(Area 51 Nevada, January 2nd, 2036)
Adam opened the door and stepped into the Syndicate Shop. Unlike ‘Melanie’s Magical Nick Nacks’ this shop was high-tech with multiple computer monitors facing the entrance. He looked around and noticed that except for the monitors the room was quite bare and felt almost clinical.
“Good evening Sir,” a high-pitched male voice said from behind and above him. Adam turned slowly to see a four-foot man hovering in the air with wings that reminded him of a hummingbird's wings. The books he’d read on Primore described the creature before him as a combination of a Pixie and Dragonfly kin. Its race was referred to as a Pixigon, but they weren’t really a race as there were very few in existence, well, at least that was true before.
Adam turned and looked into the Pixigon’s eyes as he said, “Good Evening to you, I’m in the market to make some purchases.”
“Very good Sir!” The male Pixigon said excitedly. “My name Is Qwixet, We accept trade and also Syndicate Credits. How will you be paying?” he asked.
“With Syndicate Credits”
“Very good Sir! This way,” he said as he floated over to a terminal and hovered beside it. “Please verify your identity by stepping onto this identity matrix. It’ll only take a second. Once loaded into the system you’ll be able to trade and make purchases.”
Adam stepped onto the identity matrix which looked like a simple mat. A moment later the closest screen to Adam lit up.
“Welcome Diamond Rank Member. How can we help you today?”
Adam figured all of the terminals were interlinked and stepped off the mat to the closest terminal with Qwixet right behind. Qwixet moved over to the terminal opposite the one Adam stood before, pressed a few buttons, and then his eyes went wide.
“Sir, thank you for taking the time to come into his humble establishment. It is not often those with such good credit get caught up in a Cultivation.”
“Completely understandable. Rules are rules after all, and I’m stuck here for the next 365 days. Before I make any purchases that will be registered in the system and change my odds, would you like to make a bet before those odds change?”
“Sadly, sir I do not have the finances to make such a bet.”
“If you had the finances?”
“Why yes sir, let him check your status. Sir, it states that your odds are still the same as when the Cultivation started. The Network also lists you as having died.?”
“I did. I’ll tell you what, I was going to give you a good tip today. How about I give you enough to make a really good wager, based on the odds in the system right now? You’ll need to purchase both insurances though. As you can see, should I die, I’ll be back.”
“How much are we talking sir?
“130,000 Syndicate Credits. 100,000 for the wager and 20,000 for the insurance. The last 10,000 is just so you have something you can spend later. That, of course, doesn’t include the commission you’re about to make, but once I start spending money I’m sure my odds will change.”
“Yes and no Sir. The network shows you as dead. Currently, it will not update your status until 6 a.m. the following morning, the usual time it takes someone to come back from the dead. Then your odds will be adjusted based on any purchases you make after that point.”
“So, you’re saying that the purchases I make today will not adjust his odds because they won’t show in the system until tomorrow morning?”
“Yes sir!”
“Excellent, I’ll tell you what though, the information you just gave me has value so here are the 130,000 credits I said I’d give you and when we’re done you can spend them and some of your bonus to make a wager on me, or not, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Very good sir, I accept.”
The Syndicate Shop has recorded that you would like to transfer 130,000 Syndicate Credits to Qwixet. Is this correct?”
“Yes”
Qwixet’s eyes went wide as he said “Thank you, sir, that’s very generous. Now if you’d like to peruse what’s for sale please use the terminal you are standing next to. If you have any questions about an item please feel free to ask.
“I do have one question; Is there a special search criterion I can use to look for items not normally available to other individuals because the cost would be prohibitive?”
“Of course, sir, please think or say Diamond Rank to your terminal. The monitor will ask for Shop owner verification. Once authorized, more search parameters will open up. I should warn you that the longer a Cultivation has been going on the more choices there will be. There’s a whole industry off planet that purchases and watches humans fight monsters. They will be trying to create items and get them into the system for sale based on fighting techniques and who is surviving. “
“There are people watching?”
“Not like that sir. This isn’t like that movie “The Running Man” or even some of the fiction that’s been released about planets being taken over by aliens and your race basically being the equivalent of rats in a maze. The individuals purchasing the footage work in the weapon, armor, spell, and skill crafting industry and put their goods up for sale here as a way for them to make a quick profit. Also, they hope to do more business as people see their wares and try to find the same items. My point in telling you this is to say don’t be discouraged if there aren’t very many choices right now. The Cultivation started 4 hours ago. There’s be more choices as the days go by.”
He thought about what he said, nodded then said, “Diamond Rank” To the terminal. Qwixet floated over and tapped the screen in a quick sequence while a light lit up his face. He guessed biometrics were part of the authorization process.
The menu was pretty self-explanatory and had a number of incredibly powerful items for sale. Spell Books, weapons, armor, magical items, and even modern weapons that were magical. He quickly searched through the weapons and accessories when he remembered the movie Predator and searched for a minigun. He found what he was looking for, an “M134 Minigun of infinite ammo” he chose it and read the description.
M134 Minigun of infinite ammo
The human-made M134 Minigun of infinite ammo creates and fires magical bullets equivalent to 7.62 mm ammo (.308 in).
Rate of Fire: 3,000 rounds per minute (50 rounds per second)
Muzzle Velocity: 2,800 feet/second
Maximum firing range: 3,280 feet
Mana battery: 3000, Recharge Rate 1 per second. This Battery can fire for 1 full minute and takes 50 minutes to fully recharge.
Damage: Variable, up to 6 per bullet
Ammunition has 1 point of armor penetration
Skill with weapon will increase armor penetration by 1 per level
Holy hell, that was impressive. Adam looked for a harness like the one Vasquez had in the movie Aliens and found it quickly. The Minigun was 100,000 credits and the harness was an additional 5,000. Adam didn’t even bother to haggle, he purchased both. They appeared on the counter in front of him. Adam made sure the safety was on and then added both to his inventory. He called forth the Harness and then the gun. The harness automatically fitted to him when it came out of his storage. Next, he called forth the Minigun onto the hydraulic arm. His strength was high enough now at 24 that it didn’t even phase him, but the harness made it easy to control. Adam dismissed both to his personal storage and designated them as a favorite in their current configuration. He went back over to the monitor and looked over all the weapons and noted the ones he liked and the ones he was going to buy for the military.
“Qwixet, do you have any clothing that is soul-bound and self-repairing?”
“Why yes, there is a belt of wardrobes that if purchased can create whatever clothing you desire and is soulbound to you upon purchase.”
“That sounds great, I’ll take one. Can the weapons I’m purchasing come with self-repair and soul-bonding options?
“Yes sir, any item that you purchase here can be self-repairing for an additional 10,000 credits. Soul binding is a little more expensive at 100,000 credits.”
“Okay, I would like two 9mm Berettas of Unlimited Ammo with self-repair and soul bound to me. Two p90 submachine guns with the same and finally that M134 Minigun and harness for the same as well as the belt of wardrobes.”
Adam purchased all seven items and put the wardrobe on while the rest went into his personal storage. He played with the functions of the belt and chose a black military jumpsuit and set that as his default. Whenever he came back from the dead he’d be wearing a black Jumpsuit. No more waking up naked.
Next, he searched for unique and one-of-a-kind weapons and items.
The first thing that caught his attention was an entry titled “Ender.” Above the selections was a note:
NOTE: Some Items available in Syndicate Shops are dependent on Ambient Magic. This is rated 1 – 10. Items with an Ambient Magic AM higher than the current Ambient Magic will have most, if not all, of their extra abilities and special properties unusable. You may still purchase an item but may not be able to use it for a while.
“Qwixet, what is the current Ambient Magic level in this area?”
“If you would look behind you and at the door, there is a number displayed. The current Ambient Magic outside the door is,” he said pausing as he looked at the number, “5” before he continued, “Five outside the door. Which doesn’t seem right. Cultivation started 4 hours ago it should be 1 or less.”
“It’s probably correct, don’t worry about it,” Adam said as he looked back at the monitor and looked over ‘Ender’
“Ender: Magical Longsword +(Variable)
Ender is a sentient Longsword containing the trapped soul of a Master Vampire. The sword becomes more powerful as it feeds on other life forms, including constructs elementals, etc… There is no upper limit to the level this sword can attain.
Base Damage: 6
Soulbound
AM: 10
Damage +1 and Armor Piercing per level. Half Damage in direct sunlight.
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At will the Sword allows its wielder to do the following while held.
Fly up to 30 miles per hour
Invisibility, 1-minute cool down after use.
Night vision, at will
Warning: This sword is sentient. As it grows in power it will attempt to take over the individual wielding it. As its ability to grow in power is infinite this sword will take over any entity that wields it over time. Base chance is 1% per +1 weapon – the Willpower of the person soulbound to it.
Cost: 1,000,000,000 credits.
Adam had to say he wasn’t expecting to find a sword like it for sale. Also, it looked like most people wouldn’t be able to use it until the Ambient Magic reached level 10 which he was guessing was when the level 100 creatures would be out. He was pretty sure that if he was using the sword it would be just fine. Adam paid for it, accepted the Soul-binding request, and placed it in his storage.
The next item was a shocker.
Capstone (Limit 1 per customer per world.)
This item when placed prevents all Monster Summoning Obelisks within 100 miles from spawning monsters for 24 hours. After which the item returns to its holder. The item has a cool-down of 24 hours before it can be used again. Note: It does not remove monsters from the area it only prevents monsters from being respawned in the area.
Cost: 10,000,000,000 credits
That was incredibly awesome, but the next item was a game-changer.
Sanctuary Obelisk, with Modifications (Limit 1 per customer per world at any time.)
You may create your own safe zone. Once placed this is permanent. Though it can be removed by the owner and a new one purchased, NO REFUNDS.
Radius 100 feet
Coward Debuff added after 8 hours
Modifiers
10,000 credits per additional 100-foot radius
1,000,000 credits per +1 Mile radius (Maximum 25 miles)
10,000 Coward Debuff added after 9 hours.
Double the cost for each additional hour.
327,680,000 credits, Coward Debuff is not added to anyone in the Safe Zone
1,000,000 Syndicate Store Upgrade. This upgrade adds a Syndicate store to your safe space.
Adam spent 353,680,000 million credits to get a Sanctuary Obelisk with a 25-mile radius, no Coward Debuff, and the Syndicate Store.
There was only one more item in the Unique section. It was actually two items. A pair of portals that were linked. He could place one and then place the other and use them to travel anywhere on the planet. If he set one in the base he could open the other portal anywhere on the planet and get anyone to safety without spending his mana. After we’d tried to save as many as we could it would be a good way to get from deep inside the sanctuary back out into the world again. The set was 20,000,000 credits.
Once he’d picked the unique Items he went back to normal weapons and armor and purchased everything he could. He didn’t bother with self-repairing or soul-bound weapons or armor. He purchased as many of each weapon, piece of armor, basic spellbooks, and skill books as he could. The system maxed out at 10 of each item per purchase. Adam ended up spending a huge sum of money, 59,696,789,789 Credits. Some of that was tied up because of the Unlimited Ammo function on some of the weapons. The other part of the money was for the crates of normal weapons and tons of ammo he purchased. Norad wouldn’t be running out of weapons or Ammo any time soon and thought as he smiled.
He left the shop very happy with a relatively full personal storage. As he stepped out a couple more people had shown up, cowering in fear. Adam opened a portal to Norad, led them through, and closed it. Once he was sure they were being taken care of, he portaled to the entryway into the tunnel leading into the Mountain and looked at the guard line that had been set up. Off in the distance, he saw a huge man, probably a Giant of some sort, at least 25 feet high walking towards the tunnel entrance. The soldiers looked at him, looked at the giant, and then looked like they were going to bolt.
“Hold on guys I’ve got this,” Adam said as he pulled out the Sanctuary Obelisk set it down and activated it. As soon as the Sanctuary Obelisk was activated, the giant disappeared with a loud pop as a prompt appeared.
You have entered the safe Zone of Johnathan Bennard.
There is no maximum time allowed in this Safe Zone.
You may stay here as long as you like.
Note: Safe Zone is set to Default.
Note: All Monster Summoning Obelisks within the radius of this Safe Zone have been deactivated until the Safe Zone is removed.
Note: Any monsters that were within the radius of this Safe Zone have been teleported outside the 25-mile radius of the safe zone to a random location.
Note: This Safe Zone possesses a 24/7 Syndicate Shop. This free upgrade comes as a bonus to there being no “Coward” debuff added to residents that reside here.
Note: This Safe Zone belongs to Johnathan Bennard.
Adam reviewed how far a 25-mile radius extended in his head, that should have cleared out Colorado Springs but didn’t have enough range to include Pueblo. At least Norad and Colorado Springs were safe now. Adam made his way inside to find the Admiral. About a half-hour later he finally found the Admiral after he’d passed through quite a few checkpoints manned by jumpy military personnel.
“Admiral, I have some armor and weapons for everyone.”
“Looks like you also made this area a Safe Zone. How long will that last?”
“Until I remove it. If I do I’ll have to purchase it again. Also, each person may only have one otherwise I would have bought enough to cover the whole planet.”
“Okay, this will come as some much-needed good news. Did you say something about armor and weapons? He asked”
“Yeah, let’s walk down to the Armory.”
They walked down to the Armory and Adam pulled out all the weapons he’d purchased for everyone else. “I was able to purchase 50 handguns, 50 Submachine guns, 50 Assault Rifles, and ten M134 Miniguns with harnesses. I’m keeping one M134 Minigun and two of each of the others. I’m taking two of the Berettas, two of the P90s, and two of the AR-15s. All with the unlimited ammo feature.
“What about ammo?” he asked.
“Didn’t I say, 20% of the weapons I picked up are magical, they have unlimited ammo. Well, it’s not unlimited but the clips refill at a rate of 1 round per second magically so effectively unlimited for the pistol. The SMGs and the Assault Rifles may take a minute or two to reload but they could probably go forever with one 3-round burst every 3 seconds. The miniguns can fire for a full minute before it runs out of ammo, I can’t wait to try that one out.” Adam said as they came up to the Armory and he started pulling out the guns he was leaving there and the ammo for the non-magical weapons.)
As Adam started pulling out spell and skill books the admiral asked, “What are those?”
“These Admirals are the game-changers. I was only able to get one of each basic spell book type and a couple of skills. One of the skill books I’ll be using myself…” As he thought about what he was doing then started returning the books to his storage space.
“What are you doing?”
“I was going to leave these books here, but that kind of temptation isn’t healthy. And it definitely wouldn’t be healthy for anyone stupid enough to steal from me so I’m going to hold onto them.”
“If you’ve seen anyone cast a spell or know of anyone that is extremely intelligent, keep an eye on them and we’ll set up a meeting time the next time I’m back. Right now, we have 25 Square miles of a city that we can spread out into and help the people there and also fill up with more people as we rescue them. I think we can safely assume that those sailors that were on your subs and small ships are stranded if they’re not dead. I think we should head down to the situation room, get me some coordinates, and I can try to save as many soldiers as we can. It’ll make enforcing martial law here a lot easier.”
“Sounds about right, let’s go!” The admiral agreed.
They walked back to the command section. Adam found a kindred spirit in a young Lieutenant named Kimberly Anderson. It had been her duty to keep track of all the boats. The reason she’d been given that duty was that she had a Photographic memory much like his. They talked for a bit as she pointed out the last known location of every ship and sub she could remember from the charts while the Admiral and he watched.
“All right Admiral, I’m going to tackle the small boats in deep seas or cold climates first. Once I get them out, I’ll hit the ships closer to land. I’m going to save the Aircraft Carriers for last, there are enough people on each to respond to the changes that the world has just undergone. That will give you enough time to start getting housing set up in Colorado Springs. I’m going to leave all that logistics to everyone here, “ Adam paused for a moment while he checked his Personal Interface and looked at the Safe Zone tab finding what he wanted before he continued. “Admiral, please make it very clear to the President that this is my safe zone. With a thought, I can revoke anyone’s right to be here. If anyone attacks or hurts anyone their access is automatically removed, I have no control over that. They will be randomly teleported out of the Safe Zone and prevented from reentry until they remove the ‘loner’ debuff. It looks like anyone who attacked anyone else in a sanctuary can get that status too, but it will automatically fall off after 48 hours. In this Sanctuary though, if you get that status it sticks concerning this sanctuary, it doesn’t fall off and you can’t enter this safe zone again.” Adam wondered why that wasn’t part of the announcement before he continued, “Anyone that fought with anyone in any of the safe zones in the last 6 hours won’t be able to enter a safe zone for a while. That might be a death sentence.” Adam thought about the ramifications then looked at the Admiral, “We either all work together to save as many as we can, or they can be forced to go off on their own. Now I’m off”
Adam teleported to the incoming portal area and found a place for one of the portals from the set he purchased. He wanted an area where two portals could be opened side by side. Adam found the officer in charge of handling new arrivals and let them know that very shortly more military personnel would be arriving and to keep that area where he set the portal clear of people. They should be receiving orders about what to do with the new people from Admiral Ainsworth shortly.
Adam checked his Personnel Interface. He was going to have to sit down and figure out this new leveling system. He was now Grade 2, Level 8, HP 63, Stamina 900, and 1,800 mana which was nice, even though he didn’t know exactly what that meant. His mana regen was at 16 per second allowing him to get all his mana back in about 2 minutes. Teleport was prohibitive. He’d been able to open Portals based on range categories instead of per mile like teleport. Short Range, up to 100 miles had been 100 mana. 101-500 miles had been 200 mana. 501-1000 miles had been 300 mana which is what he’d been sticking to. 1,001-2,000 miles was 400 mana, and 2,001-4,000 miles was 500 mana. 4001 – 8000 miles jumped up to 1,000 mana. He could jump farther but he wasn’t worried about that yet. Once opened each portal only required 1 mana per second for upkeep which meant he could hold open 16 portals if he wanted to and still gain mana back. Adam might not be able to get everywhere on the globe in one jump, but he could do two jumps and two jumps back and not use up all his mana. As fast as he was leveling he should be able to portal wherever he needed to go soon. Teleporting longer distances would come later.
Adam opened his first portal to a submarine that was relatively close to home. The Minneapolis-St Paul fast attack nuclear submarine was about 200 miles off the east coast of the United States. He opened a portal one mile above the Atlantic Ocean at the target location, activated his fly spell, and stepped through. He closed the portal and looked down. It wasn’t incredibly hard to find the sub, there was a lot of splashing going on as tentacles reached up and held onto the sub, trying to take it under. Hoping there was actually an incorporeal state that would allow him to phase through solid matter he flew towards the sub and willed myself to become insubstantial. He spent 50 mana and disappeared as 10 mana per second started to take hold. His mana regen was able to keep up both that cost and his fly spell. As he came close to the sub one of the tentacles reached out and passed through him just as he phased through the outer hull of the submarine. He made his way to the command deck and stood in front of the Captain, then moved so his back was to one of the consoles as the captain asked.
“Who the hell are you?” the captain asked.
“Help, Admiral Ainsworth sent me. Are you dead in the water?”
“Yes, we’ve got nothing and something is taking us down.”
Just as he said that the deck shifted under him. Adam adjusted his floating form so that it adjusted as the deck moved. Then became solid again and landed on the deck. “Captain, I can open a portal for you to Norad. We’re regrouping the military there.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“Like this,” he said as he opened a portal anchoring it to the deck against the wall beside him. “I can hold this portal open for you until the hull cracks and water starts coming through then I have to close it, we can’t put the ocean in Norad. Give the order Captain,” Adam said as he stood beside the portal.
Adam watched as sailors came to the command deck and made their way through the portal. It took 30 minutes to clear the sub. Sailors rushed through the status board and turned red as compartments started to flood. Luckily everyone had been making their way forward so no sailors were lost, though this might be playing out differently with other subs. Finally, the Captain stepped through with Adam close behind.
The Captain looked around then looked at him, “We really are in Norad aren’t we?”
“Yes Captain, you are.
“Thank you…what should we call you?” he asked.
“Just call him Adam, it’s what I go by now.”
“Okay Adam, thank you is there anything he can do?”
“Yes, I need you to stay here while I head off to other ships and try to save their crews. Right now, I’m the only one that can, and as I’m sure you noticed this is a safe zone. Once we get the next captain, he’ll stay and we’ll keep doing this. I figure the easiest way is for you to tell me which captains you know so I can open a portal you can tell them to move their asses and we can see if we can empty their boats faster than we did yours, what do you say?”
“Let’s get to it!”
For the next seven days, Adam helped evacuate the Navy boats. When he needed a break he’d try to find the carriers and use the portals he’d bought so they could leave the ship. Then he’d catch a nap next to the portal in Norad, that way if something happened he could go through and grab the other portal, and even if he went down with the ship he’d be fine.
Adam also used those breaks to head down to the mess and conjure foodstuffs for the kitchen in quantity and pass out the spell and skill books he’d purchased. He found out the Admiral had been putting together teams to head out and clear monsters. They’d started with Pueblo and worked their way along the major roads to other cities. He had made sure to send out teams with the unlimited ammo weapons, the M134 miniguns making short work of anything they ran into. They were getting the word out that Colorado Springs was a safe place to be. Adam watched, knowing that it was a good start but also knowing for this one victory the world was losing a lot.
He tried not to think about all the people that were being slaughtered all over the world, but he knew for humanity to have a chance he had to save as many as he could. The boats would have been isolated and could be sealed against predators. Plus, they were military, they should be used to following orders and moving out fast. The last ship he helped evacuate was being sucked into a giant whirlpool in the middle of the Pacific. He couldn’t see what was below the ship but a whirlpool that was big enough to sink a carrier? Adam used the portals he bought and also conjured four that he maintained so we could get the crew of 5,000 off the carrier before it sank to the bottom of the Pacific.
The President still wanted to talk to him, even with all the craziness that was happening around the world. Right now, that didn’t matter though, seven days of saving over 120,000 sailors had worn him out. Adam made his way to the sleeping area, found a dark corner, and went to sleep with no intention of waking up for at least 8 hours.