FB: Chapter 10 – Building An Altar

I went to the construction materials store. It was not a popular store, unless someone purchased some land in game and needed to order a lot of supplies. Or in the very rare case before I came back, took over as a noble and wanted to build up their area.

“What can I do for you?” the clerk asked. They were all technically different people, but their attitudes were very similar. If I went to another town or made small talk, then I would begin to see the differences between the various towns.

One could grind reputation by making small talk, but it was slow and took forever. While there were some low-level quests, none of them awarded anything good. I couldn’t just find an NPC and grind away at the interactions until the NPC gave me something good.

QAI made sure that any quests with amazing rewards had a corresponding difficulty. No quick and easy shortcuts for the most part. I knew about some interesting quests, but everything was procedurally generated to a certain extent. That meant things could have changed, and I would just end up wasting time. Also, I wasn’t that confident about any crazy shenanigans besides the one I was about to attempt. While I planned to focus on my Luck stat, that didn’t alter how risky doing some things could be. The Luck stat impacted drop rates and critical hits, not in game events.

Right now, I needed to focus on the altar I needed to build. “Ten interlocking stone blocks, maximum size.”

After paying out forty copper. I put them into my new inventory space one by one. Until all ten slots were filled up. It was best not to think about their size compared to the size of my pack. The fact I could only carry one per inventory slot was the main limitation. I made my way out of the building supplies store and out of the city.

I swallowed a potion of pest repellant and put away my gray robe after leaving the city. This trip was meant to find a good location for the altar I planned to set up and to push myself. I set off back into the Murk Swamp with its chunky goodness.

Looking at my map I had a general idea where I needed to go. I wanted to get into the higher level area of the Murk Swamp to begin setting up my altar. I wouldn’t be able to shard the zombie soldiers until I got the title I wanted, but I could start on construction ahead of time while I waited for my goods to be delivered.

The goal was to find a spot after an hour, maybe a bit longer. Unload the stone blocks and race back. Each block was about a foot and a half on each side or half a meter. There were little divots and extrusions on each side so the blocks would interlock together. Like giant concrete Legos.

The zombies, or grabbers, were easy to deal with as I raced through the Murk Swamp, the water and chunks swirling behind in my wake. I crossed over into the higher level part of the swamp and zombie soldiers began coming up and trying to barf poison chunks on me.

I killed them off with a bit more difficulty and then I found a spot I liked. It was a small piece of more solid land with a clump of trees that was offset from the direct route to Murk Tower from Murk Town. That meant my altar would be near impossible to find unless someone followed or tracked me. No one was about to wander around the Murk Swamp for fun.

“Command build outline stone block.” A holographic display popped up. “Command horizontally level.” I said and the outline of the block rotated so the bottom was flat to the ground. “Command lower towards ground.” The holographic outline lowered until it was touching the ground under the water. “Command place.” A stone block appeared on the ground in place of the hologram pushing away the swamp water and chunks.

I quickly placed 8 more blocks around the first one forming a 3 by 3 grid. I placed the last stone block on top of the first one I had placed. That was 10 blocks down, 301 more to go. I raced back to Murk Town.

Stuff that was placed like this would slowly decay. That decay would speed up more quickly the less people were around. In 30 days in game, the blocks would decay from the environment if I didn’t come out here. If I came out here regularly, then they would last for quite a while and be directly impacted by the environment, by sinking into the swamp and being worn away. Showing up between these two time periods would see the blocks partially submerged and crumbling into the swamp.

Man made changes vanished more quickly when no one was around while still allowing people to build structures. All this meant that I didn’t have to worry about the altar disappearing while under construction. Also, it was always fun to build in Exponential if you knew what you were doing.

What I was doing was just the tip of the iceberg. But dedicated designers would pre-design massive structures, like guild buildings or homes. The really talented freelance artists were able to charge large commissions.

With the right enchantments and materials, one could have buildings that broke the laws of physics by using enchanted materials. If one really wanted to pay enough they could have a floating palace like the Human Emperor did in the center of the Capital.

Honestly, I had only planned so far, and that kind of stuff was too far ahead to think about as I rushed back to Murk Town. It would take a lot of trips to finish a proper altar, but I wasn’t going to half ass this. If I died, it would be disastrous. While not world ending, it would hurt my finances by quite a bit.

Well, the monsters weren’t dangerous just disgusting. If it wasn’t for the pest repellant, then this would have been impossible. I made two more trips, bringing a total of 30 blocks. After finishing up one 3 by 3 by 3 cube, I got to work on another.

I would have nine of these large cubes in a square forming my base and the first level. On top of them I would build a 5 by 5 by 2 platform and then on top of that a 3 by 3 by 2 platform. This would form a pyramid type structure, with a slightly taller base. Once the altar was built then I would lure in the monsters from the Murk Swamp and farm that experience like crazy.

While I could go with a single tier altar, it was too risky. The zombies would hit the first platform and then barf, missing me. They would then attempt to climb up, and I could spear their heads, since they would climb up headfirst. Having a fall back position higher up on the altar was important.

No more wading through the knee-high swamp water waiting to get grabbed by the grabbers. Three blocks was chest height, which made it possible to climb, but it would be difficult. I would just add another layer on top of the altar when it was getting worn down and began sinking into the Murk Swamp.

The best part was that no one would come out to this location. Even if they did, the horde would kill them if the smell and bugs didn’t. There might be an ambush outside the town if someone was really desperate to get me, but there was a reason I picked this place. It was hell. Honestly, the rumored late game Hell area couldn’t be worse than the Murk Swamp.

I had only heard about it for people over level 111 being sent to the Hell Pit as the prison area. But it was just rumors. No one wanted to admit or give up information if they had actually been sent there. Information was a currency all on its own and information brokers were a very real thing.

The common information was posted, but there were people out there who made a living digging up secrets and selling those secrets to various guilds. The guilds would have their own intelligence operations and spies as well.

The really big guilds had counterintelligence divisions and counter assassination squads to prevent their top level people from getting taken out in the field. Then some groups just hated other groups and tried to form their own culture and sub-nation in Exponential.

All these issues were things I could worry about once I gained a title of nobility on my own in game. Once I had that, everyone and their mother would be begging me to join them. Getting such a title was not simple and required several very difficult prerequisites, the two big ones being fame and wealth. Either one on its own wasn’t enough and the requirements just for the bottom tier Baron title were immense.

Since NPCs could be resurrected as well, it wasn’t easy or simple to kill them off and take over. Even if one did manage it, the Human Empire would just remove the person who had taken over with force and appoint another NPC. One had to earn the approval of the NPCs. The more important NPCs were always busy, so one couldn’t just chat grind up a relationship.

High level quests were a good way to get noticed, but high level quests were insanely difficult. That was why I didn’t think such a route was practical right now. I could only cheese so much and what I planned for the Murk Tower was super cheese.

I only knew about it since the person who had done what I was planning had shared the information with his guild mates and then it was leaked to the world, where the super guild I had been working for had written up a memo on the information that I had read. Earning the title I had in mind could only be done once per monster type. So, a line of people couldn’t go cheese the same monster to get this title.

You could munchkin or cheese things, but the ladder was pulled up behind people by QAI so cheesy things couldn’t be easily repeated but still rewarded. That was why there was an advantage to getting right into the game and not waiting. Snatching up opportunities like this title I was planning to get was key.

I put my robe back on before entering the town and made my way to the inn. I put a copper on the counter of the inn keep. “Anyone sticking around besides me?” I asked. An easy way to get basic information was just to pay coppers to the locals and they would happily answer.

“Nope, been quiet,” the inn keep said.

I paid a copper for bread, water, and another copper for a room for the night. I then logged out. That had been a productive first real-life day. I had no doubt other people would begin to show up in Murk Town. The crazy hardcore people who wanted a challenge, or thinking there was something useful about the zone.

They would be sadly disappointed. The Murk Swamp was the most miserable beginner area out there and I don’t think the player population ever went over 40 at any one time, not counting North Korea who had tried to take over the place. People would show up and maybe stick around for a day. Possibly two if they wanted to try and tough it out. Then they would leave.

All the rich people who had joined first, could never imagine smelling that much shit. So much shit that it follows you to the real world. They wouldn’t be able to handle it. The Murk Challenge, as it came to be known, was how long would you be willing to hang out in the town or the swamp. Anyone who lasted over four in game days was seen as either impressive, crazy, or both.

Even if they stuck around, when they saw other people bypassing them in other regions, they would leave. This would spread and the Murk Swamp would become labeled a beginner hell zone. The only public advantage was the lack of people.

I smiled as I had my dinner outside the game. That smile disappeared slightly since there was a slight shit taste to my food that was unpleasant. After dinner, I browsed online with a set time limit. I needed to ensure I got a solid amount of sleep. Sticking to the schedule I had planned was very important. Most of the current news was about the manufacturing issues for the capsules.

There was nothing new there. I looked at a couple of forums, but nothing stood out as important. Everyone was getting their feet wet metaphorically and there were a lot of threads about people bragging about their level. They would be regretting it later once they struggled to earn experience and didn’t have personal skills with that sweet percentage bonus. Getting higher level skills and all that experience to level them up would be a nightmare later on, unless you had a guild backing you to grind up experience.

It had only been a rumor, but right before I had come back in time there was speculation that the top skill shard rank could only be achieved by a personal skill. If that really was true, there would be a lot of enraged people as they had to grind skills back up. The headache and hassle would be immense.

Or it could be one of the many false rumors out there meant to have people and guilds waste their time on a pointless task. The information war was very real, which made me the richest and most powerful person in Exponential in that regard at the moment. Even with QAI being adaptable I doubted it would change the big things and core game mechanics.