Chương 19: B1 | Chapter 18

Aidan I end up spending several hours hunting in the forest around the city before heading back after leveling up my Class twice and my Profession once. Bringing both their levels to level twenty-two in the process. The monsters out of the city aren't particularly strong. Just levels fifteen to seventeen on average. But I did see signs that the monsters will likely grow stronger the further from the city you get.

So I wouldn't be surprised if I eventually found monsters at level twenty-five if I get far enough away. For now though, I have enough mana cores to create more void creatures. Which might just bring my Profession to level twenty-five before my Class. I would hunt for longer, but using my jacket as a bag for the mana cores so that I don't physically touch them and drain them of their source mana only works until said 'bag' is filled. And on top of that, I want to find my family as soon as possible.

Which requires me making more voidlings to search the other cities for them. Or, at least, that was my plan. Until I arrive at the base to find Ali already there with her group. Clearly waiting for me to arrive with my voidling creation standing next to her.

"How'd you…" I mutter, only for her to directly state, "The totem directly tells anyone using it which of the top ten rankers on the leaderboards are at which city." Oh. Yeah, I really should've asked about how they found me last time. And I probably should've checked the totem first before rushing out to hunt. Then again, it wouldn't really have changed much. I still would've gone out to hunt after finding that out. After all, they would be heading here to find me and not the other way around.

So there wouldn't be anything I could do but wait. And I do want to make more voidlings even if their purpose isn't to find family anymore.

"And what about Mom and Dad?" I ask with a frown on my face at their absence. If my presence at this city is announced to anyone using a totem, then shouldn't they be able to find me with ease? Their not being here can mean one of a few different things. They may not be in this Tutorial as we suspected before. They may not be using the totems at all. Or they could even be in an earlier floor still. Or, the worst case scenario…

"Users with over six tenths of their lifespan spent will be sent to their own Tutorials regardless of where they were before the Initialization," the fifth ranker suddenly interjects, surprising me with the random information bomb.

"Therefore your parents are most likely in a different Tutorial." Ari and I share a relieved glance before the voidling continues, "Since they're elderly individuals with their bodies beginning to deteriorate, the System places them in Tutorials where Professions are more heavily focused and there aren't significantly younger users present to treat the elderly as free Tutorial Points." That's probably for the best.

Because there are a lot of twisted people on Earth alone who would probably go around hunting the easier kills rather than going after monsters or younger users. Much less the other planets.

"What about the children?" Ali asks out of curiosity, making me glance at the fifth ranker as well in anticipation of his answer.

"Children beneath thirteen percent of their species' maximum natural lifespan do not awaken their Class and Profession, and are exempt from the Tutorial and placed in a special space to await for the Tutorial to complete," the fifth ranker answers her question, albeit only after seeing the curiosity on my face.

"They will then be sent to join any family members they have after the Tutorial is over." Okay, I've gotta admit, this guy is very useful for information about the System.

"The oldest a human can live should be a hundred to a hundred ten years, right?" Ali asks while glancing at Henry, who seems to be the most educated of our group and the oldest. And he just nods in agreement despite likely having no expertise in the area. She glances back at the voidling as she adds, "So a human child beneath fourteen or so years of age wouldn't be in the Tutorial at all? That should be a lot of humans not included." Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent.

Report sightings.

"The high Tier voidlings have explained it as 'the Tutorial is a culling, not an extermination,'" the fifth ranked says in explanation.

"If the entire next generation is wiped out, it will be significantly harder for any species to continue on. And a large number of the children will be dying upon arriving at the merged world as is, so an additional culling isn't necessary for them. Including them in the Tutorial would just be slaughtering the majority of them. But leaving them out of it is giving them a chance to survive." Sounds reasonable.

Messed up that it's deciding between extinction and mass culling to slim down the number of the species, but still more reasonable than the other option. I can't help but grimace at the thought of all the children who will be placed into the newly merged world that I'm assuming will be filled with monsters with no Class or Profession to level up and defend themselves with. Especially those children whose family members died in the Tutorial. It'll be a slaughter.

I shake my head to stop thinking about it, only to turn to the voidling and ask, "What will be the situation with the merged world after the Tutorial?" The voidling opens his mouth to speak, only for no words to come out when he does so. Then he frowns – I think, it's hard to tell with his insectoid face – and says, "The System is restricting this information, stating that it is too crucial for the Multiversal Wars after the Tutorial to be given out early." Damnit. I guess somethings are too good to be true.

That said…

"Multiversal Wars?" Ari mutters, noticing the same thing I did.

"What's that?" The fifth ranker once again opens his mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. Clearly finding himself not allowed to talk about that either despite also being a user of our Tutorial just like us. That sucks. Kind of interesting that he was able to tell us about the void breaches despite this though. Not to mention the children not being in the Tutorial and the elderly being in their own Tutorials. But I guess that is all just stuff that applies to the Tutorial itself and not whatever happens after?

Probably.

"Your Eminence, I have news about the faction wars occurring in the Tutorial if you wish to hear of it," the fifth ranker continues, making me nod my head for him to continue while ignoring the amused look Ari sends my way at his term of address.

"Millions of factions have been established all across the different cities, however, only about a dozen of them are worth noting. There is the faction for the humans led by the tenth ranked on the leaderboards, Akira Fuji, followed by the dwarven faction led by the sixth ranked, Draxion Heliosynth." He then goes on to list ten other factions and names. With each of them having hundreds of thousands of users in each faction. A couple factions even take over entire cities with their number.

Dominating the cities and requiring a fee to enter. One of mana cores. Of course, only the orc and ratkin factions are doing that. With both of them being, on average throughout the members of their species, scumbags. The seventh ranked on the leaderboards, Zryss the Fangsplitter, for example, was apparently the Orc King of his past world. A warmonger who went around killing and enslaving every nation and people on his planet until he became said planet's unquestionable ruler. A tyrant through and through.

One who instantly kills any who disobey him. As for the former ruler of the ratkin on some random planet who is currently leading the ratkin faction? He's not in the top ten of the leaderboards, but he is still apparently quite powerful. And the ratkin are a species that proliferate a lot, so there are a lot of them. Most importantly though, they're known on their home planet as natural-born thieves. So… yeah.

Orcs also proliferate a lot, but unlike the ratkin who care deeply for their children – while not caring about their adults whatsoever – the orcs don't care about each other at all. They just fight to decide who is their leader and they serve under their leader until they're strong enough to become the leader themselves by killing said leader. The zelbar has a society vaguely similar to the voidlings, except that their drones eat anything that moves.

Unlike voidling drones that obey orders absolutely and don't attack unless provoked or ordered to. But at the same time, the zelbar left the cities entirely to make their homes in the wilderness full of monsters to eat. So, while the fifth ranked mentions them, he doesn't put much importance on them right now. They'll probably become a problem after we all leave the Tutorial though. And while there is an elf and a wrath leading factions, neither of them are the elf or wrath on the leaderboards.

As for the rest of the big factions? They're led by leaders of other races I've never even heard of. Like some sort of deer-human hybrid, and a treant species of walking trees. Of course, the voidlings have grown significantly as well in the time I left. With massive amounts of voidlings joining our camp from other cities after being brought here by the combined names of me and the fifth ranked on said totems. While also reproducing through multiple broodmothers.

Hence why this little basecamp is far larger now than I remember it being when I left. But the only faction that is currently in conflict with the voidlings is one of the medium to large sized factions. Since the largest factions are avoiding the voidlings and controlling their own cities instead of bothering us here. And this faction in question is made up of tens of thousands of lizardkin. All of whom are trying to exterminate the voidlings. As for their reason?

They apparently hate the zelbar, some of whom come from their old world. And they're imprinting that hatred on the voidlings that also look like insects. A rather ridiculous reason, if I'm being honest. But whatever. Now's the time for me to create more voidlings. And maybe test giving my blood to one of my creations to see what happens while I'm at it.