Healer Book 6 -- Chapter 4

(A long one today, as it's nearly twice the length of a normal chapter. I didn't want to break it up, however, which was why I didn't have a longer Chapter 3 -- sorry for the cliffhanger yesterday!)

Chapter 4

NEST #3823 subjugation complete!

Congratulations on fully subjugating a NEST!  From hereon out, you must defend the transformed Defensive Fortification from the rest of the Wildlands’ monsters, who will stop at nothing to regain their lost territory.  Warning!  If the Fortification Guardian is defeated, you will immediately lose control of the Fortification and it will convert back to a NEST over the course of 60 minutes.  Any Contenders within range of this conversion will be forcibly removed, and the NEST will be invulnerable until the process is complete.

To aid in the protection of the Defensive Fortification, you can spend Subjugation Points to improve the defenses, which includes a strengthening of the physical fortification itself, powerful defensive enhancements, various strategic weapon emplacements, Resurrection Wells, and even additional Autonomous Defenders. 

Keep in mind, the complete abandonment of the Defensive Fortification by Contenders for 60 minutes or more will also result in the Fortification reverting back to its previous state as a NEST, regardless of whatever defenses may have been purchased.  In addition, any SP generated from a conquered or abandoned Fortification that have not been already been spent elsewhere will be immediately lost.

Subjugation Points (SP) [#32599999-E]: 50 SP

Current (SP) Accumulation [#32599999-E]: 1 SP/hr

Purchasable Defensive Fortification Options:

Siege Wall Stage 1 – 10 SP

Wall Walkways Stage 1 – 5 SP

Steel Gate Stage 1 – 5 SP

Murder Holes Stage 1 – 5 SP

Defensive Spikes Stage 1 – 10 SP

Repulsion Barrier Stage 1 – 20 SP

Arcane Ballista Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 SP

Explosive Catapult Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 SP

Horizontal Cutter Emplacement Stage 1 – 10 SP

Perimeter Pit Stage 1 – 10 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Fighter) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Mage) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Scout) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Control) – 2 SP

Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Support) – 2 SP

Upgrade Fortification Guardian to Stage 2 – 30 SP

Resurrection Well Stage 1– 100 SP

Central Keep Stage 1 – 20 SP

Additional options will be made available once certain prerequisites have been met

Again, congratulations on taking your first step in completing the final stage of your development! 

Remaining NESTs still active… 8,999/9,000

Congratulations for destroying and subjugating your first NEST in the Wildlands!

Achievement received: The Final Frontier

Bonus reward: +10 to all stats 

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: +15 to all stats

Contender World First Achievement: Earn 10% more SP for each subjugated NEST and increase SP accumulation by 2 SP/hr

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Earn 15% more SP for each subjugated NEST and Defensive Kill and increase SP accumulation by 3 SP/hr

Congratulations for solo destroying and subjugating your first NEST in the Wildlands!

Achievement received: Impressive But Futile

Bonus reward: Permanent 20% reduction in SP costs for all Defensive Formation purchases 

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Permanent 30% reduction in SP costs for all Defensive Formation purchases 

Contender World First Achievement: Earn 50% more SP for each subjugated NEST and increase SP accumulation by 10 SP/hr

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

Bonus reward: Earn 50% more SP for each subjugated NEST and Defensive Kill and increase SP accumulation by 10 SP/hr

Thaden simply stared at his message feed for what felt like forever, before he turned to see Sadia with a smile on her squirrel face.  “Finally!  You have no idea how much I wanted to say something, and now that you’ve destroyed a spawn gate and subjugated a NEST, I can finally explain some things,” she said with a relieved and excited tone all wrapped up together.

He shook his head, still trying to wrap his head around it all.  “Whoa.  Wait.  Is this really saying what I think it is?  This is some sort of base-building and gradual conquest challenge?”

The giant squirrel nodded.

“But that means—”

“Exactly.  Your second Achievement says it all: Impressive But Futile.  The act of soloing a NEST is amazing, but it ultimately won’t do you any good if you aren’t here to defend it.  Soon after leaving the immediate area, the System will consider you to have abandoned it; after 60 minutes, the NEST will begin reforming again, including the pit and the tunnels below, but more importantly, the spawn gate will reconstitute itself and begin spewing out monsters to first supply defenders inside the NEST, before sending them back out to the Wildlands.”

“But if I have another Contender here to defend it, that won’t happen?” he asked, still clarifying how this whole thing worked. 

“Precisely.  But as it is now, even if you have a 1,000 Contenders positioned here, they are all such low of a Level that they wouldn’t be able to hold out against even a few monsters that are twice their Level.  And they’ll be coming for this place, you can count on that.  As soon as the initial 60 minutes after subjugation occurs, the nearby wandering monsters of the same kind found within, so Gorillum, will automatically attack this place in a bid to get their NEST back.  Within 24 hours, a nearby NEST will send a larger strike force here, which will have to be defended against; another 48 hours after that, multiple NESTs will start to coordinate and send even larger groups of monsters.

“In short, even if 10,000 Contenders defending this place manage to kill a few monsters attacking it, they’ll eventually be slaughtered – unless they flee and abandon the Defensive Fortification.”

Her words hammered at his mind in rapid succession, as his hopes that he could clean up this mess by himself faded bit by bit.  Ever since he’d learned of the different Developmental Phases that the System was putting the Contenders through, he had felt that he could do it all himself.  Sure, he needed some assistance in getting his Evolution Assignments completed, but the larger challenges of getting through the Phases was something that he instinctively knew he could do by himself if he needed to. 

He had felt some responsibility toward his fellow Contenders ever since he’d inadvertently cleared an Anchor Dungeon and started Phase 2; he’d fortunately been strong enough to handle that responsibility, even if it had been difficult at times, but his ability to tackle the problems put in front of him by himself had never been in doubt.  Even clearing the Maximal Difficulty of The Citadel had been something he was sure he could’ve done at pretty much any time, but he had resolved to put it off until the rest of the Contenders in Region #1 had somewhat caught up to him.

Unfortunately, the Adversary’s infiltration into Tarth had obviously changed that, forcing them to push all the way to Phase 4 before anyone but Thaden was ready for it.  He had held some hope that he could continue to step up and handle this Phase by himself, but it was quickly appearing that such a hope wasn’t to be. 

Sure, he could run around and subjugate NESTs while solo, but almost as soon as he left one to strike at another, any that he abandoned would swiftly convert back into NESTs.  And with 9,000 NESTS – according to his messages – around the Wildlands, there was no way he alone could subjugate all of them simultaneously.  He thought that, if he pulled out all the stops and didn’t slow down, he might be able to tear through 3 or 4 NESTs before the first one he subjugated was officially abandoned, but that wasn’t really going to help.  He briefly thought about what would happen if he were to spend his PICK to substantially Level-up again, but even if he was Level 700 or Level 800, his speed and strength might only be able to handle 10 to 12 NESTs before the first one he subjugated reverted.

And, thankfully, getting to that Level was now possible, as he’d completed his Evolution Assignment.

Support Class Evolution Assignments:

Level 21: Cast enough spells to restore 50,000 total Health and prevent 10,000 damage

Level 63: Complete at least 1 dungeon on Minimal difficulty, at least 1 dungeon on Medial difficulty, and at least 1 dungeon on Maximal difficulty while in a complete, 5-member Contender party

Level 189: Participate in a Raid party with a minimum of 100 Contenders and complete the Minimal difficulty of an Intermediate dungeon (Level 160+) without a single casualty

Level 567: Locate and participate in destroying a NEST in uncharted territory

Other than the first Evolution Assignment, which he’d completed before he even knew they existed, this was the easiest Assignment to ever get crossed off his list.  He could now Level-up to 567 and evolve his Class by speaking to a Support Class Representative back at any Coalition building, and he was glad that he didn’t have to jump through hoops to get to that point.  However, for the first time since learning of the Evolution Assignments and actually having it completed ahead of time, he wasn’t in any hurry to do so.  Granted, a Class evolution might end up providing a solution to the whole Phase 4 problem ahead of him and everyone in Region #1, he would end up out-Leveling most of the monsters in the Wildlands.  And, when he looked at how much PICK he was receiving, especially from the NEST Boss, he would be missing out on millions or billions of PICK. 

You have slain a Scaled Gorillum Mauler (Boss) – Advanced NEST Defender – Level 585

You have received 30,000 PICK!

Omenic Drifter Class trait activated!

You have received 45,000 PICK!

Unkillable I Achievement activated!

You have received 90,000 PICK!

Unkillable II Achievement activated!

You have received 270,000 PICK!

Overachiever II Achievement activated!

You have received: 1,485,000 PICK!

The Overachiever II Achievement significantly boosted the PICK rewards he received, because a 450% increase in PICK accumulation was practically insane.  While he wasn’t accumulating more PICK into his reserves, his Growth equipment was greedily absorbing it to grow.  When he looked at them, in fact, he saw that since he’d arrived in the Wildlands, they had already gained 2 Levels, bringing them to Level 210.  It took more and more PICK for them to grow even by a single Level, but the Wildlands seemed to be the perfect place to do that.

Deadly Crimson Robe of the Lonely Annihilator (+5 AMP)

Rarity: Artifact

Imprinted User Restriction: #32599999-E

Level Restriction: 210

Physical Damage Resistance: 93 (+465)

Magical Damage Resistance: 390 (+1,950)

Durability: Indestructible

Special Properties: Growth

+388 Physicality (+1,940 Physicality)

+292 Celerity (+1,460 Celerity)

+121 Mentality (+605 Mentality)

-110 Personality (-550 Personality)

+210 Fortuity (+1,050 Fortuity)

+35% (+175%) increase in Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting caster

+35% (+175%) reduction in Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting others

+18% (+90%) increase in damage done to all hostile targets while solo

+0.03% (+0.15%) decrease in all spell Mana cost, cooldowns, and casting times for each consecutive target killed within 45 seconds of each other (Max Override to 99.3%); this bonus will only reset when no further targets are killed within 45 seconds

Set Bonus (2): +27% (+135%) to Support and Defensive spell effectiveness when targeting caster, Fortuity/350 % chance for all Support and Defensive spells targeting caster to be cast twice (+5 times) and all Support and Defensive effects to trigger twice (+5 times) (AMP set 5)

Set Bonus (5): All previous Set Bonuses, +119 (+595) to Physicality, +98 (+490) to Celerity, +56 (+280) to Mentality, +105 (+505) to Fortuity, and a +14% (+70%) increase to all damage done to hostile targets while solo (AMP set 5)

Set Bonus (8): All previous Set Bonuses; with every hostile target within 300 feet while solo, you automatically heal and gain damage mitigation equaling 0.1% (+0.5%) of your maximum Health every second (AMP set 5)

Set Bonus (11): All previous Set Bonuses; the Omenic Drifter Class trait of a 1% chance of instant death with single target spells and effects is increased by Fortuity/5,000 % (Chance triggered +4 times) (AMP set 4)

Just those 2 Levels, as well as the bonus reward of +15 to all his stats from his recent Achievements, had increased most of his stats by a base of 125 points when all of his equipment was factored in; Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality were even higher when his equipment bonuses of an additional 135% were factored in – adding an additional 149 to each of those stats above the base 110 gained from all of his equipment.  Personality took another hit with an overall reduction of 40, but he was stronger where it mattered when fighting by himself against monsters.

Physicality – 15,599 (76,238)

Celerity – 11,699 (57,378)

Mentality – 23,635 (42,602)

Personality – 1 (-87)

Fortuity – 15,347 (29,497)

Free Stat Stones (450)

A quick glance as his stats reminded him that he still had an additional 450 Free Stat Stones to spend throughout his stats, but he held off for the moment until he figured out what he was going to be doing in the future.  As it was, he was better served simply gaining more PICK for his equipment to raise his stats, and these extra points would help shore up anything that might need it later.

It wasn’t like he was hurting anywhere in particular – other than in Personality, but all he had to do was take off his equipment to temporarily fix that.  Ideally, he should go and see if he could find his Party-based Growth set that he’d left back in the Region, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about the hit to his stats, but getting back there would take some effort.  It would also help to raise it up in Level a bit more if he wasn’t going to be all alone in the Wildlands.

“I see.  So, what you’re saying is that I’m going to need some help to finish this Phase?”

Sadia chuckled.  “Only you would sound disappointed by being unable to complete an entire Developmental Phase by themselves.  But, essentially, you’re correct.”

While he hadn’t given up on that plan completely, he was also smart enough to know that it was almost impossible without some help.  He still wasn’t sure how he’d go about getting that help, as the Contenders back in Region #1 were still quite low-Level, but the Overachiever II Achievement would help tremendously with closing the gap.  He wasn’t sure if it would be fast enough to make a difference, but he would have to see how he could help once he finally got back there.

But there were still a lot of questions he had about this whole Phase that Sadia seemed more than willing to answer for him – now that she was allowed to.  Perhaps, if he learned some more, he might actually find a way to salvage the whole situation they were in.

“Fine.  Then tell me more about these Subjugation Points and this list of things I can… purchase?  How does that work?”

He’d already looked in his Character Report and noticed a few new entries to it right below his Adventurer Coalition Rank – which he still wanted to get upgraded, though that would supposedly require seeing the Charee Wardens again sometime in the future.  He just hoped that they weren’t still sore at him for what he’d been forced to do when they encountered him in his Personality-draining set of equipment.

#32599999-E

Omenic Drifter (Wizened Solitary Shaman)

Level – 450

Progressive Internal Combat Knowledge (PICK) – 2,189,500/2,189,500 (512,654,720)

Adventurer Coalition Rank: Diamond 630/630 RP (+1,425)

Subjugation Points (SP): 50

Subjugation Points (SP) Accumulation: 14/hr

“Most of the options are fairly self-explanatory, but they’re essentially upgrades to this,” she answered, waving her squirrel paw toward the waist-high stone wall that surrounded the perimeter of where the NEST pit used to be, as well as the empty space in the middle.  “Go ahead and purchase the first thing on there, the Siege Wall Stage 1, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

With a shrug, he intuitively placed his hand back on the crystal pedestal, somehow knowing that he needed to have contact with it to make any purchases, and felt an intangible energy flow out of him and into the pedestal.  A look at his available SP showed that it had dropped by 10 Points, and he didn’t have to wait long to see the results of his purchase.

The waist-high stone wall started to grow from the ground with a rumble, both in terms of width and height, as it rose about a foot per second; when it reached 20 feet tall, it stopped, and he looked around at it a little closer.  It was about 4 feet wide and was made of solid stone, rather than individual blocks, and there was an archway on one side of the circular wall which was 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide – and completely open to whatever was outside.  The walls might have been strong, but leaving a clear gap in the defenses seemed stupid.

Of course, looking at the list of options he could purchase with his SP, he saw that a “Steel Gate Stage 1” was available.  Without any other prompting, he went ahead and purchased it, and a set of steel bars shot up from the ground and connected to the top of the archway, and he could see a steel lever suddenly materialize in the stone wall a short distance away from the new gate, which he figured was a way to detract the steel bars when one wanted to leave.

“Okay.  Alright.  Makes sense, I guess.  I assume all of these defensive additions and offensive emplacements will help keep the monsters off the walls and protect those inside of it; I will probably want to play around with them later, but I’m more interested in some of these other things.  For instance, what the heck is an Autonomous Defender?”  She just looked at him, and he understood from that look that she wanted him to simply purchase one and find out himself.

So, for only 2 SP, he purchased an Autonomous Defender Stage 1 (Fighter) from the crystal pedestal, and from the ground, a figure suddenly emerged.  It started very similarly to what he now knew was the Fortification Guardian, being largely a black stick figure, but it was only about 6 feet tall instead of the Guardian’s 10 feet.

That was where the similarities stopped, because the new figure quickly morphed into what looked like a Human wearing steel plate armor while wielding a shortsword and shield on their left arm.  Its skin was still pitch black like a void, and it had absolutely no face, but the rest of its ensemble appeared “real” enough that if he ignored the actual physical body, it looked like a Contender decked out in Fighter gear.

A look at the new figure, as well as a glance at the Guardian, gave him a little more information.

Autonomous Defender – Fighter

Defensive Fortification #3823

Level 350

Fortification Guardian – Support

Defensive Fortification #3823

Level 400

What was surprising about the two of them were their Levels, as the Autonomous Defender was Level 350 and the Guardian was Level 400.  Against an assault by Scaled Gorillum, for instance, the Defender would be far outmatched, but the Guardian was, at least, a higher Level.  That might not be very significant, however, as the Guardian was classified as a Support, and didn’t seem to have many ways to defend itself.  It looked like Thaden, however, so perhaps it had his abilities?

“The Autonomous Defenders start at a base of Level 350, as you can see.  They have a basic ability to attack and defend against any monsters they face, and can even use some simple abilities that are common among most Fighter Classes.  That being said, one of these Defenders, if facing a Fighter Class Defender at Level 320 or so, would likely lose.  The same goes with the other Defender options, with a Mage being able to cast some simply long-range spells, Scouts attack with bows and empowered attacks, Control attempt to lock down incoming monsters with a variety of different spells, and Support provide a few protective spells and can heal – though none of them are what I would consider strong.  They aren’t a replacement for a Contender defending the Fortification, only an extension of the defenses; in other words, they’re either cannon fodder or minor supplemental damage and healing.

“The Fortification Guardian, on the other hand, is somewhat a replication of a random Contenders who helped to subjugate the NEST.  In this case, it models itself after you, as you’re the only one here.  It copies all of your spells and abilities, so that it is a fairly accurate copy in that respect – but it doesn’t duplicate your stats or equipment, and it certainly doesn’t have unlimited Mana like you do.  So, in this case, since your spells cost so much because of their strength, the Guardian would be limited in what it could actually cast – and how many of them before it ran out of Mana.”

Well, there goes the idea that a copy of me could easily defend one of these Fortifications.

“But,” Sadia added, “as you can see on your list of options, all of these things are only Stage 1.  That means that they’re essentially the weakest that they can possibly be.  From the start, you can already upgrade your Guardian to Stage 2, which will increase its base Level, and with that comes higher stats.  You can upgrade all of your other purchases to Stage 2 and beyond by purchasing the Central Keep at Stage 1, which will give you this ability.  To upgrade it further, you have to continue upgrading your Central Keep to the next Stage.”

Thaden thought about what she said for a moment.  “Is there a limit to how many times everything can be upgraded?” he asked.

Shaking her head after a second’s thought.  “No, not as far as I’m aware.  Of course, as I’m sure you could probably guess, the expense in upgrading these purchases only goes up with each Stage.”  He nodded, as that was what he assumed.  “But as for a limit… if you have enough SP, I imagine you could essentially make one of these Fortifications nearly impregnable.”  She cocked her head to the side as Thaden’s face took on a thoughtful expression.  “We’re talking about millions or possibly billions of SP, Thaden.”

Figures.  “And how do I get more SP?”

“By subjugating NESTs and gradual accumulation by holding the Defensive Fortification safe from monsters that attack it.  As the Central Keep is upgraded, this gradual accumulation increases, but not by enough to afford millions of SP’s worth of purchases.  Oh, and you also get SP whenever you successfully kill an attacking monster within range of the Fortification.”

“Oh, really?  That could certainly change things,” he mused.

“I can see what you’re thinking, but that still doesn’t fix the problem of defending these Fortifications.  Once things really get started out here, even traveling through the Wildlands will be extremely dangerous, so there’s a possibility that any Contenders venturing out to these Fortifications will set upon and slaughtered.  And if you were to possibly go and escort them yourself, then you’d likely have to abandon the Fortification, which would revert it back to a NEST.”

He nodded.  “Yes, I can see that.  But there’s still some possibilities here.”

“Maybe, but there’s something you haven’t considered yet,” the squirrel told him with her paws on her hips.  “The monsters in the Wildlands will eventually evolve inside of the active NESTs, pushing out the weaker monsters.  For instance, any of those Mini Bosses you killed inside the NEST might eventually become the standard monster defending the entire thing, and the normal Scaled Gorillum would flood the local area.  The Mini Boss that now became the evolved standard would be replaced with something stronger, and the NEST would grow slightly, becoming more difficult to clear.

“The environment inside the NEST, which is very basic and plain right now, would slowly transform into what you would expect to see inside of a dungeon.  If you remember back to when you were inside the Vogmite Tunnels, how plain it was compared to what you saw inside dungeons later?  That is essentially the same thing that goes on with NESTs as they acclimate to the monsters that are being spawned inside.  They will eventually become as difficult to subjugate as a Maximal Intermediate Dungeon, and the average Level of the monsters will gradually increase as well.  This NEST that you destroyed here?  It’s the weakest that it will ever be, and even those weak monsters will eventually be pushed toward Region #1 as the density of monsters grows out in the Wildlands.”

He was beginning to see the overall picture now, and his previous plans didn’t seem like they would work as well as he’d like.  But something about this whole Phase was bothering him.

“Why all of this?  Why this base-building and whatnot?”

Sadia sighed, before she answered.  “I forgot for a moment that you didn’t go through Training.”  She gestured around her, and he immediately understood that she wasn’t indicating the walls he’d purchased, but the destroyed town around it.  “This is a very simplified example of what happens when the Adversary invades a world.  They typically appear underground and establish a NEST, which acts somewhat similar to what you’ve seen happen here.  There’s even a spawn gate inside each NEST, which is like an access point for the Adversary to infiltrate the world.

“The rate of growth here is a bit more exaggerated than it would be normally, and the quantity is also far more than would be found in a world upon an initial invasion, but the reason for the differences is simply for developmental purposes for the Contenders.  Otherwise, it’s a fairly decent representation and training of what you’ll face outside of the developmental world of Tarth.”

“Really?  Is it really like this?  Or is that just what the Assimilation System tells everyone?”  After all of his interactions with the Adversary’s agents, he was a bit wary of this kind of information.  As much as Sadia was on his side, she was still technically created by the System, after all.

She looked offended that he would even ask that for a moment, before her face seemed to blank for a few seconds.  “You know, I’m not really sure.  I’d like to believe that this is what it’s like out there, but I can’t be sure.”  Another sigh preceded a shake of her head.  “In all truth, what I know of the outside universe is all based on what the System is telling me.”

He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, as she appeared slightly distressed by that revelation.  “It’s fine.  We’ll eventually find out the answers to all of this eventually, right?”  At her nod, he went on.  “For now, I’ll just take the ‘truth’ with a grain of salt, and just go with all of this.  Speaking of that, you still didn’t explain this whole base-building thing.”

“Oh.  Uh, well, this whole Defensive Fortification and the things that you can purchase are based on the worlds that you’ll be defending.  After all, where you’ll be rooting out the Adversary are places that are still inhabited, so SP is essentially representing the work and goodwill of the people you’re defending.  Here, you can build a wall in seconds; on a real world under attack by the Adversary, this work would be done by or would be provided by the people you’re helping to defend.  Like I said, the speed at which things happen here are sped up a bit, but they serve the same purpose.”

Huh.  I guess that makes sense – if this is actually accurate to what happens out there.

“Alright, I can see how they relate,” he said with a nod.  “Last thing.  What is a Resurrection Well?”

For the first time since they’d really started talking about everything related to the Defensive Fortification, Sadia smiled.  “Good question – and an exciting answer.  The Resurrection Well is essentially a siphon for any Contender souls that may have been killed within a certain range of the Defensive Fortification.  It doesn’t matter if their bodies were obliterated so completely that there’s no piece of them left, their souls will show up in the Well.  From there, they will automatically be resurrected after 6 hours without someone having to actually perform the spell.  They’ll unfortunately lose all of the equipment that they were wearing at the time of their death, though anything in their Inventory will be intact; if they manage to return to their body with 24 hours, they can still get it back, but if it’s all miles away while the Fortification is under attack, then that might be difficult.

“It’s because of the Resurrection Well that Phase 4 is typically one of the safer Phases of development, as the risk of being permanently killed is rare.  Unfortunately, most Contender deaths during this Phase happen when a Fortification is conquered by monsters, as a Resurrection Well will release all of its souls within 12 hours; unless the NEST is re-subjugated by that time, then those being held in the Well will be lost completely.”

“That’s… amazing.  Expensive, but well worth it, I would imagine.”  He looked around at the inside of the relatively empty Defensive Formation, wondering if he should play around with more purchasable options—but quickly decided that he’d wasted enough time as it was.  While it was important to find out what this whole NEST thing was about, anything he purchased with the SP would vanish as soon as he abandoned it, and he wasn’t planning on staying there.  From what he understood, all of the SP he still had would be lost, anyway, as well as the accumulating SP that he was getting by holding the Formation in the first place.

“I think I’m beginning to understand this Phase, now.  It’s time to go.”

As he moved to the lever in the stone wall, where he was planning on flipping it to open the gate, Sadia asked, “Where are you going now?”

“Well,” he replied, even as the steel bars retracted into the ground after moving the lever, “I first need to head toward what I’m hoping is the direction of The Citadel – or whatever is left of it.  Then, I need to find out the situation in the Region, and work with Corinna and possibly the other Guilds to formulate a plan of action.”

“Planning ahead?  That doesn’t sound like you,” the squirrel chuckled as she followed him out. 

“It doesn’t, does it?  We’ll see how well that goes, but I figured I might as well give it a shot.”  As he quickly sprinted through the destroyed town, he was interrupted by a message when he was about 50 feet from the town’s outer perimeter.

Warning!  Defensive Formation #3823 is currently unoccupied! 

Abandonment of Defensive Formation #3823 in 60:00… 59:59…

Looking back at the stone walls inside the destroyed town, he mentally waved goodbye, knowing that he’d eventually be back to it one way or another.  He’d have to subjugate the NEST again, of course, but that wasn’t really a problem for him anymore.

Securing it was the problem now, and it was something he would hopefully find a solution for where he was heading.