Taking ownership over the massive crystal was confirmed by an oscillation of sorts, notably marked by an output of chromatic light around itself. Marcus, overjoyed for the moment, forgot one key detail – how was he supposed to move a crystal weighing several metric tons; not only its weight, but hostile creatures would certainly attack them on the trip. As if his thoughts were being read, another menu appeared, but rather than manifesting in his mind, appeared on the surface of the crystal.

Structural damage to Generator III Mana Generator has caused a 95% drop in efficiency and limitations have been placed on core functions to prevent complete degradation. Some options may be disabled completely, see menu below:

Energy Assignment Structural Integrity Troubleshooting Options History

Going through the pages Marcus found that every tab had some sort of restrictions placed onto them. For example, Energy Assignment listed the Generator’s mana output – an astounding 200,000 an hour, but aside from that no other choices were available; not even how to use the listed output. Of course, Marcus tried directly using that output, but something was preventing him from doing so; in the future if he could remotely draw on this resource the damage output could only be imagined.

Structural Integrity was quite simple really, the page displayed a mockup of the crystal and marked every area that was damaged, along with how to fix it. Even after being told directly how to do these repairs Marcus had zero inclinations of even trying, just the first step was so out of his league. While he did recognize some of the symbols used from his brief study of enchanting, the complexity was on another level entirely.

Troubleshooting, and History were completely inaccessible, and when he attempted to open them the crystal prompted him to complete repairs before access would be possible. The option menu was thankfully functional, if not short. All he could do from there was scale the mana output, turn it off, and most importantly by far - movement. Digging into the movement option presented both good news, and bad news. Good news is that moving it was possible, the bad news is that moving the crystal was a slow process. At its leisurely pace he estimated it’d take a good hour or two for it to make it back to the base - to put that pace into perspective, it had taken less than an hour for them to reach their current location; all of this was assuming nothing bothered to hit the glowing mineral, the crystal was many things, surreptitious was not one of them.

Additionally, Marcus grew increasingly nervous about leaving his mother behind, and either he or someone he trusted such as Adrian to escort her back to the base.

Now the real question is, how much do I trust the military, or rather what remains of it. I need to seriously consider if I can trust them with this crystal…my instincts are screaming that it’s a stupid idea to bring it back there. In that case where do I place it? Bringing it back to Azarti is the obvious choice, but at the speed it can move that would take way too long – especially because I’d need to escort it. Time just isn’t on my side...only a single month to clear this many Blighted is insane, speaking of that I probably should look at the quest again - now that one Distortion Vat Facility has been destroyed.

System Quest – Purged in Flames

New Blighted infestation discovered, if not eliminated within one two Earth-month(s) snowball effect will have advanced beyond redemption. Forces of The Blight have converted native citizen en-masse, through twisted magic and ritual sacrifice – those turned are forever lost; salvation snuffed out.

Clear Conditions:

Eliminate Blighted Plague Host (1/1) Destroy and cleanse Distortion Vat Facilities (4/5) Kill and burn Blight Husks (1,300,000/1,500/00)

Rewards: Varied upon completion percentage and contribution.

Difficulty: EPIC

Relief was immediate. Marcus had labeled the quest as almost impossible, but if they gained a month for each facility destroyed it might just be feasible to finish. While they hadn’t received any rewards direct from the System, time itself may just be the biggest gift of all. Also, it appeared as if other survivors had made a noticeable dent in the Blighted population, even when considering all he, and those around, him had done.

With this extension I can make the trip out to Azarti in the Dungeon…hell I can take my mother with me; I trust the bus sized snake more than the military if I’m being honest. Also, I did promise – what was his name? Ah yeah, Jared or whatever, that I’d be coming back. Now I just need Greg and Adrian to come with me.

While Marcus was muttering to himself and staring at his crystal, others around him watched keenly.

“So, does his do this often? The whole stare into space and talking to himself thing is kinda weird,” Greg stated curiously.

“I’ve only known him maybe a day longer than you, but yeah, he does this a lot, but you get used to it pretty quickly,” Greg replied nonplused, before continuing, “Want to bet he drags us into something else ridiculous?”

“Hell no, that’s a bet we both know I’ll lose!”

“….and that’s why I need you guys to follow me into the forest,” Marcus explained confidently.

His friends shared a knowing look before just nodding in ascent, leaving him a little confused, but happy nonetheless that they decided to follow. The hard part came when he tried dismissing Thomas to leave on their own,

“You can’t just leave, especially when you’re intending to take a valuable artifact with you,” Thomas said, frustration evident in his voice.

“Sorry Thomas, but there’s nothing, and I mean nothing you can do to stop me from leaving. I respect you, alas that doesn’t mean I’m part of your command structure. The military, and hell, even the government is all but shattered if Denver is any indicator of what the world is undergoing. This crystal represents something you know nothing about, and frankly I don’t trust anyone else around it, there's no telling what could happen if it were to become unstable; an explosion would likely be the best outcome. Tell Angelica what you must, or I’ll tell her myself when we come back, I have no intention of abandoning the city,” Marcus finished.

Done with his small tirade, and ignoring the threats being spewed by Thomas, Marcus, along with Greg and Adrian made their exit. While it may have seemed strange for Thomas to roll over so fast it made a sick sort of sense, the three of them were by far the highest levels and any one of them could make sort work of the others, and that’s before any magic came into play.

Aside from that, the Blighted had cleared most of the city at this point, leaving nothing to harry them on their way to pick up Marcus’s mother and those that may also want to come.

Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon they arrived at their destination and were thankfully greeted not by death and destruction but instead open arms. Of course, his mother was the first to approach, taking Marcus into embrace; her days of worrying over, at least for the time being.

“Thank god you’re alright. Did you find anything about your Father and brother?”

“I’m…I’m so sorry Mom, but downtown was a nightmare, maybe they got out before it got bad,” he solemnly answered.

In response she only held him tighter, muffled sobs emanating from his chest – nothing hurts more than getting ones hopes stripped away, especially regarding loved ones.

“Mom, I know it hurts right now but we need to go. There’s a place I know about that will keep you safe from everything, at least I think you will be. Everyone else is welcome to come, I’ll be able to explain more after we leave.”

Turning to everyone else, “I’m sure you all have questions – now isn’t the time for them. Like I just told her, I’ll tell you what I can after we’ve left the city. Carry only what you can handle, the trek we’re about to undertake is a long one. I have something in mind to make it easier, but in the end it’ll be on your own feet,” he announced.

After his mother detached herself from him, she turned and gathered the others to begin their hasty preparations. Marcus instead of helping pack, began summoning his basic Quartz-Plated Ursine – he could control four of them simultaneously, and while they may not be as destructive as a Magmatic Berserker, they’d be playing a much more mundane, if not crucial role. Single aspect creations still required extensive time to manifest, so after finishing an odd hour or two later, everyone was waiting for him. Meekly he pulled extra stone from beneath him and molded it into matching barebones wagons – each several meters wide and long; they were then attached to the bears, greatly weighing even them down with their weight. While riding on these makeshift wagons wouldn’t be comfortable, it would beat hiking hundreds of miles unassisted any day of the week. Additionally, they also had the effect of slowing down his summons’s maximum speed, but considering they’d be matching their pace with the much slower crystal it really didn’t matter.

Heavy supplies such as hastily gathered mattresses were thrown onto these platforms, along with other odds and ends that would greatly improve living conditions once they’d settled down. Shortly thereafter, with everything ready, their group set out once again. Waiting for the next day and hoping to avoid night travel would’ve been ideal, but while Marcus had more time to deal with the Blight, wasting it frivolously still wasn’t wise. On another note, he really wished that he’d been able to create something more sophisticated than basic wagons – a wagon with any kind of suspension would’ve been much better, but even with his increased molding abilities, creating fine pieces, especially elastic ones, was still beyond him.

Traveling through the ruins had already become mundane - you can only be so disgusted and angry for so long. Unfortunately, Marcus wasn’t able to find Jared, after passing back the man’s home, or rather what was left of it; he could only pray that he’d made it out. With a heavy heart, and a heavy burden on his shoulders, he left Denver – hopefully to return stronger and more prepared to deal with the Blight.