Chapter 193: Placid Lake (Patreon)

Mr. Gibson had gone by his last name exclusively ever since entering college as a 17 year old kid. Like so many other young people, when he had the chance to reinvent himself after leaving home to attend a university, he took it, shedding the first name that had defined his youth. College was a good time. He had many fond memories and he made valuable connections that led him on a fortunate journey to an extremely early retirement.

Mr. Gibson was responsible for one of the earliest matchmaking algorithms used on the first dating websites. He liked to keep the details of his success a bit mysterious, letting his neighbors believe he had made his money in the stock market as a pioneer in programming, but the truth was he had figured out a way to let computers aid in dating. The ultimate irony was that he had been single his entire life.

Reflecting on his past, he was still happy with his choices. In fact, he secretly believed that his financial success had been set into motion by the simple adjustment to the way people addressed him. It was the first step in being taken seriously enough to pitch his ideas, receive approval, and build his fortune. There weren’t many who were able to retire in their thirties, but he had been one of them. He didn’t really need people to call him Mr. Gibson anymore. Just Gibson was fine.

There was just one problem in his life. Gibson had no hobbies. He secured his fortune, purchasing a modest home in the suburbs that disguised his wealth and he ended up being heavily involved in the neighborhood with nothing else to do. Obviously, he got on some peoples’ nerves, having the free time to keep track of neighborhood business, but for the most part he provided a friendly service to the families that settled in. He was still too young to be retired, but it had been two and a half decades of idle melancholy and petty drama.

“Light’s Vengeance!” Gibson proclaimed under his breath, keeping his incantation to himself, though he smirked with barely suppressed excitement as he felt the enigmatic power flow through him. He gripped his shining sword, celestial blue light leaking between his armored fingers as he flipped the blade so that it pointed straight down, and used both hands to stab it into the ground.

This was what he had been missing from his retired life.

Mud splattered on his face as argent blades erupted from the ground in a cascade beneath his opponent, emanating from his position and moving outward. The light blades shone with magical illumination like some kind of dangerous physical holograms. The normal ant-like Primal Construct was annihilated by his well-practiced skill. Blue and white blades, five times larger than his actual weapon, severed the monster into three segments, destroying it with clean cuts that expanded upwards. Tiny motes of energy leaked from the sharp tips after they were thrust upwards, momentarily standing in the mud like monuments to his victim before disappearing with subtle flashes. He caught himself fully smiling as he checked on his party members.

Eight other Primal Constructs were in various stages of defeat, evaporating into mana smoke or otherwise crippled to the point of no longer being a threat before being finished off. His party had accumulated an extraordinary amount of experience since officially forming upon arriving in Ghost Reef, and it especially paid off when they were ambushed like this. Coop had grown far beyond regular monsters, though he never shied away from fighting them, and Gibson’s group was among those who trailed behind, following in his footsteps.

As verdant whips tore the last Construct to pieces, pulling in opposite directions with such force that the monster’s metal limbs popped, he turned back to the 15 residents of Empress City. They were accompanying his party on this leg of their mission to secure the ground route up the Florida peninsula. The former rebels had taken up a defensive stance, sort of huddling against each other, facing outwards, covering the backs of the Ghost Reef squad, and ended up spectating the entire fight once again. They missed out on the free quest progress with their caution. It was the third ambush in an hour. The monsters came so frequently, they weren’t even surprising anymore.

“You guys are gonna need to get used to this!” He called to them, but the soldiers weren’t in any hurry. Most of them were a bit too underleveled to face the foes his group kept digging up, but now was the best time to sneak a few levels in, with the protection of their elites.

“Give them some time, Mr. Gibson.” Captain Javier, the Flame Knight ambassador from Empress City, and military leader, urged. “They’re on the first day of their rotation.”

“I told you, just Gibson is fine.” He gestured to the still huddling lower leveled fighters. “They need to seize the opportunity when it presents itself.”

“The sooner the better. We can’t protect them forever.” Bryan, the Secutor and scuffed tower shield wielding companion of Javi added, yanking the bottom of his shield out of the mud, revealing the mandible shaped jaws of another Primal Construct mashed into the ground.

Gibson was mostly excited to bring the news to Coop that there were at least two more variants of Primal Constructs available to grind. He ignored the Empress City elites as they advised their troops and pressed on. They had been at it for nearly three weeks, and though their progress could be better, it was steady.

“He’s gonna be so happy.” He chuckled to himself, leading the way forward after the last of the Constructs was completely gone. He wondered if they would find more variants before hitting Neptune’s Bridge.

“The Champion?” One of his party members asked, a half smile already forming on her face. She was a slender lady with a hawk-like face and long limbs, but she was also the strongest of the group. Crushing Palm was her class and it was entirely focused on Strength. She was the only one among them that didn’t equip any Ghost Reef crafted weapon, with her hands providing the firepower necessary to end fights, but she required support to survive. Gibson knew her when she was still a stay at home mom.

“Most definitely.” His party’s supporter and former dentist confirmed with his own smile at the thought. “The kid will be champing at the bit to get two more Slayer titles.” He was shaking his head at the thought. Even if Coop was the strongest person on the planet, to many of the residents of Ghost Reef, he was like the quiet kid brother with interests that everyone wanted to encourage. “We still have a long way to go, though.”

Gibson nodded at the observation. They weren’t even halfway to the Orlando settlement. The natural environment was proving to be a challenge, with the mana-empowered Everglades thoroughly reclaiming most of the interior land. They had tried to follow a highway north, but it was abruptly cut off by swamp, forcing them to pick their paths carefully. Luckily, Champion Jackson Hobbs had provided them with the full support of his army, giving the troops something to do other than rotate around their city and hunt the local monsters. Instead, they were already patrolling back and forth, maintaining an open path as Gibson’s party cleared further ahead.

Empress City was taking on the arduous goal of constructing a permanent path through the wilds with manual effort alone. The settlement was primed for construction projects while being constantly limited by mana, so they harnessed their productive energy into the overland connection.

The terrain was not conducive to their efforts. It varied from slow flowing rivers, wide enough to stretch beyond the horizon, but shallow enough to sustain healthy populations of saw grass and cattails, to deeper stretches of lake, dotted with enormous cypress trees with root networks that would have been large enough to provide the foundation for entire towns, and canopies that extended hundreds of feet in the air. They crossed snaking prairies that wound their way through wetlands with bright colors of blooming Muhly grasses billowing in the breezes, and thick pine forests with trees so tall they seemed like they would snap at the slightest jostling.

The road, as it were, would take the form of a wide boardwalk using a variety of living wood generated from system services in the City. Gibson’s party were merely scouting the route, pioneering a trail, and giving the go ahead for sections that seemed suitable for the project. They had established a single outpost near the beginning, but the territory provided by the initial placement of a mana pylon was so insignificant it led them to decide on holding off from establishing an uninterrupted lane of Ghost Reef territory. Instead, to start with, they would create small pockets of safety, like rest stops along a particularly dangerous highway.

They were making good progress, considering the conditions, but it was still taking them some time to cover the distance. If they weren’t attempting to secure the trail, they could cover the ground much faster, but merely reaching their destination wasn’t their goal, and they had already heard stories of dangerous monsters that would require a coordinated group like his to defeat. There had also been the threat of lingering Endless Empire Chosen, but after three weeks they had found none. Not even a single sign that any of them had survived in the wild for the short time since they fled Empress City. Gibson supposed the monster ambushes had been too much for them, but there were plenty of unknowns remaining in the land.

When he was Chosen by a relatively benign faction, the Allies of Genesis, he couldn’t help but feel excited. Finally, something truly thrilling was happening in his life. This was it, he had told himself, the excitement his life was lacking. Now, he shook his head at the naivety he had displayed. He thought he may have been on the right track, but it was the purpose provided by a settlement like Ghost Reef that he had been missing. He took a deep breath before exhaling with a satisfied smile. He was filled with love for his purpose, and enjoying the adventure.

The Allies of Genesis valued his involvement in the community and encouraged him to continue, even as things changed. Apparently, he had been assessed by the system in a way that painted him as a busybody. It was kind of accurate, if unflattering. He accepted the mission, becoming their Chosen, and found extra motivation to keep an eye on the neighborhood at the start of the assimilation. His daily walks turned into a proper patrol. He was joined by other brave souls, and with the help of Emmanuel, who had been holding down the neighborhood from day one, he gathered everyone that remained in their homes, waiting for loved ones. Together, they formed a plan to seek safety as a group.

When their plans started to fall apart, thanks to the influence of the Endless Empire, Charlie brought Coop home, and gave them a proper chance to avoid the local dominant faction and kick off on their own. Gibson felt like he was a pretty lucky guy when all was said and done. He went from securing a few pointless blocks around his neighborhood to securing an entire region with a noble purpose.

They continued north until the quietest member of their group, the Blackflare, stopped them. He pointed ahead and looked back. ‘What’s that?”

Gibson followed his finger and spotted a mound of sandy dirt, like an exaggerated termite’s mound, extending from a placid lake of water that they would have bypassed if not for the conspicuous monument. It was certainly suspicious, unnaturally formed in the otherwise natural environment. “Hmm.” He wondered about how to investigate.

They had been having an easy time with the monsters as even though the Constructs were high levels, they were, for the most part, unevolved. The times that they encountered elites, they rarely had to fight more than two at a time, and Gibson’s party could easily handle a dozen more thanks to training back home.

The elites they did find often arrived with a pack of the normal monsters, hiding in similar ambush positions, but with just one or two, his party was able to concentrate their firepower on the more dangerous foes. As a consequence of their sustained success, his entire group was pushing the top 100 on the leaderboards. Three weeks of constant grinding with the quests to match had been good to them, and even earlier, on Ghost Reef, they had been making progress in the underground.

The monsters in the Everglades were clearly contending with the local wildlife, and not always successfully. If it wasn’t for the birds and reptiles culling the Primal Constructs, he fully expected that the region would be full of high level elites. It wasn’t like the Endless Empire had taken responsibility for maintaining its backyard, and supposedly, the Sapphire Armada had only explored beyond its borders before the siege event even began. Unless there was another unseen faction fighting the monsters, he saw no reason for them to be as limited as they were. If there was another group, they lacked a civilization shard. He expected that would be a recipe for death.

“It buzzes.” The Blackflare observed of the mound with a scowl, though Gibson couldn’t hear it himself.

“We should check it out. Could be some kind of nest.” The Crushing Palm suggested.

“Of course.” Gibson confirmed. “Let’s see how deep that lake is.”

He feared that it would be too deep to wade across, forcing them to swim, which would make combat extraordinarily difficult. If it was that deep, he would prefer to target the mound from a distance, goading whatever had created it to them.

His fears weren’t realized. The lake was more like a donut shaped creek, with a deep outer edge that forced them to swim a small distance before they could wade up a gentle slope. By the time they were closer to the mound, the water wasn’t even ankle deep, consisting of wet mud and short pioneering grasses.

Gibson signaled for the Blackflare to knock on the door, disturbing the area with magic and triggering any potential ambushes. A black orb formed in front of his outstretched hand, slowly meandering forward until it was absorbed by the grainy sand. The detonation came like a deep thump, and only a few grains of loose sand tumbled down the edges of the unnatural hill.

A moment later, the few grains turned into a full cascade as the mound collapsed in on itself. He glanced at the Blackflare, who seemed just as surprised. He hadn’t put that much mana into his remote bomb. Something had been disturbed by their prodding attack, and it was coming out.

“Prepare yourselves.” Gibson ordered before he mumbled another incantation. “Together, we are the Argent Shield, let the Light shine from our bulwark.” Light shields manifested around each of his party members, slowly spinning around their torsos, while the Empress City residents took their places in the back.

Gibson’s Argent class was basically an offensive paladin or light themed knight, but he had made an important discovery some time while his party explored the dark tunnels beneath the fort back on Ghost Reef. He could essentially empower his skills by calling upon ‘The Light’ and it was especially potent against darkness. Of all the grind areas around Ghost Reef, the best one for him was within the tunnels underneath the fort.

It was moderately embarrassing, like playing a game of make-believe that he had grown out of long before he was called Gibson, but the results spoke for themselves. By embracing the theme of his class, he tapped into more power than just arbitrarily casting his skills and relying on the system to designate their effect. Coop had the mists, and he had the light, which he channeled through incantations.

When their opponent finally emerged from the mound, it was more than he expected. Rather than a few more elites than normal, they faced an enemy that greatly exceeded the preceding monsters. Gibson inspected it with his aura skill, Light from Shadow, already prepared to take the next step forward in his progression.

[Level - 114]

[Field Boss - Ancient Vanguard]

[Threat - ***]

[Posture - Invader]

[Faction - Primal Constructs]

[Standing - Hostile]

Elites registered as one star threats while regular monsters had none. Gibson had expected a Field Boss to have two stars, but the fact that they didn’t scale linearly wasn’t out of the question. He wished he had the skill back when they were in the presence of a Siege Boss or even that beautiful Avatar of the System that singled him out. He wondered how many stars they would have received.

The glance he received from his party asked the pressing question. Retreat? Gibson responded with another incantation, vocalizing it openly while holding his sword in front of him with both hands, flat edge reflecting one of his eyes as he spoke. “My enemies tremble before the Light of Justice!” The blade’s illumination expanded and he lifted his sword, pointed it at the monster, and a beam of searing blue energy shot forward.

The blast penetrated the armor of the creature with a clean cut, agitating the monster more than weakening it, but the opening strike triggered his party into tried and true habits. Verdant whips emerged from the mud at the monster’s flanks, grasping at limbs and wrapping themselves tight, with sharp thorns tearing into the metal hide for a better grip. Chaos orbs whirled in wide circles, as if they were being flung while connected to long strings, colliding with the exposed back of the monster with small implosions that belied the power hidden in the eldritch spells and left small sections of corrosion as metal rusted to dust.

Their opening salvo staggered the beast, but it wasn’t enough to bring them victory right away. The boss responded by bracing itself, then charging forward, dragging the green snares until they tore, with its long mandibles seeking to crush the intruders if they were caught in its grasp.

Gibson stepped into the charge, responding with an exaggerated overhand swing, speaking dramatic incantations as he moved. There wasn’t any compendium for the words he spoke, he was just making it up as he went, but the results had never been detrimental. It was almost as though he was generating his own code through trial and error, something his previous life had proven he had a talent for.

“...Argent Fury! Guide my Blade!” His words culminated in a shouted incantation.

When the charge met his sword, both combatants were thrown backwards. He landed among the Empress City soldiers, battered, but unbroken. He rose to his feet and rushed through the shallow water to rejoin his party. They hadn’t hesitated, following the monster in order to land their own empowered attacks while it was susceptible.

The Flame Knight, Secutor, and Blade Tyrant, all elites from Empress City joined the fray, and the fight devolved into a frantic melee, like they were primitive hunters, struggling to take down a mammoth. They held a significant advantage over their ancestors; they had dominion over mana.

After an hour-long struggle of back and forth fighting in the dry sand of the monster’s mound, the group of 23 all leveled at once. The 15 soldiers from Empress City had done their best to avoid directly interfering in the fight, fearing that even a single moment of inattention would lead to their demise, but they still contributed enough to get credit while the eight higher levels took down the Field Boss. They cheered as they found themselves victorious over an enemy that could have wiped out their entire city a month before.

Gibson’s party was all smiles as well. Defeating a Field Boss was an accomplishment that deserved a moment of pride, even for them. Their growth was Ghost Reef’s achievement.

After they settled down, Gibson drove his party northward, bolstered by their successes, but on the other edge of the placid lake, they ran into another complication. The Blackflare was the first to receive the quest, but the rest of them received it once they caught up with him, as if crossing an invisible barrier had triggered the system notice. Gibson silently read the quest, ‘Settle the Infestation (0/5000).’

“Hm?” He hummed as he read the notification. “We’ll stop here.” He decided once he was done. “This is something we should leave to the Champion.”

“You sure? If we were able to defeat the Field Boss, we could probably handle it, right?” The supporter suggested.

Gibson considered it for a moment, but stuck with his choice. “Isn’t it kind of odd that the Field Boss was right outside of the territory of this Infestation? Whatever is inside probably forced it out, or scared it enough that it dared not enter. We’ll leave it for Coop to decide how to investigate it.” He looked around and observed his party’s faces as they came to an agreement.

“How about we establish another outpost back where we fought the Field Boss. Seems like a good story for founding a place.” The Crushing Palm suggested, gathering support for her idea from the others right away.

“Let’s do that then.” Gibson agreed. “The first section of the connection between Empress City and Neptune's Bridge will have a clear start and end.” He smiled at the rest, satisfied with their work.