Another look passed between the gathered survivors.
David’s eyes went wide, and his mouth started moving in silent excitement. It was like he was talking to himself at a million words a minute. Then he brushed his hair out of his eyes and seemed to snap back to reality.
“I think Blake’s right. Think about it, it’s the only explanation that makes sense. They came over from their world into ours and they brought this system with them. It’s spread from them because in whatever place they came from its ubiquitous. Everybody’s part of that system, but the moment it spread across into our world, the system spread to all of us. Blake, you’re a genius!” David’s eyes were wild with the implications of it.
Blake frowned. If this was true, then the situation was much worse than he already feared. “We’re not just dealing with a rogue system that’s taking over our world and destroying our society, we are dealing with an invading force from somewhere else. Some other world, dimension, place, or maybe even time? Who knows?”
“None of those details matter. It doesn’t matter where they came from. What matters is they’re here now, and that we need to stop them,” Randall Jackson said.
“There’s nothing else for it,” Samuel confirmed. “We need to take control of the city and put it in the hands of people from this world. If Clay is from somewhere else, then he will be trying to consolidate power for a reason. If this is all part of a much bigger conflict, and he is trying to gather as much power as he can into his city, then at some point he plans on either being attacked or going on the attack himself.”
“So, what’s our plan from here?” David asked.
“All of those parts we got from the water treatment plant here, we deliver them to New Meridia. David, Randall, you know how to install these correctly, right?” Blake asked.
David and Randall both nodded their heads.
“And you would also know how to install them in a way that would completely disrupt the proper functioning of the water systems within the city?” Blake asked.
“Yes, I have no doubt that we can do that,” Randall said. “I don’t know exactly how we’ll do it, but we can cause enough havoc to throw the city into chaos for a few hours, maybe a day.”
“I want you to do it in a way that can be reversed quickly and easily once we have caused a distraction and I’ve found a way to get up to Clay Atlas in his tower. I don’t want this to hurt the people of New Meridia. It might be uncomfortable in the short term, but I don’t want them to suffer for any longer than they have to,” Blake said.
Samuel smiled at this comment. “I knew I made the right choice in trusting you,” he said.
Blake grinned at that. “Okay, well it sounds like we have a plan, and now we just need to find a way to make it happen. It would probably be best if you gave me a day or two to make some preparations. I need to make sure that I am going to be strong enough to fight back against Clay Atlas when the time comes, and I’m almost out of anima for the day.”
While it was true that Blake could convert Lair Energy into anima, the upgrades he wanted to buy for his Monster Summoner’s Lair also needed Lair Energy to buy. He was stockpiling that energy until he could buy the upgrades for now.
Samuel nodded, then pulled a rolled up map out of his coat pocket. “That’s absolutely no problem at all, Blake. Here I’ll mark the location of one of our scout camps on this map, and when you’re ready to kick things off, just come out here and get us. The scout will retrieve me, and we’ll be ready and waiting to move when you are.”
Blake nodded as Samuel handed the newly marked map over. “Keep the parts with you until the time comes. I’ll hold off on handing in that Find The Lost Expedition quest, but I have to get back to New Meridia. Clay Atlas is making me fight in the arena every day.”
“We have time to prepare,” Samuel said. “We’ll focus on leveling up our cards as much as we can in the meantime, and I suggest you do the same.”
Blake had some other tricks up his sleeves that he wouldn’t reveal just yet. Nobody knew about his ability to merge monster cards and combine their strengths yet. He would be able to take everyone by surprise if his plan worked.
“Well then, I guess I’ll be on my way,” Blake said. He opened up his map through his interface and went to mark the location of the scout camp there but decided against it. He queried his AI assistant.
‘Can the City Lord see things I have marked on my map?’ Blake queried.
‘No. Only you can see what is marked on your map,’ the AI assistant replied.
Blake put a marker on his map to show the location of the scout camp, and then he handed the rolled up map back to Samuel. “I'm tracking this location now, and I'll give this physical map back to you. I wouldn't want to be searched or frisked and have this taken. It might jeopardize our mission.”
Samuel nodded and took the map back. He slid back into his coat. “Good thinking.”
With only a single anima left, Blake’s options in how he returned back to New Meridia were fairly limited. He settled on riding the Pyrestalker.
As one of his very few fire element cards, he had a fairly good idea that he was going to combine it with his newly acquired Fire Drake. Unless he found something even better.
Blake summoned his Pyrestalker, which erupted from a column of flames before walking over to nuzzle Blake’s side. The animal itself was just like a big cat that wanted attention.
Blake reached over and he gave it a scratch behind the ears. His hands slid into the flames around the monster’s neck. A saddle materialized on the monster’s back and Blake lifted himself up into the saddle.
He gripped the reins and commanded the Pyrestalker to head back to New Meridia. There was a marker on his interface showing the approximate direction he needed to travel to hand the Lost Expedition quest in.
Blake's mind was abuzz as they bounded across the countryside. He’d found an organization out there that opposed Clay Atlas and everything that was happening in New Meridia.
Blake’s own feelings about everything had started to become validated. Everything about New Meridia had felt wrong from the very first moment. It was gratifying to know that his instincts about the city had turned out to be correct.
Blake’s thoughts turned to what would need to happen from here. If he truly meant to attack and overthrow Clay Atlas and take control of New Meridia itself, he would want to make sure that his strength was beyond question.
He sent another query off to his AI assistant, ‘Is it possible to unplay a facility card after it has been played?’
‘Yes, that is possible. Each facility card has a different requirement that needs to be met before it can be unplayed and taken back into someone's deck. Your Monster Summoner’s Lair requires an infusion of credits, as well as the purchase of at least three upgrades before the option becomes unlocked. You currently have access to the Monster Synthesis Lab, as well as the Simulated Battle Arena. If you purchase one more upgrade, then you should have the option to unplay the lair card. This should let you move it if that is your wish.’
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Blake had been thinking about that a lot. If things in New Meridia were about to go bad, it would probably be within his best interests to take the Lair card back into his possession before leaving. If they tried to overthrow Clay Atlas and things didn't go as expected, then it might be impossible to return to the city to retrieve it at some stage in the future.
Blake did have one other idea, and he didn't know whether it would be feasible or not. He thought how amazing it would be to have a monster that was also a lair. A beast that he could take with him that he could use as a base of operations, no matter where he was.
A mobile base of operations that he could summon to fight for him and upgrade through credits and battles would turn him into an utterly unique powerhouse in this world.
Blake still had no idea why the system operated differently for him than it did for everyone else, but the why hardly mattered.
The only thing that mattered was that the system was giving him an advantage nobody else had access to. He needed to use that to its greatest effect.
He approached the walls of New Meridia and headed back through the southern gate. Clay Atlas’s soldiers waved him through and greeted him by name.
Blake was a little uncomfortable that his identity was now becoming a publicly known commodity, but there was no way of putting this genie back in the bottle. Blake would just need to use this newfound power and influence where he could, to achieve his goals.
But the first thing that he needed to do was find out whether his plan could even be put into motion at all.
Blake found it significantly harder to escape the attention of the people of New Meridia this time around. Now that people had seen him in a duel the night before, it had been replaying on the internal New Meridia networks for almost 24 hours.
Now everyone seemed to know exactly who Blake was, and what he could do. Some of them even called out things like, ‘hey it's the monster guy!’
People approached him on the street and wanted autographs on still images from the previous night's duel. Every time Blake was asked for his signature, a window prompt appeared that showed the credit breakdown that Blake would receive versus the credit breakdown that the city would receive when this agreement was entered into.
Blake received the bulk of the credits, which was 80% of the 100 credits it cost for a signature, and the city received 20% for doing absolutely nothing at all.
He signed dozens of autographs, and his credit balance swelled with each passing minute. He now kind of understood why the other Challengers fought in the arena.
He had made a few thousand credits already in the span of only a few minutes. It was much easier money than missions. Blake quite liked going out into the wide world, but it was definitely a more difficult way of making credits than becoming a local celebrity and selling autographs.
Not only did the system prompt him to sell autographs, but he also got formal requests to sell selfie images, which was strange considering that cell phone coverage in the city still didn't work.
The devices people were holding looked the same, but they didn't have any branding that Blake recognized. There were no Samsung or Apple iDevices, they all just had the name ATLAS on them. This guy was even making his own city-specific social media empire, no doubt to spy on and control the people of the city.
Blake didn't like the idea of having his photograph taken using these devices. He was pretty sure that they would also be tracking the locations of anyone that ended up in any of those images. But there was no way to stop this from happening without raising unnecessary suspicion.
So Blake leaned into the role of the new up and coming challenger and gave his time to anyone who was willing to pay for it.
It was both bizarre and strangely intoxicating.
Growing up in Cedar Creek, Blake was just the son of the owner of the corner store, and when he went to school in Denver, he was just a small town curiosity trying to make his way in the big city, combined with the stigma that came with being abandoned as a child and adopted into a family who couldn’t have children. But here in New Meridia, it truly felt like these people wanted to see Blake for who he was, and none of that other stuff mattered.
But the problem with New Meridia is that it embodied all the worst aspects of the society that existed before the world ended. The powerful kept their grip on power and exploited those who didn't have it.
There was no cash in this new world, but money in the form of credits still had a grip on how everyone lived their lives every day. The world had the chance to do things again and to do them better, not go down the exact same path but with someone else in charge.
Eventually the interest in Blake waned. He told the remaining crowd that he’d had a big day and needed to get some rest before his duels tonight.
“Who's gonna be coming to see me duel tonight?” Blake asked.
The gathered crowd of people roared with excitement, promising to come and see his fight.
After Blake managed to ditch the crowd, he did a couple of laps around that block to make sure that there was nobody tailing him. Then he headed down into one of the manholes that led down into the sewers.
It took a while for him to regain his bearings, but soon enough Blake found the familiar tangle of pipes that would lead him into his Monster Summoner’s Lair.
Blake entered and immediately headed to his Monster Synthesis Lab. He opened up the interface and checked the cost of upgrading this facility to Rank 2 or Rank 3.
The upgrade from rank one to Rank 2 was surprisingly affordable, only 3,000 credits. The next upgrade to Rank 3 was 6,000 credits, and Blake had more than enough credits to unlock both of those upgrades. Rank 2 required 2 Lair Energy, and Rank 3 required 3 Lair Energy.
A thing to consider was that if he bought both rank upgrades for his Monster Synthesis Lab, he may not also be able to afford buying a third facility upgrade, which would then allow him to unplay his layer card.
Blake was in two minds about this.
He had an overwhelming feeling that he was going to have to fight Clay Atlas before all of this was through. And to give himself the absolute best chance of being able to win that fight, Blake needed the strongest possible monsters at his command.
Each rank of the Monster Synthesis Lab he increased would allow him to best direct how his monsters would be merged, which was a powerful advantage. He was interested in making sure that when it came time to merge his Fire Drake with another monster, it would retain its ability of flight.
Blake figured that flight was only a single attribute, and as long as he could choose and direct to keep that particular attribute he didn't really mind what other elements were included in the merged version of that monster.
Blake chose to spend 3,000 of his credits on the upgrade of his Monster Synthesis Lab from rank one to rank two.
A notification appeared.
Congratulations, your Monster Synthesis Lab has increased to Rank 2!
It has gained the following properties:
You can now select a single trait from one of your monsters and guarantee it will be inherited by the combined monster.
The overall power level of your merged monsters will be increased from 50% to 60%.
Blake wasn't quite sure what that last bit meant, so he queried his AI assistant. The response came back almost immediately.
‘When you merge two monsters through a Monster Synthesis Lab, the system will combine both of their levels and attribute scores, and then reduce them by a certain percentage. At rank one, it reduces the total by 50%. For example, if you merged a Level 1 monster with a Level 6 monster, the resulting monster would be Level 3, with attributes that would align to the power level of a monster of that level. At higher ranks of Monster Synthesis Lab, the power percentage is increased. For example, at Rank 2, combining a Level 1 monster with a Level 6 monster would likely result in a Level 4 monster instead.’
That was good to know, but also quite concerning. Unless the monsters were of a similar level, the resulting monster would always be weaker than the strongest one that went into the merge.
If Blake were to combine his Stone Slasher Golem and his Berserker Wolf then the resulting monster would likely be either Level 8 or Level 9. But if he combined his Level 9 Berserker Wolf with a Level 4 Fire Drake, the resulting monster might only be Level 6 or Level 7.
This made it even more difficult to decide whether or not he wanted to invest his credits into higher ranks of his Monster Synthesis Lab, or whether he wanted to invest in another upgrade and be able to pay to have his Lair card returned to his deck.
Either way, if Blake unplayed his lair card, he'd lose access to his Monster Synthesis Lab. And that just wasn't an option.
Blake took a deep breath and looked at his credit balance again. He had just over 18,000 credits left, which was quite a comfortable amount.
He could live off that for months if he had to.
But the more he thought about it, if upgrading his Monster Synthesis Lab was what would make the difference in the battles to come, then that was the choice he needed to make.
Blake upgraded his Monster Synthesis Lab to Rank 3.
Congratulations, your Monster Synthesis Lab has increased to Rank 3!
It has gained the following properties:
You can now select two traits from your monsters and guarantee that those traits will be inherited by the combined monster.
The overall power level of your merged monsters will be increased to 70%.
And next came the real test.
Blake opened the monster synthesis interface and selected his Meteor Colossus and placed it into the first slot. Then he grabbed his brand new Hospital card – the one that Clay Atlas wanted more than anything else – and placed it into the second slot.
No warning messages or errors appeared in the interface of the system, and when the merge preview appeared in front of Blake, a massive grin broke out on his face.