Essence Wave Book 2 Chapter 4

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

So, I finished chapters 4 for both books and am about halfway through chapter 5 for both, so I decided to reward y'all for sticking with me. For those who left comments on Chapter 3 of Legacy, I didn't incorporate the suggestions yet, they might show up in Chapter 5 or 6, or I'll add them to the rewrite, but I love suggestions!

Chapter 4 of Legacy of the M'Zee will come out Sunday. Enjoy!

In other news, Craesit City's audiobook came out today! 

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

David limped back to the front of the Mayor’s Manor with help from Colin. There were notifications flashing in the corner of his vision, but he ignored them for now. “Do you know if anyone died?” David asked.

“Not that I have heard, but we do not know what happened to two hunting groups and some of the scouts. Dylan was in the Barracks. He offered to try to find them now, but I told them to wait for the storm to pass. Any clue on when that would be?” Colin responded, both of them yelling loudly to be heard over the pounding rain and thunder.

“Maybe the map will show us something?”

They pushed through the door, David’s legs starting to get better as his Health Regeneration worked to restore his health and Hit Points. He pulled his arm off Colin’s shoulder and stood, wobbling for a second before finding his balance.

Inside the building, Blake was carving away at another piece of wood, Michelle and Josiah spoke quietly with Christine near the crystal by the door to the map room, and Steve held a large beam of processed wood to the wall, fixing all the minor damage accumulated with a burst of Energy and Mana.

“David, good job,” Josiah pointed upward, and David saw the bottom half of the lightning rod sticking out of the ceiling directly above the City Crystal. After a few seconds, a burst of Mana shot from the rod into the Crystal, which was glowing much brighter than normal.

“We’ve got some new options and choices to make. You up to it?” Michelle asked, taking in his slightly crispy appearance.

“I should be fine,” David said. “Though we might want Liz and Aly here as well.” He grimaced for a second.

“Hey, Aly will be fine,” Colin said. “She’s strong and smart. Liz is coming shortly, she just wanted to check on the people in the Log Houses. Might as well see the options and we can discuss them.”

“Sure,” David said with a shrug. They all stared at the glowing Crystal for a second, watching another beam of blue-white Mana flowing into it, then David followed Josiah into the map room. The large, rectangular room was dominated by the map table, a three-meter square hunk of wood with a glowing projection of the city and its environs around it.

His notifications seemed to pulse faster, demanding he address them. With a thought, he opened them.

Congratulations: You have completed the Hidden Quest - Save your City!

Requirements: Prevent significant damage to Hope’s Refuge from the Tier 3 Essence Storm.

Reward: Upgraded Options in City Menus.

No other pop-ups were interesting, just some damage notifications. “So, what’ve we got?” He asked, turning to Josiah.

Josiah had his hands on the maptable, screens floating in front of him. He flicked his hands, and one shot towards him.

Mana and Energy Gathering Structures Installed

• Essence Storm Lightning Rod - Tier 2
• Converts Mana and Energy lightning bolts into stored City Power for the City’s use. 10% of all Mana and Energy from Essence Storm stored, up to 10,000 per City Tier.
• Current City Essence: 17,493/20,000

“That’s a lot of Mana and Energy,” David said. “Should help us raise some more buildings, if that is all we can do with it.”

“There seems to be hundreds of things we can do with the stored Mana and Energy,” Michelle said. “Like these.”

Farm Production Upgrades(abridged)

• Upgrade Tier of current crop (Flax): 10,000 City Essence
• Upgrade Tier of current crop (Mixed food): 12,000 City Essence
• Speed growth by 1 day: 1,000 City Essence
• Protect Farm from weather hazards for 1 day: 500 City Essence
• Reduce weed presence on Farms by 25%: 200  City Essence

“What benefit does a higher tier of crop do?” Colin asked, reviewing the same screens.

“Uh,” Christine started, looking nervous about speaking up. David nodded at her, and she took a deep breath before continuing. “I believe that higher tiers, when used by people with good enough Cooking or other Skills, will lead to better results. I would expect that higher tier, well Cooked meals will provide benefits beyond just tasting better. Probably we can have food that will give stat benefits or increase natural healing.”

“Good thoughts,” David said. “Michelle?”

“I haven’t read anything yet about tiers of produce,” she answered with a grimace. “Something else to add to the list.”

“Might be time to delegate some of the research,” Josiah said. “We should use city funds to buy some more guides.”

“We should spend some quickly,” Colin said. “The last lightning strike put us less than ten-k below our max, and I don’t want to experience a strike after the Crystal is full.”

“Well, boop,” David said, reaching forward to upgrade the Tier of the flax crop, then reduced the weeds on both crops, protected the Farms, and sped up the growth by two days on the mixed food. “That’ll give us some breathing room, and I like the thought of a higher tier flax seeds and linen.”

“Can we convert Mana and Energy that we put into the Crystal?” Christine asked.

“Yes, but it takes a lot of both to make City Essence,” Michelle said. “It looked like ten thousand to one or so, though we’d have to test it more.”

“So those lightning bolts are sending millions of Mana into the Crystal?” Christine gulped, then turned to David. “And you were hit by more than one?!”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t the same as being hit by a Skill,” David said, thinking back. “There was no intent to harm, just so much Mana that it hurt. The attacks the Daemon Lord hit me with harmed me just as much with significantly less Mana. Colin you should try to get hit.”

“Already did,” he said with a grin. “Both Mana and Energy tempered.”

“We should try to figure out how to do that tempering without the significant damage,” Josiah said. “Even if it takes longer. We do not want to risk killing our people to get a tiny increase in Mana or Energy.”

“More research,” David laughed.

“Let’s get back to our purpose here,” Josiah commanded, bringing our attention back to the screens.

“Okay. Any other recommendations?” David asked.

“That was the main one, we need to use the boost to get more food. As people’s statistics rise, they seem to require more food,” Michelle said.

“This,” Christine said, looking up from her screen. “Uh, how do I…” she started when Michelle reached over and flicked the window to the center of the table. Immediately, it popped into view in front of all of them.

City Tax Collection Pillar - Allows citizens to input Mana, Energy, Essence, and Credits to further the strength of the City. Allows conversion of Mana and Energy to City Essence. Connects to City Crystal to track all citizen’s tax expenditures.

Cost: 1,000 City Essence, 10 Worked Stone (Add 500 City Essence to reduce Stone requirement by 1.)

“Once the storm has passed, we can move the Stone to our desired locations and make a couple of these,” David nodded. “We should put one by each of the gates, and one in the central square. Any others?”

“By the Log House we will be turning into an apartment building,” Michelle said. “And another in between the two Log Houses up here. Let people spend all of their Mana and Energy before they go to sleep.”

“What should the minimum required tax be?” Colin asked.

“None,” David said, “but we should offer something fo people who donate.”

“If we don’t have a tax, we should establish rent in the Log Houses,” Josiah said. “Say a thousand Mana and Energy a day. That is easy enough for even low level people to reach, while over level five they should be able to just dump that without trying.”

“Then if they don’t want to live there anymore, we can charge a hundred Mana or Energy as an entry fee for people who do not live in the Log Houses,” Michelle said. “That would also apply to anyone coming to trade, if we can find other groups of people.”

“We know Buena Vista isn’t doing well,” David said, “but maybe Salida has some people left? Or head past Buena Vista up twenty-four to reach Twin Lakes?”

“We know no one has gone past our City Level,” Colin said. “Since we keep getting the rewards for being first, but maybe a few are stuck at lower levels.”

“Or there are groups who made town that isn’t recognized by the system,” Josiah said. “No one I’ve talked to from Buena Vista saw a City Crystal there, and we only found ours by taking out a Corruption patch.”

“Are there any other ways of getting one?” David asked, looking over at Michelle.

“You can buy a portable one in the shop,” Michelle said with a frown. “I don’t know if there is any other way to get one.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Christine said. “Everything about the System seems designed to help us get stronger. Why would they gate the City Crystals behind an extremely difficult act?”

“Maybe there are more Corruption patches out there that are easier?” Colin said. “Or maybe there is another way to get the Crystal?”

“We don’t know,” Josiah said. “No use worrying about it now. I will assign someone to scout Salida.”

“Dylan and a trainee?” David said. “Get them some Essence from the journey, have Dylan help them kill any Daemons they find that is safe. We have a couple hundred people. We need to make sure that everyone is contributing in some way.” He looked uncomfortable as he spoke. “Anyone that doesn’t want to contribute can learn Meditation and just sit and provide the Town with Mana and Essence. If that is the limit of their lives, though, I don’t see us helping them grow stronger and letting them have anything beyond the bare minimum. Without everyone working together, we will not survive as a species. We are fighting an implacable enemy. We have to kick them off our world, then destroy any of their precence in the solar system, and get ready for the fleets of Daemon ships that will reach us someday in the future. I, we, want to take the fight to them, to utterly destroy their presence in this universe, stopping their expansion through the multiverse completely. I will not allow anyone to get in the way of that goal!”

There was silence for a couple of seconds, then Josiah simply stated, “Hoorah.”

“Well, I guess that is our motto,” Christine said. “Drive back the invaders, retake what is ours?”

“Yeah, we’ll have to workshop that,” Colin laughed.

David laughed then, feeling the tension he brought disperse. “Yeah, we’ll figure out a motto when we have more time to worry about more than a week in the future.” Thunder boomed outside. “Is there a weather map on this thing?”

“Not that I’ve found,” Michelle said.

“The longer it lasts, the more City Essence we get,” Christine said. “And the area around us is protected.”

“I worry for our friends who are not in the town right now,” David said.

“Then may it end soon,” Christine said, shame on her face.

“Are there any other things in the menu we can use to get more City Essence?” Colin asked.

“Yeah, here’s one,” Christine said, quickly sharing a screen after a few taps.

City Essence Gathering Formation - Slowly collect City Essence over time. Rate of City Essence collection dependent upon Essence density surrounding city. Only one Gathering Formation may be placed per ten square kilometers of city territory.

Cost: 10,000 City Essence. 10 Worked Stone, 10 Forged Metal (Add 500 City Essence to reduce Stone requirement by 1. Add 1,000 City Essence to reduce Metal requirement by 1.)

“Should build that soon,” David said. “Give it more time to pay itself off.”

“If it ever does,” Michelle commented. “We don’t know what the density of Essence is around us.”

“Seems to be pretty high,” Colin said. “I mean, we do have several Corruption patches we’ve seen, the City Crystal, and all the Daemons.”

“We should have nearly the full twenty thousand City Essence stored by the time this storm passes,” Josiah said, gesturing to the interface. A quick check showed they were back up to twelve thousand.

“Any thing else we can spend City Essence on?” David asked.

“Fortifying buildings, enhancing the output of any production building, reducing waste, just like the Farm menu,” Christine said. She shared her screens again, showing similar options for the Stonecutter’s Hut and Woodcutter’s Hut. The costs to raise Tiers were significantly smaller, but it was only for the next log or stone block cut.

“Five hundred Essence to get two units of Worked Wood at a higher tier,” David said. “Here goes three thousand. Same for Stone, and another three thousand. We’re going to have to keep dropping City Essence into this if the storm lasts too much longer.”

“Here is something we can make now,” Michelle said.

City Essence Storage Crystal: Stores 1,000 City Essence. Fills before the City Crystal does. Upgradable.

Cost: 5,000 City Essence

“And bought,” David said, hitting a few buttons quickly. Nothing seemed to happen, other than the menu showing an increase in storage capacity. David turned and looked at the City Crystal through the open door into the map room. Just above the Crystal, a tiny ball of pinkish gemstone, maybe the size of his fist, floated, slowly orbiting the much larger Crystal. It was glowing brightly, compared to the dim glow of the City Crystal, now that it had been drained.

He opened a new menu after seeing the new crystal.

City Essence Storage Crystal 1

Current Stores: 1,000/1,000

Upgrade options:

• Increase storage by 500: 2,500 City Essence
• Aspect City Essence in storage: 1,000 Aspected City Essence
• Condense City Essence in storage: 10,000 City Essence

“I don’t know what Aspected or Condensended City Essence will do,” David said, “But I kinda want them.”

“Aspected is probably something like Dark or Fire,” Liz said, walking in the door. “You know, like how we can get Essences.”

“Glad to see you okay,” David said while Colin gave his wife a side hug.

“Hey, your lightning doohickey prevented me from getting my Energy tempered like the big lug here,” Liz said, elbowing Colin lightly. “So, are you the reason the Farm glowed a few minutes ago?”

David laughed, then explained what he’d chosen and why.

“That’ll work, though increasing the Tier of the food would give us some good data about what people really need,” Liz said.

“What do you mean?“ David asked.

“I think people need food that matches their Tier,” Liz said, “and eating food of a lower Tier is less effective. Everyone that I’ve seen eating higher amounts of food has been at or above level five. If every five levels define a Tier, that would make sense.”

“Alright,” David said. “Improving the Tier of the farm once we’ve saved up to twelve thousand again. Anything else?”

“Add some more storage crystals,” Josiah said. “Their price didn’t change with the first.”

“There is probably a limit,” David said, “But might as well fill up the slots if there is a limit while we have a massive power source.” He navigated back through the menu to find the storage crystal again. He bought one more, and the price increased to twenty five thousand for a third. “Well, looks like we need to upgrade the Storage Crystals before we can get a third. It costs twenty five thousand for another, and we can only store twenty-two.”

“Probably a limit on city tier more than crystal upgrades,” Liz said. “Increasing to a Town from the Village we are will give us a storage limit of thirty-two thousand, instead of twenty-two.”

“Good point,” David said. “But we can definitely upgrade the two storage crystals by at least another five hundred each, though let’s wait for a bit to upgrade the food.” David took a few steps to peak his head out the doorway. “Hey Blake, how many chairs do you have?”

“Six are done,” Blake yelled back.

“Awesome,” David said, then walked out to grab two straight-backed chairs. He realized that included in the six were the throne-like chair and the rocking chair. Colin came behind him and grabbed the rocking chair and another sitting one.

Josiah grabbed the throne, then gave a mocking grin to David. “Got your chair,” he said, barely disguised laughter in his voice.

“Ha, ha, ha,” David enounciated slowly.

“Well, are you gonna sit?” Colin squeaked out, his mirth held back by the slightest margin.

“Yeah,” David said, then he tried to sit in the rocking chair. He was pushed out of the way by Liz, and a quick game of musical chairs, without the music, left him no choice but to sit on the throne. “Really?”

“You are the City Lord,” Michelle giggled at him.

“Fine,” David said sulkily, then dove into the menus to find out what else they could do with City Essence. He checked the status every few minutes. It took ten before they had enough to upgrade the food, then another five before he could upgrade both storage crystals once. The cost to increase storage doubled to five thousand for a five hundred boost after the first was bought. Ten minutes later, he upgraded one crystal, and he saw they had increased in size. The biggest was about the size of his head, instead of his fist, while the other was half as big.

The storm blew past an hour later. He’d been able to upgrade both crystals to store twenty five hundred City Essence in that time, and had stored up just under twenty thousand total City Essence. Josiah and Michelle quickly got people organized, and they built the City Essence Gathering Formation and six City Tax Collection Pillars, with five thousand City Essence left for future projects.

Several buildings had shingles missing, or cracks in the walls and ceiling, but David and Colin were able to quickly set up teams to fix the damage. The wall was especially damaged, and over two dozen people were assigned to fix it. Every passing minute, however, made David more worried for his absent wife. Please, please be safe, he thought, looking west over the plain and forest leading towards the Corruption Aly had left to scout out.