Chapter two, Arrival

As we kept floating through the void Trisk kept on speaking, asking me questions about my world and about me; having next to nothing to hide I answered them quickly and concisely.

"So did you have any family?" she asked.

"Well… I was owned by the N.I.S.S., which was the government space program." I answered; I hate them so i don't feel a connection with them any more.

A bit further out I saw a ball of light, not too bright but very noticeable. Before I was able to ask about it Trisk said, "Ah there, the exit portal. We just have to fly into it and we will have reached our destination." she said, adding a bit of a robotic tone to the last half.

I looked at the portal nervously and replied, "Okay…"

We both traveled into the portal, this time no ringing came as I let the light consume me. As I entered the portal I shut my eyes tight as the sound of the bustling travel was replaced by silence then… speaking? It was in the same tongue as Trisk was speaking before. She stared at me in thought for a moment and removed the translator she was using, It looks like it was attached under her jaw and wrapped up and into the corner of her ear, she opened her mouth a bit hesitantly and said "can you understand this?" her voice was much different than the translated voice, definitly fit her.

"Oh wow, yes, I can?" how can she speak english?

"Crap well- I came from an english speaking country in my universe of origin!" she exclaimed, the lack of translator let her speak less formally, it fit her well.

"Ehem, anyways," she said, trying to keep the conversation moving "welcome to epoch! The only city situated in the 13th dimension. It has many things for life, comfort and pleasure. Days last 32 hours here and most life sustaning objects are free! All paid for by the Egos so take advantage of it."

"Free? How is that sustainable?" I asked with confusion

She smiled as she said, "this city makes about ten thousand times more food and energy than it needs and will be making that for the rest of eternity. As long as there are universes reaching heat death we will be able to turn that energy into life sustaining food and water."

"Ah" I said, stunned.

"Now we have a little program, for new people! I went through it once and you will too. You will just be given the language and then a listing of jobs you could learn based off of your Mana signature!" she exclaimed.

She began walking towards a building saying "NEW ARRIVALS" with glass doors, the floor was icy and looking around i saw many buildings. The place we arrived was in a large clearing with odd trees with glowing fruit on them, around the clearing there were many places where people would arrive like we did, on the edges of the clearing there were several buildings with neon signs. The sky was dark and cloudy, the city was lit with street lights but still bustling with life. The ground was damp as we walked towards the new arrivals building, it looked like it was closed, the lights off and nothing happening inside. She kept going and tried to open the door

"Locked." she said under her breath. After a brief moment of digging around in her pocket she pulled out a card and swiped it between the doors and opened them. "Not locked!" she smiled as she put the card back in her pocket and held the door open for me. "Come on in!"

"But, arent we breaking in?"

"Its not breaking in if they are supposed to be open"

I walked in and she shut the door behind me, she then turned on the light and shouted into the room, "ICY, WHERE ARE YOU"

I looked around and the room had several cubicles, from one a dragonic looking blue fluffy creature stood up and replied, "What is it trisk?" with annoyance.

"First off, why was the door locked and lights off?"

It replied "Cant a man get some sleep?"

"We both know you don't need to sleep"

"Well yes but its nice sometimes!" he said with more annoyance. "Either way, what do you want?"

"Can i borrow one of your rooms to teach this newcomer?"

"That's my job though." he looked at her with tired eyes.

"Yeah but i want to teach this one, ill write it under your name so you get the credit for the teaching." she said with a smile.

"Fourth room on the left" he said annoyed. He tossed her a key and sat back in his office chair with a fwump.

Trisk began walking into the hall and opened a door to a small room adorned with a few chairs and several instruments. "Okay, ready to learn a ton of interesting stuff?"

I looked around in a daze and replied, "I guess?"

"Well first we will deal with the language then ill ask what you wanna start with!" she drew five circles on the board, each with a word in them. "Society, Jobs, Magic, Universe structure, and Language" she then crossed out language and walked over to a cabinet and took out a small pill.

She held it up and said, "If you eat this you will be able to read, write, speak and understand Urail like it is your first language, it will feel like english to you."

"What are the downsides?"

"Its a bit spicy, here take it!" she tossed the small pill and i caught it.

"We are doing this first because its the easiest part." Trisk picked up a water bottle and tossed it to me and i caught it in my other paw.

I put the pill in my mouth and swallowed it with the water. She was right, its very slightly spicy.

"Okay try saying 'Test'"

As i spoke i moved my mouth in a now familiar motion producing sounds which in my head translated to "Test".

"Good!" she exclaimed, clapping her paws, "Now what do you want to learn first?" she said, gesturing towards the board.

I looked at each one, thinking of which would be most important for me to learn first. "Society I guess? It would be best for me to learn how this new world works before jumping into more detailed things"

"Good choice! Ill give you the whole gist of it!" she said with a big smile. "So, in our society we are ruled by 13 appointed gods. They are selected randomly when one of the previous 13 die. These gods arent omnicient, they just make sure expansion and resources are deliberated properly across each workforce.

"We run on a base of where everyone gets a place to live, food to eat and water to drink. If you want more then work and go around to earn credits. We have around 10,000 citizens at a time which avoid working and stay home but after a while they do come and work of their own will. If you are disabled then you are taken care of by a government paid caretaker and earn an average amount of credits a month.

"Basic housing is a singe bedroom apartment and if you live with another person then you gain another bedroom and a bigger kitchen, living room, etc. you will receive your room at the end of this course. Better housing can be bought or rented for credits. Or given to you if you work a high value job! I have a standalone house outside of the city where i live because i'm a god slayer, though I only have it due to the fact I am working as a god slayer, even though i'm not lisenced.

"Another important thing to note is in our society we do not grow old, we just die so the elderly do not exist. If you do see an old person they are still healty. We have amazing hospitals and clinics so don't worry if you are on the verge of death.

"In our society we just take breaks, we don't retire. If you want to take an extended 10 year break from work then just give a week notice and leave. Though there are jobs you cannot quit, them being high value jobs, jobs like God slayer, Ego servant, Food distributor, Operators, Engineers and Protectors. These are the highest paying jobs you can get, working these will earn you a lot of money, especially if you are better at them than normal.

"Since its related i will also explain jobs." she said, gazing off, i think she was trying to remember what she was saying as she paused before saying, "Servants, FDs and Operators are always working, if you want a classic, always on call high paying and easy job then work these, these jobs need a two week notice to leave. Engineers and Protectors are always on standby, if needed you have to answer the call and need a month of notice to leave. God slayers work on either standby or by commission. You will be waiting for a god raid or you can be looking for a target alone, i am a pieceworker so i find my own work. If you don't find enough to kill or if you don't participace in a tasked raid you will be imprisoned for a year."

"Wait wait wait, what? Imprisoned?"

"Its hard to fail by the way, just be there even if you arent fighting. Plus the deadline for me is one a year so its pretty easy with how many gods there are."

"Oh- okay!"

"Plus some slayers go years without a task since teams are designated by a committee, they are past god slayers and to become one you have to end up being hurt or lose the ability to work at all while in the field since its mosly office work.

"Anyways, god slayers cannot retire."

"What?"

"They work til they get hurt and cant work anymore or die"

"So theres no way to stop being a god slayer?"

"Other than being imprisoned for a year yes but the job is INSANELY LUCRATIVE!" she exclaimed.

"So how much are you paid for it?"

"Minimum of 1M credits a year"

"Is that a lot?"

"You could buy 10 homes for that much"

God that must be a lot… i'm feeling greedy.

She resumed, "oh and commissioned god slayers just earn per kill. I think that would suit you best. What do you want to choose next?"

"Oh thats it?" i asked.

"Yep! No taxes or anything like that."

"Oh, okay" i said, deep in thought, trying to choose the next thing to learn about.

"Let's do… universe structure?" I said, unsure.

"Thats a short one, let's knock it out real quick! So the universe is structured into layers, even though each layer is infinite, each layer is a dimension, we are on the 13th dimension and past this point everything gets too complicated to normally support life, its a harsh environment and so i travel there sometimes to train. It hurts to stand there but its fun! We keep everything below the 13th dimension in order." she explained in length.

It hurts to stand but it's fun? is she okay? "Why does it hurt to stand in the 14th dimension?"

"its just too much, geometry there is too complicated to understand properly. its like trying to exist in a twenty page long physics equation."

"Wait, so then why as a three dimensional creature I perceive and understand this world just fine?"

"so sentient beings translating to the 13th dimension are converted in a way that they perceive as normal while it is for more complex than you would expect. it just makes your perception and body 13th dimensional, for example if you lived on a planet you wouldn't notice if you and the planet doubled in size."

Its much like how my hardware bootloads new languages, i install and it becomes second nature to me. I said "ohh that makes sense, would you please continue?"

"Ah, of course. The lower the less complex life is and the pokethrough is level dependant. There is a different one for each dimension. A major thing to note is that the higher you get the higher the universe density is much higher so you will find many more universes the higher in the dimensions you get. And so that's about it for structure!" she concluded as i stored the information she had given me in my storage as a text recording.

She suddenly stated, "Y'know, its funny, you're supposed to be tested but i'm ignoring that and giving you all 100s! The class is supposed to last like 3 days but i really don't care. It all can be taught really quick to you in particular. Anyways, any questions?"

"Ah, no not really! I think its time to learn about magic!"

"It sure is! First things first, we test your magic capability." she was holding a blue wristband with a long wire extending from a tablet she put on the desk in front of me. "Now slip this on and we will test you."

I responded excitedly "okay!"

She pressed a few buttons on the tablet and the wristband tightened around my wrist and started to emit a tingling sensation all through my arm. I whispered under my breath, "whoa.-"

She looked at me with a smile and responded, "so right now its transmitting very small amounts of magic through your arm, though i doubt you can feel it."

I said a bit confused, "so i shouldnt feel a tingling through my entire arm"

She looked delighted and responded gleefully, "so you can feel it! I knew you would be good at it! Now just wait silently" she smiled at me and started to read the tablet silently.

After a few minutes of silence she spoke as the feeling dissipated "Okay so your central meridian has an inclination to mana. That tingly feeling was the manifestation of your bodies response to mana. Mana tinngles, aura burns and holy radiates. Though its usually only measurable through the wristband. I was just making sure you didnt have any other inclinations. Your holy inclination is average and your aura is above average, though thoes numbers don't matter compared to your score of 9920 in the mana section! Thats even above average for God slayers"

I thought woah- i'm really that good? What did she get? So I asked her "what did you get on this test?"

"Oh i cant take this test, I just break the machine when i use it because my magic comes from alternative sources."

"Oh- does that mean you cant use standard magic?"

"Yep! Though most of the magic here just needs supplied energy so what I use is sufficient."

"Ah- okay-"

"I might use a powerful magic, its just exclusive so thats the only reason i'm good at it, if i used normal magic i would be far below average as i'm not a magician"

"Ohhh, well okay!"

"100 is average on all fronts, you scored 72 Holy, 192 Aura and 9920 Magic. Highest number ive ever seen, plus your preexisting magic control is insane." she paused and stared at me analytically, observing every movement i made inside and out. "Incredible! You are already using magic as an alternative to electricity in your battery! You will be an amazing magic user!"

"Wait but- what about thoes other energies?"

"Ah, yes, so in this world there are three central forms of magic. Mana, aura and holy. Two things determine how well someone weilds a form of magic, innate inclination and control. Control is the same across all magic and you have incredible magic control, judging by your subconscious magic use. Magic combination is when you mix different aspects of one of the kinds of magic to get a more specialized magic. You can probably do it quite easily as long as you take a course in magic! You would be an impeccable god slayer… would you like to become one? You could take an apprenticeship with me if you did."

I stared at her and replied, "if I become a god slayer, which I probably wont, why would you be teaching me?"

She looked at me with a slightly annoyed look and said, "because I think you are worthy of me teaching you. If you went through the average methods your teaching would be slowed, as was I. fortunately I had already learned all that they had to offer alone before which was boring. All i would do is teach you magic at your own pace and bring you on missions that you are suited for which the school wouldnt do. If anyone else was offered this they would take it in a heartbeat. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because i'm an A class" she pointed to a patch on her jacket which said: "Class A"

"What does that mean?"

"It means out of all Billion Slayers I am in the top thousand. It usually takes at least a hundred years to make it here but i was sorted into this class at the start, its why i'm currently a controversial topic… either way, what will it be? Join me now or never get the chance for this ever again?"

I stared with distrust, "And why should i believe you?"

She said nothing and just held a single paw out and from that paw a huge sword appeared, slowly extending out of her palm, seemingly materializing out of nothing. It was quite simple, the whole thing looked huge, it was 13 feet long and quite simple and inscribed on the flat of the blade was the roman numerals XIII. she held it like it weighed nothing and offered the handle to me. Her eyes went dark as she waited for me to take the sword from her paw.

"Are you telling me to hold it?" I asked

She nodded silently.

I wrapped my paws around the handle as she let go of the sword slowly, as the weight of the bladed weapon slowly transfered from her paws to mine i felt my own paws slipping, i tried gripping it harder but it only pulled my shoulders down, then my back, and so when she let go it took me down with it. My paw was stuck under the sword and i couldnt even move it a little, let alone lift it. I asked her "can you take this off of me?" but she just crossed her arms and shook her head.

How am i supposed to lift this? How did she lift this? This doesnt prove anything. These thoughts raced through my head as she suddenly spoke, "Imagine if i had dropped it on your chest? Would you be able to breathe?"

Her words spread through my head as i squatted on the floor, stuck to it by the sword. Is she going to leave me here? "How much does it weigh?" i asked.

"I don't know." she asked dully.

"Can you take it off of my paw?"

"Do you believe me?"

"No."

"There is your answer. Try harder."

I pulled my paw harder, trying to get out, i pulled with all of my strength, it felt like my arm was going to be ripped off. Stop. Did she know I can… remove my paw??? I looked up at her and she smiled, like she knew what I was thinking. I took my paw off, slipped it through the sword and put it back on.

I looked up at her and asked "Did you know?"

"If i didn't then why wouldn't i help"

"Well I don't know, maybe you're sadistic?" I said exasperated.

She stared at me annoyed before saying, "either way, do you belive me?"

I don't know how she knew about my biology without me telling her or how she can pick up an object so damn heavy, what the fuck is she…

I paused and answered, "I don't know"

"Either way, will you accept?"