A Relatively Powerful Mage

The group arrived on the plateau near the end of the next day. With little daylight left, they decided not to rush placing the nexus, having several more hours during the final day, though Imri wanted to place the nexus well before the final hour. Instead, they traveled toward the center of the plateau during the last couple of hours of daylight.

The topic of the exact placement had been discussed at length as they traveled. Imri's first thought had been to place it near the center of the plateau, with the hopes that eventually the radius would spread throughout the entire region. Imri considered the best option in the long term, but it wasn’t an ideal solution for the short term. He wasn’t sure what was in the exact center, but he doubted that was the ideal location of their settlement. He also was reasonably certain the radius wouldn’t be large enough to cover their settlement if the nexus wasn’t within the heart of their building placements.

The solution he had come up with was to place the nexus close to the lake, which was a few kilometers west of the center. This wasn’t ideal in the short term, as this meant they would be placing the nexus on the eastern side of the lake, while the western shore was closer to a cave system that had several edible mushrooms with magical effects. It was also almost a day's hike away from the healing hot spring. However, Imri had no intention of this location only becoming a small settlement, having aspirations for a large city whose outskirts spanned the entire plateau.

Their good fortune continued, with no signs of any predators lurking. The view of the mana storm was incredible, as the small blue motes cascaded near the base of the mountains. They awoke well before full light, with no margin for error. Fortunately, the hike was easy, and their pace slightly exceeded expectations, allowing them to arrive a couple of hours before the timer expired. Due to the time constraints, there was no second-guessing their decision, only a quick discussion on exact placement as they examined the terrain. Eventually, they settled on the crest of the gentle slope that led down to the lake several hundred meters below.

A prompt appeared, asking him to confirm the location, with yet another warning that the placement was permanent. Imri confirmed and the nexus materialized in the desired location, hovering half a meter from the ground. It was a several-meter-tall octahedron that was elongated along its vertical axis, glowing with an ominous blue light that reminded Imri of the color of the mana storm. Intricate runes beyond his understanding were etched throughout the entire nexus, and even his innate understanding from his primordial heritage could only tell him that these were powerful runes, likely created by the system itself.

Imri placed his hand on the nexus, a new flood of information washing over him.

Settlement Overview

Unnamed Settlement (1F) Level 3

Radius of Effect: 515 Meters

Resource Regeneration Bonus: 5.15%

Experience Bonus: 1.03%

A quick perusal of the Settlement information told Imri several things. The settlement provided benefits right away, experience, and regeneration. While both benefits were helpful, they disproportionately affected those who primarily stayed in one place, mainly the crafters and other support personnel. Those focused on gathering resources from the nearby wilderness or fighting monsters, wouldn’t benefit at all from the experience portion. It also appeared that each level the settlement gained increased its benefits and radius by 1%, with his yet-to-be-named settlement having started at level 3 since he had been given Zhaire’s nexus.

The next option he looked into was the system store. He was quickly disappointed when he saw that it contained only 2 items, a level 5 F-grade core for 100 credits and a level 10 version for 500 credits. However, a notification appeared, explaining that the system was seeding credits to facilitate system credits becoming the official currency. To do this, it allowed everyone to sell items to the system in exchange for credits. It also explained that system credits would be a frequent reward for quests.

Imri did some quick experiments to see how many credits he could get for a variety of items. He checked by initiating a sell request for various items contained within his pack, from simple trail rations, monster cores, jewelry, and his newly created flashbang rock. The first thing that stood out was the abysmal price of the jewelry, while he had always considered most to be severely overpriced before the integration, the system had an even less charitable view of their value. Some of the cheaper pieces sold for less than the 100 credits needed to buy a level 5 core, while even the most extravagant piece didn’t eclipse the 500 needed for a level 10 core. The next thing he noticed was that the system still expected to turn a profit, even with its supposed event to raise sell prices dramatically. He knew this because the same level 5 core that could be bought for 100, only sold for 80. The more mundane pre-integration items sold for almost nothing, usually only 1 or 2 credits. The one pleasant surprise was his flashbang rock, which could be sold for almost 400 credits, a decent haul considering the minimal effort and components used to craft them.

He wasn’t the only one testing the store, when he mentioned that anyone could access the store by touching the nexus, many others had taken him up on the opportunity. Most came to similar conclusions while perusing the shop, pre-integration craftsmanship was almost universally seen as worthless by the system, with most of their value being derived from what raw materials they were made up of. Fortunately, Christoph, a larger portly man who had been a successful realtor before the integration, seemed more impressed. He had transitioned from a realtor to a more general merchant profession, and the man hadn't been successful for no reason. He pointed out that there was tremendous value in the currency itself, system credits. It was a currency that solved many of the issues that modern-day cryptocurrencies were trying to solve, they could be transferred instantly and were seemingly impossible to fake or steal. They were also completely nontangible, existing in pseudo digital state that could be transferred from person to person. The main drawback was that they were controlled by the system, not the local government, so it was impossible to increase the amount of currency in circulation by printing more money. However, some people, including Christoph, saw this as a benefit instead of a downside.

They spent the better part of an hour testing their inventory and discussing the various benefits of a magically stored system-controlled currency. Despite this, few took advantage of the store, with no one having started with any credits, and most items had greater value to themselves than being exchanged for a minuscule amount of credits. Those few who did sell an item or two noticed their actual credits were slightly diminished from what they had expected, and a cursory review revealed the culprit. The stingy system had a tax that it deducted from the sale. It was only 2.5%, far lower than the local sales tax in the pre-integration era, but it still elicited a stream of curses when people noticed. There was no escaping taxes, even in an apocalypse.

The money for the tax wasn’t entirely wasted. The settlement leveled up by receiving credits from the tax, though it would take far more than a few random sales to level it from 3 to 4. He also noticed a quest had appeared.

New Quest Progress

Settlement Rank Up F to E Number of permanent residents 37/250, number of permanent structures 0/25.

While it would take some time to construct 25 permanent structures, the 250 permanent residents might be harder. While the main contingent of their settlers brought their number only a few dozen short of that, Imri wasn’t sure how they would manage to find more people. He suspected there were still quite a few people who subsisted in the stone forest, their small groups able to avoid the notice of the Azala and Chixel, for now. Unfortunately, it would be no easy task to shepherd them to this settlement.

With the settlement established, they split into small groups to explore their immediate surroundings. Imri was particularly keen to do some spelunking. Unfortunately, the known entrances to the cave system were almost 7 kilometers away, making a short excursion impractical. Instead, Imri contented himself with traversing the shoreline of their small lake. The lake was nearly circular, with roughly a diameter of a kilometer. The embankment of the shore was mostly sheer cliffs for several meters before the waterline. The water itself was clear and deep, and Imri noticed several underwater entrances into the cliff, possibly a part of the very caves he wanted to explore.

They eventually found a natural path that was traversed to reach the water below without cliff jumping. Everyone unanimously agreed that this was a good spot to take a much-earned soak. They took turns, leaping off of the cliff into the deep water that awaited below. As Imri hit the water, he realized it was much warmer than expected for what he assumed was a glacial lake. They spent over an hour in and around the water, relieved to be rid of the accumulated grime from a week of travel.

They returned to the nexus, where most everyone had set up their tents and were making another temporary camp until structures were built. With only a couple of hours of daylight, no one felt particularly ambitious on the first day. Some of the other groups had been a bit more productive than they had. Caroline had taken a group to find as many naturally growing herbs, to great success. While there weren't large forests, some nearby areas had an assortment of bushes and plants, many of which had potent alchemical effects. They even managed to pick some berries that Imri didn’t recognize, looking like a blue strawberry. Sylvi assured them they were edible, reassuring everyone she took one of the berries and bit into it. Imri also tried one and instantly reached for more as the sweet juices of the fruit ran down his beard.

Most took that night to relax, enjoying an alcoholic beverage by a campfire that gently crackled. Imri was not one of them, the possibility of powerful denizens of the mountain still pushing him to protect the tranquil plateau they now called home.

Imri wanted to craft as much as possible, but he would quickly run out of cores if he didn’t first buy some. He decided to sell an item he hadn’t used in a while, one he regretted using at all. The dark ritual dagger he had gotten off the Chixel priest during the first days of integration. As he went to sell the item, he was shocked to notice it would sell for a staggering sum, over 1 million credits. However, the reason for its immense value wasn’t the item itself, but what it contained. The small cloudy gemstone held the souls of those he had killed with the dagger, and the system was including the souls in the sale price. While Imri wasn't sure what would happen to the souls if they were claimed by the system, that was one experiment he wasn't willing to do.

He used Spatial Expansion, defining the anchors to be the space between gem and dagger. It was painstaking work to get the anchors right, but he eventually managed to set them. While that had been difficult, the amount of space needed was quite small before the tension was gone and the gem popped out and fell to the ground.

Going about destroying the gemstone proved a bit more difficult. He borrowed a hammer and tried smashing it, but it was more resistant than it looked. Instead, he used another spell, Spatial Compression. He had struggled using this spell, mainly because he still found it hard to intuitively define the area he wanted to compress. However, a small immobile gemstone was different than a chaotic fight. He had all the time he needed to define the space he wanted to affect, and he carefully defined it to be around the edge of the gemstone. With the target in mind, he slowly added mana. Like relieving tension, compressing space required only a moderate amount of mana when it was well-defined. The gemstone cracked at the weakest point then shattered, the souls freed from their prison.

The dagger without the gemstone and souls sold for far less, only 20,000 but that was more than enough for his purposes. He sold the dagger, forever ridding himself of the cursed weapon as it vanished into thin air, claimed by the system. Credits also weren't his only reward for his good deed.

Spell Rank Up Improvement

Spatial Expansion F to E Spell's mana efficiency increased by 2.5%

Spatial Compression F to E Spell's mana efficiency increased by 2.5%

Imri Padar has reached level 13 in Relativity Mage (1E)

Imri Padar has reach level 13 in Primordial (1F)

Primary Stats Gained New Value

+1 Constitution 103

+1 Intelligence 157

Secondary Stats Gained

+1 HP 123

+1 FP 93

+3 MP 249

+4 Mana Efficiency 257

+4 Crafting Efficiency 274

Quest Updated Progress

Relativity Mage Rank up E to D Learn new space or time spells 2/5, Rank up space or time spell 4/5.

It was apparent that he needed to practice using his spell efficiently. While he could overcome his shortcomings with raw power, it was important for him to improve his control over his spells. If he could make defining his spells easy and intuitive, he could take advantage of some of the same principles he had used on the gemstone.

With his conscience cleared, he returned his focus to crafting. The main shortage had always been cores, the few dozen they had from hunting Ulfr Hounds had never been able to keep up with the entire camp's demands. Now, they had a way to exchange items for cores, and Imri took full advantage. He returned to making his signature item, the rings of Time Dilation. He managed to have the first one enchanted in less than an hour, not rushing to the point of sloppiness, nor meticulously crafting a masterpiece. The resulting item had a mana efficiency of 147, roughly 20% better than his first Time Dilation item that had earned him the master crafter title, even more so when he considered the design improvement he had made with each iteration.

While the enchanted piece of jewelry was undoubtedly a useful item that almost any of the camp's settlers could use, he didn’t hesitate to sell the item to the system for just under 600 credits. His goal was to grind his Runic Engineer class to a higher level before distributing the items. If he excluded the cost of the jewelry, he had netted over 400 credits for less than an hour of work. He repeated the process, only this time purchasing the level 10 core instead of the cheaper level 5. He spent roughly the same amount of time inscribing the runes into an equivalent piece of jewelry, resulting in a Time Dilation item with mana efficiency 159. Unfortunately, the net profit using this method was slightly lower, with the resulting product selling for just over 900 credits. Despite this, Imri still considered his resources better spent on the higher-level cores. While the net credit gain per hour for himself was lower, the credits going to the settlement more than offset this. He also gained more experience in his profession, which was his main reason for doing this. Imri stopped after his second enchantment, not wanting to strain his mana.

The next morning, during breakfast, Caroline mentioned she had conducted a similar exercise, using the readily available cores to concoct potions to sell. Unfortunately, while she had managed to make a few hundred credits, she had rapidly gone through many of the stockpiled herbs they had brought with. She held out hope that some of the more potent ingredients native to the plateau would produce even more valuable potions, but she didn’t want to sell the best products to the system store. She intended to pause her for-credit work and focus on her elixir for Sylvi’s heritage rank up, something many were keenly interested in.