CHAPTER XXXXXII: MORAL COMPASS
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TRIAL TIME 07:23:09
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IMPERIAL BAY
COLONEL
“Also, I know you lied. I just don’t know what you were lying about. The Gnomes wouldn’t have started a war over a few petty grievances.” The Cultivator said, Colonel, reading his lips and using his perception ability to understand. The elf looked back at the beach. The Power armors had started their attack plan, skimming across the water towards him. The elf smiled a satisfying smile. Then, he created a globe of water in front of himself. “Come.”
Off in the woods a few miles behind the Power armors at the shoreline, Colonel put away a telescope. He was blending into his surroundings seamlessly. “Let's go. We can’t beat him yet.” He said.
“Yet, are you nuts that are Iron rank, Cultivator? We can’t even touch him.” Gunter whispered while looking back at the beach.
Colonel hadn’t known what he thought the final boss was going to be, but that water cultivator wasn’t it. But looking back at everything, he was actually happy it was a water cultivator. First thing, it only made the Mermaids much more useful, if he was a fire cultivator the mermaids would be at a huge disadvantage. Secondly that left him isolated, he had no allies out there.
The cultivator was located on an island off the coast. They now knew that the Mermaid queen was there, and Colonel could get his 100% completion by breaking into that vault and...
Prompts opened.
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< DUNGEON COMPLETION OBJECTIVE LIST >
{1. Make a Stronghold.(Complete)
2. Win the war.(Complete)
3. Gain access to respawn system.(Complete)
4. Choose side in conflict.(Mermaid side)
5. Solve the puzzle.(Queen’s Vaults key)
6. Face the final boss.(Complete)
7. Don’t Die more than once.}
{100% Completion Bonus is rank upgrade.}
< 90% Completion >
{You can Complete the Trial at anytime over 50%}
{Would you like to complete Trial?
Yes/No}
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< QUEST >
{Quest Name: The Queen’s Vault II
Quest Type: Secret Chain
Description: When The Imperium came to Serenity for balance the game gave the Mermaid Queen a Vault. Who ever shall open this vault with be given a great power that will expel the enemy. In classic GREAT GAME style however the Queen and that Vault was captured by the Imperium and for the last few centuries they have been trying to open it. Where they have failed, you have succeeded.
Requirements: Open the vault
Objective 1: Use key to unlock vault.
Rewards: EXP, Essence, The Queen’s vault III Quest.
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< QUEST UPGRADED >
{Quest Name: Cultivation I; Mortal Realm
Quest Type: Cultivator; Sponsored/Earned
Quest Tier: Legendary
Description: Cultivators are creatures on the path to immortality. They use Essence to slowly remove their bodies from the mortal coil.
All Objective completed.
Secret Objectives Completed.
Space Choice upgraded.
Finish Trial to receive rewards.
Time limit: None
Rewards: Variable.}
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‘All I have to do is open the vault for 100% completion. Was me just looking at the elf ‘facing’ him, I thought it meant fight, but if that isn’t the case maybe just maybe.’ He turned to Gunter. “I have a plan. We need to talk to the Gnomes again, but I think we can win this today.”
An hour later they were back at a forward operating base with thousands of power armor and hundreds of gnome steam punk gunners mixed in with the wary group of Nascent Mermaids. Colonel walked up to a gnome in a two story tall exoskeleton standing in an open air main command building at the center of the FOB. The gnome broke off from his conversation and saluted him.
“Ah Colonel, we are starting to get information in from the beachhead. The ten test power armor were destroyed in under a minute as we anticipated. We are assuming his main techniques are in the low Copper range, and his Technique Arts have to be close to 250 with his ease of use and damage output, if that is the case it not good. We will be able to calculate how much it would take to beat him in about a week of testing. But preliminary assessment are catastrophic” The gnome said.
He was Spiro Sprocket the leader of the Gnomes on Serenity. He had retired from the council a few decades back, but had recently gotten his golem mastery Skill-Tree to the Master Tier and was probably the most powerful person on the island because of that now. He was not into politics, and hated the dog and pony shows. He was a straight forward gnome, and didn’t like to beat around the bush.
Colonel appreciated that, he wanted to go back to his team mates, he didn’t need the 100% completion bonus, but he also knew Soto would have wanted him to get it while he was here. Plus, he was kind of curious what the rewards meant more than anything. He could help but think about his mentor not giving him any information about this trial whatsoever.
He focused again, his mine seemed to be wandering more and more as he got into a routine over the last week. It was dangerous without people he could trust around.fortunately, for him, the mermaids feel felt faithful loyal to him,almost to the point of zealotry. He looked up at the Spiro andrealized his mind had wandered again. He cleared his throat thinking about the report he had been given.
“Is that fast? I have no reference.” Colonel replied, he had been sponge learning from these clearly experienced Players. They gladly told him anything he inquired about because there were clearly some things that were commonly known throughout the multiverse that his planet wouldn’t find out until much later in the game. Information is the true power of the GREAT GAME
He learned things like each planet was broken down into three major realms.
The Mortal realm which was the ever expanding physical world that most players would know of.
The Sky realm or the spiritual realm of the Celestial was where the truly powerful ascend and where Magic never goes away even in barren worlds, this is were the Celestial Bodies refined its Essence, and become an example for the denizen of the Sky realm; the land of the Cultivator.
The Heavenly Realm was the final attached realm to the Celestial Bodies. it was more like her consciousness and like all consciousness, it was shared. It was usually shared with the allies in the solar system if there were any, but often beyond that.
The Heavenly realm was the home of the gods. While most gods were cultivators, it wasn’t prerequisite to being a god. That only required faith.
“It is beyond fast my lord. I keep forgetting how young you are.” Spiro said rubbing his neck awkwardly, which looked ridiculous coming from his exoskeleton. “We do this for any Epic Elite monster and above. We have been doing it for Eons. Humans are known for leveling up quickly because of your short lives. The older younger races focus on leveling up correctly.”
“So wouldn’t the cultivator know that?” Colonel asked, and he was glad he did by the look on Spiro’s face. ‘This dude had not even thought about it.this is supposed to be the smartest guy on the island.’ Clyde thought exasperated.
“That is somewhat in our calculations, but we never planned to use this strategy on our own. While we always have contingencies, we never test them because that would be counterproductive.” Spiro said after a few seconds.
“You didn’t think about it did you?” Colonel deadpanned.
“No, no we didn’t, we might have to go back to the drawing board. I have been out of the loop for to long, I must be getting rusty after ten thousand years. Ah well.” Spiro shrugged.
“I still think we should keep him busy, I will go to the mission, and complete it while you distract him.” Colonel said.
The last week was more travel, planning, and military balls, than fighting a war, that and monster hunting for some reason Raid bosses kept popping up on the island. The gnomes were as good as their word, actually they were better than their word. As soon as Colonel had destroyed the army at the fort, a message came in from the Gnomish command informing them of the second phase, getting rid of the Elves in the Imperium.
Colonel didn’t know all of the details, but he knew that it started with a no contest vote against the leader of the nation, which turned out to be the catalyst for the war as the Matriarch reacted to that vote... poorly.
She beheaded the three gnomish members of the Council even though all of the council voted against her. To make things worse she paraded their headless bodies around the capital as a power play.
Huge mistake.
That had only emboldened the gnomes. A couple of days ago the gnomes turned off all of the slave collars, and then it was only a matter of time before the freed mermaids would rebel. Which turned out be much quicker than even the gnomes anticipated.
It was immediate.
The mermaids that were in slave collars never got their race upgrade prompt so learning they were a new race, plus being free for the first time for some, in centuries. They didn’t hesitate. The ones that were part of teams attacked immediately with no regard for their own life. The others all joined teams or made raid parties, becoming the biggest raid in the history of Serenity. That wasn’t hyperbole everyone involved to survived received a title.
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It was not completely planned, but gnomes never kept slaves, they contracted people sure, some of the contracts were incredibly restrictive even, but it was never slavery. They knew a day like this would come, and it had happened many times in their history apparently, and gnomes have a long memories, which has made them very adaptable.
Needless to say when you had a raid party of hundreds of thousands forming inside of the Imperium Strongholds all through their lands, the war was over before it even most of the Elves knew. The Raid Event’s name was simply dubbed the Elven Massacre.
Colonel equated it to an old Cedric the entertainer joke. ‘Black people don’t need no run coordinator, if black people see other people running, especially other black people running, we just run, no questions ask. We just run.’ This is what happened in the elven cities which were always next to gnomish cities (segregation at its best) the mermaids didn’t need a rebel leader, or a hype man, all it took was one mermaid seeing another fighting back, and then there was snowball effect.
Only the peak Tier elves survived the initial assaults, power trumped even numbers after all, but only for a time, Mana wasn’t unlimited, and -Will-, -Battle Intent-, or -Stamina- was even more limited, when it had to be used to fight so many. The old monsters of the Elven cities fell, or fled after only a day.
That was when the gnomish army of power armors, and exo-suits showed up and cleaned up. Without full teams of support even the most powerful Elves were massacred, and perma-killed. The matriarch was the last of the powerful people to be killed. The only ones that should be left were hermits that either lived in the untouched wilderness, or the ones in Dungeons who were preparing to ascend.
Colonel didn’t understand the untouched wilderness part at first. It was an island, so his assumption was every place was explored, both these races were ancient after all. Then he found out that the world is constantly growing and if a place isn’t being occupied by a sapient being it expands even faster.
Colonel didn’t know much about the GREAT GAME before he got here, but he had been told pretty much everything the Imperium knew about the game in the last few days. It was also filled in by the mermaid clergy which were slowly transitioning to his Clery which was not something he was too excited about.
It was hard enough being a senior commissioned officer, but being a group of people’s deity, was not something any sane person would ever want. But the -Faith- points were... a little broken, it was the power of the gods so what did he expect.
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< FAITH PATH(LOCKED in Trial) >
{You are a Godling, the first Rank of Godhood. You can now gain -Faith-. -Faith- can be used to do anything, with enough -Faith- gods can move mountains, with a little more they can create one. Welcome to Godhood and remember -Faith- is your true power.
God Rank: Godling level 12
Faith Pool:123,680/12,000}
{Would you like to unlock path for 100,000 -Faith-}
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Of course he could unlock it with -Faith-, he wasn’t going to because he was happy with his current power plus it felt like a waste.
“Wilco Colonel.” Spiro said taking him out of his wandering mind again, “Do you need any help with your plan my lord.”
Colonel had a hard time trusting a group that could betray a long time partner, the way the gnomes did, even if it was the right thing to do. It was problematic to antagonize your new allies however, so he went with a half truth. “You are helping, by distracting the cultivator. I am getting a one shot kill vide from him if I go up against him. Also I don’t want to endanger anyone else.”
“Very well. We can hold him for a while I am assuming, use your time well.”
“I intend to, where is Felicia?”
The gnome rolled his eyes, but then caught himself. “She is in the command tent telling us how to do our job. Can you make her leave? Please.” He pleaded.
He felt for him, but she was Colonel’s back up in enemy territory, besides if she was bothering them, she wouldn’t be bother him. “I will talk to her about it as soon as possible.” Colonel lied.
The gnome visibly relax, making Colonel feel a little bad but that feeling quickly got squashed. “Much appreciated. She is relentless.”
Colonel pat Spiro’s leg with a dull metal thud that seemed to absorb some of the force he was exerting. “It will be over soon.”
“That is what I am afraid of.”
“What do you mean?” Colonel asked.
“When it is over you will be leaving, and all we would have to deal with is her.” Spiro replied.
“The council is there.” Colonel said not finding it in his heart to care. His people we going to grow faster now, and if the gnomes supported them, they would be unstoppable. If the gnomes got in the way, well, they could always kill them off if need be. The mermaids had numbers by a lot, especially after the slave collar deactivations.
“And she runs the Council.” Spiro said defeated. “Can you appoint someone else.”
“The council has no leader Spiro, also they will be a spot for the gnomes once this war is over, so you will have a say.” Colonel almost laughed at the mans growing horror on his face, he really didn’t like politics.
“Anyway, I am off,” Colonel waved him off as he walked to the command tent, Gunter in tow. ”I see your mother is as charming as ever.”
“You have no idea, she is playing this all up, but she loves this stuff, my grace.” Gunter smiled.
Colonel wanted to roll his eyes because of the honorific when the mermaids were around others, they all call him some version of a god. It was annoying and another reason why he was ready to go home, the callousness of power was absolutely sinking into his psyche. He could feel it. If he was thinking straight, he would realize even that last interaction wasn’t anything like him. He needed an anchor to care, and his teammates and family were those anchors. He needed to go home.
Sure Colonel had spent most of his adult life on deployment to so many foreign lands that his own country had become foreign to him. But as the saying goes ‘home was where the heart is’ and his heart was alway in people and not places.
He paused in front of the command tent. “I am the creator of my reality. I am a warrior, a warrior can be kind, they can be gentle, but they cannot be lazy. I will conquer my own obstacles. I will protect humanity.” He said his mantra to center himself before going in.
He step into the tent that was much bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. Mermaids and gnomes ran around passing information back and fought. Some professional had memory and projection trade skills, while some could even make information books with time. The latter was what Colonel was after.
Felicia commanded the room like a maestro, players would hand her information, and she would disseminate it out to who needed it without even looking at them she just flicked through her HUD.
Colonel thought he could talk to one of her aids to get his info and leave, but he wasn’t so lucky. Felicia locked eyes with him, and a small sneer appeared on her face. He guessed that a week was to short for her to get over him beating her at her own game.
Frankly he didn’t give a fuck. He needed to complete his mission and go home. “Your grace.” Felicia called out moving towards him, the words were strained, she didn’t hide her distain, but she was competent, so Colonel put up with it. As long as she wasn’t disrespectful he wouldn’t begrudge her the autonomy.
“Yes Councilor?” Colonel replied.
“What did he look like?” Felicia’s face was hot with rage or anger.
“Huh?” Colonel wasn’t expecting the question, nor the attitude not pointed at him.
“The Usurper,” she composed herself, “what did he look like?”
The Usurper was the just the name the mermaids gave the progenitor of the Imperium on this planet. Which was good, because that would quickly become confusing, Colonel believed.
“He was...tall about six feet three inches.” Colonel began, he didn’t think that the earth’s measuring numbers would be the same, but the numbers translated seamlessly in translation. He could only shrug, it was a game and that was game gimme that he wasn’t going to complain about. He didn’t want to imagine having to learn a different type of math every new planet he went to, that sent shivers up his spine.
“That isn’t that big.” Felicia said and to be fair she was right, and while female mermaid were often smaller than human females, it was the opposite for the men. Plus all mermaids had there water physical enhancement ability that make them bigger, stronger, and allowed them to spam water spells for a time. They was a period of weakness afterwards, but still worth it for the destruction that would have came before that weakness.
“For a mermaid sure, but for a human he was definitely tall.”
“That is because he isn’t human.” Felicia argued.
“Fair,” Colonel said not trying to getting into a conversation of semantics. “He had longer ears than the other elves and his ears were even sharper than normal elves. His eyes were brown with a blue circle around the iris.”
“That means he is a peak iron Cultivator, that isn’t good, if we are going to be fighting him in his element, even if it is our own. Mana and Essence are not the same.” Felicia said concern written all over her face.
Colonel had learned a lot about Cultivators in the past week as well. He didn’t know if everyone that took a trial learned what he learned, but it was very useful information. The major difference was Cultivators don’t use mana anymore their mana was converted to Essence over your first two ranks and by the time a Cultivator made it to the Sky Realm (in power not location) they would have had to absorb a ridiculous amount of Essence in order to ascend to that Realm.
The information was a bit vague to be honest, and that was okay because there was one thing Colonel had learned about the GREAT GAME so far. It was like real life, forging your own path was the only true path to power. Yes, following the paths of others for a time was acceptable, and may even lead to success in the short term, but no real power in the long run. Also a ‘short term’ in the GREAT GAME could be a thousand years or more.
Pre magic Colonel would have just passed on all his knowledge to the next generation, and hope that they were successful, but post magic Colonel was immortal, and was all in on being the best leader of the human race. Well at least the ones on earth.
Colonel’s father Clyde sr used to always say that we humans only control about 10% of our lives. Your environment, the weather, but most importantly the people around you effect you life more. The average persons 10% was not to much for them to handle, if they had just a little organization in their life. People who have a routine tend to be infinitely more successful that people who wing it. Often the latter gets overwhelm by their 10% which effects the people around them.
Colonel would always asked why do so many people have an effect on other humans. The answer never made sense to the younger Clyde, but as he got older, he understand it all to well.
“Its not many people taking an equal percentage, Junior, no usually it is a small circle of friends and enemies that dictate over 70% of the remaining 90%. The rest is faceless or inanimate objects and phenomenon.” When asked why enemies. The answer was also clear.
“You move to either confront your enemies, or you avoid them, either way they control a significant part of our lives. We also aim to please our friends, and family that also means they control a significant part of our lives.
“Now a man can be a piece of shit or live in woods somewhere not adding to society.” He would always pause at this point to make sure his name sake was listening. ”Those people’s 10% is not as convoluted as the average person but they have their reasons, and traumas that lead them there which often stemmed from problems outside of their 10%.
“You Clyde, you will have the opposite problem. Your 10% will be carrying the weight of leadership. Leaders take on a part of everyone’s 10% that doesn’t mean their 10% became 11%, no it meant that your 10% encompass a bigger piece of the pie. Which also means more people can effect your life significantly.” Clyde Sr would always stop there to make a point leaving his son in thought.
Colonel’s 10% now encompassed not just one, but three didn’t races, not to mention his Godhood, how many more people would be a part of his 10% when he rank that path up. Clyde Sr must be real proud where ever he was looking down at his son. Colonel was never one to half step anything. He was all gas, he wanted all the smoke, any cliché saying about taking on to much, that was Colonel. He not only did, he took on more problems, he never complained, he was Atlas carrying the weight of the world on his back and he loved it.
“Water seems to be his element.” Colonel continued speaking not letting his thoughts out.
“That is both good and bad.” Felicia seemed worried, “The good is if you get him away from the water he won’t be to annoying to beat, but you would also lose our support, and have to depend solely on the gnomes.” She wasn’t convinced that gnomes were fully on board either which was why Colonel let her have an attitude towards them it was useful. Plus she was the politician and knew how far to poke the bear, well at least he hoped she knew.
The gnomish officers in the command tent were smart enough to not antagonize their new allies over some well justified conceptions. “We will be ready your grace.” A high ranking gnome said from a tactical chair that was like a stool with hydraulics. Colonel had wondered how two races who were so different from each other worked together and the gnomes were just master artificers, the made items to make sure they were always at the height of the speaker. Apparently gnome homes were never built for non gnomes so that was the only place they didn’t need height enhancing items.
“Lets hope it doesn’t come to that. The power he commands in the water is ridiculous, he killed a platoon of assassins with barely a few swipes of his hands, yes they were trying to kill the matriarch at the time, but they still had an idea that he was there, and still died to easily.”
“There was only two tier 5s with them so I doubt it would be that easy next time.” Felicia said.
They had sent most of the armies back to Wanchi, and only had two armies were with them since the gnomes were doing all the heavy lifting, and they couldn’t be a hundred elves left alive on the island. “Wait isn’t Wanchi filled with the water element?” Colonel had just came for an information book, but after being reminded of the powers of the Usurper he was a little curious. “Can someone get a me an information book on that island please.”
Felicia froze.
“What you don’t have anything...” A gnome handed him a book.
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{Item Name: Vault Island Information Book
Item Type: Information book
Item Rank: Mid Platinum
Item Durability: 270
Description: A book of information that can be absorb by players.
RARE MOD: Information can be recalled for an uncommon period.
PLATINUM MOD: Information appears on map ability.}
Prerequisite: All stats but magic over 500.
< Would you like to absorb this book
YES/NO? >
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“Yes.” Colonel said holding the book. It then dissolved into motes of pink light, and floated away from him lighting up the tent around him and breaking Felicia out of her stupor.
“Yes it is.” She said a little worried.
“You said that the Usurper hadn’t left his island since he had kidnapped your queen correct?” Colonel confirmed.
“That is correct.”
“So why the look?” It seems like he did care, that was good Colonel thought.
“He has nothing to lose he hasn’t been able to open the vault in centuries why would think we could open it in his absence? The best move would be to attack us, and force the gnomes back under his banner.”
Colonel looked around hoping for gnomish complaints of honor, or something, but now none of the gnomes wanted to even make eye contact all of a sudden. “I think you might be right.” Can we get word back to the Council?” That was the one thing Colonel hadn’t anticipated the share size of the island prevented communication beyond the army’s limited range.
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< QUEST Updated >
{Quest Name: The Queen’s Vault II
Quest Type: Secret Chain
Description: When The Imperium came to Serenity for balance the game gave the Mermaid Queen a Vault. Who ever shall open this vault with be given a great power that will expel the enemy. In classic GREAT GAME style however the Queen and that Vault was captured by the Imperium and for the last few centuries they have been trying to open it. Where they have failed, you have succeeded.
Requirements: Open the vault
Objective 1: Use key to unlock vault.
Rewards: EXP, Essence, Stronghold upgrade mark.
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He had lost the chain quest as the reward for some reason. But his quest tab opened and he got another quest prompt right afterwards.
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< QUEST EARNED >
{Quest Name: The Queen’s Vault III
Quest Type: Secret Chain
Description: Once the Queen is free she cannot lead the dead. Prevent the massacre of the her people
Requirements: Save 50% of her people
Objective 1: Stop The Usurper from killing over half of the Mermaid race.
Rewards: EXP, Essence, Upgraded to Stronghold upgrade mark.
Penalty: Gnomes turn on you and your people
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“Well, that answers that.” Colonel looked at Felicia as he shared the quest with her.
“I knew it!” She turns to one of her aides. “Send runners home. They should already be on high alert, but they won’t be expecting a monster with the power of the Usurper showing up at our front gates with the ability to command our element.” She ordered, she looked back at Colonel. “You should complete the second part of the quest. By the time you are done, we should be ready to move back to Wanchi to support them.”
“That is a great idea. No matter how powerful someone is, they can’t be in the two places at once.”
“That is not true. With enough power, even space-time can be conquered.” A Gnome said. Everyone in the room nodded like this was a universal truth.
A gnome burst into the tent, scanned it quickly, and then made her way over to Colonel. A quick salute that Colonel returned, and the gnome was talking. “The second wave of Power armor had engaged the progenitor...”
“Usurper!” Felicia said, cutting the gnome off. “This Player is the only Progenitor here.” She said, pointing at Colonel with pride. Colonel would have grabbed his pearls in surprise if he had any.
“...Ok...The second wave of Power armor had engaged the Usurper when he retreated to his island, grabbed a trident, and escaped into the water behind the island. His speed is in the mid-bronze rank for sure. The gnome seemed nervous to say that part. We also believe he...”
“You think he is heading to Wanchi, correct?” Colonel didn’t want to beat around the bush.
“Yes, we are 90% sure that was his destination.” The gnome answered.
“What about the other 10%?“
“He could ascend either to a higher realm or to a higher mana zone.
“We doubt that because the protocol for all of the Imperium was to wait for the vault to be open before any of us could ascend, so doubtful he would run this early.” The gnome said after a hesitation.
“Good, then we will be sending our army back to support Wanchi. I am assuming the power armors are pursuing him through the water?”
“Yes, we have a platoon of water-powered power armor on his heels, but as we said, he is fast.” Every rank in the cultivation progression boosted all the base stats by 10% more per rank. The main element stats go up by 20% per rank. This meant that just ranking up made a player much more powerful than a player with the same stats without a cultivation path.
“Well, this is convenient. I will be heading to the island on my own then.”
“What?” Everyone in the room said simultaneously, causing all of the work to come to a screeching halt. Colonel looked around, confused, before he got it.
“First off, allyuh get back to work. If you were eavesdropping on our conversation, then you are wrong,” Colonel yelled with a half smile. “Secondly, don’t worry, gnomes; I plan to win this war before you have to check your moral compass again.”