Hub

[[ You have finished 'Tower of Challenge' Level 1 'Goblin Cave' ]]

[[ You have gained access to the 'Tower of Challenge' Level 2 ]]

[[ You have gained access to the 'Terra Hub' ]]

[[ You have unlocked Quests ]]

[[ For finishing 'Tower of Challenge' Level 1 'Goblin Cave' on the first day, you will be rewarded:

- 5 EC

- Blueprint: 'Basic Knife'

- 1 Iron Ingot

- 1 Energy Pill

]]

These messages were what greeted Ivan as soon as he appeared back in his room. Besides the messages themselves, there was also knowledge associated with them, that filled his mind. This together with the mental exhaustion from the dungeon nearly made him collapse.

"Urgh.", he grunted in pain, while grabbing his head. Luckily the pain vanished as fast as it had come, leaving behind new knowledge and a foggy exhausted feeling.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the clock only to see that only one hour had passed. According to his information that was intended. The dungeons weren't real but more like extremely elaborate simulations. This also explained why his body was fine, but his mind felt exhausted.

While he had been in the dungeon his body had been stored somewhere and each change to its system and the nanite system in the dungeon had been copied to it. Everything except injuries. But while this protected the body and kept it fit, this wasn't the case for the mind.

He closed his eyes and did a short mental exercise he had learned a while back.

After doing so, he felt slightly better. To fully recover he had to sleep, but for now, he was more interested in looking over the messages.

The first two were straightforward. He had finished the first floor and could now challenge the second one.

The third on the other hand came with a lot of knowledge.

The hub he had unlocked was the central hub of the planet. It served as a central area for all activities associated with the experiment.

It could be entered similar to the dungeons, by teleporting, but unlike the dungeons, the real body would be transported to the hub. But since fighting was forbidden in the hub, there was no danger so it didn't matter.

The benefit was that even people who were locked out from the dungeons because they had died in them, were able to enter the hub as long as they had unlocked it before or someone who had done so, took them.

The hub was separated into different sections. The core section was the commercial section, which contained all kinds of stores, although currently most of them should be empty. Whoever created the experiment only created a few stores, which sold items that could be useful to the people participating.

Another important section was the training section, where lessons were offered to all kinds of topics. Any kind of knowledge or training you could think of, you would be able to find there. Of course, for a price.

The third section was the medical section which was basically like an advanced hospital. Of course, a visit there would also cost you. The only free thing was an initial free check-up. But any kind of treatment would have to be paid for.

A recreational area made up the last of the currently available sections. Filled with automated restaurants and other kinds of offers, it would allow the participants to relax and take a break.

The other sections, such as transport and shipyard were currently not available. From the knowledge he had gotten, he knew that it was necessary to first upgrade the hub, for them to be unlocked.

He decided to check out the hub tomorrow. He felt too tired to do it today.

He then turned his focus towards the next thing that had been unlocked, which was the quest system. The quest system was a system that would provide personalized tasks, which would give a hefty reward. It was similar to accepting a one time job.

He had to do something and the system would allocate a fitting reward.

He gave the command with his mind and the quest panel opened. Currently, there was no quest listed on the panel. He would have to go to the hub, where it was possible to accept some. It seemed like he didn't belong to the lucky ones, who directly got a quest upon unlocking the system.

The only reward left now, where the physical ones. The EC had already been added to his account, while the other three things were still hovering in the air.

Ivan already had come into contact with the energy pill, so he didn't hesitate to take it.

[[ Nanite-Suite Energy +1 ]]

A small message informed him that the energy of his nanite suite had been increased.

Nodding his head in satisfaction he then looked at the other two things, still hovering. One was a simple iron brick, which should be the iron ingot, while the other was a small card.

He had gotten the knowledge of how to use the blueprint before, so he took out the Nanite Assembling Tool he had gotten before and pushed the card into the intended slot. As soon as the card was fully inserted, it vanished and a message appeared in his view.

[[ New blueprint 'Basic Knife' unlocked. ]]

Now he could use his mind to connect with the Nanite Assembling Tool and check out the blueprint, something that he instantly did.

[[ Blueprint: 'Basic Knife'

Grade: 1F

Description: A basic blueprint, which can be used to craft a basic knife. Nothing special but still extremely useful for beginners.

Material: 1 x Hard Material, 1 x Soft Material

Price: 1 EC Licencing, 1 EC Energy cost

]]

Besides the text, there was also a 3D image hovering in the air, which showed the knife in detail. It was similar to any kitchen knife. A simple blade with a simple grip. There was nothing fancy about it.

It was also a design, which didn't require a certain material but instead supported a variety of materials, as long as they fulfilled certain conditions.

He carefully looked at the 3D image and then at the knife he had used in the run just now. It didn't take much imagination to understand that the 'Basic Knife' should perform much better than the one he had.

"Should I make one?", he asked himself.

He took a look at the indicator of how much money he had and seeing how low the number was, he directly decided to try it out. There was no way, that he would be able to afford a better weapon in a store.

He selected the blueprint in the menu of the assembler and the cube started to hover in the air, before expanding, until it was about half a meter long and twenty cm wide. It also was about twenty cm deep and with the lid vanishing, a large free space was visible.

According to the information he had, he just had to place the ingredients in this space and then start the process. Then after a short time, the finished product would be lying in the box.

He put the iron ingot and the goblin leather into the box and pressed the start button. The lid closed and a progress bar appeared as well as a timer. According to the timer, it would only take about one minute for the process to finish.

He stared at the box for the entire minute but there was no visible indicator that it was working. Only when the timer finished and the progress bar reached its end, the lid disappeared allowing him the first look of his new weapon.

It was just like the image. A sleek knife, without any fancy adornments. Only a blade and a grip.

He carefully picked up the knife, which felt surprisingly good in his hand. It seemed well balanced and the goblin leather provided a good grip.

He carefully pulled it out of its sheath, freeing the silvery blade. It looked sharp and he couldn't resist the impulse to test it. He used his old knife as a benchmark. Carefully pressing his new blade against the old knife, he was surprised that it was able to easily cut through the old knife. This was something he hadn't expected.

Both knives were basically made of simple materials. The new one was made of iron, while the old was made out of more complex steel. Logically, the new knife shouldn't be able to cut through the old one.

"Great.", he praised his new knife and put it back inside its sheath. He surely didn't want to cut himself with it. There was no question in his mind, that it would cut through his bones just as easily as it had sliced through the old knife.

Now that he had looked through all his rewards for today, it was time to decide on how to continue.

Well, it wasn't as if there were many options. Currently, he could only continue to challenge the tower. But the first floor was greyed out and unavailable to challenge today. A timer was counting down, indicating when it would be possible to challenge it again.