Within Jack's mind a large crystal he once collected floats about without purpose within a black space. Its brief appearance becoming translucent as strands of invisible energy dissipate into the surrounding emptiness before disappearing back into the void of his consciousness unaware to him…
A bright orange sphere is floating above the ground, located within a giant blackened crater thousands of metres across as he stands on the exterior edge of the crater's pit near some trees and shrubs that are undisturbed by whatever happened here. This scene completely different to the primitive yet modern looking town that was standing here previously, Jack confirms the location by looking at the distant terrain leading onto the open ocean. Laying by his feet are a couple of people including Beau that seem unconscious and not moving yet after a quick check are still breathing, Jack assumes they're logged off.
"Wonder what that sphere is," Jack mutters as he nears the edge of the crater. The walls aren't too steep but it will be difficult to get out of it but having nothing else to do at the moment with curiosity getting the better of him he slides down the edge of the crater wall.
He slides down the smooth surface without incident, there's literally nothing remaining yet it seems like there was no shock wave or air pressure change causing issue with the surroundings so whatever it was seems incredibly destructive yet localised in damage. He arrives towards the bottom of the crater's pit finding his legs sink into the thick layer of ash and sandy dirt under the surface slowing his movements as he makes his way towards the bright orange sphere. His feet sink into the muddy ground as it gets wetter from water rushing in from somewhere, he pushes on and nears the bright sphere looking at it intently.
No information from the system has appeared explaining what the sphere is but there's very few things it could be, it's either something special in the world or…
<'SYSTEM NOTIFICATION – You have subdued the city heart guardian beast, would you like to capture, relocate or destroy Seashack Village city heart?">
Jack is initially confused but immediately presses capture on the interface that appeared before his eyes, there's no point in destroying the city heart and relocating it would be difficult at the moment so capturing is the best option at the moment. There's also the remote possibility that it will remain at the previous level.
The orb emits an orange light that surrounds him for a moment then disappears, Jack feels an instant connection with the city heart orb allowing him to bring the information up.
Village Name: Seashack Village (Normal)
Level: Primary (0/250)
Village Area: 0.4 square kilometre
Residents: 0/35
Soldiers: 0/8
Popular Support: 0
'Village Special Stats: Crop Output +10%, Crop Growing Time -10%, Population Limit +10%, Population Attraction +10%, chances of attracting higher grade population +10%, Pest resistance +30%, Toxin Resistance +50%'
Jack instantly feels disappointed by looking at the information of the new village, it seems like it's even worse than a normal white village creation orb with a tiny border nothing like the town that was located here previously. He lets out a sigh in frustration and then inhales deeply listening to the sound of the distant ocean echo in this small pit and the smell of salt air waft in his nose relaxing for a moment with his eyes shut.
A shimmering portal appears near the city heart, a single person steps out and bows in the water towards Jack, "My Lord."
Jack opens his eyes looking at the new comer on the ground, an old decrepit old man with shaggy white hair. A man that looks like he has spent the couple of years locked away in a prison without any sunlight, he bows with a ragged tunic.
"Get up Sebulstein," Jack says letting out another deep breath, a quiet sigh under his breath upon looking at the wet old man now smiling at him with a yellowed and missing tooth smile, his expression is earnest but his information is anything but.
Name: Sebulstein Jogeck
Grade: E
Title: None
Profession: [Stage 1 Resident]
Race: Human
Age: 58 (60)
Loyalty: 100
Stats: Strength:5, Intelligence: 7, Constitution:4, Agility: 3
Cultivation: Stage 0-0
Cultivation Technique: None
Skills: None
Equipment: Cloth tunic....
"Thank you, my Lord. Thank you for giving me this chance," the old man says reverently afraid of looking Jack in the eyes.
"It's fine, I am glad to have you join me. I don't expect much from you but there is a young man nearby, I think he is rather hurt. I need you to tend to him."
"Of course, my Lord!," the old man says while looking around the pit, "Lord I don't see anyone, can you please guide this old fool?"
"I wasn't done speaking, as you can see around us is a large piece of destruction with very little in the way of trees or stone to rebuild with. I'll organise some transports to drop off supplies nearby, you will need to organise with the new people and defend this place until I can come back. I'm not sure how long that will take but I need you to understand that I trust you can do this," Jack says and looks into the old man's eyes.
"Understood Lord,' Sebulstein says with unwavering eyes.
"Ok now grab that creature on the ground and follow, I'll show you where Beau is," Jack says while collecting the creature from the old man and returning the way he arrived, the old man quickly follows along behind him proving to be a large help during the attempt at scaling the steep crater wall arriving on the grass above.
The two of them walk alongside the crater as Jack gets to know the old man slightly, he has no backstory he was a miller until he got in an accident middle age and had to rely on his children afterwards. He didn't travel nor study anything related to martial arts either, he doesn't know about cultivation and only sparsely knows about the game world.
"You only know the name of the region and the major organisations of the world?," Jack asks incredulously, it's the first time he has been able to talk to someone so normal.
"Yes my Lord, I hope my ancestors forgive me but I cannot even remember their names yet I know the third heir to the Mountain God's Pristine Effluence Altar, I know the sixth daughter of the Icy Peak," Sebulstein stops his words as a distant animal cry comes over the area, "I cannot name that creature nor can I name the shrub on the ground."
Jack furrows his brows, "What about the name 'A01'?"
"That name is familiar Lord, even mentioning his name reminds me of the Lord but rest assured," Sebulstein pats his chest and confidently smiles, "you are now my Lord so I will serve you to the best of my abilities."
Jack responds with a smile to Sebulstein but stops speaking as they arrive near the young man, Beau, laying on the ground.
The young man is still laying on the ground with his eyes shut but as they near him, he opens them up and looks at Jack while attempting to sit up and failing.
"Ow," Beau says as he lands down on the ground, "what happened?"
"I was going to ask you that, I uhh, logged out. What do you remember?"
"I remember you grabbing me then some sort of black explosion happened, I blacked out after shrimpy protected both of us."
"Oh it did? Where's the little thing?"
"I can't feel it anymore," Beau says with a sad expression on his face, the young man must feel overcome with grief to be displaying his emotions so openly.
"Well I have this little thing you could look after for me," Jack says while reaching into his robe taking out the creature, "I'm not really sure how to do it."
The young man's eyes light up upon looking at the creature, "It looks like shrimpy when I first found him, just in different colours," he says before trailing off slightly as though he's remembering something painful.
"I thought it might, I need to travel around a bit and probably can't carry it everywhere. Your village is done…,"
"Right, my village…," Beau says craning his neck straining to look at the crater, "what will happen?"
"If you look after that creature for me, I'll repay you by helping you set up a proper beach village when the time comes."
"Really?," the young man says turning towards Jack again. His expression seems lightened up compared to his prior expressions.
"Only if you're up to it, you don't have to look after this place anymore but you can stay here if you'd like. I have a helper here who can even help you," Jack says while gesturing behind him towards the old man standing a slight distance away.
"Who is that?"
"He's one of my most loyal helpers, his name is Sebulstein and he'll be spending quite a lot of time here in the future. Just ask him for anything you need," Jack says while the old man steps forward and presents himself with a puffed out chest.
"You're not staying?," Beau asks looking quite pitiful on the ground in his current state, the dim light of the moon above hiding most of his body but clearly showing his face.
Jack shakes his head, "I can't stay here. I'm from a different region and have to work out a way back while the event period is happening."
"Oh," Beau says softly while shutting his eyes, "well I'm glad you were here to help me survive whatever that was," Beau opens his eyes and looks at Jack and stares at him deeply in his eyes, "Thank you."
"I'm happy to help someone I can call a friend," Jack says while trying to not think about those words just now, "you need to rest up and recover…," he trails off his words as he notices Beau's eyes tightly shut indicating the young man has either passed out or fallen asleep.
"Sebulstein, can I trust you to take care of things here?"
"Lord, I will handle everything to the best of my abilities," Sebulstein says while crossing his arm over his heart giving a solemn salute to Jack giving the airs of someone that knows what they're doing as though they're wise and experienced in the ways of the world.
Jack knows better though, this old man that he has known for mere minutes would gladly lay down his own life for Jack yet this fervent devotion is his downfall in that he won't admit his own downfalls to his leader. He knows what is expected of him so he has to perform, perhaps he has deluded himself into thinking that he's capable of the tasks or he truly has some hidden knowledge but the system doesn't lie. This old man is nothing more than an aged man who specialised in nothing, perhaps it's a benefit but in this world of dog eat dog and forced conflict it will be a handicap at the least.
"I trust you will, remember my words and I'll return soon," Jack says then begins to walk away.
"Of course, Lord." Sebulstein says while saluting again.
Jack says nothing and silently disappears into the bushes leaving the two men alone on the edge of the giant crater, the landscape looking nothing like it did only a couple hours ago with the giant orange glowing orb developing a set of stone walls and flooring around it slowly and methodically as though it's a living being wanting to protect itself. There's nothing for him to do with this city heart for now, it has become a low level village with the lowest stat resident he has ever seen instead of remaining the town.
There's a small hope the trigger for becoming a town will be found again but there's little chance of that happening, the best thing to do is organise a load of raw materials and defensive gear.
Jack ponders what he needs for the new village as he follows the road that leads him in the opposite direction, a well-kept dirt road wide enough for two carts to walk side by side.
A new village needs a lot of stuff and this village is going to need a lot of assistance to become notable… even surviving couple of weeks will be difficult given the enhanced spawn rate every city heart is currently providing luckily it's offset by the enhanced food growth rate also provided by the bunny cities.
An enhanced growth rate is a stop-gap solution though, unless you plan on having all your newly created citizens focused on agriculture until the city has stabilised to the point where the population won't fluctuate wildly over a short amount of time, it's better to ensure contingency plans are in place and this village is going to need it.
The location is terrible, the resident initially spawned has nothing to help develop it and again, the issue that Mai so just managed to help with is rearing its head in that there's very little woods surrounding the village location.
The proximity to the coastline suggests the trees and foliage are important to maintain the landscapes integrity and conduciveness to agriculture endeavours, important to the longevity of the village itself.
It's stupid to create a village with the potential for it to collapse within a couple of months yet that's exactly what will happen if things aren't organised, the previous villages are stupidly self-sufficient yet clearly there's something special about them and so they don't need any help… not that it would be forthcoming at the moment. The various villages within the home region are mostly fine, there was a big struggle with supplies early on but with Mai and the bunny villages bonuses everything has settled into a routine and trade with other villages and towns is happening in the background as the soldiers scout out the area constantly.
There's some concerns with the other race villages, kobolds and rats have an incredible spawn rate and could quickly crowd out the other races in total population if something isn't done but it's not a large concern at the moment.
The other races… except for the goblins are loyal, completely loyal and would willingly die for Jack.
"I wonder if the dwarves would be spawned by a city heart if I could find a blank one?," the young man mutters as he walks down the empty dirt pathway not having seen anyone or anything for many hours.
"They could probably help channel this new power, hey Xueli? Are you awake yet?"
There's no response.
"Ah, doesn't matter. I'll need to log off soon but I still have hours to go until I arrive at the city, White?"
'<Yes Master>'
"Why didn't I teleport through the city heart?"
'<The influence will impact all teleport functions, right now Master is not far from a system city which will have countless people travelling whereas the destination may be more remote after teleporting.>'
"Right," Jack mutters, "I guess I was spoiled by Sleipner previously," the young man lets out a long sigh, "all this walking."
'<Master may influence the dwarves to build him a transportation device at a later date. I believe we will recover majority of their request materials through this expedition.>'
"Right, I should ask around for somethings. There's also Xueli's memory… one of them should be around here somewhere as she said there was one this way. Stupid dragon stop sleeping."
'<Master's internal energy situation is depriving the parasitic dragon larvae of its required nutrients. Development has slowed by 88%.>'
"What? Why didn't you say something like that earlier?," Jack says with a loud voice causing a couple of birds to fly into the sky.
<'The situation is not dire, the process was 85% complete prior to incident where the lesser connections maintained equilibrium.>'
"The what?"
<'Master needs to study the cultivation manual more.'>
"I don't have time to do that, I have to walk everywhere."
<'Estimated time until completion is currently, 148 days, 11 hours, 9 minutes, 42 seconds. This unit suggests Master quicken his rate.'>
"So long, what can I do to fix it? I really need her to be awake as she had some situational awareness," Jack says to the voice within his head hinting to something. If anyone were to see this scene then they'd probably confirm that the young man is crazy, not just talking to a voice but talking about another one.
<'Master has several options.'>
Jack waits a moment then grits his teeth, "such as?"
<'Increase cultivation in the myriad arts to level 2.'>
Jack thinks to the requirements, 6 types of divine beast qi… where's he going to find that? His next step is to balance out the unbalanced fire energy within him, it's settled now but as the lightning refuses to come under control...
The balancing qi-type would be water or ice and the Ice Phoenix Sect is on another continent...
"Not happening, what else?"
<'Master could form their golden core.'>
"I barely even know what that is… I barely even know how to control my energy now causing the situation in the first place. That's another stage of cultivation anyways, I'm at the foundation establishment stage, golden core is after I form a false core or something so that's no good."
<'Force the dragon larvae to the next step.'>
"Nope, she's her own… dragon and she will develop in her own time, anything else at all?"
<'A method to decrease the time by over 80% can be utilised through deploying an advanced form of phoenix fire. User would need to acquire a higher level phoenix fire as Master's first form is quite weak.'>
"So Jessica needs to help me?"
<'User could always find some treasure, there are countless out there and User is bound to find them such as the crystal within the dwarven shrine. A balance simply needs to be restored and it's simply a matter of time.'>
Jack holds in the desire to berate White, 'That's because you're manipulating the game, it's not as fun if I know I'll find some sort of treasure everywhere I go.'
<'Would Master prefer this unit to stop influencing chance then?'>
"No," Jack immediately responds knowing his good fortune, "that it?"
<'Of the options available to Master at this time, the World Tree is yet to enter the next stage and outside the system offering an event specifically tailored to Master...'>
"Fine," Jack replies abruptly and continues to walk along the desolate pathway towards some distant lights.
