Even with the improved speed of the line, it still took a little while to reach the dial. There were simply too many people now.

  As he approached the dial, he took a moment to consider the other trials. Perhaps it was worth trying to fit in at least one more Trial of Companionship. After all, it could be an opportunity to get to know someone else headed to Superearth.

  However, it was now time to earn some more tasty ingredients for his kitchen and grind out some Profession levels.

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