Unchosen Champion-Chapter 323: The Eternal Spear

It was still early in the morning of Day 186 and Earth’s doomed assimilation into the galactic community rolled on. The sun was shining, the pigs were swimming, the owls were hooting, the pelicans were soaring, and the main streets of Ghost Reef were chock full of human activity. Future challenges failed to cast a pall upon the tropical settlement and its residents.

Coop had checked in with a handful of his closest friends and was ready to get back to his hunt. As he strolled toward the heavy steel front gate, he made note of exactly how busy the settlement had become. It was one thing to hear about the changes, but it was another to experience them firsthand.

People were passing in and out of the many established service buildings, ordering, reserving, and collecting as many mana-based resources as the in-house masters could produce. Different groups called out to each other, divvying supplies among themselves, and sharing alternatives that circumvented obvious limitations in available inventory. They loaded their hauls up in teams, manually carrying them to their various underground destinations along the chasm. Rather than panicked urgency, they demonstrated the diligence of a cooperative community preparing for a well-forecasted natural disaster.

This wasn’t a unique situation either, as it had been occurring on a daily basis ever since the expansion efforts into the underground had been initiated. Only the scale had increased over time. With the results of the Underlayer Event, their endeavors had grown explosively.

The expansion efforts had gone from what was more of a side project for a small portion of the already limited resident population to something akin to a settlement event, where each individual of the increased population found ways to contribute. What had started as a simple proposal being conducted by Charlie, Jones, and Balor in the beginning was now being worked on by many, many more. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say that the entirety of the population had been participating in the effort, adding their hands to personally contribute to Ghost Reef just like how the original residents had built up the fort at the top.

Coop figured it was a convenient way to demonstrate that they were all in it together. Rather than having an obvious dichotomy between the new and old, they were cooperating with each other to establish a place that they would all protect.

Thousands of residents, new and old, were working hard on what seemed like an equal number of individual construction projects. They funneled through the teleportation stations or up from the ramps with empty packs. They gathered supplies and coordinated plans from various hubs, heading back down the ramps and teleporters with tools and materials that would aid their collective vision in coming to life. The settlement was continuing to expand downward, then outward, at a pace that was escalating day by day as personnel arrived and expertise increased with the aid of mana.

It was quite the contrast when compared to the slow, deliberate growth of the original top layer of Ghost Reef. As Coop and Jones developed the courtyard of the old stone fort, they had focused on individual projects, one at a time, making sure to efficiently use the space as much as possible while establishing a cohesive series of neighborhoods. When Marcus joined in, the careful considerations had continued, setting a relatively slow pace of approval and construction. The results spoke for themselves, as they had created a template that the rest of the settlement held up as an example of what they could do. The old stone fort and its courtyard had become the model home at the start of a picture-perfect development, but on what was a city-wide scale instead of limited to an individual unit.

While each level was being designed independently, there were certain patterns being carried all the way down. The similarities were centered around the connecting teleportation hubs, landings for the physical ramps, and the initial carved apartment-like housing developments. Outside of those models, each layer was building its own characteristics that would reflect the new population as it moved in, and rather than a wheel a spoke pattern, the individual layers were broken into chambers, shaped like a four-leaf clover. The clearer division allowed for multiple styles to exist on the same level. Once they were closer to completion, Coop believed he could have spent months just exploring the different layers, but for the time being, he hadn’t visited a single one.

The expansion into the underground layers was following almost the exact same pattern of construction as the surface, at least if only looking at one single chamber at a time, with individual groups collectively focused on one project before moving on to the next. The layer governors were doing their best to follow the lead of the surface, creating mixed neighborhoods that would enrich the lives of their residents while leveraging the unique cultures they represented. There was a constant stream of them seeking council from the other leaders and architects of the settlement in the Town Hall.

The main difference in periods of expansion for Ghost Reef as a whole was that there were already upwards of 400 chambers through 100 levels being outlined and settled, with more being added every day. They were all simultaneously going through the different stages of development that the surface had already gone through, laying out the thoroughfares and positioning important public features as they initiated construction.

Ghost Reef was finally transitioning into a settlement with a population that reflected its established power, and it was working hard to maintain the same quality of life for every new resident that the previous ‘generations’ had enjoyed. Most of the time, the change in population was hard to notice if only investigated from the walls of the fort, the lighthouse, or the beaches, with most of the population distributed throughout the different underground layers. However, early to mid morning was not one of those times.

Coop made note of the many unfamiliar faces, most of whom couldn’t recognize him without the visual aid of his ethereal gear or the presence of his distinct unsuppressed aura. For the moment, he was really just another resident with a level that was well below average, apparently heading to the beach in his bathing suit. He weaved between idle groups, giving a quick greeting, as they occupied the benches, sharing breakfast pastries and coffees with each other while watching the queues that extended from the quarry or the lumber mill. Despite so many underground levels being developed, for the time being, the surface was still a central hub for many others.

Certain materials were simply impossible to collect from anywhere within the territory of the tiny island. The vast majority of supplies could be substituted through a combination of stone and magic, but there were certain aesthetics that humans naturally preferred, and a touch of the familiar aided in the transition to moving to a new place. Thankfully, comfort was still high on the priority list for Ghost Reef, so they were free to make every effort in making their new homes pleasant, but that meant that some specialty items required trips to specific workshops, and those were primarily located within the original fort.

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While the system cooperated, they were stocking up from the easiest sources of what they were considering exotic resources. Lumber was a major one, but there were other specific ores, metals, minerals, and dyes that could pretty much only come from the workshop buildings and their system-granted upgrades that had been established by the independent contracted aliens. They distributed a portion to the workshops that had already opened up on the lower levels, but it was still easier for many to simply access the source directly.

The fledgling trade networks between the subordinate settlements simply couldn’t keep up with the escalating demand, though the merchant ships of the Tempest Fleet were on a constant rotation between the territories. There just weren’t that many active mines or miners, farms, and lumberjacks in any settlements on the planet, as busy as they were contending with Primal Constructs.

Empress City and the Corozal Outpost were basically the only places with individuals or guilds promoting growth through professions, and even then, the supplies produced were primarily from solitary workers seeking their own progress and credits. The rate of expansion in Ghost Reef had exploded thanks to the Underlayer, and its rapidly increased demand was impossible to match through conventional means with the current state of the planet.

Alternatively, specific classes were able to produce some materials. There was a group of Druidic casters that spent much of their days producing their own specialized wood to be used for furniture accents, but they couldn’t cover the entire chasm’s demand. The metallurgists had a much easier time, but even they still struggled with specific precious metals. Geomancers had ways to manufacture necessary minerals, but everyone was on the same early portion of the learning curves.

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Every profession master had established their own following of apprentices among the humans, but Ghost Reef’s residents had primarily focused on combat, with professional work left as activities closer to beneficial hobbies meant to bolster their stats than full-time careers. Resource generation was primarily left to the alien residents, who had already established roles within mana-based societies and could better scale with the increased demand.

However, the limitations on the supply chains didn’t slow down the overall project. For the most part, people simply shifted their focus toward the many other tasks available. There was plenty to do when simultaneously establishing the foundations of essentially 100 cities and counting. The individual laborers in the underground were gaining profession experience at rates previously unseen while more and more people joined in on the communal project. The short term goals for the settlement had adapted to accommodate the more immediate priorities of development.

At first, they were simply trying to make enough room for an unknown number of potential refugees, according to estimates of Earth’s current population made by Jones. With the additional support of several different factions, most significantly the Grand Horde, they had expanded the already ambitious project, intent on making use of the entire layer between the surface and the Underlayer, regardless of current demographics.

An army sent by the Great Khan had been working their way through the core of the underground path. These Earth Shamans planned for the spiral ramp that Jones and Balor had established to extend much further. It was only a matter of time, measured in weeks at most, before the star fort in the Underlayer would be directly connected to the fort on the surface by more than just teleportation runes.

In order to match their expansion, the vast majority of combat was also taking place underground. The cavernous tunnels that extended beyond the chambers hosted countless monster spawns, many of which had been neglected outside of a few intrepid individual hunters who couldn’t have possibly reached every corner. Jett and the bat colony had done a number on the hidden threats in the darkness, but in order to establish safety for each layer of Ghost Reef, the underground regions needed to be fully cleared, backup mana pylons placed at each hub, and phantom guard rotations established to keep the immediate caverns controlled.

The subterranean areas were similar to the surface in that way, where the zones of territory needed to be properly maintained to prevent further monster development. Each layer was basically its own fort, connected to other forts above and below. The different layers also had what were essentially their own grind zones if people ventured beyond the barriers of the pearlescent chambers and explored the external tunnels. After the Underlayer Event, these were the areas that had become the most popular grind zones for the more advanced residents. Those who weren’t delving deeper into the Mana Well were exploring the cavernous subterranean territories.

At least, that’s what Coop had been told as he refreshed buffs and quickly ate his breakfast before the first and second days of his grind. It sounded like an incredible effort was underway, but he was sticking to the surface for a bit longer.

He bee-lined through the dunes, heading for the second set of grind zones established by the Adventurer Guild. Today, he promised that the underground layers wouldn't be the only place boasting such rigorous amounts of combat.

As Coop approached the Mangrove Forest of Ghost Reef, he was determined to individually transform it into another nexus of activity. He posted up near the core of the habitat, following the street-sized branches deeper and deeper into the woods. It only took a matter of minutes before he was feeling the stickiness of the humidity, but he loved the heat. The harsh environment was exactly as it was meant to be. He closed his eyes and made it his own, calling upon the mists to manifest his spear and shield as his Fog of War swirled around him.

From the outside, the mangrove forest seemed calmer than ever. Sure, the mangroves hid much lower level threats than those in the underground, weak enough that few residents found it more than a boring chore to keep under control, but Coop had entered the window where the zone’s monsters were an appropriate level for his personal quest for growth.

As a result, the forest was eventually engulfed in ethereal mists. The giant trees disappeared within a cloud that lingered on the surface, ignoring the heat of the day and the pounding sun as if it was completely immune to dissipation.

While Coop fought, the vaporous domain slowly expanded, growing larger and larger over the course of the morning, while the streets of Ghost Reef were still crowded. The domain started with a large section in the center of the forest before greedily flooding the rest of the marsh with mists. The wisps of fog climbed higher and higher through the stretched branches of the mana-infused trees until they reached the highest peaks of the canopy and tumbled down the edges, eventually splashing against the dunes and disappearing within the hot sand or gliding across the mangrove dotted ocean on the eastern portion of the island.

It was no small feat to swallow up the overgrown mangroves. They were massive, completely unlike how they had been before mana infused them with unrealistic growth. They covered most of the eastern coast of the island, crawling beyond the land and far into the shallows, extending the island much further than before the assimilation had begun, and yet the fog coalesced across the entire frontier.

Coop’s mana pool had never been as high as it currently was, and he flexed the growth he had experienced, dumping nearly 70,000 points of mana into Fog of War just to get it started, then fought with the drain as he hunted the Primal Serpents and Ancient Devourers that made the ecosystem their spawning grounds.

Coop avoided applying Vaporform as a cost-saving measure to his resources for this second day of grinding, but he built an army of phantoms to hunt the monsters on his behalf. It was a trade of mobility in favor of coverage and it resulted in an almost leisurely grind compared to the first, only requiring him to wade through the water and attract fresh spawns of Primal Serpents so that he at least made some personal contributions to his experience.

There was no one recording his ranks this time around, as they had ultimately decided that a simple daily update would provide more than enough data for their reports. Recording every rank had obviously been a ploy to provide Coop with some supervision, but the first day had proven that they not only had nothing to worry about, but Coop was still firmly worthy of being called their Champion.

Day 2 of Coop’s grind went swimmingly. Due to his almost constant absence in recent times, he had underestimated the impact of some boosts provided by Ghost Reef. The biggest surprises were hidden among the city titles that had been a bonus reward for one of the settlement upgrade quests.

As Coop waded through the marsh, sloshing through mucky water, he continued summoning ancient spearmen from the monochromatic world of mists. The day went on and somehow the durability of his weapons were never exhausted. He ended up with over 250 spear wielding phantasms scouring the canopies for Ancient Devourers. The heavily armored monsters were no match for their magical damage, but the actual army of ghosts that had formed was a complete surprise to Coop.

After some reflection, he decided the culprit was primarily the Eternal Spear City title. It was a martial title that had been granted to Ghost Reef among many others. The main benefit of the title in particular, was that it increased the durability for the spears of residents within the shard’s territory.

Coop had assumed it would only increase it by a few points, or a small percentage of the total 100, but for whatever reason, he was able to keep dragging ancient warriors from the mists to help him on his grind. It was way too powerful and ultimately he had to assume that there was some hidden synergy being triggered between the fact that his ethereal spear was created from spectral mana and the settlement itself had a spectral affinity thanks to the very first bonus objective he had completed. The relic that glowed from the top of the lighthouse, bathing their territory in familiar energy, seemed to be bolstering Coop’s own manifestations beyond expectations.

Either way, exercising his Mistwalker abilities while within Ghost Reef’s territory revealed some rather significant home field advantages. Coop would be strong on his own, but the settlement would be a force multiplier for its residents that couldn’t be underestimated, and he was chief among the beneficiaries.

Coop spent both the day and the night within the mangroves, just slowly meandering through the swamp, checking out the fringes of the forest, as he took care of the Primal Serpents. His phantasms patrolled the wide tree branches, and he was constantly listening to the splashes of dislodged Devourers as they had their creepy grips loosened from the elevated branches. The arrangement of this particular grind was about as perfect as it could get.

He thought about skipping the break suggested by his allies and advisors and keeping the grind going for another few days, considering how effortless the mangrove forest had ended up being, but ultimately he decided to stick to the plan. The point was to avoid diminishing returns on experience, afterall. Sticking around for too long would defeat the purpose.