The faction board was expanding exponentially. As of today it was a week old, but over the last two days it had really taken off. It was clear that there were now contenders from every corner of the city contributing. There were thousands of posts and even new threads. It was clear that some of the faction leaders had done some reorganizing and trimming of the discussions, cutting out anything they might have thought was a waste of time. After a brief precursory demonstration, Michael left the others to browse. Someone had spent some of their crowns to add several additional boards at this outpost. Since they had displays both front and back, now a half dozen people could browse at once.
Michael quickly honed in on one of the new threads, personal messages. There were already dozens. People just like him, who were separated from companions whether by intent or by accident. It was a great way to keep in touch. Michael read the one sentence description under the thread. Currently messages would be held for up to a week from initial posting, and only the intended recipient or someone in their party could open it. When the intended recipient did read the message it would disappear from the board once it was closed. Of course the recipient could write their own message in reply.
It did not take Michael long to find one with his name on it. It was the second oldest message on the list. He opened it.
[Note left by contender Kyrie Allison on Day 14: Sorry we got separated. I have decided to respond to a message left by Sasha on the requests thread. Another of the commanders was located. Stay safe, and I’m sure we can hook back up at some point in the future.]
Michael scowled. Based on the time of the message, he had missed her by a good 4 hours. She must have made it back to this outpost and left just after noon. Michael quickly located Sasha’s post on the request thread.
[Note left by Faction leader Sasha Bennett on Day 14: Looking for other accomplished contenders to join me in taking out the commander to the Northeast of the city. Plan to meet at this location at 0900 on Day 16. Loot distribution will be discussed upon contender party arrival. Looking for a good sized party of adventurers, the commander has a ton of minions under its control already.]
A location several districts north of the wharf district was highlighted with the post. Getting up there in less than two days worth of time, would certainly be a challenge, but Kyrie was fairly quick. If she left earlier in the day it was certainly possible for her to make it, especially if she traveled some through the night.
Michael shifted to the commander thread. There were hundreds of posts, but luckily some one had grouped relevant ones together. Already four of the six commanders had running threads. Michael looked at the northeast commander thread.
[Note left by contender Emmanuel Alwright on Day 13: Ran into another red drop site. Possible commander??? Made visual on hairy gray or brown skinned humanoid with long ears and upturned pig-like snouts. Saw one that even had a wingspan. All are tier 1’s.]
[Note left by contender Alan Iverson on Day 13: Obviously they are vampires.]
[Note left by contender Suki knu on Day 13: Safe to say that if they are vampires, then there is one boss vampire at the center of them all.]
Michael shifted away from the thread. It was probably too late for him to try to make it, but since both Sasha and Kyrie were ranked contenders there probably would not be a need for him anyways. Michael found the thread on the subterranean commander. A newer post had been moved to the top of the list. Once again it was from one of the three faction leaders. The leaders were certainly doing what they could to solve things for the Vargas city region.
[Note left by faction leader Earl Whittaker on Day 14: (SARGE) So far three of the unknown total of disembodied spirit wisps have been successfully located. According to the encyclopedia, there is also a physical body, although it has yet to be discovered. From one encounter with a wisp it is clear that they are already difficult to take on since they are incorporeal beings (see encyclopedia). Regardless, it is clear that all of them are just the sum of parts required to form one whole commander, with each disembodied spirit focusing on gathering energy from a different elemental aspect (see encyclopedia). Meaning that we have to take down all of these parts in addition to the five other commanders. Based on the reports on this thread compared to other commander threads the amount of minions the wisps have are actually on the light side, with the wisp being the real challenge. I will be moving to take down the earth wisp this evening before they all get stronger at the end of week 2.]
Michael scanned down the thread. He quickly located the note left by a team that had actually chosen to fight one of the other wisps.
[Note left by contender Shauna on Day 13: Found one of the red drop locations under ground. Fought through a horde of ghouls to an underground crossroads of pipes. Boss undead was a disembodied spirit wisp that hovered in between multiple falls of water pouring from different pipes. We engaged the wisp, but were quickly beaten back due to the ineffectiveness of our melee attacks. Two of our group of four died from the ferocity of the creature’s attack. I thought we were all going to die, but the wisp did not pursue us out of the initial room.]
The contenders who had encountered the earth wisp that Sarge was headed towards, had apparently been smart enough not to engage. The last of the three identified wisps was the flame wisp. The wisp was in a room with lava. Once again the group was smart enough not to engage. Michael frowned when he found that the location was on the Southern edge of the city. It would take days of uninterrupted travel to get over there.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Michael quickly added a quick post with specifics about his own encounter with the disembodied wisp, before moving onto the other commander threads. He smiled when he saw that surprisingly enough. There was another real close by, right in the freight district. However there were only a couple posts on the thread for the commander.
[Note left by contender Evan Bargstol on Day 13: One of the freight ships in the freight district shows up completely red on the tactical map. We tried going in through the door in the tower, but we were quickly forced to retreat. Luckily we were able to make it back out. We did not see the commander, however we ran into some bone spiders and some regular skeletons. All tier 1]
[Note left by contender Eva Romango on Day 14: That place is a death trap. Four of us went in there earlier this week, I am the only survivor. Half of the spiders and skeletons were tier 0 at the time, but you are dealing with confined spaces and webbing. Most of the webbing you can pass through with little difficulty. Like walking through cobwebs, although it sticks to you and is gross. Of course at the most inopportune times the webbing was far stronger, slowing the swing of our weapons or stopping them all together. Those little buggers of course knew it and hit us when it was difficult for us to fight back.]
[Note left by contender Rick Rimolt on Day 14: Party member of Evan. The spiders have a tough exoskeleton and are awkward to fight due to their size. Blunt force weapons are extremely effective, however you will want to clear the webbing when the fight begins. My bat kept getting caught and stuck like Eva mentioned. I have a strength of 35, and was barely able to pull it free. Someone quite a bit stronger might be able to swing right through. The skeletons carry daggers and hatchets for confined space fighting. They are more dangerous than the spiders, but they both work in tandem. Picture fighting with skeletons, while a dog sized spider shoots web on you from below or from where it’s crawling on the wall or ceiling and tries to pull you off balance. Our party is pretty strong. Two contenders with secondary attributes, and we were only able to push down two levels, before we realized we were in over our heads.]
Michael grimaced. The three notes painted a fairly clear picture of what it would be like. It definitely sounded like it would be tough to tackle alone. Several groups had attempted to go on the ship, but had been forced to retreat. It went without saying that they were groups that actually made it back to say anything at all.
“Phil, when you were in the freight district, did you run across this?” Michael asked. Both Michael and Becky came to look.
“Yeah, the two of us certainly went that way, back when it was still a blue drop. Would have been before the end of the first week I think,” Phil said, looking to Becky for confirmation.
She just nodded.
“Anyway we pulled up a hatch and looked down into the cargo bay, before deciding to hightail it out of there. We did not run into any enemies, but it was far too creepy…. Not to mention, getting through the hatch would have been a bit of a tight fit,” Phil chuckled at the end slapping his big belly.
Michael scowled. It was certainly the closest, but it did not feel very enticing based on what they would face. He moved onto other threads. There was a tier 1 thread that was highly populated. The thread had a sub-thread with all of the tier up methods that contenders had added. There were nearly a hundred there now. Michael could not help but to read through them. After all, he could potentially find out what some of his competitors were out there using. However it was instantly clear that most were on the level of the others that he had already seen. He found some that gave 25 attribute points and various other good benefits, but none were on the level of his own
“Do you mind if I ask what extra benefit you got from your tier up method?” Michael asked Phil. Both he and Becky had stayed and were browsing from over his shoulder.
“Not at all, it was called the Indivisible method. Like most of these I only got 20 free attribute points, but it also gave me physical resistance. Currently, it's only at level 1, but hopefully I can find a way to push it up in the future.”
Michael nodded. Something as useful as physical resistance, might be worth only getting 20 attribute points. At least at this point in the battel, almost all of the attacks were physical in nature. Even if that changed in the future, it was still a good resistance for a front line fighter. His attention turned back to the next thread, tier 2. Unsurprisingly, the thread was just beginning to populate. It also was not a surprise that the main post centered around Sarge.
[Note left by faction leader Earl Whittaker on Day 14: (SARGE) I have hit 72 stat points into the second tier. As of yet, I have not hit a new threshold. Neither have I found a tier up method for level 3. Hopefully they will start appearing after week 2. Will keep updating.]
Michael could only shake his head. The ‘Sarge’ had apparently found a level 2 tier up method that he found suitable, and already nearly accumulated attribute points that was equivalent to the 1st tiers threshold. It was no wonder that he was only ranked where he was at with monsters like this in the battle. With his tier up method, the guy was sure to have around a hundred more attribute points than himself. He could only shudder at the thought of coming across and having to fight someone with that many more stat points than him. Slowing his progress on this tier up method was definitely worth it in the long run, but it would certainly leave him vulnerable for now.
Michael’s thoughts were interrupted by the notice they had all been expecting.
[Congratulations to the 1,342,945 surviving contenders on making it to the end of week 2. Unique materials will now be found in drops. Materials can be used by professionals to make new and more powerful consumables or equipment. Professional shops and equipment are now available. Purple drops will now appear on the map. Lesser drops will now appear with increasing frequency. Enemy spawn rates will now increase, along with enemy evolution rates.]
It was short, but it was apparent the survival battle would be shifting once again. White and amber drops would remain the same, but the other colored drops would once again shift to allow more variety in quality of items that could be obtained. The movement toward professions was also not very surprising. How long would ordinary weapons hold out against the tougher defenses that they would be facing. There would be a point where increasing his strength would no longer do any good. The weapon would fail before hitting the point where lethal damage was caused.
It was one reason to keep a good relationship with Phil. Right now, Michael only knew of two professions: forgers and chemists. The first would obviously make weapons, while the latter would produce potions or the liquid that went into shots. Phil was a tier 0 forger for now. It hinted that professions could be grown, the same as their combat prowess.