Chapter 94

The dome surrounded them and the fortifications they had built and words appeared in Tom’s vision and he knew everyone was receiving the same announcement.

An Event has been initiated.

After reading that line, Tom paid it no more attention. It was what he had categorised as squirming time. The event would be announced and then the system would let you stew on it for a period. In the tutorial, he always ducked into his system room and asked the Oracle his standard question of whether to run or fight, but he would not waste a question here.

He welcomed the conflict even if it was risky and unless it was overwhelming in its difficulty Tom planned on seeing it through.

Plus, why would he retreat when this was an opportunity to learn? How his fellow competitors reacted to this development would be telling. During DEUS’s trial, he had experienced an event about once per year. Usually it was after he had obtained some personal threshold, but sometimes it was because of settling down in the one spot too long, crossing a river he wasn’t supposed to or climbing a mountain peak that should have been beyond him. Basically, if he did something unusual, there was a chance of triggering the GOD’s attention.

He had actively sought them for the potential rewards. Others, Tom was sure, had run from them in fear of the risks. Tom lifted his head to examine everyone around him. This was an opportunity to test the mettle of those he would fight with and those who had settled for safety. Only a few looked confused, and Tom made a point of memorising those faces. To have gone through the tutorial without experiencing multiple events was a red flag, if he had ever seen it. All six of them were crafters and had probably challenged themselves via their craft versus exploration, still it was damning for them. He put them out of his mind and passively absorbed the remaining emotions. It was almost an even split between horrified expressions and excited, with no differentiation between the nomads and the rest.

They had triggered an event, but what one and would they get an explanation of the rules? Tom racked his brain for what exactly had been said to cause the reaction. Joline and Seong had been discussing an intent to stay here. That discussion impacted the people who had been sitting on the fence. Joline had visibly consolidated support within the group, and Tom suspected he knew what was happening.

Interesting, he thought to himself he had not known about this component of Existentia.

Patiently, he waited.

“Town event?” Michael asked.

Tom nodded. That was his guess as well.

“It feels like the tutorial barely taught us anything.” Michal’s preferred weapon, a rapier was out of its sheathe and ready to meet any threat. The healer studied the translucent dome. “Not that it matters. It is clear we can’t retreat. Hopefully, the fair play in the tutorial will apply to here too.”

“Fair play.” Tom scrunched up his face. “Not always, but I guess when it wasn’t it at least it gave you a chance to run.”

Michael looked at him in surprise. “You, Tom, ran from events.”

Tom nodded and held up a hand of fingers then an extra one.

“Six times?” Michael summarised. “One day you’ll have to tell me why.”

“I can tell you now. I didn’t think I could win. Only an idiot doesn’t retreat when you’re outclassed.”

“I never ran.” Michael said finally. “But I failed in five events, almost died in three and then died in my last one, so I’m not one to talk. In hindsight, I have to agree, turning your tail and running is the better part of bravery.”

Tom chuckled and caught sight of Everlyn on top of the wall. She waved him over.

“Excuse me. I’ve been summoned.”

Michael grunted in response, and Tom jogged toward her.

The world stilled, and the translucent dome crackled with energy.

He froze once more, and the text reappeared.

A settlement event has been started as a result of:

• Over thirty-two people have formed an intent to create a settlement in a designated wilderness area.
• Fortifications have been constructed.
• Dedicated crafting, eating, sleeping and reproduction areas have been created.
• Developed structures were used for intended purposes.
• No one owns an object with the authority to develop a settlement in a tier 14 area.

In Existentia, the right to create a settlement must be earned by token or Event.

To this end a standard beast wave event has been initiated.

• Eight separate beast waves each three days apart.
• The initial wave will be calibrated at rank 13 with numbers and strength scaled for the seventy-three founding members of the settlement.
• Each subsequent wave will be two ranks higher.
• Difficulty will not be adjusted for losing personnel either through death or desertion.

As per Event rules, each individual has the opportunity to abandon the event on the off days. To do this, you’ll need to travel over 1 km from the centre of the existing foundations and declare the intention. You will then be barred from returning till after the event’s end. On challenge days, movement to and from the settlement area will be prevented.

The words stopped scrolling, and what sounded like mocking orchestral music started up.

There was no hidden meaning in the rules. It meant everything it said.

The first wave would be scoped to be equal to seventy-three rank thirteen creatures. That might be seventy-three enemies of that rank or one around rank eighteen or tens of thousands of weaker monsters.

What was given was a baseline. From there, the event could take the actual monster in any direction it wished.

They would have to fight off the first wave, but that was not a death sentence. Most of them courtesy of the tutorial and the challenge trial had intangibles that let them fight well above their apparent average rank of nine. Still, the four ranks difference was massive, especially as many of them were not combat oriented. It was almost a fifty percent boost in every attribute. Which roughly made them at least three times stronger in raw strength and more if whatever monster sent against them was magic based.

First wave of the challenge will start in two hours.

The dome did not drop. It stayed bright in their vision, holding them in till the fight started.

Mathematics ran through Tom’s head. He could use his three hundred mana three and a half times and significantly more if he didn’t bother with his crystal. He thought about the Golem that he had created during the trial. That one had been piloted by an elemental and it had paid off. If he played his cards right and materials were available for purchase, he could create a similar golem. That would require him to use his mana and crystal twice, once to create the golem and the second time in summoning a lesser elemental. Then he would need his full mana once more to cast Harness Meteorite. Mana management was going to be tight, but he could do all three and have full mana when the raid hit, providing he got working quickly.

Fifteen minutes to plan, Tom told himself. In his calculations, it was closer to thirty, but he didn’t want to make it too close. But he still needed time to get things right. Planning mattered.

Before he launched himself into the details, he considered how he wanted to use his fate.

He checked the fate and was not surprised to see it was full. He had sensed the level, but it was nice to confirm. It felt like he had double dipped using the fate and then having it restored afterwards and it was not something he could do regularly. Susie had cheated on his behalf. He had spent the fate in the challenger trial and while technically his physical being and materials were supposed to be preserved during the trial, that shouldn’t and didn’t always extend to a resource like fate.

Luckily for this trial at least, the GODs had thought differently, and he was thankful that his fate points were full. With all of it available, he had real choices to make.

Tom remembered the last time there was a dome and his use of fate. It had created the wasp situation where he benefited more than everyone else. He did not regret that decision at all. The fact he could counter the wasps had saved lives. Not the whole group, because humans are nothing if not adaptable, but losses would have been higher. Having the optimal starting combination of vulnerabilities had delivered.

The obvious choice would be to repeat it, but his fellow competitors knew about fate now and Tom would not be surprised if they used it proactively. He did not want his fate to be wasted against one of the other fighters. Because what would help him would not necessarily benefit others and if they were trying to influence the event to create a different type of monster both of their fate streams would cancel each other out.

What would be the best use?

Well, he should keep at least thirty in reserve for the fight in case he did something stupid like run over the back of the lizard. He snorted to himself. For when he did something stupid.

Fate could also be weaponised against the auction house. He had already done it twice and there were diminishing returns, but hopefully because this time it would be for the golem and to help the group instead of himself, it would count as a first-time use. Fifty fifty chance Tom decided. If only he could apply fate to influence that, and he chuckled to himself. Dedicating some to the auction house was the right call. After all, if he was going to construct a golem, then he needed to get materials quickly.

Finally, fate had continued to help him with his summoning spells. For what he wanted, personality was important, and there was no way he had the mana to support the elemental that had helped him in the trial so it would be a new one. Not that he could summon the trial elemental even if he possessed the mana, because for now he lacked the spell required to do it. Outside lightning, his own summon spell was wisp level. Luckily, his title would let him push one rank higher and bring in a lesser elemental. They would be far better at the complicated golem piloting than the wisp.

A third each, he decided.

His feet, while he had pondered options had brought him up onto the wall and next to Everlyn. She was faithfully on duty, staring out at the translucent dome. The thin strip of land between the wall and the dome was completely devoid of animal life.

“Why are you still up here?”

“Better than crowded down there.”

Tom looked and had to agree. “True. I need to prepare for the coming event part of which is buying materials. Can you watch?”

“Always.” The was a slight distortion of reality and her bow appeared with an arrow already nocked. He wanted to find out the details around the weapon, but it was a conversation that could wait till after the crisis. All that mattered is that it was clearly deadly.

Tom took a deep breath. His path was set and the first thing to do was to spend thirty-five fate on the auction house. He wished for items that he could buy almost immediately, which would help build his golem.

He formed a record of said desires. Something that could hold a spell or a mana engine or a place for an elemental to exist comfortably with lower upkeep costs. Preferably all three. Maybe even some mis-priced tier two or three raw stones from the human auction house. In fact, there was lots of stuff that could be useful. Spells and weapon as well, wire, sensing organs. Carefully, he placed all of them into his desire and then released the fate in a burst of force that left him feeling a little emptier.

He shut his eyes and appeared in his system room.

Fifteen minutes, he reminded himself.

“Display the next five items to finish from The Spectaculi.”

The items from the special auction that only ever had a hundred items on it appeared on the screen.

• Sword of blood Summons.
• Gateway of Tranquillity from Suffering.
• Mana engine - tier 4.

Tom froze when he saw that line. Excitement bubbled out of him. It felt like he was entering a state of shock. A tier four mana engine was better than he could imagine! It was unbelievable that fate had done this. The coincidence, the luck, the… The wall reacted to his spike of interest and below the list showed the details. All of his attention focused on the price.

Cost: 2,124,000

That flare of hope vanished. That was not for him. It had nothing to do with his fate just another random object that while it was useful; it was so far beyond his price range that it might not have existed.

• Amulet of illusionary wall.
• Broken cage.

That pricked Tom’s interest.

Broken Cage

A supreme elemental was imprisoned within this cage. In a fight with a celestial mage, the prison was broken. The fight has downgraded the structure and after fixing it will be considered a tier 2.

Current Price: 5,500

Time to sale: 0:04:00

Some of the huge amount of information that had been dumped into his mind when getting the stone golem spell professionally assessed the auction house offering. It would need to be fixed to act as a prison, but that wasn’t why Tom wanted it. This would be a perfect temporary home for anything he summoned up to the elemental level. It was inherently tier 2, so nothing more powerful could use it, but it would probably be decades and millions of credits before he would be regularly summoning the higher levelled elementals.

He bid on it. For most people, it was useless because of the difficulty of fixing it. Tom was sure there were crafters out there who could fix this easily, and all he could hope was that someone like that did not notice the broken cage’s presence at the auction house. For his purpose, he did not need a prison instead he only needed a container for an elemental, a home, so this was perfect.

“Show the next five finishing auctions,” Tom ordered for completeness.

• Belt of Slow.
• Blade of Dimensional Storage.
• Nascent Mana Engine.
• Shield of Fire.
• Anvil of Ice.

Tom’s eyes fell on that middle option, and the wall dutifully responded.

Nascent Mana Engine

This engine is currently not functioning, but if it is upgraded, it will be a fully functioning tier two mana engine.

Current Price: 13,400

Time to sale: 0:07:00

Tom doubled checked the effective five hundred and twelve bonus.

Stone Golem: Threshold bonus 32 - Increase the tier of one input item of the golem once every four days or repair it.

He could definitely use the ability to fix the mana engine. Tom put a bid on it and for completeness he read the next five items but nothing jumped out. If he won both of the auctions, having tier two components to start his golem would be a tremendous boost.

He opened his eyes. Everlyn had her bow out but not drawn and she stood with her back against the wall her eyes panning over the surroundings. Nothing was getting close to her.

“I need ten minutes to finish my purchases.”

“Spectaculi?”

“Yes, I already have bids in.”

“And the human auction house?”

“Yes, that’s next. Though I don’t have near enough credits.”

She smiled. “Let me look into it. For now, go.”