The first thing one saw when the door was open was a giant gate at the far north of the room, which was shaped like an archway. A calm blue portal swirled within, releasing copious amounts of a whitish colored energy that caused the kids to feel comfort, as if they were home.
In front of this portal, seated haphazardly and casually while chatting, were the core members of Umbra. 10 years in Boundless had changed them greatly, and their former belligerent natures had been tempered after years of leadership and expeditions in the main plane.
All 59 core members were present. There were 58 player core members and 1 Semi-NPC core member.
1. Keith, Money Lover, The Merchant King.
2. Franklin, Cold Summer, The Paragon of Water.
3. Akainu, The Magma King.
4. Sanji, The Demonic Soleus.
5. Jada and Jade, the Twin Extremes.
6. Astarte, Cobra, The Supreme Killer.
7. Uno, Alpha Male, The Bastion.
8. Boyd, Eye Patch, The Colossus.
9. Rina, Lusty Wench, The Paragon of Fire.
10. Kiran, Dark Monk, The Immortal.
11. Sheila, Slim Fatty, The Goddess of the Blade.
12. Justin Davis, Deployed Soldier, The God General.
13. Christian, Silent Walker, The Paragon of Darkness.
14. Kevin, Dreary Traveler, The Lich King.
15. Jason, Rambunctious Buttlover, The Troubadour of Madness.
16. Jonas, Noble Writer, The Word of Law.
17. Lucas, Fitter Cleric, The God of Probability.
18. Francois, Happy Saint, The Machine King.
19. Anne-Marie, Gentle Flower, The Daughter of Gaia.
20. Johnathan, Noble Soul, The Legend.
21. Andreas, Joker, The Gambit of Cards.
22. Sylvester, Happy Scholar, The Void Speaker.
23. Keira, Killer Queen, The Titaness.
24. Hera, Great Caster, The Mage Queen.
25. Lucia, Gentle Light, The Cardinal of Light.
26. Yui, Trouble Maker, The Saintess of Beauty.
27. Bella, Brother Is Best, The Seductive Goddess.
28. Shani, The Divine Shot.
29. Mary, Sublime, The Divine Prime Minister.
30. Aaron, Essence Stalker, The Aurora Lord.
31. Cyrus, Ghostprotokill, The Classmaster.
32. Connor, Shadowheart, The Eternal Magus.
In this time, majority of the playerbase had long reached the peak of Rank 6 as in the previous timeline, but they were not stuck. They were still gradually growing under the care and nourishment of Umbra and Vita, so they would soon enter Rank 7 and began to ascend one by one as well.
Now, whether it was players or the core members, they were nothing like the previous timeline who were confused or clumsily feeling the way forward.
They had the path of the Supreme Trio - which was now their official name - to guide them, and now players in this timeline could easily even defeat Draco, Eva and co from the previous timeline at the same level in the game, assuming Control and bloodlines were not used.
A major contributor of this was the Tower of Babylon which had been placed at Vita Divine Empire's heart and was made accessible to all players. It featured 5 main floors instead of 99, which further condensed the power of the tower and made those floors unparalleled.
Each floor was separated into tis own thing, so you didn't need to enter them one by one, but could enter each at any time.
The first was the Combat Floor where one would fight against monsters of various kinds that specifically targeted their weaknesses. This floor was dynamic, so even if you beat the monster and came back later, there would be a new one that would once again target your weaknesses.
The second was the Technique Floor, where one would be stripped of their various equipment and supports, forced to use what they had learned in Boundless by themselves to survive. Magicians would have to manually cast magic using ambient Worldly Energy while warriors would have to use simple weapons mixed with Worldly Energy to take down powerful foes.
The third was the Bloodline Floor, where one would experience intense mental and physical strain beyond human limits. The goal was to awaken one's human bloodline and gain Control, either Fake Tier 1 or the real thing. It was the most revisited floor of the entire tower because it was extremely hard to pass.
The fourth was the Experience Floor where you could fight monsters for experience to raise your rank quickly. This worked only for those at Rank 1, Rank and Rank 3, and those above would have to come out and train themselves using real battles in order to grow.
The fifth and final floor was the Truth Floor, where the aim was to train the minds of players. Once they entered, they would be subjected to an 'illusion' where they would go through life from the point of view of a version of their alternate timeline self, struggling at the bottom like a dog unlike now where they were pampered.
This floor was compulsory upon one's first visit and could only be visited once.
Many things had changed in the world during ten years, and it reflected especially for the core members who had also been made to undertake that trial. They did not know the background behind it, but they certainly did not want to end up as miserable as those versions of themselves because it was too terrible.
Regarding the Ascension Road, everyone simply entered at the same time because there were no limitations to how many could challenge it at a time. Seeing the various forms disappear into the portal, the kids were interested in seeing who would rank the highest among these fellows.
After all, there was no way any of these core members could fail, so it was more of a matter of who would complete the road the fastest. Only a few seconds passed before they got their answer.
「Boundless System-wide Announcement
Player Essence Stalker has been the first player to clear the Divine Umbra Pantheon's Ascension Road! He has obtained a permanent 100% increased gain rate for Divine Essence as well as an exclusive Divine Set: Ascendance! Congratulations!」
「Boundless System-wide Announcement
Player Misery has been the second player to clear the Divine Umbra Pantheon's Ascension Road! He has obtained a permanent 75% increased gain rate for Divine Essence as well as 3 Divine Chests! Congratulations!」
「Boundless System-wide Announcement
Player Shadowheart has been the third player to clear the Divine Umbra Pantheon's Ascension Road! He has obtained a permanent 50% increased gain rate for Divine Essence as well as 2 Divine Chests! Congratulations!」
「Boundless System-wide Announcement
Player AP_Berzerker has been the fourth...」
The notifications rang out rapidly one by one, showing that even though some were faster than others, the time frame between each was so small that anyone could have claimed the earlier positions.
By the time all the core members squeezed through, the announcements had come to an end at the 50th place as those at 51st and below would only receive personal congratulations from the AI.
This was strange because given the difficulty of ascension, the announcements should likely go up to the 100th place and beyond, so why was it stopping here? Could it be that the AI realized that the same fellows were stealing the spots meant for other players and decided to quite while it was ahead?
Rosella nodded with satisfaction and turned to her siblings. "Lets head back. Esteemed Father would want us to be there when he orients the core members."
However, her face darkened when she noticed that one person was missing.
"Where is Loki?" She asked with gritted teeth.
Shiro raised her hand joyfully and spoke sweetly. "Sister Rosella, he said that he is going to play in the world for a bit and that you shouldn't bother to look for him because he knows all your tricks."
Rosella glared at Kuro who was standing there nonchalant. "Why didn't you stop him?"
Kuro shrugged. "I can't, I'm good at fighting, not trapping. Also, he will be back when hes done having fun anyway."
Rosella was left speechless and decided to give up. Anyway, she would snitch the fellow to their father and let him handle this wayward son. She simply took Kuro and Shiro back to the Morningstar World by opening a portal on the spot.
Meanwhile, within the Divine Realm, today was also an auspicious day. The first batch of players, the heroes who would come to save the entire Divine Realm from the Grey Rot, were arriving right now!
Any they were not spawning in the Supreme Pantheon's Divine City nor the Power Faction's Frontier City nor the Monster True God's Chaos City. No, these saviors were appearing from the portal within a simple and unadorned church in the middle of nowhere, a basic settled forming around with with some simple houses and structures for a small group to reside.
Within this small church, a portal lit up as many figures formed one by one in the central hall, quickly causing the place to become a little crowded. When everyone finally arrived, they heard a familiar voice and looked over to see three very familiar figures walking over.
"Finally, you're all here. We can now begin our conquest of the Divine Realm!"