NOVPUBChris
No rest for the wicked.
My body ached, my mind was tired, and there was a dull buzzing in the back of my head it felt like, but I still couldn't lay down to rest. Hell, I still hadn't been to a Healer yet, as I had instead hurried out to meet with other Leaders straight away.
I'd been worried they would take off before I had the chance to speak with them making everything all that much harder. Now that an agreement was already in place, all I had to do was send representatives out to pick up what we bought and drop off our payment.
Instead of me going on over month-long trips to each and every Pylon, which would have been an absolute bitch.
Instead, all I had to do was travel half the Continent, fight Orcs, and meet everyone here. In the long run, I didn't know which would have been easier.
"Hop to, Christopher, almost done," I said to myself.
At least the next task is fun.
Picking out Rewards and finally getting access to things we had been barred from was exciting. It reminded us that we were barred from it in the first place, which was annoying, but it also had the shiny effect.
The new and shiny effect.
I already had a few ideas for what I'd spend my personal Rewards on but those for the Faction were a little more nebulous. The options were nearly endless. We could get really good equipment now and be one of the most well-equipped armies around, but we would eventually grow out of such equipment.
We could also go all in for the future and leave ourselves at a disadvantage if any fights broke out against a Faction who had done the opposite.
It wasn't so bad that I'd say war was in the air, but it was written on the walls. Maybe not this year, or maybe next year, but it was coming.
I poked my head into the planning tent to see a flurry of activity. Abigail, Sophia, Grace, and Jonathan were all going through sheets of paper combing over lists with numbers next to them.
There were so many it surprised me initially, I hadn't thought we brought this much paper with us.
"How goes it?" I tried to sound upbeat but they all just gave me the stink eye. The time to choose was bearing down on them and they were still going through all the options.
It looked like Abigail's perfectionist need had rubbed off on all of them.
"Fine," Abigail said tersely, "We're still compiling the lists and won't be done for a while."
"That's fine," I said, "I just wanted to check and see where we were."
I picked up one of the papers that sat atop a pile off to the side. I assumed that whatever it pertained to was finished for the time being.
Raw Materials
Deep Iron
Frost Steel
Flow Steel
Compressed Granite
...
The list was as the title described, a collection of various raw materials. Unexpectedly, there were numbers next to them that I had to assume were prices.
"How do you know how much these cost?" I asked. Had she remembered how much they were in the Tutorial Store? That was two years ago, how is that possible? They could have changed–
"You can enter the Reward Shop as many times as you want while the timer is still active. We had people going back and forth to compile everything. It's what's taking the longest." Abigail said without looking up.
"Why are you even bothering with some of this?" I looked at a different list of mainly mundane materials, "Oak Planks? Pine Logs? We have this in Frostheim."
"The exclusion of data just because it's irrelevant now does not mean it will stay that way. Even if this isn't precise to our specific market, it gives us a starting point for how much these things cost." She raddled off addedly, still not looking up.
Then, having a sudden thought and jerking her head up, "Chris! I need you to go and see how many Faction Points we have!" She commanded like we were still on the battlefield.
Did she just realize it was me and not someone else?
"Can't you see it? You're the City Lord of our Faction." I asked. She was also set to inherit the Leader Title if I were to fall, but I kept that part to myself. I hadn't known that was possible until I was playing around with the Pylon. She also didn't know I'd done that.
"No, only the Faction Leader can see or use the Faction's points." She said angrily. "It's bullshit, but it'll have to do."
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"Alright, do I just pop in to see how many points we have to spend and come right back?" I asked.
"Yes, and check how many personal points you have as well." She responded. Gee, thanks Captain Obvious.
Pulling up the notification, I tried to look for a way to enter the Reward Store but came up empty. I thought I'd be like after the Tutorial ended and I would get whisked off but that didn't seem to be the case.
I had to think about entering and the next thing I knew, I was back in the absurdly white room with a familiar guide. The only difference was I didn't feel any teleportation. The usual discombobulation was absent and it felt near seamless.
Odd.
"Congratulations, human! You have passed the E-rank Planetary Protections Assessment and have fought for your Planet. For accomplishing that feat, rewards will be given based upon your performance. As the Leader of a Faction who also participated, separate Rewards have also been earned."
The guide's words were nearly identical to the last time I was here in all their robotic, lifeless glory.
"You may see how many E-rank Assessment Reward Points you have by opening the shop menu. If you have any questions or need help to aid your search, you may query me by voicing your concern."
This being my third time meeting the guide, I brought up the shop menu to see how many points I had immediately. 𝓃𝓸𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
"Dear god," I said breathlessly, "That's a lot."
115,854,235 Personal Points
592,621,667 Faction Points
Those numbers meant nothing by themselves and were a lot less than how many Tutorial Reward Points I left with, but I knew it was more significant than that. The Values of what we could purchase had changed as well.
Why the difference? To be more precise during the tutorial? Plus, that was thirty days versus one battle.
It was times like these that I wished we were given more information. Knowing how many points per Orc killed was also a nice thing to know but was withheld.
Still, just from glancing at the raw materials costs on the piece of paper, I knew we had a lot of purchasing power. If all we spent our points on was Condensed Granite, we'd be able to build a massive Citadel reaching into the sky and still have points left over.
I poked around a bit in the catalog, but I didn't plan to stay for long. I just wanted to see how much a few things I prepared to purchase cost.
I wish I hadn't. It made me want to cry. Why are Frost Giant Parts so expensive?
Leaving the Shop a touch more humble than first entering, I felt nothing as my vision returned to the same tent I'd been in.
Creepy.
Abigail was alarmingly close and the sheer demand on her face was worrying. "And? How many?"
"592,621,667."
"Good, alright, that's... good." She said while backing away. "Good. Really good."
She was acting... weird. I looked to Jonathan for help.
"I think you broke her." He said unhelpfully.
"How? All I did was tell her what she asked for." I said.
Jonathan shook his head, "We've been here for hours trying to plan around a budget of 200 or 300 million. Now you come and say we have nearly double that available."
"How would you know how much to plan for?"
"Well," Jonathan shrugged, "The Scouts hear things and Marcus already told us how many he has. It was a simple deduction from there. The amount of Faction Points is the sum of all the member's Personal Points, so we... extrapolated."
"How many did Marcus have?" I asked.
"Around 450 million but he had more people than us. We only had 800 while he had well over a thousand." Jonathan answered.
"Wait," I said, "Faction Points are just everyone's Personal Points added up?"
That seemed... wrong. My Personal Points were a fifth of the Faction points. If that were true, that meant that I alone accounted for a fifth of our contribution. That didn't seem right. We had over 800 people fighting.
"Yeah, we haven't done the exact math, as some people don't wish to reveal how many points they got, but the sample size was big enough for us to say with confidence that was the case." He said.
"How many Points did you get?" I asked.
"Just under 50 million," he said with a touch of pride.
"Oh, that's:"
"Don't say it. I don't want to know." He cut me off. "I know you got more and let's leave it at that. Abigail already beat me and I don't feel like asking Austin or Rachel. My pride can only take so much."
Abigail got more? Huh, good for her.
Abigail's mind took a moment to digest how many more points we had than she expected but she was back quickly, "Alright, good. We won't have to compromise as much.
"We still need to rank which skill orbs, techniques, and knowledge is most important but now we won't have to be as selective."
I was most excited about the skill orbs, personally. They weren't going to be as powerful as my Class Skills, but they would round out the skills I had available. Gabriel would like them too, as he took the chance to study every skill shard we pulled out of the Dungeons before someone used it.
"Jonathan, how did it go with the Merchants? Austin said things will be expensive but available." I asked.
"Well, not exactly." He started, "We'll be able to buy most things, but some of the prices make it unfeasible. Any technique above the Basic level is absurdly expensive and isn't worth the expense. It's better to buy them now rather than through the Merchants. Also, there are certain restrictions on some of the parts I tried to look into.
"The Dragon Bloodline parts for Rachel, the Fire Titan for Vincent, the Naiad for Abigail, and the Frost Giant for you are among those that are better purchased through the Reward Store."
"What restrictions?" I didn't like the sound of that.
"Well, remember when we were told that picking certain Bloodlines would complicate things?" Jonathan started.
I vaguely remembered saying fuck it and doing that exact thing anyway.
"Well, certain Races dislike it when we use their corpses to advance." He finished. I also noticed that the more animalistic Bloodlines weren't listed. Jonathan's Stone Turtle. Austin's Radiant Eagle. Gabriel's Arctic Fox.
That makes sense.
"How do we get around that?" I questioned, "Without finding the parts ourselves in the wild."
"Well, that part is rather easy. Apparently, there was a massive War a long time ago over it and there was an agreement made. If we want access to restricted parts, the race we hold a Bloodline in has the right to 'test' us." Jonathan explained.
My anger got the better of me.
"Fucking Christ!" I yelled, "How many God Damned tests are we put through!"
The entire tent turned and looked at me wide-eyed and I realized how loud I shouted.
"It's not that unreasonable when you think about it," Abigail cut in, "It's their race we need access to, being able to restrict who gets access is well within reason."
I sighed, "I know that, but all this testing and evaluating and seeing if we're worthy is annoying. I just want to be left alone and tell everyone to fuck off. Thousands just died to prove that we're worthy to have our Planet Protected. A Planet that was perfectly fine before some Great System came in and ruined it all."
My aura leaked out as my anger did.
"It brings us into this 'Universe' and then says 'Hey there, if you don't want to get invaded and possibly enslaved by alien races, you need to fight well and prove worthy of protection!'
"Like we're some Gladiators thrown into a pit to fight for other people's entertainment!"
I hadn't meant to yell. I hadn't realized I started raising my voice, but by the end, I was huffing from exertion.
I noticed my aura was getting away from me and both Sophia and Grace were shaking.
"I'm sorry," I reined my aura back in, "It's been a long day."
