Chapter 99: New Year - New Coop (Patreon)

Coop woke up late in the morning. His first sleep-addled thoughts went to the start of the new year. He’d have to let someone more qualified decide how to categorize the first year after mana, but he figured it would represent the start of a new calendar era at the very least. What better way was there to start such a momentous period other than sleeping in?

“Mmm...” He hummed in comfort.

He was cocooned within his blankets, warm and cozy, but he had already slept so much that falling back asleep would be impossible, no matter how comfortable he was. Thanks to mana, he was feeling better than ever, despite the gauntlet of fighting the settlement completed the day before.

He rolled a few times to free himself from the wrapped covers, then spun to put his feet down over the side of the bed. The old wooden floor was smooth to the touch and slightly cooler than the air in the lighthouse. He scrunched his toes on the wood grain as he stretched his neck, first up toward the similarly aged wooden ceiling, then to the left, and finally to the right with a sigh escaping his lips.

Jett was sleeping on the edge of the mattress, blissfully sprawled on her side. Coop leaned over and stroked her shiny black fur for a few minutes, indulging himself in taking his time, lazily waking up without the incessant timers ticking away in his peripheral vision. Jett’s coat had grown even softer after mana activated. She purred in her sleep while Coop ran the tips of his fingers through her fur.

The thoughts of mana roused his sleepy mind a bit more. Knowing slightly more about what mana actually was didn’t really change how Coop considered the overall situation. As far as he was concerned, it was still magic, but maybe he’d be able to make some small adjustments when he activated his skills. He knew he was probably deluding himself, but it was worth trying to take advantage of the expanded knowledge that had been bestowed upon them. He didn’t think trying something new would cause any harm, and if anything, just consciously practicing with Presence of Mind would be worthwhile.

As he rubbed Jett’s cheeks and stroked her back, Coop activated Presence of Mind to inspect her aura. Instead of brute forcing his imaginary bubble to engulf her aura like he had in the past, he deliberately pushed his own aura forward. He imagined a chain reaction, physically passing along his purpose like a microscopic game of telephone.

If the one that called herself the Avatar of the System was to be believed, mana wasn’t an unknowable, mysterious entity that simply existed, but something that was piggybacking on all matter while gatekeeping the established rules of reality. Basically, it really was still magic, but it meant they might not need to throw away the accumulation of human knowledge to adapt to their new world. There was no sense in starting from scratch if they didn’t need to.

Coop envisioned magic as the caster’s intent being passed along and mana making it happen, as long as it was within accepted parameters established by the system. It wouldn’t explain all of the phenomena they had experienced since the assimilation began, but it helped Coop visualize some of the limitations. He wasn’t trying to solve the mysteries of the universe, just wrap his own head around the situation in a way that would help him progress.

Coop’s working theory was that the system operated as an interface that allowed them to partially manage the mana around and within them, and affinities were the language each individual used to communicate with the ever-present mana. The system afforded some level of control over mana, even if the system and mana really weren’t parts of the same whole. He couldn’t start a fire at his fingertips, even if he understood the physics of how it would work and put his effort into compelling mana to make it happen, but if he had a skill through the system that started a fire, he could summon it at will. The language he used to interface with mana was the limiting factor.

In any case, he looked at Jett’s aura, practicing his mana control through a new lens of rather basic comprehension. The cat’s information came to him much like it had before. Maybe it took a bit less effort, but any differences were more likely caused by his imagination than an actual improvement.

[Awakened Cat (Level 87)]

[Sentinel of Shadows (Agility)]

[Venerated of the Blessed Mau Collective]

[Sharp, Dark, Silent (Essence of Umbra)]

“Hm? Wow…” Coop muttered as he took in Jett’s updated aura.

He hadn’t expected Jett to progress through that many levels since she had a tendency to come and go as she pleased. Charlie benefited from massive area abilities and she had diligently defended through every wave, but even she hadn’t been able to catch up with the settlement’s resident cat. Jett’s aura was slightly different as well, highlighting ‘Essence of Umbra’ instead of ‘Slayer.’ It seemed to correlate with her growing darkness powers.

Coop gently stroked her fur a few more times before the tip of her tail started flicking back and forth, so he took that as a sign and left her alone. On his way to the stairs, he stretched his arms and his lower back, and fully woke up. He had a few important things to get done: cure Jones, resummon the phantoms, and research factions. Then, he could focus on progression for himself and the development of the settlement as a whole.

He ignored the mostly empty kitchen and unused dining floor, skipping down the steps to the bottom of the lighthouse. As soon as he made it to the last step, into the living area, Sunny started bouncing on his front paws and shoving his wet nose against Coop. Apparently, the retriever was impatient for Coop to start his day.

“Alright, Sunny, let’s get going.” Coop scratched him behind his ears and patted his back while inspecting his aura as they exited the lighthouse.

[Dog (Level 53)]

[Herald of Dawn (Mind)]

[Adopted of the Pack]

[Bright, Blazing (Good Boy)]

It was an impressive showing from the newest resident treat seeker. Sunny gained as many levels as Coop or Charlie during the siege, though he had a much lower starting point. The retriever had done an excellent job and Coop made sure the dog knew it with affectionate pats.

The glorious tropical sun greeted them both as they stepped through the threshold and down the exterior steps. Coop took a deep breath, tasting the salt in the fresh air and stepped onto the fine white sand. The island was free of the ominous red tint and revealed itself to be a beautiful, but scarred, paradise under the radiant daylight.

The trail that led straight north, to the fort’s entrance, was completely gone. It had been trampled by hundreds of thousands of monsters to the point that it couldn’t be distinguished from the beach sand and flattened dunes. Craters pockmarked the island. The southern end of the island was at least mostly spared from the consequences of direct battle. It lacked the craters and gouges they would find inside and around the fort, but even it had massive indentations and deep holes from the Prime Construct’s attacks and general bulk.

Thankfully, the lighthouse hadn’t been the focus of any of the invaders. He glanced up at the light to see if he could spot the spectral relic, but in the light of day it was impossible to notice the subtle green glow, even when Coop knew it was there.

He did notice a gray cockatiel with a yellow head perched on the tip of the lighthouse, looking a bit like a weathervane. Coop was puzzled for a moment, since cockatiels weren’t a native resident to Ghost Reef. Maybe it was someone’s escaped pet. The small parrot flew off while Coop considered trying to capture it. Coop looked at Sunny, but the dog just stared back at him, tongue hanging from the side of his mouth, silently urging him to get going.

As he and Sunny started their leisurely stroll across the island, they watched as a blurred trail of mana smoke connected the idle Ancient Defenders one by one. The monsters still meandered along what were once dunes and were now a mess, retaking most of the previous battlefield for their spawn grounds. Each Defender along the entire route disappeared into mana smoke as they were smashed by a rushing attacker.

At the last Defender, Camila ceased her blitz and waved at Coop and Sunny before she jogged across the sand to meet them.

“Morning!” She greeted as she kneeled in front of Sunny and gave his cheeks a good scratch while she caught her breath. She dripped in sweat that she wiped away from her forehead with the back of her hand before she looked up at Coop. “Late start, huh?”

Coop shrugged and smiled, “I’m on vacation.” He claimed as his excuse.

“We all are.” Camila agreed as she stood up and pushed loose strands of hair that escaped her ponytail behind her ears. “But not all of us can relax. I need to catch up to Charlie. Then, you’re next.” She smiled as she challenged him, punctuated with a finger against his chest.

“It doesn’t sound like you have a healthy work life balance.” Coop joked. “Vacation is when you should be relaxing.”

She crossed her arms. “You’re just worried that I’ll catch up if you slack off too much.”

Coop sighed with false weariness. “Guess I better get back to the grind after all.” Of course he was going to do that anyway. “Don’t work too hard.” He warned her.

“You wish.” Camila waved him off and went to take a break. Coop inspected her aura, continuing to practice with Presence of Mind.

[Human (Level 67)]

[Interceptor (Agility)]

[Kinetic (Defiant)]

Camila was a full 10 levels behind Charlie now, but that only put her one or two levels outside of the top of the leaderboard. Coop hadn’t been able to see her affinity or any titles in the past, but he didn’t think his new technique was the reason he uncovered them now. It was just his Mind stat steadily increasing at a pace that exceeded her aura defense.

She took her breather in the shade of the lighthouse while she waited for her cooldowns to come back up, so Coop and Sunny left her to the grind and continued toward the fort. As they went, he noticed that Camila had actually wiped out every Defender in a narrow strip down the island in one burst of momentum. She wasn’t just waiting for her skills, but she had to wait for monsters on her track to respawn as well. Coop was a bit jealous at the efficiency, remembering how small his circuits had been when he optimized his own grind. He’d put money on Camila being the next person to get a Slayer title based on her current strategy, assuming she didn’t move on before she was done.

While Coop and Sunny strolled along the beach, the impact of the previous weeks of fighting became increasingly obvious. The damage to the island was glaring, but Coop had some ideas for what they could do to fix it up. He’d speak to Caisalya about expanding her gardening outside of the fort, and he’d pitch in with some of his own efforts in restoring the island.

He and Sunny had to step around some fallen palm trees that were scorched and half buried in sand before they approached the previous location of the crossroads in front of the fort. A group of pirates were hauling usable trees to help repair the newer sections of the dock and Coop made a quick detour to help them out with their burdens.

At the dock, Charon greeted Coop with a nod as the Champion hauled a pair of downed palm trees, one on each shoulder, to one of the piers. They were heavy enough to force Coop into putting some effort into moving them, but he was carrying more than what two dozen pirates had been struggling to transport.

Around the reef, phantom pirates were recovering damaged sailboats, intent on restoring as many as they could. After the siege, only The Eye of the Storm and Windchaser endured, the former thanks to the trap and sacrifice of The Fearless, and the latter due to lingering near the shard to the very end. Their efforts of mapping the region would be on hold for the time being while the settlement healed.

Coop exchanged a few words with the various pirates as they worked to restore the sea wall.

“You guys alright?” Coop asked.

“All good, boss.” They gave him an easy response. When it came to morale, the pirates didn’t seem particularly impacted by the events that had taken place. He thought it was a testament to the challenging lives they had lived in the past and their dedication to Ghost Reef.

When Coop headed back to the trail, Charon walked with him for a moment.

“Champion…” Charon spoke to Coop’s genuine surprise. He’d assumed the man was mute, like Sharkbait, and that Kayla had a pattern going with her captains where she leveraged her charisma while doing all the talking, but here was one of her captains speaking on his own. The man spoke with a clear deep voice that jolted Coop to attention. He stopped and gave the previously silent man a chance to speak his mind.

“A captain without his ship is a wretched man…”

When Charon didn’t continue, letting his words linger in the breeze, Coop responded in an attempt to console the strange captain. “I don’t know if we would have succeeded without everyone’s contributions, and you did more than most. We’ll get you another ship, don’t worry about that. If the system delivers, it might even be the exact same one.”

“Thank you…” Charon nodded and returned to his silence. It seemed like the quiet captain just wanted reassurance that his place in the settlement would be restored. Charon headed back to the dock with a nod and Coop inspected the pirate captain before he was out of range.

[Spectral Human (Level 75)]

[Charon’s Gaze (Intelligence)]

[Phantom of Ghost Reef]

[Collector]

Like all the other phantoms, he was at level 75. They were capped by the level of the settlement, and Coop wouldn’t be able to upgrade Ghost Reef for two more weeks. It was a quirk of the phantoms’ existence, having their progress intertwined with the settlement and its Champion.

Still, 75 was extremely high. Every phantom would be tied for third place if they were on the regular human leaderboards, and they would have an opportunity to explore other avenues of progressions while they were at the cap. For one, he knew many of them had already been working on professions during their downtime even before the siege.

Coop returned to the crossroad with its tattered copse of trees. A few of the hardier palms actually survived, though they were scarred, charred, or bent, and all completely lacked palm fronds. The leaves had gone with the shrubs and grasses around the trunks of the trees, reduced to ashes and blown away in the wind.

In the slim shade of the trunks, Shane and Arthur stood while the rest of their party kneeled around Sunny, the star of the show, as he received all of the pets. The Dragon Knight was vigorously scratching his ears while he squeezed his eyes shut and enjoyed the attention.

Coop approached the party and addressed Shane, “What’s the occasion?”

“We were heading to the mana well. Arthur thought it was a good time to assess the monsters, before anyone else had the idea to head inside without a proper briefing.” Shane explained.

Admittedly, Coop was someone that had the idea to head inside sooner than later. Instead, he agreed that it was a good idea to get some preliminary information first.

“We’ll stick to the highest levels, where the monsters should be the weakest.” Arthur elaborated. “According to the information we found in the library, the aliens refer to this type of well as a ‘plunge,’ a well where the core is sinking, meaning the densest mana should be at the bottom and monsters will be stratified accordingly.” Arthur gave an uncharacteristic gesture to show that he wasn’t entirely sure. “Given the revelations from the Lady Avatar, we can’t entirely rely on the factions for information.” The man was obviously working on his own understanding, much like Coop.

Coop offered the theory he was still articulating in the morning. “I bet by mana density, they really mean something like compatibility. The mana that’s already present being more… let’s say ‘cooperative’ with different affinities.”

Shane just shook his head as Coop tried to make sense of things. “It’s all just magic to me.”

Coop couldn’t help but agree with him. He might just be confusing himself by trying to understand mana better, but he wasn’t really in a rush to decipher everything.

Arthur seemed to ponder Coop’s thoughts before he spoke again. “You’re assuming all mana is bound to matter, but why couldn’t there be free mana as well? It would be easier to understand concentrations of mana if it was referring to the free, pure mana that supposedly flows through the ley lines. Affinities might work as you said, but on already bound mana.”

“Ah…” Coop scratched the back of his head.  “That would make more sense wouldn’t it?” Coop admitted. “I think that would also explain the mana smoke from defeated enemies better. Like it’s mana being unbound or something.”

Arthur nodded. “The factions might have their own limitations, but they have had a lot of time. There’s certainly nuggets of truth buried within their explanations.” Coop accepted the wisdom of the future advisor. Coop had no reason to claim infallibility.

They changed the subject to the settlement itself, relaying a report from Marcus. The fort wasn’t in great shape, physically, but the residents were feeling combinations of relief, motivation, and hope. Arthur believed it was only a matter of time before they started pushing themselves to prepare for the next challenge. The siege event had been massively rewarding in terms of levels, and it was possible overconfidence could lead to dangerous situations, which is how they ended up prioritizing the mana well. In the meantime, the motivated residents could be integral for repairing the damage, which is what Marcus was concentrating on.

Coop ended up breaking up the puppy petting party so they could get on with their task. He and Sunny watched them go from the limited shade under the trees and Coop used Presence of Mind to inspect the entire party.

[Human (Level 66)]

[Vitality Channeler (Acumen)]

[Dynamism]

[Human (Level 65)]

[Bloodseeker (Agility)]

[Human (Level 61)]

[Dragon Knight (Body)]

[Ancient (Defiant)]

[Human (Level 57)]

[Tomb Blade (Strength)]

[(Defiant)]

[Human (Level 59)]

[Illusionist (Mind)]

[Light (Defiant)]

Coop was convinced that even the residents of Ghost Reef were beyond the curve of expected levels. Everyone had gained more than 30 levels in the last three weeks. More than a level a day was a pace that would have easily put them on the top of the leaderboards during the first month of the assimilation, when leveling was meant to be faster. Even now, it was impressive enough to push them all into the upper echelon of power among humans. If the settlement’s population wasn’t so low, the security of the settlement would be unquestionable.

Coop and Sunny headed across the moat, using a newer sand and rock bridge that had formed some time during the last two waves. Sunny’s ears perked up as the sounds of mournful weeping traveled on the breeze. They walked around the precariously leaning iron gate and found Marcus doing his best to console Balor as the stonemason sat on the ground and wailed in agony.

Balor didn’t even look up when Coop arrived, holding his face with both hands where he seemed to have collapsed next to a pile of stones that represented the entrance to the mess hall. The rubble contained the remains of the dining room where Jones started all of his infamous guided tours. It really was a shame, but the damage wasn’t a total loss.

Marcus seemed out of ideas for dealing with the miserable display, so Coop went straight to his first alien friend and tried to calm him down, kneeling next to him and patting him on his broad shoulder. “Balor, don’t worry man, we’ll get things fixed up.”

Balor finally looked up and stared at Coop with red rimmed eyes. “How?! I lack the skill to recreate the physical handiwork and I don’t have the ability to reconstruct such bricks. Any of my reconstructions will be completely different, relying on mana to exist, they will be scars on a magnificent work.” Balor’s respect for the fort came from the fact that it was an enduring construction made completely without the aid of mana, something unheard of in the broader universe. Now that Earth had mana, he obviously thought such projects would be relegated to history.

“You can just use your expertise to supervise while someone else makes the bricks. I think it’s more about the manual labor at this point anyway, right Marcus?” Coop glanced back up at his advisor.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say, we actually have multiple brickmakers among the phantoms who can lend their experience. A few of them are even from the same period that the fort was originally built, so we can make the repairs authentic.”

“Maybe we can make some upgrades?” Coop offered, seeing an opportunity to improve the fort with modern innovation, but Marcus was frantically gesturing to cut him off, waving his fingers across his neck back and forth.

It was too late, Balor returned to his despair at losing so much of the fort, and imagining the impossibility of perfectly recreating it just made it worse. He only calmed down once Sunny interfered, licking the stonemason until Balor realized who he was being consoled by.

“We’ve been planning on building some stuff ourselves, Balor, you should help out once we get started. I think you’ll enjoy it.” Coop offered before he turned to his first advisor. It would at least show the stonemason that they weren’t completely abandoning human innovation in favor of mana. “When are we getting started?”

“Today we’ll be starting on the cafe you suggested followed by the mana experimentation barn.” Marcus explained. Coop thought things were moving fast. He really expected everyone to be exhausted after the siege, but they were starting right away.

“Sounds good.” Coop approved. “I’m gonna see about getting the Merciful Medical Center. Do you need any credits?”

“I’ve already replaced the lost Fletcher and Bowyer. We are low on funds, since commerce was on hold, but I think we should be fine.” Marcus shared his evaluation. “I’ll keep on top of developing the settlement, you just do what you need to.”

“You got it.” Coop readily agreed. It was the beauty of delegation, though he couldn’t completely deny the urge to be involved.

Coop made to leave, but Sunny seemed concerned about the stonemason and wanted to stay, so Coop patted them both a few times to say goodbye and headed down the main street. Marcus went to organize the crew for their first construction project shortly afterwards.

The civilization shard waited in the surprisingly undamaged town circle, still protected by Balor’s low earthen barriers, erected before the first wave. Coop walked past the barriers and placed his hand on the shard to access the menus and a white beam of light shot into the sky. It exploded into sparkling fireworks that crackled in the air, drawing the attention of everyone around the fort as they stopped whatever they were doing to gawk at the unexpected festivities.

Coop was so excited about finally getting fireworks, he didn’t even care what it was for and gaped like a child. A system message announced the reason anyway, issuing a global message to everyone on the planet.

[Settlement Event: Siege - Complete]

[Temporary Leaderboards Finalized]

[Settlement Winner - Ghost Reef]

[Score - !Overflow Error! Output Exceeds Limit 15eF]

[Individual Winner - Coop]

[Score - 2,001,081]

[Rewards - Distributed]