Whispers spread through the crowd as Councilwoman Deng made her way to the center of the arena. She walked at a regal pace, and there was no time dilation to make the walk faster. The moment felt drawn out to Alex, couldn’t she have started walking before the projection ended?
“Any guesses what this is about?” Muhammad whispered across the row. He was sitting the furthest to the left out of the whole group, but his voice made it over the crowd. In front of them, a student Alex vaguely recognized turned around to listen in. Anthony’s well-connected status wasn’t exactly a secret.
It was Jess who answered, “I think it’s an announcement about how they’re going to handle the overpopulation crisis.”
Alex had heard rumors of New Chicago’s population rising, but he’d spent almost the entire past decade on Academy grounds. Insulated from the problem, it had never quite reached him. He was aware that the city was rapidly approaching 100 million residents, but that number was so large that it was difficult for him to conceptualize.
He knew that the trials the city used to farm resources had a limit to how much food and stone they could produce, but even with the population so high he had never heard that expressed as a true concern. The trials in question were modeled after Southern Illinois farmland before the Arrival. An individual could only clear a trial once a week, but New Chicago’s Defense Forces had thousands of Aspirants and Neophytes who cleared the best trials on a 24/7 rotation.
Plenty of Aspirants even avoided entering Tier 1 to keep the city’s “farming” methods operating at a high enough rate to prevent food from becoming scarce. The reason some items, like eggs, were a luxury was that farm animals like chickens were mutated beyond recognition in most trials. The only consistent source of eggs was a Neophyte trial that required the delving party to protect a farm from waves of monsters attacking. The large amount of space and unpredictable nature of the attacks made the trial infamous, getting a high-quality clear was effectively impossible. Securing a low-quality clear by protecting the manor house at the center of the farm after harvesting food from the completely mundane farm animals was simple enough, though. Twelve parties did just that every day.
Back when the city was built, there had been acres of farmland inside the walls. As New Chicago’s population grew, the space the city required also grew. Now, nearly all of the ninety million residents lived in high-density housing designed and maintained through magical means. This meant that the trials were their only reliable food source.
Jess was the most “in the know” out of their group on this topic. Her mother was one of the most important construction workers in the city. Chika Thomas was an Attuned who had designed her mana body entirely around shaping and reinforcing buildings. She was the woman in charge of building upkeep and maintenance but tended to leave the bureaucratic work to secretaries who weren’t so specialized.
Because of her mother’s status, Jess tended to hear things in passing that even Anthony wouldn’t necessarily know about. The Stirlings were in charge of defending the city, and Mrs. Stirling in particular didn’t get along well with the civilian council. If Jess thought this was related to overpopulation, and was using the word crisis, the problem had become bigger than Alex realized.
“Crisis?” Becca asked. She was in the same boat as Alex, insulated from the issue by living on campus for the past decade and too interested in her studies to pay much attention. In their defense, it wasn’t like they would be involved in deciding any solutions.
Jess leaned toward Becca, and the rest of the group leaned in towards her in turn, “The city is officially using more mana than we produce on a day-to-day basis. It makes special expenditures like the buildup for the horde difficult. They’ve built a stockpile, but my mom doesn’t think it will last a year at the current pace.”
Alex frowned, had he been so focused on certs that he’d just missed something that important? “How didn’t we know about this?”
“They’ve been trying to keep it under wraps. I’d be surprised if any of the city’s Attuned haven’t figured it out by now, though. A secret known by a few thousand people isn’t a real secret at all.”
That made sense to Alex. He couldn’t imagine the city’s leadership was thrilled about the population learning that they were now operating in a mana deficit. It wasn’t like they could just push people to level up or tier up faster and produce more mana. Reaching Tier 2 required a mana type, and only a few of those who had one weren’t yet Tier 2. The few thousand who had reached Tier 2 worked tirelessly to maximize their Connection to produce more mana. Reaching Tier 3 required an Uncommon mana type and a few other things. While Alex knew of four Tier 2s with Uncommon mana types, they would’ve already tiered up if they could.
Instructor Martinez had outright told the students at the Academy that she didn’t have the Capacity required to take that step. She had solved every other piece of the puzzle but would need to brave trials and receive rewards if she wanted to reach Tier 3. As a noncombatant, that meant spending years reshaping her abilities and training alongside a team. Her alternative was gaining an Epic or greater Achievement that would grant her the missing attributes. Alex and his friends could get an Epic Tier 0 achievement by being the best students the Academy had, finding a cheat that no one had ever noticed, and abusing the assistance of a Tier 3 to trivialize the difficulty. It was not quite so simple a task at Tier 2, and Instructor Martinez had turned her attention to training for trials after decades of attempts.
Councilman Stemke was known to be working hard, but he was kept busy by his duties as a council member. The Enhancements required to break through to Tier 3 were both personal and incredibly complex. As a man who had reached the peak of Tier 2 through trial delving, his technical expertise was not at the requisite level to create the Enhancements. There were rumors every election cycle of him resigning to work on finally Imprinting, but it hadn’t happened yet.
Commander Aldorf was in a similar boat as Instructor Martinez. He had the levels, but not the Attributes. Risking his life delving trials had lost its appeal to the man after the death of two of his teammates, including his son, decades ago. He was considered the least likely to reach Tier 3 out of the four confirmed to have an Uncommon mana type, content to man the walls and handle the day-to-day operation of the Defense Forces while his Imprinted superiors monopolized the glory.
It was believed that several adventurers had Uncommon mana types, but they tended to keep their cards close to their chests. The Adventurer’s Guild was an independent entity, training and equipping those who wanted to grow in power but didn’t want to answer to government bureaucracy. According to the Instructors, the promise of avoiding bureaucracy rarely worked out, at least for those who succeeded in tiering up, but that wasn’t the real goal of the guild. Alex expected that the truly important people all knew exactly which adventurers to watch out for.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The fourth widely known Tier 2 with an Uncommon mana type was standing at the front of the Arena. It looked like she was about to speak, and Alex’s focus returned to the projection in front of him as Councilwoman Deng Jing reached the center of the arena.
“Good evening,” The Councilwoman nodded to the crowd, “I am sure that many of you are wondering about the reason for my presence here today.”
The smile was not entirely gone, but her expression changed to one of reassurance as she continued, “The Council is not ashamed to admit the truth. Over the past years, our population has grown in leaps and bounds, but the number of us who reach the higher tiers has not risen to match. It has been a year since the last Pathwalker joined the ranks of the Attuned, and this has led to our surplus of mana shrinking. Finally, just a few weeks ago we entered a deficit for the first time since the founding of the city all those years ago.”
The crowd was silenced by this news. Jess had claimed that this knowledge was making its way through the city, but how many students would know before this announcement? Running out of mana would mean concessions had to be made that would make living in the city harder. The mana spent on the walls would not be reduced outside of a worst-case scenario, but that just meant they would feel the loss of mana in government services.
“I have spent many long nights wondering how we would solve this problem, and I am not alone. Your Council has worked tirelessly, and we have found a solution that promises to lighten our overpopulation crisis, and offer new opportunities to millions of citizens.” Whispers broke out in the crowd. Alex frowned as Deng paused. Where she was going with this felt rather clear, but how would it fix the mana problem? People who left the city wouldn’t contribute mana anymore. Was the population density so high at this point that they were losing that much mana just keeping the housing together?
“As many of you know, our greatest bottleneck to growth has always been the inability to expand beyond our walls. The walls protect us from Imprinted monsters, and our Imprinted are so outnumbered that even their incredible strength might struggle to protect us from hordes without that barrier. Today, I have several announcements, each of which will change New Chicago. The first is my resignation from the civilian council, effective in three months.”
The three Imprinted on the stage became four, as Alice Stirling appeared out of seemingly nowhere to join them. Councilwoman Deng continued her speech, “My second announcement requires some background. While I have not served as an instructor in the Academy in years, I hope you will all allow me some time to lecture, I find myself quite reflective today. You see, tiering up has several requirements, but the most fundamental is that you need to be in an environment with mana of the tier you are trying to reach.”
Oh. Alex broke out into a grin and barely stopped himself from standing up from his seat as he realized what was coming. He tried to temper his excitement. The councilwoman could speak for a while, and no one would deny her some dramatics if she was truly about to become the city’s first new Tier 3 in over a century.
His attempts to calm his excitement failed.
“That is why, I have asked my good friend Alice to assist me today. Tiering up in a trial is how I reached Tier 2, all those years ago, but I felt that today deserved a bit more significance,” This was happening. “With her Domain, Alice is capable of forcefully raising the quality of the mana around her, giving me the Tier 3 environment I will require to push past my limits in front of you all today.”
This was really happening.
And they would all get to watch.
“Now, reaching Tier 3 is a difficult task, and I don’t just say that to pat myself on the back. I am not alone in spending decades fighting and meditating just to have the qualifications to make the attempt. If we are lucky, I will not be the only one to take the final step in the years to come. Strengthening the connection between Heart and Soul and creating an Enhancement capable of breaking their limits has proven more challenging than any other task I have ever attempted. But today, I will do just that. Today, I transcend my limits! Today we transcend our limits! Today marks a new era for this city!”
The crowd cheered, and Alex jumped to his feet, unable to hold back the excitement. He wasn’t alone, many students joined him in chanting the Councilwoman's name. After the entertainment of the duel, they were all primed for even more excitement.
“Today, I will imprint my mana type upon my inner soul, leading the way for our city’s next generation of Imprinted! We have faced trials. We have struggled. We have been pushed to our limits and past them. But today I remind you all that no matter how harsh this world becomes, we will rise above!” The noise barriers were still in place, so Alex didn’t know how the tiered adults on the lower floors were reacting, but on the eighth floor, the excitement had quickly grown contagious. They were all standing, chanting their approval. It was one of the most exciting moments of his entire life, being a part of the crowd in that moment was electrifying.
“Now, Alice, if you would be so kind.” The crowd grew silent all at once. It was coordinated so well that Alex wondered if it was a subtle magical effect or if they were just that enraptured by the scene in front of them.
Alice closed her eyes, assuming a seated position on the ground with her legs crossed. Her brows furrowed as she concentrated, showing that this wasn’t quite as simple as the Councilwoman made it seem. Alex had never seen this intensity of focus from Alice before. Was that the real reason she hadn’t operated the event today, could the other Imprinted even pull this off?
Alex was too far away to feel the growing mana density, but he could tell when the desired level of mana was reached. The Councilwoman took advantage immediately, initiating her breakthrough without another word.
Councilwoman Deng’s five Soul Apertures lit up, one at a time.
The first was placed on her forehead, and it looked almost like a weird third eye had opened as a green radiance the shade of a leaf shone from her forehead. Her features grew slightly eerie in the odd lightning, but the focus on her face was only more obvious for it. A Heart Rune appeared in her neck, but the link between them was not yet visible.
The second aperture appeared on her left palm. Alex got the sense that he was looking at the leaf of an oak tree in Spring as his eyes were pulled to that aperture. In that hue, or maybe in the mana that came from it, he saw new growth and opportunity. A chance for New Chicago to reach beyond surviving and truly surpass its limits. The corresponding Heart Rune was at her shoulder, and he could see a hint of the tether that bound them.
The third was on her right palm. And now Alex saw a leaf in Summer. The sun was beating down on it, and the nutrients it needed were easily supplied. Alex could feel the seemingly boundless vitality of a peak Tier 2 who focused on Toughness and Durability in the color. The Heart Rune in her right shoulder shone with similar intensity, and the link between them was glowing faintly.
The fourth aperture appeared on her left foot. The reddish glow of a leaf in Fall pierced the cover of her shoe. In this light, there was a sense of age and tranquility that felt reassuring in a way he couldn’t describe. A reminder that the woman before them had spent decades preparing for this moment. Times were tough, but she had lived through tougher. The Heart Rune at her left hip was bound to the aperture by a cord of mottled green.
The fifth aperture was the grayish brown of a branch in Winter. This glow seemed almost muted, compared to the previous ones. The aperture on Councilwoman Deng’s right foot spoke of determination. The leaves had fallen, and nourishment was light. This aperture told a story of determination and will. The seasons themselves had turned against her, but she would resist, and soon her time would come. The fifth Heart Rune appeared to match, and now all of the bindings were visible and shifting through the colors of the seasons.
It was no longer a matter of soon. The Councilwoman’s patience and strength of will had borne fruit. Her time was now.
The Imprinting began in earnest.