November 3, 2022
Day 14
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Time to see if my gamble paid off.
That was the last thought Rahul had before his hands started to move in an arc. Then he heard a voice in his head.
MORE.
The voice was the same one that had broken him free of the albatross's mental attack, and so Rahul stopped his swing immediately. He hadn't yet poured his intent into the attack, so the incomplete arc that emanated from his pike immediately fizzled out.
Rahul looked at the ball rolling on his shoulder. Momentum was red hot and rotating impossibly fast, but wasn't burning Rahul's skin like last time. He considered the word his presence had whispered to him, and tried to guess what he was trying to tell him.
If I want to outdo my previous strike, do I need to do something more? Allocate more stat points?
Rahul tentatively asked himself, unsure if he would get a response, and was shocked as he felt an ambivalent emotion emerge from his presence.
He had sat with Ivan and talked with Immutability for a bit, and found out that while presences could think and process events around them, their communication was limited by their levels. Presences couldn't speak at level 1, but vague emotions and the occasional whispers were uncommon yet possible. Maybe it had to do with the large accumulation of intent or the fact that he had unlocked the intent point stat.
Regardless of the reason, Rahul tried to guess what the ambivalent response meant.
It'll help, but isn't what you are asking me to do?
This time, Rahul was ready for Momentum's emotions, and clearly felt agreement emanating from the presence. He immediately followed up on his question.
Should I accumulate more intent?
Stronger agreement.
Do I need to reach 5 intent points?
Longing and skepticism. Rahul kept prodding.
Okay, so 5 intent points would be great but are unattainable as of now. But reaching mid-4s should be possible?
Rahul finally felt relief from his presence. That was it.
Having finally understood what his presence was trying to say, Rahul grudgingly agreed to keep accumulating momentum for a bit longer.
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Thirty minutes, two stamina potions, and a level later, Rahul felt ready, but his presence protested.
MORE.
What, isn't this enough? How much more do you want?
MORE.
Rahul checked the time he had left before the tutorial ended, and impatiently agreed.
Alright, alright, but this better be worth it.
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Two more stamina potions and a level followed, and Rahul noticed that only 3 minutes were left on the countdown to the end of the tutorial. He did not know if the beasts would disappear after that, or stop attacking, and he didn't want to risk finding out. Rahul went through his last two level-up notifications.
You have advanced to level 19.
10/100000 experience to the next level.
Your strength has increased from 46 to 47. You have been awarded 5 free stat points.
You have advanced to level 20.
90/100000 experience to the next level.
Your strength has increased from 47 to 48. You have been awarded 5 free stat points.
Now at level 20, Rahul thought that he was as ready as he could be, but felt dissatisfaction emanate from his presence. He had an inkling of what the presence wanted.
We have only a few minutes left, Momentum. What else do you want? Should I invest further in my stats?
He received acknowledgment from Momentum.
Further telepathic conversation with his presence led Rahul to infer that he had been on the right track earlier when he had invested in endurance. But he hadn't gone far enough.
The way to go was apparently to put all his free points into the stat. By this point, Rahul felt like he was acting on the whims of a child, but time was running out, and he had to make a decision quickly.
This is going to screw up all the balance in my build, but if I can't trust my presence, who can I trust. What the hell, I'm already too invested in this attack, might as well go all the way. If nothing else, having monstrous endurance will allow me to keep fighting forever.
Rahul knew it was unlike himself to be so reckless, and if the insistence of his presence had been the only factor, he would have simply refused. But the logical part of his brain had told him to invest into endurance before his presence did, and he had already increased the stat by 15 based on his analysis of the skill.
It all added up. It felt like he was min-maxing an enhanced Kinetic Cleave, increasing the range with endurance, and fuelling that extended range with a truly vast reservoir of intent. Increasing his strength wasn't needed, since his cleave already did more than enough damage to kill low-level enemies, and he had the 10% boost from the title as well. And the other stats, well, they seemed irrelevant.
With just over a minute remaining before the tutorial ended, Rahul put his free points into endurance.
All 30 of them.
Then he looked at the opposite end of the island, where all seven of his teammates were fighting, as far away from him as possible. Daniel and others had joined up with Maya, Matt, and Charlie half an hour ago, and Rahul had told them about his plan and asked them to stay at a distance.
He looked at his stats one last time as he got his pike into position.
72 endurance. That has got to do it.
Character Overview Name Rahul Sharma Race Human (F) Class Melee Level 20 HP 220/220 MP 270/270 Stamina 662/720 Intent Points 4/7 Strength 48 (52.8) Endurance 72 Dexterity 27 Vitality 22 Intelligence 27 Presence
Name Momentum Level 1
Without any ceremony, Rahul once more held the pike in an outstretched hand and swung it in a large semicircle while pouring all his intent into the strike.
"KINETIC CLEAVE".
Rahul stood completely still as he watched the arc spread out and away from him, in a semicircle that covered just under half of the island. Nothing in its path impeded the arc, and all the whales, dolphins, and sharks, already bloody from fighting each other, were bisected in two.
Rahul didn't dare breathe, and the arc traveled on and on, not showing any signs of dissipating.
100 meters ...
200 meters ...
300 meters ...
400 meters ...
It kept going, reached the edge of the island, and then went on a bit further.
Then, all at once, the entire arc dissipated into nothing.
An avalanche of notifications rolled in, but Rahul only had eyes for one.
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You have earned a new title Name WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION III (EPIC) Condition Kill 5000 or more enemies in a single attack Effect
Your mass attacks will now become deadlier upon crossing certain destruction thresholds
Attack damage increased by 5% after killing 100 enemies
Attack damage increased by 10% after killing 500 enemies
Attack damage increased by 25% after killing 5000 enemies
5000!
Rahul had expected the next title to involve killing 1000 or maybe 2000 enemies in an attack, but 5000 was beyond his wildest guesses.
And yet, he had managed to get the title. He looked at his presence, now barely rolling, and telepathically spoke.
Thank you, buddy.
The response was a feeling of pure satisfaction, a full belly after a hearty meal.
As Rahul looked around and saw half the island devoid of any living beasts, and the two level-up notifications that resulted from it, he reflected that satisfaction and contentment right back at momentum.
Me too buddy, me too.
Rahul looked back, toward his friends on the other side of the island. He couldn't quite see the expressions on their faces at such a distance, but it wasn't hard to imagine them standing with their jaws dropped and mouths open in disbelief.
That's when the tutorial ended.
Rahul saw the notification, skimmed over it, and then ran to the other side of the island, chasing the fleeing beasts with pike in hand.
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Half an hour later, the entire team was assembled in the castle. They had cleaned themselves up in the lake in the middle of the island, and put on fresh clothes. After the events of today and yesterday, Rahul wasn't the only one who was adorned in tatters.
The group ate heartily, congratulated Rahul and good-naturedly accommodated his gloating, until Daniel projected the notification.
System Message
The tutorial has ended.
Any beast bastion that lay within the territory of a human settlement and hasn't managed to obliterate the humans will itself be obliterated. The beasts that were part of the bastion will no longer be compelled to fight the humans, but will have to fend for themselves, without the food, the resources, and the gradual drip of experience that the bastion provided.
Tutorial statistics are now available to all humans and active stewards.
The world congress will commence in 10 minutes. All settlements that have purchased World Congress Token(s) will be prompted to select individuals to send to the Congress. The selected individuals, the delegates, will need to give their consent, and all the consenting delegates will be teleported to the event. The system is responsible for ensuring no harm comes to the delegates for the duration of the Congress.
As the system message had stated, the sharks, whales, dolphins, and ducks invading Laysan Island had all lost the compulsion to attack and started to flee the instant the tutorial ended. The melee fighters had chased the fishes and mammals, while the archers and mages shot at the birds.
As far as the world congress was concerned, the system message said nothing new, except the part about the system ensuring the participant's safety. A detail that was irrelevant to the residents of Laysan Bastion, the only 8 humans on Earth barred from participating in the congress.
Now, to the second part. The group had decided not to look at the tutorial statistics as they were all wary of the death toll of the tutorial and the effect it'd have on their appetites.
Once they finished their lunch, they opened the stats.
Tutorial Stats Human Bastions Spawned 25 million Human Bastions Occupied 24.996 million Human Bastions Remaining 22.6 million Beast Bastions Spawned 700 million Beast Bastions Spawned Within Human Settlements 389 million Beast Bastions Remaining Total 103 million Beast Bastions Remaining Within Former Human Settlements 131,094 Initial Human Population 8 billion Current Human Population 3.8 billion Highest human level 47 Median level among human adults 14 Percentage of human adults with classes 91.67% Percentage of human adults with class specialization 1.3%
One in every two humans was dead.
Maya burst into tears and started crying inconsolably before anyone could even exclaim about the absurdity of the numbers.
More than 4 billion casualties already.
The tears and the despair started with Maya, but before long, spread to every one of them. They were all software engineers, but one didn't need to be an engineer to know what the 50-50 odds meant.
If one in every two humans was dead, then the probability that not one of them had lost even a single person they cared about was astronomically small. The disaster that had wiped out 95% of their settlement had filled their hearts with dread, but every one of them had held out hope that the situation in the civilized world would be a far cry from that on a remote island with a lying treacherous representative.
Hadn't Martin told them that the tutorial would be a cakewalk because of all the advantages stacked in favor of humans? The potions, the sentries, and the castles were genuinely overpowered, and out of 100 million beast bastions within human settlements, about 0.1% remained, while 90% of human bastions were intact. What had killed half the humans then?
Such were the thoughts, questions, and denials that raced through each individual's mind, as they wondered whether surviving all that they had been through was even worth it. What use would it be to get out of this island alive if they came back to an empty home, without their parents, their children, their family, and their loved ones?
Worries gnawed at every individual's mind, and one by one, they all broke down and went through the various stages of grief.
All except Ivan.
He cried for his friends, for what they must be going through, but his mind wasn't plagued by the terrible pain of not knowing whether the people he loved and cared about were still alive.
His family had long been dead, and the few people he really cared about in this world were right in front of him.
So, Ivan gave them time and space to grieve, a terrible grief where one didn't even know whether the person they mourned was dead. Tears of empathy kept streaming down his face as he saw the people most precious to him in anguish, but his mind was clear.
Rahul had talked to him about his misgivings regarding the congress, about the foreboding he felt, and Ivan had relayed the same to Daniel and the others. Everyone had agreed, nothing good could come out of this event as far as the Laysan Settlement was concerned. Martin had undoubtedly downplayed the implications of the Congress.
His friends could mourn, should mourn even, but Ivan had a job to do.
As of the moment, he couldn't train, but he could go through and process the tonne of information he had gained access to, and plan the settlement's defenses.
He was the representative after all.