Finally! Finally, Apolyn thought. He had finally created the ring he’d tried to enchant so long ago. When he’d first tried to enter the Labyrinth all those years ago his team had been wiped out immediately and he’d not even been able to make it more than a foot out of the entrance. When he’d gone back with a second and third team the entire area had changed, and the Labyrinth had responded to his presence immediately every time he went back. It was almost like it knew what he was doing.

Today when he’d entered the Labyrinth he’d only encountered monsters that seemed appropriate for the location. He’d made his way over to the sealed stone wall and opened it up with a spell to the cave he knew was behind it. Once inside he’d sealed the cave with a wall of force to prevent anything from entering then went to work.

Unlike his previous spell which he thought was trying to pull too much experience (XP) from the labyrinth, he increased the draw by a factor of 1,000. This increased the XP output to one million XP per second. It had taken the better part of the day but he’d cast the ritual successfully. Once he was finished he made his way to the exit and then node traveled back to the entrance to the Dungeon of Divine Elements right outside Venoran. He’d stepped out into the fresh air. The dungeon automatically taxed everyone leaving the dungeon, and as he’d found nothing, he lost nothing. Once he was outside he teleported back to the entrance to his abode in the mountains north of the city.

In the time it had taken him to return he’d already regained the XP and levels he’d lost. Apolyn teleported back to his abode and then went up to his room He took a long hot shower, dressed for bed, and turned off all his notifications. He even made sure to turn off notifications that would normally breakthrough. He wanted to get as much sleep as he could before tomorrow. He just knew it was going to be an awesome day.

When Apolyn woke up the next day he opened his interface to find over 14,000 messages. He automatically deleted every leveling notification and concentrated on two that caught his attention.

Congratulations! You now have a choice. You may now choose to leave the path of mortality and work to maintain and grow reality with your fellow divines or you may choose to remain mortal for the time being and make this choice at a later time.

The Path of Divinity is not easy. If chosen, you become a Neophyte. All powers, spells, class abilities, and attributes remain the same but are modified by a new attribute called Rank Disparity. Rank Disparity increases all attributes, powers, and abilities against any being that is not at least a Neophyte higher level divine. Neophytes have a rank disparity of 100 to all mortal or normal creatures. Rank Disparity is roughly how many times more powerful than a normal mortal you are.

Those on the path of divinity become Immortal and immune to any normal biological parasites, diseases, poisons, or venoms.

Mortal class progression is locked. Experience is instead converted to Divinity Points (DP) at an exchange rate of 100 XP for 1 DP.

Note: Unlike XP, Divinity Points are not automatically utilized to purchase Class levels. If you chose to become a Divine a list of what Divinity Points may be spent on will be made available to you and updated as other options become available

New Divine Classes, abilities, and powers become available to those on the path of divinity. DP is utilized to purchase class levels, class abilities, utilize divine powers, grant boons or curses, and also increase your divine Rank. The cost for each is variable and may seem extremely high. Some divine classes will seem to mimic mortal classes but are comparatively more powerful. Also, unlike normal mortal classes, Divine Class levels peak at level 10.

Divinity Points are gained by followers, locations, normally temples or other religious structures, dedicated to you and through the conversion of experience into DP. Other methods may become available depending on the divine class you choose as well.

REALITY NOTE: A recent change now allows all mortals to achieve levels beyond level 5,000. Earned XP will continue to apply to mortal levels until you have chosen to walk the Path of Divinity.

NOTE: It is extremely unlikely that any mortal will ever achieve enough experience to contest the power granted through Rank Disparity to a Divine. Neophytes are 100 times more powerful than Mortals. Demi-Gods are 1,000 times more powerful than mortals and Gods are one million times more powerful than mortals. For a mortal to earn enough experience to rival a God they would first need to destroy Reality a hundred, if not a thousand, times over.

WARNING: Those on the Path of the Divine are under strict rules that garner strict penalties not to interfere in the day-to-day lives of mortals except by spending DP to do so. The full list of rules will be made available if you choose to become a divine

Do you wish to become a Divine, Yes or No?

Apolyn chose “No”

SYSTEM OVERRIDE INSTITUTED. Answer “No” has been converted to Answer “Yes”

Apolyn reacted immediately and tapped the “No” key multiple times rapidly. Nothing happened until a new Prompt appeared.

Congratulations Neophyte Apolyn. You have chosen to walk the Path of Divinity…

Apolyn closed the prompts and fumed. Next, he checked his level and realized that he was now Level 13,951 with 76,506 attributes to distribute. That’s not what caught his eye though. His strength, even without the points from the saved attributes was 1.01E+102. Oh yeah, he was going to find that Adamantadine and he was going to…

Congratulations! You have chosen the path of Divinity.

Reviewing Personal Information

Forced Transformation NOT required.

Prepare for Divine Translocation and Emergence in your new home Layer.

Be sure to check your prompts upon arrival. Information and quests for advancement will be available.

Good Luck!

Apolyn looked around in horror as he was forcibly teleported out of a newly unclaimed place of power.

* * *

“ADAM WAKE UP!” Thor’s voice declared as I vaulted out of the bed into an immediately defensive stance over Adaline who was still lying in bed looking up groggily.

“What’s going on?” Adaline asked as Desirae burst into the room

“Al is under attack from creatures in the Labyrinth. He needs us.” Desirae said.

“Get your team together and portal in, I’ll teleport from here. I’ll clear the node room that leads into the labyrinth then I’ll talk to Al. Take your team and head in from the top. I’ll keep anything else from coming in.”

“You got it!” Desirae said.

Adaline slapped my leg lightly, causing me to look down at her as she said, “I have an inkling of how powerful you are. I’m going to stay here and sleep a little longer, maybe catch up with Thor. Have fun!” Adaline said.

Thanks, sweetheart,” I said as my body rippled and I was covered in black leather armor again. I dropped down to my knees over Adaline, gave her a quick kiss, and then teleported to the underwater base near the entrance to the Dungeon. I arrived in mid-air and landed lightly. I turned to the barrier to the dungeon and walked through. Inside was a group of five individuals getting ready to go through the curtain of darkness into the 1st level.

“Dungeons under attack by monsters that are much more powerful than anything you’ve seen before. Get back into the underwater base and make your way to one of the security vaults on the first floor. You will be safe in there until we get this handled.”

“Who are you? You can’t just…”, one of the over-eager 20-somethings started to say

I cast paralyze on the talker and teleported him, and the rest of his team, into one of the bunkers that weren’t open, then opened my quantum link to Thor and sent him a message.

Thor, I just sent you some idiots there were about to become monster snacks. Don’t let them out until this is over -Adam

You got it Adam -Thor

I moved to the Travel Node and chose the end of this dungeon and teleported into a maelstrom of monsters rushing through from the Labyrinth. I have to admit, that first couple of seconds I was a little bit surprised. I would even say that I now knew how Loki felt when the Hulk smashed him into the floor in the movie Avengers but nothing that happened to me in that first few moments hurt. I did receive a bunch of prompts which I minimized.

I focused my will and called up an oldie but goodie with a little bit of a modification to it. I started chain-casting mage bolt as fast as I could. Within a minute the room I was in was clear except for the monsters trying to enter from the Labyrinth. One bolt was more than enough for any monster unless they were immune to that type of damage so I made sure to put one bolt of each elemental type into each monster.

When I was done I spoke to the room, “Al, vacuum seal this room,” I said as created a magical portal parallel to the portal to the labyrinth and had it open near enough to the Unicorn Singularity that anything passing through would be traveling for a year or so before it came into the gravity well. I made sure the exit was far enough outside of the gravity well so it wouldn’t produce a lensing effect from the singularity. Long before the monsters reached the singularity they’d either evaporate from lack of magic or die from exposure and lack of oxygen, if they needed it. The little bit of air in the room was sucked through the seam between portals and into the void of space. The monsters coming through the portal from the Labyrinth didn’t have a chance.

I looked around the room, I enclosed the other portal leading into the Dungeon in a bubble of force that left a space on this side of the portal leading back into the dungeon protected from the vacuum to the travel node pedestal. Once that was done, I teleported inside and pressurized the area I was in with air.

“Hey Al, what happened?” I asked.

“Thanks for making an air bubble here, I was wondering how Desirae was going to make it into the room without suffocating.”

“No problem, where are they at?” I asked.

“They’re already to level 2 and making their way through level 3. Monsters from the Labyrinth have only made it to level 7 this far. You know your family and her are way overpowered for me don’t you?”

“Really, how high did they get while I was gone?” I asked

“As you yesterday, all six had reached level 14,999. They’ve been swapping rings to take advantage of the XP boost,” I looked up quickly which caused all to respond just as quickly,” Desirae told me when I asked. Anyway, I check their level when they node travel back and also update Desirae so she can keep track of everyone’s progress,” Al said.

“Is Clarence taking turns with the rings? I just did the math in my head. It’s ironic. At that level dividing by five or six gets the same level. If it was all six of them it’ll be another 146 hours before all of them reach level 14,500. A little less if only five of them” I said.

“I have seen Clarence wearing the rings yes, though I didn’t know there was an issue. He seems to follow Desirae around and do whatever she says when they’re in me,” Al said.

“That’s fine. At the level they’re at these monsters should be a cakewalk for them so I’ll wait here. Why don’t you fill me in on what happened?” I asked.

“A little while ago all of us Dungeons received what we thought was a mental attack. It wasn’t. The Labyrinth, Bri, had screamed. There was an emotional part to the mental cry that felt awful. Like something was being ripped away from her. That, moments later Labyrinth creatures started breaking into every dungeon that I’m in contact with.”

“How bad is it?”

“Considering that none of the labyrinth creatures have been destroyed in any other dungeon save this one and I’m just now absorbing them, hold on for a sec,” Al said as the room pulsed and the corpses that were still in the room disappeared. “As I thought These creatures are far more powerful than anything the dungeons have. The levels of these creatures are ranging from 100, my upper limit on level 10, to 1,000. Everywhere else the monsters are breaking through.” Al said.

“I know I didn’t ask before but I’m asking now, how many dungeons are on this planet?” I asked.

“There are a lot of dungeons forming, especially after you left that mana dump before you left. They’re popping up along ley lines everywhere. The question I think you’re asking is how many dungeons are connected to the Labyrinth?” Al said.

“Correct, how many dungeons are Labyrinth creatures going to break out of into the world? I asked.

“I am an anomaly because of the Bermuda Triangle and a convergence of other factors. Currently, there are 32 dungeons connected to the Labyrinth. Eight are the prime nodes for the eight basic elements. The other 24 are convergence points where 4 different basic elements come together. With the world being covered by 70% water, a lot of them are underwater. 11 are not.”

“Do you have their locations?”

“Adam, I’m not like you, I do not remember everything unless it happened inside me. I know they are in the world, but I have no idea where.”

At that moment all six members of my team, I was going to have to start referring to them that way, stepped out of the curtain ready to fight.

“Adam!” Desirae called.

“Desirae! Any Problems?” I asked.

“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Abi said.

“Yeah son, this is great! They almost gave us a challenge,” my dad said.

“Don’t listen to your dad Johnathan, I didn’t even get to heal anyone this time. These days I only get practice healing when noobs come here and bite off more than they can chew,” my mom said.

I looked at Desirae questioning

“Your mom followed in your shoes. She serves Serena as a Cleric. She showed up shortly after you disappeared to let us know you were okay.”

“Wow, so you all met a God?”

“Yep, and I have to admit, my agnostic tendencies are pretty much gone,” Clarence said.

I laughed, “I bet! Just so you know, I think you met a real goddess. The ones I was dealing with back in the day were, the best word I can use to describe them is, imposters, but not.” I said.

“One of the things we’d like to discuss with you is this message that asks us if we’d like to embark on the Path of Divinity. We all received it when we reached level 5,000. We were waiting to talk to you when you returned, “Amanda said.

“And we will. Right now leave it alone. Something has happened to the Labyrinth and all of the monsters she was keeping at bay are now on their way through the portals. I asked Thor to move the mini refuge into the Oort Cloud last night. It should be there by now and ready to go. How many portals does the base under New Mexico have now?” I asked.

“If it were the only place we had portals I ‘d say 1,000. We have a lot more than that. There are portals devices within the ship and there are also other ones buried deep in various moons around the solar system. Thor said he was modeling the idea on something you’d done previously.”

“Sounds like it,” I said, as I created seven quantumly entangled communication earbuds and a stand-alone system that I put on a tripod next to the wall and then formed rock around it with my chaos. “These communication devices are going to keep us in contact. I’m going to teleport us all back to base ops. Al, this device on the ground will allow us to talk to and hear you. Please try to find out what happened to the Labyrinth.”

“Will do Adam, how long will that portal you made last?” Al asked.

“Until I dispel it. I made it self-sustaining,” I said.

“What happens if anyone walks into the back of your portal?” Al asked.

“Good question, let me fix that,” I said as I cast a wall of force over the back of the portal so anything trying to enter it would bounce off. “Anyone that tries to enter from the back will hit a wall of force. If anyone can dispel that, and still walks through it, my thoughts are simply they deserve whatever happens to them.”

“Fair enough,” Al said.

I opened a portal with magic that led to the control room in New Mexico and followed everyone as they stepped through.

“Desirae, I have a feeling this is your show now. We need to save as many as possible, let’s get to it.

“Thor, status please!” Desirae called.

“Multiple reports of strange creatures popping up all around the world have started coming in within the last five minutes.

“You still have coverage across the globe?”

“Yes, okay, correlate data and look for eleven areas with multiple reports within the last five minutes.”

“Working,” Thor responded.

“All right, Abi and Amanda, I want you at your headquarters and ready to make a public announcement in a few minutes about the people that will be stepping through portals to safety, “Desirae paused for a moment then looked at Cindy and Robert, “Cindy and Robert I want you two on the lifeboat. They might need healing and also something might get through one of the portals. If that happens, Robert, you’re the tank, you take care of it. Cindy, you’re the healer you know what to do. Clarence, you’re with me and Adam. We are going to pop around the planet taking out as many monsters as we can,” Desirae paused for a moment, then added, “Abi and Amanda, you know which groups have been doing the best down in the dungeon. A couple of people have reached decent levels. I want you to contact them all and tell them to be ready for defense duties. I don’t think we’ll have an issue, I just don’t think we’ll be able to handle….” Desirae’s voice trailed off as she watched me split into 10 copies of myself.

“Not an issue,” I said. I can split like this over a million times without loss of functionality” I said.

Everyone in the room slowly blinked, looked at the ten copies of myself, and then looked at Desirae. Desirae gathered herself, then said, “Okay people, We have work to do and lives to save, let’s get to it!”