After ten minutes of sitting on the nearest bench, Seth’s brain finally stopped throbbing. “Christ, how many of those do I have to take?” Slightly defeated, he stood up and debated where to go next. There were other stores in the great emerald building, but Seth decided that he wanted to stroll around the city.

Throughout his journey through the vast city, Seth saw every kind of shop or business. While walking around, he discovered that the streets were all sorted into groups of similar studies. Seth spent almost an hour looking through all of the wares at a farmer’s market. He didn’t buy anything but there were so many different types of things that he couldn’t help but browse. Later, he had to dodge a whole three block stretch of buildings that were on fire.

He was worried for a moment before he realized there were countless people calmly walking around inside.

It seemed like there was a place for literally everyone in the city. As he gnawed on a piece of delicious green meat he got at a food stall, he wondered how it was possible for a place to be so large. He found it incredibly hard to believe that this wasn’t even a major city on the galactic plane.

“What the hell even is a galactic plane?” he mumbled in between bites.

Eventually Seth made his way to the more barren roads, signaling the end of the city. Satisfied that he was far enough, Seth finally began to really look for places to shop. As he turned a corner, Seth almost immediately found a shop to check out.

The sign was made of turquoise, smooth metal, and read “Rankman’s Crafts.” Seth eagerly entered through the polished door. The smell of woodfire instantly met his nostrils, beckoning him forward. The shop was longer than he expected, lined with rows and rows of shiny, fancy looking armor.

They’re all beautiful.

Seth walked around in a trance, exploring all the collections of extraordinary armor. They were all incredibly more impressive looking than Seth’s Stalker Set.

“Can I help you with something?”

A gruff voice sounded from behind him. Seth turned to find a large, ripped woman standing over him. By ripped, Seth meant ripped. She was at least six foot seven and had biceps larger than his thigh. Her skin was a light green which paired well with her brown leather apron and corresponding smithy uniform. What Seth expected to be a bearded and rough face turned out to be a strong jawed, refined woman’s face.

Yet again, he was profoundly surprised with how pretty the ogre woman was. Even the tusk’s coming out of her mouth and large scar across her face did nothing to distract from the natural beauty. He continued to stand there like an idiot as her angry brown eyes pierced through him.

“My name is Vair, I am one of the owners of the establishment. What exactly are you doing here?”

Seth snapped out of his stupor, (which seemed to be happening a lot lately).

Not the best salesman huh?

“Sorry about that, I was just looking through your impressive products. I wanted to find some new armor because my last set is a tier behind.”

Vair’s hostile gaze did not change.

“So why did you come here then?”

Seth was at a loss for words.

Since when do salesmen play hard to get?

“Uh, well I thought the place looked good so I wanted to check it out.”

Vair was visibly unenthused even after his compliment. Her tattoo covered arms came to rest on her hips.

“Seems your kind ain’t too smart either. We serve the great and powerful members of the Royalia clans. We do not serve the weak and insignificant, especially those of such cowardly lineage.”

Her fists began to glow a deep red.

“I don’t know exactly what race you are, but your presence reeks of the dark kind. I think it would be best you leave.”

Vair grabbed him by the collar and carried him to the door with an impressive strength. Seth would have fought back, but an invisible force similar to the lizard woman’s had him frozen. In three quick strides Vair arrived at the entrance of the shop with Seth in her hands.

In one fluid motion Seth was shoved out onto the pavement, still flustered by why she was angry with him. She stood tall at the door with a finger outstretched down the street.

“Go back to the eastside where the rest of you deviants reside.”

With that one sentence Vair turned and slammed the door shut behind her, leaving Seth free of the invisible force and thoroughly confused.

What the FUCK!

Thick, hot anger began to rampage through him.

“CITY OF EQUALITY MY ASS!”

He almost walked right back inside to fight the woman but shortly stopped himself. Seth bit his lip and instead took his anger out on the hanging sign. Anar flashed out and sliced through the thick iron chains. As the heavy sign clattered to the ground, Seth stalked away in the direction Vair pointed a moment ago.

 

--------

 

It was a long walk to the eastside. During his travels, Seth’s anger diminished to a low simmer. As he stalked down the mostly barren streets, Seth pushed Wicked Being to full blast. The very few that walked by him seemed quite unimpressed with the ability. There was not one second glance from the various beings that passed him.

Am I weaker than literally everyone here?! He thought furiously.

Yet again his temper spiked and he had to flex his willpower in order to keep it under control. The sky was becoming dark as he finally reached his destination. Now the roads were totally free of people and the only thing to signify his arrival was a large, ash gray arch with the words “Rip Sector” engraved into it. As he entered the area, he noticed the buildings were no longer of the same variety as the others he had seen.

Instead of the relative uniqueness of each area he had been so far, all the buildings in this sector were identical. They all consisted of what looked like sleek gray blocks with some random holes for dark colored windows. Although there was difference in the sizes, each one was indistinguishable than the one next to it.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Seth groaned.

He ran a hand down his face and then began to check out the plaque on each door.

“Blah blah blah tailor, blah blah blah alchemy, blah blah blah theater, blah bla- pleasure center?”

Seth’s eighteen-year-old mind forced him to hesitate. Quickly, he shook his head and continued. After a couple minutes, he started to notice more and more people beginning to appear. Although he felt like he was in the more dangerous part of the city, the people that he pasted periodically did not seem particularly shady.

There was a young beast couple holding paws, an older looking hairless woman, and even a group of little kids running around the street. As he marveled at the simplicity of it all, Seth finally emerged into a large square full of shops and a park teeming with life. He began walking along the nearby granite sidewalk when he noticed a commotion from across the square. Most in the square seemed unaffected by the squabble. Regardless, Seth slowly crept into earshot.

“-will regret this for the rest of your short life. In the name of the great father, I renounce your meager establishment!”

A hulking purple figure bellowed. The goliath had four arms all covered in expensive looking jewelry. It was also shirtless, pants less, and had its black locks tied into a bun on the back of its head.

Altogether, the big (guy?) looked like a gladiator baby that raided a thrift store.

The babiator was currently in an argument with a rather dapper looking gentleman in a multihued tux.

“Mister Kragg I would advise you to halt this whining as to not further disgrace the clan of Odin.” The gentleman affirmed in a bored tone.

Kragg’s face flushed to a deeper shade of purple and Seth was struck with a bad feeling. Seth activated True Sight just in time to watch a huge amount of purple sparks spiral around one of Kragg’s hands.

“HEY, WATCH OUT!” Seth yelled.

As Kragg winded back his arm, Seth summoned Anar and hurled it with all his might.

In an instant, Kragg was holding Seth’s glaive in one of his mighty hands while glowering in his direction. Seth stood there terrified and dumbstruck because he wasn’t even able to see how Kragg had caught it. The goliath snapped his glaive like a toothpick, causing it to dissolve into a pool of black oil.

“How dare you worm, I will use your intestines as FLOSS!”

The already chaotic energy surrounding Kragg’s fist was now facing towards Seth. He instinctively knew that if it hit him it would be his demise. Although he doubted it would do anything, Seth outstretched his roiling hand and began to channel his stored anima.

“URRGHH.”

Before he could summon anything, Kragg was already bent over with a silver spike emerging from his abdomen.

“I would advise you head back to your clan district and not mention what happened here. If you leave now, I will forget this happened.”

The silver spike in Kragg’s abdomen melted into nothingness and a fresh gout of purple blood spouted from the injury. “Damn you…” he sputtered. Slowly, Kragg got up and stumbled off. Seth stared after the lumbering figure until he disappeared behind a corner.

“How is he still alive?!” Seth exclaimed to the empty air.

“It will take a lot more than that to kill him.”

He turned to find the older gentleman from earlier standing next to him. Upon closer inspection, the man looked a lot more dangerous than gentleman-like. His polite stature and nice suit was slightly overwhelmed by the cold intelligence in the man’s golden cat eyes.

“Greetings, I noticed what you attempted to do earlier. I am unsure what you were trying to achieve with such a pitiful attack, but I appreciate the effort nonetheless.”

The man extended a gloved hand toward Seth.

“I am Grayson. I own the establishment before you.” He gestured to an expensive looking marble building with a similar looking sign that read: The Oasis.

“Here you will find the best wares from the various craftsmen we sponsor. We allow all the even chance to offer their services here without any bias.”

Even though Seth was sure the man could probably kill him with a flick of his wrist, Seth couldn’t help but laugh and shake the man’s hand. Grayson looked confused with his outburst.

“What exactly is so humorous?”

Seth forced himself to stop laughing.

“Sorry about that, I have just been hearing a lot about the ‘City of Equality,’ yet I haven’t seen any real evidence of it being so.”

A look of understanding crossed Grayson’s face.

“Ah, a new arrival I assume? Yes, I absolutely understand what you are referring to. It seems you are coming to find the truth behind our wonderful city. Please do not allow this to affect your opinion over The Oasis. As the name states, my business allows its customers a reprieve of the constant politics of the outside.”

Seth was pleasantly surprised.

“Sounds nice, but I suppose I will have to be the judge of that.”

Grayson smirked and turned to walk back inside. Seth followed the owner’s lead and entered the unique building. As soon as they walked inside, Seth was amazed at how large the place was. From outside it looked like a regular sized bank, but inside, it was like a grand hall full of activity. In one section, he observed a stall full of all kinds of bottles and potions that glimmered with energy.

Quickly, Seth realized he was still using his ability and promptly turned it off. As they made their way down the giant hall, Grayson was stopped multiple times by various shopkeepers who needed his help with small problems. The man professionally handled all of them and created a solution almost instantaneously.

“As I mentioned before, here you will find all sorts of quality products ranging from weapons and armor to fashion and cooking. We even have a representative outpost from the Chrome!” Grayson finished with a proud smirk.

The claim landed upon deaf ears however, because Seth had no idea what “the Chrome” was.

“Why is that so special?” he questioned with honest ignorance.

Grayson stopped abruptly and turned to look at Seth with an odd look.

“My, you must be from a very desolate area to not have heard of the Chrome. You also seem to be a little too weak to have singlehandedly gotten to our city if I can be so blunt. If I may, how exactly did you arrive here?” Seth squirmed around nervously under the intense gaze of the man.

“Um, would it be possible to talk about this in a more private area if you don’t mind?”

That seemed to snap Grayson back to his professional manner from before.

“Ah yes, please forgive my manners, you just don’t see many people like yourself around here. Please, follow me.”

They made their way to a nearby staircase along the wall where Grayson led him to what looked like the man’s office. It was quite simple despite what the building itself looked like. Not very much décor or expensive looking knickknacks like Seth expected. They both sat across from each other as Grayson messed with a smaller console that was fixed to the table. Out of nowhere, a man with several azure horns appeared as well as a smaller woman with elfish ears and copper skin.

They both began to pluck various foods and drinks out of thin air until the table between Seth and Grayson was assorted with a beautiful array of various finger foods and what Seth assumed was some kind of coffee or tea. With a quick bow and a nod of the head from Grayson, the two disappeared as fast as they had arrived. Seth was visibly impressed. “Please enjoy our hospitality and relax,” Grayson offered as he reached down to grab a cracker.

“I’m not sure I deserve all of this.” Seth admitted.

A chuckle escaped the older man’s body.

“If it bothers you, just think of it as payment to hear your story.”

Seth shrugged and leaned forward to grab what looked like a blue cookie.

“Fair enough,” he mumbled.

He quickly finished off the cookie and grabbed another before starting. Throughout his story, Grayson betrayed nothing with his expressions. This made Seth kind of nervous especially because he had to skip a lot of parts as to not mention anything about his Umbra, abilities, or race. Finally, he finished his story up to right when he arrived at Ethin. Seth sat in earnest under the scrutinizing gaze of Grayson’s cat eyes, waiting for his response.

“Well, I must say, I did not expect that.”

The man leaned forward and scratched his chin in thought. “Believe it or not, you aren’t the first lab rat I have met. Although, your experience seems to be quite different than his.” Seth’s interest was peaked at the mention of this guy.

“Lab rat? You mean this isn’t an uncommon occurrence?” he questioned.

Grayson sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Unfortunately not. Although it is rare to meet a subject such as yourself because of the low survival rate, Origin is quite proud of their studies, as well as flaunting their experiments.”

“WHAT?!” Seth yelled as he shot to his feet.

“Are you saying that they kill of hundreds of people, brag about it, and no one does a damn thing?” he inquired incredulously.

The grim look on Grayson’s face said all he needed to know.

“I apologize, but Origin does not share your definition of the word ‘people.’ They are not the only ones though. Most view those without foundations as lower lifeforms. Some even go as far as wiping out whole planets full of them simply because they are weak. You will find that most refer to these beings as-"

“Thigsins,” Seth finished with pure disgust.

“That’s what they called us before we passed the test. Even killed one of us outright when we tried to question them.”

The gentleman looked like he had aged over a decade during the conversation.

“Rocque’s sake. I cannot imagine how you were able to handle all of that in the span of six months. I’m sure it is probably near impossible for you to trust anyone or anything right now, but please, if you need absolutely anything, The Oasis is here. For now, allow me to answer all the questions I am sure you have flying through your head right now.”

Seth turned his tired eyes onto the man’s weathered face.

I want him to be telling the truth more than anything.

He had spent years watching and learning all about humans. The human race was a virus. Like a cancer, the more they grow, the more they destroy their own environment. They kill each other, isolate each other for things as simple as skin color, and exist only to serve their own interests. From what he has seen of this place, there was virtually no difference.

Although, there was something Seth had seen on Earth that stopped him from walking out of the office right now. Although ninety-nine percent of the people he observed were just copies of each other with no redeeming qualities, there was one percent of people that were true and trustworthy souls.

You are going to have to put trust into someone. At least until you are powerful enough to stand alone.

With that, Seth made his decision with a sigh.

“Alright Grayson. I appreciate your offer for help, and I will try my best to trust in you.”

The man’s face became grateful as he looked at Seth with an almost fatherly expression.

“Well alright then my new friend. To honor your trust, allow me to be fully transparent. I wish to be someone you can trust as well as an asset to your future life here. Along with that, I have decided you will be a worthy investment. To start our new and hopefully prosperous relationship, would you mind honoring me with the knowledge of your name?” Grayson ended with a mocking smirk.

Seth let out a relieved and hearty laugh.

“Geez, how impolite can I be. My name is Seth Shrike.”

He reached out his hand just as Grayson had done earlier. They shared a firm handshake as Seth pondered what he wanted to ask first. The owner stopped him before he could think of anything.

“If I may, would you mind telling me your race before we begin? I can sense you are a fellow Rip Sector type of race, and a tier two. Trust me, do not feel embarrassed for whatever it might be, no other race can be more disliked than mine.”

Seth was unsure what he meant by “sensing” his race and tier, but he knew the man deserved something to show his trust.

“Well, I don’t know about all the race politics, but I don’t know what could be worse than Fiend.” He claimed lamely.

For the first time in their conversation, Grayson’s eyebrows rose just a bit. Based on his more stoic expressions from before, Seth could tell that the man was actually surprised.

“A Fiend? Well, that is quite the shock. Little is known about such a race due to the fact they are not naturally born. Even the parameters of becoming one is still an unknown after millennia of the growing civilization. If I am being honest, I do believe it is because of the lack of interest in your race that they have never discovered your origin. As far as researchers can tell, the only difference between Fiends and related Rip Sector races is that Fiends usually have an affinity for some more dangerous types of abilities.”

This somewhat relieved Seth. He had been worried that he might even be ostracized by races similar to his own.

“What do you mean an affinity for dangerous abilities? Can’t anyone consume an ability granting item, even if it has nothing to do with their previous aligned abilities?”

Grayson nodded.

“Technically, yes that is true. Anyone can consume any ability item. The thing is, depending on your race and true nature, your abilities will conform to suit you the best. Most will not see how exactly this works, but as you tier, you will notice how your abilities change and grow to suit your nature and ambition.”

Seth was about to ask another question before Grayson continued.

“When I refer to your true nature, I mean a being’s soul. No matter how you might want to look, grow, or act, your soul will reflect in each of them. The only thing is, if you consume a combat ability, it will still be for combat no matter how much your soul changes it. As I mentioned before, your abilities will grow to fit with your true nature, the same is for your appearances. I see you have a couple abilities that can be seen on your person, such as your left eye. Even these physical abilities will change to match your soul after you become powerful enough.”

After Grayson finished, Seth sat in silence for a while.

So the more power I accrue, the more I will understand myself? That sounds… interesting.

Then a new thought occurred to Seth.

“Speaking of power, you mind if I ask what your tier is? You mentioned earlier you can sense it, I thought I was concealing it correctly so I am wondering how exactly you guessed correctly.”

Grayson let out a low chuckle.

“You have a lot to learn Seth. Currently, I am about mid-way through tier six. Not even the most powerful concealment tier two abilities have a chance of fooling a tier five, much less a six.”

A new, chilling feeling passed through Seth as he looked upon the older man.

Holy shit. That tier three monster was insanely strong, and he is a six?!

“A… tier six,” he practically squeaked.

Grayson was very poorly trying to hide a smile behind a gloved hand.

“The strongest thing I have fought was a tier three, and it was almost impossible until I reached tier two. I can’t even fathom how strong YOU are.”

Seth’s hand was literally shaking, so he quickly bit down on his lip to make it stop.

The owner took his hand away from his mouth to hold it out in a gesture of surrender.

“Do not fear my friend, although a tier six, I am far from the most powerful, and I have few real combat abilities because I prefer business. If you would like, I can show you how it feels to behold one of my level.”

Seth almost said no.

It was already scary thinking about the difference in tiers, but to actually face one of such a high tier was something he didn’t want to experience. The thing was, he had to say yes. The more he is exposed to such power, the better he would be able to handle it in the future.

Just like taking a bit of poison everyday to build up a resistance.

So with a clenched fist, Seth nodded and watched as the elder man before him turned into a monstrosity of pure energy and power. The invisible force that he had experienced multiple times that day came back stronger than ever. His breath was basically crushed from the pressure, and he almost fell to the ground. Seth was horribly shaken as he gazed into the storm of visible multihued energy that radiated from the previously normal man.

As he searched through the vortex, he froze as his eyes rested upon two radiant golden orbs peering back at him from amid the chaos. Just when Seth thought he was about to pass out, the power receded, and Grayson’s normal comforting persona replaced it.

“Perhaps I should have told you to brace yourself,” Grayson noted with a hint of concern.

Seth erupted into a fit of coughing as he attempted to regain his breath. Grayson reached over to help him up when Seth abruptly shot out a hand to grab Grayson’s shoulder.

“What… was that?” the hunched figure gasped.

Grayson was truly surprised at how he was able to speak so soon after getting his anima squashed.

“That, my friend, is called Anima Influence. It is one of the cornerstones of power here. For beings of such power, a physical fight outside of safe areas can be quite destructive. This is why when it comes to violence in the streets, they are mostly fought on the mental battlefield. Instead of broken roads and fallen buildings, the only downside in a fight around here is discomfort amongst its bystanders, especially when it comes to particularly powerful individuals that have a bout. Although, as you saw earlier, some still wish to fight physically, and in those cases they must be soundly beaten immediately. As for your anima, for most, it looks to be a living mass of energy,"

"It can be shaped in many ways to oppress a foe, or comfort a lover. You must understand that although it can be used for violence, our anima is a part of us, just like a hand or foot. I would recommend acquiring an ability called Perceive. It basically shapes this energy into a more refined version of one’s personal energy. I hear that when mine is looked upon with Perceive, it is comparable to a kind of feline creature.” He finished with a smirk.

Seth was on his feet now. A couple things the man said were quite interesting to him.

So my anima ability actually steals a creature’s personal energy? Cool.

“So what does mine look like?” he questioned as he released the anima from inside his body.

Grayson’s eyebrows took on a look of pity.

“Sorry to say, but I cannot derive anything from your energy because it is too feeble to observe at this stage.”

Seth’s cheeks flushed for a moment as he tried not to cringe at his apparent weakness. Regardless of all that, now that he had gotten most of the most itching questions answered, Seth wanted to turn over to more basic knowledge. Grayson could sense his change in mood and went for a sip of tea.

He could tell this was going to take a while.

 

--------

 

After three hours of tireless questioning, Seth finally leaned back on the soft chair, exhausted.

“Well, you had quite the list of inquires Seth.” Grayson relinquished from across the table, totally unfazed even after the onslaught.

The two had talked about an incredible number of things during their time and Seth had learned a lot. For starters, he found out why there were so many similarities in dialect, shape, and mannerisms across every species.

Apparently, they all basically fall under the same answer; there are two beings that stand above even Umbras: Lic and Null. There is little known about the two. The only source of information on them is Umbras, and even then, only some of the oldest ones know anything about the greater beings. According to Grayson, the reason we all are “humanoid” is because there is no real “humanoid” shape. The more dimensional energy we absorb, the closer we become to resembling the greater beings because they originally created life. So the reason we are “humanoid,” is because they are.

Secondly, Seth discovered that the reason he already looked and acted like them was because whomever created Earth, created the life there to already resemble them.

“Wait so that means God is real?” he had sputtered, previously an atheist.

After his outburst, Grayson let out a hearty laugh, “Actually my friend, it means that whoever this “God” is, was probably just another unoriginal Umbra seeking a place where only they mattered.”

Seth imagined this information would probably cause quite the uproar if he ever went back to Earth, but nevertheless, it didn’t matter too much to him.

Next, Grayson explained what exactly the Chrome was. According to him, it was the kind of system that everything ran through. After registration, you receive an ID mark that is used to identify you anywhere. By registering into the Chrome, you have access to join any clan, register under any career, enter tournaments, anything really. Based on your rank in the Chrome, you have varying levels of access to jobs, command, and other perks.

So it is basically just a guild on steroids. He thought.

“Alright, so can I register into the Chrome from here since you have an outpost?”

Grayson quickly assured him that he could, but it would take a little while to go through the process.

Seth then decided that he would push it off until tomorrow so he could have a chance to use all of the items he bought with Lyrica.

Finally, Grayson dove deeper into some important aspects about the Foundation. According to historical texts, the Foundation was actually not created by the two greater beings. It turns out, the Foundation has been around even longer than them. This fact was recently discovered by Origin, the same organization that stole Seth. Even though he had only been in this new reality for a day, he could tell that was an incredibly important finding. Regardless of all of that, the older man continued to detail some things that all new “shapers” needed to know.

First of all, Grayson explained that learning to shape was not the same for everyone. Apparently, due to the fact that there were an infinite number of dimensions, there was also an infinite amount of different abilities, skills, and styles. No two abilities were exactly the same, but they could be incredibly similar. Because of this, the Chrome was constantly recording new abilities, so much so that they have information on literal trillions of them.

Configuring is what they call the stage Seth is going through. Grayson claimed that from tier one to three is the weakest a person can be, basically a stage in which their body acclimates to the influx of dimensional energy. At the end of tier three, beings go through a stage of rapid growth and transformation. Races can change, abilities can evolve, and when they finish tier four, the person becomes something… more.

Seth tried to pry further but the grisly owner assured him that when he reached tier four, he would understand. Either he got tired of the assault, or he was not telling Seth something on purpose, so Seth decided it was probably time to go. Eventually, the two made their way back to the entrance.

“I appreciate all of the help and your time. I’ll be back tomorrow morning for registration if that’s alright with you.”

Grayson gave a slight bow as Seth started to head out.

“I look forward to our next meeting my new friend.”

He watched the odd young man stroll away with a hint of mischief in his golden eyes.

I do hope he won’t be a disappointment.