Azimuth: The Elden Throne

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/A few minutes of shopping later…/

"... Phew… This should be all." Dale said as he closed the shop's interface menu

'Time to go.'

To leave Babylon, the only thing he had to do was to cross the shop's door at the end of the hallway directly behind him.

Before, it would lead him back to Babylon's Plaza, the one tied to the server you were prior.

But now, crossing it would lead him back to Resko.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be the exact place he was before joining the event, his room, but that wouldn't be a problem.

Being done with his task, Dale inspected his items one last time before he took off his armor and put on a cloak to hide his body and face, knowing full well what would be just outside.

He also went through his plans once more.

Originally, he thought it would be better to just go with the flow, at least for the first few days as he carefully planned his future.

However, knowing what awaited him, Dale decided to take another approach.

If being calculative led him nowhere, then he would be more proactive.

He knew what was waiting for him, he could tackle these problems in any way he saw fit, as long as it did not break the Quest's continuity.

Some Quests were only activated because he was in the right place at the right time, so if he started to change things, the possibility of activating those would decrease.

For the sake of his plans, he needed to approach them all, but for that, he may be forced to artificially induce the right conditions to receive them...

It felt somewhat odd to try to engineer Human behavior like that, but that already happened in real life anyway...

Regardless, Dale raised his hand, reaching for the door's handle.

/Open!/

/Creak…/

With a heavy creaking sound, the door opened, revealing what awaited at the other side.

/Shine.../

As expected, a dazzling field of white light stood beyond the door, waiting for him to cross it.

But strangely enough, instead of the warriness he felt before when he first crossed it, now he felt expectant.

This was the future, it beckoned him…

There was no hesitation to be had!

Dale took the plunge into the light...

…

/Shine.../

As he crossed through the door, a Pilar of light descended somewhere in Resko as Dale saw himself in the middle of a busy plaza full of players talking and discussing with each other.

/Chatter…/

With his cloak, he was mostly unseen, nothing had changed so far…

But exactly as he remembered, he gathered some attention due to how late he was compared to everyone else.

After all, seeing a pillar of light from the event descending long after the event was due was bound to garner some degree of attention.

"I'm really back..."

'I can't believe I'm here again… This is almost too good to be true. No… It is too good to be true.'

Still somewhat shocked by the scene, Dale was momentarily stunned, only to quickly realize he had gathered quite some attention.

/Rush…/

Not wasting any more time, Dale ran away from the plaza, blending in with the people as he hid amidst the crowd, pushing them aside as he progressed with his plans.

'So far, nothing's changed, but from here on out, the butterfly effect will take place.'s

'Before, I stood back and listened to the players for quite some time to learn more about their needs and worries as I was planning my "Event", the creation of an Artificial Leaderboard.'

'My Event… It went exceptionally well, but this time, I think I can make it even better and efficient, truly grasp the players by their necks this time.'

'It ran for two months so I'm somewhat aware of how the players will react and how they'll make use of the system I'll implement, but as long as I take care of that, I'll successfully introduce a new mechanic to Resko that'll benefit all, Resko mostly.'

'The idea is that I'll be making use of the players' effort towards a collective goal, which is usually hard to pursue when dealing with a free market and the Human individual.'

'They'll gain quite a bit, but Resko will gain more in the end, and this difference will feed itself, at least that is the goal, the first few months will be rough. But I'm here to make the difference.'

'I could force them all into acting together of course, but being an overlord isn't the type of rule I wish to pursue.'

'And before, one of the ways I used to explain this system was that I'm building a wall.'

'I don't mind if some climb over it, I'll help some do so myself, but this wall is there to prevent mayhem from spreading.'

'That was how I used to see things at least…'

'Either way, moving on, after I was done with this… Yes, I went to Yumi before going to my room and writing my idea for this Event.'

'That was how I spent most of my first day post-Babylon… Not really that exciting now that I think about it.'

'Time to spice things up then…'

With a sharp expression and a joyful mood, Dale left the plaza…

[DING]

The moment he turned a corner and entered an alley, the system flared by his ears.

"Hum?... Oh!... Wait a minute…"

'This is… The final rewards of the Event. But… It's too soon for that.'

'Previously, when I received this, it had already been close to an hour since Babylon closed, now… It hasn't even been five minutes.'

'Is it because I left the Plaza earlier?'

Interested in the changes, he opened the System Log:

[Skill Boost Token's effect has worn out]

[Skill, Manifestation of the Perfect Self 2-??? has devolved into, Self Reflection ???-Star]

[Due to your sublime accomplishments during the Event, you've received the item, Memory Stone (Skill)]

'Yes… This Skill… My best training buddy.'

'Before, I held off on Leveling as much as possible just to make use of the Level 60 benefit of being able to use this Skill whenever I wished.'

'It's probably one of the only choices I don't want to change. But this time…'

'I'll quickly reach Level 80 and net the two Privileges in between while making use of them in the process.'

'This goes against my resolutions before Babylon, I wanted to maintain my Level as I trained under Sarferato and the others, but I had two months of training already.'

'I would be more than happy to spend more time training with such limitations, but I'm working under a tight schedule now.'

'I'll have to contend myself with what I gained.'

'I'm not Leveling for the sake of power, I'm doing so to net the Privileges early and meet the criteria to access the "Class Grounds".'

'After you reach Level 80, you have the opportunity to challenge a unique Dungeon related to your Class.'

'In my past… In the future… Tsk! Whatever!'

'Before, it took me a month to reach Level 80, a bit more maybe.'

'And that was me avoiding farming as much as possible, it was mostly through Questing that I reached such a Level, which is quite impressive given it's already nearing Resko's Level Limit of 90.'

'If I put in the effort, I could Level to 90... Within a week? I know several Dungeons, I only need to get inside one and activate the first discovery bonus, and from there it's simple.'

'... My Unique Dungeon was pretty interesting, but unfortunately, I failed to complete it due to being unprepared… It was one of my regrets.'

'However, even then, the Dungeon helped me attain a greater understanding of the Alma Conqueror and to be more in-tune with it after the extreme awakening I had due to "Manifestation of the Perfect Self span" in the Event.'

'It was also what laid the foundation for me to push my Class Progress rate to 24.99% by the end of the two months.'

'Although an increase of 5% in 2 months is little, it is important to understand that in one month of training, around the time I had the Class, I only raised it to around 4% before the Event.'

'0% to 4% is incomparable to 19.99% and 24.99%.'

'It is something I definitely need to prepare myself for, without a doubt there are more secrets awaiting me in the Class Trial grounds, especially since I'm unsure if I'll have another try at it.'

'It also indicates something pretty severe, the fact that a player should have his Class ready by the time he or she is Level 80.'

'Of course, I'm unsure if this is tied to the Class, maybe if someone changes their Class after Level 80, they'll gain another chance at the Dungeon, but I can't confirm it as I did not see that far.'

'My memories are still hazy, I'll have to try and sort through them and see what I can remember, maybe something of interest will pop up then.'

'Meanwhile…'

[Ding]

Interrupting him, several more notifications played by Dale's ears, mostly a summary of his accomplishments and encouraging words from the developer company of Azimuth.

[... See you all soon!]

He read through it all again, but he didn't feel like anything changed.

Somehow, he expected something to differ, but he was relieved nothing did.

Maybe he was just overreacting...

'Ahh… This again.'

'So nostalgic… But uh… Hum…'

Dale shook his head, focusing.

[DING]

[Sever-Wide Announcement!]

"Arg, my ears…" Dale said out loud as he pushed the notification aside

He had already seen it once, he wasn't interested in reading through it again.

Still, against his wishes, Dale read through it again, feeling good in the process.

If there was one thing the developers did was write a good closing speech for the players.

It made him proud, even if a bit less than before.

'Now that this is done… It's about time I opened my Status sheet.'

'I want to check some things before I progress…'

Considering Dale had over two months of practical knowledge in his head, how would this affect his Status screen, if at all?

He had improved his Spear Arts in those two months compared to his current self.

Would the Status Screen show the changes, or would he need to practice a bit more for it to realize his changes?

It was time to find that out.

[Open?]

Without thinking much, Dale opened his inventory.

[DING]

[Operation Canceled, parameters do not match]

[Recalibrating… Processing…]

"Hm?..."

'What is this now?'

Dale was met with a message he had never seen before.

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Notes