JaceVAmor
patreon
Chapter 283: The Tip of a Spear
🕑 Added 2024-09-02 15:11:00 +0000 UTC“Ahh..” Coop sighed, letting a bit of tension exit his chest. “I miss the beach.”
It had been an extraordinarily busy second week of the Underlayer Event, not that Coop had expected any less when he first entered the underground. The Underlayer was actually living up to the standard set by the Siege Event after what Ghost Reef saw as an unsatisfying start, with invaders galore to defeat. It was exactly the type of gauntlet he had dreamed of.
Commissioner De Witte of the European Emergency Community had delivered on his promise to streamline Coop’s experience within his faction’s territory. As it turned out, the EEC was basically a well-oiled machine, and even though Coop was an unaccounted for variable, they quickly adapted to him, transitioning their strategy to one that reconciled his unexpected presence.
Wherever Coop went, he found people with lanyards and clipboards manning canopied tents ready to guide or otherwise support his efforts to kill monsters. They had done such a thorough job, Coop could sense himself growing spoiled. De Witte had idly commented that they all have ways to contribute, and Coop saw what they meant. In the EEC, the vast majority of people were dedicated to supporting others in their efforts to fight.
They waved glowing batons at Coop, directing him like he was a jet on a runway throughout the caverns. Given his travel times, they weren’t that far off. His spear traveled across their territory like a guided missile and the Primal Constructs were demolished wherever he went.
The EEC made every effort to escort him from one settlement to the next, spreading throughout their territory ahead of him from the beginning. The contested control points had teams of people dedicated to supporting his attacks with buffs and other reinforcements, camping out at a distance from the Primal Constructs as they eagerly anticipated his arrival.
Squads of their elite combat operators were stationed with them, beneath every single settlement, showing what a proper mission might have looked like, and for their part, they were all decently leveled and extremely well-equipped with modified modern gear. Back on the surface, they represented individual settlements while maintaining mostly friendly rivalries with each other, but in the Underlayer they were all business. It was a reminder to Coop that the deadly tip of his spear was a small portion of his entire weapon.
The EEC took every accommodation into consideration, practically rolling out the red carpet for the Champion of Ghost Reef. Rather than military-style logistics, Coop felt like he was participating in an exceptionally structured celebrity triathlon, where the organizers had spared no expense to make sure the contestants weren’t distracted by an overly complicated course and could put their best foot forward.
“They even provided snacks.” Coop mumbled, shaking his head in awe as he remembered. He never expected orange slices, cups of juice, and packs of pretzels while he went to war, but the Europeans had even considered his caloric intake after planning his route, staging rest stops should he need them. Nothing would get in the way of his combat efficiency.
Coop went through what was essentially a personalized guided tour across the entire European continent. Unfortunately, none of the actual attractions were underground for him to enjoy. Armies of Primal Constructs were a decent substitute for someone with Coop’s sensibilities, but he still would have liked to see some of the sights. It wouldn’t hurt for him to grow a bit more cultured, but for the time being he would remain some strange combination of beach bum and Champion of the Mists.
There were some nice vacation destinations in Europe, and Coop’s ambitions were at least partially predicated on securing the beaches of the world, but he hadn’t visited even one. Instead, he was grinding with every possible convenience granted to his quest. They captured the points on his behalf and scheduled an itinerary for him that adapted to his speed as he went. The support groups kept him buffed as he shot past and the combat operators would have helped defeat enemies if he asked for it, but they were even considerate enough to let him do the killing, recognizing that Coop saw the experience as its own reward.
By the time he had cleared the first set of control points they pointed him to, they were already more cognizant of his pace, making sure not to be the reason he slowed down. He only caught them setting up once or twice between the 20 additional settlements he cleared after leaving Commissioner De Witte and Chee Dale behind.
Apparently, the strategy across Europe during the Underlayer Event was to engage the enemies on the surface after the event was over, while also sacrificing some of the more remote and isolated settlements to better maintain their long term objectives of human survival. It was a tactic that Coop had immediately dismissed as a bad idea, but the reason their survey teams were crawling all over the Underlayer in the first place was in an effort to triangulate the exact corresponding locations on the surface in order to prepare in advance.
Elder Olani’s traps had worked for Ghost Reef, so he could imagine an entire continent baring down and waiting for the Primal Constructs to arrive in specific spots. It might have worked out for them, but Coop showed up and provided the easiest alternative imaginable. Just point him in the direction of enemies and let him take care of it. They certainly didn’t refuse his help.
Despite all of the additional efficiency added to Coop’s hunt, the rate that he was clearing settlements failed to rise to a level that would have met his goal of clearing every settlement on the planet. It was increasingly apparent that it wouldn’t be necessary, due to other settlements participating on their own, but Coop couldn’t help but feel vaguely disappointed that with all of his power, he still wasn’t on a level that could completely sweep the global events aside.
On the bright side, humanity as a whole was well on pace to completely clear the event, and he imagined their prospects would only get better as time went on, as those who were eeking out victories finally pushed toward the finish line.
Underlayer Event Settlement Scores:
1. Ghost Reef - 64,487,388 (x1)
2. Neon Park - 5,819,973 (x13)
3. Silvervalley - 5,121,756 (x11)
4. Englischer Garten - 4,460,000 (x8)
5. Ordesa - 4,150,000 (x7)
6. Serania de la Macarena - 3,550,000 (x4)
7. Chee Dale - 3,400,000 (x4)
8. Beantown - 2,108,542 (x5)
9. Akagera - 1,365,655 (x2)
10. La Piedra - 1,200,000 (x3)
While Ghost Reef was technically in second place thanks to the challenge assessments, there was no doubt they would surpass Neon Park at this point. The real question was whether or not they could compare to Shinjuku Gardens in the end.
With two-thirds of the event remaining, the pace of Ghost Reef would be sufficient to surpass his estimated 125,000,000 score for Shinjuku Gardens, assuming they didn’t take it upon themselves to clear the invaders. They hadn’t made any progress, but he knew it would only take a few days for them to accumulate enough points to make themselves unreachable.
Of course, Coop suspected that he and the residents of Ghost Reef were some of the only people in the world that had the luxury of even paying attention to the scores. Even the EEC, with all of its analysis and coordination, had put the leaderboards aside in order to try and maximize their rates of survival. They wisely valued lives over points in the event, and hadn’t engaged with a single Primal Construct before Coop arrived.
However, Coop was growing concerned about yet another issue that he had failed to consider from the start. Were there even enough invasions in the world to accumulate their maximum potential score? He was getting worried that they might run into an insurmountable roadblock as the event’s enemies were defeated all across the planet.
Underlayer Event Individual Scores:
1. Coop - 41,650,171 (+34,659,500)
2. Charlie Seraphin - 1,026,420 (+969,802)
3. Camila Alvarez - 510,195 (+481,075)
4. Gibson - 508,912 (+473,007)
5. Buck Cleary - 501,756 (+501,756)
6. Emmanuel Seraphin - 491,092 (+369,928)
7. Junior Cleary - 381,440 (+381,440)
8. Tiny Cleary - 265,961 (+265,961)
9. Jacqueline ‘Jackie’ Simpson - 254,003 (+253,516)
10. Arthur Anonymous - 251,139 (+251,139)
While Coop was making an enormous contribution to Ghost Reef’s score, the last week had given the rest of the residents a chance to get into the game. Comparing names with places and Coop could confidently decipher what his companions were up to back home.
Ghost Reef’s residents had split into two distinct groups. An expedition that headed the opposite direction compared to Coop, and another that stayed home, securing their connection to the Underlayer. The expedition that left split again, probably in the Yucatan, where they would have had to choose between letting the tunnels guide them into North or South America.
The group that headed north cleared recognizable settlements in Mexico from Sinaloa to Sonora, and made it to the American Southwest, before reaching the mega-settlement in Silvervalley. They were led by Shane’s party and the Cleary Brothers, among others. The scores of the northern group lagged behind the other group’s because the first settlements they cleared were evidently smaller and lacked Siege Bosses, but Silvervalley had brought them back up to parity.
The other half of the expedition headed south, into South America, wiping out the invasions from Colombia to Peru and the Western Amazon, starting with La Piedra and Serenia de la Macarena. That’s where Charlie’s family, Camila, and Gibson’s party had gone. There hadn’t been any obvious settlements on the leaderboards from South America, but there were apparently several larger shards from the start.
Based on their individual scores, he assumed they had run into and defeated dozens of Siege Bosses. As a result of their ability to defeat boss enemies as well as masses of Elite Primal Constructs, the individual leaderboard was completely dominated by residents of Ghost Reef, and that pattern continued for thousands of positions. Only a handful of individual standouts, like Platinum, Neon, and Sila Tupua remained among the regular residents of his island as he scrolled through, and even the Neon Park powerhouses would fall out soon enough.
The only Ghost Reef citizens that weren’t topping leaderboards were people like Elder Olani, Jones, and Derek, who were the first candidates for those who would prefer to stay home. He imagined they had plenty of work with Laurie and Greg coming up with ways to bolster their temporary headquarters with more advanced materials.
Basically, Ghost Reef was thriving even if Coop was removed from the equation. In fact, Coop was coming to the conclusion that without his adaptation of Inheritance of the Mists, they might have been able to actually surpass him as a group. He shuddered to think about Camila and the others’ promise to clear more than he did. He needed to go even faster.
Somehow, the Underlayer Event left Coop turning away from his own progression, which was normally his primary motivator. His levels continued at a ridiculous pace, and every time he applied another five attribute points into his Mind stat the satisfaction washed through like an ice cold drink after working in the sun all day.
Unfortunately, that was it. As long as he was stuck building up his Reverence skill, he wasn’t reaching what had previously been major milestones for him to stop and consider his build. If he wasn’t in the middle of a global event, he might have stronger feelings toward the situation, but as it stood, being forcefully trapped in a rut couldn’t have come at a better time.
He was gaining absolutely incredible amounts of experience, meaning that the time it took to escape the cycle would be shorter, and he didn’t have the distractions that came with making major decisions that would have long-lasting impacts on his build. Coop was happy to put his head down and grind. The repetitious actions, steady cadences, and reliable rhythms did something to his brain that brought him into a happy place.
The representatives of the EEC had openly shared much of their collective intel, helping Coop understand the lay of the land more broadly. While Europe had 25 settlements, they concluded that both North and South America had approximately 20 each based on simple matching of names and research.
From Coop’s personal experience, he had no reason to challenge their accuracy. Between Ghost Reef, Empress City, Neptune’s Bridge, they combined with Neon Park and its subordinates to make 10. The Pacific Republic was another 7 or so, including the Mexico and Cascadia settlements, plus the Heartland and the two indigenous settlements to add another 10. Combined that would make exactly 20, matching up with the EEC’s estimate.
If their count for North America matched up with his own, he felt comfortable accepting their numbers for South America as well. All that meant was that Ghost Reef’s residents still had another dozen settlements to farm in their hemisphere, but Coop had to decide where to go next.
The EEC reps provided him with multiple options. The first and what they believed the best option was for him to move south into Africa. They had been unable to do any prior reconnaissance on the continent due to the changes in geography brought on by the assimilation of mana.
They explained that the absolutely massive Saharan Desert had been transformed into an inland sea. Only a ridge-like series of islands continued to border the Mediterranean, keeping the bodies of water separate with the northern parts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt acting as a barrier. In fact, a few of the settlements Coop had cleared had technically been in what used to be North Africa, but had joined with the EEC once they were contacted.
In any case, whatever lay beyond the Saharan Sea was largely unknown. They could only provide conjecture, based on the leaderboards that as many as 35 or 40 settlements remained in the rest of Africa, nearly matching the combined total of both Americas.
The other options they provided were for Coop to head east, into central Asia, or back to the junction beneath Iceland so that he could explore one of the other directions of the crossroads.
The reason they considered heading into Asia a lesser option for his goals was that they had heard rumors from their eastern most residents that a massive force already existed in that space. While none of their settlements were particularly large, the rumors told of nomadic armies that could stretch for miles and included millions upon millions of members. Half of the world’s population was in Asia, so it stood to reason that they would have a proportional presence, regardless of what the leaderboards indicated. By the process of elimination, they believed more than half of all the settlements were there as well, but they seemed to be in good hands at the moment.
Coop had already noticed small settlements being cleared in an ever increasing pattern while checking the settlement leaderboards. The EEC believed a giant army was sweeping across what would amount to more than a hundred settlements, none of which had challenge assessments beyond x1, which corroborated his suspicions. They were a third force, beside Coop and Ghost Reef’s army, that were clearing the invaders at a brisk pace, but they were doing it through a massive stack of small settlements.
Heading back through Iceland and toward the arctic was simply completely unknown, but they didn’t expect any settlements to exist north of their own Jotunheim settlement, located in a glacial valley of northern Norway.
Coop was gradually coming to accept that he wasn’t one to argue with good advice. So, he set his sights on Africa, accepting their reasoning without much complaint. They simply pointed him in the direction of where they believed the largest challenges were, and he thought that was good enough.
His whirlwind adventure across Europe ended with his arms full of chocolates, flowers, and other gifts. They had laid it on pretty thick, but he would be a liar if he tried to claim it didn’t work. If they wanted to leave a good impression with the potential of future friendships, they had succeeded. Little did they know, Coop was easy to please. Just pointing him toward the Primal Constructs had been enough.
Comments
BelligerentGnu
I appreciate what you did with the EEC here, whether it was in response to my comment or not.
Conrad Manaugh
Arizona gets settlements and the midwest gets nothing. As a midwest supremacist this is barely forgivable.
