Chapter 97: The Proposal (Patreon)

“You will all die.” The goddess ominously declared as she scanned the onlookers from behind her runed blindfold.

After a tense moment of silence that permeated the island, Coop laughed out loud. The shock of the whole situation threw him off kilter. His outburst earned another glare from the beautiful goddess as she clenched her jaw while her nostrils flared, but he wasn’t the only one to react in a way she didn’t expect. All of the pirates had immediately laughed as well, led by Captain Kayla’s unabashed amusement at the sinister proclamation. Even the more disciplined phantoms from the army couldn’t control their mirth.

There weren’t many people left in Ghost Reef after the siege event, but most of them were still ghosts that had already died previously. The phantoms, understandably, had a weird view on death. For the rest, immortality hadn’t been anything but a passing fantasy a few months prior to the apocalypse, and after it became a real thing, dying seemed to have become even more likely instead of something they had grown beyond.

The goddess looked like she felt left out of an inside joke, so Coop volunteered an idea while he remained suspended in the energy bubble. “Maybe you should give us that introduction after all.”

She looked up at the sky in exasperated contemplation before she said anything. “I can only keep mana suspended for a short period, so I don’t have time to follow the approved presentation.” She pursed her lips before making her decision. “I’ll use my own judgment, but don’t blame me if your existence ends up consumed by the machine.”

Coop would have shrugged if he could. “Say what you need to say.”

“Of course I’d find a vexatious planet.” She grumbled as she arrived at a verdict. She pulled a small red disc from the air with a flip of her fingers, like she was doing a magic trick. With a dismissive wave of her other hand, Coop fell out of the mana bubble and landed in the wet sand of the beach. She flung the disc to him with a flick of her wrist.

She pointed at Coop. “Take that and form a faction. Any territory controlled by the faction established by the Purification Chip will be free from the judgment of mana. It will push an update, just like when a settlement upgrade occurs. When a faction claims territory, a similar update is sent through the territory.”

Coop looked at the object in the palm of his hand, eyes buried beneath furrowed brows. “Huh?” He grunted. She’d lost him when she directed him to form a faction.

She ignored his confusion and pressed on. “Mana is a weapon from the first iteration. By the second it was fundamental to the universe after bonding with all matter on a subatomic level. On this eleventh iteration, it is omnipresent. Its purpose was to limit threats to the creator species by crippling technological growth in potential rival civilizations and otherwise terraforming for their future benefit.”

Coop glanced around with wide eyes as everyone that was conscious listened with rapt attention. He hoped they were understanding better than he was.

The goddess continued. “The assimilation period is a trial. If a planet is determined to have exceeded a certain threshold of technological advancement, mana will hijack the assimilation, bypassing the system restrictions to enact the Eradication Protocol. Sentient life will be cleansed, and the planet will be conserved for the creators. They are extinct, as far as we know, so in practice, that just means the assimilation will fail and the planet will be relegated to the uninhabited.”

“Cleansed…” Coop mumbled, not liking the sound of any of that.

“The presence of an Icon of Mana indicates you are already failing the assimilation. An Icon demands a high concentration of mana, and therefore, time. Mana is everywhere, but it takes time to activate, update, and accumulate. Normally, years would go by before an Icon arrived, then years more before it roused sufficient forces to make its move, so there is an opportunity for preparation.” She briefly paused as if contemplating this peculiar scenario herself. It was only day 50. “However,” She resumed, “once an Icon has spawned it has always been the first precursor for the Eradication Protocol. No Icon would spawn on a passing planet.” She stopped and looked at the sky again.

They were all hushed as they waited for her to continue. There was no breeze and the waves of the ocean had ceased completely. Coop broke the silence. “How would we resist mana itself? It’s literally everywhere?” He trailed off under her withering attention, but he thought it was a valid question.

The Avatar scowled at Coop from beneath her runed blindfold. “I suppose you will use your fists.” She jeered, still upset by his audacity, before she reestablished her composure. She cleared her throat and answered for everyone else. “Mana intends to preserve the planet for the creators. Much like a planetary sponsor, it will manifest conventional forces until it has accomplished its mission. You should have already seen one example for the process when the Icon appeared. As long as you are free from the judgment of mana, you will continue to have access to the system. Ensconce yourselves deep within purified territory and some of you might have a chance of survival.”

Coop breathed a small sigh of relief since it sounded like his own mana wouldn’t turn against him, though the Avatar wasn’t exactly brimming with confidence in their chances. As for witnessing the process of the Icon forming, he had no idea what he had seen. He understood it took a lot of mana, though. The main difference being that normal monsters seemed to passively grow in power while the Icon had actively vacuumed up everything available. He supposed that the only conclusion to make was that the forces of mana would be stronger, not limited by the system.

“So…” Coop struggled to keep the fading conversation going like it was a bad date. “Who are you?” He asked, deciding on a simple question among the many rattling around his exhausted head.

She turned her attention back to Coop, smugly, like someone had finally asked a question she actually wanted to answer. “Others have mythologized us with many names. Based on your contracts, you may have heard some already: The Great Golem, The Shared Nightmare, The Machine God, The Pale Lady. I am representing those who created the system to counter the oppression of mana. You may think of me as the Avatar of the System.”

“Huh.” Coop wasn’t as impressed as she had hoped. His brain was busy wrestling with the realization that mana and the system really were supposedly two different entities, one barely limiting the other.

She tisked at Coop before she addressed everyone in the manner she attempted originally, regaining her air of authority. “I have delivered your warning.” She pointed at the disc still in Coop’s hand. “That is your invitation. Establish your faction if you wish for any to live. Save what you can.”

Coop squinted, realizing she was already concluding her presentation. “What about you? You seem pretty strong and you’re already here, think you can help us out with this eradication business?” Coop reached.

Coop’s overture induced a genuine laugh from the overbearing goddess. The sound was so pleasant he found himself charmed all over again despite his aching wrist and forehead. She responded with just one side of her mouth curled in a half smile. “Unfortunately, I am out of time. It’s possible we’ll meet again… If you survive.”

The blue beam that had engulfed the island rapidly contracted until it was a narrow spotlight on their temporary visitor. The bright light drowned out the rest of the island, making it seem like she was alone in the center of a stage, surrounded by darkness.

Then, with a burst of energy that knocked everyone off their feet, she disappeared. The mana dome collapsed with another shattering sound and a rush of air flooded over the island as the ocean breeze returned and the calm waves resumed.

Coop looked at his hands, feeling woozy, and noted they were purple, the sand was blue, the sky was yellow, and he had a sense of severe vertigo that left him on his back with both arms out to keep his balance. It was a strangely familiar experience that reminded him of the day mana had arrived on Earth, or if the goddess was to be believed, the day that mana was activated. If this was a new beginning, he really hoped there wouldn’t be more meteors.

Coop stayed on the ground, lying on the beach sand, watching the sky until his vision gradually returned to normal. The clear blue was only interrupted by a steady procession of delicate clouds that stretched from east to west. The fluffy white forms leisurely drifted by, reflecting Coop’s desire to take it easy for a while.

He kept watching the sky while the residents and phantoms stirred, returning to their feet and chatting amongst themselves. The fact that the sky wasn’t obscured by the red mana dome was such a massive relief to Coop, he refused to look away, smiling to himself for the moment. He took deep breaths through his nose, seriously considering a nap on the spot.

His line of sight was interrupted when Marcus loomed over Coop, casting a shadow over his face and blocking his perspective of the clouds. “You gonna get up?” His first advisor wondered, all business, even in the aftermath of the siege and a visit from a shockingly beautiful alien.

Coop sighed as he sat up and leaned his arms on his knees. The phantoms were already heading back to the fort and the pirates followed Sharkbait to the Eye of the Storm, wading into the water where the galleon waited. Neither group seemed particularly bothered by the revelations that the alien goddess had left with them. No matter what happened, they were dedicated to Ghost Reef. However, the residents were all waiting for Coop.

“What?” He asked as he looked around.

“Mate, are you gonna do what she said? Make a faction and all that?” Derek spoke up, pointing at the disc in Coop’s hand.

Coop lifted it up to look at it closer. It really just looked like a minidisc, but the same red as the mana dome or from the mana that leaked from service buildings. He sent it to his spatial storage before he lost it and considered the question for a second.

“I mean, I think it has to be done based on what we just heard. I don’t want to gamble with eradication if I don’t need to.” Coop shrugged. “But, do we believe what she said?” Coop stood up and wiped the sand off his elbows. No one responded right away.

Derek volunteered his perspective. “She was really hot, but that was a lot to take in.” More than one person nodded at both halves of his statement.

The absurdity of the situation was overwhelming. He stretched his lower back before he faced the rest. “I’m just glad we all witnessed that together. I can’t imagine trying to explain what happened to anyone else.” A few others seemed to agree. It would be hard to believe that an alien beamed in to explain what every other alien claimed was unknowable, then disappeared in a flash of light after giving such an ominous warning.

Coop looked around as the various residents contemplated the situation. The passed out individuals were recovering while others quietly recapped the visitor’s message to them, going through exactly what he was happy to avoid. Coop saw it as a good time to get everyone on the same page.

“Arthur, what do you think?”

“I believe this is well-beyond my pay grade.” The future intelligence advisor concluded without any hesitation. Coop shrugged, thinking that was fair enough.

Coop turned to Shane, but one look told him all he needed to know. The field commander was out of his element once the battle was over.

“Where’s Buck?” Coop asked, not seeing the big man right away. When the eldest Cleary brother stepped through the small crowd, Coop addressed him. “What do you think about what that pretty lady said about mana? Plausible?”

Buck rubbed his hand along his buzzed head while he answered. He put both of his huge palms up and shrugged as well. “It makes as much sense as anything else. I mean, magic or not, it’s all a mystery to us, isn’t it? We don’t really have the ability to test it.” He gestured to the older man that helped test the cannons before the siege began. “The Professor might have something to add.”

The older man cleared his throat, sounding just like a teacher from a university that was waiting for his turn. “Clarke’s third law states: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ I believe this is the best real life example there has ever been. The young man is correct about our current ability to experiment. I think it would be better to concentrate on the credibility of the speaker, rather than the plausibility of her words.”

Coop nodded, “It is what it is.” He concluded, seeing the wisdom in the professor’s perspective. Looking back up at the sky, he considered the circumstances of their little visit and considered how that impacted the Avatar’s credibility.

Earth was supposed to be encased in a mana shield that prevented factions from interacting with the planet during its assimilation. Coop’s own research in the library had revealed that the aliens basically only saw leaderboards on the outside. And yet, someone appeared to have breached the containment in order to deliver a message.

“I wonder if she’ll show up again if we find another Siege Boss to kill.” Derek murmured, though knowing the Virtuoso, it was just because he wanted another look, rather than more answers.

“An Icon.” Coop corrected, but Derek had given him an idea. The Avatar seemed surprised to have arrived so early in the assimilation, and had even made Gibson clarify that it was an Icon of Mana that was defeated. She had specifically noted that mana never made a move until years had gone by. Coop thought they had defeated so many waves of monsters it released enough mana to simulate a planet much further along in the assimilation, and the Prime Construct’s mana bomb had put them over the edge for an Icon to appear. Therefore, they should still have time to prepare. He wouldn’t risk years, but a few days to let people mull things over wouldn’t be a problem. They’d earned a break, right?

Coop took in the exhausted and stressed out faces around him. He wasn’t the only one feeling mental fatigue from the siege event. “First, we should all just take a vacation.” He decided. “Once we’re rested, we’ll fix up the settlement and see about starting a faction. If anyone comes up with a good reason not to, let Marcus know.” Coop chuckled when Marcus looked exasperated at the surprise delegation.

Once people took in the state of the fort’s wall, they seemed to agree on taking a break first. The southern wall was a mess. Stones had been gouged out and destroyed, rubble filled some gaps while the breaches went straight through to the courtyard, the battlements were crushed, the moat collapsed, the wooden bridge was just a few splinters, the iron gate hung lopsided from one top hinge, and the dunes were scarred and cratered.

“If anyone has suggestions for faction names, give those to Marcus as well.” He smirked at his own delegation powers.

Coop’s concise plan was enough to break up the group. It seemed like any direction was enough for them at the moment. Coop flopped back down onto the sand, flat on his back and looked up at the darkening blue sky. Most of the residents headed back toward the fort, but a few sat with their feet in the water or underneath the surviving trees, leaning against the bare trunks for what little shade they offered. They were probably checking notifications, which Coop did as well.

[You defeated Siege Boss: Prime Construct (Level 75)]

[+91945 Basic Credits]

[+11 Titanic Destruction Gem (Legendary)]

[+4 Titanic Guardian Crystal (Legendary)]

…

[You defeated Siege Boss: Irrevocable Condemnation (Level 75)]

[+202441 Basic Credits]

[+3 Voidstone (Legendary)]

[+1 Effigy of Constructs (Trophy)]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Trophy Hunter (4/5)]

[You have acquired a new title!]

As the notifications floated across his vision against the clouds in the sky, Coop took his time checking them line by line. There weren’t any timers rushing him along and he savored the lack of pressure.

First of all, the Prime Construct’s defeat notification appeared, but he was missing all the rewards that he associated with mana, like quest progression and levels from the experience. Instead, he only received the scavenging rewards. The Icon of Mana really had stolen his kill, if only partially. Was that how it empowered itself?

“Weird mutant parasite.” Coop muttered at the clouds, recalling the effigy.

Irrevocable Condemnation seemed to have had some significance for the Avatar of the System, so he’d try to remember it. He briefly wondered if they would be seeing more Siege Bosses in the near future, but he had to assume they would be rare. Mana needed more time to ramp up the threats, no matter where they came from.

Another three hundred thousand credits put his total to nearly 2.5 million. Hopefully, Madison wouldn’t be mad about him putting her back to work since he would purchase a medical center with the accumulated funds right away. Afterwards, he’d still have plenty to spend on other services, though he wasn’t sure what they would need. Marcus already had the plans to manually build instead of being entirely reliant on the system’s constructions.

The Siege Boss dropped him three more legendary materials and the trophy that he needed for the optional portion of the settlement upgrade quest. He quickly checked the quest, since this time they were limited by 22 days of stability. The countdown began when he upgraded the settlement after defending it from Kevin the Hammer. Off the top of his head, that meant it had been 28 days. Unfortunately, it seemed like every day of the siege had been considered unstable, so there were nearly 14 days left: eight days before the event and none at all during the siege.

“Two weeks, then.” He confirmed to himself.

He also needed to find and defeat one more boss, preferably a Field Boss, to complete his Trophy Hunter quest. There probably weren’t any remaining within Ghost Reef’s territory. If there were, they would have joined a wave like the others had, but he’d keep an eye out for fresh arrivals. It was pretty annoying that the Prime Construct hadn’t counted, but without its consumption, maybe the Icon wouldn’t have appeared at all, and he still would have only received one boss to defeat.

Moving on, four more class levels put him at level 96 for the Revenant and two more profession levels with Scavenging pushed to level 90. Another skill selection was already on the horizon, but he felt a tinge of frustration that his profession level had already started falling behind his class again. Those dumb Constructs coming themselves and not having any loot really undermined his dream of sneaky stats granted from an overleveled profession.

Shaking his head, he assigned his unallocated points into Mind. It was the first time in many levels that he hadn’t automatically assigned his points. The Avatar had disabled all of their statuses before he had the chance.

Finally, he had received a new title, called Defiant. First, Coop checked what it was for and was extremely satisfied to see that it was granted for being ‘The First Raid to Defeat a Siege Boss.’ Another world first, and one that he was able to share with the current residents of Ghost Reef.

The Defiant title bonus wasn’t applied until he made a choice. Each of the attributes were represented as an option with a single word, though it didn’t specify any further what they would add.

[Strength - Potency]

[Agility - Initiative]

[Body - Durability]

[Mind - Sustain]

[Intelligence - Dominion]

[Acumen - Wisdom]

Coop’s inclination was to select Mind, but that was just a force of habit. He took his time thinking about the options. Each choice appeared to reinforce an aspect of the corresponding attribute, so Coop had to consider what he was lacking. This would be a separate bonus from his Mind stacking, so he wasn’t sure about doubling down. Rather, it was time to do one of two things; shift his focus to increasing his future firepower by enhancing his new path and Intelligence based skills, or shore up any weaknesses remaining in his foundation once and for all.

Before he decided, he glanced at a few of the other residents that had lingered with him on the beach. Jonah, the waiter, was sitting with the elderly Dreadnought lady. She didn’t look as old as she had at the start, and Jonah seemed more confident as well. Coop inspected the pair.

[Human (Level 65)]

[Dreadnought (Body)]

[Unflinching]

[Human (Level 53)]

[Allflame Scion (Intelligence)]

[(Defiant)]

Everyone had insane progress. The residents got as many as 50 levels in 20 days and the phantoms were all level 75, which seemed to be their current maximum until the settlement upgraded. He’d check all that later, for now he wanted to compare notes and see if he could glean the title bonuses before he made his choice.

“Hey, Jonah!” The young man looked up at Coop’s voice and looked nervous. “Did you make your title choice yet?”

“Ah, yes! I picked Mind.” He admitted, like he was reporting himself to his boss.

Edith, the Dreadnought, chimed in as well, “I picked Strength.”

“What did they do?” Coop asked as others joined in to share.

“Mind increased the mana pool bonus of the Mind stat, which is perfect. Mana was a seriously limiting factor for us casters.”

“Strength increased the multiplier for any skills using the Strength stat in their calculations.” Edith added.

Someone Coop didn’t know explained his choice. “Intelligence is like Strength, except instead of a damage multiplier, it’s spell vigor. The Spells will be more robust.”

Coop dismissed Strength as an option. He didn’t have any skills that would utilize the Potency bonus. He also wasn’t sure about Intelligence. He could see the utility if his Fog of War was still struggling against the ocean breeze when he conjured it, and even after he took Arcane Comprehension, he imagined that a more robust spell would have a reduced mana drain while he maintained it, but it wasn’t the increase to firepower he was seeking when it came to Intelligence. He took another look at Mind. Knowing what 10,000 mana meant for Fog of War, he imagined what 20,000 mana would look like.

“How much mana do you have, Jonah?”

“1,200 after the bonus. I had around 1,000 before.”

Coop thought that 20% was actually pretty huge, though it could also be a flat bonus at only 200 mana.

His choice was drifting elsewhere, to one of his last weaknesses in his foundation. His magic defense was ridiculous and his physical defense was certainly great, but his lower durability relative to his own stats, let alone the boss’s, had been exposed time and time again. Broken bones and torn muscles or ligaments limited him even more than his health pool, and here he thought he had an opportunity to improve that particular aspect of his build.

Coop made his decision. He went with Body and gained the Durability bonus to his physical defense. He wouldn’t need to turn himself into a zombie to get hardened bones.