“That’s some reckless shit,” Keynes said, standing on the wall and watching the hordes of monsters below. The Resistance hadn’t even built outer walls so the monsters weren’t contained like most uncleared rift clusters. Somehow, the Resistance managed to actively lure the monsters towards the city. Columbus didn’t know details, saying it was developed after he’d left the Resistance.
I want that thing.
Keynes had to admit, it looked impressive and at the same time he wondered if they’d be able to replicate it. Kora’s spiritual aura betrayed similar thoughts. Knowing her, in a few days she’d have a complete plan worked out. The issue was the beacon itself and the question how quickly Untainted Paradise would be able to develop something similar. The fact that Keynes hadn’t heard about something like this hinted at the rift drop. The Resistance had a rare Level 3 rift somewhere, which they delved regularly. Columbus also admitted that the Resistance had a talented team of researchers. He’d founded it personally to counterbalance the Institute and Windsor Freeman. They remained with the Resistance as a part of the deal between Columbus and Cassandra. The more Keynes learned about this deal the less he liked it.
“It isn’t that bad,” Kora admitted. “If you know the monster spawn ratio then it’s only a matter of ensuring that there is sufficient force to farm it. Actually, given the fact that monsters spawn endlessly and give a constant amount of essence, uncleared rifts can be abused.”
Keynes disagreed with her.
“Monsters outside rifts only give around 1/10th of an essence and distance penalty is much harsher. The only resource beside the miniscule amount of essence is monster parts, which is fine for items but that is it.”
Kora huffed quietly, squinting at Keynes. She looked amused!
“Good thing you’re not responsible for planning.”
“What?” Keynes feigned indignation. “How can you say that?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked with a wider smile. “You’re looking at the problem only from one perspective, ignoring benefits other approaches present. You know that rifts apply an essence penalty based on the number of people inside?”
Keynes rolled his eyes. Of course, he knew that. This kind of knowledge was the very basic one.
“Sure. How does it compare to this?”
“I don’t know the details but there must be over a million monsters here. That’s like a hundred times more than a rift, right?”
“I…actually don’t know how many monsters are inside a rift,” Keynes admitted.
“It’s anything between a hundred and ten thousand. There is also some variance between Levels, types and rarity but neither me nor Natalia had access to that kind of information.”
“Why?” Keynes frowned.
“There was no point for us to know. We were there to clear the rifts, not design a clearing schedule or plan anything. I’m not sure even the rift manager understands the larger picture,” she replied. “Anyway, back to the topic at hand, even if you consider penalties in rift and outside a rift, with a sufficient number of monsters, there will be a breakeven point beyond which uncleared rifts are much more profitable.”
“Only in terms of essence and monster parts,” Keynes added. “You’re still losing on rift rewards and raw materials present inside rifts.”
“Yes, that’s why I said there is a breakeven point beyond which the number of monsters outside make it more profitable than clearing rifts.”
“What if the beacon fails?” he asked, trying to catch Kora off guard.
She shrugged.
“Exactly, you’re risking turning the entire South America into another Australia.”
“I don’t think it is as bad as you’re trying to make it be, Keynes,” she admitted, a little thoughtfully. “When we were in Emerald City, I ran across a surprising estimate. Even with all the uncleared rifts currently on Earth, the society’s demand isn’t met in 0.1%. That’s roughly 100 million people who have some kind of access to Level 1 and higher materials.”
That, indeed, was a surprising estimate but…
“How many innocent people have died in the outbreaks?” he asked, disliking himself for sounding like Vivena.
“It was beyond your control,” she said and he opened his mouth to argue but found no words because he wanted her to be right. Making a monster out of himself wasn’t going to help anyone. He wasn’t blind, despite the countless deaths, the outbreaks were praised across the globe. People finally had access to essence and Higher Level materials. Or at least 100 million people had. It was something to think about. While Keynes was no longer considering sharing knowledge with the world as there was too much danger in it, spreading access to essence to the rest of society sounded like a noble goal.
Their conversation didn’t last long beyond that as Columbus joined them on the wall.
“Cassandra’s people confirmed the first location,” Columbus handed Keynes a note. “It’s in the middle of this uncleared rift cluster.” Keynes knew what was coming next. “They want this one left uncleared.”
Leaving an uncleared Level 4 rift. At that moment, Keynes couldn’t decide if he felt relieved with or jealous of the Resistance’s planning. As per deal, it would still leave another 24 Level 4 rifts for them to delve for rewards. Maybe Kora wasn’t wrong about this? He didn’t know what to think about this.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Do you need us there?” Columbus asked after a short pause. Keynes shook his head. With [Spiritual Wrath] he was going to be invisible to monsters for 10 minutes and on top of that, he had [Flight]. If they wished to help, they’d better stay here and watch.
***
Keynes stopped a few metres above the sealed Level 4 rift. The monsters carpeted the ground in all directions. The scale of the carnage near the wall was unbelievable with hundreds of ascenders of various Levels ploughing through the monsters with ease. After observing them for a while, he understood the system they used. One group of ascenders killed monsters pushing them away from the wall, while another group cleared the monster remnants. When they finished, the first group retreated to the wall and a new group of ascenders took over, restarting the whole process.
The Level 4 rift was too far away from the wall for the ascenders to reach it. And from here, Keynes could see that even with the beacon, many monsters dispersed and ran another way.
After what Kora had told him about the estimate, Keynes no longer considered it a bad thing. There of course was a risk but most people wouldn’t even get a chance to enter a rift. He quickly threw the dilemma out of his head and focused on the rift below. Since levelling up, his Talent had a longer range. Even six metres in the air, Keynes could unseal the rift without moving any closer.
Rift (Common; Stable)
Level
4
Status
Sealed
Requirements
-
Modifiers
-
Details
This rift contains a higher number of monsters and a boss (overcharge effect).
Affinity
-
Special Status
Overcharged; Unexplored
At least, it was the bottom rarity and type. Keynes used his Talent with ease but during it, he had an impression like there were more options than unsealing this one and causing the fourth outbreak. Unfortunately, the third option was too vague for him to fully understand. He might need Level 5 or another spiritual stage to access it.
As the rift unsealed, Level 4 monsters came forth; massive lizards made out of earth. They were called Lizard Earth-Golem. They were easily the size of an elephant and trampled lesser monsters around. One after another spilt out of the rift, making unpleasant gurgling sounds. Unlike Lower Level monsters, they sensed Keynes and forced him to fly higher as they attacked by spitting hot mud. While their attacks weren’t dangerous, they weren’t pleasant and if there were enough of them, they might start hurting him.
Keynes noticed another issue right away. The beacon didn’t attract the Lizard Earth-Golems as they scattered in random directions. They didn’t even pay attention to the movement of their lesser brethren.
“Well, this is the Resistance problem…”
A few seconds after he rose higher, spells started falling around the Level 4 rift. Only then he noticed a platform in the air. Over twenty ascenders bombarded monsters below with deadly spells. And there was something different about some of these spells. Some weren’t spells but Talents. Talent fireballs had a different spiritual signature than spell [Fireball]s. They also inflicted much more damage.
“They are so bad,” a familiar voice said.
Keynes turned and saw Lem Solaris’s small frame standing in the air.
“Why?” he asked, genuinely curious. She had promised him a training after all so he wondered how she perceived other ascenders. But she waved Keynes’s comment away without answering his question.
“Have you come to start my training?”
“Not yet,” she admitted, watching the platform descend. The ascenders had to get in range of essence to make it worthwhile. “We must start with basic knowledge first. Your System is stubborn and won’t let me interfere on a larger scale so it will stay between me and you.”
“I cannot share what you teach me with others?”
“Oh, you can do that, but the issue is that most of the information will be tailored to your circumstances and others will have little use out of it. I won’t stop you so feel free to share.”
She descended, stopping at his level. The platform was near the ground as more magic entered the scene.
“Even your friend, Kora, would have changed their laughable output but ascenders always neglect the importance of utility.”
“You mean her Talent?”
“Of course. Her Talent is not a joke. If you know how to use it properly, it’ll make a difference.”
Keynes got an idea…
“What would happen if she boosted my Talent?”
“It’s a good question. First, you must understand how your Talent operates. Talents aren’t like spells. They play by different rules, obey different laws and limitations.”
“I noticed that one of the ascenders below has a fireball Talent. It looks more powerful.”
Lem Solaris nodded, her child’s face betrayed no emotions.
“Being able to discern between a spell and a Talent is very important and it is a good start to kick off our session,” she said. “Can you tell what kind of Talents others have?”
Keynes watched the mayhem of colourful spells but there was nothing that would indicate which of them were spells and Talents. Maybe if he could use his spiritual aura—
“Forget it,” she warned him. “Your control of your aura is too weak for this. You’d make a mess of things.”
Mess of things?!
“Focus,” she said and he felt all distractions vanish. “Spells and Talents are fundamentally different. It isn’t only their strength that differs but the very way they interact with the outside world. If your Talent existed in the form of a spell, it would never be able to unseal a rift not to mention reward rooms. Don’t ask about Talent’s inner workings because it isn’t something even I understand. With everything available in the System, Talents are the only thing that can break its rules. The next closest thing you can find would be a category of spells that can augment or mimic Talents but their scope and strength is greatly limited. Also, they must be inside your spiritual core to function properly. This brings us to another thing which is modification. There are only two ways to modify a Talent; the first is through the mentioned category of spells. The second one are upgrades. Every 5 Levels you’re present with three choices to upgrade your Talent. These upgrades are divided into minor and major. As the…what’s the matter? Don’t tell me you're already struggling. We haven’t even started.”