Pandora sat there as a Shadow Dragon. For the next 20 hours, most people who appeared during her Classification Rounds declined to fight as soon as they saw her, which counted as a win for her. She didn’t receive a vassal or anything else but about every 90 seconds, she succeeded in her next Classification round.

  She had seen a lot of humans, elves, dwarfs, gnomes, and a lot of other races she’d never encountered before. She’d had to turn on her ability: Absorb: Ambient Energy to keep herself fully hydrated and fed but other than that it had been a pretty boring day. This gave her plenty of time to think. Mom and Dad seemed to know what was coming. Or maybe they knew what it was going to be like. She wasn’t sure. Of course, they’d both been through a lot. With the memories she had from her mom, she knew some of the claims her dad had made about how long he’d existed, which was crazy long, lent to a lot of life experience.

  Don’t worry about it, Caspa sent through their bond.

  How long should I let this go on? Pandora asked.

  You haven’t received any more titles. It would seem that the Multitude is not happy with our performance. You could start as a woman, and then kill people. I know, slaughter for no reason isn’t something that sits well with you. My suggestion. Decline the 1,001st fight. Maybe you’ll get something for making it to a specific round. Round 1,000 seems like a good round number. Caspa sent.

  Sounds good, I’m getting bored with this anyway. Besides, I want to find my friends again. I hope they’re doing okay, Pandora sent.

  Pandora had just completed Classification Round 960. She had 41 more to go until she was going to decline unless something went wrong. Rounds 961 - 999 were more of the same. Humanoids appeared, saw her, and then declined. Classification Round 1,000 was something else. Pandora appeared back in her starting location and saw; she wasn’t sure what she saw. It looked like a mass of flesh, with tentacles frozen in the process of lashing out. Also, it was about the size of an elephant. The ten-second time ended, and the tentacles acted like legs as they lifted the ball of flesh and started moving toward Pandora quickly. She’d never seen anything so grotesque, yet its movements were mesmerizing and resonated with that part of herself that was chaotic in nature.

  She knew she could probably take it but she didn’t want to mess with it so she used her Shadow Breath Weapon on it. It winked out of existence as it was sent to the Shadow Plane. When nothing happened, she looked around to make sure she hadn’t missed anything then waited. When the time reached 9 minutes she received a warning.

  Classification Round will end in 60 seconds. If no winner is determined, one will be chosen randomly.

  That was Interesting. The creature was still alive on the Shadow Plane. Pandora watched the timer until it hit zero when there was a shudder in the chamber and then a message popped up.

  Congratulations, as the only individuals still in the testing arena you have won this Classification Round by default.

  Congratulations, your title Sustained Effort has been upgraded to Enduring. Endurance and Willpower +5.

  Pandora returned to the reset area where she saw another woman across from her. She still didn’t understand what the point of making people face each other naked was unless it was to make absolutely sure those that moved forward had no advantages based on equipment. She looked over the choices and chose to decline the round and immediately teleported to another holding area where she was standing alone as notification started to fill her vision.

  Classification Rounds Complete

  You have Completed 1,000 Classification Rounds

  Previous Titles received.

  “First to Rule” – .” You are one of the first creatures during this Unification to acquire a vassal. Wisdom +5

  “Enduring” – You have endured 1,000 Classification Rounds, Endurance +5, Willpower +5

  New Title Awarded

  “Luck of Draw” – You completed 959 consecutive rounds by combatant withdrawals from Classification Rounds after seeing you. Luck attribute increased by 1 for every withdrawal after the 10th. Luck +949

  “Distinctive” – You have won 1,000 Classification Rounds during a Unification. Reward: +25 to Physical Attributes (Strength, Agility, Endurance, Perception, Wisdom, Willpower, and Luck) and +25% to all Physical Attributes after all other bonuses are added from other sources

  You have received 175 Vassals. You may keep them, or you may release them at this time and Earn Contribution points instead. This conversion is only offered during the Classification and will never be offered again. Vassals released after your Classification is complete are sold by you or granted their freedom for free.

  Contribution Points are the currency of the Multitude. Contribution Points are utilized to eat, purchase a place to sleep and also improve yourself.

  Would you like to release your 175 Vassals for 175 million Contribution Points, 1 million per Vassal?

  Pandora chose to convert all the Vassals to Contribution Points and freed them. She had no use for slaves.

  Classification Complete

  You have entered the Outer Core Layer of the Multitude.

  Universal Density unified

  Soul Core stabilized to unified Universal Density

  Levels reset.

  Skills reset

  Attributes adjusted due to titles

  Welcome to Multitude!

  Pandora felt Caspa shudder and then scream in her mind before she felt a wrenching feeling and everything went dark. Pandora didn’t know how long she was out, but she knew something was weird when she woke up with a large furry body nestled up against her. She also felt that the back of her neck was wet, and a small furry body was nestled against the front of her.

  Pandora opened her eyes and was sure that there was a baby bear in front of her while she could feel it, once she opened her eyes she saw that a cub was trying to chew on her fingers. She had no idea how long she’d been out, but when she opened her Personal Information and saw that she had over 1,000 Absorbed levels she knew the bear had been trying to chew on her for a while.

  The last thing she remembered was finishing the Classification and something about levels reset and skills. Pandora quickly checked hers and Caspa’s levels and saw that they’d both been reset to level 1 along with all of her skills

  Caspa? Caspa? You there?

  Pandora knew that Caspa was with her always, but that didn’t mean she was conscious though. She’d have to look at her after she removed herself from the dinner menu of this family of bears. Pandora pulled her hand back from the bear cub, which had drooled all over it, and made sure that her ability to absorb kinetic energy was turned on as she moved to stand.

  The mother bear was instantly awake, turned to Pandora, and roared. Pandora ignored her as she slowly lifted herself up and patted the bear cubs, two actually, that had been lying next to her. The one that had been trying to chew on her hand looked somewhat hurt that it wouldn’t get a meal. The mother bear swiped Pandora with her claws which did nothing as the kinetic energy of the strike was absorbed and converted to absorbed levels for later use.

  Pandora looked around and found herself in a shallow cave. The Mother bear tried to swipe her again. Even with her levels being reduced to level 1 her attributes had remained the same and been adjusted by her new titles. Her strength was now 3,690 which gave her a Carrying Capacity of 18,450 pounds. She gently caught the momma bear’s front paws and turned her around, so Pandora now had her back to the entrance of the cave and the momma bear had her cubs behind her. Pandora let go of the claws and quickly stepped back 50 feet outside the easy strike range of Mother Bear.

  Without waiting to see what the mother bear was doing she ran off away from the cave into the thick forest around her making sure that she could find her way back to the cave. She wasn’t exceedingly fast but at a normal pace of 45 miles per hour, she left the Cave in the dust and five minutes later she was over 3 miles away. When she spotted a deer, she sprinted over and snapped its neck before it even knew what had happened. She picked up the deer and moved to an area that had a little more space between the trees then polymorphed into her Shadow Dragon form and launched into the air with the deer in her front right claw.

  She was just a little less than four times as fast in dragon form and made it back to the bear cave in just a little under two minutes. She flew in between the trees, flared, and dropped the last 50 feet to the ground absorbing the kinetic damage of the fall. She hadn’t known if it would work but it did. As soon as she came into contact with the ground her momentum stopped, and she was left standing in front of the bear cave.

  The mother bear rushed out of the cave and stood on its hind legs declaring its challenge. Pandora kicked the deer carcass toward the mother beer then stepped back as the mother bear dropped down to all fours and sniffed the deer. She watched Pandora until she was more than 100 feet away at which point she grabbed the deer by the neck and dragged it into her den for her cubs. Pandora self-consciously touched the back of her neck. She now understood why her neck had felt wet when she woke up.

  Pandora found a clearing switched back to her dragon form, launched into the sky, and rose as high as she could. Below her in all directions was a primordial forest with the sun setting behind mountains off to her left. If this was Earth that was to the west. As she flew toward the base of the mountain she saw a few structures off to the right and veered toward them. There were only three buildings As she drew toward it she could easily make out that it was a settlement of some kind with a few farms around it. She even saw some people walking around and sitting against the barn wall or near its entrance.

  Pandora’s Wristbands of Holding and her Orbs of Chaos were both gone and in her humanoid form, she was naked. So, the question became did she try to approach the town as a woman or as a dragon? Probably as a Dragon that shifted into a woman would send the right message? Pandora flew around the town and noticed that some people were working the fields to the east of town as she came in for a landing. Just before she touched down she shifted back into her humanoid form and stepped out of the rolling shadows the transformation made.

  She knew that she appeared to be mostly human, but her skin was darker and anyone that looked closely would notice that her ears were slightly pointed. Unlike true dark elves thought, her eyes were neither red-tinted nor purple-tinted, they changed color which was a direct effect of her chaotic nature.

  A group of men and women carrying makeshift spears came running into the field toward her, the women looking her over and assessing her while most of the men stumbled upon seeing her nakedness. Pandora understood that some men might react upon seeing naked women but if everyone had just come through the classification then they had obviously seen naked women. That’s when she noticed that everyone was fully clothed and while the people rushing into the field held makeshift spears they also had some forged swords and hammers they were carrying. A few even had bows trained on her. Those individuals stopped at the edge of the field.

  “Hello,” Pandora called out in common.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Why would a dragon be turning into a girl and then trying to sneak into our settlement after showing us she was a dragon?” One of the older-looking humans called as they came to stop 30 feet from her.

  “I just woke up from the Classification, did any of you just go through the same thing?”

  “One of those,” a young man snickered. “You were a Dragon a moment ago, did you bring vassals too? The others that arrived yesterday brought vassals.”

  “No, no vassals, I woke up in a bear den. I just made my way free?”

  “A bear den is it close by?” one of the women asked. Pandora looked her over and realized that she was most likely following the path of a scout or ranger.

  “It took me about 5 minutes to fly from there to here. It’s east of here and she has two cubs. She won’t need to forage for a bit, I left a deer carcass for her. Should be far enough away that you don’t have to worry about her. Close enough that if you become a Ranger or Druid you might be able to make her a companion,” Pandora said.

  “You know about Companions?” the scout asked.

  “Not really, only what I learned in school. I know that druids and rangers can have wildlife companions and serve nature, that’s about it,” Pandora said.

  “I don’t know anything about that. Where’ I’m from we didn’t have any magical creatures, like dragons, no offense,” she said.

  “So, can I come into your little town, or do I need to go elsewhere?”

  “Oh, you’re coming into the town, I’ve never had a dragon lady before,” a large man carrying what could only be a gun said as he aimed it at Pandora and shot.

  A thrum of energy left the weapon and slammed into Pandora. The man was so sure that it was going to knock her out that he had already turned away and was issuing orders, “Paula, pick her up and take her to the holding cells, I’ll inspect her myself in a moment. Jacob and Daryl, put together a team and go get me those bear cubs, kill the mother…” at which point his head stopped saying anything as it exploded between both of Pandora’s hand. He’d been 300 feet away when Pandora flashed forward using 300 points of Absorbed levels to flash across the distance. Then she’d simply clapped her hands together and crushed his head which covered her and everyone behind him in brains and gore.

  She still couldn’t use more than one of her absorb abilities in a single combat round, but she’d been able to use 300 of her 1169 absorbed levels, 100 being gained from the energy of the weapon that had hit her. She knew his attack hadn’t been deadly when it hit her, but anyone who wasn’t willing to talk, well, they weren’t going to receive any communication in return. And now the front of her body was covered in gore and blood. So much for first impressions.

  Everyone that had been looking at Pandora before the Master of the Domain had shot his terrifying weapon at the naked woman was shocked when she appeared to disappear and there was a loud pop behind them. They turned to see the naked woman pulling the weapon out of the hands of the headless corpse before she looked around casually then snapped the rifle that had kept them all in check for the last three years of hell.

  A small explosion erupted from the weapon as she snapped it with her hands. The explosion was drawn into, and around, the naked woman. The energies that went around her, swirled like a rainbow until they too were drawn into her. The weapon she’d snapped in half and the corpse of the headless man turned to dust. Also, the blood and guts of the Master were completely removed from her body leaving her fully naked once again.

  Everyone froze until Paula exclaimed, “We’re free, it’s finally over!”

  The others who had come into the field looked back toward the girl who had so casually destroyed the tyrant that had been running their lives for the last three years and looked at Pandora with a glimmer of hope in their eyes. Pandora looked around and noticed that none of the people seemed upset that she’d killed the human and turned to Paula and asked, “Was that guy evil or something?

  Paula, tears now freely streaming down her eyes, said, “Let me show you as she walked past Pandora toward the only solid-looking structure in town. Pandora turned and followed Paula as she was led inside a building where a Crystal was floating in the air. Near the back was a door that was bolted from this side. Paula pulled the bolt and hurried down a stairway until she made her way to a room full of young boys and girls. There was a door at the opposite end of the room that opened as a man called out, “I’m done with this one boss, if you want a turn…”

  Pandora noticed a girl, not a teenager, not a woman but a girl in the room beyond the man and the world flashed red. A few moments later Pandora found herself standing in the doorway the man had been. As she looked around to find out what had happened she saw Paula ushering the other children upstairs as quietly as possible. When she looked back to the room she saw the girl looking at her with tears streaming down her face and a look of grim determination in her eyes. There was no sign of the man.

  Pandora took a step forward and the girl on the bed shrank back.

  Pandora raised her hands placatingly as she said, “It’s okay. It’s okay. When you are ready get up and go to Paula behind me. If you’ll shake my hand on your way through I will heal you okay?” Pandora stood to the side of the door and waited quietly as Paula got all the other children out of the basement and then motioned for the girl to come along too. Pandora, stood perfectly still as the girl slowly rose to her feet, put on the little bit of clothing she had, and then made her way out of the room. She looked straight ahead and walked with purpose until she stood beside Paula where she paused. She looked over her shoulder at Pandora then rushed back and held out her hand, “I’m Becky, Thank You.”

  Pandora gently shook the girl’s hand and flooded her with healing energy with the Heal Other aspect of her Absorb ability as she said, “I’m Pandora.” The minor cuts and bruises disappeared, and Becky let her hand drop, turned, and rushed up the stairs, Paula walking closely behind. Once everyone was out of the room Pandora was left alone so she checked her Notifications.

  Congratulations! The Racial Ability “Absorb” and “Creature of Chaos” have created and unlocked a new ability, “Amalgamate.” This is a new Racial Ability.

  In times of stress, you may completely absorb another creature. Doing so costs 99% of your remaining mana. During the Amalgamation, a contest of Wills begins. Your chance of success is equal to your Willpower multiplied by 1000% due to your ability "Creature of Chaos". Should you win the contest of wills the mentality of the creature is absorbed while the spark of will the memories contain is snuffed out. Should you lose the Contest of Wills, the same may happen to you.

  Memories from the man that was now part of her flooded into Pandora’s mind. She remembered growing up on the south side of Fellis, going to school, dropping out, and joining a gang until she, no “he”, dropped out of school and joined a gang. They’d thought they were so smart going after the money in that gas station so they could buy some worthless diversion. Only to find himself conscripted into the Army Reserve, which was a nice way of saying jail without any of the benefits of being in jail or the actual army. The Reserves had been converted to support forces for the actual military. Some active duty oversaw the reserves, but the grunt work was all done by lowlifes like him. He’d been sent to a small country on the other side of the world on some form of a humanitarian mission to help after a flood only to be acquired by Sergeant Merrick. Those had been good times. Finding product, capturing it, sometimes testing the merchandise, and then making it available to the highest bidder. He always thought those in the upper echelons knew what was going on but didn’t care, he never found out though.

  Four years passed and he was released from the Reserves and his juvenile record sealed. He’d decided to go back to that little island and had made a good living working as a bodyguard and “fixer” for visiting dignitaries with unlawful tastes that visited. That had been the life. Women as slaves if he wanted them. Or if he was feeling generous he’d flash his money around and women would throw themselves at him because he had money. He hadn’t been truly rich but he’d had a level of power that let him get what he wanted. That is until the Unification and classification had happened.

  The entire planet had just disappeared, He’d found himself naked and then in a classification of sorts. He’d decided to fight it out and had made good progress and been pretty lucky from the start. The animals he’d been placed against had been pretty easy until he’d made it to the bear. Truth be told he’d been pretty lucky to get passed the bear. He’d been able to trick it into charging and it had stepped into the darkness beyond the concrete floor and been destroyed instantly. What made that victory even better was the woman who faced him next. She’d had no combat ability. He’d used the full 10 minutes to….

  Pandora pulled herself from those memories and jumped forward. It seemed that this Piece of Shit, that’s what Mom and Dad would have called him. Yeah, this piece of shit had gone through three more rounds and then declined when he barely survived his fourth round against another humanoid. He’d appeared next to this mountain range with a group of other people in a quest to set up a town and make it thrive or die. That had been 3 years ago.

  Some of those that appeared had been families. These included some children and young girls appearing as well. As he’d been looking around he’d noticed that Sergeant Merrick was also in the town. What were the chances? They’d hooked up and turned this little town into the haven they’d both been enjoying. They’d talked about what had happened and Sergeant Merrick had let him know how he’d been one lucky Son of a Bitch and made it through over 100 Classification rounds. He’d started with some bonuses, one of which was the weapon he’d been carrying. It was a stun weapon that automatically recharged itself. That weapon and their ruthlessness had allowed them to maintain control of the settlement and even take and use any of the girls and women as they wanted.

  Pandora finished reviewing the memories which included information on how to use the Domain Crystal and the Contribution Point exchange to purchase items. Pandora realized she’d been standing in the basement for a bit, looked around, sighed, and then headed back upstairs. As she stepped out of the building and onto the street Becky ran up to her and threw her hands around her in a hug while two people, who could only be her parents, looked on terrified.

  Pandora should have been embarrassed because of her nudity but she was her mother’s daughter, and her nudity didn’t matter to her. She gave the girl a gentle hug and brushed back her hair as she said, “Go back to your Mum and Dad, they look worried about you?”

  “But you saved me?” Becky whispered a tear building in her right eye.

  “I did, and I’d do it again, but right now, they are worried about you and scared of me. They’ll be able to tell you all about it later I’m sure,” Pandora said.

  Becky returned to her parents as the rest of the people for this little hamlet looked on, “You all look like you haven’t had a good meal in a bit, if a couple of you would follow me to the Contribution Market, okay most of you,” Pandora said as she walked to a small building just 50 feet away. It was a simple stone structure open on four sides that had a monitor facing each opening. Four people at a time could use the market. She went up to the monitor, touched it, and said, “Clothing that allows for automatic storage during shape changing.”

  A slip made of a dull grey material appeared in the monitor that cost 1 million Contribution Points. It looked like the interface for the market knew what it was doing and could understand verbal commands, so she purchased the item which appeared on a shelf right beside the monitor. Pandora reached over and touched the slip.

  You have found Basic Slip, would you like to Soul Bind and equip it to yourself, Yes or No,”

  Pandora chose “Yes”

  Please choose a Color.

  Pandora said “Black” and the slip disappeared from her hand and was instantly on her. The slip covered her upper torso, shoulders, and down to an inch above her knees. Not that she cared but it didn’t even look like a slip, it looked more like a shirt that conformed to her body. While her nudity hadn’t bothered her, she understood how it embarrassed some of the others following her.

  She turned to the crowd, “I’m going to use some of my Contribution Points to purchase some items for all of you now.”

  “There’s no point young lady, we have nowhere to gather and nowhere to eat,” an older gentleman who looked like he’d been beaten, almost to death said.

  “What is your name old timer?” Pandora asked gently.

  “My name is Marv, just Marv now. Could I be asking your name young lady?” he said?

  “I am Pandora,” Pandora said as she walked up and slowly held up her hand to shake Marv’s hand.

  Marv looked at her hand then reached forward and shook it. As he did, Pandora healed his injuries, as she raised her voice, “Is anyone else hurt, or in need of healing?

  “Quite a few actually,” an older woman said from the background. They’re in the only building we’ve been able to make so far, the barn over there?” she said.

  Pandora smiled and then made her way to the barn where she ended up healing almost 50 people, ranging from people with broken bones to girls who had been abused like Becky and others who had been beaten. Three of the people she healed looked like they’d been on death’s doorstep when she made it to them.

  When she was done, she made her way to the Domain Administration building and found the Domain Crystal within. Reaching up, she touched the Crystal and received a prompt.

  This domain is currently unclaimed. Would you like to claim it, Yes or No?”

  Pandor chose “Yes.”

  Domain functionality has been added to the Contribution Market. You now have 174,566,343 Contribution Points.

  Pandora looked at the number of Contribution Points and frowned. She had only earned 175 million as far as she remembered. She opened her interface and saw that she had gained 566,343 Contribution Points for taking over this Domain. Not for killing Sergeant Merrick, or the Piece of Shit downstairs, or even for killing the deer. She’d received Contribution Points for seizing a Domain. Interesting.

  While she thought about what that meant and headed back to the Contribution Market. The people were still watching her and a few were still following her around. She touched the monitor and immediately saw what the new functionality meant. A new tab labeled “Domain” appeared. It appeared that the statistics for the town were laid out completely.

  Merrick’s Bordello

  Class: 0+

  Population 1,113

  Buildings: 3

  Domain Administrator Building, Class 0 - No Administrator Chosen

  Barn, Class 0

  Contribution Market, Class 0

  Generated Contribution: Net Loss of 2,220 per day.

  Pandora didn’t understand what any of that meant but she knew a net loss couldn’t be good.

  She looked through her options and found that she could purchase basic structures that would automatically be erected. First things first though, she looked through the menus and found that she could purchase an Administrator. The minimum requirement was a Class 1 Administration Building so it could house the Administrator. Pandora upgraded the Administrator building to Class 1 for 100,000 Contribution Points

  A rumbling was heard from the direction of the Administrator building and everyone watched as it morphed and changed into a large stone structure.

  Pandora started her modification to the Settlement by changing the name of the town to something that might bring her friends to her, “Callum’s Haven” sounded good. She thought about calling it Pandora’s Box, but something told her that would be a very good idea. Next, she looked over the Administrators she could hire and found one that looked promising.

  “Who’s Callum?” Someone asked.

  Pandora ignored the question and hired the Beatrix Administrator for 1,000,000 Contribution Points. It stated that it was guaranteed to help fledgling settlements. A moment later there was a pop and a round metallic orb with a single eye in it appeared hovering at eye level off the ground. It quickly moved over to Pandora.

  “Strength through Dominance Master, how may I serve?”

  “Okay, first it’s Pandora, not Master. Second. I would like this Settlement to have a gathering place, a place to eat, and enough shelter for everyone.

  “Yes…Pandora. Let me… Pandora the current Contribution total for this ‘settlement’ is -2,435,280. Eviction and reclamation actions were about to be initiated when you claimed this settlement. As the new owner of the Domain, you are not responsible for the debt accrued by the other 1,112 residents but that dept must be paid or all residents of this settlement will be removed and integrated into the less desirable professions of the Multitude.”

  “What kind of professions?” Pandora asked.

  “There are many, some that come to mind are Miners of rare toxic minerals and plants, joy toys, both female and male, and in some cases acclimation targets

  “Acclimation targets”

  “They would be utilized to teach soldiers how to overcome their aversion to killing defenseless sentient beings.

  "That’s horrible?” Pandora said as gasps rang out throughout the crowd.

  “That is the Multitude. Those that fail to produce will serve a purpose, whether they wish to or not.” The floating eye stated. “Back to your request, in order to meet your request, the settlement must repay its debt and then pay the new cost in full. If everyone started producing at 100% efficiency this instant the debt could be paid back in 3 years, the amount of time it took to build up.

  “Wait, the meals we requested from the market for a single Contribution Point were not taken from the Contribution points we earned?” One of the women asked.

  “May I answer that question, Pandora?” The Eye asked.

  “Sure,” Pandora said.

  “At 100% efficiency, each of you should be producing 8 Contribution Points per day. You have not been. Each meal costs 1 Contribution point and the records indicate most of you ate three times a day. Your efficiency rate plus your lack of work ethic produced a net income of -2 CP per individual for three years. I am frankly astounded that this was allowed to progress this far for three years straight, unless…”

  “Unless what,” Pandora asked.

  “Unless one of the investors put a hold on this settlement so that it would be so far in debt that the residents couldn’t buy off the servitude contracts that would result from such a negative Contribution Point score.”

  There was a pop as a blue-skinned man popped into next to the Administration Building, “You can stop talking now Beatrix 17432Alpha” I have come to claim my slaves.