Malsteron was internally celebrating the addition of another member to his personal colony. He was among the last of his species, though he wasn’t an individual. His were a species of tubular worms that formed colonies that unified into an autonomous cooperative. Once, there were nearly a million of his ‘people,’ forming grand collectives that built a city on their home planet, but after their assimilation failed, only a handful of colonies remain in eternal exile.
It was a dire situation, but it was better than most other eradication protocol survivors. At least each of his people represented hundreds of individuals. Other species weren’t so lucky and were left with numbers too low to ever recover, and that was only if they avoided complete annihilation, a feat too rare to properly quantify.
He continued his inner celebration, welcoming his new member when his team leader returned from her greetings protocol. The transfer room slowly stopped spinning as she reformed from the pocket of deactivated mana trapped within the cylinder. The clunking would need to be investigated and he assigned another member to make a note. It was yet another maintenance task on a list that always seemed to grow. Keeping the scraps together was a perpetual challenge.
“Welcome back, Lyriel.” One of his voices hailed while one of his other individuals saluted properly. “How did it go?”
“Awful. Just awful.” Lyriel raised one of her fingers to display a minor injury to Malsteron, waving away a bit of excess steam that shouldn’t have been in the ship with her other hand. He wasn’t entirely sure if she needed medical attention, as he wasn’t completely familiar with her biology, but he sincerely doubted it. Lyriel was at an extremely high level, among the pinnacle of the exiled and far beyond what Malsteron would ever achieve. As the lone survivor of her species she had to be exceptional to live at all.
“Did you break a nail? Does it not regrow?” Malsteron wondered, her mood was far worse than he expected and a negligible injury wouldn’t be enough to explain her state. Based on the initial readings they had taken, Earth showed significant promise in aiding their cause, so he had expected her to be feeling hopeful.
“One of them attacked me! He even managed to deal damage!” Lyriel spluttered, obviously venting after forcing herself to maintain her dignity as was befitting the greetings protocol. However, dealing damage to her should have been far beyond the realm of possibilities from a new species in the midst of their assimilation. His people would say, ‘an individual tooga couldn’t hope to scratch the stars,’ and that was especially true when the star was Lyriel.
Malsteron’s internal celebration was halted as several of his individuals double checked their preliminary data, gathered during the bidding process for new planets. “It shouldn’t be possible.” Multiple of his voices echoed simultaneously before he decided which should speak. “The assimilation has barely begun. In fact, we’ve never initiated the greetings protocol so early, so we should expect them to be far below the norm.”
“Look!” She held her pointer finger closer, showing a carefully manicured nail was indeed cracked along the edge with a slight bruise forming underneath.
Another of Malsteron’s individuals repeated themselves in shock, “It shouldn’t be possible…”
“How did this happen?” Malsteron wanted her to explain.
“As soon as I arrived on the planet, one of them assaulted me. Perhaps he hadn’t let his bloodlust fade and mistook me for another Siege Boss. I used minimal contact to defend myself and avoid further misunderstandings, but the force of the blow exceeded three or four times the maximum expectations of even a hyper-Strength stacker at their stage.”
Three of Malsteron’s voices escaped. “Impossible.” “All readings were green.” “Zero anomalies detected.”
“Was mana not properly dispersed? Perhaps it was an activated skill.” Malsteron contributed.
“I know how to do my job. It was just a fluke from a sub-100. There was a feline, a Sage of the Merciful, and a canine present, so I believe it was some kind of planetary elite group already forming.” Lyriel waved him off, but Malsteron was skeptical at any planet’s ability to organize their absolute best into an elite group so rapidly after the disruption of an assimilation.
“Everything else was within expected parameters on my end. What about yours? Did you get everything through the slip?” Lyriel changed the subject.
Malsteron gestured a positive acknowledgement and shifted so another individual could announce the findings that they collected through the tiny hole temporarily created in the planetary mana shield. It would have significantly more detail than the standard system public portfolio.
“Principal species: human, humankind, mankind, Earthling, 99% galactic midpoint, extreme class variability, extreme affinity variability, belligerence level 6, fractious global civilization, fractious-high development, limited space exploration.”
Individuals within Malsteron instinctually vibrated uncomfortably at the insanity being described as if they could ward off the threat. The results greatly exceeded their preliminary readings. Space exploration alone was cause for a direct inquiry. There was more than one species within The Exiles that had been rescued from orbit while the rest of their species was eradicated by the protocol, but anything that qualified as extreme was also cause for further investigation. Even a global civilization would have been enough to dispatch their team. The vast majority of species joined the galactic community before establishing societies at all, being uplifted by mana and the system, and therefore, the expected level of development was ‘none.’
His speaker continued, obviously aware that the surprises would keep coming and wanting to avoid distracted thoughts from the listeners. “Abnormally high natural physical attributes of all planetary species caused by near post-mana default gravity and planet density. Planet Earth: extreme radiation, near ideal orbital consistency, near ideal axial rotation, extreme biosphere, extreme predation, extreme hydrosphere, extreme atmosphere, extreme weather, extreme climate, extreme geological activity, level 9 biodiversity.”
Lyriel stared slack jawed at Malsteron while the report was presented, each extreme designation pushing the whole analysis further into the realm of insanity. Malsteron himself was having trouble processing his individuals’ reactions. Distracted as he was by the splitting celebration, only the one individual that observed the instruments knew what kind of outlier they were dealing with.
By all measures, Earth sounded like a planet where no life should exist for a dozen different reasons, and yet level 9 biodiversity indicated it was absolutely teeming with species. Population density predictions would be completely wrong. Malsteron’s own planet had two species in total, including his own, and that qualified for level 2 biodiversity. Level 9 was an umbrella for an excessive number of species.
Surviving even a single extreme qualification without mana activation was terribly rare and here was a planet with an extravagant number of survivors. The system’s preliminary readings had failed to report any of these details or there would have been greater ripples throughout the galactic community.
“Assimilation population distribution is irrational with large groups extant in all extremes, regardless of civilization shard allocation. Total population estimates overheated the instruments. Best estimate was more than 20 quintillion from mana-qualified species before burnout…”
“Wait, stop.” Lyriel interrupted Malsteron’s speaker, ending the presentation, not believing survivors could remain outside of shard territory for any real period of time, nor the ridiculous population. “The instruments need recalibration, we can’t report this data, it is clearly erroneous.”
“We confirmed calibration after the previous greetings protocol concluded and followed standard 100-cycle maintenance.” Malsteron pointed out. “Everything is as accurate as possible.”
Lyriel observed the instruments herself, double checking his work. After verifying his words she seemed to be convinced. “How long until we arrive?”
A different individual took over answering. “We fell behind the activation wave when we had to hard bank to the new assimilation, the mana sails won’t catch us back up. However, we can support several more transfers with current energy levels, and they will continue to charge in the wake of the wave as we chase the brink.”
Lyriel nodded. “Good enough. I’ll write the report.”
Malsteron fidgeted as he tried to find the correct words to ask how they would handle Earth. They were only equipped as a scouting vessel. If some humans had a chance of holding out against being designated anathema, their ship still wouldn’t be able to evacuate the survivors. “What are we going to do about the humans?” He finally asked, keeping it simple.
“The mission stays the same. We just have that many more opportunities for revenge.” Lyriel gave him a beautiful half smile that hardly masked the ugliness of her words.
—
Coop sat on the wet sand, letting the sparkling waves wash over his feet. They finally had a good view of the sunset without the red mana dome interfering with the light, or a wave of monsters threatening them with violence. Coop admired the view with a handful of other residents.
He still had leaderboards to check, but he continued taking in his own status.
[Status]
Stolen novel; please report.
HP - 6800/6800
MP - 7621/12600
Class - Revenant (Level 96)
Profession - Scavenging (Level 90)
Affinity - Spectral
Race - Human (Rank 1)
Faction - None
Strength - 50 (+1260)
Agility - 50 (+630)
Body - 50 (+630)
Mind - 1260
Intelligence - 50 (+1260)
Acumen - 50
Unallocated - 0
Titles - Champion III, Haunted, Ethereal, Reaper, Slayer III, Dauntless, Stacked, Defiant
Skills (Active) - Retribution, Salvation, Presence of Mind, Fog of War
Skills (Passive) - Mind Over Matter, Adamance, Practical Application, Arcane Comprehension
Quests - Fortune Seeker (10/50), Trophy Hunter (4/5), Defeat Ancient Devourers II (0/25), Defeat Primal Serpents II (4/25), Defeat Ruin Excavators IV (440/5000), Defeat Primal Kites III (0/250), Upgrade Village to Town
Basic Credits - 2,573,509
As far as he was concerned, he had three projects on his docket based on his status alone. First was to spend his credits, second was to clear some of his quests out, which would naturally lead to the third project of reaching level 100 and getting another skill choice. But, for now, he was on vacation.
He checked the final event leaderboards, not expecting too many surprises.
Siege Event Settlement Scores
1. Ghost Reef - 27,861,867 (x48828125)
2. Shinjuku Garden - 1,954,678 (x125)
3. Neon Park - 1,902,361 (x125)
4. Aotearoa New Zealand - 1,816,781 (x125)
5. Acre - 1,753,376 (x125)
6. Odense - 1,684,428 (x125)
7. Turnhal - 1,675,479 (x125)
8. New Elega - 1,646,531 (x125)
9. Reyes - 1,577,582 (x125)
10. Loch Bridge - 1,508,634 (x125)
Of course, the top of the list was dominated by the settlements with the highest challenge ratings, meaning they had the most waves to accumulate points. Ghost Reef was uncatchable from the start, as long as they survived, based on their ridiculous rating.
Coop thought the biggest shock was that none of the other settlements had defeated any field bosses. Scrolling through the list, he couldn’t find a single settlement that had killed a boss, they all hovered around certain thresholds based on the number of waves. In fact, he was pretty sure that if any settlement had been victorious over a boss it would have jumped them up to second place.
Coop knew there were Field Bosses out there, they had been forced to defeat several themselves and the first one he found was near Empress City. Either the Field Bosses had remained outside of the territory of settlements during the event and the three within Ghost Reef’s limits were flukes, or every time a Field Boss joined a wave it resulted in the settlement being wiped out. He supposed both could be true, and that was a depressing reality. It seemed like culling the monsters and preventing a boss spawn within the settlement territory was a huge factor in other settlements’ survival.
There were only 277 settlements remaining. It was a harsh result and despite all the gains that Ghost Reef had appreciated, he still wasn’t exactly looking forward to the next event. Empress City had sunk to rank 267, but they had survived, which was more than the majority of settlements could claim. It also seemed like most of the top ranked settlements had made it as well. They would have been able to fall back on the large populations that earned them their ranks in the first place and that would have combined with being less likely to have Field Bosses present with so many to cull monster populations.
He moved on to the individual scores.
Siege Event Individual Scores
1. Coop - 2,001,081 (+1,257,238)
2. Charlie Seraphin - 763,913 (+363,869)
3. Shane Peters - 371,014 (+71,071)
4. The Siren - 355,232 (+131,409)
5. Elder Olani - 301,642 (+70,878)
6. Camila Alvarez - 277,690 (+72,995)
7. Buck Cleary - 267,013 (+91,171)
8. Reese Maddock - 256,182 (+80,251)
9. Charon - 254,429 (+22,374)
10. Jett Black - 245,204 (+70,551)
Coop’s score had really exploded during the last few waves. Part of it was certainly because they had lost so many people, leaving more responsibility on his shoulders, but that couldn’t explain all of it. The Constructs must have been worth a particularly large amount of points, considering Charlie also had made a disproportionately large contribution.
Scrolling down the list there was another twinge of anxiety for Coop. Instead of all 1,000 spots being dominated by members of Ghost Reef, there was a sharp drop off in score as they ran out of residents. It painted a dire picture of their population. Before, when there were more than 1,000 names, it was anyone’s guess what the total population of Ghost Reef was, but now it was made clear that they had been severely diminished. It made Coop reconsider how much they had lost during the course of the event.
For a moment, he felt like they had been exposed. Then again, his individual score exceeded every other settlement on the planet, and he wasn’t alone. That should make most think twice about challenging Ghost Reef.
Platinum was still the first name from outside, ranked in the 200s, even above many of the surviving Ghost Reef defenders. The second half of the list was almost completely unknown to Coop, presumably filled with names from successful settlements all over the world.
Next, he checked the global leaderboards. He had ignored it in favor of the siege event scores, but now it was time to see the results of what all the factions touted as an opportunity to gain experience.
Day 50
1. Coop (Level 96)
2. Charlie Seraphin (Level 77)
3. Ashton Cliff (Level 72)
4. Cole Walker (Level 72)
5. Sila Tupua (Level 70)
6. Ix-Hau (Level 69)
7. Ateh Nawej (Level 68)
8. Ebai Ekowa (Level 68)
9. Tzultacaj (Level 68)
10. Turakina (Level 68)
Seeing his name firmly at the top was predictable, but still completely satisfying. Charlie at number two wasn’t exactly a surprise, but Coop had expected Ghost Reef to dominate the top of the list after 11 waves of monsters fed them experience for 20 days. Instead, the list was almost unrecognizable.
Coop’s first observation was that none of the phantoms appeared on the list. He knew that every single one of them had reached level 75, where they capped out. If the Spectral Humans were included, then the list would look identical to the event’s individual scores, with Ghost Reef taking over much of the top 500, and comfortably. The fact that they had started the assimilation as something other than human seemed to preclude them from the human leaderboard.
Other than Ix-Hau and Tzultacaj, every name was brand new. Coop thought that was bizarre. The new names also seemed to be much higher level than they should be when he considered they would have had a maximum of three or maybe four waves during the same period. Perhaps they had opportunities to supplement their gains in between waves, but that would have been some pretty extreme grinding and none of the other familiar names had followed along. He would have expected some of the consistent top performers to keep up if it was simply a matter of making efficient gains during their downtime.
Charlie had put a decent gap between herself and the rest, but it was much thinner than the difference in waves should have created. Coop lacked the imagination to envision classes that were more suitable to defending a siege than Charlie’s, but could these other people have had classes that outshined the legendary Aeromancer in this particular arena? It seemed unlikely. To match up with Charlie’s progress with basically a quarter of the opportunity sounded absurd.
No matter how Coop worked through it, 40 levels from three waves and maybe a week of free days felt impossible. Even if they fought each wave completely solo, he didn’t think the experience was there. They didn’t even have Field Bosses to fight and they were a big chunk of experience for the Ghost Reef defenders, awarding multiple levels each time one was defeated.
Not to mention none of the new names were in the top 1,000 of the individual event scores. These people must have been gaining experience outside of the settlement event completely. They might not have participated in the event at all.
Coop watched the horizon as he worked through the puzzle. The last gasp of the sunset reflected off the edge of their local mana well, the Coral Forest, and Coop recognized that there were still unexplored opportunities nearby. But, who were these people that could be strong enough to thrive outside of settlement territory for such a long period. Were they wily survivors, forced to scrape by without civilization shards? Or were they the final group of Chosen, sent back by their factions at the last minute with as many advantages as they could be given?
The settlement events were touted as easy experience by the factions, but they were looking at it from a different perspective than Coop. They correctly recognized that it was a good chance for weaker individuals to hide behind walls and stronger defenders to gain experience with minimal risk. That was what Jones’s faction had preached and encouraged him to practice. There was certainly wisdom in that strategy when it came to raw numbers of Chosen.
The difference for Ghost Reef was that they had a tiny population compared to what was anticipated by the system, the factions, and everyone else. No one had an easy time here, but he imagined how different the situation would have been if they had hundreds of thousands of residents. The waves would have been easy experience delivered right to their door.
The event was an excellent opportunity for people in well-defended settlements to gain free levels, but they would have reached a ceiling pretty quickly. Coop thought, based on their experience with each wave, that three waves could have yielded around 10 levels to a reasonably motivated defender. The new names at the top of the leaderboard, including Charlie, had gained closer to 40 levels, and that would explain the shakeup he was observing.
Coop thought he’d add a fourth priority project in exploring the mana well as he wiped the sand off his butt and headed back to the lighthouse to shower and sleep. The sun had barely gone down, but he planned to sleep at least 15 hours.
He was amused that the lighthouse had been spared by the waves of monsters. Other than a few minor scrapes on the exterior from incidental contact, it was totally unharmed. Before he went up through the threshold he looked across the island back toward the fort.
Despite the destruction, what was left of the old stone structure still appeared sturdy, and even from a distance he could see phantoms shifting rubble and clearing the ramparts to return to their duties. Ghost Reef would only get stronger from here, he was sure of it.