The Nyiragongo shard had fostered an enormous settlement within its territory. Over the course of the assimilation, its original residents had been bolstered by massive migrations of people, the extent to which Coop would have had trouble imagining them. They mostly came from the nearer portions of West Africa, before and after the Siege Event, where an insufficient number of civilization shards to represent the human population had appeared.
The survivors from nations all the way to the Atlantic Coast followed news that flowed out from the central rainforests, carried by people using their newly granted abilities to navigate enormous log rafts up and down the Congo River drainage basin. Flotillas of logs, once simple timber, had transformed into floating fortresses that were near impossible for the Primal Constructs to properly contest. The vessels were moving reinforced strongholds, actively protected by squads of warriors as they explored the vast network of rivers and tributaries, carrying news and rescuing survivors.
The second largest rainforest on the planet was reinvigorated by mana, countering the degradation caused by logging and climate change, but unlike the untamed Central American forests, the distribution of rivers prevented the local people from being locked down and picked off.
Those who were ferried by the floating citadels combined with other groups of people displaced by the flooding of the Saharan Sea to form a super settlement that rivaled the Yucatan for its individual prominence. People from a thousand miles away had settled around the civilization shard in Nyiragongo, joining the local population. Together, they formed one of the largest settlements on the planet.
Nyiragongo also had close neighbors to its east, unlike how the Yucatan had been completely isolated. Many of those neighboring civilization shards also held populations that exceeded all but the largest settlements in the world. East Africa as a whole had allied early in the assimilation, embracing a little talked about advantage that they all shared. Places like Ghost Reef, The Heartland, and Punihuil had also been supported by the same resource. It was one brought by non-human animals being empowered by mana just as much as humans, bolstering the overall power of the settlements as a whole.
Coop only heard rumors of powerhouses that many still believed could best him in a duel, but had remained on the surface. Overtime, he had come to the conclusion that titles like The Pride of Kenya and the King of Africa weren’t actually nicknames so much as they were descriptors of leveled up lions. Perhaps it was for the best that he didn’t get to meet them. Jett would have no reason to be upset with him when he made it home this time around.
Either way, as a result of the consolidation of people in Nyiragongo, and the various factors that enabled their survival, Coop had the cleanest grind of the Underlayer Event. The local army was busy fighting Primal Constructs elsewhere, leaving the ultimate prize of their little race all to the ravenous Champion of Ghost Reef.
Coop dove in, enjoying his gigantic advantage in levels, compounded by the escalating pool of stats granted by his progression. Was his current position within the assimilation completely unfair? Yes, yes it was. Did he feel any hesitance in leveraging his position against the system limited opponents?
“Absolutely not.” Coop declared to himself in the middle of the biggest grind session of his life. He was reaping the benefits of his earlier investments into his build, and in doing so, he was investing further into his own progression. The snowballing effect of his path had become a positive feedback loop, and for as long as he was able, he needed to keep it going.
The specific processes of the assimilation were unknown to the extent that things could drastically change tomorrow and Coop could find himself facing what might be insurmountable challenges. The islands of Ghost Reef had graced him with the chance to grow strong, and if there was anything he learned as time went on, it was that they had to seize the opportunities as they appeared.
The Underlayer Event had become a chance for all of Ghost Reef’s residents to capitalize on their experience during the Siege Event and beyond, though he doubted there was anyone among his companions that would enjoy themselves to the same extent as the Champion himself.
Coop had his foot on the throat of the Primal Constructs, and he intended to keep pressing. Metaphorically speaking, at least. In reality, it was his ethereal weapons at their throats. He carved his way through their forces in a blitz, his concentration bolstered by the pressure of competition from the assembled army of humans elsewhere in the Underlayer.
He greedily assaulted the invaders, mists chasing his form as he rushed forward, seeing the monsters as less of a challenge and more of a reward. The Primal Constructs would probably hate how the settlement events were evolving, and any other factions that were watching the scores should take their losses as a warning. Earth wasn’t for sale and The Lighthouse was here to stay.
Coop repeatedly called upon Inheritance of the Mists as he settled into a smooth pace of steady destruction. For anyone else, the intensity was far too extreme. If they tried to keep up, they would burn themselves out and put themselves in dangerous situations.
However, the fact that Coop could destroy the masses of enemies at a rate that seemed unmatched wasn’t a good reason for him to slow down in the slightest. The gap that he had created was constantly working against him, like there was a set of heavy weights being placed upon his shoulders each time he added another level to slow his future progress down further and further.
Eventually the weights would be enough to handicap his continued progress and force him to give ground to all those who were chasing after him. Coop told himself that the time hadn’t come for him to let that happen. Not today and not tomorrow. Not until the Eradication Protocol, however many years it took to initiate at the absolute earliest.
In that way he pushed himself beyond even his current limit, seeking to optimize every action, from his breathing, to his vision, and consolidate his effort. “Just a little faster.” He chanted to himself, turning it into a silent mantra as he waited for another Apparition to provide the climactic crash of cymbals to the song of battle he composed.
He accounted for every point of mana, maintaining exactly 50% of his pool in between casts of Inheritance. At this point Legacy of the Mists was a pure positive, with the ghosts siphoning mana at no cost of their own other than the durability of his weapons. If he wasn’t in the Underlayer, limited by the strength of the ley lines, he would have maintained his own squads of supportive soldiers, much like those that had challenged him to duels. The many similarities between himself and the local warriors continued to be surprising.
He managed to finish off the Primal Constructs before the local champions arrived, lighting himself with the spotlight of another level right at the end. He absently distributed his stats into Mind while thinking about his grind.
After considering it for a few minutes within the empty objectives, he decided it was time to head out. He didn’t need to wait for the others to arrive, and they had proven time and time again that they didn’t necessarily need his help, despite how much he forced it upon them. They weren’t the types to want to debrief with the Champion that had swept through their territory. It was enough that they recognized his contribution.
In fact, he imagined that if he sought to help them with their last battle, he would get roped up into a series of duels that might keep him occupied for the foreseeable future. Since the Underlayer Event wasn’t over, he couldn’t stop, even for such an appealing scenario.
After leaving a few sassy messages in the dirt, he angled his mistjumps north, prepared to leave the continent. Africa was effectively cleared, almost entirely by himself, and another chunk of the event was done. Though the local army fought the entire time, they had only cleared around five invasions, limited as they were with keeping to a specific order while traveling on foot.
As he moved away, he checked the leaderboards for the first time in quite a while. He had defeated something like 60 invasions since leaving Neon Park’s territory.
Underlayer Event Settlement Scores:
1. Ghost Reef - 126,819,641 (x1)
2. Neon Park - 5,819,973 (x13)
3. Nyiragongo - 5,765,266 (x13)
4. Silvervalley - 5,121,756 (x11)
5. Englischer Garten - 4,460,000 (x8)
6. Ordesa - 4,150,000 (x7)
7. Arusha - 3,942,814 (x5)
8. Serrania de la Macarena - 3,550,000 (x4)
9. Chee Dale - 3,400,000 (x4)
10. Aotearoa New Zealand - 3,118,245 (x5)
“Well, damn.” Coop mumbled as he mistjumped through the Underlayer. Ghost Reef was popping off.
Honestly, he had been so distracted by the duels and the grinds across the settlements of Africa that he hadn’t been keeping a close eye on the rate in which he was progressing their scores. It was officially Day 22 of the Underlayer Event and he had confirmed two and a half continents were clear. The East Coast of North America, Europe, and Africa had been personally visited by the Champion of Ghost Reef. Meanwhile, the rest of North America as well as South America were being secured by the other residents of Ghost Reef.
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Of all the settlements in the top 10, only New Zealand was proceeding without Ghost Reef’s involvement. If he hadn’t seen what the Assembly of Settlements in Africa were capable of, he would have felt a different way about New Zealand’s steady progress, but after witnessing examples of other peoples’ independent growth, he had to give them credit. They had been consistently contending with the event in a way that made it seem like they were in control. It was a good thing too, because they would probably be the last place Coop was able to visit.
It was pretty clear that New Zealand was progressing like a model settlement, one that would have been the absolute pinnacle of any other assimilation. Coop looked forward to visiting so that he could see what they were up to. They might not need his help defeating monsters, but that didn’t mean they weren’t worth visiting, even for someone specifically seeking fights.
He hadn’t really thought about it before, but the Underlayer Event wasn’t only a good opportunity to network across the vast collection of settlements, but it was also a chance for him to uncover places that might become problems in the future. There was always a chance that another Endless Empire had properly established itself in the assimilation.
“So far, so good.” He decided. There hadn’t been anything overly concerning so far.
Meanwhile, Ghost Reef’s score was already far beyond expectations. It had even reached the 125 million he believed would be necessary to contend for the top of the leaderboard after all the challenge assessment multipliers were applied.
He shook his head as he considered that they were only halfway through the event’s duration. It seemed like they might actually finish the whole thing early. The real limitation on the Underlayer Event scores would be the number of invaders. The thought had him throwing his spear just a little bit harder.
As he went, he scrolled further down the list of settlements, trying to decide if there were enough invaders left for the humans of Earth to fight. While he hadn’t reached Asia yet, and it likely represented roughly half of all the known settlements, they had also been clearing for themselves at a consistently escalating speed.
In fact, as Coop explored the list, it seemed like only around 20 settlements in the entire world hadn’t made significant progress in their battles. It was a huge contrast from the first days of the event when only a few places in the world appeared to have even reached the Underlayer, let alone begun fighting. In a way, he had underestimated humans, thinking they would need him to come save them from the alien invaders. As it turned out, only a few really needed help. For all the rest, he was just making things easier on them. Either way, Ghost Reef’s extra effort was saving lives, and they were benefiting through experience as they worked.
Among those that either hadn’t started or had stagnated early were three settlements he was keeping an eye out for. Can Gio, Gangcheon, and Shinjuku Gardens were all frozen. Even if there weren’t many settlements left for Coop, there were at least three decent enough grinds to keep him motivated. He needed to hurry up and get there before they cleared the invaders for themselves.
He blasted north, heading back toward Europe with the intention of angling East, through one of the forks that would take him into the Middle East. He checked the individual leaderboards as he went.
Underlayer Event Individual Scores:
1. Coop - 85,520,904 (+43,870,733)
2. Charlie Seraphin - 2,529,096 (+1,502,676)
3. Buck Cleary - 1,278,823 (+777,067)
4. Camila Alvarez - 1,186,012 (+675,817)
5. Gibson - 1,175,975 (+667,063)
6. Emmanuel Seraphin - 1,132,564 (+641,472)
7. Jessica Littenberg - 1,087,826 (+787,527)
8. Tiny Cleary - 971,559 (+771,559)
9. Jose Molina - 967,128 (+737,633)
10. Shane Peters - 963,811 (+697,850)
Ignoring his own score, the points that the residents of Ghost Reef had accumulated were actually insane. They had completely forced the representatives of every other settlement in the world off the list.
People like Neon were pushed all the way down to the bottom of the top 1000, and only those who had both defeated Siege Bosses and continued fighting could even crack the top 500. Warriors like Azizi, Sefu, and Imara, who had been fighting on behalf of their settlements the entire time were barely hanging in the later 400s, right around the places of Edith Buford and her grandson, the waiter Jonah.
Trying to keep things in perspective, it was insane that individuals who had defeated 100,000 Elite Primal Constructs in a matter of three weeks, or even added a Siege Boss to their total, were relegated to such low rankings. They were absolute beasts, pushing the achievements of humanity forward by fighting enemies that were appearing for the first time in the assimilation, but Ghost Reef’s residents were still a step ahead.
As Coop silently sang the praises of his companions in the assimilation, he noticed a bird flying high above him. It was nothing more than a speck of dust caught in the vaporous breeze near the ceiling, but the mana it emanated was distinguishable from the shimmering energy of the Underlayer if he honed in on it.
Coop paused for a moment to watch as it flapped vaguely in his direction, out of the corner of his eye. The bird’s gaze glowed with a distinct crystal blue that Coop could detect even from an enormous distance, as if it focused the light on the subject of its stare. It seemed to be struggling to keep up with his more urgent mistjumps, but it was making good progress and anticipated his direction, causing him to wonder just how long it had been following him. He never would have noticed the bird while he fought, not unless it had swooped much closer, but now that he was winding down from bouncing between battles he had the mental bandwidth to distinguish its presence.
Coop grunted, wondering how a bird had gotten into the Underlayer in the first place. Should he capture it and bring it to a chasm to make sure it could escape? He waited, letting it get close enough for him to barely inspect its aura as he decided just how much of a detour he could permit.
When Coop’s Presence of Mind reached far enough to identify the animal, he confirmed that it had quite an impressive level. The bird wasn’t just a lost animal, and it also wasn’t approaching him as if it sought aid, keeping its distance as if it was tracking him instead.
[Saker Falcon (Level 291)]
[Sky Piercer (Mind)]
[Ice (Bound)]
Coop wasn’t sure what to make of it. He doubted it needed his help, based on its own level, and instead of engaging with him, it continued to circle his position once it caught up, apparently believing it was out of his range as long as it stayed high in the Underlayer’s sky.
It felt like Coop had picked up a stalker.
He shrugged to himself, thinking for just another second before he continued on his journey. He wasn’t about to be completely derailed by something as minor as a bird shadowing his path. If it had an owner, he hoped they were enjoying the show.
But as he continued mistjumping through the Underlayer, he started noticing more little oddities. A few other birds drifted in the distance, equally out of the way, high in the sky. They were at a lower class level than the first, and they were completely different species, mostly vultures, but they gradually formed something of a flock that remained at his back for brief moments.
After spending so much time in the solitude of the Underlayer, any company was conspicuous. It wasn’t like he had seen even a single example of animal or plant life existing in the underground prior to these birds, so they were triggering his interest, and rather than simply travel, he started to test them.
The newcomers only lasted a few mistjumps before he left them in the dust, but the Saker Falcon remained. Of the various raptors, it was clearly the most elite. The others joined it for a short time before falling behind, then new ones did the same, as if Coop was trailing a whole parade of birds while he mistjumped across the lonely desert. Most of them started ahead of him but failed to account for his speed before dropping to the wayside. It was certainly a sign, but of what, Coop was uncertain.
Eventually, Coop reached another section of the African shield wall, marking the end of the Assembly’s territorial claims. He sent himself right over. The individual warriors were milling about with their oval shields, waiting to rotate back into the army for the more exciting part of their jobs, but little did they know, the fighting was done. The Assembly of Settlements would be wrapping up their operation in the Underlayer soon enough, leaving plenty of time before the event actually ended.
Coop figured he would take the checkpoint as an opportunity to pick up even more speed. If the Falcon wanted to keep chasing him, he would make it work a bit.
However, his plan to test the bird’s determination was put on hold after just two long mistjumps. When he reappeared at the end of a flickering teleport, already far beyond the shield wall, he stopped, temporarily abandoning his intention to put more distance between himself and the bird.
Some 100 yards ahead of him, strolling through the dirt, was someone dressed from head to toe in lightly colored cloth coverings. The beige stood out against the dirt landscape, and just from a glance, he could tell they had been drifting for a long time, probably much longer than the Underlayer Event. He had the impression that they were a dedicated wanderer, perhaps a kindred spirit that hadn’t found the right beach just yet.
When Coop hesitated, observing their slow but steady pace as he considered if this would be another challenge due to his experience throughout Africa, the person just continued their steady approach. One foot after another, they extended an impossibly long trail of footprints through the dirt. As Coop watched, the Saker Falcon eventually caught up as well.
Instead of continuing to maintain its distance, the bird finally swooped down, drawing Coop’s attention to the air above. Rather than close the distance with Coop, it bypassed him in order to land on the person’s walking staff and started pulling at the dangling chimes to entertain itself.
The person never paused, gait unchanging, as they crossed through the dirt. They made it seem like they were taking just a few more steps among millions before. Coop’s aura might as well have been nonexistent. He hummed quietly to himself, thinking that was odd, but he politely waited, planning on offering his help either way.