When Cole logged back into the game he found himself on his back and looking up at the cavern roof. He felt weird, different, not exactly stronger but almost as if something fundamental about himself had changed. At the moment his things were being moved to the ship that would serve as his home for the foreseeable future, it was currently hanging in orbit above Earth's atmosphere, he would be taking a transport ship up to it in two days, as they completed final preparations. In that time it was perhaps for the best if Cole took care of a few things and see if truly they had completed the requirements to get to the next floor.
The first thing he noticed was that the underground lake was flowing and clear, he looked closer and noticed that the skull like rock that had been the Darkling Nest Seed, was at the bottom of the lake some 30 to 50 meters down, glowing and illuminating much of the underwater scene of the lake. It was a beautiful thing to see if he had to be honest, but ultimately it was shame that it had all been infested by darklings. But never the less Cole was not alone in his musings as Cassandra seemingly stepped out of the darkness and stood behind him.
"I had the same look on my face when you and that rock vanished for a second then reappeared splashing down into a lake filled to the fucking brim with darklings. But they died all of them, whatever you did to that thing stopped them and left us with a shit ton of grey home dust or something…. We're lucky the system deemed them as valuable crafting materials that can also be used for the upgrade of buildings and other things in the territory, which of course is waiting for input from it's mayor in order to expand." Cole looked up at her nodded then got up.
He surveyed the entirety of the underground cavern and noticed that a thick layer of grey dust covered everything. He reckoned it was actually a few inches thick as just to get up had seen scooping up a fist full and still not being able to touch the ground. There was a lot of it, and whatever it really was, he was sure they were never supposed to have found it like this. Cole shrugged and turned to Cassandra.
"How long have I been out?" she shrugged too and replied. "5 days, give or take a few hours. I've it logged out since…. This seemed to be the best way to get in touch with you while I and my s- my brother's lives are in danger." Cole raised an eyebrow and paused making sure he was looking at her in the most direct way possible. She was a smart woman, she guessed it immediately.
"You know…..Raven told you." She stated as Cole shrugged and began moving towards the Nest's exit.
"I don't get why you thought it was important to keep this a secret, pretty much everyone here thinks he's your brother. And for some reason Raven went along with it too, but considering he was all in it just for the pussy I'd say you'd tell him rob a bank and he would. But ultimately I don't care what your reasons might be, you were a tool, and you have played your part well in getting me what I want. However I am not the kind of person to discard a tool that had been of some help to me, there's no other caveat to our relationship than that, so please don't lie to me again and fuck shit up by not giving me the full details.
But I digress, now what's your status currently. Space travel is wonky especially when using warp or hyper drives. I will need your exact coordinates and at the same time I have to be sure that you guys can hold out until then and that I'm not walking into some trap, because then that would make me very angry. But other than that, don't worry Cassandra I'll be coming for you and your son, I promised not a hair on your heads will be touched and I intend to keep that promise." He paused and turned to look at her then smiled as he stepped into the tunnel, noticing quite a few aspirants within, hitting at the walls with mining picks.
"The Nest Has the largest if not an endless supply of the Ore resource, everyone has been pitching in now to get the Glade up to a settlement grade and then increase their contribution. Apparently it has gone around that after a certain milestone had been reached the system will reward everyone equally, based on what their contribution had been." Cole nodded his head as Cassandra continued.
"I haven't been able to log out, I've been waiting for you and keeping watch over your body….. you did not disappear this time like all aspirants normally do. It made it seem as if you were still logged on but asleep. Either way Razor says that the ship is maintaining a healthy distance from our pursuers. We're also coming up to a mining colony, we're hoping they would be able to lend some help and help us chase away the pirates. But until then we're still on the run from Raven and his family."
"Well don't worry, I'm already on my way. Now if you would excuse me for a bit, I have to look through some notifications that have been pending for quite a while. After that lets go deal with the Glade's upgrade and see just what else is coming next." Cole said to her as they passed more walkers and soon came out of the exit where he came to a forest that had already been completely cleared.
"Well damn! I imagined what it would look like, but I never thought it would be this…..big." Cole muttered, but what was even more amazing was the fact that the Glade was expanding. The pillars still remained where they were, but the greens of the field had spread out, swallowing more and more of the forest that had been cleared all the way up to the golden barrier that was still up and was now the new dividing boundary of the Glade to the outside world. He chuckled softly as he brought up his notifications up.
[You Have Leveled Up To 55! + 1100 to all stats! +650 stat points]
[+850 To Energy! +344 to Dexterity, +109 to Attunement, +33 to Soul, +400 to Intelligence, +117 to Perception, +201 to Charisma]
[+5322 Souls]
[You have Upgraded Your Race To Raen Lord! +100 to all stats every level, +50 stat points every Level!]
[You Have Refined Your Class with Your Life's Experience and Battle Lore! Class is Now Available For upgrade or change and Sub-Class slot opened]
[CLASS QUEST ALERT: the next step of the Reaver is one of blood shed and shadows, but also one of power, assassinate a corrupted individual of significant power]
[You Have Gained +300 to all stats from previously stored stat gain.]
[You Have Gained Dormant Darkling Core! It is A territory/Special Building Upgrade Material]
[172 stat points added to Soul! Soul is now Silver rank I! Auxiliary stats, mastery and knowledge available.]
• Aspirant: [Cole <World Breaker> Night] Class: [Reaver]+
• Level: [55/100(0/560,000)] Race: [Raen Lord]
• Titles: [Savage Connoisseur] [Antihero] [Warrior] [Progenitor] [Genocider] [Rambo The Commando] [Mass Murderer]
• Money: [Tibons: 248] [Tisons: 286] [Tigons: 2,350 ,000]
• Energy: [7219/7219] Negative Energy: [808/808] Alignment: [Chaotic Neutral] Lives: [08]
• Buffs: [+15% Damage] [+200% Eating Skills] [+50% Damage To All Alignments] [+70% Damage/Skill With Firearms] [100% Damage to Endangered Species and Solo Enemies] [+10% to all stats when Facing off against more than 5 Enemies, Doubles every +10 Enemies] [Permanent +25 points every 50 Enemies killed in a single Conflict]
• Primary Weapon: [Black Malakai Cursed Sword] Secondary Weapon: [n/a]
• Primary Armor:[N/A] Secondary Armor: [N/A]
• Party:[n/a] Team:[n/a] Guild:[n/a] Alliance:[n/a] Faction: [Aspirant Of Glade Solitude (Third Floor)]
• Charisma(Seduction): Silver II(239/500) [Lesser Mind Control(Active)] [Assassinate(Active)] [Vertigo(Active)]
• Perception(Domain)+(Clarity): Silver II(376/600) [Aeronaut(Passive)] [Sin Seeking Eyes(Passive)] [Shadow Dance(Active)]
• Intelligence(Technopathy)+(Psychometry): Silver II(464/600) [Shielded Mind(Passive)] [Sin Eater(Active)] [Technoman(Passive)]
• Dexterity(Wind)+(Telekinesis): Silver III(215/700) [Spectral Rover(Active)] [Sin Reaper(Active)]
• Attunement(Space): Silver II(130/600) [Gravity(Mastery)] [Adaptive(Passive)] [Demon Constitution(Passive)] [Chaos Blast(Active)]
• Soul(Aura): Iron IX(128/300] [Soul Eater] [Soul Bank: 6322] [Energy Manipulation(Mastery)]
• Knowledge: [Martial Arts Master] [Expert Marksman] [Arcane Farming] [Arcane Winemaking] [Arcane Brewing] [Dark Summoning] [Arcane Nature Engineering] [Monster Husbandry]
• Stat Points: 909
• Assets: [Cruiser Class Iron Ranked Luxury Ship/Mechanoid Direwolf King Mount] [Bronze VIII Ranked Territory Rowan Valley] [The One Eye Of Mormon] [King Solomon's Undying Heart] [Dark Dryad Seed] [Gold Ranked Pseudo Dungeon Core] [8 Iron Rank prism] [27 Silver Prisms] [2 Gold Prism] [1 Gold Prism Of The Avenger] [1 Diamond Prism] [Hero Class Atmospheric Base (Upgradable/System Access)] [10% Shares Of Sierra Corp] [Cold Silver Spawning Crystal] [Raen Ranger Rifle] [Black Sapphire Cursed Revolver] [Blue Obsidian Cursed Revolver] [Night Demon Bounty Hunter Set]
Cole chuckled from what he was seeing, but he was far from done. The sheet amount of stat points he had available to him meant that he could push another stat to the next stage, and he did just that, pushing Soul straight on to the Silver rank and rounding everything up. He took a deep breath to prepare for the next round of notifications.