Chapter 11: Major changes

Chapter 11: Major changes

Author note: the next few chapters will be fast-paced. Don't be confused it's only meant to last until we reach the present time of the main story. It will return to normal pacing around chapter 16

…

With the arrival of Nexus, many things within the federation had to change. The power limits originally known about Mythos and the karnas it gave humanity have been shattered. It was discovered that the abilities that their Karnas gave them before were only the tip of the iceberg.

Depending on the star level of a Karna the user will gain an increase to all stats. 1-star Karnas increase all physical stats/abilities by 100% while 10-star Karnas give a 1000% increase. The stat boost with its accompanying unique abilities was believed to be the most a Karna could give its user.

That was until Nexus appeared. With its arrival, the people of the Starlight Federation were introduced to various methods to gain even greater power than ever before. But Nexus was not a place that gave out things for free. For one to obtain power beyond their limits they would have to venture into its depths and face the challenges and creatures within.

Because so many people were teleported to Nexus the federation couldn't hide the truth about this dimension even if they wanted to. Every person that has a Karna can teleport between Nexus and the outer universe once every 24 hours. The outer universe refers to the dimension that Earth is in.

Due to the arrival of Nexus, the realm tunnels that were previously unable to access the dimension now can. This gave the federation a huge advantage when it came to exploring Nexus. Instead of relying on the random teleportation of their karna. They would use realm tunnels to find suitable location that weren't too dangerous and then set up bases there. This of course led to the federation implementing more restrictions on the use of realm tunnels.

With the realm tunnels so heavily restricted this led people who wanted to gain more power to enter Nexus using their Karnas. It was far more dangerous but anyone with a could do it.

When one uses their Karna for teleportation the Will of Nexus would teleport them to a random location within Nexus on their first time. But any subsequent teleportation would bring you to your last location in Nexus. Now when they use a realm tunnel they can teleport to almost any location of their choice. Karna-based teleportation allowed many people who weren't in the military or one of the academies to explore Nexus on their own.

Nexus not only brought new heights of power to chase after. But it also allowed people to bring valuable items and resources back to the outer universe. From materials, potions, weapons, armor and many more. It gave many people the chance to amass great wealth.

After a few weeks of the federation restricting the use of realm tunnels. They realized that they couldn't continue doing so. The death rate among people who teleported with Karna was much higher than those who used the realm tunnels. The loss of so many potential soldiers was not something the federation could simply ignore. The fact that these people also brought many items from Nexus into the public market made it a much more serious situation. So they had no choice but to allow people to use their realm tunnels to go to Nexus, although it wasn't free. This way the federation could reduce the death rates while also being able to monitor people that went into Nexus and also control what Items were brought back out.

The federation placed many restrictions on items that could be sold in the market. Certain items and resources could only be sold through federation-owned companies or shops. This of course led to a lot of frustration from explorers. Which also led to many cases of smuggling.

When people entered Nexus with the realm tunnels but left it using karna-based teleportation. They would appear right outside the realm tunnel they used to enter Nexus. So smugglers commonly only used Karna-based teleportation.

Ever since the first wave of Mythos the Vashin have stopped all their attacks on humanity. The Federation didn't know why they stopped or how long this would last. But this was the perfect time to increase manpower and the general strength of humanity. So they began encouraging people to join the military and the academies even more. While also providing them with various benefits. They were recruiting more people than ever before and were also giving out more benefits to get as many people to join them.

This led to 2 types of explorers/adventurers being born. Those who were not affiliated with the military of one of the 2 academies were known as freelancers. While the other were federation explorers.

The courses and training provided by the federation had to be changed a lot to accommodate all the discoveries made with the coming of Nexus. Scientists were especially busy trying to research everything they could about Nexus. From its natural resources and the creatures that are found within it and the various energies that exist there. So much kept being discovered each day that all scientists and Sovereign were kept incredibly busy.

A year went by in a flash and soon it was time for those who had reached the age of 16 to get their Karna. But the federation faced a challenge. Due to Nexus now being accessible, it was too dangerous to send newly awakened Karna users to Nexus. So they began making many preparations on various bases in Nexus to accommodate new Karna users. Luckily for them, these preparations were never used.

On the last day of the year, another wave of Mythos spread throughout the outer universe. It granted all those who met the necessary conditions to get a Karna.

…

In the void of space among the stars and other celestial bodies. A spacecraft traveled through the void at a speed that far surpassed that of light. The object traveled at such speed by manipulating and folding space. This object was the Blitz Arc V5 a spacecraft created by the Starlight Federation. It's the slick body and the black metal surface was created using the best technology humanity had to offer. Its ship was made with the same technology used for the realm tunnels. This allowed it to travel at an incredible speed while remaining hidden.

It is the fastest and the stealthiest ship within the federation. Its abilities even allow it to bypass any scanning or detection systems. Which was its main purpose. Within the ship's cockpit, a group of soldiers could be seen. They were focused on some information that was being displayed on a few monitors. Within the past few days, this group of soldiers was tasked with investigating the reason why the Vashin had stopped attacking humanity.

Through their investigation, they found that the conquered planets within the Milky Way galaxy were all unusually inactive. The Vashin that were previously very aggressive now only focused on defense.

Their strange behavior made the soldiers feel like something was off, so they kept up their investigation. After a while, they were able to discover something. Multiple cargo ships left the conquered planets heading back to their main territory. That in of itself wasn't suspicious, but the cargo they were transporting was. They were transporting human corpses.

After using Sovereign to heck into the Vashin's system they were able to get a lot of information about these cargo ships. The part that surprised them was that the Vashin had been transporting human corpses like this since the very beginning of their war. Sovereign couldn't find out what these corpses were used for as there was no information about their uses kept on these conquered planets. To find out even more they followed these cargo ships to their destination.

"General Trisha, we are nearing the destination of the cargo ships and will be arriving in 2 minutes." Sovereigns said to the beautiful woman standing before the monitors. "Good it's time to find out what these filthy creatures are planning," said the blonde-haired lady. Her hair was in a bob cut, she had blue eyes and a powerful air about her. Her eyes were firmly locked into the images displayed before her. It showed humanoid figures that had one horn on their heads. Their skin colors varied just as much as humans, except for the extreme colors of red and blue.

These were the Vashin, they looked very similar to humans yet they were by far the superior race. Not only do they possess a lifespan twice as long as a human they also on average are 5 times stronger, faster and more durable than them. With many cases of well-trained Vashin's being 10 times stronger. But it was their technology that made them dominate the humans in war.

The ship soon came to a stop and the scene that appeared before them left them stunned. An entire solar system was left in ruin. Destroyed planets could be seen everywhere with multiple destroyed ships left in the vacuum.

"Sovereign tell me what happened here" General Trish ordered. " According to my initial scan, a large battle occurred in this location," Sovereign said. The general frowned and said " I can see that. Tell me something I don't know"

" It appears that the majority of the destroyed ships are not of Vashin origin. We will need further investigation to find out more" Sovereign said. General Trish smiled upon hearing those words. If the reason behind the Vashin not attacking them for a whole year was that they were occupied by another enemy. That would be very beneficial to the federation. " let's get to work guys" The general said.

Everyone got to work collecting every bit of information and data they could from this place. A few days later the team was on their way back to the federation. They had discovered a lot of things that confirmed that the Vashin were busy dealing with another race. They would have liked the possibility of some sort of alliance with this new race. But from the data collected about them, they were a type of nonsentient parasite. So it was impossible to talk with them.

As for the cargo ships that they were following. They changed their destination and went further into their territory. It was unfortunate that they still couldn't find information regarding what they did with the human corpses. But at least the conflict between the Vashins and this new race. Would give humanity time to strengthen itself. With Nexus on their side, they were sure that given enough time they would change the tides of war.