This time I don’t meet my handler. I just straight up appear next to the sphere. My best guess is that she either didn’t want to or wasn’t able to meet me. Part of me understands. It’s not likely that anything good would’ve come of it anyway.

Now that I’m here, my 30 days in Beyond are about to start. All the meetings I had planned with Leticia, and maybe Jean, are a forgone conclusion because of the 8th floor situation, when we were barred from coming here.

The safe area I just left still lingers in my mind, there was no mark of what happened here before. Almost as if everything that happened that day was just a product of my imagination.

Fully exiting the safe zone, I head deeper into the 1st floor, toward one of the larger safe zones, based on the information and maps I got during the tournament and my prior visits.

This floor´s quest is still just as dumb as always.

1st floor quest:

???

Rewards:

7-day Stay Token

???

It feels like its sole purpose is to push people to explore the floor and maybe share what they find. Handlers and Guilds seem important here, along with the dozens of outposts and safe zones you can visit to meet other Beyond attendees and locals, buy items, gather information, and so on.

I already know of three ways to clear this floor.

First, you can hunt for a rare reanimated lurker or monster. On rare occasions, they have a special crystal inside their body. That crystal acts like a set of coordinates, and with the right items, it can create a temporary entrance to the second floor. Sometimes, that entrance only allows one person through. Other times, it’s more. The crystal can be traded, however, and tends to be fairly expensive.

The second way is to find one of the hidden entrances to the second floor. These are well hidden and usually guarded by a powerful monster, something stronger than the lurkers, even the named ones. Even so, I still think it’s possible that there are very powerful lurkers. Maybe people from the 13th floor of the tutorial who managed to be assassinated on this floor just before they were sent back to their planet.

As for the monster guarding the portal to the 2nd floor, it usually takes hundreds of attendees to bring one down. Sometimes they don’t even try to kill it. They just distract it long enough to rush through the entrance.

These hidden entrances tend to shift and don’t stay in one place for long, maybe a few months at most. People are usually invited to raids like that, and often get through for free. Everyone understands the info was shared so they could help act as a distraction for the monster.

I doubt those monsters are Champion rank, but they’re probably over level 400. I'm not entirely sure. I have a hard time estimating the power levels of monsters. Sometimes, it's possible to defeat a monster that's 100 levels higher because, even though it has incredible stats and abilities, it lacks intelligence. It doesn't use those abilities optimally or factor them into their tactics all that effectively.

I start to jog, weaving between pillars and scanning the area to keep my mind busy.

The average attendee on the 1st floor isn’t very high level, and I’d say I’m on the stronger end. So maybe these raid monsters happen to be somewhere around Vice Director level, or possibly higher. I’m sure she could, with some preparation, take on dozens of people just entering Beyond.

The third option to enter the 2nd floor is to head toward the center of the 1st floor. Something’s hidden there that causes the reanimation of monsters and attendees, turning them into lurkers. No one has made it there in the past few hundred years. That includes people from the lower floors of the Beyond dungeon and even attendees in their 5th year of the tutorial, about to return to their planet.

I also believe that whatever is at the very center of this floor is its main quest, which is currently marked only as ???.

On the edge of my scan, I catch a presence, and as expected, monsters start appearing soon enough. Not lurkers, though, this zone seems to be free of them. These are the skeletons of ancient monsters, long dead, maybe even entities that were killed by the first attendees or the Rulers themselves.

Their bones grind and shift as they move. Each one is unique. A patchwork of skeletons, cobbled together and moving in a jerky, clumsy manner. Some have fused limbs. Others have too many, with bones hanging uselessly. Many have multiple heads or mouths. Some even have mouths where their chests should be. Like something had thrown them together in a rush.

[Reanimated Beast - lvl 316]

[Reanimated Remnant - lvl 331]

[Reanimated Beast - lvl 346]

[Reanimated Beast - lvl 334]

[Reanimated Beast - lvl 326]

Their levels don’t worry me, and I have fought them before, so I know what to expect.

The first lance fires ahead.

[You have defeated Reanimated Beast - lvl 346]

I land and use Wraith Dance to reposition, dodging a barrage of attacks. I rise again and fly around a massive stone pillar stretching to the ceiling of this enormous, cave-like expanse that comprises the 1st floor of the Beyond dungeon. More projectiles follow, always just a moment too late, slamming into the stone.

Another [Empyrean Lance], another monster down.

Armor surrounds my body as I teleport along the line I created. The moment I appear, I launch myself forward and crash directly into another monster. It moves quickly, lashing out with the dangerous, sharp bones on its forearms, attempting to pierce through my armor. But I grab them with my hands and pull to the sides, powering myself further with kinetic energy.

The skeletal monster is torn into two pieces, each still moving and trying to kill me. A blast of thermal energy melts the surface of the bones, and I push further, redirecting some of the cycling heat into the area around me until the heat causes the bones to melt and drip like wax.

The bone projectiles that try to pierce me from behind meet the same fate, and I spot the attacker about half a mile away. I push further and finish off the monster I'm holding.

[You have defeated Reanimated Remnant - lvl 331]

My armor disappears, and I move again.

One Wraith Dance. Two. Three.

I use them quickly, straining my body with the pace of my movement, pushing myself as I push each leap to cover as much space as possible, a method I have been experimenting with for a while.

At the last moment, armor forms around my body again, and I slam into the Remnant just as it’s about to move and reposition, and it seems to be caught off guard by my speed.

With a burst of kinetic energy flowing through me, I tear it apart. I stomp on the pieces and release a blast of kinetic energy that sends small earthquakes through the area, and debris flying into the air.

[You have defeated Reanimated Beast - lvl 334]

Before the debris and dust even settle, I charge out from the epicenter and rush toward another monster.

----------------------------------------

A day later, I’m sitting on a small terrace-like platform of rock jutting out from one of the humongous pillars. The first floor stretches ahead of me as I take a bite of a protein bar and sip on a sugar-free energy drink I bought during the tournament. The guy asked for an upper rare item in exchange for just a few bars and cans.

Quickly, I redirect my attention back to the area, watching a movement in the distance that turns out to be the wind knocking over a heavily scorched tree. I observe it for a while longer and cycle through my other senses, just in case it was meant to be a distraction.

Only then do I return to entertaining my own thoughts, while another part of my mind continues scanning the area and another modifies the Restrictive Training Emblem etched over my heart. I’m trying to make it more, well, restrictive, to increase my physical stats even further. I’ve kept that emblem active since before I left the ninth floor.

As for the items and their value, some people with an economics background tried to estimate the worth of each rarity tier during the tournament. Of course, it was all very rough estimates. An upper epic weapon, of the type that makes the difference between life and death, might be far more valuable to someone than a low arcane weapon they can't even use properly.

The current consensus in Earth’s tutorial is that a new Champion typically has access to upper arcane items and often something from the next tier as well. Mid arcane items are considered a lucky find for even someone around level 400, while low arcane items are still highly valuable for anyone below that level.

That’s all, assuming the system hasn’t nerfed the items during the tutorial phase, so attendees don’t get a hold of overpowered gear with the potential to trivialize the challenge.

There are a few cases that might support this theory. Take the Sword of Aeons, for example. It was considered one of the best items in Eladore. Even after it broke and was classified as a damaged arcane-grade item, but I refuse to believe something of that caliber could drop down to such a low degree of rarity. It had to be at least upper arcane or even a low-grade item from the next tier.

It’s also possible that the nerfs are stronger on the early floors and only grow more relaxed as time goes on.

Even so, as of now, mid arcane items are estimated to have values in the billions of dollars. Billions, with a B. Yeah.

I don’t even know what’s happening anymore.

But I’ve heard people discussing the value based on more than just the rarity. They consider how usable the items are for the sort of regular people who might have that kind of money. I can imagine a normal or low leveled person dying just from getting too close to certain arcane items.

Some even argue that the real market won’t be for the items themselves but for the privilege of hiring the attendees who own them.

All of that, of course, only works if everything doesn’t go entirely to hell before we return to Earth. If the Pairing is already in progress, things might already be shifting. So, anyone saying that an upper rare item is worth half a million and an upper epic is in the tens of millions might just be talking nonsense.

Still, it’s a fun thought.

I take the last sip from the can and throw it to the ground, littering the first floor of the Beyond. I watch as the now-empty can slowly sails through the air, twisting before it hits the pillar, bounces off, and continues falling.

If those wannabe economists are right, then each can I bought for an upper rare item is worth about fifty thousand dollars. One side of this trade got seriously scammed.

After looking at the can one last time, I leave my spot. I stretch a line forward and teleport along it, following up with Wraith Dance a few times. I cover a few miles before the can even hit the ground.

----------------------------------------

Later that day, I enter the safe zone I was looking for. It turns out to be carved into one of the massive pillars, forming a perfect cube-shaped space filled with hundreds of smaller buildings made mostly of wood. The entire place is softly lit by a variety of moss that emits a faint green glow.

It’s surprisingly empty when I arrive. When I ask one of the locals if it’s always like this, he tells me that most of the people here have made their way to the gathering space for an expedition. Apparently, they discovered a portal to the second floor, guarded by a powerful monster.

After paying him in shards, he gives me a bit more information.

He tells me where the expedition group is gathering and that they plan to leave for the portal in three days.

Apparently, most Beyonders just head to the meeting spot in the safe zone closest to their target, return to their tutorial worlds, and re-enter at the scheduled time to avoid wasting their stay tokens.

The date of this expedition has been known for two weeks now, which has allowed more people to prepare and gather.

I check the map he shows me, compare it to the area I’ve already passed, and estimate that I’ll only need about a day to reach it, even if I get held up by monsters. I make sure to transfer the timing into my personal countdown so I don’t mess it up.

After a quick look around the safe zone, I head back out to train and level up before making my way to the meeting spot.