Gangs All Here….wherever that is?

  Something wasn’t right. John could not get his essence under control. Instead of a smoothly flowing core circulating essence out to his cells and back, the essence was going wild. It was almost like it was trying to take over his body. He had heard of cultivators who had turned themselves into essence bombs trying to absorb too powerful of a natural treasure while in a lower grade, but he had only been doing some light stretching and essence control exercises, when he had received a system notification and everything went haywire.

  Lately, when he went all out he had become dizzy. Sort of. It didn’t feel like his head was spinning, it felt more like reality was cracking. John had a plan though. He had asked Destiny to crank up the essence level of his workout area as high as she could get it and that way his absorption would be maximized. Elvin was the cultivation expert, but John had studied Elvin’s complex core and distribution network. He thought he had a good idea of how he could upgrade his own. Maybe he was at the point where the power needed for his skills and spells exceeded the capabilities of his fairly generic system designed core or his distribution network. Maybe it was time to narrow his focus and modify a core group of spells and skills designed to function with a more specialized core. Maybe he needed to redesign his distribution network to prioritize delivering essence where it was needed for those core spells and skills to be optimized. People always said, “Jack of all trades means the master of none.” Maybe they were right. But maybe John could still find a way to work around it.

  He had planned on going through a specific list of skills and spells and test to see if he could make them work using the same internal essence pattern to confirm his tentative plan for what he would consider his core skills. However, he hadn’t even finished warming up and he’s pretty sure Destiny had not even gotten close to reaching the desired essence levels in the room. The system alert was still flashing at the edge of his vision, and suddenly John received an explanation:

  System Override Protocol: Forced Ascension

  Planar limits exceeded. Ascension imminent.

  Would you like to create an avatar to remain on this plane? (Yes/No)

  Creating this avatar will use 8% of your current celestial essencel.

  The avatar will permanently remain within sustainable planar limits.

  Instead of advancing your avatar, essence gains will be translated into celestial essence gains for your true body.

  John felt his awareness splitting. He was sitting on the floor of a large white room and he was also back in his workout area having a conversation with Destiny. He wondered what he was saying to Destiny and suddenly he felt more present in the workout area and not only could he hear their conversation, but he knew what their entire conversation had been about. Apparently John had explained how he felt like he was going to blow up then suddenly he was fine. Destiny had ascended before Tanguni while they were still chasing the sects out of the wilderness. And unfortunately, that damn Battlemaster had ascended shortly after Tanguni.

  Destiny gave John a wave and said, “High real John. I see you're getting the hang of the multiple body thing. It was pretty easy for me since I was used to having bodies all over the planet. I segmented my awareness of my bodies and sealed them away, but left a real time connection to my main brain. Might work for you. I’ll see you in a second on the other side.Oh, and don’t accept an invitation from the butthead or he’ll be able to drag you along into all kinds of trouble.”

  John pulled himself back to his real body and tried what Destiny suggested. It seemed to work. He wasn’t having to concentrate on both places at once. He was just kind of aware of what was going on in his avatar. I wonder what stat I should work on to get more avatars and make this even more efficient. Actually, I wonder what stats are stats now.

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  Before he could check, John received system alerts that he had messages from “Maximus Decimus Meridius” and “Celestial Dungeon Destiny.” Ignoring the message from the person he assumed was actually the Battlemaster, he opened the message from Destiny. It was an invitation to form a pantheon with her. He accepted and he heard a frantic knocking on his door. “John let me in before Butthead shows up.”

  John’s door, which hadn’t even been there before, opened as soon as he thought about letting Destiny in. She slammed it behind her and frantically began poking around the walls. “Thank us. I made it here first. He’s even more annoying now and he’s a ridiculously fast learner at this whole god thing. I spend more time trying to figure out how to stop his shenanigans than I actually get to spend on my project for Destiny. And he’s already completed 5 projects for her, but his projects are simpler. How hard is it to dance to music by stepping on colored squares or tap buttons in time with falling colored lights. And don’t get me started on that stupid fruit chopping game. I have no idea why Destiny was so excited by them.”

  “You gave yourself a project?”

  “No, silly. The REAL Destiny gave me the project. It’s a Dungeon war thing for the travelers. One of my avatars is the final boss. Candrel should be here shortly and probably Elvin too. She’s been hiding her reality problems from everybody besides Elvin. That freak should have ascended earlier too, but he has so much control that he hasn’t triggered the protocol yet. Dragons ascend more naturally so the twins and their mom should be here once she senses Candrel ascend. I think the maids are going to hang around down there for a while. ”

  BANG, BANG, BANG. “Little pig, Little pig. Let me in.” Without meaning to, John turned his door into a massive sheet of essence enhanced mithril held in place by a bar of mithril and about 20 other locks secured it.

  “I would knock 500 times and I would knock 500 more just to be the god that’s knocking at your dooooorrrrr.”

  “Oh god. He’s still trying to sing.” John cringed. “Maybe we can spend all our time down there in our avatars and just ignore him?”

  “Tried it. He’ll just send his avatar over to bother you.”

  “Maaa-Lin-Da. Maaa-Lin-Da. Maaaalinda. Linda Linda Linda-Lou.”

  “Step away from the door foul demon.” WHAM…a head that looked somewhat similar to one the Battlemaster frequently used was suddenly sticking through the door. The Battlemaster looked around at the barren white room and said, “Great to see you John. Love what you’ve done with the place.”

  “Remember what the maids taught us, Bill. Punch first, ask questions later.”

  John changed the door back to what it was and opened it to let his three guests in. The Battlemaster fell on his face. “Mom said we could come ahead. She’s guiding Elvin and Candrel.” Bill said.

  “They can meet us at Destiny’s. She’s got something exciting to show us. She said the Memory Weaver is releasing a big “tell all” history of the empire.” Destiny said as she began pushing the others out the door. John followed.

  Stepping out the door he saw a stone archway across from his and a mirror ball hanging in front of another door lit up with flashing lights underneath a glowing sign that said, “Party Town.” On his side of the hallway a double set of ancient wooden doors were located. At the end of the hallway in the opposite direction was a fancy set of golden doors covered in scenes depicting a farm woman planting seeds that grew into towering trees and beautiful flowers.

  “Don’t you need to join my pantheon before we go?” the Battlemaster asked.

  “UGGGGH!!!! We’ve been over this a thousand times Krapstoomuch. WE are going to form a pantheon and align it with Destiny’s pantheon.” Destiny explained. Before Maxie, as he would probably call himself, could respond, three more doors appeared along the hallway. The dragon queen, Candrel, and Elvin all stepped out and fell in behind Destiny.

  The door at the end of the hall opened and Destiny motioned for John to lead them in. A serious looking woman stood and said, “Great. You’re all here. Hurry up and find a seat. Your grandson is about to start his show.” John was confused for a second because he had no children or grandchildren until Candrel stepped past him and said, “What is that little trouble maker doing this time?”

  “Sit down and we’ll all find out together.” Said a twin to the woman who had greeted them. John started to sit down, but he paused as he noticed two identical men with their faces covered sitting at a small table in a back corner of the room. One of the men got up and exited through a shadowy portal at the back of the room. Three more identical men walked in through the portal and sat down at the now much larger table.

  “John, hurry up. I saved you a seat.” Candrell said, pointing at a large projection of Professor Rangel, aka The Memory Weaver, aka Candrel’s grandson.