“What is it? What are the rewards?” Gabe was up out of his chair in a second and hovering over him.
**Please choose 4 of the below specialised rewards for your settlement and their placement.**
1. Place 8 additional dungeons within the settlement. You may choose the location and grade from F to D
2. Completely terraform any one area within the settlement with unlimited TE to spend. (Can be chosen multiple times)
3. Upgrade any one settle crystal providing it the ability to link to any other settlement crystal’s planet wide for two way teleportation
4. Expand the entire settlement, adding on another layer of F grade area (Due to complexities in expansion will cost 2 rewards)
5. Place a random natural treasure within the settlement (Due to planet irregularities two natural treasures will be placed instead of one)
6. Place a library within the settlement. (Library is upgradeable, contains skill books, training/crafting guides and more)
7. Place a resource crystal. (Resource crystal acts as a storage space where all settlement funds, materials and treasures can be stored. Smaller crystals will be provided for placement around settlement. Resource crystal comes full to 50% capacity with crafting material up to and including epic rarity. Funds provided at 1 platinum coin.)
8. Upgrade mana density across the settlement by 1 perceived grade
9. Around current settlement, add in additional smaller settlements containing 5 F and 1 E grade area. (Can be chosen multiple times)
10. Permanently claim entire settlement, giving full control of who enters and exits to you. Settlement can not be taken from you.
Reading through the 10 options he was given he was overwhelmed by the benefit of a lot of them. Some like number 10 he was able to rule out immediately as having a permanent claim on the settlement went against not only his agreement with The Empire but it also didn’t align with his own personal plans. Others like the natural treasures and the resource crystal were much more interesting and he could actually get some benefit from them.
He read all of them out word for word so that Eric and Gabe could hear every choice and then they could start talking through the benefits and downsides of each. He also included an 11th choice and told them that he had 5 to choose from, knowing that he was going to have to cover up the instance orb.
“I think it is safe to say we rule out number 4, 8, 9 and 10. What do you guys think?” These 4 were the least beneficial to any of them at this point. He ruled out increasing the mana density as although there was a lot of benefits to it, as he had experienced in the D grade dungeon, it wasn’t something that he thought would have a large impact on the school. Unless he was missing something, which he probably was, but it would be stupid to waste a reward on an unknown. Expanding the settlement was also a waste which left them with 6 options to choose from.
“I agree, they aren’t bad choices but also not that much of a benefit. There are definitely a few I think will have both long and short term benefits. The crystal teleportation to any settlement will be a huge benefit for a school where people will be coming from all over the planet. I also think that the resource crystal and the library are great choices.” Eric was thinking it over and speaking out loud. At the last moment he added “And the instance orb is a must.”
“Yeah, but then we can only choose between the dungeons, the natural treasures and the terraforming. All of them are good choices. Think about it, we could terraform the entire D grade area and never have to worry about it again. The dungeons would mean we have plenty of places to grow right in the school which means we never have to rely on Viv for lower level dungeons and the natural treasures could help a lot of people grow, we also get two for the price of one.” Gabe had easily laid out the benefits of each one of the remaining choices.
“I don’t think we need the terraforming one. If we did it we would have to populate the area or let it all go to waste. We can always build things and expand in the future if we need to. I think you solidified the choice to make when you said that the dungeons would give us full independence, we have no idea if Viv will let us use other dungeons after the last discussion. For all we know she will purposely make us give her concessions or access to the school just so we can use the dungeons in this settlement. We could use the upgraded crystal to see if we can find other places and dungeons to use but that just means we are relying on others. I think we go with the dungeons.” Eric’s reasoning was sound and he couldn’t agree more.
“So we agree? Upgrade the settlement crystal for world travel, the Library, the Resource crystal and the dungeon? And the orb of course.” He would have liked the natural treasures but he also knew that the benefit to him would be short lived anyway so he wasn’t going to argue it.
“Yeah, four F and four E grade. We already have a D grade so I think that’s the best spread.” Eric looked at Gabe and he reluctantly agreed.
With the decision made he made each of his selections. When it came time to place them he didn’t have much trouble. The dungeons went close to the already existing D grade so that they were all close together. The library got put in a central location within the school, the resource crystal was placed in Eric office and several of the smaller linked ones in the crafting area and the teaching rooms. The settlement crystal was already placed and the upgrade was straight forward. He had already placed the instance orb so with that all done his rewards were claimed.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The only one of the rewards he wanted to look at immediately was the resource crystal. He was also curious about the library but he was already next to the crystal and wanted to see if there was any epic level materials that stood out to him.
“I am going to take anything that appeals to me.” He told them before he did it, not like they would stop him.
“We figured, let us know if there is anything interesting.”
The first few things that peaked his interest were some materials that were aspected. One was aspected to shadow and a very interesting weave of material, perfect for a rouge type which he took. He also found some interesting metals which he also took as well as some unique pieces of wood which peaked his interest.
There was also some gemstones that looked useful but left all but one for the time being as he had no need for them as of yet. Overall there wasn’t a huge amount that he wanted or needed but if he had an idea for something he could always return and get it.
“We are going to go back to the school and start getting everyone moving after we check out the dungeons and library. It will take a few days to get everyone settled but I am guessing you have other things to do?”
“Yeah, I will reach out if I need anything but mostly I will hole up in my rooms and craft. You don’t have to worry either, I made my own quarters far enough away that no one should be effected by what I do.” He had learnt from his mistakes when it came to crafting with higher tiered forces. He had wrecked havoc on the school hen he created Death’s Kiss and had no desire to put people through that again.
“Going to make anything interesting?”
“Some parting gifts. I was going to go to the library first. I am curious as to what is in it, what is a skill book anyway?”
They all agreed to go to the library together and when they got there it was nothing like he had expected. It was huge, much bigger on the inside than it should have been. There was tables and chairs, study areas and shelves of books lining the walls.
Thankfully everything was labelled. In one direction he found a section labelled Professions and crafting and then sub sections for everything he could think of and more. He found books on runes, alchemy, smithing, and it just kept going.
In another section was Classes and weaponry which again had sub sections detailing all the different classes he could think of as well as weapon training guides.
In the last section, which was shimmering slightly was what was labelled skill books. When he approached this section he got a notification pop up saying that this section was restricted and that approval was required. Thankfully he was the one to approve access and he did so immediately, also providing Eric and Gabe with delegated authority.
Afterwards he chose a book in the mage section randomly and on the front cover was pretty much everything he needed to know. A guide for skill [Advanced] Mana Blast. He opened the book and what he saw was exactly what he had expected, it was a book guiding the reader on how to obtain the skill. It was a step by step guide including pictures on how one could actively work on manipulating their mana into obtaining the skill.
“These are incredible! But I don’t get the point, is it to help you get the option of the skill the next time you get a choice of skills to pick from? I thought that was based off of your class and profession.” Both Gabe and Eric had also picked up a random skill book and were looking through them like he had been.
“You can get skills without having to wait to choose one at the important levels. Its not easy and takes either a lot of effort or can be a fluke. But if I was to guess, if someone dedicated a lot of time in following the direction in the guides then they would be able to unlock the skill without having to choose it on level ups.” He continued flipping through the book in his hands and concluding that not just anybody would be able to pick up a skill book and learn the skill, you would have to have a good base knowledge and understanding before you could attempt to gain the skill. In fact in the book he opened it detailed what previous books to read and master before attempting this one.
“I am going to take a wild guess and say you know this because you have done this before?” He looked up from the book and looked at the other two seeing them both now staring at him.
“Yeah, once or twice. Would have been great to have these though. I would suggest you have a good look through some of these. They have basic foundational knowledge required before learning the skill. Would be a good idea to form some classes around that.” He continued to look through some books just to check the ranking of the skills and noted that most were at basic, a good amount at advanced and even a select few at epic.
He took an epic one and opened it up and was immediately taken back by just how complex the initial requirements were. The skill was named Debilitating Strike and the more he read the more he realised that it was actually a guide to upgrade the advanced skill Devastating Strike, which was upgraded from the basic skill Power Strike.
“You may want to hire someone to catalogue all of this. This one is showing the upgrade progression of a skill from basic to epic. I am guessing that the skill books for all three are in here somewhere.” Both of them came to look at the book Shaun was holding.
“We will need at least one dedicated librarian for this. It will take weeks, months even to get this all sorted.” He looked at all the books in the skill section alone and they counted into the thousands.
“Best of luck with that.” He put the book away and after one final look at the library decided to leave for now. “I am going to get to crafting but will catch up in a few days.” He took his leave of the library, leaving them both still engrossed in the books.
He had monster cores to play with and things to craft. He would come back and check on the library once it started getting catalogued. Maybe if he had some spare time he would even help do it as he was curious as to what treasures he may find inside of some of those books. For now though he wanted to max out the rest of his skills and see what he could find out about monster cores.