November 3, 2022
Day 14
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World Capital (Unique) - Purchasing this will start a quest chain that will transform your settlement into a world capital.
Cost: 10,000,000 SPs.
Eligibility Conditions
- Settlement is the first on the planet to reach the Kingdom Rank.
- Settlement has the Empire Rank.
- Settlement contains a planetary landmark. ✓
- Settlement has achieved Economic, Diplomatic, or Military Hegemony.
- Settlement is the primary target of a planet-wide system event. ✓
2 out of 5 conditions are met by the Jafrabad settlement. The minimum required is 1.
Rahul stared intently at the screen that Neha was projecting, hoping to glean some insights and end the argument that had been going on for the last 15 minutes.
Unfortunately, the status window kept its secrets, and Rahul grudgingly shifted his attention back to Ivan's passionate arguments.
"This self-proclaimed diviner is giving me really strong Mark vibes. Just like our former leader, he is keeping us in the dark and making us do his bidding. While Mark relied on his authority to advance his agenda, Sadiq lacks both trust and authority and is playing a different kind of game. He left us with exactly 10 million SPs, knowing full well that we had spent our daily 1000 to summon Zendyr and won't be getting any more today."
At least not until the system decides that this first wave has been dealt with and rewards us with a hundred thousand SPs.
Rahul thought as he looked at the Quest screen.
Defend Your Settlement (1/7)
The World Congress has ended, and the first wave of those who stake a claim on the Laysan Bastion has arrived.
Defend your settlement.
Rewards: 100,000 settlement points.
The system thankfully hadn't marked the quest a failure when Ivan had surrendered to the Jafrabad Settlement, but it hadn't marked the quest successful either. At least not yet.
Why doesn't the system realize that there are no longer any hostiles on the island?
Rahul thought as Ivan went on speaking.
"So he left us with some mystic shit about fate and destiny, and just enough SPs to purchase a suspiciously priced and overpowered-sounding quest item. For all we know, this quest may have no immediate effects and offer no advantage whatsoever in tomorrow's battle. Of course, Sadiq only gave his gift after Zendyr had left, making sure that there was no steward around and that we couldn't afford to summon anyone else. The 9 million the trio gave us might be an incredible gift that would result in a qualitative leap in our defenses."
"Or it may be a trap that prevents us from putting to use the 1 million SPs we already had."
Maya completed the thought.
Neha was worried.
"If we go ahead with this purchase, we won't even be able to buy basic healing, mana, and stamina potions. Not just for tomorrow, but also for your dungeon dive."
Daniel was clearly in favor of taking the gamble but was being circumspect in his arguments ever since the dungeon fiasco. He shook his head and spoke calmly.
"That won't be a problem. My wife brought a lot of potions with her, as did many of the families. It won't be enough to equip the 7000+ residents of the bastion, but we should be able to equip the teams that will enter the dungeon."
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More time passed, and by now, the group was evenly divided into two camps. Daniel, Rahul, and Matt were in favor of risking it all and purchasing the World Capital quest, while Ivan, Maya, and Neha wanted to play it safe and make individual purchases, focusing on walls, towers, and other defensive buildings.
The second group was steadfast in their beliefs, while the first had started to concede. Rahul himself didn't fully trust the trio, and the only reason he wanted to purchase the world capital was that he never got a feeling that they were lying.
That, and the fact that I'm having a hard time understanding their motive. After all, if they wanted to sabotage our settlement, they could have had much more success with direct interference.
But thinking back to Kelly's failed attempt made Rahul reconsider that statement. Another thought came to mind, something Maya had said when Rahul had asked about their motive.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
We don't know about Mark's motive either, but that doesn't change the truth of what he did.
As time went on, Rahul felt less and less certain of the innocence of the visitors. He started thinking back to the discussion.
They were definitely acting odd. But could they have been malicious? I don't know.
Not finding anything that could help him, Rahul's thoughts went further back and he started recalling the events leading up to that confrontation.
Had I spotted them when the first wave appeared in the sky? I had tried inspecting everyone present, and I would certainly remember such an unusual group. But if they were mingling with the crowd, none of them would stand out individually.
Except perhaps that Arab guy. The first wave was primarily American and he would have caught my eye.
And then Rahul thought even further back, looking at the day as a whole. That's when he felt a thought flitting at the periphery of his consciousness, nagging at him and begging for attention.
Is it you, buddy?
He received a nod of acknowledgment from Momentum.
You are trying to tell me something. But what?
Rahul felt a vague sensation that didn't quite have a word in the English Dictionary, but 'loss' came close.
I'm missing something?
Another nod from Momentum.
Gradually, the human and the presence worked together, and Rahul started making progress.
It isn't related to those mysterious men. At least not directly. A way to thwart their conspiracy?
Momentum's acknowledgment told Rahul that it was the right direction, so he followed that chain of thought to the only conclusion he could think of.
Could we have a way to get more settlement points? Am I missing a source of SPs?
He received strong assent, but as the exact answer continued to evade him, his expression turned to a frown.
It has got to be a notification that I overlooked. Did everyone else overlook it too, or is it something only I received? But what notification would come to me but not to anyone else, not even the settlement coordinator?
Then it hit him.
The party leader notifications I got after exiting the dungeon!
Rahul quickly scrolled through his notification history, and finally found the one that he had briefly seen but then forgotten due to the panic that followed his team's exit from the dungeon.
Without a word, he projected the notification to the arguing group.
Dungeon Performance Regular Mobs Killed 5136 Bosses Killed 4/4 Allied Casualties 0 Total Time in Dungeon 16 hours 32 minutes Dungeon Points Collected 4/4
Everyone looked at the stats with a mix of curiosity and confusion. The next prompt cleared things up.
Claim Rewards The collected dungeon points can be spent for unique dungeon item purchases or sold for settlement points, at the conversion rate of 10,000 settlement points per dungeon point for an F-grade dungeon.
"I can sell my dungeon points for up to 40,000 SPs."
Rahul said with a smile.
Everyone seemed quite excited by this discovery. Everyone except Daniel, who seemed upset.
"After I got healed, I received this notification too, but I was dizzy and forgot all about it. Save your 4 points, let me spend the single point I got first."
With that said, the group checked the settlement details and found themselves in possession of ten million and ten thousand settlement points.
Daniel spoke again.
"I really shouldn't have forgotten about this. If Rahul had not brought it up, we might have made a massive blunder."
Maya projected a notification and spoke reassuringly.
Quest Completed: Eliminate the Alphas
You entered the territories of all the alpha crocodiles that live in this mangrove and bested them. Eliminating all the alphas has provided your group with dungeon points that can be claimed once you exit the dungeon.
Progress - 4/4 alphas eliminated
"Don't beat yourself up about it. All of us got these quest updates, and not one of us remembered that there was such a thing as dungeon points. There's just been so much happening."
Everyone nodded, and Neha added.
"It has all turned out well in the end, so let's not worry about it. The important thing to decide now is, can we trust your steward, or do we summon someone else? "
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"I feel like I haven't been here in forever. And coming from someone who has been around for millions of years, that's saying something. Or maybe I'm just being dramatic. Yeah, that sounds more plausible, considering I was here just yesterday!"
After a pause, Martin continued.
"Jokes aside, I had expected to be summoned sooner, but I guess you guys have been busy. This integration has been a gift that keeps on giving. When you need SPs, you get SPs. When it was beneficial for there to be less of you alive, you encountered tragedy. Now that you need more population, there are more humans than trees on this desolate island. To be fair, that was the case even when there were only eight of you."
Rahul had a lot of things that he wanted to say to the steward, and he had thought long and hard about the most constructive way to go about that conversation. Even though Martin had made some questionable decisions and withheld crucial information, Rahul believed that there may be good intentions behind those actions, and didn't want to antagonize the steward.
Unfortunately, Martin's laid-back attitude was getting on his nerves, especially after the long and painful day Rahul had endured.
I don't think there is any need for subtlety with this guy.
With that thought, Rahul coughed loudly, interrupted the steward's monologue, and then spoke.
"Enough of that! You have been misleading us, deliberately omitting important information, and even going so far as to lie to our faces. We had half a mind to let you go after surrendering the Bastion, but decided to give you a chance to explain yourself. You better get to it fast."
The steward shrugged.
"I don't believe I have any explaining to do."
Rahul was having none of that.
"Oh really? You said that the tutorial is a cakewalk. Well, half the Earth's population died in that cakewalk. You brushed off the World Congress event, giving us no warning about what might happen. And now, we are the target of all the powerful factions on the planet. And that isn't all. You neither warned us about the dungeon bosses nor did you leave behind basic instructions about packing stamina potions for the dungeon dive. It's almost like you wanted us to die in there!"
"You did not let me finish. I don't believe I have any explaining to do, yet I shall still say something that will take you guys years to understand. Stewards who coddle their wards, smother their wards, and I'm not one of them. I will teach you swimming by throwing you in the deep end. If you have the potential, you'll make it out. If you don't, you will die, and I would simply have preponed the inevitable."
Rahul tried to say something, but a smiling Martin interrupted him.
"Seeing as how you have an abundance of settlement points, let's have this argument some other day. For now, there is a lot to do. We need to come up with the next dungeon tier strategy, and also see how to spend your 10 million."
Rahul bit back his retort and decided to go along with things.
There will be time for this later. For now, we need his counsel. This time though, we won't take that counsel at face value, and get a second opinion too.
There was a quiet period as everyone waited for Martin to go through the various settlement detail screens and character stats.
Then the man suddenly started laughing.