Chương 18: B1 | Chapter 17

Aidan I glance at the fifth ranked as I ask, "Why are some voidlings considered users and others monsters?" The man answers right away while the other voidlings in the tents who didn't see me before begin to bow their heads, "It all depends on the level of sapience the voidling has. Most voidlings beneath Bronze Tier are not sapient enough to be classified as a user.

Instead, the System automatically classifies them as summons of a sort, attaching them to the few voidlings beneath Bronze Tier who do have enough sapience such as myself." So sapience is the determining factor? I glance at the tent with the broodmother again as I barely see the broodmother's head lowered to the ground in there. But then something in the fifth ranker's words catches my attention.

"Voidlings beneath Bronze Tier?" I ask while glancing at him.

"You mean there were voidlings on your planet at Bronze Tier before the System? How? Or do you know this from the Guide?" The fifth ranked doesn't show any expression on his face – that I can read at least – as he answers, "To answer that, I will first need to explain how our kind arrived in the System." He pauses for a few moments before I realize he's waiting for my approval, so I nod my head for him to continue.

"The Void Realm is not split between Galaxies and Universes as the multiverse and System are. Therefore, the System determines what Galaxy to designate the void creatures by two factors. The void breaches they've previously passed through into the multiverse, and their Tier. If they are Iron Tier and have entered an uninitialized Galaxy, and are either near a breach or in the multiverse when the Galaxy in question is being initialized, the System will bring them to the newly initialized Galaxy for Initialization.

Considering them a native part of that Galaxy in its records." Oh. That's a sloppy method of doing it. And it does answer my previous question. Because, if they were just roaming the Void Realm before this Initialization, then it makes sense that they know other higher Tier voidlings. And that they know about the System already. As for what this void breach thing is? I'm guessing it must be some sort of entrance connecting the Void Realm and the multiverse. But…

"Won't having a void breach on the new planet make the voidlings dominate the new planet with sheer numbers?" I ask out of curiosity with a frown on my face.

"It would, Esteemed One," the fifth ranked states.

"But the void breach is never brought to the new planet after the planet is merged. Thereby cutting us off from the Void Realm until we find a new breach and rip it open." Okay, that seems a lot fairer. I look around at the voidlings in this back-alley dead-end to count around six dozen of them total. With only a few of them being considered users by the System. The rest are all considered monsters or summons of a sort.

From what I can tell at a glance, it looks like most of these voidlings were born from the broodmother here. I do feel a little surprised that the broodmother isn't sapient enough to be considered a user though. But it is still Bronze Tier like the others. Even if it's a broodmother. Anyway, since I'm here and have people who I can trust to answer my questions without falsehood, I might as well take advantage of it. So I go ahead and begin barraging the fifth ranked with one question after another.

And thanks to their absolute loyalty and their pragmatism, I get my answers immediately after each question. Which gives me a decent amount of intel about this floor already. Of course, they don't know everything since this floor doesn't have a vast number of people on it yet. But they still know a lot. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

First off, the building has different stores where people can buy and sell things with Tutorial Points if they need them. Specifically for Professions to advance their Professions through crafting and the like. Since they need materials to craft. Then there are various biomes that we can go to through totems in the city square, with each biome having different monsters in them. Giving us all places to hunt and even gather resources for crafting ourselves. And each biome also has their own city, just like this one.

With this city having a forest around it. The only caveat is that we can't get any Tutorial Points on the floor from the floor itself beyond what you get for clearing the floor and moving onto the fifth floor. The points from other users not counting as points from the floor. So the only point of the hunting and gathering is to level up and collect resources. Or at least, that's the only way to get Tutorial Points from the floor itself. There's one other way to get Tutorial Points. And that's to kill other users.

Killing a user gives another user five percent of the points they've earned on the floor. Which is directing a lot of the users on the floor to start fighting against each other. Even inside of the city and with the meager number of users here so far, there are battles already, with users teaming up with the strongest of their species to protect themselves. Literally building factions in the cities. The voidlings, needless to say, are rapidly growing to be one of the stronger factions.

And if the broodmother keeps birthing voidlings, they'll likely reach the top of the factions in power. If not through pure strength than through sheer numbers. Amongst the top rankers on the leaderboard, only a few of them are joining the little faction wars according to the fifth ranker. With most of the top rankers simply ignoring it all to level up. Clearly wanting to get off this floor and onto the final floor as soon as possible.

And the fifth ranker knows of at least one ranker in the top ten who is only building a faction for self-protection. Since the current sixth ranker, Draxion Heliosynth, is a dwarf who focuses on blacksmithing and not fighting. Even if he is capable of fighting as well. Regardless, the next few days are going to be annoying. And dangerous. I hope I find Ali soon. But I have no idea which of the biomes she might be in, so I don't even know where to start searching.

There are dozens of different biomes each with massive cities and even larger monster-infested regions around them. All that I would need to search through to find them. I'm honestly surprised Ali managed to find me on the second floor. Then again, for all I know, there could be some sort of tracking system for those on the top of the leaderboards. Since she mentioned knowing about me from the leaderboards, and somehow managed to find me within minutes of me entering the floor. Still.

Putting all of that aside, there's also the issue of me not knowing when she'll even arrive on the floor. Because there's a large chance she's still on the third floor right now. I let out a sigh at that before an idea comes to mind. Then I turn towards the fifth ranked as I ask, "Can I stay here after I hunt for a bit to create a few voidlings?"

"Of course, please use us as you wish, Esteemed Void Crowne," the fifth ranked says with a bow. Then he turns to the other voidlings and starts speaking in a language full of clicks and hisses that are translated for me to mean that he's ordering them to set up a new tent for me. A much bigger tent than the ones they already had up. And after setting that in motion, he turns back to me again and asks, "Is there anything else we can assist you with, Venerable One?" Just how many titles is he going to call me by…?

Actually, whatever.

"Can drones pass through the totem teleporters?" I ask before quickly getting an affirmative in response. Leading me to order my voidling to go out and search for my sister and parents. Sending a mental image of them as I do. I also make sure to write each of them a note and attach them to the voidling for when it does find them. Since I don't want them taking the voidling as a monster or something. Which was apparently done quite a lot on the second floor, according to the fifth ranked.

But now it's nowhere near as common here on the fourth floor. What with a large majority of the people having seen voidlings by now. And with that done, I bid farewell to the voidlings for now as I head straight to the monster-filled region around the city. Time to hunt, level up, and gather some mana cores to make new voidlings.

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