Galaxy's First Ruler

The first thing that Aldrich saw after getting teleported reminded him of Greece.

The front of the building had extended up to approximately 70 meters. And it had a wide portico, a porch leading up to the entrance of the building, an idea influenced by Ancient Greece. And the six massive columns seemed to support the entire sky. But even more eye-catching were the three statues on top of the building.

Aldrich had just recognized where he was when he noticed five more Dreamers staring at the building, or the statues, with awe and horror. But all of those gazing at the majestic but twisted beauty of the statues sighed in relief. Upon seeing that, they didn't have a muddy-yellow pillar of light around them. But one could still see a similar pillar rising from within the building.

One of the local officers, along with many armed men, approached the newly arrived group of Dreamers. Most of the countries by now had detailed instructions to follow up with this situation. Aldrich could see that the officer had no trace of fear, even after seeing the group of foreigners. Though the soldiers behind him seemed to be more honest with their expressions.

Gratitude, the word was on their smile, in their eyes, and their small and slow steps.

The officer eyed the group and then, in fluent English, addressed them, "Welcome to Ireland, everyone. Please follow me to get done with the procedure. May I know if any of you have been to a Random-Dungeon before?"

'So that's how it is. It's a Dungeon where mostly newbies get teleported,' Aldrich thought.

The Random-Allocation, even though being random, followed some rules. Some dungeons had been found to attract newly awakened Dreamers. And at least one among these would be a Dreamer who had survived the last two or three Random-Dungeons. This phenomenon had been highly debated upon and yet none had found a rational explanation for it. But a word had surfaced in Aldrich's mind about this after reading it for the first time.

'Leaders. The 'Record' is trying to generate traits of Leadership or amplify these traits.'

Even if this theory was to be released publicly, the only result would be public humiliation. Not that Aldrich had ever minded or cared for such things. Who would have believed that the one thing solely responsible for the gruesome deaths weekly was only trying to select leaders out of the mass?

Aldrich saw as one dreamer took a step forward and replied, "Hello, I am Sonu Rana. I have been to five Random-Dungeons before."

Aldrich knew Sonu Rana even before the Night. The 24-year-old had been the best contender for the title of Grandmaster. The chess prodigy had become face to face with the current World Champion many times. And many such prodigies had been dying without leaving behind their legacy since last year.

Aside from the colossal structure and the statues, Aldrich found out that the other thing they had taken an interest in was his mask. Unlike him, they had no means to tell if the Mask was an Item or not, unless he unequipped it. But in that case, it would have just disappeared as per the warning from his Class-specific Skill.

Aldrich had already scanned everything in his Divine Sense range. He analyzed that apart from him and the veteran, the rest of the four Dreamers had shared one common trait. They all had exceptional Stats. And the most noticeable were the Japanese lady's Item and the funny-looking hippie man.

As the Dreamers were walking towards the local verification post, the Korean man slowed down and neared himself to Aldrich. From the way Seong had been looking at the mask, Aldrich could guess what he was about to ask.

"Oi! Give me your mask," Seong said in Korean.

But Aldrich didn't need an interpreter to understand what had been asked of him. He was a polyglot from the beginning. He studied Seong's Class and his Skill and the Korean felt like he was being tickled all over his body.

"It's not for sale," Aldrich tersely replied.

"Oh! Damn!!! You are also a Korean. Haha! Well, I guess you can keep the mask for now," Seong casually put an arm around Aldrich's neck and playfully shook, "You coming from a Dungeon? Your bag looks funny. Tell you what? Work for me in this Dungeon and I would make sure you would come out alive with all your limbs intact. Ain't I the best hyung-nim, huh?"

Seong couldn't even distinguish Aldrich's accent. The fluency of his reply wasn't needed to be questioned by anyone, even if one would have heard it over one time. Aldrich saw the Dreamers taking out their respective DL and took one out from his pockets. He had given himself three days to prepare for his first raid. Three days were enough for him to do many things, ample to make fake copies of DL issued by ADA.

All got their DL verified except Seong. The officer's eyebrows squeezed, seeing his behavior. Aldrich thought there must be one or two such cases he was forced to handle during every Random-Allocation. The officer, without raising his voice, asked Seong, "Sir, do you not have a valid Dreamer's Licence?"

"No. So what?"

Yes, even if he hadn't had a license, there wasn't much anybody could do about it unless they decided to just kill him. If one doesn't enter within the first few minutes of Dungeon opening or with the other Party members, the Dreamers were found to get teleported. And that too to any random location within the Dungeon. Which would be a loss to both the Dreamers and the Party.

"That wouldn't be an issue," said the officer. He looked at probable Party Leader, Sonu Rana, and said, "But I can't emphasize enough on the protocols that are needed to follow a successful raid."

Sonu nodded in response. A cut of 5%, from all the Mana cores, was to be deposited in the Dungeon's country. At the least, in the countries where the government had claimed a right on the Dungeons. All had publicly protested and mocked the arbitrary rule. But most prominent Dreamers hadn't objected to it, so others let it slide, too.

"Please collect the Dungeon's information, 1 Strength Potion, and 1 Health Potion from the desk. We Irish don't let a Dreamer go in empty-handed at the expense of our safety."

One vial of Strength Potion and Health Potion each wasn't much, but the Dreamers had well received this gesture.

"I want to exchange these Mana-cores for Health and Strength Potions," Aldrich saw a good way to get rid of compiled cores other than Elite's core.

The officer opened the makeshift bag and his eyes went wide. For the first time, they could see a foolish grin on his face. Those days, the Mana-cores were turning out to be the ideal currency. Their demand was unreasonably high, but low supply.

"Sure. Wait a minute," the officer happily said, handing over the bag to one soldier.

"I will evacuate the remaining personnel and let you guys do your thing. This Dungeon has a low mortality rate. We have found out that only 1 in 5 newly awakened Dreamers die within it. Anyway, best of luck. May the sun shine warm upon your face after the long and weary Night."

Following the old Irish blessing, all the Dreamers received the same notification.

[…

Time Left: 15 minutes

The Dreamers can choose to form a Party that would be in effect till the end of the Raid

The Party members would be made aware of each other's location and would be provided additional bonuses in different circumstances

Every Party must have a Party Leader

The Experiences Points will be distributed among the Party members according to their contribution

A fixed amount of 3% of Experience Points gained by killing Dungeon Crawlers, would be given to the Party Leader regardless of his contributions

Bonus Skill 'Language Proficiency' is now activated till the end of the Raid

…]

The atmosphere around the Dreamers became tense as soon as the ugly topic of choosing a Party Leader was mentioned by the RECORD. But even this had become a standard protocol. Aldrich wasn't nervous at all, even when he had entered a Dungeon for the first time. But the strangeness of the situation was that even the other 5 Dreamers had been placid and casual about it.

"Let's share our Levels anyway just for the sake of it," Sonu said.

There were no surprises in the outcome. All, except Sonu, were at Level 1 while he had reached Level 7. Aldrich guessed a famous Guild in India must have recruited Sonu for him to reach Level 7 after only 5 weeks. This could only mean that he had been raiding Dungeons in the 'Bright Days' too.

[…

You have received a Party request from Sonu

Do you accept the request?

Warning: Once accepted 5% of total ExPs gained would be awarded to the Party Leader if the Dreamer decides to break away from the Party against the will of Party Leader

…]

'Everything seems to be centered on team play,' Aldrich again emphasized the point to himself and said, "Yes."

[…

Party request has been accepted

Party Members: Sonu, Tun Bo Ag, Tomiko, Seong, Aldrich, Mantis

Party Leader: Sonu

…]

Everyone looked at each other with a little less wariness after that.

"It would be best to do further planning and assign roles after confirming the situation inside." Aldrich heard the sweet and soothing voice of Tomiko.

"You are right! Tomiko-chan," the hippie comically said, and earned himself an icy glare from the sole lady in the group.

"Ahh!!! It's so boring. Let's go already! I so want to crush some fucking things," Seong sullenly said.

Aldrich saw a vague shadow cast by craziness and ferocity on the face of the quiet Burmese champion.

[…

Time Left: 00:00:00 hrs

…]

A portal could be seen opening up just in front of a window of the building facing the street. And all the Dreamers again confirmed the reason for the 'Low' mortality rate and read the name on the documents.

General Post Office, O'Connell Street (Dublin)

Dungeon–Sculpture of Cu Chulainn