Imri set out for the cave first thing after breakfast. Their group, which consisted of almost a dozen people interested in spelunking, was led by a now-recovered Sylvi. One day wouldn't be sufficient time to reach and explore the cave properly, so it would be a two-day expedition. Sylvi was easily able to recall and lead them to the entrance to the cave system. They arrived near midday and proceeded to set up safety lines and conduct equipment checks. Imri used the opportunity to craft a quick light enhancement on a ring, just on the off chance that their more conventional lighting failed.
The entrance was massive, more than 5 meters in height and width, quickly sloping down. As they traveled further in, the sound of running water could be heard, along with moisture in the air, allowing several fungi and mosses to grow, which were promptly harvested as samples to be studied. They moved slower as footing became precarious and the tunnel narrowed. It continued to narrow while increasing in pitch. They passed several branching passages that were either more narrow or more steep than the route they took. Still, they would have been likely to get lost and never find the way back, were it not for the guidewire they trailed behind them and chalk marks placed in dry locations for redundancy and future expeditions. As the passages became increasingly hard to traverse, Imri was beginning to question if they would keep venturing much further. However, their persistence paid off when a small passage opened into a massive cavern.
The cavern was nearly 20 meters high and continued forward for more than double that distance. Unfortunately, the walkable area was far smaller, with the ground on the right side of the cave sliding down at an angle too steep to walk down. The source of the running water also became apparent, as a natural chute created from the water eroding the rock cut across the cavern and down the steep incline. As their light swept across, natural glimmers reflected, as natural crystal formations were scattered throughout.
Sylvi motioned for them to stop, having already warned them that the expedition would stop the moment anything dangerous was encountered. With the ledge not entirely flat, even at some of the safer points it angled down slightly, if anyone lost their footing and started sliding they would slide off the edge before anything would arrest their momentum. Sylvi didn’t follow her own advice, moving out onto the ledge and confidently striding towards one of the more accessible crystals. While it was a thin piece, something Imri had expected Sylvi to snap off with ease, the crystal was not so brittle, requiring Sylvi to hack at it with a pickaxe. When she finally managed to free it, she returned with the sample and showed it to their amateur geologist who had gained a profession focused on mineral extraction and prospecting. The geologist spent several moments carefully inspecting it under the light, but eventually shook his head. Imri wasted no time identifying the item with his skill.
Item
Tier/Rank
Quality
Description
Espeonite
2F
Unknown
An uncut crystal capable of holding vast amounts of mana.
It was the first time Imri’s Identify skill had failed to return an exact quality of something he had inspected. This alone told him that the Espeonite crystal was an incredibly potent mana-storing material, something exceeding pre-integration precious stones. The fact that he couldn't identify the quality also explained the more vague description.
When Imri explained that this small sample was likely worth more than a small mountain of diamonds, Sylvi had to practically restrain some of the more over-eager members of their expedition. She eventually relented to allow several more extractions of the precious stones, but only after she secured a piton into the wall. It took a while for them to pass Sylvi’s rigorous instructions as she drilled them on properly using the climbing safety equipment. Imri was beginning to think it would have been easier for her to clear out the entire cavern than for them to meet her standard. Finally, she proclaimed they were proficient enough that it was less likely they would fall to their deaths.
They spent over an hour prospecting the cave, producing a small backpack full of the precious crystals. There were still more to be claimed, but most of the more accessible items had been extracted. With this accomplished, they called it a successful day, backtracking to the entrance using the guide wire. It took nearly as long returning, as the wet incline up proved every bit as difficult to manage as the descent.
When they returned to the nexus the following day, one of the first things that was checked was the sale price of the various materials they had collected. They were shocked to discover the Espeonite crystal sold for a staggering amount. Even the smallest of the crystals sold for several thousand credits, while the largest could sell for almost ten thousand credits. Christoph was practically salivating at the wealth contained in the small pack. He had a skill that gave him slightly more favorable prices when dealing in the system store, and they had agreed Christoph would handle all transactions. Christoph would pass on a portion of his discount to everyone who brought him items to buy or sell, while he pocketed the rest.
Imri reluctantly agreed that most of the crystal should be sold. While he could see many potential uses for such large mana storage in the future, there weren’t many immediate uses. The proceeds were split evenly among every member of the expedition, excluding Imri who took the smallest crystal for his own use. Imri also claimed the largest crystal for the settlement, and he intended to use it as a communal mana storage device. The idea was that everyone who didn’t have a use for their mana could practice mana control by infusing their mana into the crystal. Then, if there was ever an emergency need for mana, like when Zhaire had been injured, they wouldn’t need to scrounge up jewelry and ask for help. Instead, someone would simply need to bring the crystal to whomever needed it. Everyone was satisfied with the arrangements, and the first large capital injection was added to their settlement.
After the excitement of spelunking had worn off, Imri found himself mired in reports on the status of the settlement. While there had been no additional casualties during the journey, the delay in arriving meant they were dangerously low on supplies, especially food. Although they had managed to find several different natural food sources, mainly berries and an apple-like fruit, it wouldn’t be enough to sustain their current population, never mind if they somehow managed to attract more people. He had a pair of people, a farmer, and a biologist, working on a more permanent agricultural solution, but that wouldn’t solve their immediate need. Instead, they would need a way to go to humanity's hunter-gatherer roots, specifically their hunter aspect.
There were several options for a hunting party, though all of them involved traveling back to the SeaGrass Plains. The Starseekers were fast, tough, and traveled in herds, making them a poor choice. The Umbral Tigers were an option, but their lithe sinewy bodies had little meat on them, relative to how hard they were to track down and fight. However, neither humans nor Starseekers appeared to be the tiger's main prey. The big cats would need something more substantial to hunt, something that had somehow eluded human notice until recently.
A sentry had spotted the mysterious creature from a vantage point near the base of the mountain. It essentially looked like a giant porcupine, with numerous thin shards that could easily be mistaken for sea grass from a distance, with the body of something that more closely resembled a large hog. While this creature was likely the antithesis of a soft target, the prize would likely feed the entire camp for weeks.
A less pressing issue was naming the settlement, though the fervor with which this was discussed seemed to indicate it was higher on everyone else's metaphorical list. Imri frowned as more and more names relating to stars were suggested, despite Imri repeatedly pointing out that mana storms were not shooting stars. Ultimately, he let the settlement democratically pick the name, though he would veto the results if Starry-McStar-Face won. Fortunately, only a few people voted for that atrocious name.
In an overwhelming majority, the name Celestia was selected. It was selected after hearing the story of the woman who lost her daughter, Celeste, at the beginning of the integration. Seeing the mana storm had reminded her of the Celestial and her daughter. It also fit with the motif of the mountains extending to the heavens, and it was unanimously decided that the tallest of the mountains that towered over the plateau would be named Mount Celestia, with the peak named Celeste’s Rest.
As Celestia became a proper settlement, Imri delegated as much as possible. His first order of business was creating a city council, consisting of three people with experience running businesses, and Emelia was overjoyed not to be involved. He left most of the responsibility for running the settlement to the council, including establishing a fiscal policy to help grow their economy. Their first official act was establishing a separate 2.5% sales tax that went back to the city instead of the system, something the system was able to implement at the point of purchase. Meaning there was now an automatic 5% markup on every transaction. It still was less than most sales taxes before the integration, so there were only moderate grumblings upon hearing of the policy.
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The council also passed a law requiring written permission to extract water from the healing spring when it was discovered that a few enterprising individuals had filled their water bottles with the precious liquid, only to then sell it to the system for several thousand credits, despite its diminished effect upon leaving the spring. Caroline had also taken a few bottles of the water to make her elixir and a few more potent healing potions. While neither use had been wasteful, and it was something Imri was open to allowing in moderation, it would do none of them any good if the spring was completely emptied of its potent water.
The settlers of Celestia quickly formed into four groups, each consisting of a significant portion of their population. The first group was the gatherers. They were further divided into two groups, foragers, who spent their time picking fruits and herbs, and prospectors, who searched for mineral deposits such as the Espeonite they had discovered while spelunking. The prospectors were also tasked with finding suitable sites where stones could be quarried for building materials. Both gatherer groups functioned as exploration teams, ranging throughout the plateau and mapping it out.
The next group was the hunters, consisting of most of their most powerful fighters, including Sylvi and Zhaire, and experienced outdoorsmen. They spent a few days training and conditioning while the logistics for another expedition were planned out. They were also tasked as lookouts, rotating people who watched over the plains and trails that led up to the plateau.
The third and largest group was the laborers, consisting of miners who would extract the more common materials and the builders who would build the city. They also had a small contingent of foresters, who were responsible for supplying wood while maintaining the few groves that dotted the plateau.
The final and smallest group were the artisans, consisting of the crafters, like Imri and Caroline, and the supporters. They had a growing number of people picking up crafts that would have seemed outdated before the system, with a tanner, leatherworker, carpenter, bowyer, and blacksmith. The latter was taken up by Avery, who had since joined the ranks of those with both a class and profession. All of the craftsmen, except for Imri and Caroline, had yet to produce a finished product, but most seemed genuinely interested in their chosen craft. The support staff were the administrators, including the three city councilors, the merchant Christoph, and Russ the contract lawyer. Russ was intriguing, he was able to use his class to enforce the terms of a contract, with the help of the system. The greater the number of terms and the greater the consequences for breaking the contract, the greater the amount of mana he needed to infuse the contract with. Like almost every other semi-permanent effect, his contracts also required cores.
Within the first few days of enacting the laws and organizational structure, a good deal of items had been sold to the system via Christoph. This resulted in an immediate benefit through the taxes the system had been taking out, with Celestia leveling to a level 4 settlement.
Imri also focused on his personal growth, leaving the city in the council's hands. When he heard about the miraculous effect Caroline’s heritage elixir had, he inquired about having his own made. While she assured him she could make him something, he worried that it wouldn’t be so simple. He trusted Caroline enough that he divulged his unusual heritage to her, not wanting that to cause an issue with the elixir. She seemed to take the revelation in stride, similar to Emelia finding his strange abilities as just another peculiarity of the system and not something that made him an other. He supposed this shouldn’t be too surprising, given that Sylvi was now a self-proclaimed cat person, even though her heritage still clearly identified her as human. Caroline did admit she wasn’t sure how his heritage would affect the elixir. Imri also had an intuition that his natural heritage would be stronger than what Sylvi had gotten, and if a suitable monster wasn't found he would simply let his mysterious heritage rank up naturally.
Imri resumed the routine he had grown accustomed to before the journey. Starting the day off with exercise to improve his physical fitness, training with the hunting party who had yet to depart. He had quickly seen improvement in his fitness, though Zhaire suggested this was more likely from his hiking, with the gain to his base constitution coming after he had fully recuperated.
Base Constitution has increased from 98 to 99
After physical training, he moved into meditation to recover mana, though he varied from walking meditation to a more conventional meditation within the boundary of the nexus for its MP regeneration bonus. After that, he would craft his enchantments. He continued to invest his mana monotonously into the same enchantments, day after day. His personal growth had somewhat stagnated, completing the same enchantment in the same manner every night providing little in the way of experience. Still, he did eventually manage to push his profession to the next level.
Though he gained several hundred credits a night and managed to achieve another level in only several days, it didn’t feel like enough to Imri. He felt that his rune work had stagnated because his profession had caught up to his class. If he could learn and improve his spells, that would hopefully provide a spark of inspiration for his craft.
The first area of weakness that he wanted to shore up was his lack of offense. The only direct damage he ever dealt was with his spatial compression spell, and that had only been effective against stationary Ulfr Hounds. It certainly didn’t hold up against Azala or Chixel, let alone something more powerful like the Umbral Tiger.
He began contemplating his spatial concepts. His spatial compression and spatial expansion were aptly named, doing exactly what the name suggested they would. There were two fundamental forces, a push and a pull on space. His boundless step spell allowed him to fold space, bending it to connect two distant planes. If he could bend space, couldn’t he also tear it apart?
The idea gave him some trepidation, the very thought of destroying space itself seemed cosmic. For a brief moment, he feared that if he actually succeeded he would unleash a calamity upon this new world. He quickly shook his head, realizing that such a power would require an incredible amount of mana that he didn’t even come close to possessing. If destroying a small amount of space would do such a thing, then he wouldn’t be able to cast it, even if his conceptual thinking was correct.
He dismissed his fears and focused on shaping his mana to produce the effect. His first few attempts yielded no results. He continued to try, each time making the tear smaller and pouring mana into the spell. He was close to stopping, the amount of mana he was spending far exceeding the amount he wanted to spend in a day when he succeeded. A small tear in space appeared a black void of nothingness not much larger than a fingernail and razor-thin. As the spell ended a moment later, the air rippled and there was a shimmer effect as air and light rushed back into the space that reappeared.
Spell Learned Tier/Rank Description Spatial Tear 1F Create a tear in space relative to a frame reference. Nothing can exist where there is no space, and anything that comes into contact with the tear will cease to exist. Mana cost is determined by the size of the tear and the distance from the caster.
Quest Updated Progress Relativity Mage Rank Up E to D Learn new space or time spells 3/5, time or space spells Ranked Up: 4/5
Imri Padar has reached Level 14 in Relativity Mage (1E) Imri Padar has reached Level 14 in Primordial (1F) Imri Padar has reached Level 12 in Runic Engineer (2F) Primary Stats Gained +1 Agility 90 +2 Intelligence 159 +1 Willpower 139 +1 Charisma 95 Secondary Stats Gained +1 FP 94 +8 MP 257 +7 Mana Efficiency 264 +9 Crafting Efficiency 283
Imri smiled as he read his new spell, deciding to forgo his usual constraints on mana usage in favor of experimenting. It didn’t take him long to burn through the better part of his mana pool. The spell was incredibly taxing, even for tiny tears. As Imri tested it by throwing objects into the spatial tear, its primary function became clear. It certainly was a form of offense that he had been missing, and if anything was too extreme to be efficient. The tear was essentially a blade that could cut through anything because matter couldn’t exist within it. It also wasn’t solid, it wasn’t anything, so nothing could bounce off it or some such nonsense. It would simply destroy anything, no matter how much force the object had when it came into contact with the tear.
He also experimented with how the spell could be moved through space. By default he had defined the frame of reference to the planet, allowing the tear to appear fixed in the air. However, he quickly discovered he could send the tear hurtling towards his target. He did this by creating an imagined frame of reference, essentially he was pretending to hurl an imagined object forward, then defining the frame of reference to be said imaginary object. He found this easier to accomplish when he went through with a throwing motion, giving it the appearance that he was actually throwing the spatial tear.
He still only had a rudimentary grasp on the spell, when he reached a level of mana that gave him a headache. He rubbed his temples and gave up on spell casting for the day. He gulped down a mana potion and began another meditation.