Unchosen Champion

While gripping the rake with both hands, Coop raised his arms into the air and stretched his back. A few solid pops along his spine gave him a wave of relief as he exhaled dramatically. He wiped the sweat from his brow with the knuckles of a sand covered hand and took a deep breath. The small reset was enough to get him ready to keep going.

He adjusted his grip and lifted the reliable rake into the air before dropping the metal tines into the sand, letting gravity do most of the work in bringing the head down. The dunes were already looking significantly improved as he worked his way across the battlefield. He was using the same rake that Jones had wielded when they fought Ancient Defenders in the early days, but now he was avoiding the pacifist monsters in favor of challenging the sand itself. The Defenders shifted in their places, but otherwise ignored him just as he ignored them. He chuckled at the idea that they had finally reached an accord.

“Yoohoo! Coop! Over here!” Caisalya called for him with her singsong voice as she directed his attention to another massive crater where a cannonball had blasted the sand away until coral rock was exposed. The limestone bedrock was barely covered by packed sand in the first place, so anywhere that received a significant impact left the base of the island uncovered. At least with Charlie’s tornadoes the sand was uniformly distributed around the area and they hadn’t explosively penetrated the surface of the ground.

He jogged over to where Caisalya had indicated and started breaking up scorched sand along the edges of the crater with the rake, making sure to spread the sand relatively evenly across the rock. The sand reacted in a variety of ways, depending on the element that disturbed the dunes, but for the most part, the solution was simple. Separating clumps and redistributing the sand.

The herbalist was helping him restore the habitat, healing the battle wounds one at a time. She was reseeding some of the native plants while Coop reset the sand according to her instructions. Coop had intended to do something about the scars left after the siege, but he hadn’t expected to manually transform the dunes that divided the coastal beach from the interior scrubland himself.

When Coop explained his intention for restoration of the damaged dunes, Caisalya encouraged him to work urgently and not to dally. Apparently, disturbed dunes quickly collapse into instability without vegetation. The steady ocean winds blow the sand and force it to migrate inland without the stabilization brought by the roots of dune grasses, which in turn, make it difficult for those same grasses to support themselves.

Caisalya was reestablishing the sea oats and placing small posts in strategic locations that reminded Coop of tiny garden fences while she had him plow the most critically damaged areas. The small barriers would provide a temporary structure for dunes to regrow naturally, though the sands would shift over time, this would prevent them from blowing away completely before then.

In addition to Coop, Caisalya had recruited both of her foragers, Ixia, and several grannies that had been interested in gardening into the restoration efforts. They’d have the dunes set up for a full recovery before the day was done.

A thorough habitat assessment also allowed the herbalist to outline ideal locations for new trails where they would cause the least fragmentation. She drafted another two dozen residents into laying flat stones for the paths, lined with small natural barriers. Coconuts, driftwood, and coral rocks formed a tiny hedge along the newly reformed trails. The windward side would also contribute to the formation of new small dunes as the ocean breeze pushed sand inland. Coop had to admit that their quick reconstruction of the trails put his previous maintenance efforts to shame.

Once the dunes were restored, the scrubland would also recover under the watchful care of the herbalist. The dunes naturally provided a barrier to the low-lying inland area, so they needed the initial attention. Lizards were already darting between surviving pickle grasses while hunting unseen insects, and land crabs reclaimed their territory, waving a single claw from the openings of their holes as they unearthed themselves after being buried in sand-covered gaps in the bedrock.

The beach, in contrast, had already fully rehabilitated itself to his untrained eye. The steady waves washed away any evidence of the hordes of monsters that had stampeded across the coast. Now, the only stampedes were the tiny black and white shelled hermit crabs wandering along the shallows and the sandpipers chasing the waves in and out like they were dancing with the sea. The only difference for the beach was that there were fewer clusters of palm trees leaning over the shallow water. Ixia was already in the process of creating small sandy berms where coconut palms would be encouraged to make a comeback. They would reestablish welcomed shady spots on the beach as they grew.

“Hah! Got another one!” Derek shouted, and Coop turned to see what he’d discovered this time. The man held a small glassy orb up to the sun so that he could observe the swirling red mana inside, like he was evaluating a precious jewel.

Satisfied with his inspection, Derek jogged down the half finished trail, stepping from one flat stone to the next, until he reached Coop. “Check it out! Got a huge one this time!”

“Nice one, man.” Coop congratulated him in between plowing with the rake. Derek was leveling his Basic Foraging profession and was dredging up common and uncommon materials called Traces. The materials formed in the aftermath of significant mana fluxes, something that could apparently happen in the aftermath of an event where tens, or hundreds of thousands of monsters died in a single area over a short period of time.

“I think Sunny is still beating you though.” Coop pointed out as the retriever trotted along the trail with a large green Trace in his mouth. Derek and Coop watched as the dog gently put it on top of a pile of a dozen others of various colors and sizes.

“Not fair at all.” Derek grumbled indignantly. “When is the market opening anyway? I want to see what a fortune I’ve already collected and sell it before the dog saturates the supply.”

Coop leaned on the rake and glanced at the angle of the sun. “Should be soon right?”

“I hope so. No offense, mate, but your settlement was sparse.” Derek reflected.

“C’mon, that’s not fair. Credits are hard to come by, and even then, we had way more stuff than the Empire.” Coop tried defending their early progress. The market would just be an upgrade for the residents that were already present anyway. It didn’t bring any new merchants itself, despite the 250,000 basic credit price tag.

“No seven foot tall scantily clad purple amazon women though.” Derek pointed out. Coop just shook his head, remembering how Derek had cultivated his particular image with just about everyone he interacted with.

“Well, after that siege event, we’re going through a period of development. Make sure you leave any of your requests in the town hall.” Coop suggested, trying to shift the conversation away from Derek’s musings.

“I already submitted my ideas, but your weird bird mayor refused to accept them.” Derek complained. Coop was not going to ask what he had proposed. “I mean, there’s no way there are no alien strip clubs right? And they’d definitely be big money makers. Think about it. I bet you’d be able to take the world over through tourism. Love not war right?”

Coop sighed as Derek answered his unasked question anyway. “Go find more traces, dude.”

“Nice idea, mate.” Derek perked up and started walking away. “Grabbing drinks later, right?” He asked from over his shoulder.

“Depends when I start my grind.” Coop answered noncommittally.

“Take a break, Champ!” Derek yelled with exasperation as he jogged backwards. “Drinks later!” He demanded as he pointed at Coop, slowly turning back to the beach. “Argh!” He shouted and stopped in his tracks as Sunny trotted by with yet another Trace, this time a sky blue one, in his mouth. If there had been any competition between the two, it was well out of hand by now.

Coop’s day had begun with what was already becoming the start of his new routine: Jett bullying him off of his pillow while he slept, a jog with Sunny as the retriever heralded dawn, a cold shower, breakfast with Maeve to try Desmond’s experimental alien-human fusion dishes, and an update with whoever had anything that needed his attention around the settlement. From there, he was flexible enough to work through any problems that arose or explore new opportunities that he found. If nothing complicated his life ever again, he would be perfectly happy.

Before Coop presented his idea to Caisalya and ultimately ended up working the beach with a rake, Marcus had sought him out during breakfast in order to let him know that the coffee shop would be fully complete in the afternoon. To commemorate the start of a new period of growth for the settlement, the top advisor was setting the opening of their first construction up as a small celebratory event. A grand opening. Hopefully, the first of many.

Coop suggested they purchase the Market public service and combine its introduction with the shop’s opening. People would have a reason to grab a drink and take a stroll along the canal, checking out stalls of goods for sale. Coop still had almost 2.5 million credits, so the cost wasn’t a problem anymore, and it wasn’t like Coop was planning on giving up his lucrative grind sessions any time soon.

The market established a trade zone that would be accessible to all members of the settlement. In Ghost Reef’s case, they had the market extend east and west along the canal on both sides from the central bridge all the way to the fort’s wall. Their population wasn’t enough to fully utilize it, but it was giving them room to expand in the future.

The public service added a new set of menus to the shard’s interface that allowed for reservations within the designated area. It would keep everything nice and organized while generating revenue for the settlement. Coop knew a few of the contracted residents would be particularly excited about setting up stalls as they had made their requests when he welcomed them to Ghost Reef. Most of the service buildings were designed to be workshops, so they weren’t prepared to sell goods without a market stall. It also meant that more jobs would be open to residents since the crafters wouldn’t be the ones physically doing the selling. All in all, he felt the market was a good purchase for the development of the settlement.

“Champion Coop! The last one is here!” Caisalya called like she was singing a song, flagging him down as he raked and organized his thoughts. He hustled over to the next crater and continued his efforts.

He found himself enjoying the physical activity quite a bit. Raking the beach drew a surprising number of parallels with his grind sessions. The sun beating down on his shoulders and the teeth of the rake sifting through the sand made him feel like he was achieving something worthwhile, a little bit at a time. It seemed like he was really following in Jones’s footsteps in becoming a dedicated caretaker for Ghost Reef.

Coop finished up the last of the raking and admired how much had improved in such a short time. The scars from the battles were nearly gone, the damaged dunes properly seeded, the trail was already better than ever, and the beach palms were planted. The aliens were using their profession abilities to accelerate the growth of the new vegetation while the finishing touches were put in place.

He walked the trail toward the fort and found Balor finishing their brand new stone bridge across the moat. It matched the style of the canal bridge, though it was much smaller and obviously designed specifically to withstand a siege.

The moat was similarly being upgraded. It was already fully cleared of debris by phantom pirates and they were rebuilding both of the sides to be significantly more sturdy. One of the lessons they learned during the siege was how easily the banks caved in and how the debris contributed to temporary bridges over the protective gap. Afterwards, they would be re-dredging the bottom to make it even deeper. They wouldn’t have sand and stone creating temporary bridges in the event of a future siege.

Balor joined him in observing the moat’s progress, wiping his large stone hands on his dark pants. “How’s that for a day’s work lad?” He asked, puffing up his chest with pride. It seemed like the human construction projects had inspired him to show what he could do as well.

“Looks good, Balor.” Coop complimented the stonemason. “The stone arches are especially impressive.”

“Aye, you humans appreciated the incomplete main bridge, so I didn’t mind throwing something together in a rush.” Balor frowned at the arching stones. “I’ll make the pair of bridges a matching set. You just make sure to get those walls back into shape.” He nodded toward one of the many breaches in the southern wall of the fort.

“Once the phantoms are back, we’ll really dig in. It’ll come together quickly when we all work together.” Coop promised. Marcus was taking care of the groundwork so that they would just need additional labor to get everything done. For now, whomever had any expertise related to construction in brick or stone were taking surveys and drawing up plans for significant repairs. Coop had learned his lesson not to let Balor know that they might make some minor changes as well. The fort was meant to be too functional to keep completely historically accurate.

“I wouldn’t have believed you if I hadn’t seen your artisans construct that fancy shop.” Balor admitted, referring to the coffee shop. Coop didn’t bother pointing out that they were mostly amateurs, not artisans, and it wasn’t meant to be that fancy.

“Without that first event looming, we finally have a chance to put a priority on development. I hope you can keep up.” Coop teased the stonemason.

“Pfah! Go and see how the roads are coming along and say that again!” Balor shook a stone fist as Coop headed into the fort.

The iron gate was still unrepaired, leaning off of its hinges against piles of rubble, waiting for the smiths to complete a commission, but the main street had already been finished. Balor and his laborers had worked overnight to complete the primary thoroughfare of the settlement.

From the entrance Coop gazed straight across the entire development. His eyes were drawn to the glowing civilization shard in the center of the first town circle, like the crown jewel at the focal point of the courtyard with the dome of the town hall in the distance behind it.

Textured cobblestone connected the main gate, to Balor’s bridge, and beyond to the town hall. The stone was a hundred different shades of white and gray and came in a variety of shapes in sizes, but by some magic, they all fit together flawlessly, leaving no gaps at all.

Stone planters that seemed to be carved from a single piece of coral rock were perfectly aligned down the center of the road, forming raised islands surrounded by unpretentious, comfortable, wooden benches on all four sides. The planters were already filled with blooming pink hibiscus in the shade of medium sized palms that had orchids clinging to their trunks. The street would be shady enough to keep cool even during the tropical summer and had plenty of comfortable spots to rest in between shopping sessions.

Both town circles were also complete with their own stone patterns spiraling from the central features. The southern circle had the civilization shard and Balor was forming plans for turning it into a true centerpiece. The northern circle had the sinkhole that would eventually become their underground gateway, topped with some kind of tower, according to the stonemason.

The radial streets and the perimeter road were still just outlines, but the stonemason’s team would be getting them completed even before the settlement had the buildings or the population necessary to utilize the routes. Having Balor and his laborers temporarily free from reinforcing the walls meant that significantly more paving would get done in a short period of time.

Coop walked along the shaded street, watching crested hummingbirds investigate the new flowers in the central berms while olive-capped warblers hopped along the palm canopy. A few phantoms lounged on the benches in the shade, idly chatting, but it seemed like most of the residents were working on one project or another.

When he arrived at the coffee shop, he had to admit to being impressed. Even though he had seen it in progress a few times, he didn’t expect the end result to be so elaborate. Coop had been anticipating an extremely basic layout for their first attempts at building, literally a square with a door and a roof, but he had clearly underestimated the expertise of his residents.

Instead of a shop, it was more of an open air cafe with an elevated deck. The whole setup could have lived another life as a premier rooftop bar, serving alcohol to young socialites while overlooking a downtown skyline. Lounge seating was arranged beneath a wooden canopy and leveraged the location on the town circle to look over the open space. The outer wall of the deck was a solid half wall that was still being painted with white paint, provided by Sojjah in exchange for shelf space for some of her products. The exterior was just waiting for the hanging succulents that would encompass the entire perimeter according to the owners’ preference.

Coop was making his way through the entrance when Laurie grabbed his attention.

“You’re here!” She greeted as she swiped her hair away from her face, brushing her cheeks with her fingertips, leaving streaks of white paint behind. “Come inside!” She hurried him through the front, toward the bar, and led Coop through a door into the back area where they would establish a small kitchen. It was full of construction supplies for now, but also had a huge series of tiny pots of dirt with individual leaves sprouting roots. They were the succulents that would decorate the walls, grown by Laurie and Greg, propagated from their plants back home.

“So? Do you really have it?” Laurie asked, still skeptical about Coop delivering on outlandish promises.

Naturally, Coop shrugged. “We’ll see, I guess.” He accessed his spatial storage and started placing all the things he had previously scavenged from the smashed up coffee shop back on the mainland. Laurie gasped in astonishment as the equipment appeared, but she quickly focused and grabbed a notepad to start jotting notes for her records.

“You have no idea how grateful we are. Just getting us here was more than enough to put us in your debt forever.” She shook her head as she concentrated on writing. “Greg has been absolutely panicked about how he was going to make anything, especially after they started building. We were even considering shifting the entire business model to reselling goods produced by the contracted residents.”

As the coffee brewer, espresso machine, and coffee grinder reappeared, Laurie breathed in relief, but Coop agreed with Greg. “I mean, I don’t really know how you’re gonna do it either. This whole project was just a whim.” He placed bags of coffee beans and continued. “How are we going to get you more coffee beans?”

“We already arranged it with Ixia. Our operation is small enough that she can supply us with just a few tracts as long as we give her some beans to start with.” Laurie noted. “The power of magic.” She explained with exaggerated whimsy. “Expanding will be difficult, but that’s for the future to worry about.”

“What about water? Electricity? I dunno, sugar, milk?” Coop still wondered about how they would work out all the details.

Laurie held her fingers up and put one down as she checked each item off. “We already hired a crew of pirates that have water related affinities, Greg can heat things up just fine, and the new Plantation, Grove, and Ranch along with the Herb Garden cover almost all our supplies, Vronk is experimenting with more pastries, and Balor already taught us how to make disposable mugs. They actually poof into mana when they’re emptied.” She shook her head with her own astonishment. Coop raised his eyebrows and she smiled at his reaction, “It’s not our first time starting a shop like this!” She exclaimed with a laugh. “Even if it is the first time with magic involved.” She added, importantly.

Once Coop finished retrieving the scavenged items, Laurie went to gather all of the future cafe employees and have a final meeting. Coop attempted to head for the underground pearlescent chambers and continue grinding, but he was caught up by Camila. She was particularly enthusiastic about the return of coffee and he ended up waiting on the deck with her, lounging while watching the comings and goings of the town circle. As she raved about the coffee shop, he got the impression she was some kind of caffeine fiend and wanted to be the first to try a cup.

It wasn’t long before he was surrounded by other familiar faces. Charlie arrived with Shalatha, Derek with two phantom pirates, and Buck with Elly on his shoulders and both younger brothers trailing behind. Even Maeve left the tavern, ostensibly to check out the competition, though it seemed obvious she was just curious about the drinks herself, having heard of the accolades of coffee from other residents.

Marcus got everyone’s attention to kick things off. He gave a brief prepared speech where he announced that this was the first of many additions to the settlement as they worked together to develop their home and sanctuary. He concluded by inviting everyone to explore the stalls along the newly established market avenues while enjoying their drinks.

Coop leaned against the deck’s railing, sipping an iced coffee with magical cubes floating in the drink, and watched as phantoms sold elixirs made by the alchemists or residents purchased ornamental knick knacks for their new homes. Derek loudly celebrated his haul as he sold the Traces he gathered to the blacksmith’s stall. Apparently, it was enough to purchase 20 drinks in the Clumsy Shark.

The market reminded him of the stalls at a festival, colorful and inviting, though the merchandise was certainly different. He was surprised by how many had popped up. It seemed like almost every contracted resident had reserved a spot. Even Balor had a shop manned by a phantom that was selling decorative baubles and small furniture.

It felt like another level up for Ghost Reef. When Coop finished his drink, he headed for the Ruin Excavators to seek out his own.