Todd gasps, reeling as the third vision ends. It’s too much, the multiverse too big.

But the worst part is that the vast scope of the heavens, well, it should have been alien, unfathomable and cryptic. Geometries of distance, scale and gaugeless void.

Instead the myriad stars seem ruled by Olympian douches.

“Children of the Earth,” calls out the Red-gold warrior. “Imagine it. You could see all your dreams come true, and times it by a thousand and still come up short of what we offer.”

“Each of the cultivators we have selected to show you today,” the Violet scholar succeeds, “started their path as mere F class mortals such as yourselves.”

“My favorite part is where she steals the whole star!” the Rose fool snickers. “You’d better be just as cool when you grow up!” She swoops down to ER Nayira and Granny Élena and gently brushes a stray grey hair from the elder woman’s face.

Ciforre tuts impatiently at her sister. “Vision into the myriad potentialities of time and space is far more interesting than interstellar larceny, Befor.” But as she says it, she glances at Dr Chowdhury, and then over to lock eyes with Todd.

But is it? “I don’t understand,” Todd says atwist, as his tongue recovers faster than his brain. Ciforre’s glance degrades to a glare.

“What don’t you understand, child?” Aefore asks, with the softness of steel.

“The interplanetary distances in any normal star system are huge. Right? Are you telling me one little old lady couldn’t just hide on an asteroid and ride it through?”

Befor snorts derisively. “Well that’s hardly as cool as-”

“And why does she need to take it from an inhabited system? That’s practically genocidal!”

“The path of the warrior can sometimes be bloody -” Aefore tries to say, but Todd stammers through, unable to stop now that he’s started.

“It’s heartless! And what about the gold tower, pyramid thing?” He cries. “I didn’t see any basic infrastructure, or beds, or commerce really; just a whole lot of gold. Wouldn’t that be uncomfortable?”

A few murmurs of doubt ripple through the crowd.

Gentle as a razor blade, Ciforre reassures him. “But surely the silver city and it’s queen –”

“And did you see that place?” Todd exclaims, turning to his friends. “No green spaces, no roads in or out. Just grey metal. How could anyone want to live in a city that –”

A sudden and sharp clap rings out over the square. “Okay, who wants to see one more!” Aefore calls out in uncharacteristic cheer. “I have saved the best for last, for you will find this vision stokes a warrior’s heart most fiercely!”

The sisters nod determinedly and raise their hands again, the white mist billowing out again as a new vision takes shape.

“This kid, I swear,” Todd hears a fading whisper as the lights dim and background sound ebbs out.

“Oh please, you’re just mad he didn’t like your dumb mirror lady,” he hears, like the fading whistle of a song bird. Then the mist turns from white to black night, and a roar fills the sky.

Ten million red lights stand in arcane formation. Battle lines, drawn by a mad mystic. Each pair of lights is a set of eyes and in the dark, Todd can discern the shape of inhuman bodies. Sharp teeth glinting in the dark, curved horns like flame. The night glistens, batters, howls. Whipping wind and lashing rain beats the rocky shores the devil army stands on. The swords in their hands pulse with energy, the runes in their armor curl with steam. But their army is nothing compared to the man standing on the Sea.

The vision pans away from the army’s shore, through gale storm and coal-stack cloud, over froth white surf and ink-green swells. A titan strides across the sea, and at each step his winged sandals beat a gale against the suffering ocean. It’s obvious why Aefore favors this vision, the titan is colored bronze and gold and in his hand he bears a terrible spear.

His war helmet is simple, but its sharp lines are cut into a terrible inevitability. Behind him, a half cloak trails like a galloping banner. Then as he bellows in fury, his free hand scrapes against the air itself, tearing a thunderbolt out from the place between the raindrops.

Mighty. Terrible. But…

As the battle between good and evil – presumably – plays out, Todd finds his attention wandering. Out away from the battle, away from the war formations gathering bolts of hellfire, away from the white hot blaze of the spear as it crashes like Ragnarok against the host of the enemy.

Todd sees the edge of the storm, where the clouds dim from black to grey to white. A hundred miles away, where the sun shines through and the wind dances softly. He watches the gentled edge of a hurricane land on an empty parched shore like a chaste kiss after a prolonged absence.

Everyone else can watch the thunder god cast the hosts of hell back through their gate. But Todd? Todd turns his head up to the sky and for the last few moments of the vision, he watches the sun glitter through the colorless, falling rain.

“Oh come on. Is that really what does it for him?” An exasperated voice barely reaches him.

“The Thunder Champion plays well across nearly all demographics, sister. You have to understand – Oh yes what did you think?” Aefore claps again as the mist disperses, and whatever sensory-depressive field the humans were under abates.

“Did you see how he was like kaplow! And the bad guys were like, oh no save me! And he was like, NOPERNIO! PaBOOMsville!” Befor spins off in a zero g drift, clutching at deep belly laughs and curled into a ball.

“Any questions?” Ciforre asks, all smiles even though her hair warps angrily against spacetime.

“Constructive questions,” Aefore adds, and there are many.

But Todd isn’t listening anymore. He looks at Randall, and Joe and Candra, and between the four of them cannot find a single word worth the saying.

Joe’s eyes rise to Aefore, and then to the dispersing mist. Randall’s turns to his hands, like he’s discovered them for the first time. Candra grabs then kneads nervously, right hand to left forearm and chews on her lip.

Todd simply turns out, following the truncated blue horizon of the floor. He imagines that it continues on, past the white stone buildings and to far off places.

The question and answer session is raucous, fast paced, and from the few snippets he can gather, tactfully vague. The pixies split apart to field questions more effectively, and it lasts for a number of good long minutes.

Finally, Befor puts two fingers and her thumb between her lips and whistles a piercing note and silences the crowd.

“We promised you all a place to sleep. But before we do, you must make certain that you have earned and received your F grade cultivation manuals! We promised you power, but before you are capable of starting your journey you MUST develop a proper foundation to channel the Cosmic Energy which makes all of this possible.” Aefore twists her hand and a cubic crystal appears between her fingers. She holds it aloft for all to see. “To activate the crystal, place it to your forehead and reach out to it. Trust your intuition. It will be much the same way you reach out to the System. And now, Ciforre.”

“The outer boundary of the square is comprised of private, zoned housing,” the third pixie begins. “You have noticed there are no doors. That is because your rooms will be accessed via teleportation. Each of you, when you touch the building of your choice, will be granted keyed access to a room of your own. There will be facilities appropriate to your mortal needs, as well as food and water. To be clear, over the duration of this tutorial, your room will be yours and yours alone. Feel free to store any possessions there you do not wish to carry.”

“Is it possible to share a room?” A voice calls out from the other side of the crowd.

“It is not possible for multiple cultivators to be assigned a single room, though you may bring others with you to visit yours,” Ciforre tucks her book under her arm and adjusts her spectacles warningly. “It is however, not advised. Now please! Attention to your quest menus. You will find we have prepared a generous welcome package for each of you. You will find your rooms have ample space to store them.”

Having been distracted as he turned to view the looming stone squares of the plaza walls, Todd shakes back his attention to the pixies, and then re-centers his attention inward. He tries to call on the feeling of the System without saying the command out loud.

[Unlocking Zoned Housing Queue]

As Todd feels himself locking onto the distilled mental command for his quest menu, he hears the faintest churn of the System’s voice in his head. Then the Quest menu appears.

Active Quests

Zone sweet Home (easy) : Claim a private zone instance. Reward: Tutorial Care Package

Simple enough.

“Just touch it? Like just the wall?” He asks aloud as the quest screen fades. He sees Aefore turns her head distractedly and impatiently to nod at him before turning back to field other questions.

Todd starts as a sudden heavy weight thumps down over across his shoulders. “I think we should all pick the same building,” Randall suggests cheerfully, having thrown his arm genially over Todd. Pulled round back towards his friends, Todd huddles in a little island of safety with them. Joe shrugs with a tired smile, and Candra waves an absent consent. “What do you guys think?” Randall asks again.

Todd doubts it matters which building they choose. But then thinking it over, realizes it matters to him a great deal.

He pinches his jersey and pulls at it, peeling away from his body with a weary moue. “Think they got a shower in there?”