Welcome to the Path of the Gladiator, Ronan Steele!

You have taken a step that few in this multiverse ever do, and for that, you shall be commended.

The path is simple, and yet even rarer than those who become gladiators are those who complete the path. Perhaps you will be the next.

The first step on your path is to strike back at those who would claim your planet for their own. You will undertake a solo invasion onto one of the worlds owned by the Grathen, in order to conquer it for [Planet 2.48e11E] or your own personal faction (you will be given the option to create one at the beginning of the path)!

Before you are sent through the incursion portal, you will be given the opportunity to obtain sponsorships and gifts, as well as have wagers made on your path—a portion of the winnings of which will be granted to you upon completion of the path.

Once all sponsorship and gift offers have been made, along with the consequences and conditions of acceptance being made clear, you will have the opportunity to select 1 sponsorship and any number of gifts, provided they do not compete.

Ronan read through the system message informing him about the Path of the Gladiator. It explained everything thoroughly, with the exception of what he would need to do in order to conquer the planet he was supposed to invade.

Alone.

These sponsorships and gifts better be exceptional, otherwise I have no idea what these people expect from me, Ronan mused. He raised his gaze as he dismissed the message, looking around the vast space filled with the hundreds of thousands of integrated beings looking to get a piece of his gladiator pie.

How many of them had been through the tutorial, as he had? No one had done it exactly like him, of course, but countless of these aliens would have been a part of the previous 102 integrations. It was mind-boggling.

To think that the numbers here were still a minor fraction of the total number of beings in the entire multiverse was even more ridiculous. It took his breath away for a moment. Then he realised that his clan somehow superseded the system that made this all possible, and he gained a new appreciation for the power that had been granted to him.

The space beside him shifted briefly, before a towering bovine creature appeared beside him. Reminding Ronan of a minotaur, but with deep emerald skin and two pairs of curving horns at the back of its head, the creature turned to him and winked a glowing purple eye.

A twisting white object appeared in front of the creature, likely pulled from its inventory. As it began to speak, Ronan realised this was the announcer from before.

"I hope you've all made your offers and bets, because we're about to wrap them up and let Ronan take his pick in private! While he does that we'll be bringing in the next gladiator contestant for you to appraise!" With that, the announcer waved a hoofed limb in Ronan's direction and he felt his consciousness slipping.

He woke up in a luxurious room. The floor was a single large slab of white marble streaked with gold and purple, a variety Ronan didn't believe existed on Earth. The walls were a dark wood, with ornately carved pillars protruding from the walls at regular intervals. Paintings of space were placed between the pillars, but they seemed to move with Ronan's gaze, and were three-dimensional, making him slightly nauseous.

As he shifted, he found that he was sitting in a plush velvet chair made from the same dark wood as the walls. A fire burned in a marble fireplace opposite him, and there were two more identical chairs, one placed on either side of the flickering flames.

The announcer was standing between the chairs, staring down at Ronan. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Ronan. Sorry to scare you like that. I'm sure you have plenty of questions, but unfortunately I can't maintain this clone for that long."

Ronan rubbed his temple. It ached in a strange way. He felt fine other than that, so he assumed he hadn't been messed with, despite the teleportation or whatever it was that had brought him to the room.

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"I think the system message cleared most of it up. I was wondering how you were able to read my level and class and everything, though?"

The bovine chuckled. "You really think that kind of information can be hidden from someone three race ranks above you who is working for the system? Don't be ridiculous."

Ronan nodded in understanding. That made sense. It was also the reason why people with a lower level than him often couldn't see all of his information when he was back on his homeworld. At the very least he was mostly confident that the more sensitive parts of his status were still obscured from the system and this announcer fellow.

"And the path? I seriously have to inv—" The announcer held up a hand to stop him.

"You shouldn't share any details of your path with anyone. Even once you confirm a sponsorship or gift, keep things close to your chest. The system does its best to obscure things, but a sufficiently powerful force could find you and interfere with your path or just kidnap you and force you to work as a slave. Scary stuff, but it does happen once in a while."

"Damn, seriously?" Ronan was shocked, but after a brief moment of thought he realised it made sense. This new world—multiverse, really—was all about power. The strong ruled over the weak. If a powerful faction wanted to pick up a promising being from a newly integrated world and they had the means to do so, why wouldn't they?

Based on what he'd seen of the system's behaviour so far, he doubted it would actively intervene to stop them. He barely trusted whatever supposed safeguards it put in place to protect people doing the Path of the Gladiator. Then again, the entertainment factor for all those aliens outside would be diminished if all of the gladiators ended up getting kidnapped and turned into slaves. Or worse.

"Seriously. Anyway, as I said, not much time. Any more pertinent questions? If not, I'll leave you to go over your offers. Pick wisely, because you can't change your sponsor once you confirm the agreement and you'll need one who can help you all the way along the path. I'd recommend automatically rejecting any offers that demand blanket non-disclosure or service after path completion. Anything that requires repayment is a no-go, too. Apart from that, happy hunting." The announcer waved a hoof and started to fade.

Ronan panicked. "What about gifts?"

"Pick freely. Gifts can't bind you via the system. Any verbal agreements you make are on you." The announcer's bovine body burst into sparks of light that quickly faded into nothingness, leaving Ronan alone in the room with only the flickering fire for comfort.

Almost as soon as that happened, another system message appeared in front of him.

You have received 6,804 Sponsorship offers!

You have received 39,117 Gift offers!

You may review them one by one, or organise them by self-designated categories. You are able to summon the sponsor or gift-giver to this room for the duration of your selection period, in order to directly communicate with them. It is recommended to only do this with those offers you are seriously considering.

He had received a hell of a lot of offers. There was no way he could go through all of them one by one. Ronan figured that applying the restrictions the announcer had recommended was a good start.

Sponsorship and Gift offers requiring blanket non-disclosure clauses, servitude following path completion, or repayment have been declined!

You have received 1,483 Sponsorship offers!

You have received 8,705 Gift offers!

I wonder why they even offer those things, if the announcers always warn gladiators away from them? Perhaps some of the offers are too tempting? Before his errant thoughts could run away from him, Ronan turned back to the task at hand. There were still a ridiculous number of both on the table. Far too many for him to comb through, which meant he needed to come up with some more requirements.

Frankly, with his heritage being what it was, it was entirely possible that he could take some of the riskier but more beneficial offers and simply avoid the consequences. Dealing with powerful forces of the multiverse was risky, however, as he had no idea if there were techniques that could affect his soul or mind through death.

For this first attempt at the path, he would stick with the safer route. Safe-ish, at least. Invading a planet by himself was definitely not a safe proposition, but he was excited.

He suddenly thought of something and made an immediate change to the requirements of his offers.

Sponsorship and Gift offers requiring full disclosure of gladiator's status, or observation permissions during the path have been declined!

You have received 672 Sponsorship offers!

You have received 2,397 Gift offers!

He was surprised by the number of offers that dropped after that. Clearly there were plenty of forces and powerful individuals out there who simply wanted information about potential new powerhouses. Or wanted to find out how exactly they were fighting. Neither were acceptable risks to Ronan.

Even with 'time' resetting upon his death, what if some ancient clan or organisation had a way to maintain knowledge outside of time. His clan was clearly one such example, and based on the fact his ancestor had been killed by something, there were equally powerful organisations out there.

He needed a way to whittle the number of offers down to a reasonable amount. As he was currently going, it would take him years to review all of them and potentially talk with those who'd made the offers. A great idea suddenly came to him.

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