November 3, 2022
Day 14
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Ivan looked at the first of the two final notifications.
You have earned a new title Name METAPHYSICAL VANGUARD III (RARE) Condition
Be among the first 10 sapients on a newly integrated planet with a level 2 presence.
Effect
+5% to all presence skills.
+10% to all presence passive effects.
Ivan had received this title during his near-death experience after the alpha had bashed his head with its tail. It was preceded by a simple notification that told him that his presence had evolved from Inertia to Immutability.
When Ivan had first read the notification, he was confused by the passive effect part of the title. The bonus to skills was self-explanatory, but what were these passive effects?
With all the fighting and everything else that followed the evolution, Ivan never got around to pondering further on the issue. Now he found his answer in the second notification.
You have discovered a potential synergy Synergy Source Immutability (Ivan Antonov) Synergy Target Laysan Bastion (Laysan settlement) Synergy Establishment Conditions
1. Ivan is alive.
2. Ivan is the representative of Laysan Bastion.
3. Immutability is alive.
4. Immutability has not evolved.
Synergy Maintenance Conditions
1. Ivan is alive.
2. Ivan is a member of the Laysan Bastion council, or the representative of the Bastion.
3. Immutability is alive.
4. Immutability has not evolved into an incompatible presence.
Synergy Removal Conditions
1. Involuntary Removal - Failure to satisfy the synergy maintenance conditions.
2. Voluntary Removal - It has been at least 365 Earth days since synergy establishment, Ivan is the coordinator of the bastion and has requested synergy removal.
3. Voluntary Upgrade - It has been at least 7 Earth days since synergy establishment, Ivan is not the coordinator of the bastion, and the coordinator has requested re-synergization with a level 3 or higher compatible presence.
Synergy Effects Indeterminate Action
Would you Like to establish the synergy? YES NO
Ivan had seen this notification when he had been elected the Laysan Bastion representative, but he had ignored it in favor of more urgent matters.
Now that he read it carefully, Ivan realized that it was a lot of words that were in the end not saying much.
Ivan's presence Immutability could somehow synergize with Laysan Bastion, given Ivan and Immutability were alive and Ivan was the representative. Once the synergy was done, Ivan could cede the position back to Daniel so long as he stayed on the council. Finally, the synergy would end if Ivan or Immutability died, or if Immutability evolved into something very different. The team could voluntarily remove Ivan, or replace him in favor of a higher-level presence, but both actions had a cooldown period.
The problem with the notification was the lack of information about the synergy effects. Ivan was certain no one was getting a level 3 presence anytime soon, so the synergy would last 365 days at the very least.
Given that fact, Ivan needed to know what he was getting into before he committed to anything. He would discuss this with the team, and with Martin.
Ivan glanced up and noticed that his teammate's eyes were still moist, but they were no longer crying.
Deciding to give them a bit longer to grieve, Ivan opened the settlement details page and did a final tally.
Settlement Details
Settlement Name
Laysan
Settlement population
8/1000
Bastion
Laysan Bastion
Unique bastion bonus
Allows any humans within the domain of the colocated settlement to drink salt water without any adverse effects
Settlement bonuses
Expanded settlement domain III, Amphibious IV
Settlement domain highlights
Unnamed dungeon, unnamed inland hypersaline lake, unnamed cavern, unnamed coral reef formation
Other bastions within settlement domain
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
N/A
Leadership Bonus
N/A
Council Bonuses
N/A
Settlement points
42511
Buildings
Castle (Lvl 1), Dock (Lvl 1)
Terraforming projects
Unnamed cavern expansion (completed)
Active Settlement Quests
Conquer the Dungeon
The group had started the dungeon run with 4650 SPs, having spent their collected points on expanding the cavern and then buying supplies for the dungeon and setting up rudimentary defenses.
Not rudimentary.
Ivan corrected himself. Calling them that would be a disservice to the defenses.
The group of sentinels, the siege sentinels in particular, had wreaked havoc on the beast hordes and eliminated three of them before the group even exited the dungeon. The defensive shield that covered the castle had held the entire time - not a single enemy had managed to breach the castle's outer walls.
They had received a thousand settlement points today as part of their daily refresher, and 38,511 more from the bastion battles. Their only expense had been the 20 healing potions Ivan had purchased earlier for his injured friends and 33 more potions that Rahul and everyone else had requested while fighting the beast bastions.
At 50 a piece, the total expense had only been 1650 SPs.
All in all, the settlement now had 42,511 SPs, enough to purchase one of the more expensive defensive shields and replace their sentinels many times over. Ivan also looked at some of the buildings that could be placed in the bastion beyond the castle and the docks, then he browsed the ships that could be purchased in the latter.
Could come in handy in the worst case if they have to abandon the island. Ivan spent some more time looking at the various menus and purchase options but eventually admitted that he had little left to do.
It was time for the uncomfortable task of bringing his friends out of mourning.
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Ivan procrastinated for another hour before he gathered enough courage to speak up and prod the group to talk about the recent events and go through the notifications together.
They'd had a short discussion earlier while eating lunch, but most of it had involved congratulating Rahul for the spectacular attack and the two levels it got him, as well as his team's performance in the dungeon. The discussion this time was devoid of smiles, but went on nevertheless.
It was Daniel who was speaking.
"I had discussed this with Ivan, Alex, and Helena earlier when we were alone. They deserved to be the first to know since my decisions and ambitions almost cost them their lives in the dungeon. Now I confess to everyone else."
Daniel wore shame on his face as he summoned his presence, a translucent dragon that manifested in front of the group.
"When the alpha appeared for the first time in the dungeon, we all saw the missing level in the inspect prompts. We all knew he was strong, but in my reckless urge to level and progress, I proposed that we fight, not retreat. Ivan and Helena had disagreed, but I insisted and insisted until they back down, and that's when my presence appeared. Everyone, meet Greed. "
Those who had worked with Daniel for long weren't surprised. Helena had known Daniel for seven years, and Matt for nearly twenty. They both just nodded.
For all that Daniel was honest, kind, and ethical, he was ambitious and avaricious to a fault.
Considering the position he worked in, that wasn't a bad thing. Contrary to popular perception, you don't have to be ruthless, cunning, or opportunistic to climb the corporate ladder. Not in any decent company anyways. Not that those attributes wouldn't help, they would, but you could get by without them.
Ambition, on the other hand, was mandatory, as was the willingness to put in extra effort, voluntarily take on more responsibilities, and work extra hours.
While Matt, Helena, and other veterans of Daniel's team knew this about him, Rahul and Ivan both didn't. It had come as a shock to Ivan when Daniel had confessed to his dungeon team earlier, and now, it was Rahul's turn to see the person he idolized become a bit more human.
Rahul's crestfallen expression did not go unnoticed, and Daniel spent some time trying to explain himself, to apologize, but without making any excuses.
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While the eight humans talked, they forgot about the four other occupants of the room.
The four presences in the room were all young, infants in human terms.
Immutability, the eldest among them, was just over a day old. But he was now level 2 and saw the world with much more awareness than the other three. He heard the humans talk, and while he chose not to interfere in the conversation, he had opinions.
And one of those opinions was that his human and his seven friends were all stupid.
There were no good or bad presences. A presence could be strong or weak, rare or common, but never bad.
Immutability was a Chronomatic presence and accumulated time intent, one of the rarest forms of intent. Momentum in contrast amassed the most common form of intent - kinetic. Gratitude and Greed accumulated emotional intent, strong against sentient enemies but useless against physical obstacles. You could break a wall with Momentum or reinforce one with Immutability, but Gratitude and Greed couldn't affect a wall in any way.
Presences all had their unique nature, and Immutability did not like how apologetic Daniel was being about Greed. The eldest among the four presences knew that while the young Greed might not be listening to what was being said, he could perceive his owner's thoughts, and was hurting.
Immutability decided to talk to Ivan about this later.
Momentum had not evolved like Immutability, but he too had grown and was aware of what was happening. He too had emotions, feelings, and opinions on what was happening. The presence advocated whether or not to project the emotions to Rahul, but decided against it. If Rahul felt distaste emerge from his presence, he may misinterpret it.
Momentum's distaste was not for Greed, but for the humans that were seeing it as a negative presence and turning it into a pariah.
Gratitude was asleep, blissfully unaware of his surroundings.
Even among the four infants, Gratitude and Greed were newborns.
Greed did not understand too much of what was going on, but it could feel Daniel's emotions. It had no tears to shed, but if the humans looked, they would have noticed the emotions in the dragon's eye and identified it as heartbreak.
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Before long, the topic moved on from Daniel's new presence, and after having caught up on everything else, the group got to the issue of Synergy.
The discussion had been going on for a few minutes, and Maya was speaking now.
"From what I remember, Martin has implied that a presence reaching level 2 was equivalent to a human reaching E grade. They need to go hand in hand, as Immutability has demonstrated, but his Metaphysical Vanguard title made it clear enough that such rapid evolutions are very rare. It's safe to assume it'll be months before there is another level 2 presence among us, so there is little cost to taking a risk and establishing the synergy. We can just do it now."
She paused, then continued, her point not yet made.
"On the other hand, Martin had asked us to call him three hours after the congress ended, or eight hours after it started if no event end announcement was made. Either way, we will meet him soon, and there is no harm in waiting a few more hours. The synergy also seems like an instantaneous action, so if there is an emergency within the next few hours, you'll need only seconds to open the notification and choose yes."
That was a reasonable plan everyone was on board with, and after a bit of back and forth, the topic was settled.
Finally, Rahul spoke up.
"Guys, I think I re-exerted myself too soon after last night's trance. I didn't get sufficient sleep after that, and now I'm completely drained. Matt looks just as bad as I feel, and neither Maya nor Charlie has slept a wink in the last 36 hours. I doubt Ivan's Immutability skill counts as sleep either, so we all need to rest."
Only after Rahul had spoken the words did Daniel realize how tired he felt. He stifled a yawn and spoke.
"We can't leave the defenses to the sentinels completely. At least two of us should be up at all times. Let's set up a rotation, and then we can finally get some rest."
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Ivan and Rahul were taking the last shift before summoning Martin. Now that the tutorial was over, they didn't have any clock, but it was dark and they guessed it was about time. Just ten more minutes, then they would wake everyone up and call Martin.
They never got the chance.
A notification appeared, and nearly a hundred humans appeared in the sky above and started plummeting down.
Rahul skimmed through the notification and screamed.
"Synergy. NOW!"
Then he rushed to wake the others up, and soon saw another notification.
Your bastion has synergized with a compatible presence and the synergy has altered its nature. Due to the overwhelming scope of the changes, it is no longer Laysan Bastion and has been renamed to Bastion of Immutability.
Your representative will be given a choice on whether or not to rename your settlement as well.